inluminent

I got an email from Southwest Airlines today, touting a sale to Las Vegas this spring. 50% off. That’s good!
I have a trip planned for Las Vegas from January 11 – 13, so I clicked the link. Read that their fare sale starts on January 13th, so I knew I wouldn’t [...]

This isn’t my whole schedule for AdTech, but it is my plan for the conference sponsored things:
http://adtech-sf08.sched.org/johnengler
I’ll also be working our booth on the trade show floor. Look for me, if you’re there.

With today’s wireless availability and fast ethernet connections to the internet virtually available everywhere I have totally forgotten how painful the internet was with dialup access… but, right now, I’m sitting in a coffee shop in San Francisco that of all things doesn’t have wifi (not even paid wifi) using by Verizon 3G wireless modem [...]

I’ll be at MacWorld this year on Tuesday for about an hour… maybe two…
I just happen to have a business trip to San Francisco to meet with a few potential clients on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the only flights we could get that weren’t ridiculously expensive was the 6 a.m. Nerd Bird from Austin to [...]

I travel a lot for work. A lot.
That means I stay at lots of hotels. And rent cars. And take lots of flights…
And I really hate getting customer service satisfaction surveys from these companies. You know why? Because I don’t get anything out of taking the survey. Ever.
Here’s an [...]

Ugh. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of sitting in an airport at 6:05 am, after getting up at 5, so you can get on a plane at 7. I didn’t have any problems going through security this morning with my laptop, digital SLR or iPod, but I don’t have any deodorant or hair gel [...]

After spending greater than 5 hours on a plane today, I gotta say this:
I LOVE ROCKETBOOM!
Yes. I do.
I started watching Rocketboom very infrequently about a year ago, then I bought an iPod Video (after losing my iPod nano) and that made it easy to watch videos when I was on the road traveling.
Right now, [...]

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

A few technical notes from the middle of nowhere on our cruise:

I need a new laptop for the powerbook. Seriously. 50 minutes from charge to dead is unacceptable.
I should carry a small firewire drive with me all the time. The 30 GB iPod doesn’t count (it’s full of shit anyways)
I need a [...]

I went to Guanajuato, Mexico this summer to attend a wedding, and I fell in love with the city.
Because I had to much fun there this year, I bought the domain ExpoloreGuanajuato.com, fully intending to build it out into a full-service information site about GTO… but I haven’t had the time, so, I’m [...]

I flew to Vegas the night before last (I had an appointment with a potential client this morning)… I was staying at the Flamingo Casino. Woohoo! Casino!
I got to my hotel around 4:00 p.m. Pacific, checked in, changed, and headed to the casino floor. After walking around a bit, and [...]

Delta and Northwest file for bankruptcy. Two in one day? This won’t be good for the markets tomorrow…

WTF?
I downloaded a vCalendar file from the Hilton website onto my Powerbook, after booking a hotel room.
I then emailed the vCal file to my WindowsXP machine. I saved the file to my desktop, then doubleclicked it to open it in Outlook and save it. I got this error message:

Here’s the transcript of the [...]

Just taking the opportunity to point out one of my favorite italian restaurants in Houston, Texas (I’m going to eat lunch there next week) to the good folks out there on the internet.
Birraporetti’s used to be a place my dad took my kid brother and I when we were really young to have Shirley Temple [...]

I got up this morning at 5:15 (at least 15 minutes later than I should have gotten up) and started getting ready to get on a plane. My flight was scheduled for 6:30 a.m. and I needed to leave the house by 5:30. I was running slow this morning…
I didn’t leave the house [...]

Ding! is dangerous. Very Dangerous.
Ding! is Southwest Airlines latest push into the consumer’s life. It’s a desktop application that alerts you to Southwest’s latests travel deals, and it’s wonderful marketing.
This is user invited desktop travel advertising at it’s best folks. I trust Southwest because I’ve never had a bad experience [...]

I can now define myself as a geek, all thanks to Kasia:
” • Instead of sitting and eating in an airport, like the rest of the population, you walk around until you can spot a power socket.”
Last night at Chicago Midway while waiting 2 hours for my flight, I walked around the terminal looking for [...]

Since ATA filed for bankruptcy today [more], I figured this was a timely post.
Yesterday, I booked an appointment with a client in Moline, Iowa. I did so yesterday because the airplane tickets were anywhere from $600 – $700 to a direct flight to and from Austin to Chicago, and I can drive to Moline [...]

I just sent this email to the customer service folks at Mobility Electronics:
TO: iGoCustServ@pfsweb.com FROM: johnengler@gmail.com SUBJECT: Juice Problems DATE: October 21, 2004
I bought a Juice product through Amazon.com about a year and a half ago, and lately I’ve noticed that it hasn’t been charging my laptop very reliably… then, today I plugged in [...]

American Airlines is offering some really cheap flights to the Caribbean. A couple of good deals for Texas travelers:

Dallas to Freeport, Bahamas: $219
Houston to Freeport, Bahamas: $219
Houston to Grand Cayman Island, Cayman Islands: $261
Houston to Kingston, Jamaica: $292
Houston to Montego Bay, Jamaica: $292
San Antonio to Cancun, Mexico: $269
San Antonio to Cozumel, Mexico: $304

Some [...]

