Gizmos Grabowski

The Relative Price of Gas

Yesterday the price of gas in my home town in southern Canada rose to $1.319 per litre -- the highest price ever.

In Germany, they are getting upset with the amount of taxes on gasoline: $1.50 tax with gasoline costing about $2.75/litre.

I'll convert those numbers to US gallons:

While Americans get upset that the price might soon arrive at $4/gal, I'm paying about $5/US gal. Much of the difference is the higher taxes, including the hated GST (VAT) tax imposed on top on other gasoline taxes -- a tax on tax.

In Germany, it is the equivalent of $10.40/gal, of which $5.70 is taxes. There, German consumers understand that the best way to lower the cost of gasoline and diesel is to cut taxes, and so are starting to make a fuss.

And I think that Norway has the most expensive (er, most taxed) gasoline of all countries.

A year ago I was in Mexico, and tried to determine the price of gas there. All gas stations are run by the state monopoly, so there is no need to post prices. Each station had multiple young people servicing vehicles, so it was a bit awkward for me to walk up to a pump and stare that the display. And I had to convert from pesos to dollars. Despite all that, it seemed to me that gas cost about 16 cents a gallon.

Painting the Planet Green

I said to my wife the other day, "We should paint our car green.

Then we can tell people, we have a green car."

Synecdoche

Once in a while I come across a word I've never read before.

synecdoche

A figure of speech, in which:

-- a part is used for the whole (as hand for "sailor").
-- the whole for a part (as the law for "police officer").
-- the specific for the general (as cutthroat for "assassin").
-- the general for the specific (as thief for "pickpocket")
-- the material for the thing made from it (as steel for "sword").

Frequently in journalism (e.g."Ottawa" for the Canadian federal government) and sports (e.g. "Liverpool" for one of thd city's football teams).

From Greek sunekdokhē: to take on a share of.

When Corporate Renaming Goes Bad

Back in 2002, I was excited at the prospect at using the Internet to help me get the lowest price on the new car I was planning to buy, a new Honda Odyssey minivan. But, I ended up being disappointed, for in Canada there was little advantage in going-Internet for car buying -- at least new cars.

(Used cars is another matter: In the last year my son used Web sites to narrow down used car dealers with potential second-hand cars, without needing to physically visit each place of business. In both cases, he ended up with a car he wanted in his price range.)

I did sign up with one site, AutoWeb, that allowed me to get online quotes from three dealers. I think it cost me $35. Wasn't worth it: I ended up getting the best price by haggling with the salesman, even after he declared that Odyssey prices were firm -- nevertheless I paid $1350 less than sticker.

All this long intro just to point out that AutoWeb has changed its name. Now, AutoWeb is a very good name; instantly, it tells you what it's all about: automobiles on the Web.

The new name is a groaner:

Trubiquity

I s'pose it's a combo of True and Ubiquity. The name change came about following AutoWeb's purchase by Secorex. Secorex. I can see why they didn't like a straight-forward name like AutoWeb.

$44 Billion Don't Seem Much When...

Microsoft wants to pay $44 billion for Yahoo. That seemed like a lot of money to me until I heard that Mars is buying Wrigley for $23 billion.

The second-biggest Internet company is worth $44 billion, just twice the value of a chewing gum company. And to think that a candy bar company has a spare $23 billion laying around.

Puts the whole Internet thing into the small end of a perspective on what's really important in this world, don't it?

Sometimes Linux Works, Sometimes Not -- Part II

Not Working

Hardy Heron -- I upgraded my dad's old Compaq Presario 3000 from Ubuntu v7.1 to v8.x. The upgrade was largely automatic, but took more than five hours -- probably from the first-day rush of "everyone" else doing the same. Upon rebooting, 'Hardy Heron' did not recognize the wireless networking card. After spending an hour trying different things, I finally gave up and did what Canonical said I wouldn't: "You Won't Go Back."

After reinstalling v7.1, I began to check out what Ubuntu would -- and wouldn't -- work with:

Multi-button Mouse -- the basic mouse driver works, but I haven't found support for my extra needs: assigning double-click to the middle button (roller wheel) and horizontal scrolling for my Logitech wireless mouse, whose roller wheel also moves side to side. (This is like Vista, where I found it really tough to get double-click assigned to the middle button.)

