After a Quarter of a Century, I Switch to a Mac

I am still amazed I actually did it. I crossed over after twenty-five or more years of using a PC and bought a MacBook. I don't expect to become one of those Apple fanatics who vociferously defend anything the company makes, but I gotta admit my experience with my iPhone nudged me this way. And so far its simple elegance and these cool voice commands are looking pretty good!

We navigated our way all the way over to the nearest Apple store (using our iPhone's GPS) at a North Jersey mall. There a designated 'genius' helped us with our decision. He told us that the MacBook Pros, which have a cooler looking aluminum case, are actually slower than the newer and less expensive MacBook. I guess people like thinking of themselves as 'pros' and also like that nice brushed aluminum. But I settled on the white simplicity of the $999 priced model, and after a few more sales tips, whipped out my card.

But the Apple store is not like any other store...so you don't go to the register. Oh no, this guy whips out his iTouch and swipes my card right there on the showroom, and he emailed me my sales reciept. I like it already!

I got the thing home and without a Wi-Fi password, can't get online to really get into it. And for some reason plugging my dad's ethernet into the little MacBook doesn't do anything. I can't wait to get home and see how it really works.

Tossing and Turning the Night Before...As Usual

At three am, I tossed in my bed, almost knocking Mamacat off her perch nestled there at my feet. I have had this date seared into my mind for months; now it's time to drive to Boston and speak to a crowd. I toss and turn worrying about what I'm going to say--I let doubt slip in and feel that I'm a phony and don't really know enough to address a crowd of travel professionals. It's the third year in a row I've done this, yet there I was sweating it out the night before.

The way you solve the jitters is to plan...and create the cheatsheets known as PowerPoint slides. I went downstairs and set to work. How many of the people today will have been there last year? Don't wanna repeat the same stuff. But it's good stuff....so it's worth repeating. The topic is social media and how to use it to help your travel business grow. Hey, that's a familiar theme, I read about it all the time. Don't make the PP slides too wordy...don't end up reading the slides--boring. The Boston Globe Travel Show agenda is here.

In an hour or so I was back on track...feeling ok. I do know about this stuff, and I am the right man to make this presentation. Lose that tight fitting sportsjacket. There, OK, I look fine. Ready to get on the Pike, make it happen. Wish me luck!

How Important Is a Soup Label? Very!

How important is a soup can label? Important enough that Campbell's soup spent two years studying the 'neuromarketing' of how people decide to buy soup. A story in yesterday's WSJ by Ilan Brat dove into the details of how to tweak a label to nudge up sales.

Illustrations showed the original Campbell's Cream of Potato soup label with a dowdy spoon above a soup bowl that looks like it would be perfect nestled in your grandmother's pantry. At the top of the can is the familiar red Campbell's logo.

On the same page the remade, sexier, and more sales-oriented label. First steam was added, emphasizing the warmth of this comfort food, and the old spoon was ditched. A newer, more modern bowl, that looks like something you'd find in Ikea, was added, so long dowdy design around the rim.

Researchers tracked people's eye movements, finding that the red labels all look the same when they're at the top of the can. So at the top, instead of the red Campbell logo, appears a gold "Classic Favorites" type, providing a color-coded way for soup buyers to understand the various types of soups Campbells sells.

Water Piped Between High Circuits Makes Holyoke Sense

Phew! I am sitting at the end of the day in the window of the cafe. A familiar spot. My cafe acquaintance Paul told me some of what he knows about the Holyoke High Performance Computing Center that's coming soon. He said in his government office they use water that snakes through the gigabytes of circuits of computers to cool them. No other town has canals that might be used this way. But it's elegant and a throwback to the canal days of yore.

An even more important part of Holyoke's appeal is its hydropower. Holyoke has its own power company, that owns the dam. The dam now has turbines on just one side, they could add another set and generate twice the power. But to do this you need a big customer, who doubles the use and creates the need for more generation. This computer center will need all of this and more since the level of their computing puts them at peak full tilt energy suck.

There are also plans to create a model super connected neighborhood. Holyoke might just be the city where this test by Cisco is to be carried out. We might have 100 mps service in the city this year!

I said hello to the new owner of Alina's in town. He's a beefy and friendly guy named Martin Amaya, and I'm going to pay him a visit on Friday for a cocktail. I think they are going to do well, people love a nice looking Italian place.

Chatroulette: The Anti Facebook Future of the Web

I love to make predictions. I have been reading about a new website that is becoming very popular on college campuses. Some have even wrote that this new idea will someday eclipse the gargantuan that is Facebook. It's so simple, it's hard to believe that nobody has thought of it before. It's an idea that's worthy of, well, Google itself.

