January 2006

You need a lunch reservation for tomorrow, but it’s now 11 pm, you’re in an unfamiliar town, and you need everyone to get an email with a confirmed time and place. OpenTable.com solves this for me. It is my reservation method of choice because it is online, has plenty of restaurants, and offers lots of information.

You are accessing the restaurant’s actual reservation book. OpenTable
manages the software system that the restaurants use for their reservations. So you will be working within the system itself, geting real time options,
and real time confirmations. No waiting. If your choice isn’t available,
you are given options, or you can simply re-search.

And you can search over 4000 restaurants with numerous choices in the major
business markets. For example, I just now made a dinner reservation by
searching the Point Loma neighborhood in San Diego, asked for 5:45 p.m. for
two, and was given a 5:30 or 6:30 table choice. I choose the earlier and got my confirmation. Done–in real time. More restaurants are being added all the time (you can ask OpenTable to contact your favorite if they aren’t
already on the system.)

The database includes all of the needed information to make an intelligent
choice: price ranges, cuisine, maps, website links, and a joint venture with
Eopinions for even more data.

Did I mention you collect points worth dining bucks? With real time access,
lots of choices, and tons of information, what else could you want?

And that is the question: What else would you want? Check out OpenTable.com and let me know.

Our apologies for not noticing Shel’s [business travel blog](http://blog.holtz.com/index.php/roadweary/) earlier. I found a link in the comments on another blog. While Shel shares his life on the road, he also blogs and podcasts about business on [A Shel of My Former Self](http://blog.holtz.com/). Considering all the business travel that’s looming for me, I’m sure Shel and I are going to have more in common.

My headphone works great while making calls using Skype, but I realized quickly that I needed more functionality and easier accessibility to Skype’s features. Welcome the USB Internet phone (while many models are available, I use a model called the ECCB Simply Phone)–available from Skype for just $39. This plug and play USB powered phone is fully integrated with Skype–just push a button and Skype opens automatically. I appreciated having my dialing keys and all the Skype, SkypeOut and SkypeIn functions readily available, along with other phone features such as caller ID and choice of ring tones. They have even included echo cancellation and noise reduction to help improve the sometimes edgy call quality.

The primary disadvantage using the phone is that it ties up a hand or two, unlike a headset would. But for most occasions, the phone provided a smoother user experience.

At the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, I saw a new device from Memorex that intrigued me. The TravelLink ™ is essentially an 8-in-1 card reader with unique enhancements to simplify the sharing of digital content. With the TravelLink™ accessory, consumers can transfer data, photo’s or other digital files between USB flash drives, digital cameras, flash cards, external hard drives, or MP3 players–all without the use of a computer.

Say you need to transfer the contents of that flash drive to a flash card or some data files between two flash cards or between two USB mass storage devices–now you can do so without booting up the computer and dragging out the USB cable. Or say you want to offload some digital images from a flash card to an external hard drive–problem solved (or at least simplified).

Battery powered, this device includes an LCD screen to help choose exactly which files to transfer, delete or copy. And since it can double as a media card reader, a USB cable is included.

Anything to simplify my life……..

British billionaire and noted entrepreneur, Richard Branson, the founder of the U.K. based Virgin Group (which owns the popular Virgin Atlantic Airways) has submitted a safety application with the FAA for hopeful participation in the crowded domestic airline market this year with the newly formed Virgin America airline.

The sticking point is Mr. Branson’s ownership in the business–federal law limits foreign investors to 25%–which is exactly what he says he owns. But major carriers such as American and Continental Airlines are not so sure. They have requested more in depth investigation into Mr. Branson’s involvement, and have gone so far as to request employees write the FAA encouraging opposition to Virgin’s proposal.

If Virgin America gets its approval to launch out of San Francisco, it should give consumers another choice for domestic air travel–this time with help from an experienced leader who is not afraid to take risks and is well known for his unorthodox business methods. As a consumer, I think it will be a fun ride…….