MP3 Music -- Ubuntu comes with an impressive music application that readily found song files on networked computers, including Windows computers. It also plays back Internet radio stations, although you have to copy and paste the actual URL to do that -- a bit clunky. The negative is that Ubuntu does not include MP3 decoders, not even the freeware (I think) one called LAME. I spent several fruitless hours trying to get the MP3 codecs installed, but suffered from a lack of dependencies.

Working

Digital Cameras -- in an earlier post, I noted that Picasa downloads effortlessly, and that it immediately recognized my Canon S1is camera. I plan to try my Samsung cameras later.

Palm TX -- once the "wizard" got things configured correctly, Ubuntu recognized my Palm TX and was able to synch with it. Sync'ed data is stored in the Evolution Email software, such as contacts, schedule, memos, and so on.

Maxtor Portable Drive -- this USB-connected and USB-powered portable hard drive was immediately recognized by Ubuntu. This was handy, for I had backed up all of my dad's documents and photographs from this Compaq before wiping out Windows XP with Ubuntu. In ten minutes, the gigabytes of his files were back on "his" computer. This is more impressive than Windows 2000, where the mouse stops working when I plug in this drive.

Sony Walkman -- I checked out my dad's new Sony Walkman MP3 player, and it worked just as well as the Maxtor drive. For in fact it presents itself to the computer as an external drive -- whether on Windows or Linux. The USB port also recharged it, as well as the Palm TX's battery.

Installing Software with Linux

In all the years I've been experimenting with Linux, I've never been able to install software or drivers or browser plug-ins. If I was going to be going on the road withe HP's Mini-Note running Linux, I'd first have to learn how to do that.

Once I got Ubuntu Linux running on my dad's old Compaq 3000 notebook computer, I began to test the software I would need on the road.

Word Processor

Ubuntu comes with OpenOffice, so a word processor is "built-in." I tried running Google Docs in FireFox, and it worked just fine -- the documents and spreadsheets I'd created in the Windows version of FireFox looked identical. So, that was good.

I also checked GMail, and that worked for my email. Praise be OS-independent software.

Browser Plug-ins

However, Google Docs warned that I need to installed Flash 9 for collaboration activities. I don't collaborate, but I thought it would force to me learn to install software under Linux. After some frustrations, it finally worked: the Flash 9 plug-in worked with FireFox. I'd like to tell you how, but I tried so many things and finally something worked.

The part that puzzled me was that Ubuntu didn't want to work with RPM files. (This is a file format in which Linux programs are distributed, kind of like Windows MSI install file.) FireFox and Ubuntu recognized the downloaded RPM file and opened the appropriate software for installing it, but then the software refused to install it. After a bunch of clicking and right-clicking, it got installed. I just don't know how.

Adobe Reader

A piece of software I'd need on the road is Adobe Reader, in case someone sends a PDF file. I found that Adobe has three versions of install files for Linux users to install:

-- .gz, which is the Linux equivalent of a Windows ZIP file.
-- .rpm, which the aforementioned install file.
-- .deb, an install file specific to Debian Linux, upon which Ubuntu is based.

I found that choosing the DEB download for Reader is painless. FireFox downloads the file, and Ubuntu automatically installs. All I had to do was agree to the license (no choice there) and give permission to Linux to install it.

Picasa

Another crucial piece of software for me is Google's Picassa. It's available for Linux, but I was a bit worried: (1) it runs under WINE, the WINdows Emulator -- how hard was that to install? (2) Would it recognize my Canon S1iS camera?

But I didn't need to worry. Google as a DEB version of Picassa for Linux, which made for hassle free installation. Ubuntu recognized my digital camera, and Picassa downloaded its photos. Because this is the Windows version of Picassa running in the emmulator, all of Picassa's functions are available.

Media

Where things got rough was in media. My wife and I like watching Deutsche Welle tv over the Internet; DW uses the Octoshape P2P software to transmit its broadcast at 600kpbs -- 4x faster than what my DSL line is normally capable of. Octoshape has a plug-in for Linux but it is a nightmare to install. I haven't got that done yet.

