It's 4am; do you know where your drunkenbatman is?
I'm reminded again on this early, early morning of just how much I loathe airports in general, especially the one I'm at now, and this PowerBook model.
Delays. And then the next one out is in a few hours, so there's no real point in going anywhere. And the entire airport is closed... which means this particular airport is creepy as hell.
It's really that deserted except for some people hanging around on the benches who are in the same plight I am. They're currently sprawled around on various benches around me. It feels eery, and just 'too quiet' for an airport.
Weirdly enough, about an hour ago this area was actually quite full, as lots of people have gotten completely screwed by Continental and have no clothes (Note: Always pack a pair of boxers and a toothbrush in your carry-on bag. Always.)
On the upside, most of their rants and curses made for some pretty entertaining background noise. Continental Airlines is going to be giving out a lot of little coupons on this one, but unfortunately most of those people have gone with their little slips handed out from the poor soul working baggage claim.
For the record, don't be seduced by Continental's warm, gooey, in-flight chocolate chip cookies. Those are pacifiers to keep you quiet while you ignore how badly their service has degraded.
Jet Blue, I so can't wait for you to go nation-wide.
Did I mention that this airport was essentially closed when we landed, and will be for the next few hours? This actually causes some real problems, not the least of which is when you're past security, seating is a hell of a lot more comfortable than where I am now. This stuff is essentially designed to be as uncomfortable as possible so the homeless will try to find better accommodations.
There's a more insidious side-affect of this though... sustenance is in short supply. Especially hot sustenance, which is basically non-existent.
There's really nothing here, at least nothing that is open. I'm told there's a 24-hour diner that will serve me a hot caffeinated beverage and a decent piece of pie if I'm willing to deal with the 15 minute taxi drive to get there. I thought about it, and with my luck tonight it just seems to be courting disaster.
Which brings you to my new nemesis, Mr. Vending Machine, who I've affectionally dubbed "The Bastard Box". The bastard box is not cool.
I found the bastard thing by asking a guy sweeping the floor if there was anything around, and sure enough there it was on the other side of the airport, tucked underneath a staircase. There's like zero foot traffic here, and it took a few minutes to figure out why it was where it was.
The bastard box is conveniently situated right across the glass door of the security guards for this part of the airport, one of which is playing solitaire (Mac OS X will be a minority platform until it bundles Solitaire!) and one who is watching something on a small TV. This prescient placing of the bastard box means you're probably going to get caught if you start kicking it.
You see, if you look close, you'll see a slot to slide in dollar bills. However, as far as I'm able to surmise, that little slot does nothing but eat dollar bills, make a grinding noise and a beep, and then do nothing at all. I'm interpreting the beep as a taunt at this point.
The pop machine seems to take dollar bills just fine, even though there's no hot beverage machine, so a good 5 minutes were spent considering the economics of using my dollar bills to buy $1 bottles of soda, and then trying to barter for whatever leftover packets of peanuts or crackers the other survivors of the flight might have on their person.
That was too weird even for me, so I'm making do with gum. It's Juicy Fruit, and at this point it's either run out of the juice or the fruit.
On the upside, if I sit in this exact spot I can tap a WAP I probably shouldn't be accessing or going out on, but it's doing the job. I probably shouldn't be able to see what I'm able to see on the network either, so I'm just ignoring that because now is not the time to be tempting fate. Those security guards looked bored, and I highly doubt they'd understand the nuances of just wanting to catch your email while not trying to do evil.
Unfortunately, while I've found a WAP, I'm able to get little work done. You see, whenever my CPU goes over 10% load for any significant amount of time, the fan on the PowerBook starts a-blowin. If you're accessing the hard drive, that is just tempting fate to kick the fan into high gear, which is tantamount to a portable hair dryer.
Apple has that one tiny fan in these things, which is situated horizontally, not vertically, and is expected to somehow get the air out of a little slot on the back. Because of the way it's situated, it's air flow is damn pathetic, and when you factor in the size it means it need to shriek like a banshee to get any cooling accomplished.