It's called Chatroulette. The idea is that you find random strangers to converse with, and you spin the wheel every so often to find new and more interesting strangers to talk to around the world.

You never know what you'll find when you click next. That's the roulette part. Sam Anderson wrote recently in NY Magazine about the surreal experience of the randomness. "Ït turns out that chatroulette is brutal...the first 18 people who saw me disconnected immediately. They appeared, one by one, in a box at the top of my screen--a young Asian man, a high-school age girl, a guy lying on his side on his bed--and every time I'd feel a flare of excitement. Every time they'd leave without saying a word. It was devastating."

The site is ánti-Facebook, pure social media shuffle. Once you dive in, there's no way to manage the experience--to filter users, search for friends, or backtrack and reconnect with someone you chatted with an hour ago. There's only the perpetual forward motion of 'next.' Try it.

Flight Attendants Don't Have As Many Free Flights

For our Valentine's day afternoon, a workout at the Y and a movie were in order. I was feeling a bit under the weather as a result of something I ate on Saturday in Mexico, so we lay low and enjoyed an inside day, with the exception of the Y.

On the plane home I got to talking with a flight attendant who works for US Airways out of Charlotte. She said that she works four days in a row, and if snow closes an airport, they lose their day's wages. She said that the last storm had her flying up to Philly and to a hotel, all for zero bucks. Bummer, she's not the only one who suffers from snowfalls.

She said that since planes are usually so full, it is much harder these days for flight attendants to take advantage of the greatest benefit of working for an airline: free travel. Despite the fact that our Airbus seated 180 and had just 100 passengers, this is a rarity. Most of the times with fewer flights on the schedule, these jets are full up, and there are no seats left for freebies.

I told her why I was coming back from Cancun, and about the story I wrote about eco-tourism there. She said that she loves all-inclusive resorts, but that zip-lining is a dream she wants to experience some day. It was nice to share with her how easy it is to do this right near the popular city of Cancun. Next time she flies this route, she just might get out there and zip.

Dinner with Journalists, Sharing World Views

I dined last night at a table full of journalists, in an exciting city, with plenty of wine and unusual food--the kind of setting that I yearn for. The reach of the conversation was fascinating; the topic was mainly this fabulous country--Mexico. I've learned over the years to cherish these opportunities to sit for hours and learn about the world from my well-traveled colleagues.

A fellow winner sat to my right--Marybeth from San Diego, who is about my age and has been a reporter and travel writer for twenty years. At my left was the lovely and charming Deirdre from Dublin, who works for the Irish version of BBC, and who circled the world during her gap year about ten years ago. We talked about the places in Mexico that get bad press. And Marybeth told us how wonderful Chiapas and Baja were. There's a place I've always wanted to go but that typical American fear keeps me away. It's a shame. I asked them about Sinaloa, a lawless state where narco traffickers have dominated. Another writer from Mexico City said that's like being afraid in Chicago for what happens in Denver. It's a big place.

Mexico City is another place that years ago I developed a prejudice against, fearing the smog and the situation with the water and the legions of poor. It's been cleaned up quite a bit, the Mexico city man told us, and today some of the neighborhoods there are wonderful and safe.

The one place Marybeth was the most excited about surprised me. She said of all her worldly travels, Antarctica made her the most inspired. It is the absence of civilization, I think, that made her love it there so much. "Isn't it all just ice and penguins?" I asked naively. "It's my favorite place in the world, and I'd go back in a heartbeat," was her passionate answer.

On the Balcony Watching the Moving Chairs

However short this trip is, it was fine with me to spend the day looking out at the Gulf of Mexico from my seventh floor perch here at the NH Hoteles. When I checked in, they strapped a wristband on me that's provided me with Coronas and food for the whole time. Love the concept!

I was happy to join the other journalists and accept my plaque in front of an intense pack of TV and newspaper photographers, who clicked at us from all angles. I shook the governor's hand and it was nice to sit next to Erika Mitsinaga, the charming press liason who showed us around when we came last January.

Cancun and the Yucatan region account for a full third of the country's tourism revenues, I learned today. People in higher levels of government here are finally figuring out how important tourism is...and that means you gotta have good press too.

The Timeshare Salesman Jokes with New Clients

I sat at the breakfast table with a view of the azure sea, and right beside me sat a man facing a portly couple, both looking at a form he wanted them to fill out.

What else was he doing but selling a timeshare, the leading business of this, the pinnacle of Mexican tourism, Cancun.