The other thing I tried was to watch a DVD on Linux. One of the great scandals of our time is that DVD anti-theft system (CSS) is not freely available for Linux as it is for Windows. Installing the CSS decoder is even more complex than Octoshape, and after an hour of trying I gave up -- even though I was following instructions on Ubuntu's help site.

Well, HP's Mini-Note doesn't have a CD or DVD player, so this last item is meaningless.

I still have other things to test: how well it works with my Palm TX, my MP3 player, etc.

MSFT Q3: Battling Headlines

Microsoft press release, dated 24 April 2008:

Microsoft Reports Record Third-Quarter Revenue

Bloomberg.com news report, dated 24 April 2008:

Microsoft Profit Drops; Forecast May Miss Estimates

HP's Mini-Note Available in Canada

HP Canada continues to taunt Canadians by listing the Mini-Note computer on its hp.ca Web site, but won't sell it -- nor list an availability date.

HP Canada's pre-sales support has been spectacularly unhelpful:

-- When the Mini-Note was announced for the USA, I asked when it would be available in Canada. "We don't know that kind of information," was the response, paraphrased. A few days later, the five versions of the computer appeared on the Canadian Web site with no publicity -- but not for sale.

-- When I asked why the Mini-Note could not be purchased direct from HP through from hpshopping.ca, pre-sales support told me to buy it from a retailer.

-- When I replied that no retailer in Canada carries the new computer, I received no response.

Delayed Purchase

I'm still stoked about this fine-looking budget-priced sub-notebook, but I am glad it cannot be purchased here for several reasons:

1. It would be primarily for trips, and I have none planned for now. So there's no rush to buy it.

2. The only SSD [solid state hard drive, or flash drive] option is a mere 4GB; ASUS next month is shipping one of their budget subnotebooks with a 20GB SSD for $50 more than HP's 4GB model. Perhaps HP will react competitively.

3. Computers with Intel's new Atom CPU are due to start shipping in a few months. Perhaps HP will switch from Via to Atom -- and then it'll be interesting to see if there are performance differences, in faster computing speed and longer battery duration.

4. HP doesn't allow custom configurations right now. I would want 2GB of RAM with the Linux model; currently, you have to buy the 1GB model, buy the 2GB RAM module separately, and then swap the memory -- throwing out the 1GB. Such a waste.

Review

HP 2133 Mini-Note Review by Jerry Jackson and Tiffany Boggs

Sometimes Linux Works, Sometimes Not

HP's Mini-Note computer runs SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 from Novell. If I eventually buy such a computer, it would be good for me to check that I can live with Linux -- ahead of laying down $550+tax.

My dad gave me one of his older notebook computers. How old? So old that this Compaq 3000-series doesn't have built-in wireless networking. So old that it runs an actual Pentium 4 CPU at 2.4GHz. Since Windows XP had gotten itself screwed up, he gave the hardware to me.

Since I had a copy of it laying around, I ran the Live CD version of Unbuntu Linux v9.1, and it worked just fine. That Compaq's 2.4GHz CPU runs Linux quickly, even though the code is running off a CD. Then I got a brainwave: I should run SuSE Linux on it and check whether the Mini-Note would work for me -- especially on the road, where one is far away from the support structure found at home.

First roadblock: I found that SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 is not a free operating system, and you won't find out from Novell's Web site how much it costs. (You need to contact a local representative who'll quote you a price.) Thus, I was unable to download it to try it out (well, I could have: they have a sixty-day trial version).

After a Google search I found that the free version is called openSUSE 10.3 from en.opensuse.org. I downloaded the Live CD version, which lets me boot Linux from the CD drive without replacing the existing operating system.

Second roadblock: OpenSuSE doesn't work on the Compaq 3000. After it starts to boot, the screen goes black. That's too bad, so I went back to Ubuntu, and installed it on the hard drive -- wiping out Windows XP (so much for the possessive stickers that Microsoft demands be affixed to the bottoms of notebook computers).