Unfortunately, the hard drive Apple replaced in my PowerBook after the first died is already way too loud in a place as eerily quiet as this, and when the fan kicked on people started looking my way. As any iBook or PowerBook user knows, with the advent of Mac OS X, putting the disk to sleep became more of a suggestion you could ask of the OS, rather than an actual command, and the hard drive is a sure way to get some heat going.
Some of you may be confused by the fact that any type of sustained load, no matter how small, could cause this thing to start wailing. Pretty simple, I have one of the worst PowerBook models ever made: A TiBook rev.B, 667MHz, also known as the Gigabit ethernet model.
I actually ordered it the day it was announced, because I needed a PowerBook bad and was waiting for the major rev.A problems to be fixed, and jumped on the rev.B's. There were two models: the 550MHz, and the 667MHz. The 667MHz model turned out to be very, very bad in one area: Thermals.
The 550MHz model wasn't a big deal, but the 667MHz was a case of Apple needing to shove a new chip into their existing enclosure without spending a lot, meaning nothing got redesigned, and the thing ran hot. If you're in a room that has an ambient temp of 75 degrees and doing anything, you can expect the fan to kick on.
I remember freaking out a bit when I got it, as it was completely unexpected (I did have one of the first off the boat) and this isn't supposed to happen with a laptop you've paid $3k+ for.
I did the calling Apple routine, who took it in and sent it back, basically saying it was operating normally, and treated me like I was daft, because of course the fan will come on when it gets hot! When I mentioned I wanted to return it so I could get a model that wasn't complete shit, I was told it wasn't going to happen: it's how the model was designed.
There's no way around this, Apple just shafted their customers through poor thermal engineering on this model. It's not the only time, as users of the 867MHz 12" PowerBooks will attest to. That model was so hot in your lap that just about every review mentioned it, some nicer than others. Apple's fix was to release a patch causing the fan to trigger at a lower temperature, which meant that those owners all started feeling my pain.
Now, I've basically tried just about everything to make the thing usable, and I did spend all my cash on a computer I expected to last a long time instead of going for the cheap model, so I've tried to make a best of it.
A little riser thing was purchased for my lap, which sort of helps a bit. I bought the Podium Coolpad thing to sit the PowerBook on while it's on a desk, which sort of helps a little. No, while I'm using it as a desk, and plugged in, the only thing that works is having a fan blowing on it.
I'm not kidding, I actually have a standing fan sitting about four feet away angled towards the wall so that the airflow bounces a bit to glance over the PowerBook while minimizing the amount that hits my fingers while I'm using an external keyboard.
This sucks beyond all reason during the winter, but we make do with what our wallets force us to make do with. I have a little battery powered fan I keep in my bag to use while I'm moving around. Just a wift of air and things are OK, assuming you aren't trying to view a video or something.
Yes, I could just deal with the fan noise, but as I found out the hard way, just letting these models do their thing is asking for a complete meltdown.
But wait! This is a portable computer, shouldn't I be using it while I'm... mobile?
While it's a 'portable', this machine isn't really usable as a portable powerhouse in any shape or form. I have found that while on battery, I can sit and type something up in a plain text editor like TextEdit or SubEthaEdit and not have any real fan problems assuming the ambient temperature is under 72-74 degrees F. If it's any higher, I'm screwed.
I can use it on the train a few times out of the year for this type of work. Oddly enough, the winter months are out, because then they're heating the train and it goes from being chilly to cozy which means banshee-town.
Which just gets embarrassing when people are looking at you like what's in your lap is going to explode, and the guy in the seat catty-corner from you is using his nice thick laptop to play a variant of Unreal Tournament and it's not making a sound. Which means the TiBook just sits in the bag.
When I was picking out the model, I remember looking forward to watching DVDs while I was traveling, which was why I gave up the CD-R option for the DVD drive (Originally it was either/or, Apple revised them two months after they announced the rev.B's to have combo drives, which was also annoying, but such is life).
