Matt's Information Production Facility

Short the airlines

These new TSA rules are absolutely ludicrous. In particular, the one about security screens at the gates. This, my friends, if not temporary will be one more large nail in the coffin of commercial air travel.

Here’s the problem: Having a second security screening at the airport will inevitably lead to flight delays. Flight delays translate to lost dollars and missed connections (which are even more lost dollars).

What about screening earlier? That would require earlier boarding. Earlier boarding means bringing planes in earlier and having them sit in tarmacs longer, which translates to a huge bump in expenditures and the inability to operate as many flights in a day.

And all of this doesn’t even include the loss of patience of passengers and their inevitable development of hatred of going through all of this just to fly.

If this is not a temporary measure, it will surely lead to one thing: decline in revenues for airlines and many bankruptcies. Short the airlines.

Al Qaeda must have been taken over by Greenpeace.

(Strict new rules in place for U.S.-bound air travellers via The Globe and Mail)

Edit: Looks like the rules only apply for flights coming into the US, not within. It will still discourage inbound tourism, though.

I just had the most messed up phone call(s) ever

redfive:

marreka:

I got engaged

CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR FIRST CHRISTMAS ENGAGED!

Thanks. It came as a complete shock to us all.

I just had the most messed up phone call(s) ever

Ok, so apparently I got a call from someone in Atlanta, GA earlier today when I wasn’t paying attention to my phone. Intrigued that they might have left a message, I go to my home phone (which has anywhere North America minutes) to call my phone to get to voicemail.

Alright, so I dial up my number and my cellphone starts to ring. I hit the hang up button so it redirects me to voicemail, but instead it starts to ring. Weird, I know. After a few more rings, some lady picks up the phone and greets me with “Merry Christmas!”. Incredibly confused, I go “… Hi? Who is this?”. She responds with “Hello?”, at which point she gets disconnected. A second later, it’s dialing again.

Completely shocked, I wait to see how this plays out. I get connected to some other woman who also cheerfully proclaims “Merry Christmas!”. Again, I say “Hi. Who is this?” and once again before I get a response, a disconnect then another set of rings. An old lady with a raspy voice picks up. “Merry Christmas!”. This time, I try and be a little more composed about it and say “Merry Christmas! Who am I speaking to?” and once again disconnect. This time the telephone network decides it’s had enough phone and kills the connection.

Completely confused at what had just transpired, I tried calling my cell again. Once again, my phone rang and I hit the hangup button. This time, I got connected to a man. “Merry Christmas!” he says. “Hi there. Merry Christmas. Um, this is going to be weird but who is this?”. “Chris” (I accidentally typed Christ there. Now THAT would be some phone call). “Oh. Hi there. I’m not sure what’s going on but I’m trying to call my cell phone and it connected me to you somehow. Are you in Seattle?”. “Nope, Oklahoma”. “Weird… Ok, well sorry to bother you and have a great Christmas!”. “You too. Good luck haha”. And that was that and I hung up.

Finally, I tried a third time. This time, I finally get to my voicemail. There were two messages, both messages completely not intended for me (unless somehow I got engaged since I got congratulated on my “first christmas engaged”). The strangest part was, both messages seemed to have originated from my home phone in Toronto (416 number), which is definitely some kind of wonky switching glitch.

Still no idea who called me from Atlanta, though. Maybe I should give them a call.

Anyway, that’s some serious fail on behalf of AT&T and/or Rogers and/or Bell and/or the North American telephone switching system.

(True story). Merry Christmas everyone!

Update: I searched the phone number on Google, and some name popped up. I have no idea who they are. I’m going to file this under CSTSG for Completely Screwed-Up Telephone Switching Glitch. (For their privacy’s sake, I won’t post the name or number).

More Update: I found what could be their facebook account thanks to El Goog. Can’t be 100% sure it’s them, but definitely don’t know them. Crazy Christmas network bugs. Although, it did get 5 different people in the USA to wish me a Merry Christmas. Win?

is this automatic?

or do I actually have to follow the instructions?

(edit: automatic)

Tumbler via tweetie. Cool, except useless. Why would I want to be limited to 140 chars on Tumblr? Also, no https connection makes me sad.