Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

Let me guess: you're at the Marriott Redmond and there's no connectivity in the conference room you're in. Don't feel slighted, it's not you; the cost in the Marriott is so fricking awful that even the MS folks would blanch at the price, and the lack of connectivity keeps the MS'rs from mentally bailing on the attendees to do work emails (which they will do in a heart beat -- but then so do other Fortune 50 employees given connectivity during a conference).

Sorry about this David. It's just our IT department keeps anonymous wireless users off of our corporate network and someone didn't think about it until you all showed up.

Rayne: we're over at MSN's offices on Microsoft's campus in Redmond, WA.

This isn't just a Microsoft issue. I was in the "digital" newsroom of a major news outlet recently and their IT dept had access compleyely closed. Ditto at two other newsrooms that regularly get outside visitors. I completely understand the need to protect the network but surely there must be a way to provide a wireless connection that doesn't interfere with network security -- for instance, a guest password that only allows external Internet access.

David, I keep telling you, get a Treo and a portable keyboard. You can blog like crazy and not have to search for a hotspot which can't be considered guaranteed for most conferences.

Soon you'll be able to get the 650 with Bluetooth and a higher resolution screen. BTW, I'm writing a review of you Wired article on search strategies for images. Hows about posting some images of this meeting on your flickr.com site?

(Robert I enjoyed your NYC geek night and looking forward to the next.)

David, my inner ADD child is smiling in sympathy with yours. In fact, now that I think of it, shouldn't somebody do the experiment of replacing Ritalin with a laptop plus Google and IRC? Off topic, when you get to Harvard again, my vegetarian daughters recommend Chang Sho, Temple Bar (closed at lunch), Bombay Club, and of course Veggie Planet. Have fun, and please don't get volcanized out there!

Bill, my cell phone has no connectivity here either.

I lost my Palm the other day so I am in the market for a replacement, but I'm not feeling flush enough to get a Treo. Sigh.

And I didn't bring my camera.

Scoble - cool, on campus...but MS really needs to lean on that Marriott. Yeesh. Costs an arm and fricking leg for internet service (think it was 5 bucks for 15 minutes), had to use dial-up while I was there to meet with MS folks. (Although I do understand about the idea of email lock-out; can't imagine how much it would cut into productivity without a moratorium of some sort during meetings.)