Posts Tagged ‘doors’

So you may have heard the story from my Facebook page. On Friday, March 12, I missed a connection flight and had to stay in the Denver Airport for the night. I made the best of it and created a little video. Although it worked itself out, I still have to wonder if this could have been avoided?

Here is the story:

Flight itinerary was 3:50 PM take off from San Fransisco Airport to Denver. Arrive at 7:15, then board the next flight at 8:17 to Madison. Arrive in Madison, WI at 11:30 P.M.

The first plane was arriving from Reno. The weather in San Fransisco was rain, so there were slight delays – which pushed back the first flight to 4:17. United Airlines didn’t push back the new take off time until 4:15. We finally boarded the plane and took off around 4:40 P.M.

The switch was going to be close, but it was expected a 8:05 landing, which was true. However, we then sat on the Tarmac because United Airlines decided to give our assigned gate to another plane. 15 minutes later, we pulled into gate E35 (If I remember correctly).

Before landing, the flight attendants talked about other flights and their gates. They did not seem to know that I was connecting to the Madison flight and did not have that information. When I talked to the attendant, she was quick and said – well just consult the board.

I deplaned at 8:20. There was nobody at the end directing anyone. I went to a kiosk and found my flight was at 85 – a run to the other side of the terminal. However, the status was “Closed”. I found and asked an attendant what that meant. She looked it up and said “Oh. That flight left already.”

Therefore I proceeded to Customer Service to figure out how I was going to get home. As I got in line I heard over the speaker – “Madison Flight – You have one minute to board or the doors will close”. I was floored at that point, and still way too far away to make a run for it.

The customer service line was way too long. 50 people in front of me that missed a connection? A lot of angry people and a Manager that looked like he was ready to give the same answer – That scripted paragraph that comes from the United Airlines manual. I have to admit: He didn’t sway from that script at all.

As we were standing in line, another man apparently swore at a woman. 3 big words came from his mouth. She called a guard over and that is when it got interesting. He basically was belligerent as he talked to the officer. He walked out of the terminal in Handcuffs. So this is a lesson to all: An Airport is kinda like an Embassy building. It’s not really a place to practice freedom of speech. Freedoms are pretty limited; and I completely agree with it – That is why he was hauled away.

I finally got to the front of the line. I was told that the next few flights to Madison were booked and I wouldn’t get out of Denver until Sunday morning. Not liking that answer, we started to look for alternatives. She finally found a flight to Chicago that would leave at 6 AM the next morning, with a connecting flight at 3 PM, although I would be put on the list to get bumped up. There were no other flights out of Denver to the East coast, so I was basically staying at the Airport. Of course, they offered a hotel discount coupon, but otherwise I would have to stay in the Airport Terminal overnight.

At this point it was 9:30 P.M. I was hungry and getting a little frustrated. To top it off, all the establishments were closing or closed. By 10 P.M, all I could do in Terminal B was walk around or sleep.

Luckily, a passing employee suggested I go to Terminal A – for there was a McDonalds that was open until 2 AM. I also found the bar next door to McDonalds was also open, so I was able to get a more substantial meal.

The idea to do the video came shortly after that. I decided that if I was going to be stuck here (in which I also assumed there have been and will be others that had that same issue), I would make the best of it and take video of the experience.

After a couple hours of footage and first round of post-production, I sat in one of the chairs and got a couple hours of sleep. Woke up to get to the 6 AM Chicago flight.

So with all that said and done, here are my issues with this flight:

• Yes, inclement weather pushed our flight back, but that was known before we left San Fransisco. They could have made appropriate plans for connecting flights – especially since most of them were the last flights of the day. Holding a plane for 10 minutes is not the end of the world.
• When we landed, the flight attendants did not direct or ask passengers for help  in letting those who needed to run to a connecting flight get off first. It just became a regular push to get off, which added about 5 minutes to the wait.
• There was nobody at the terminal to give us direction to our flights. If someone would have said “85″ as I got off the plane, I would have been running to the gate without asking someone who really didn’t have the right answer. I might have been home by 11:30 P.M.
• The Customer Service line pretty much said it all. We waited over an hour to talk with someone. If you have 50 people waiting for Customer Service, it’s too long.

