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airplane geek frenzy
Jul. 2nd, 2003 04:47 pmI'm writing this at 38014 feet, somewhere between Calgary (hi Dan!) and Vancouver (hi Guy's relatives who I visited there!). Please excuse these burblings, caused by lack of sleep, legroom, and Oxygen. The Pope is a fish, I know it's true, coz William Burroughs told me so.
I was really dreading this flight: 10 hours and only one 3-hour laptop battery. Then I saw the new entertainment system they have. For starters it has a much bigger screen (I guess ~8"), but the best bit is that you are no longer restricted to watching a few films on a fixed schedule. It's like a TiVo, preloaded with 52 films, plus TV, music, and even audiobooks. You can play any one of them any time and pause, rewind/forward (though this is a bit sluggish). I can't work out how it works - is it piped from a central bank of DVDs or hard disks or can the film be downloaded to the seat? There's a ~5 second delay after you select it before the film starts.
Anyway, this all means I can watch much more - the schedule used to mean that you could only watch a few films right the way through. As usual with Virgin the selection isn't bad. I saw films Bowling for Columbine (excellent and just the right sort of thing to get me in the mood for spending a fortnight with a family of good liberals, who have to live under the current regime) and Red Dragon (nearly as good as Silence of the Lambs, and better than Hannibal), Coupling, Simpsons, King of the Hill, Jonathan Ross interviewing Terry Gilliam. Now, should I see Phone Booth or Adaptation? [I saw Adaptation, but missed the end when we landed - is it worth it?]
I wasn't so impressed when I went to stretch my feet. There was an empty curtained-off section of the plane that I was standing in and rereading Snow Crash, but a snooty hostess shoed me out of there because I was an economy passenger. In the past they used to upgrade people from economy if there were spare seats in Upper Class (also giving a bit more room in Economy), but they now have stopped doing that, so I was annoyed that this area with comfy seats was just unused. I just get annoyed by this sort of thing, but it's much much more prevalent in America (every line can be bypassed if you pay, every service has a premium service). I guess I'll have to reacquaint myself with this for the next two weeks.
[written 2 Jul 2003 19:43am BST Wednesday, posted just after arrival at 00:47 BST, Thursday]
I was really dreading this flight: 10 hours and only one 3-hour laptop battery. Then I saw the new entertainment system they have. For starters it has a much bigger screen (I guess ~8"), but the best bit is that you are no longer restricted to watching a few films on a fixed schedule. It's like a TiVo, preloaded with 52 films, plus TV, music, and even audiobooks. You can play any one of them any time and pause, rewind/forward (though this is a bit sluggish). I can't work out how it works - is it piped from a central bank of DVDs or hard disks or can the film be downloaded to the seat? There's a ~5 second delay after you select it before the film starts.
Anyway, this all means I can watch much more - the schedule used to mean that you could only watch a few films right the way through. As usual with Virgin the selection isn't bad. I saw films Bowling for Columbine (excellent and just the right sort of thing to get me in the mood for spending a fortnight with a family of good liberals, who have to live under the current regime) and Red Dragon (nearly as good as Silence of the Lambs, and better than Hannibal), Coupling, Simpsons, King of the Hill, Jonathan Ross interviewing Terry Gilliam. Now, should I see Phone Booth or Adaptation? [I saw Adaptation, but missed the end when we landed - is it worth it?]
I wasn't so impressed when I went to stretch my feet. There was an empty curtained-off section of the plane that I was standing in and rereading Snow Crash, but a snooty hostess shoed me out of there because I was an economy passenger. In the past they used to upgrade people from economy if there were spare seats in Upper Class (also giving a bit more room in Economy), but they now have stopped doing that, so I was annoyed that this area with comfy seats was just unused. I just get annoyed by this sort of thing, but it's much much more prevalent in America (every line can be bypassed if you pay, every service has a premium service). I guess I'll have to reacquaint myself with this for the next two weeks.
[written 2 Jul 2003 19:43am BST Wednesday, posted just after arrival at 00:47 BST, Thursday]