I always feel a little bit incongruous walking off a plane wearing a suit and a pair of nice heels, but carrying a bag that looks like I found it in a dumpster just because I need a safe place to stash my iBook. This may sound just a tad snobbish, but I would do just about anything for a laptop bag that matches my favorite faux croc slingbacks.

Enter Mobile Edge, which makes a line of very stylish laptop bags for women. They’re not Vuitton or Hermés, but they’re also a huge step up from what we were dealing with.

My personal favorite is the faux croc briefcase, it’s a perfect match for the aforementioned slingbacks.

[Brian Alvey blogs](http://alvey.weblogsinc.com/2006/01/18/strangers-on-the-flight/) about a recent flight and a conversation about the TSA being as rude as New Yorkers. As Brian notes, I know many New Yorkers that aren’t the slightest bit rude, especially that one that corrected us and got us on the right train back to the airport — somehow we were heading in the exact opposite direction. Blunt yes, but I’ve not seen rude.

Being a nervous flier to begin with, I wasn’t exactly happy to read this piece in the Washington Post today. Apparently, the cause of the October 19, 2004 crash of Corporate Airlines Flight 5966 was determined to be irresponsible behavior on the part of the flight crew brought on by extreme fatigue.

As airlines try to squeeze more and more out of their employees in an effort to keep up the low cost of a plane ticket, we see many sacrifices in service. But what about safety? Efforts to save money led Alaska Airlines to fire its union baggage handlers and replace them with low-wage nincompoops who almost caused a crash. And now those cuts are reaching into the cockpit, with overtaxed pilots flying when they ought to be at home in bed. That doesn’t make me feel like getting on an airplane anytime soon.

Of particular concern is JetBlue. According to the article the airline has been trying to get around the eight hour limit on pilot flying time so that they can squeeze ever more out of their non-unionized pilots. If JetBlue CEO David Neeleman were really as concerned with the passenger experience as his man of the people behavior would lead us to believe he is - he wouldn’t be putting our safety at risk to cut a few corners.

But ultimately, something’s gonna have to give. It’s either going to be service and passenger safety, or it’s going to be ticket prices. Airline tickets still cost the exact same amount of money as they did back in the glory days of the airline industry, while everything else has gotten progressively more expensive. To really keep up with the pace of inflation and the decreasing supply of fuel, plane tickets are going to need to start costing thousands, rather than hundreds of dollars.

I came across James Wysong’s tips for cold fliers via FlyGirl, who wasn’t so hot on his tip to demand heat if the flight attendants don’t do anything about your freezing feet.

My personal favorite: bring aboard battery operated socks that will heat up your feet like an electric blanket. If I had socks like that, I don’t think I would ever take them off.

But I was a little perplexed by the suggestion to make your own hot water bottle by filling an empty Evian bottle with a mixture of tap water and hot water from the coffee maker. After all, if you got the mixture too hot, wouldn’t you melt the water bottle and scald yourself in the process? Why not just bring a real hot water bottle aboard? It’s not like TSA has banned them.

According to HappyNews.com, JetBlue found out that its customers thought its coffee was crappy - so they’ve joined up with Dunkin Donuts to provide their passengers with great coffee. Now you really can get work done at 30,000 feet.

Influential tech businesswoman [Esther Dyson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther_Dyson) has [flickred her Lufthansa flight](http://www.flickr.com/photos/edyson/90688857/) and [Connexion by Boeing](http://www.connexionbyboeing.com/) experience. Noting how good it is she says, “I’m posting this in near realtime from my Lufthansa flight, via Connexion by Boeing.”

Much like Blockbuster’s no late fees (yeah, right), Expedia’s Best Price Guarantee comes with conditions that make it, well, not the best price. While launching initiatives to set, “a new industry standard for empowering consumers in booking travel” they also set a new standard for fees and misleading their customers. Kayak’s CEO calls them out with a loud “laughable!” and observes that those prices are only for the airlines Expedia shows. See the [PI's insider article](http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/256598_theinsider23.html) for more on how Expedia’s prices are the best, excluding taxes and fees and profits.

