{"id":9042,"date":"2006-02-28T06:45:30","date_gmt":"2006-02-28T13:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2006\/02\/28\/because-travel-needs-to-be-more-expensive-and-less-convenient.html"},"modified":"2006-02-28T06:45:30","modified_gmt":"2006-02-28T13:45:30","slug":"because_travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/02\/28\/because_travel.html","title":{"rendered":"Because travel needs to be more expensive and less convenient!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Annoying pair<\/a> of articles<\/a> about how all those airports that have gone to great trouble and expense to provide WiFi service are now capping off and restricting access to power outlets.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sitting in Montreal\u2019s Trudeau airport, and noticing what appears to me to be a new trend. Airports have been capping off the power outlets. Where have they all gone? It used to be that you could find a power outlet on a wall or a pillar at the gate, but not anymore. In recent weeks, I\u2019ve traveled through Seattle, San Jose, Chicago O\u2019Hare, Toronto, and Montreal. The plentiful power that laptop users used to depend on is virtually non-existent. Here in Montreal, I am sitting in a phone booth, because it has a power outlet for laptop users.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Insane. The aggregate power drain from laptops (and cell phone chargers) at airports is trivial compared to all the other power costs at an airport. I don’t expect outlets to be plopped in everywhere it’s convenient (I’d love it, and the cost at construction or renovation time would be minimal, but I don’t expect it), but capping them off to prevent “unauthorized use” or some such malarkey is just crazy death-wish time.<\/p>\n

Of course, then there’s this little twist:<\/p>\n

I got into a huge fight at London’s Luton airport a couple months ago when I was ordered to unplug my laptop because it presented a “fire hazard.” All the devices plugged into the outlets in the airport had to be “certified.” I asked about the laptop adapters for sale in the Dixon’s electronics shop beside me and was informed that they were certified, and I could plug back in if I bought a new adapter from them (imagine that — a \u00a350 electricity tax in the form of a mandate to buy a new adapter!). I’d just spent \u00a313 on WiFi, so I kept arguing, demanding that they give me a quote I could publish in a magazine column about their policy, and they relented — finally — when I pointed out that the people in the first-class lounge visible through the picture window had all plugged their laptops in.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Comments on the first article indicate the same thing’s going on at Heathrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Annoying pair of articles about how all those airports that have gone to great trouble and expense to provide WiFi service are now capping off and restricting access to power…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8343,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/12\/08\/ive_got_the_pow.html","url_meta":{"origin":9042,"position":0},"title":"I’ve got the power!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 8-Dec-05 2:53pm","format":false,"excerpt":"There's no answer in this PC World article, but the question is a good one: Why are airport lounges power-free zones? As far as I can tell, the world has...","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","block_context":{"text":"Travel","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/travel"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10292,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/02\/22\/power_play.html","url_meta":{"origin":9042,"position":1},"title":"Power Play","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 22-Feb-07 3:34pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Every now and then you run across something that crosses the line from \"Gee, the world sure seems crappy sometimes\" to \"Argh! That just torques me to no end!\" This...","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24545,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/15\/just-my-luck.html","url_meta":{"origin":9042,"position":2},"title":"Just my luck","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 15-Dec-11 9:48am","format":false,"excerpt":"Denver International Airport is rated worst big airport for tech travelers in the US, due to limited power outlets (esp. USB) and crappy (and not free) WiFi and cellular service.Yup, yup, and yup, though when flying Southwest the outlet issue is a lot better, since they put up charging tables\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":137450,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/11\/09\/the-best-and-worst-airports-in-the-us.html","url_meta":{"origin":9042,"position":3},"title":"The Best and Worst Airports in the US","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 9-Nov-18 8:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"This comparison is getting pretty heavy play at different sites (e.g., LifeHacker), but I'm kind of stunned to see Denver in the bottom half of the 30 busiest airports in the US -- I find DEN comfortable, convenient, and largely a pleasant place to travel from and to. (Things are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13465,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/12\/04\/ice_ice_baby_8.html","url_meta":{"origin":9042,"position":4},"title":"Ice, ice, baby!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 4-Dec-08 10:13pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Expect major problems at airports across the nation that get snow. That's because there's a serious shortage of ... runway de-icer. The federal government is warning airlines that flights could...","rel":"","context":"In "Climate Change \/ Weather \/ Disasters"","block_context":{"text":"Climate Change \/ Weather \/ Disasters","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/science\/weather-and-climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10612,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/12\/11\/concessions_on_concession.html","url_meta":{"origin":9042,"position":5},"title":"Concessions on concessions?","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 11-Dec-06 11:12am","format":false,"excerpt":"Why is it the TSA keeps adding new, bizarre, \"security theater\" restrictions on travel (e.g., the Global War on Liquids), but seems more than willing to reduce restrictions if there's...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9042\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}