The man was in the excavating business, she was a nurse, and they lived in Toledo. The salesman said he once ran a restaurant in Rochester, but grew sick of those cold winter winds. "We sent that weather over to you!" joked his new customer.

I picked at my plate of fruit and wished the coffee was stronger. As expected the waiters were charming, and when I was about to tuck into some chicken soup he gently warned me about the jalopenos in there. "Mucho caldo!" he explained.

The hotel is 45% occupied, and now at 9 am it's just getting busy with people coming and going wearing coverups.

Today I hope to see the friends we met last January and get up on stage to accept my award. I might even write something witty or at least make some notes so I'll sound respectable up there.

Another Silicon Valley Vet Dumps Myspace

Does anyone care that Myspace, the once-high flying website purchased by News Corp more than four years ago, is just about dead? The moribund social networking site was once the hottest place on the web, now it's just a bunch of ads and no one really cares about it. Think of it though--it sold for $650 million and once led the pack!

I saw Myspace.com in today's WSJ when their latest CEO announced he is leaving the site. He's Owen Van Natta, who is described as a 'Silicon Valley veteran' who once held the top job at Facebook. I think one clue that would have made me doubt that this vet was in it for the long-run is that he never moved to Los Angeles where the site is based. Instead he commuted from the SF area. I think if I was paying someone the kind of money any 'Silicon Valley vet' would command, I'd put in the contract that he has to live nearby.

Before I wrote this, I took a quick trip over to Myspace to see what's going on there besides leadership turmoil. On my Mozilla browser, I was ordered to download the newest version, if I wanted to continue to the site. Since I'm on a cafe computer, that wasn't an option, but it is typical of a site that's on the way down. If I have to download something just to browse, well you're not going to be around very long.

Blog Talk Highlights Selected Posts from Readuponit

The snow I eluded as I sped east late last night finally caught up with us here in Deerfield, with flakes coming down and the cafe full of people enjoying the atmosphere and sipping coffee. I was thrilled to be told this morning about Phoebe Mitchell's inclusion of some of my blog contents in a feature that runs in the Gazette called Blog Talk.

I guess if you update a blog daily for almost six years, you earn the respect of the local paper, and so she recounted some of my recent posts about Podcamp, the Cancun writing award, and about padded airline schedules. I found the story linked up under the paper's Briefing Section. Cool!

I've been trying to interest the Gazette in using my blog on their Gazettenet.com site ever since I traveled to Colombia with Larry Parnass, who is now the editor. They only have a sports blog now and I've said again and again, you can run Readuponit for nothing. But I never have been able to convince them that an outsider like me can be as reliable, compelling and interesting as a staff writer. Who knows, maybe after this they will be convinced.

The Storm Couldn't Keep Up with Me Speeding East

It's very late, but this massive caffeine buzz isn't close to going away. I just escaped a terrible snowstorm by driving fast, eastward, as the storm followed dumping massive snowfalls just behind me. I'm glad I made the trip, considering that I would have been stuck in New York state for quite a while if I hadn't left.

Tonight Kent and I met a few dozen tourism officials from all over California. Upon entering this expo, put on by California Tourism, we looked over Californian-grown produce, all lined up like in a grocery store, so we could take some home. We moved on to tables staffed by people who promoted travel to all parts of the great big Golden State. The staffers were all relaxed and enthusiastic about their particular part of the state.

We met the folks from Mendocino, who knew of us and said they wanted us to come visit, and Beverly Hills, who also said they had the makings of a good GoNOMAD feature. And Santa Barbara, and Sacramento, and finally, a chance to meet Kat Burnside, pictured, who is the state's official director of PR. We're definitely going to be spending time in California in the months ahead, there are so many places to see and most excellent adventures to be had.

It was great to learn about these destinations, and fun too to have beaten the snowstorm. Now I just have to figure out how to go to sleep after two giant cups of ten pm java.

France Tourism Hopes for Better Times in 2010

It's a familiar scene. Kent and I drove into Manhattan last night and once again we got that sense that we had come to the right place. The occasion was a media show by France Tourism, a combination of Air France, Rail Europe and tourism officials from Normandy and Rhone Alpes, along with the people who run A Tout France in New York.

We learned about what 2009 was like for tourism in the world's most popular tourist destination--down nearly four percent. We found some excitement, though in two areas, and that was worth celebrating with Rhone red wine and rare lamb on a stick. The new A380 airplane is making Air France big money and the representative claimed that flying transatlantic on this giant beast is something 'completely different than any other flying experience.'