From my experience, all variants of Linux are pretty much the same -- kind of like running Windows v3.1 or 95 or 98 or Me or 2000 or XP or Vista: they all look somewhat different, but Vista operates pretty much the same as v3.1 (both Vista and v3.1 make it really hard for you to access files on networked computers).

My primary concerns about getting the Mini-Note with Linux were: (1) being able to install software; and (2) being able to install software that I need. More about that in my next installment.

Chinese Cars Crash Against American Safety Standards

Geoffrey York writes in yesterday's Globe&Mail that "China stalls North American auto move." Much of the story is about companies like Cherry saying that it will take at least four more years before their cheap vehicles are available for sale in the USA and Canada.

The excuses: The USA is the world's toughest market; more time is needed to set up the dealer network; cars need to be built of sufficient quality for the American consumer; the Russian and Asian markets are exploding.

Left unsaid is the real reason: safety.

Chinese car makers were ready to enter the European market last year, and then their poorly designed cars hit a brick wall: crashtest dummies reported that humans would not survive when European agencies safety-tested the imported vehicles. The German test organization reported that Chinese cars were the worst that they ever tested.

It occurs to me that this is related to human rights. Western countries that respect the rights of humans to life, liberty, etc., build cars differently from countries whose rulers are so disinclined.

Grandad's First MP3 Player

As my dad watched my daughter washing his car last sunny Saturday, he notice she was listening to music. Those white earbud headphones dangled their thin cord to a pocket in her shorts.

He asked me what she was listening to, so we showed him the iPod. "This 4GB model," I explained, "holds about 60 CDs worth of music."

My dad didn't think he had that much music to listen to, but the idea intrigued him. "I could use something like that when I drive my tractor [up north on his small farm]."

I knew exactly which one to get him. I'd been eyeing Sony's relatively new NWZ-S615F digital media player, because I liked its diminutive size and -- most important -- tactile controls.

While I wish that Japanese companies would learn from Apple's naming scheme, I am glad Sony ignored Apple's drive to reduce the hardware parts count by eliminating buttons that you can feel before you press. (My Zen Micro MP3 player suffers from that, too: just feeling for a control causes it to be activated.)

The Sony has distinct buttons for volume, play/pause, back, and options. A four-way controller surrounds the mildly protruding play/pause button.

I went comparison shopping on the Web, and found that most places charged the same price for the 2GB model -- $100 at London Drugs, Sears, Staples, and so on. FutureShop doesn't carry it, but BestBuy.ca had it for $10 cheaper than the rest.

I bought it for him, and set up the options. Likes and dislikes:

Likes

-- nice size (thin and not too small), with rubberized backing.
-- controllers work blind.
-- screen is small but very clear, bright, and colorful!
-- 33 hours playback of music; charges through the computer's USB port.
-- plays back MP4 videos, which can be downloaded from Google Video and others.
-- drag and drop to load it with any kind of file.
-- user interface has a beautiful design.

Dislikes

-- manual does not explain everything.
-- includes a plastic base that doesn't keep the player upright.
-- the Skip-to-next-track function is vague to me.
-- doesn't have an accelerometer for automatically rotating pictures and videos between portrait and landscape.
-- lacks the ability to erase files.

If I didn't already have a suitable MP3 player (ie, my three year old Zen Micro), then I'd get this one for myself, but I'd get the 8GB model. (2GB is sufficient for my dad.)

HP's Mini-Note 3122 Now in Canada

The hp.ca Web site today began listing the Mini-Note 3122 ultralight notebook computer. Price and initial configurations are the same as in USA.

One problem: you can't buy it (yet). HP.ca lists the Web-only price, available only when purchasing it through hpshopping.ca. But the hp.ca page lacks the Buy Now or Add to Cart buttons, and hpshopping.ca doesn't know about it, either.

Everything Old is New Again

Suddenly I thought back to my first notebook computer with a color screen -- a diminutive unit from Daewoo model 7400S. I hauled it out of storage, and wondered about the dimensions. They are almost the same! The Daewoo is 1cm deeper and 1cm taller, but 1 cm narrower.

Other similarities:

-- both have an 8-inch screen; Daewoo = 640x480; HP = 1280x800

-- both lack a DVD drive and a floppy drive.

