• Jul 10, 2009

    Low tech, fancy sign

    I'm at the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport on my way back to San Diego and watched the Southwest gate agent change the sign at the gate for my flight. She slid part of the sign out of the way to reveal a small keyboard that she used to key in the flight information. The LED sign looked neat and I had presumed it was hooked to some central computer to update the status along with the monitors. Well, it isn't which potentially makes it inaccurate and frankly must be a pain to update when there are changes.

  • Jul 10, 2009

    Traveling without a charger

    This was my first trip traveling without a dedicated charger for my gadgets! While I've known for a long time that I could charge my Motorola RAZR through USB on my Mac (using my MotoCharger program), I didn't want to use it as I didn't want to have to remember to launch it (I don't like stuff running all the time that is only used every once in awhile).

    For this trip, I found some USB charge only cables for my Pre and RAZR (the RAZR one I acquired almost on accident as it came with the Belkin portable surge strip I bought). I also got a small USB hub, so I plugged the hub into my Mac and then charged my devices from the hub. As my MacBook Pro puts out more than the minimum USB power, it can charge devices. In addition, several years back, the Macs were changed such that the USB ports remain powered when the Mac is asleep. So, at night, I plugged the Mac in, plugged in my devices and by morning, everything was all charged up and ready to go.

    Now I have a different combination of things to carry when I travel; however, this combination serves multiple uses and only requires 1 power outlet which can sometimes be at a premium in a hotel or meeting room.

  • Jul 9, 2009

    Dirty remotes

    Some time ago, I heard that the remote control in a hotel room was one of the dirtiest things one could touch in a hotel. I even saw "sleeves" you could buy to put over the remote so you didn't have to touch it. Well, I have a cheaper and more convenient solution. Hotel rooms have plastic laundry bags, so just slip the laundry bag over the remote and use it. I only use the volume up/down, channel up/down and power buttons, so I don't have to see the buttons. The infrared of the remote goes through the bag, so presto, a cheap and easy solution to not touching the dirty remote.

  • Jul 8, 2009

    People choose to live here?

    I'm in Phoenix (actually Scottsdale) for business and have one big question. Why do people choose to live here? I knew the temperature before I came and prepared accordingly. As my hotel is only 3/4 mile from where we are having meetings, I thought hoofing it wouldn't be all that bad. Well at 10 am and then again at 8 pm, it wasn't all that pleasant.

    This is a desert; there are green lawns and other non-desert plants! Is there really enough water to go around? If I thought we had problems in San Diego, there must be bigger problems out here where the low temperature is 84 degrees!

    I'll cross Phoenix off my vacation list for the middle of the summer.