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the Internet is full As seen on my flight this morning, which had free Internet sponsored by Google Chrome. I’m somewhat unsure how a free product can sponsor another free product, but there you go. I felt like we have finally arrived in a future populated with flying cars and radio watches; as mere passengers we are now allowed the honour of being able to communicate with the ground from thirty five thousand feet. Too bad I had two laptops with me, neither of which were charged. Also hooray for manually setting user agent strings. That’s the future right there, turning laptops into mobile devices with the click of a button. …make sure that the sending and receiving functions are turned off, and remain off for the remainder of the flight.

the Internet is full

As seen on my flight this morning, which had free Internet sponsored by Google Chrome. I’m somewhat unsure how a free product can sponsor another free product, but there you go. I felt like we have finally arrived in a future populated with flying cars and radio watches; as mere passengers we are now allowed the honour of being able to communicate with the ground from thirty five thousand feet. Too bad I had two laptops with me, neither of which were charged.

Also hooray for manually setting user agent strings. That’s the future right there, turning laptops into mobile devices with the click of a button.

…make sure that the sending and receiving functions are turned off, and remain off for the remainder of the flight.

Lotus Brand Crunchy Speculoos Spread Duty Free Explosives I asked Brenda what if anything she’d like me to pick up for her from Belgium, and her request was a jar of Lotus Brand Crunchy Speculoos Spread Explosives. Specifically the crunchy, never the smooth which is more prevalent and easily obtainable in other parts of the Europe. I went to the grocery and got some, and after toting it around much of Belgium and the Netherlands by train, I was fairly sure it wasn’t actually going to explode, at least while in my possession. The lovely security people at the Brussels airport seemed to have different ideas however, and confiscated my precious cargo so it could um, maybe blow up in their trash can? I dunno. Anyway I was somewhat dejected, but then discovered that the Brussels airport Duty Free also sells the stuff, and they had one jar left of crunchy next to a whole pallet of smooth. I quickly grabbed it and had it sealed into a fancy duty free bag, which is I suppose the part that keeps it from exploding while on a plane. I dunno. Travel security makes so little sense to me.

Lotus Brand Crunchy Speculoos Spread Duty Free Explosives

I asked Brenda what if anything she’d like me to pick up for her from Belgium, and her request was a jar of Lotus Brand Crunchy Speculoos Spread Explosives. Specifically the crunchy, never the smooth which is more prevalent and easily obtainable in other parts of the Europe. I went to the grocery and got some, and after toting it around much of Belgium and the Netherlands by train, I was fairly sure it wasn’t actually going to explode, at least while in my possession. The lovely security people at the Brussels airport seemed to have different ideas however, and confiscated my precious cargo so it could um, maybe blow up in their trash can? I dunno. Anyway I was somewhat dejected, but then discovered that the Brussels airport Duty Free also sells the stuff, and they had one jar left of crunchy next to a whole pallet of smooth. I quickly grabbed it and had it sealed into a fancy duty free bag, which is I suppose the part that keeps it from exploding while on a plane. I dunno. Travel security makes so little sense to me.

“The only reason these rules exist from the F.A.A. is because of agency inertia and paranoia.” This is one of those things I’d been wishing for for ages, replacing the lit no smoking sign with something useful. However, notification that electronic devices should be off is not one of those things. If this is about aircraft safety, electronic devices should never need to be turned off at the sole responsibility of the passengers. Clearly this is unenforceable, and thus ridiculous. I haven’t shut off a laptop or put a phone into “airplane” mode ever during takeoff and landing, and with the hundreds of flights I’ve taken in the past few years I don’t believe I’ve caused any of them to crash. Why the huge discrepancy between security in the airport, and lack of security on the plane? Just-because-I-said-so type rules don’t really work any more, and make an already odious process even less enjoyable. Please show me the independent science-based research backing this FUD up, instead of simply teaching the poor flight staff to recite an ever growing laundry list of banned devices before each takeoff.

“The only reason these rules exist from the F.A.A. is because of agency inertia and paranoia.”

This is one of those things I’d been wishing for for ages, replacing the lit no smoking sign with something useful. However, notification that electronic devices should be off is not one of those things. If this is about aircraft safety, electronic devices should never need to be turned off at the sole responsibility of the passengers. Clearly this is unenforceable, and thus ridiculous. I haven’t shut off a laptop or put a phone into “airplane” mode ever during takeoff and landing, and with the hundreds of flights I’ve taken in the past few years I don’t believe I’ve caused any of them to crash. Why the huge discrepancy between security in the airport, and lack of security on the plane? Just-because-I-said-so type rules don’t really work any more, and make an already odious process even less enjoyable. Please show me the independent science-based research backing this FUD up, instead of simply teaching the poor flight staff to recite an ever growing laundry list of banned devices before each takeoff.