Watching DVDs was basically out, as without any air blowing on it the fan starts going and the case is just too hot to deal with in your lap. The metal power button gets so hot I can't put my finger on it for more than a few seconds before I have to remove it because it burns.
I do have work I could be doing, but it primarily involves watching a video and taking notes, and then working on some images and PowerPoint slides for a talk I'm giving. However, that's out, because the noise would piss off everyone around me, and I'd need to bump the screen brightness up which means I'd need to plug it in to have enough juice... which means it would just be noisier still. Which is why I'm banging all this out.
This experience, along with watching friends go through hell with the 867MHz 12" PowerBooks, is why I was telling someone the other day to seriously consider holding off on picking up that nice new 1.67GHz 15" model. If they're shipping it in a 15" and 17" version, chances are the 17" model will be OK because of it's increased ability to dissipate heat.
However, little is known about the exact chip Apple is using to get that speed, or what chip it's using. The 1.5GHz models are supposed to use the MPC7447A, which going by Motorola's spec sheets isn't supposed to even be there, although they did say it could hit speeds of over 1.4GHz when it was released.
It's highly doubtful Apple has moved on to the e600 cores Motorola Freescale is shopping about, none of the specs really match up, let alone its having to be able to drop-back to a slower chip, which means this is probably another variant of the 7447 line, which means we know little about it or what that 15" 1.67GHz machine is going to run like, which pretty much puts you right in the position I was in when I bought top of the line.
One wouldn't blame you for trusting that there'll be no thermal issues with the 1.67GHz line, and slapping down your plastic straight away. However, we happen to know what the 1.5GHz runs like, and if the model is made to handle whatever chip they're using to get to 1.67GHz without melting, chances are it'll run better at 1.5GHz than the previous models did.
If there's been no changes to deal with the increased heat from what may be a very... strained... CPU to get that speed, you're almost guaranteed it'll run hotter and noisier than the current models do.
Posted by drunkenbatmanFebruary 04, 2005, at 07:17 AM
Comments (37)
Posted by: ssp at February 4, 2005 07:38 AM
Is there _ever_ any point to buy the high-end model of a laptop computer? Doesn't that always just cost a lot more, drain the battery faster and have more heat problems while the higher speed is barely noticeable?
I've got a 400MHz TiBook and I know how loud the fan can be. But to get it on, I either need a really hot day, 100% processor usage or heavy graphics usage for a few minutes or watch a film while the book sits on a bed or something soft. So it's not really an issue. (Indeed the fan is like an acoustic indicator that some process is running mad and wants to be killed ... you know Safari sometimes uses 100%).
So I guess I'm trying to say that I fully understand your problem - sounding like a hyperventilating PC laptop owner is a bit embarrassing for both you and Apple. But buying the lower end model seems to be an easy way out.
(And perhaps Apple got a little better at this by now... I think my dad got the high-end model of the new PB and we only heard the fan kick in slowly once, when doing backups, i.e. lots of compression and DVD burning going on)
Posted by: Diggory Laycock at February 4, 2005 07:38 AM
Poor DB.
Just makes you wonder if it will be medically wise to put a G5 laptop on your lap - whenever they come out...
Also reminds me of my brother's TiBook - If the ambient temp. got too low - his battery would fall out of the bottom! (he resorted to velcro inside the battery bad in the end.)
Posted by: Jared at February 4, 2005 08:25 AM
"As any iBook or PowerBook user knows, with the advent of Mac OS X, putting the disk to sleep became more of a suggestion you could ask of the OS, rather than an actual command, and the hard drive is a sure way to get some heat going."
I miss this from OS9. You could go to the control strip and spin down the hard drive which was great for battery life. It would only spin up when you needed to open or save. I don't know why Apple took it out? On the highest settings the hard drive on my alumBook only goes to sleep in five to ten minutes and wakes up so easy! It seems too wasteful. Maybe Tiger will improve this...
Posted by: hitoro at February 4, 2005 08:38 AM
That's why I keep my old trusty G3 iBook. The fan only goes once in a while (in fact you have to blovk all airflow holes to make it happens) and the hard disk is just humming almost silently.
