Gadgets for Italy

We are off to Italy for 2 weeks starting Friday. This will serve as my packing list:

1. AT&T Blackberry 8800. My new fav gadget. First Crackberry and I know why now. Perfect works pays for international roaming for voice and data. Also has built in GPS which worked well for me in London. Got Gmail loaded on it so personal mail is no problem.
2. Nokia n800 Internet Tablet: Hoping to find a WiFi hotspot to surf the web and post to my blog.
3. Palm Treo 680 GSM: Borrowing one from my boss since my Sprint Treo 650 won't work in Italy. Need to test an app I'm having some guys in India build for me.
4. Nokia n80: Unlocked phone using a SIM card I bought on the web. The number is supposed to be from Estonia but should work in Italy.
5. Samsung Carbon: Slim, unlocked phone for my wife
6. Motorola TalkAbout 2 way Radio: To use to communicate while sightseeing.
   
7. Video iPod: Got it all loaded with all my songs.
8. iPod mini: Got all my daughter's music loaded. High School Musical and Kidz Bop (thanks to BitTorrent)
9. Lenovo Thinkpad T65: Best Windows Notebook IMO. It'll serve as a DVD player on the trip
10. Some clean underwear if I can afford the space.

* update #1: Since the house we were staying at was so remote, there was no broadband connection to connect to. So the Thinkpad and the n800 didn't get used. Never used the 2 way radio, the Carbon, nor the n80. Joyce carried the Treo. I made very good use out of my Blackberry though. Used a lot of Google SMS, browser, and Yahoo!Go app (pretty slick app) to get news, sport scores, local weather forecast, and light web surfing. Even though I was in the countryside, no problem getting decent GSM and GPRS coverage

* update #2: If you are looking to purchase pre-paid SIM before the trip, stay away from Acetele (acetele.com). They ship you SIM card coded with an Estonian number. I never got the card to work correctly in Italy and gave up. SIM cards are readily available in Italy so you should just get one there. I contacted Acetele about returning the unused cards and they never responded.

Wireless Carriers = Dumb Pipes

One good thing that came out the iPhone craze is that it really puts the ugly side of the mobile industry under a spotlight. Everyone in the industry secretly loathes the carriers but knows to bite their tongue. The Carriers are trying their hardest to clamp down on companies that threaten their turf. They know they'll eventually turn into dumb pipes but might as well squeeze out whatever revenue they can out of the consumers before the inevitable happens.

My friend Frank forwarded me this story about a guy who took his iPhone to Ireland and the UK and got hit with a $3000 roaming bill! Yeah, he's a jack-ass for prancing around EU showing off his iPhone and may deserve it but $3000 seems pretty outrageous for sending some bits and bytes through the air. AT&T offers $69.95 unlimited roaming plans so does that give them a license to charge the customer all they want for not signing up for a plan? How's that going to help customer retention? AT&T, how about contacting the customer and asking "We noticed you were roaming quite a bit, may we put you on an unlimited plan to save you money?".

Wireless Carriers = Dumb Pipes

Washington Nationals Baseball

Went to my first Washington Nationals game at the RFK Stadium thanks to some great tickets I got from a vendor. 1st row off the field on the right field. What made it even better was my niece getting a foul ball.

I haven't been to too many stadiums but I must say the RFK Stadium food is the most outrageous priced I've seen. $4 for a regular boiled hot dog and $8.75 for a burger and fries! Even after over $40 of food, we were all starved.

Transformer

Dumb movie with an obvious plot but I have to admit the transformation effect was pretty cool. Bit silly with all the blatant product placements: x-Box, Apple, Mountain Dew, Ford, Chevy, Hummer, Porsche, Sony, Nokia, etc.

We forget there we already have real transformers amongst us and they are not from outer space. They are in Japan (Note for Steve: Koreans probably invented them first before the Japanese stole it from us):

London Day 5 and Back Home

Was looking forward to sleeping in but still woke up at 7am. Decided to take care of e-mails before breakfast arrived. My sleep schedule pretty screwed up.

