Tag: travel

Passports required for U.S. entry starting January 2007

Post ImageI guess this means I am going to have to get my passport renewed. Today, the U.S. Homeland Security Secretary revealed that the United States will start requiring travelers entering the country to show passports beginning January 23rd:

The department had been expected to institute the passport requirement for air travelers around the beginning of the year. Setting the date on Jan. 23 pushes the start past the holiday season.

The requirement marks a change for Americans, Canadians, Bermudians and some Mexicans.

No more driver’s license or birth certificate to gain entry. The article mentions that only about one quarter of Americans have a passport. I wonder what the numbers are like here in Canada?

Read: Yahoo News

Back in Edmonton: Trip Recap

As you probably guessed, we’re now back in Edmonton. Yesterday went pretty good in terms of our presentation and the networking aspect. We met lots of really interesting people. It’ll take some time to see how well it went in terms of funding though. The presentation was really short (only 10 minutes) so the questions that were asked were fairly general. In retrospect, I think it may have been better to present in the morning rather than the afternoon, as the investors would have been more awake and there would have been more time to chat afterward.

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency downtown which is in the midst of major renovations. The lobby and common areas look excellent, as do the recently upgraded guest rooms. Especially sweet was the flat screen TV! And I love the lighting design too. It’s hard to get the same effect from pictures, but you can try! Here’s the photos I took. The dated hallways clearly do not match the rooms, but a little sign by the elevator says that they will be renovated too.

Here are some interesting facts (or maybe not) about the trip:

# of liquids confiscated at security: 1 for me, many for Dickson
Minutes until we missed our departure: less than 10 (we were the second last people to get on…we had to run after the final boarding call)
Total time in Vancouver: ~25 hours, 40 minutes
Number of blocks walked: ~24
Number of “random” security checks: 1 (Dickson was pulled aside again …it’s because he’s Chinese…the airport screeners have a very loose definition of “random”)
Number of Starbucks coffees I consumed: 2
Number of investors I didn’t like: 1 (the only reason I didn’t like him is that he sat in my presentation laughing to himself…very disrespectful and rude…you don’t have to agree with me, but show some respect!)
Hours of studying accomplished: 0 (but I studied today, I think the midterm went fairly well)

Off to Vancouver

As I mentioned yesterday, Dickson and I are in Vancouver all day tomorrow for the Angel Forum. Our flight leaves tonight at around 7 PM and we’re back tomorrow evening close to midnight. Very quick trip indeed.

Now that Northern Voice 2007 has been announced, it looks like this trip will be the first of many to Vancouver over the next few months! Not to be outdone on the other side of Canada, Mesh 2007 has been announced for May in Toronto. Lots of excellent Canadian conferences to attend!

Wireless at Red Deer College

Post ImageMy sister and I came down to Red Deer last night to visit Tom. He’s on the Kings soccer team, so we figured we’d come down to watch his game today. Today is the second last game of the season, and I think it’s fair to say that the Kings are looking forward to the end. After placing third in the province last year, they haven’t done so well this year! You can see the current standings here.

The game isn’t until noon, but I came down to the college with Tom this morning anyway. I figured I’d do a little work so I came to the library which is where I am writing this post. I am connected to their public wireless Internet network, and I have to say, I am really impressed. The speeds are just amazing for a wireless network, and I haven’t had any connectivity issues whatsoever. That’s far more than I can say about the wireless network at the UofA (granted, it has far more traffic than the one here).

I was so impressed actually, that I ran a speed test at DSL Reports:

When you convert those numbers, it works out to roughly 227 KB/sec download, and 90 KB/sec upload. Not bad at all. I wish all wireless hotspots were this good!

Kim and I are heading back to Edmonton this evening.

2006 Portable Media Expo Recap

Now that I am back in Edmonton and feeling a little better, time for a bit of a recap. Dickson has posted his closing thoughts on the expo as well. It’s hard to compare last year’s event with this year’s. In some ways, there seemed to be more people this year, such as on Friday, but Saturday told a different story. One thing is for sure – there were far less “I’ve never heard of podcasting” people in attendance this year.

