Unexpected aspects of 2009: I didn’t expect that I would leave Amazon, nor that I would join Huawei. I didn’t expect that I would move from Seattle to Palo Alto. (In fact I never expected to live in California.) I didn’t expect that I would spend seven weeks of the year in China (as well…
Read More Well, that was unexpectedGizmodo has the text of the new TSA regulations. Note that the order expires on December 30, which suggests that this was simply rushed out to persuade people that Someone Is Doing Something About It, and that we can expect revised (and hopefully more sensible) regulations to follow. Don’t hold your breath, though.
Read More More details about TSA security theatreWhat with travel to China, and travel to the UK, and work, and holidays, it’s been a little hectic. So let me sip on this excellent Old Pulteney single malt from Wick, and catch up on a few items. A month ago I blogged about the new HP laptop that I’d got for doing software…
Read More Catching up…I just sent the following email to the White House via their contact page. Last year I flew nearly 100,000 miles on business: business that generated much needed US economic activity. And I flew almost all of those miles on US airlines, which desperately need the business. Travel is stressful enough these days, without the…
Read More Email the White House about the latest ridiculous "security theater"Due to (I think) equipment failure Because of snow in Washington DC, last night’s IAD-LHR flight was cancelled, which meant that United was forced to cancel an LHR-LAX flight. They tried to accomodate as many of the LAX passengers as possible on the LHR-SFO flight, which meant that when Kate and I went to board…
Read More Misfortune for some, great for usAs part of the “work” portion of this “family+work” trip to the UK, I was scheduled to do a business trip to Munich on Thursday. We’ve been staying at the Jury’s Inn close to the end of runway 27L at Heathrow, so getting in to the airport for my 6:05am flight was simple: walk across…
Read More A strange (but productive) day trip to MunichThe other day, a friend was asking about our upcoming trip to the UK. She had flown BOS-LHR and SFO-BOS, and was puzzled why the flight time for SFO-LHR was so much less than the sum of those two flights. She was introduced to the concept of “great circle” routes, and the fact that the…
Read More Why fly United?It’s been quite a week. Last Monday we flew to the UK, intending to visit my mother, Lorna Arnold, in Oxford and attend the ceremony at which she was to receive an honorary doctorate. It soon became apparent that she wasn’t going to be well enough to leave hospital for the occasion, so on Saturday…
Read More What a week!After three visits in a row to China, the final trip this year will be to the UK. We’re heading over next Monday, December 7, for two weeks. We’ll be in Oxford for the first 6 days, visiting my mother and seeing friends. Lorna is being honored by the University of Reading on the 12th,…
Read More One more trip to round out the year