London was fun but glad to be heading home. I'd like to bring Joyce with me next time. She'd really enjoy the sights, the food, and the shopping.

Uneventful trip to the airport and security. Decided to hang out with Steve instead of sitting in the Red Carpet Club. The ride back was pleasant but long. Sat next to another colleague, Tim, who recently got promoted to VP. Steve and I are convinced we somehow missed the line where they were giving out VP promotions. Seeing so many of my peers getting promoted is slowly eating me up inside.

Lodon Day 4

Thank goodness for the breakfast delivery or I would have slept right through the morning.

The weather looked a bit questionable so took the Tube to Gloucestor stop. The meeting was a sleeper but an entertaining lunch with Steve, Beth and Raine made up for it.

Steve and I headed back to the hotel and decided to go on a walking trek. Found a nice street with lots of interesting stores north of the hotel. Headed over to Harrods of London which was a total bore. My feet were killing me so we headed back to the hotel. Highlight was finding a store with Charlie and Lola books for Lauren.

For dinner, we met Beth, Raine and a few other folks for Thai food in SOHO followed by a visit to a local pub. Came back to the hotel for a several rounds of scotch before heading to bed at 3am. I'm a lightweight now when it comes to alcohol.

Couple of guys tried to convince me that the iPhone was a paradigm shift. I think they've been reading too many columns and masturbating to the thought of holding one in their hands. I think it's a cool device and the UI is pretty neat but a paradigm shift? The jury is still out, it's too early to tell. I think it's more evolutionary then revolutionary.

London Day 3

Woke up at 5:30am. Not sure why since I went to bed at 1am.

In-room breakfast was excellent. Toast, coffee, eggs and spicy sausage.

After 2 big consecutive meals, I'm going to walk to the 9:30am meeting. GPS on my Blackberry works here so I'm going to try to navigate through the local streets.

Update 1: Walk was easy. The meeting was well attended. It was sort of interesting if you find sticking a needle in your eye pleasant. Europe guys are smart and know their business so I was happy to see them be vocal about their issues even if it wasn't going to get resolved.

Walked back to the hotel to get on a conference call. Crowd was gathered on a street blocked off by the police. With security level so high, I assume it was a bomb scare. I wasn't about to mingle in a large crowd to find out if it was for real.

Got the news that my boss's boss, the CTO, left the company. Good for him but not sure how good it is for us. Never a dull moment around here. At least my boss gave me a pre-release of the news to brace myself.

Update 2: Dinner with Steve and Marcien at Bamboo restaurant on Percy. Joined by M. Wolfson, ex-AOL. Asian fusion stuff, generally not my choice. It was tasty but skimpy on the servings. Enjoyed the drinks and company. Steve and Marcien are couple of my favorite guys at the company.

Late night. IM'd with Barry and Beth. Another pair of folks I like a lot. I wish there were positive things to chat about today's meeting but there was very little.

Good night.

London Day 2

Day 2 started with a workout. First time in a few weeks. Got to use the word "lift" when I asked for the elevator to the gym. It was a small gym but did the job.

Steve got in and met me at the hotel. We went back to Maggie Jones's for lunch. Definitely a much better deal during lunch. Steve had the Wild Boar sausages for half the price of dinner plus our lunch included 3 veggie side dishes. I had their Rump Steak with Onions. Very yummy again.

After lunch and a quick stop at Starbucks (lots of them here), we decide to just walk around the city. We then hopped on the Tube and made random stops. It was good to not sight see the usual monuments in the city. Both of us wished our wives were with us. We are finding London as a very convenient and pleasant city to hang out in. Very colorful city made up of so many nationalities. Was hoping to find a street market but they all close pretty early.

For dinner, I found a review for an Indian place called Sitaaray. 10 min walk from the Holburn stop on the Central Line. The Bollywood theme was a bit goofy but the food was awesome. Their fixed price meal included a number of kabob meats and side dishes. It was probably one of the best meals I had.

London Day 1

We made it to London Heathrow on time. Managed to get a couple of hours of sleep on the flight.