Sony Stark already raved to us about her chance to ride in the plane, so we know now she's not the only person wowed by the mood lighting, six bars and three levels of service on the A380. The other thing that one of the panelists was excited about for 2010 was trains. The resurgence of high-speed rail in the US has prompted a huge interest in taking the trains of Europe. There is a new high-speed line that takes people from Paris to Berlin and then overnight to Moscow.

In our business, we're always optimistic--and judging from the many writers and producers we ran into at the event, everyone is hoping for a fantastic 2010, in France and around the traveling world.

Tipped Off to the Google Ad, a Follower Knows All

As I fell asleep after one of the best Superbowls I've ever watched, I thought about the connections and the various lines that bind people together. There was a commercial during the game's third quarter for Google, perhaps spurred on by the early success of rival search engine Bing.

I knew it was coming because I follow John Battelle, who wrote a book about Google and runs Federated Media, the people who publish one of the top blogs on the web called BoingBoing.net. He had mentioned that it was coming, so I was ready when I saw them up on the screen.

Google's ad followed a series of searches about France. One of the top results was for "How to Make a French Woman Happy" and referenced a website knew well--Paris logue. The site was created by my friend Sean Keener's company, Bootsnall.com, and I was proud that they got such a high-profile shout out on the world's biggest stage. Good on ya Boots!

Saturday's Podcamp ended with a few beers at the Tavern in Westfield, where my seat at the bar brought the charming Rebecca Caplice, President of Greenfield Savings Bank, and two other women gathered around. Rebecca talked about the restaurant she and her husband opened, and how they've got more than 1000 fans on its Facebook Page. The funny thing is since I'm one of them I knew the whole story about the place and some of the former Greenfieldites who have given the place their blessing. Once again, social media brought me insights and backstories that made our face-to-face time more enriching.

The Guard Economy Keeps Us All Down

Samuel Bowles is an unappreciated yet wise economist who runs the Santa Fe Institute, a radical hotbed where people with big brains meet and talk about issues. I read in the Santa Fe Reporter about one of Bowle's theories, which intrigued me.

He states that in the US, one in four people are in the business of guarding other people's wealth. Whether they work as a private security guard for a gated community, or a rent-a-cop in a shopping mall, their job is to keep the rich rich by keeping the poor at bay.

Bowles speculates that we lose millions of dollars in productivity because so many of us are doing the work of guarding, instead of creating new businesses or doing other valuable things. He says what he calls 'guard labor' supports the beat down economy. These are the marginalized, the workers who sadly, in most cases will pass along their poverty to their kids. The SF Reporter story was titled "Born Poor," cites Bowle's study.

Like-minded People Gather to Share at Podcamp

"I have met so many people as a result of social media," said Leslie, an active blogger, twitterer and Facebooker, and one of the presenters at Podcamp Western Mass. "I met Morris, my partner, and I met another person who became a business partner, and so many people all over Western Mass. I've gotten so much more than I've given."

Leslie summed up why we have all given up a Saturday to join like-minded people learning about the fine points of twitter, facebook, blogs, videos and other aspects of today's social media landscape.

What I like is that it's one of the few venues where we can be typing a blog, reading twitter feeds and still listen to the speakers. I've always said, 'hey I'm listening, really' and nobody believes me. But here, hey....it's ok to do it all at the same time.

Jackie Stevenson has been a friend for many years, and she gave a bang up presentation about how she uses SM to promote companies and restaurants. She has some cogent examples of big media scores.

She spent more than a year as a freelancer; now she's gotten a four-day a week gig as Director of Public Relations for Winstanley Associates.

Without all of this SM stuff, she would have never gotten this great opportunity to have a good paying job with benefits. Couldn't happen to a better gal; and it couldn't have happened without our social media world.

Padded Airline Schedules Make for Longer Flights

Doesn't a free trip to Cancun sound good? Yeah, it does, but when you book a ticket six days in advance the flight details are kinda gnarly. I'm not one to complain but I fly out of Bradley at 6 am and spend about four hours in Dallas. It's only about 3 hours to Cancun but of course, nothing is ever as easy as one hopes when it comes to air travel.

Last night I read a story in the WSJ about how airlines have increased the length of time for nearly all flights to pad the schedule by about 30 minutes. Thus, a flight from New York to LA that might have taken five and a half hours five years ago now clocks in at six and a half.

The delays aren't weather related, it's all about the waiting time on the tarmac. Planes in lines like cars, one after the other, all trying to take off. It seems that nobody in the airline business believes in congestion pricing, so they go with the will of the people who all want to leave at the same time. So the schedules are padded, and people can think that airlines' on-time percentages are more impressive.