I would like to add a couple more for the Airport itself. I don’t have any qualms with the Denver Airport – I really appreciate the place that I could sleep and the wifi connection, but it would have been better if:

• Some of the stores stayed open just a bit longer. It would have really sucked if I would have waited for 10 hours without any food or drink.
• Maybe an after hours vending machine so I could get a soda or candy bar.

Even though United Airlines stuck with the “Inclement weather” excuse, I believe my issues and rebuttle are valid ones. Waiting 15 minutes for a gate and holding the connecting planes 10-15 minutes would have gotten us all home without issue. Not having someone do Quality Control when we walked off the plane is poor organization. Simple changes and there might not have been 50 people standing in a Customer Service line.

By the way – The flight to Chicago – The flight attendants did everything I mentioned above to get those off the plane who had connecting flights leaving shortly. There WAS someone at the door to guide us. I made it to my next plane with 2 minutes to spare.

So with that said, here is the video of my stay. Enjoy!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (115.2MB)

1985 – The first Blockbuster opens it’s doors in Dallas, TX by David Cook. The 29 year old store owner eventually sold it to Scott Beck, John Melk and Wayne Huizenga. Eventually it becomes a nation-wide franchise and online movie and game rental store.

Sponsor:  Try GoToAssist free for 30 days – GoToAssist.com/techpodcasts.

Please add to your favorite aggregator. RSS Feed – iTunes – Stitcher

Other Historical events of the Day.

• Netscape 4.5 is released
• Flickr adds Geotagging
• Korean war stops all color TV broadcasts

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:57 — 3.6MB)

1997 – Gil Amelio just was removed as CEO. People were calling for Steve Jobs to return, but others thought that would be a bad investment. Michael Dell was asked what he would do, he came back in saying Apple should close the doors and give the money back. Had Apple done that, we might see a completely different market out there. Then again, we might just see the OS X as the NeXT OS on a regular PC.

Sponsor:  Try GotoAssist Express free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.GotoAssist.com/techpodcast

Please add to your favorite aggregator. RSS Feed – iTunes – Stitcher

Other items in the Day in Tech History:

• Lotus Development goes Public
• Windows 2.0 and Excel 2.0 are released
• AMD splits the company

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:54 — 4.1MB)

Busy Week
Thanks for coming to the site. We had another great week – busy week. It was a lot of fun and really productive.

Post – HPTF

Of course, we went to Vegas the week before to cover the HP Technology Forum Expo. Andy McCaskey, Kara Karsten and myself were working hard with interviews, product reviews and more. This week was planning to get some of the videos out to you. So far, we’ve posted the HP POD video on Friday and have a lot more coming soon.

Summer of Podcasts – Podcast Carnivale

This is what really took up the majority of the week. The last month I have been working hard in getting prizes together. Now it’s time to put a contest together. That is where the Summer of Podcasts comes in. Each week, Podcasters will be giving out codewords during their shows. We will be giving away a USB wireless VGA from IOGEAR (See the video below), a WebAround Web privacy screen and a lot more. The best part is a lot of prizes are from the Podcasters themselves. Caffination is giving some Coffee, Bageltech News gave a NYC canvas print, Bwana.org is giving Team Fortress 2 for PC and a T-Shirt, SDRNews is giving a MagicJack, Techpodcasts (Geek News Central) is giving an iPod Touch: there is a lot more.

Wednesday, July 1st is when the contest starts. Check out the site before hand to which shows are giving codewords for the week.

Bands

It’s summertime, so the band ramps up in it’s playing. It’s all well and good – I enjoy taking the trips and playing the gigs. This last weekend I played 3 shows and it wasn’t even Sunday. This afternoon is one more show. Next week is just about the same.

Interview

This last week, I was interviewed on the Isthmus – a local tabloid – style paper in the Madison area. The interview will be out next week, when that happens, I will post it.

PC/Mac Smackdown

Had lunch with Cal last Wednesday. He said – “Hey, why don’t you come on the show”. I said “Sure, why not?”. Therefore, I was on the PC / Mac Smackdown with Cal Davis and Rachel Baker.

Windows 7

Pre-Orders of Windows 7 means a significant discount. I have Windows 7 RC on my Dell D600 and really like how it works. What is even more interesting – Windows 7 works a lot better on that machine than when I put on Ubuntu 9.04. Ubuntu would lag when I was working – and I mean REALLY Lag. I would litterally select something, count to 5, then watch it execute.