I tried some PowerBooks but these things are too noisy. PC laptops are not better, fan noise is mandatory. I have a friend who has an IBM ThinkPad and the fan is blowing mad every 3 minutes during 5 minutes even when the computer is left idle during hours... The most funny is desktop PC at work when they start to blow air at progressive speed while you move some windows around.
Posted by: A N Other at February 4, 2005 08:55 AM
I have the 667 MHz tiBook, too, and just bought the 1.67 MHz alBook. So far heat has not been an issue - it's not a lap warmer. The fan seems to run a fair amount but is much quieter than the tiBook - barely noticeable.
I decided not to wait for a G5, figuring it would take quite a while to solve the thermal issues.
Posted by: Jahan at February 4, 2005 08:56 AM
I have a 1Ghz TiBook, and while I love the thing, I can completely relate to this.
When it's on my desk, and running off "plugged in" power, at least one of my model's 2 fans is basically constantly running. So I have, in other words, one loud desktop computer.
When it's running off battery power, I have the processor running at decreased performance. This helps, as I can actually work for a decent amount of time without either fan being turned on. However, this doesn't hold true for an indefinite amount of time. Eventually the fan will come on, and the computer will start to feel like a small furnace on my lap.
I'm still happy however with the battery life I get, and often use it to watch DVD"s etc while I'm traveling.
And the best thing is that if you or I are ever stuck somewhere, we can always use it cook our food for us!
Posted by: p at February 4, 2005 09:05 AM
On the upside, if I sit in this exact spot I can tap a WAP I probably shouldn't be accessing or going out on, but it's doing the job.
When I first read that, I thought you said "tap a WOP" and almost spit out my coffee.
The 550MHz model wasn't a big deal, but the 667MHz was a case of Apple needing to shove a new chip into their existing enclosure without spending a lot,
Don't forget they bumped up the bus speed from 100MHz to 133MHz on that model. For the 667, the 533 still had 100MHz which would have contributed to the heat.
Posted by: Mike Piatek-Jimenez at February 4, 2005 09:33 AM
I have one of the noisy 667 Rev. B models as well. My wife has a Rev. C 667 that is perfectly silent almost always; what a difference a couple of months make...
I came up with a pretty decent solution for it after I got sick of hearing that thing whine all the time. I went online and found the most quiet fan that was a reasonable size, then built a custom-case for the fan and put it next to the back of the machine to blow air into the vents used by the built-in fan. It ended up being about the size of an iPod, and worked really well to the point that the internal fan wouldn't even turn on when using 100% CPU for 15-30 minutes at a time. The only drawback was that it had to be plugged in to the wall, so I couldn't use it on the road. The next level would have been to make the thing USB powered. Anyway, I posted a picture of it here:
http://www.starcoder.com/blog/static_links/pb_fan.jpg
Posted by: derek at February 4, 2005 09:35 AM
"I'm not kidding, I actually have a standing fan sitting about four feet away angled towards the wall so that the airflow bounces a bit to glance over the PowerBook while minimizing the amount that hits my fingers while I'm using an external keyboard."
I happened to pick up one of those kensington USB fans real cheap and with the powerbook propped up point it back at my 667. Seems a little counterproductive using the power from the machine but at least I don't burn my fingers if i happen to touch the metal around the keyboard.
Posted by: Richard at February 4, 2005 09:49 AM
I have an 800mhz TiBook which I've had since they were released which if memory serves, is about three years. It's been a great machine and has been around the world numerous times. It's my only machine and when home I use it much like you, plugged in on a desk.
It's showing its age now: flaking paint, the fan comes on with prolonged iSight use or a few minutes of Garageband or any longish AV use (long quicktime trailer, etc.), it has two totally dead batteries; it has always had a dead pixel right in the middle (nothing to be done) and with 512 mb of memory, a bit too much disk swapping is going on for my taste.
I'm ready for a new one so this discussion is more than interesting to me.
I travel less now so maybe a G5 iMac on my desk will solve some of these problems but I do like being a one computer guy and I will always have a PowerBook. The thought of syncing as often as I'd need to is a pain.
