Day: August 15, 2006

Hmm. Appears I have started, or joined a meme. What if you couldn’t bring your laptop on the plane anymore?

Marc Orchant says we’re all going to move our stuff into the cloud. Which is right, if you are looking at the world from Foldera’s point of view. Where Marc is the man.

“This may be an external catalyst to a migration of data to the cloud – one I should have seem coming but frankly did not. I don’t know about you, but the notion of putting my laptop through the ordeal of the commercial carriers’ baggage handling gymnasium is not terribly comforting.  I can see my ideas about the value of a laptop loaded with all of my “stuff” changing dramatically if we get to the point here in the US that we can not bring a laptop onto a plane as carry on luggage or if the time penalty associated with carrying personal electronics becomes too costly.”

Incremental Blogger: Would you check your Tablet PC or laptop? Loren Heiny writes:

“My second concern is with theft. Over the last couple years I’ve met two people that have “lost” their checked laptops. All of their luggage made the trip except what do you know, but the laptop. This makes me a little reluctant to play checked baggage roulette. (By the way, in both cases the airlines did not compensate the travelers for their loss in any way.) I’d rather leave my Tablet behind if there’s even a 2% chance of it being stolen. With the amount of travel I do, that might mean I’d lose a Tablet once every two or three years. Ouch. Yes, laptops can be stolen at any time, but I do my best to keep mine at my side as much as possible.”

The LATimes talked about the separation anxiety faced by travellers on their way to Heathrow.

And buddies Jim Leonard, Mark Hopkins and Mark Cahill comment in my post about this morning’s slog that predict the rise of USB keys, high volume phones, and Web OS’s with ubiquitous devices at your destination.

On my way to RTP this morning and the lines at T.F. Green airport in Providence, RI were the longest I’ve ever seen — snaking out the doors onto the sidewalk when I arrived at 6:45 a.m.

Big bins set up along the aisles and aisles of shuffling passengers, people dropping in bottles of water, me contributing a lost set of Nyquil gel tabs. I cleared the line and the scan in 45 minutes, which was pretty surprising. It had the look and feel of a 90 minute wait.
The screening was no different than any other trip. I was asked if I had any liquids and that was it. I don’t believe they can screen for liquids per se, and I was very paranoid that my four pacls of spare contact lenses would get confiscated due to the little bit of saline solution they float in.

I simply didn’t bring any shaving gear. No razor, no comb, no nothing. The pharmacies and convenience stores are going to have a rush of business I think.

The mood is grim. People are seriously bummed out to have to go through this. The air of resignation is high among me and my fellow Willy Lomans. This is going to be the norm for a very, very long time. This morning’s news of a massive laptop battery recall by one of our competitors and the the “Snakes on a Plane” effect makes me worried that we could see notebooks next on the list of banned devices — or anything with a Li-Ion battery. These things apparently cook off at 600 centigrade and after yesterday’s piece in the WSJ, I think it is a matter of time before we all pack our lives onto USB keys and plug them into desktops at the other end of the journey.