Oh well, I'm not gonna beef about this day-long flight. It's worth it to see my friends in Cancun again and hopefully, I can give a speech or something when they hand me my award.

Award-Winning Writer: I Love the Sound of That!

Cindy and I traveled to Mexico last January and upon my return I wrote a story for GoNOMAD titled "Ecotourism in Cancun: Wilder than we Expected," about the contrast between the stereotype of Mexico's most popular tourism destination and the public perception of ecotourism. The story was about things you can do outdoors---but what we remembered most was how much we loved the people of Mexico.

I've been a writer since I helped put out my elementary school newspaper in 1970. But I've never been able to call myself an 'Award-winning writer.' Tonight, for the first time in my 51 years, I took a first place prize for my writing. I'm awfully proud, I must admit. And this one comes with a big check and a free trip to Cancun for the ceremony. Pinch me!

It was our first trip to Mexico and we loved everyone we met. The physical beauty of Mexico's azure sea and the cenotes (water holes) of the Yucatan were striking. But Mexico, for us, was about the people who live there. Our hosts were friendly and warm, and everyone from the hotel manager down to the chamber maids were genuinely pleased to help us and their smiles were real. I can't wait to go back next week!

Faceless Facebook Friends Will Meet at Podcamp

I awoke to the sound of a 5-horsepower motor whirring in the driveway across the street. It has snowed and Kate next door was using her snowthrower to clean the white. It's early February and I can only say I'm glad that January is gone. As I lay back in bed and gazed my barely focused eyes on my iPhone, I read the trail of Facebook posts that had been posted while I slept.

Like many people I know my life has been significantly changed by this regular ritual. Gazing down and reading the posts that 350 other people have added over the course of a day has become an important part of life. But truth be told, it's really not all of those 350 people, it's more like 20 or 30 who are active posters who consume most of my Facebook reading time.

I have never met many of these people who I follow; that's a unique aspect of this new world of pseudo-communication. But I feel like if I met them I would know them as old friends. It's the same for the blogs I follow; I know so many things about people because they've posted blogs about their lives.

On Saturday I will get to meet many of the Facebook friends and Twitter followers who only appear in my life in pixels. It's time for Podcamp, where the questions one saves up all year can be answered and Geekdom rules. It's a time where having 3200 followers on Twitter is actually cool, and we share expertise on whatever we know something about. It's a time when it's really ok to talk while you're typing...my kind of place!

Pond Hockey Makes Everyone Happy in Ashfield

Patrick Falla and Ben Crosby understand what is really truly important in winter. Pond hockey. They seized the day by organizing 'The Frozen Faceoff,' a 16-team round robin hockey tournament held on Ashfield Lake over the weekend. The 64 players got to enjoy one of the funnest pleasures of winter, skating on a frozen lake and shooting at the box.

Family and fans cheered on their teams from up above the lake in the cozy Ashfield Lake House. Hot food and cold drinks kept them happy and they created their own version of box seats out on the deck overlooking the four rinks, each measuring 95x x 55' from board to board.

The elements make playing pond hockey something above the normal turn around the rink.
"Once you step back into a rink after playing pond hockey, it feels pretty cushy," Spencer Gowan told the Recorder's Bob Dunn. Next year the organizers expect many more rinks and many more skaters, and spectators.

Yi Yi: A Long, Complicated Taiwanese Tale

We watched a nearly 3-hour movie set in Taiwan yesterday, and as the sun set we found ourselves still a bit confused and no end to the lengthy tale called Yi Yi.

Whoever set up two hours or less as the maximum allowable viewing time for a movie must know human nature. We kept wondering when this film would wrap up, but we kept getting more scenes.

The movie starred a character named NJ whose brother is getting married amidst a scandal..the bride is ballooning out pregnant. We see an indignant 'other woman' stalking the ceremony, finally being asked to leave while she screams out apologies for not being the bride.

His son is picked on by the cruel older girls in primary school, and his mid-twenties daughter is experimenting with sex. Later the youngster tries to get even with his tormentors but instead douses the strict teacher with water instead of his intended target.

But what's on NJs mind is the love he left behind 30 years ago, who meets him face to face at the wedding and reignits their dashed love. At one point NJ has to do business with an associate--he's Japanese, he's Taiwanese, so they converse haltingly in English.

We don't know whether he ever got back together with her, since after 2 hours and 49 minutes it was time for 60 Minutes and we shut it off.