  • I have to agree with Dickson, the weather in Ontario was really hot. It mattered less on Saturday when I had a bad case of the chills, but still.
  • I am amazed that I met people who were happy to “do it on their own” when it came to podcast hosting. Perhaps this is because podcasting is so new? Heck, I don’t even host my own photo gallery anymore. Why not? Because Flickr does it better than I ever could. I offload all the work to them. That’s what we are trying to do with Podcast Spot too. You as the podcaster can focus on creating great content, because we take care of the rest.
  • Speaking of pictures, you can see the ones I took here.
  • I think we’re going to have to do something more interesting with the booth next year. Our “low-key, low-information-on-the-wall” style worked to an extent, but I think we can do better.
  • We need to do a better job explaining how we charge. We charge based on upload, which is the amount of stuff you send to our servers in any given month. This is in contrast to charging by storage, which is the amount of stuff you have put on the servers since you became a customer. If we charged by storage, you’d eventually hit a limit, after which you wouldn’t be able to add anything new without first removing something old. Fortunately for you, we charge by upload so you never run out of space!
  • I just re-read that, and perhaps it still isn’t clear. I’ll record something soon that should explain it a little better. Visuals always help!
  • Generally speaking, I have the feeling that the Expo is missing something that would take it to the next level. What that something is, I don’t know. I do have a small wish-list though: wireless Internet throughout the convention center, expanded awards (say a “best podcast hosting service”), and more free food/drinks!

Thanks to Tim and the rest of the team at TNC New Media for another great Expo! I’m looking forward to next year already 🙂

Portable Media Expo Setup

Dickson and I are just killing time here in the nicely air conditioned hotel until 5:30 when there is an event for exhibitors and the press. I mention the air conditioning because it’s a scorching 94 degrees here today, or for everyone back home in Canada, 34 degrees celsius. Edmonton had just started to get some nice weather again before we left, but it was still only about 15 degrees!

We finished setting up our booth in about ten minutes. Like last year, we opted not to do anything fancy, though unlike last year we have a banner this time. You can see what I mean in the pictures. We also decided to sponsor the conference notepads this year, and I am really happy with the way they turned out.

More later!

The Start of a Great Trip

I think this is going to be a great trip! For the first time in recent memory, Dickson and I were not scrambling to finish anything the night before leaving town. That was kind of nice for a change, we’ll have to do it more often! Today didn’t start out so great though. We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, cleared customs without any problems (minus Dickson getting manhandled in the security check by an over-eager young man) and then sat down to wait for the flight. Thing is, our flight was over 20 minutes late. And with a 45 minute window to catch our connecting flight in Salt Lake City, that was somewhat distressing.

Turns out we made it just in time to make the flight, but the lady at the counter informed us they had overbooked as they didn’t think we’d make it. So we volunteered to wait for the later flight (only 2 hours later) and in return we got meal vouchers and a $200 credit with the airline (Delta). It was a pretty sweet deal! And such a difference from last year, when we missed our flight and had to pay a lot more to get to Ontario. Another nice side benefit was that our bags arrived ahead of us, so we didn’t have to wait for them to get off the plane – they were waiting for us.

We’re now in the hotel in Ontario – the DoubleTree, which is very nice by the way. They gave us a fresh chocolate chip cookie each upon checking in, and we passed a Starbucks on our way to the room. See what I mean about being a good start?

We just noticed that Podcasting News has an item on Podcast Spot too. I’m really excited for the Expo to start now!

Red Deer Trip Recap

Post ImageMy trip yesterday to Red Deer with Tom went very well! He is all registered now and ready to start classes in September. My many years of registering for classes and creating timetables came in handy as Tom was one of the first to be done registering. The only thing left to do now is find a place to live!