Six Apart [notes our blog](http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/news/2006/01/travel_blogging.html) and the growing niche of business travel bloggers.

Ever wondered if your iPod would work at altitude when flying, if you can you trek with it to the top of Kilimanjaro or [Mount Fuji](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&c2coff=1&client=safari&rls=en&q=mount+fuji+business+retreat&btnG=Search” title=”Fuji) on a business retreat? Well, here’s your answer in a [fascinating tech discussion](http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/ipod/topic2425.html) on MacInTouch.

A study just released to the BBC from the British Medical Journal claims that the use of mobile phones ‘don’t raise cancer risk’. Purported to be one of the largest studies of its kind, it found no link between the risk of glioma (the most common type of brain tumor) and the length of mobile use.

It’s nice to end the week with some good news……..

An article from Laptop magazine about Wi-Fi helped clear up some confusion regarding the best options to stop people from hacking into my wireless network: it was suggested to enable WPA (instead of the more common WEP). The secret of WPA being that it uses a technology called TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) to change the passwords on a continual basis, requiring someone to have not only the right key to access your data, but having it at the right time as well. Read the article here.

I would recommend an excellant reference book by Glenn Fleishman and Adam Engst titled The Wireless Networking Starter Kit. I often refer to it for common problems that come up with the wireless connections I depend on with my PDA. The book also offers some useful tips about using Wi-Fi while traveling…..such as turning off your network card to save battery power and investing in a Privacy Filter from 3M to help thwart ’shoulder surfers’ (topic of a previous post on InFlightHQ).

Do you ever wonder what some of those holes on your laptop are all about, but were afraid to ask? I came across this helpful article from Laptop magazine that helps clear up the difference between a VGA and a DVI port, explain what ‘Firewire 800′ is and discuss what I found to a nice tip on ExpressCard slots and how your next portable should have one. Read the article here.

If your tired of lunking around different readers for all the memory cards you have in your life, try this new USB bus-powered card reader that handles 15 different Flash Media Cards. The cool part about the MediaGear 15 in 4 (model# MGTR-700) is it backs up files to your computer without the necessity of creating file folders or doing a drag and drop–just push one button and all the files on your card are saved to your computer.

It has a nice 480Mbps transfer rate using USB 2.0 and is plug and play (no drivers required). I found mine at the local Target store.

I’ll admit that I was predisposed to like DoHop from the minute that Byron mentioned it. After all, what’s cooler than an airfare search engine that searches all the low-price travel agencies like Expedia and Travelocity and all the airlines’ individual sites and then puts together the lowest-cost itineraries?

But the truth is that DoHop isn’t really all that special. For one thing, the itineraries it suggested didn’t have any measurable advantage over the itineraries and fares suggested by other websites. In fact, when I searched for airfares from Seattle to Los Angeles for Blog Business Summit’s upcoming Essentials of Business Blogging Seminar, the lowest fare the engine returned was 277 Euros, which translates to $334 in American currency - and this is a search two months ahead of time. Meanwhile, a search of Orbitz returned a nonstop itinerary for $255 on United.

There are other problems, such as the euros-only price listings. I wouldn’t mind if the site were truly brilliant in its comprehensiveness, but it’s frankly a waste of time to type various numbers of Euros into Google for a conversion when other sites give present you lower prices with no conversion necessary.

The idea of DoHop is a great one: search everywhere and return the pricing information to one place. Trouble is, that’s not what DoHop actually does.

I’ve been writing about my new iPod with Video on my [personal blog](http://texturadesign.com/2006/01/now_with_video.htm) and I’m looking forward to taking it with me on my next business trip. I think the video is going to be watchable, I’ll rip a DVD to watch on a hotel room TV, and also put my presentation on the iPod. As I learned on my flight to Maui, I saved considerable laptop time by listening to music with an iPod, instead of the laptop. Here are some iPod tips

• Video out
• The Last iPod Video Guide You’ll Ever Need at Plastic Bugs
• Storing and reading notes with your iPod
• Presentations on an iPod