For those of you interested in sharing a special treat with the kids in your life, check out the NORAD Tracks Santa Operations Center on-line. Current location of Santa’s sleigh with special SantaCam vids were a real hit in this house tonite.
Here’s hoping you all find the best under the tree tonite and tomorrow. I’ll see you then…
Illegals in Arizona are finding it harder and harder to get work after new laws cracking down on businesses who employ illegals were passed. Now, there’s evidence they’re packing up and heading back to Mexico – or other US states. The whining about how oppressive it all is and how we poor, stupid Americans will have our economy crash into the ground because we just can’t keep the machine running without those wonderful illegals to makes things work has started. But there’s no argument that the illegals are leaving.
Wasn’t this what people said wouldn’t happen?
Those of us who are serious about the illegal problem have long said that cracking down on the employers who assist illegals in breaking the law would be an integral part of the solution. Well, that part is clearly working. So let’s get all the states doing this, secure that border, and deport illegals who are caught breaking other laws and we’ll see this issue seriously dry up. Good going, AZ!
Accessing the Internet while flying from point A to point B has been a secret desire of many since the dawn of more ubiquitous public access capability. While laptops have been letting busy execs turn flight time into (semi-) productive time for quite a while, the link to the Internet and the head office has been a missing one. Airlines have been working with several companies to fill that gap and some are ready to put it into full production. The problems they’re looking into now are more the social ones than the technical ones:
Seat 17D is yapping endlessly on an Internet phone call. Seat 16F is flaming Seat 16D with expletive-laden chats. Seat 16E is too busy surfing porn sites to care. Seat 17C just wants to sleep.
Welcome to the promise of the Internet at 33,000 feet — and the questions of etiquette, openness and free speech that airlines and service providers will have to grapple with as they bring Internet access to the skies in the coming months.
Considering the level of “etiquette” in use these days by cell phone users who insist on holding personal conversations at medium-high volume not 2 feet from you I’m a more than a little concerned about these social aspects. While it would likely not affect me at all to have the guy in the seat next to me go browsing the latest nudie site or watch the trailer for the latest slasher flick, I’d have a real problem with him doing so with my 6-year-old in the seat between us. Some airlines are talking about filtering content for their internet access as well as blocking some voice services such as Skype. Others are not.
Meanwhile, American, Alaska and Virgin have no plans to filter sites based on their content. At most, an airline may manage traffic and delay large downloads, or in Virgin’s case give passengers the option of enabling controls for their kids.
“We think decency and good sense and normal behavior” will prevail, said Jack Blumenstein, chief executive of Aircell LLC, which is launching service on some American and Virgin flights in 2008.
Uhhh… right. I’m not sure where Mr. Blumenstein is living but I’ve got considerably less faith in that. In the end, the airlines can only do what any business does: put out the product and see if it sells without generating too many complaints. I wish them luck in that.
Like many of my fellow Americans I’m traveling for the holidays which puts blogging on the back burner. I’m trying to find some time here and there to post stuff but you might find gaps in my posting coverage. Bear with me.
Please let me take the moment to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year. May God send all the best your way in this season and in the year to come.
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