Hang Ups

Nothing says “loser” quite like having a piece of telephone gear hanging from your ear when you’re not on the phone! I see these people everywhere with their Bluetooth headsets and/or wired earphones (“tanglephones” as my son calls them) stuck in their ears for no reason whatsoever! The only thing worse than finding one of these poor souls seemingly talking to themselves is seeing them all Borg-like and not talking to anyone! I just want to tell them, “Uh, excuse me. You’ve got something hanging from your ear.”

Here’s a tip for all of you losers: when you’re done with your call, hang up the phone! That means remove the earpiece from your ear and put it away. It just makes you look like a dork. Honestly, its the techie equivalent of walking around with your fly open.

Take My Down To Chinatown

I found out yesterday that I’m going to China next month for a week to train our partners and staff there. I’ll spend two days in Beijing and perhaps two in Shanghai.

It will be my first trip to China proper. I’ve visited Hong Kong two times when the USS Elliot visited there. That was before Hong Kong’s return to China. During the last visit I had signed up to tour China but had overslept that morning and missed the bus, to my regret. Now I’ll get another chance to see this amazing culture, or at least catch a glimpse of it between training sessions!

New Jersey Fun

I’ve been here doing an install for the company headquarters. Things are going well in that regard. What I find interesting is the celebrity status I seem to have here in the head office. Everyone is so nice to me! I’m kind of bewildered and a bit embarassed by the attention I get, frankly. Still, its nice to know I’m appreciated.

Towards the end of the day I was asked when I was leaving. I said tomorrow (today) and the next thing I know I’m holding a ticket for a dinner cruise. The company was rewarding my coworkers who were involved in a major project and had a few extra tickets. In less than an hour I would be heading towards the ship.

This was one time that getting assigned a minivan by the rental car agency came in handy. I took three coworkers downtown to the edge of the Hudson river, where we boarded the cruise ship: a three-deck dinner ship. With the twenty-five of us were two other companies. Passengers totatled about 120, in my estimate. We sat down at our three tables and partook in heavy h’or d’oerves and an open bar.

Soon after we were underway the ship’s entertainment cranked up. Three nightclub-ish performers sang and danced to vintage rock and soul music. I laughed at the cheesiness of it all, though later I changed my mind.

Dinner and a drink later, the performers had given way to dance music. The floor was crowded and I was having fun, so I ventured out there to dance. My friends soon joined me and I spent most of the rest of the night out there, pausing only to take in the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge and see the Statue of Liberty up close. It was an emotional moment for me to see the statue from that vantage point. Seems that symbols of liberty are an endangered species in America of late.

After dancing, the DJ read a list of passengers celebrating things. First on the list was a guy named Mark who was celebrating a birthday. I was totally clueless until I saw the rest of the company smiling in my direction. Someone had remembered my birthday and had had it mentioned! I was totally surprised and very grateful.

We returned to the pier a little after 10, having gone around Manhattan and back. As we left the parking lot at Lincoln Harbor it started to snow: a beautiful sight. I dropped of my passengers and got back to my hotel around 11:30.

It was a spontaneous event, and far more enjoyable than staying holed up in the hotel with my book, which was my previous plan for the evening.

I’ll return to Raleigh this afternoon. It’s obvious it would be good for me to make more frequent visits!

Cheap Thoughts: Phone Booths

Its been a year since Bellsouth (er, SBC. Er, AT&T) and other phone companies got out of the payphone business, ripping their phones off walls and telephone poles. Its been even longer since telephone booths were ubiquitous. I recall the funny scene in Superman when Clark Kent races to the nearest payphone only to find it had no booth!

Nowadays people carry their phones with them. Geeks like me work in cubicles where every conversation is shared amongst coworkers. If you want to make a private call, you often have to take it outside. On days like this when its 25 degrees outside, that’s not very convenient.

I think for these reasons the phone booth might make a comeback. Put a few near your cube farm and not only will you make the caller happy, you’ll make all his or her coworkers happy, too, since they won’t have to be privy to the conversation. I’ve used the booths at bars such as the Carolina Ale House and 42nd Street Oyster Bar. They make it much easier to hear the call and keep the call from disturbing others.

Do any companies currently make phone booths?

Bill Gates Signature Vista? I’ll Pass

I was amused to find that retailers are selling a “Bill Gates Signature” version of Microsoft Vista. For a premium of more than a hundred dollars, one can buy Microsoft’s DRM-crippled operating system with Bill Gates’s scribbling on the box.

So what’s wrong with this picture? For starters, who would want Bill Gates’s signature? Yeah, as a young 14 year old geek I admired the brash, young 30-something geek that Bill Gates once was. Somewhere along the line he turned evil and that was that. In the words of the great Chapel Hill philosopher Mojo Nixon, Bill Gates has no Elvis in him. I don’t think I’m alone in saying the Cult of Bill Gates was short-lived if not stillborn.

Now a copy of OS X autographed by Steve Jobs (or even better, the God of Geekdom Steve Wozniak), now you’re talking. I’d pony up a few extra bucks for that! It’s because Jobs and Woz have something all of Gates’s billions can’t buy him: Hipness. Legions of devoted, fanatical customers. Great products that Just Work. Ingenuity. These guys don’t just spout the word “innovate” like Bill does, they live it.

OS X has its own share of DRM crippleware, though for the most part Apple still provides what its customers want, not what Hollywood thinks its customers want. At any rate, OS X users seem to be smart enough to work around any roadblocks Apple may put in front of them.

If Microsoft Vista is where things are headed, I’ll make The Switch to OS X, or perhaps stick with my trusty Linux.

Linux may be free, but Linus Torvolds’s signature is still worth more than Bill Gates’s.

Bob Ferguson

I’m flying up to Newark today with a familiar fellow passenger: Bob Ferguson, former CEO of Midway Airlines. Ferguson used to run Continental Airlines before running Midway so it figures he’d fly Continental today. I wonder what else he’s up to?

Ah, here’s the answer. He’s CFO of Reliant Pharmeceuticals of New Jersey, and apparently not doing too bad for himself.

Off To Joisey

I’m off to Somerset, NJ tomorrow for a three day business trip. Potentially I can do this in two days, in which case I’ll be back sooner.

The work will be interesting, though, so I’m looking forward to that part. I’ll check in when I can.

Apollo One 40th Anniversary

Today is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo One fire that killed astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee as they sat on the launchpad during a simulated launch. Also, tomorrow is the 21st anniversary of the Challenger explosion.

Its a reminder that space is still a dangerous business, even after 40 years. I’m glad there are men and women still willing to risk it.