So, I have a 15" maxed out PB in Apple's online store, all built and saved and ready to one-click. And my finger just will not do it. Less because of a G5 on the horizon (I think it's very far off) but more because of issues discussed here: heat, fan, processor speed, etc.
I think the faster HD is useful but that will undoubtedly add to the heat load and run the fan more.
I think the faster processor is useful but it too adds to the heat load and drains batteries faster.
Dang...
Posted by: at February 4, 2005 09:56 AM
You are either cheap, poor, or both and either of those means you will not be happy with the Mac. Come on "DB", your powerbook is at least 3 years old now (if it is a rev.b) which means it is time for an upgrade anyways. Why bitch about a 3 year old problem?
Posted by: klimas at February 4, 2005 09:57 AM
Have you read Changing Planes? Bring it along next time you get stuck in some stupid airport. (Because there will be a next time.)
Posted by: Anon at February 4, 2005 10:03 AM
Why bitch about a 3 year old problem?
My 867 powerbook is only a year and a half old and it suffers from just what he said. I love it and knew when I purchased that it was limited in RAM and expansion, but it was portable and the iBook only did mirroring. That said, the heat issues are very real with this model and I have been unhappy with it. I love everything about it except for that. I eventually downgraded the firmware to make it hotter because the fan was so grating! Would I recommend my powerbook to others? This one no. I do love it but it has been very unpleasant in this regard.
I think on the updated powerbooks this has been fixed so I would recommend a 1 GHZ version in a heart beat.
Posted by: Tom at February 4, 2005 10:57 AM
Continental lost my cat once. I moved from San Fransisco to Boston, my cat was in an animal carrier. In Boston I was told that I would collect my cat at a special area and it would be brought to my by a Continetal baggage worker. My wife waited for the cat I went to collect out luggage. At the luggae carousel was our cat carrier with a f***ing great hole in the top and NO cat inside. I was royally pissed off. Fortunately, and very luckily indeed a passenger had seen my cat jump from the carrier and shot back down the ramp underneath the carouel.After stepping into the island of the carousel to express my displeasure by shouting I eventually got all carousels in the Terminal shut-down. The big-wigs tried to tell me that my cat must be in Newark where we changed planes but I kept telling them that a passenger had seen it and that they were a bunch of assholes. "You hand-carried my guitar into the airport and shoved my cat on the luggage belt after smashing the box!" I was a inconvenience to them. For 3 nights after the airport closed my wife and I and a Continental employee would crouch beneath carousels in the basement at terminal 1 and on the third night after calling and searching for little Kaya she came creeping along a pipe and onto my wifes shoulder. I hated Continental for a long, long time after that.
Posted by: Rory at February 4, 2005 11:36 AM
Sounds like what you need is one of those laptop cooling pads which has fans built into it. These suck the hot air away from the base of the laptop and blast it out a vent at the back. I picked up one for my 1GHz 15" AlBook and it works a treat - it does look a bit cheap and tacky though. It has three slim fans powered via USB. It's a little noisy, but the sound is less annoying than that of the PowerBook's internal blowers.
Posted by: Mindflayer at February 4, 2005 11:50 AM
DB - I feel your pain, man. Been there, done that. Not so sure about taking the photo in the bathroom, though. Actually, airport bathrooms are oddly disturbing. Something about the not-quite-clean sterility (aesthetically) about them that just bugs me. At least you had WiFi. You'd think IAD would get on the ball.
As far as your laptop - dude, get an iBook, maybe? Ask for donations for an AlBook?
Posted by: stripes at February 4, 2005 11:51 AM
Hey, is that airport IAD? It sure looks like it. (then again a lotta airports look pretty similar)
Posted by: Anthony at February 4, 2005 12:33 PM
Apple Store has the PowerBooks with a 7 to 10 day wait, I almost ordered one because there has been a long drought and who are we kidding no PowerBook G5 anytime soon. I was going to get a 1.5GHz, but Apple is being strange and only letting you upgrade some things on the 1.67GHz version. The 17" looks like a good value and would not have to worry about the heat too much maybe but that is too big for traveling for me.