-- both have VGA out and a card slot: Daewoo = PC Card; HP - Express/34

-- both have 2 data connectors: Daewoo has a parallel and a serial port; HP has 2 USB ports.

-- both have headphone out; HP also has mic in.

-- both have input devices: Daewoo = scroll button; HP = touchpad.

-- hard drives: Daewoo = 20MB; HP = 120GB.

After that, the HP also has wireless internet, fax/modem, etc., which the Daewoo doesn't. But the Daewoo has infrared.

The Daewoo was $1700 with Windows 95; the HP is $550 with Linux.

Comparison Shopping for Laser Catridges

My old Lexmark laser printer used to come with huge toner cartridges that lasted about 1.5 years. Since I replaced it with an HP 1320 laser printer (love that duplex printing!), I've had to live with cartridges that last half as long.

Today I comparison shopped for a new cartridge, and the price differences were eye-opening! The 1320 uses the '49A cartridge:

FutureShop.ca -- $113
Staples.ca -- $88
LondonDrugs.ca -- $85
CorporateExpress.ca -- $84
BestBuy.ca -- not available

But then I found a better money saver at CorporateExpress.ca: a two-pack of the '49X high-capacity cartridge for $303 ($151.50 each). Each prints 6000 pages, versus 2500 pages for the '49A.

At 2.4x less output, the A cartridge would have to be priced at $63 to be competitive with the X one. (Or, to put it the other way around, you'd spend $270 on '49A cartridges purchased from FutureShop to print as many pages as one '49X cartridge from Corporate Express.)

A few minutes comparison shopping on Web sites saved me $120.

The Hidden Meaning of Wow!

Microsoft marketing launched Vista with a single word, "Wow!" A launch phrase so vacuous served as an unintended warning of the operating system's lackluster content.

It takes some time to reverse engineer marketing slogans, but I think I've finally achieved it. WOW is short for...

Windows, ow!

The PalmPilot is Dead; Long Live the Mini PC

My two-year-old Palm TX is in perfect shape -- except for the serious misalignment of the digitizer. (I'll write more about the problem in another posting.)

Yet, it is nearly dead. More accurately, the PalmPilot concept is nearly dead -- for me, and for most of the market. Business people would rather have the equivalent of a PalmPilot in their cell phones, and so the Treo and iPhone are popular.

For me, the PalmPilot began to die following our family's once-in-a-lifetime trip together to New Zealand. Due to a syncing problem, I lost all the daily notes I took during the 19-day trip. That was several years ago; since then, I increasingly found myself not using my PalmOS model of the time, Sony's magnificent Clie.

When it died two years ago, I automatically bought the latest and greatest, the Palm TX. It's an amazing device, pre-dating the similarly spec'ed iTouch by three years. (Where was Palm marketing?) But it was bundled with a lousy (free) external keyboard and lately the unfixable digitizer drift is making it miserable to use.

What to do?

I could replace it. (Refurbished units are $200.)

I could wait to see what Palm might have next. (Something is promised for 2009.)

I still use its address book, play some games (barely) on it, and use it to access Internet radio on our living room stereo.

2133

Then HP announced its Mini-Note (model 2133) notebook computer. For the price of a Palm TX and extra-cost keyboard, you can get a full computer with 8" screen, nearly full-size keyboard, running Linux. $500 (for RAM disc) or $550 (with 120GB hard drive). Primary drawback: no DVD player, although an external one could be added.

I've read some exclaim that they can get an HP 15" notebook computer complete with DVD for the same price. They could, but then they would miss the point.

For a writer who travels (like me), the idea of this class of sub-notebook is an exciting concept, combining the compact size of the PalmPilot with the full functionality of a regular notebook computer. The exclaimers should also contrast the Mini-Note's price against that of similarly sized units from Sony -- care to pay $2,200?

The mini-notebook is not HP's idea, but HP reacting to the new market segment created by Asus and its EEE notebook. I find it interesting that the market rejected Microsoft's idea of what a mini notebook should look like (the overpriced UMPC), but is thrilled with something conceived in Taiwan by a builder of hardware.

With me finding reasons to use Google Docs, GMail, and FireFox, a Linux-powered computer would not seem as strange as it as in the past.