I am really impressed with this OS, so I am excited this is coming out.

MJ, FF and EM AND BM

It was a sad week for a lot of people. Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson took the Trifecta this week as all three passed. Ed McMahon was the sidekick of Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show, Farrah Fawcett was the poster girl of the 70’s and of course, Michael Jackson was the King of Pop. While I was never a big MJ fan, I do appreciate his music and also how he let Weird Al Yankovic to make fun of his music.

I remember when I first heard “Eat it” 0n the radio. While I never listened to “Bad”, I did have the “Even Worse” album which featured “Fat”.

*Update – Just as I published this, the Internet found out that Billy Mays – the Oxy Clean promoter (as well as Mighty Putty, Big City Sliders, Kaboom and a lot more) was found dead at his  home. He was 50. I guess it’s more than a Trifecta…

Studio

This week was a lot of work with the studio. Only problem – I can’t find my staple gun. I had it, then it dissapeared. I am not sure where it went. AUGH!

Still, the new studio is doing well. I am hoping to record the first video there by Mid-week. My bedroom is getting cluttered with PC stuff and that needs to head down to the Dungeon. The door to that room is the main reason why I call it the Dungeon.

Looking at Phones

I have to admit, I have been looking at the iPhone 3GS. The one thing I like is I have fatter fingers. I was able to use the screen a lot better than with the 3G. For instance, when I hit the “N”, on the 3G, I would always miss and hit the “M”. However, with the 3GS, I have not done anything different and seem to be hitting the “N” key and actually getting an “N”.

I still have some tests to go. I am also looking at the Palm Pre, but in order to do that, I would have to switch to Sprint, which I don’t know if I am ready to do. Android is a possibility, but I really don’t want the G1. I am waiting for the Lenovo version.

—–

That’s pretty much it this week. Keep watching the site for more info on the contest. Of course if you want to give a prize for the contest, let me know.

Day 2 started out a little slower – not the expo, but us. We burnt the midnight oil, which with the time zone difference was 2-3 hours later than what we are used to. Nonetheless, we got all the audio and video up for the day.

8:00 AM: Started with a hearty breakfast. Recorded the Morning rundown.

8:45 AM: Got to out Stand and started setting up. Walked around the show room before they opened the doors.

11 AM: POD interview. Datacenters in a POD storage unit.

uStream of the HP Expo floor is up

12 PM: Lunch

1 PM: Started walking the Expo floor. Interviews with Gresham, Emulex, Fusion 10 and Q-Logic. Andy and Kara started getting interviews going at the SDR booth

5 PM: Gathering at the POD for munchies. Cirque Du Soleil performers were on hand. We all got some nice gift boxes with juggling balls enclosed.

6 PM: Andy, Kara and myself stayed behind to record the daily wrapup.

6:30 PM: I stayed behind more to do my weekly podcast from the show floor.

7:30 PM: Luau commences (I am still working…)

This week I take Bitstrips to a new level and give a proper send off for the game Duke Nukem. 3-D Realms closed it’s doors last week. Although I don’t think it will keep the next version of the Duke Nukem franchise down (After all, Take Two Entertainment still owns rights to it), it will definitely add to the “Wait” time of the newest version of game. We’ve been waiting since 2001.

Duke Nukem was best known for Topping Year end Vaporware lists of Duke Nukem Forever as the “Game that never was”. There was some resurgence this last year, but that all ended when 3D Realms said they will be closing the company due to the economy.

Therefore, in tribute, we give you the Duke Nukem: Bitstrips style. Better yet, here is the video on how I created the strip.

When it comes to running a presentation on a big monitor, you either need a long VGA cable, or have to keep the machine close to the source. Well, IOGEAR not only gives you a great alternative, they also have a great sound solution as well.

Jeffrey Powers talks with Bill about the wireless video and sound solution. There is a lot of great application to this. Afterwards we talked and it was suggested that you could have a presentation in more than one room without having cables around doors. Anyone with a visual impairment could have another monitor or wireless headphones set at their seat to see and hear whatever is being shown.

www.iogear.com

Save 10% on your Godaddy.com order using Promo Code ‘Pod125′

Visit Rawvoiceoffers.com and use the Promo code ‘IOGEAR’ for more info.