I'm just going to wait a few weeks and watch to see what people say. Perhaps just get one of the older models for cheap, my fiance has a 1.25GHz and its very quiet. Only hear the fan after using iMovie for some time.
Posted by: Kevin Ballard at February 4, 2005 12:36 PM
ssp - I got my current 1Ghz 17" AlBook when it was top of the line and I've loved it. No thermal issues, no fan issues, very quiet and nice. Of course, using it on my lap for any extended period of time (on adaptor, not battery) can get quite hot, but I rarely use it in my lap. It's usually sitting on my desk (on my Podium CoolPad- I love this thing).
Posted by: something at February 4, 2005 01:39 PM
I had a 550Mhz then a 1Ghz and never had those problems.
Sure they blew when I played a game, but, while on battery , I was barely hearing the fans.
The 550's fans kicked more often, though.
I'm surprised a guy with sooo much insightful thoughts on Apple can't even know which model to buy at what time.
Posted by: Cap'n Hector at February 4, 2005 03:01 PM
Shame about the PB, DB. Getting one of the first of a new computer can be a drag…even a Rev B.
As far as the airport…I've done a lot of travelling, and my dad has done more than I (sometimes logging 300,000 or more miles a year) and we've gotten pretty good…never check baggage, always have a book or two, and know where food is. :D
And I've found that if you yell at them enough, they'll give you a basic hotel room.
Sorry your trip didn't go better.
Posted by: Lau Taarnskov at February 4, 2005 05:50 PM
I wondered why domestic flights in the US are so expensive compared to Europe. It turns out, that the airline business in America is heavily regulated.
According to the article in Reason, it is illegal for a foreigner to own more than 49% of a carrier flying domestically in the US! What a great way to prevent low-cost carriers such as Virgin and easyJet to compete.
The current airlines are getting a total of $700 mill. subsidy a year! That's the taxpayers' money being taken and given to Continental and others.
Posted by: Tim at February 4, 2005 07:04 PM
Just think, if you could have watched the video, we wouldn't have had this wonderful long blog post.
Posted by: a very happy new 12" ibook owner ;) at February 4, 2005 07:15 PM
Excellent post. I think this serves as a bit of a warning to everyone waiting on the arrival of the PB G5...
Posted by: Anderson at February 4, 2005 07:32 PM
I know this post was a setup for the 'possible' heat issues of the new PowerBooks, but the airport part was just as entertaining.
Posted by: drunkenbatman at February 4, 2005 07:41 PM
For 3 nights after the airport closed my wife and I and a Continental employee would crouch beneath carousels in the basement at terminal 1 and on the third night after calling and searching for little Kaya she came creeping along a pipe and onto my wifes shoulder. I hated Continental for a long, long time after that.
Oh man, that story just made my night for some reason... it's just so strange, in a good way.
Posted by: Andrew at February 4, 2005 10:37 PM
Ironically, I was at the local airport yesterday and was reminiscing on all of my international flights to Japan. Thankfully, they all went smoothly and airport had nice amenities such as internet kiosks.
With the 1.33Ghz 12" PB, I've had almost no trouble with heat, except in the case of 40C and up temperatures with 80% humidity in Japan. Amazingly, it ran fine, but would get danged hot if you used it as a laptop.
Posted by: Faisal N. Jawdat at February 5, 2005 12:57 AM
I have a 12" AlBook with an aftermarket 7200 RPM 8 MB cache drive. Everyone warned me about heat problems with the speed, but the unit is, if anything, colder than I'm comfortable with. I'm wondering if the cache reduces disk use enough to keep the thing cool.
Posted by: latrel at February 5, 2005 01:21 AM
[quote] "I have a 12" AlBook with an aftermarket 7200 RPM 8 MB cache drive. Everyone warned me about heat problems with the speed, but the unit is, if anything, colder than I'm comfortable with. "[/quote]
Do you have a 867 or later model?