I had never been to Red Deer College before, so I learned a lot about it. Here are some thoughts on the college:

  • The college is not nearly as big as I thought it was, in terms of physical space. I can’t seem to find out how many students are registered at the college, but it can’t be that many.
  • They did have wireless networks all over the place, but you need a student username and password to access it, which didn’t surprise me.
  • There was apparently the largest number of students ever at the registration day for kinesiology yesterday. Most of them were female.
  • In fact, I have decided I am in the wrong program. There are a few girls in computing sciences, and a few guys that look like girls, but Tom’s program has a ratio of about 4-1 girls to guys, and they are all extremely attractive.
  • Speaking of computers, they do have a technology program at RDC, but it’s clearly not the focus. The computer labs and stuff were excluded from our tour, described only as “being in the basement and sort of dark.”
  • They need to fix the signs for public parking, as it was quite confusing to figure out where to go!
  • The campus itself is quite nice – lots of grass and trees outside. Inside there seems to be a mix of old and new.
  • Parking is WAY cheaper than the UofA. The daily maximum is only $6! We ended up not paying for parking though, which was fine by me.
  • Everyone we encountered was friendly and helpful.

I think Tom is excited to get started in the fall. Looks like he’ll be quite happy at RDC!

Off to Red Deer Tomorrow

Post ImageMy brother, Tom for those of you who don’t know him, is planning to go to Red Deer College next year, so I am his transportation tomorrow (bright and early!) for the open house event for prospective students. Thus, I’ll be in Red Deer most of the day. I don’t know much about the college, but it looks pretty good. Tom is planning on doing the university transfer program for the Bachelor of Kinesiology and Sport Studies degree, which sounds pretty interesting but way over my head! From the About page:

Red Deer College has one of the top athletics programs in Canada – the Kings and Queens have the best overall record at national competition of any college in the country. The Kings Volleyball team has been Canadian College Athletics Association champions for the past six years.

Sounds like the right place to be starting a degree in kinesiology and sports! Like just about every other post secondary institution in the province (at least that’s the way it seems), Red Deer College is currently in the midst of a multi-million dollar expansion, building a new Healthy Communities Complex.

I wonder if they’ll have accessible wireless for me to tap into? I doubt it, but it would be a nice surprise 🙂 I guess I could always track down a Starbucks…sigh…still such a long way to go to reach “wireless everywhere.”

Read: RDC

WestJet is great at the details!

Post ImageOn my recent trip to Toronto, I flew there on WestJet and back on Air Canada. I didn’t specify that arrangement, it’s just the way our travel agent ended up booking the trip. From now on though, I think I’ll specify WestJet. I think I have preferred WestJet to Air Canada for quite some time now, but it wasn’t until this last trip that I actually reflected on why. I think it’s because WestJet does a better job of the details than Air Canada, you know, the little things.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s lots of other reasons that WestJet is better. You know, lower price, a TV in front of every seat, no business class (as far as I know), and well, they are almost always on time. Even on this last trip our WestJet flight arrived on time while the Air Canada flight was late – a good half hour late. Despite these things however, I think the details are more important:

  • WestJet flights have normal headphone jacks! There’s a reason I have expensive, noise-cancelling headphones, and I can use them on WestJet. Air Canada, for some reason, does not have standard headphone jacks meaning you have to use their crappy ones.
  • Ever laugh on an Air Canada flight? It’s rare, I know. With WestJet, the crew always seems happy and usually make a few jokes at the beginning and end of the flight. Goes a long way to keeping everyone happy.
  • Comfortable leather chairs on WestJet, uncomfortable cloth on Air Canada.
  • I love how the controls (light, air, etc) are easily reachable on a WestJet flight, while they are impossibly far away on Air Canada – instead of being right overhead, they are above the seat in front of me almost!
  • I like getting a Coke on the flight. What I don’t like, is having to wait til the very end of the flight to get rid of my can and/or cup! On WestJet, the crew comes by a reasonable time after handing out the drinks to pickup the garbage. They never came on the Air Canada flight, I had to shove my can into the hand of the lady picking up their awkward headphones.
  • Part of the problem on Air Canada with the garbage is that they don’t have enough crew members! I counted three, and one seemed to be serving business class exclusively. WestJet on the other hand has four, all serving the entire plane.

Now perhaps some of the things I have mentioned are more related to the type of plane and less to the airline. Regardless, that means WestJet still picked better planes, and thus do a better job of minding the details.

What do you think? Do you prefer WestJet or Air Canada?