JetBlue

JetBlue Customers Feel the Pain [Wired News]

You can add this company to my boycott list, which already includes Delta.

CAPPS II: We get a break… for now

Congress Puts Brakes on CAPPS II[Wired News]
The controversial air passenger-prolifing system must undergo certification by GAO regarding its effectiveness towards stopping terrorism and privacy safeguards for travellers before deployment.

John M.’s Travel Site

I stumbled upon this site (http://www.scroll.demon.co.uk/travel.htm) that is written by a well-travelled guy named John M.
In particular, check out his “The South American Travelogue site”. It’s a good read.

United States of Paranoia?

A photographer’s account of how he got detained by the police for more than one hour after shooting pictures around the Federal Building in Akron, Ohio on Sept. 11, 2003. [photo.net discussion boards]

Assuming what the photographer (Chris Auman) recounted was true, I think the police has gone too far in taking away his film even though the background checks showed that Chris was who he was.

In this situation, what are the rights of citizens and the powers of the security officers? That is something Mr. Wanderlust would like to find out as well. In the post 9/11 world it is getting increasingly important to realize what civil liberties we have and don’t have anymore.

Big brother to younger brother: biometric passports

U.S. TIGHTENS UP IMMIGRATION: Japan to issue biometric passports by ‘05. [Japan Times]

When I first saw the headline, I thought it was a mistake. If the U.S. is supposed to tighten up immigration, why is Japan to issue biometric passports? Shouldn’t the U.S. be issuing them?
It’s only after I read the article that I understood: US won’t extend Japan and its citizens the visa-free tourist entry anymore unless Japan forces its citizens to use biometric passports that, according to the article, “contain microchips with information on the features of the holder’s face and other physical characteristics, such as fingerprints and iris data.”
In this case, big brother forced an issue upon a younger brother and the younger brother relented (as usual). After all these years, Japan has yet to learn how to say No. Not surprisingly, I read in a separate article on asahi.com last week saying that Europe was outraged by similar requests from the US.

Needless to say, the US is probably readying these microchip passports for its citizens as we speak.

Looking for the perfect travel tic-toc

What started out as a shopping exercise morphs into a complaint towards the increasingly plasticfication and bad design of consumer goods.

Take the case of the travel alarm clock.

Mr. Wanderlust has been looking for a replacement for a while now, his current digital one is an ergonomics and user-interface nightmare. To set the alarm one must go through manipulating two mode switches (one to set the alarm and the other to turn the alarm on) plus fiddling with the HR and MIN buttons. Once the alarm is seemingly set it is difficult to tell whether it is set to AM or PM because the letters for AM/PM are extremely tiny. Many times Mr. Wanderlust had failed to wake up because he set the alarm to 8PM instead. To make matters worse the aforementioned ALARM-ON-OFF mode switch is tucked in a remote corner of the clock and it is easy to forget to turn it on. Finally, the liquid crystal display seems to be fading despite installing a fresh battery. It is time to move on to a better clock.

What Mr. Wanderlust has in mind was a simple and small analog timepiece fashioned out of some durable yet light metal. Behind the clock would be two rotary dials; one to set the time and the other to set the alarm. And a snooze button or switch placed in an obvious location: up would signify that the alarm is on, down otherwise.

A couple trips to the local electronics store - an extremely big one at that - left Mr. Wanderlust baffled. Every travel clock he saw was sheathed in oh-so-exciting-plastic and was flimsy (I handled each clock and can easily break one if I am careless.) And trying to set the time and alarm on many of them turned out to be a surprisingly difficult chore, thanks to bad design.

Is this where the market is headed? Surely no one loves the old metal travel clock (usually enclosed in a petite metal case with felted covers) that my aunt Jemma used to carry when she visited us back in the 70s? I bet her clock is still running too.

The search continues.

Like Master, Like Pet?

Group warns American pets are overweight. [Salon.com wire]

Duped

Maybe they couldn’t tell the difference between ‘0′ and ‘1′.

Dope-seeking teens call cops by mistake [Salon.com Wire]

Baked Apple

Maybe it wasn’t hot enough for her.

The new perils of air travel

“Soon, the government and the travel industry may be able to find out everything naughty and nice about you before you board your flight.” Salon.com article: Brave new skies

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) - a branch of the Homeland Security - has been busy creating a database called CAPPS II to screen potential terrorists during passenger check-in at the airport. There are a lot of vocal critics who claim that such a system does not work in the first place, and every air traveller’s privacy may be at stake if such a system is finally put into use. Reportedly, sometime this month, Delta will start testing the system at an airport near you.

If you travel a lot and care about your privacy, read the Salon article (get the free one day pass if you have to), then read the following sites to see what the critics of CAPPS II has to say here and here.