My bags were tagged "Priority" in DC which made me feel special. Except someone forgot to tell my bags they were priority since they took their sweet time coming off the conveyor belt in Heathrow.

Trip from the airport to the hotel was uneventful. The Heathrow Express was very efficient in getting me to central London.

Weather is very pleasant compared to the high 90's I left in Virginia. I think it's in the low 70's and mostly sunny.

Now about the hotel... Kensington Rooms. What a dump! I requested a room there since that's where the meeting I'm attending is being held. As soon as I walked in to check in, I didn't get a good vibe.

I got to my room and here's what I noted:

1. It had 3 twin beds in the room even though I requested a King size bed
2. The bathroom sink was so small, I couldn't wash my face without spilling water all over the floor.
3. The blinds were covered with grime and when I opened it see what view I had, I was facing a concrete wall
4. They advertised high-speed internet but you have to go down to the lobby to use it.
5. The in-room safe was broken and they had no maintenance staff to fix it.
6. Communal ironing board hung on the hallway (with a huge brown stain on the board)
7. While I was trying to rest, a staff person actually unlocked my door and was about to walk into my room unannounced.
   
8. It was hot and stuffy in the room and there was no A/C or any kind of ventilation.

Even though they were going to charge me a full day rate for my 3 hour stay there, I asked our EA to please get me out of there immediately. She was able to get me a room at The Royal Garden so I packed, checked out and showed up at the hotel even before the reservation was in their system. But what a difference!!! While the front desk person worked on getting my reservation into the system, she walked me to the restaurant to enjoy a refreshment on the house. Once she was done, she had my bags taken to my room so I could enjoy my coffee. And I actually have a view of the City! And my internet and safe work!

Enough about my minor ordeal.

London is a pretty cool city. Sort of like New York but with more class and history. My third time here. Did a bit of walking around today. Bought a pre-paid SIM card to try out the local Mobile service. My Blackberry on Cingular worked right away which was fantastic. Had lunch at a local bakery which was pleasant other than the room temperature soda. But it was fine.

I'm going to go out and seek a dinner place that the bellboy recommended. I hate eating alone but pretty starving.

My friend Steve is coming in tomorrow so that should be fun. He and I are great traveling mates. We had a great time and when he and I were in Korea together.

Cheerio!

Update: Just got back from having dinner at Maggie Jones's. A traditional British cuisine. Ordered up Wild Boar Sausage and Mash with a side order of Cauliflower with cheese. It was fantastic. The cauliflower dish was amazing.

On the way back, stepped into a mini-mart, put down 20 pounds to reload the SIM card. Just like that! Way too cool.

London or bust...

When did I become such a whiny traveler?

I was 2 rows from business class ready to give up my hard earned 30K miles to get upgraded but my premier exec status was worthless in moving me up the food chain. So I sat there watching the biz class passengers sip champagne in their big cushy seats.

I ended up sitting in Economy next to a bigger than average lady, who was pleasant enough but was definitely cramped. The luggage storage above us broke when I tried to get my bag in so we couldn't take off until the maintenance folks taped it up and marked it "inoperable". Sitting in the aisle is never pleasant for me since every person passing by has to bump into my shoulder. I managed to get a couple of hours of sleep. We got a piece of pastry and a cup of fruit for breakfast while the biz class passengers were served a hot breakfast. Boo hoo for me... I just want to be pampered...

Out with the old

I continue to be amazed at the reach of Craigslist.

When we sold JP's Saab in California, we put both a paid ad in SF Chronicle and free on Craigslist. The only calls I got was from Craigslist ad and the car was sold within a week.

Over this weekend, we finally got rid of our old couches and an area rug on Craigslist. Didn't think about twice where we'd list them. It's funny how a piece of furniture can become a part of you. My old couch was the first couch I ever bought on my own 10 years ago when I got my place in SF along with the area rug. JP's sofa bed set was purchased when she used to live in NY over 14 years ago. We are happy they are finding a second life with new owners here in VA.