Posted by: Squozen at February 5, 2005 03:53 AM
Weird. My girlfriend's 667Mhz TiBook pretty much *refuses* to turn its fan on, and when it does, it's damn near silent. I guess it's a revision C - how would I tell for sure?
I'm using a 2-month-old 1.5Ghz AlBook at the moment, and I have no real complaints except that one of the fans is a bit noisy. I plan to open the machine up and check out what's going on there, maybe a bit of tape is in the airflow path and flapping about.
Posted by: Steve Ballmer at February 5, 2005 07:47 AM
However, little is known about the exact chip Apple is using to get that speed, or what chip it's using… which means this is probably another variant of the 7447 line
Here it is, page 3 of this document.
http://www.freescale.com/files/32bit/doc/rel_qual_info/MC7447ARQI.pdf
MC7447BHX1667
MC7447BHX1500
Posted by: Mike Piatek-Jimenez at February 6, 2005 12:27 AM
Weird. My girlfriend's 667Mhz TiBook pretty much *refuses* to turn its fan on, and when it does, it's damn near silent. I guess it's a revision C - how would I tell for sure?
The Rev C 667 model has a DVI port, which came in handy last fall when I upgraded to a G5. It allowed me to check out the 20" Cinema display that came in 3 days after my order while waiting over a month for the G5 to arrive.
Posted by: nieck at February 6, 2005 11:03 AM
I remember reading the rev.C model used a PPC chip that was lower in heat AND it could throttle the CPU speed down. The rev.B model could not, don't know why. Sounds like a bad model, you should have gone to small claims court.
Posted by: Jaded_Employee at February 7, 2005 07:02 PM
I work for Continental Airlines and I am sick of people complaining about airline service when they're paying $250 round trip from NY to LAX. Passengers are rude, idiotic, and not at all thankful that they're getting across the country in a few hours instead of a few days on a Greyhound bus. Maybe you'd have a legitamite beef if you paid what your ticket is worth, but for not SHUT UP!
Posted by: vastheman at February 8, 2005 01:46 AM
I live in Australia, but I've had to travel to the US for business (IEEE standards meetings). I've flown on the Australian airlines Qantas, Virgin Blue and Impulse, and the US airlines United and Delta.
Before I travelled to the US, I thought the Australian airlines were bad. But going to the US made me realise how good we've got it. I haven't complained about an Australian airline since.
For example, every United domestic flight in the US was overbooked, and it was pretty much random who missed out on a seat.
In Australia, overbooking is illegal.
On a United international flight, we were stuck in a 747 on the taxiway for over an hour, with no airconditioning, when it was 38 degrees Celsius outside (and more than that in the plane) before they even told us that they'd discovered the plane needed maintenance and they didn't know how much longer we'd be stuck. It was another hour before they could even switch on the air conditioning.
Impulse once had a plane that needed maintenance that I was meant to fly on. They called me early and asked whether I'd like to catch an earlier flight or take the delayed flight (I took the earlier flight).
The security staff in the US are very rude and unfair. I saw many US citizens being required to remove various pieces of clothing to be x-rayed. I was never asked to remove clothing or footwear.
The customs process is ridiculous. One guy I spoke to, who had just returned to the US from a holiday in Asia was quizzed about whether his SCUBA gear was for attaching bombs to ships. I was asked my occupation, and I truthfully answered "electrical enineer" and showed my IEAust membership card. But that wasn't enough. The guy wrote a physics equation on a scrap of paper and asked me to explain it.
Whatever we do or don't pay, there is no excuse for poor service.
Posted by: vastheman at February 8, 2005 01:48 AM
Oh yeah, and the food on one United international flight was so bad I had severe gastroenteritis for three weeks!
You are possibly one of the only people who did not pawn their 667's onto eBay to upgrade. I did and was PISSED at the time. PowerBookCentral ran many stories on this issue...
Funny though I thought the fan problems with the twelve inchers were fixed with a firmware update? My 1.25 GHz alum runs pretty cool if you stay away from games or OpenGL.