The wife and I, along with several friends, are planning a trip to Guanajuato, Mexico soon.
We’re planning this trip for two reasons: 1) We need a vacation and 2) We’re seriously thinking of moving to Mexico in the coming years. I’ll not go into too much detail about reason #2, but will say [...]

I’m heading to San Diego for the first time this week… NAA is hosting their Connections Conference there this year. Looking forward to meeting lots of folks and learning as much as I can.
Posting might be light this week.

For the past week I’ve been pretty busy… here are a few things I’ve read recently and needed to blogmark:
MT Medic [via Pat Berry]
Interesting graph on SARS
Let’s Make a Cell-Phone Deal – I’ve done this. It works. More from ArsTechnica.
Working with Forms in PHP, Part 1 and Part 2. Great information on [...]

We flew into Dallas late last night… Drove home to Austin this morning. Our vacation was fantastic.
I uploaded some photos from our trip here
I’ll post the 7 days of writing from our trip tonight. (posted the past 7 days of writing as if I posted them when they were written — see below — [...]

Monday was our last full day on the island, so we got up early and headed out to catch the ferry over to Pinel Island, since we hadn’t done that yet. We found the ferry to Pinel around 8:45 (this was a chore, since there aren’t any signs at the ferry telling you that [...]

On Sunday the 25th, we just sat around our villa and relaxed. We’d had enough of driving around the island, and wanted a little quite time to ourselves.
Around 9:00 p.m., we headed to the Maho Beach area, as it’s generally the night life part of the island. At first we headed to [...]

We finally slept in a bit, or at least got a late start on the 24th.
We were planning on heading to Anguilla for the day, but didn’t arrive in Marigot (where one boards the ferry) until 10:00. It took us so long to get there because we sent postcards today to our [...]

We got up early on Friday the 23rd (our five year anniversary) and actually got ready quite quickly. We were on the road to Orient Beach around 9:00. Traffic at 9am is pretty bad, so, I’d recommend to anyone coming to St. Martin island to do your driving before 9am, or after 10am.
We [...]

The wife and I awoke to a sunny breeze and a clear sky on Thursday, May 22nd.
We drove to the north western corner of the island, and drove through Terra Basses (the Low Lands) where there are many large mansions (probably owned by rich celebrities from the U.S. Some of the homes [...]

We woke up this morning, to a beautiful day. The beach sounds and the constant breeze were a wonderful thing to wake up to.
After taking showers, we headed down to the beach and pool to lay out in the sun. I continued reading The Eaters of the Dead, and she was reading Bridget [...]

After arriving in St. Martin today, the wife and I drove around the island, stopping to eat a late lunch, before continuing to circle the island. We took a few photos of the villa we’re staying at, before and after our quick trip around the island.
At dinner time, we talked about having kids, not [...]

I just wanted to take a moment to say that after driving (we rented one in St. Maarten) a Honda Fit (sold in Europe and Asia) that I think the car would do quite well in America. It’s a Ford Focus type of car, but with Honda design written all over it… problem is, [...]

The wife and I arrived in St. Maarten around 1:30 local time on a Tuesday. We deboarded the plane, went through ‘immigration’ and then grabbed our bags prior to meeting our rental car agent and the villa agent. After picking up our very cute Honda Fit rental, we drove out to Pelican Key [...]

I’m writing this entry from the exit row of an American Airlines 757 headed from Miami to St. Maarten:
We got up earlier than sin this morning to get to the DFW airport. Our flight left at 6:15 a.m., bound for Miami where we were to catching a connection to St. Maarten.
Over the past two [...]

I arrived this morning in Atlanta after a quick flight from Austin on Delta. I enjoyed the quick walk through the Atlanta airport on my way to a cab. The cab driver was very friendly and got me to my destination right on time.
I spent the majority of the day meeting people, discussing [...]

Scott’s pissed that online travel agencies (Expedia is the one in this example) are now charging for providing a service. I just left the travel business, so I know a little more from the inside that Scott does. What Scott doesn’t admit is that most online travel agency websites were built to make [...]

Sucks to hear that National Airlines is shutting down. For those that don’t know, I just quit a job at a travel related website, and one of my reasons for leaving is that the airlines out there are pretty much fucked. All of them are having a hard time, but I honestly don’t [...]

Pearl of wisdom spotted over at Franks:
“Somebody once pointed out to me that one of the many problems with the airlines’ business model is that they charge their best customers the most for their service. If you’re a senior making your one trip a year to see your kids, you book 6 weeks in advance [...]

On Sunday, I wrote about Dave’s experience with CheapTickets. Today Doc reports his most recent experience with Hotwire. Sad, indeed.
Here’s a guy that’s pretty much embedded in the inner workings of the uber-geek, and Hotwire manages to piss him off. That’s just plain stupid.
So, now I can’t use CheapTickets.com, cause I can’t [...]

Travel is the largest e-commerce category on the net, and yet it’s still the toughest nut to crack, and at the same time, the one with the most potential, in my opinion.
Reading about Nate’s most recent experience, I’m reminded of how hard it is to do something that’s traditionally been a completely hands-on experience in [...]

Where the hell have I been for the past couple of weeks?
Since Vanguard declared bankruptcy and closed its doors, Hooters has formed Hooters Air LLC and is seriously considering launching an airline in Vanguard’s place.
Wow!
Now this would be a great marketing gig, though, I have a feeling that it’ll only work for two markets. [...]