American and Delta airlines will be launching wi-fi on select flights and planes in their respective fleets, with Delta anticipating a full launch by mid-2009. I say it’s about time! The flights I take are never more than three hours, but I think having internet access would save me from my inevitable restlessness. I’m not claustrophobic, but I can’t help but to feel confined when on an airplane, regardless that I always purchase a window seat.

This begs the question: wouldn’t internet access in-flight debunk the crazy rule of having to turn off your mobile phone and keeping it off for the duration of the flight? I actually forgot to turn off my phone on my flight back from Orlando on Labor Day. It vibrated in my back pocket as soon as we were above the tarmac coming in for landing. Clearly, leaving it on didn’t send me and the other 80 passengers plummeting to our deaths…

Current Mood: Bored

Is a hotel money hungry when they charge per minute for the use of their internet?

Last week, I attended some work-related training at a Doubletree hotel near the Pentagon. At a point where we were given a break, I walked past their Business Center and decided to see if I could check my email only to be greeted with the following message on the screen:

$2.99 to connect (first minute included), $.59 per minute. Please swipe your credit card.

Well shit! That’s as expensive as a damn pre-paid cell phone, if not more so.

On some level, I can understand the need to charge for access. The Business Center is easily accessible by anyone, meaning non-guests of the hotel like me could sit and hog their bandwidth all day if they didn’t have some limitations in place. Many airports do this for their wireless access, but at least they charge more reasonable fees like $5.99 for two hours. Two hours on the computer at that Doubletree will set you back over seventy bucks!

You know hotels like that aren’t hurting for money with their $150+ per night room rate along with the fees they charge for groups to use their meeting rooms. I just think it’s overkill.

Thank God my full time job isn’t tech support. If it were, I’d have to fight the urge to slit my wrists each time I heard those words.

It’s bad enough I’m the internal IT person in our office, and I do hear them once every couple weeks. There isn’t much else that drives me more batty than a co-worker coming to my office, or stopping me in the hallway and that being the only thing out of their mouth. I have to take a calming breath each time because I know they’ve done nothing to resolve the issue on their own. It really irks me when the person saying this is at least partially technologically savvy, because it just means their too damn lazy to: 1., try more than one website. 2., see if their email is working - because if it is, obviously our network connectivity isn’t the problem. 3., check the ethernet cable on the back of their computer (ok, that may be a bit much to ask especially if their computer isn’t easily accessible, but those green and orange lights really do speak volumes). or, 4., (and this is the EASIEST of them all) restart your computer.

I don’t know… I think I’m just in an ultra bitchy mood after what happened with the boss this morning. But, really, it doesn’t seem like rocket science to me and I’m not certified in anything IT. People instantly go into panic mode and can’t function for themselves when websites stop loading on their computer.