I plan to try out the 2133 once it becomes available in Canada (date unknown, HP Canada tells me).

Three Reasons College Textbooks Cost So Much

As an author whose books are sold into technical college courses, I have some insight into why college textbooks cost $100 or more, each.

1. The college bookstore takes 40% for itself. Just as many colleges overcharge for meals and residences, they charge full list price for textbooks. Some colleges, such as Columbia Bible Collage, do students a favor by charging less than full price for textbooks -- sometimes even less than Amazon.com's price.

2. Amazon.com's massive discounts drives up cover prices. The impact of Amazon offering you larger discounts is that you pay more for books. When Amazon demands 50%-60% discounts, publishers raise list prices to continue making the same amount of income.

3. The owners of books publishers want higher profits-- like any other corporation. As an author, publishers every year look for ways to pay me less, even though my portion amounts to 5% (or less) of the book's list price.

Make no mistake: book publishers generate 2nd, 3rd, 4th editions to generate more income (some material is changed to justify the new edition). They hate the idea of second-hand book sales. They are non-competitive: when another book publisher raises prices, they do too. To me, it appears that book publishers never took economics: when sales of a book fall, they increase its price.

In summary, the fault of high textbook prices lies with:

1. You college bookstore.
2. Amazon.com's discounting practices.
3. The book publishers owners.

What can be done against high textbook prices?

In my first year of university (1974), $20 was considered expensive for a hardcover textbook. During my seven years there, prices increased so much that I engaged in these tactics:

-- avoided buying any textbook until I determined whether I needed it. Some profs only assign textbooks because it is university culture to do so -- not because it is needed. In my last year, I bought no textbooks.

-- shared textbooks between roommates or others in the course.

-- bought second-hand, particularly in the second semester, when the same edition always used.

-- tried to locate a cheaper source, such as at a different college bookstore, an off-campus bookstore, or a used bookstore. (I have found Amazon.com useless, for textbooks either are no cheaper, or take months to ship.)

#1 Reason to Hate Vista

...other than because of its excessively slow speed, of course.

#1 Reason to Hate Vista: display problems. (I already know that Microsoft's astroturfing drones will announce self-righteously that device drivers aren't Microsoft's problem, and I would reply, I don't care, there is just one customer. Got problems with the Microsoft-written OS, and HP has to foot the support bill -- how'd HP and other manufacturers let themselves get suckered into that one?) Anyhow...

My Vista-running HP notebook has nVidia graphics, and I can't count the number of problems I have with a second monitor attached. Here's a partial list:

-- sometimes, the notebook's monitor is identified as monitor #2, while Vista identifies the external monitor as #1.

-- if the notebook is allowed to blank its display, the cursor no longer appears on the external monitor after the display comes back. Only solution I have found is to reboot the computer. This means I can never blank the monitor, only dim it manually with the keyboard buttons.

-- the list of available resolutions varies by the day of the month, seriously. The external monitor runs at 1400x900. This resolution sometimes appears on the available list, and sometimes not. Sometimes other resolutions appear, as high as 2048, other times as low as 1280. Sometimes there are just a few resolution choices; other times many. All this occurs without changing the driver.

-- sometimes, for no apparent reason, Vista changes the "main" monitor to the external one, meaning that the taskbar, desktop icons, etc appear on the external monitor.

-- the external monitor can run at 75Hz, but no matter how many times I change it to 75, Vista changes it back to 60.

I've tried to get HP support to fix some of these, the most frustrating being the fluxuating number of available resolutions. The weak response: install a different driver. nVidia is as bad a Microsoft, and won't touch the problem, either. Yet, their driver support software has a "Contact nVidia" button.

I s'pose it's only poetic justice that Vista SP1 should be worse even than Vista FCS.

Update

Here is a photo of Vista mishandling the screens:

* The desktop icons moved themselves to the external screen, even as the taskbar remains on the notebook's screen.

* The external screen is identified as monitor #1; the notebook computer's screen is id'ed as monitor #2.

Earth Hour Earth Year

Let's do the math on Earth Hour:

Turn off all lights for one hour. Assume ten light bulbs would normally be on, each 100W. Total savings = 1 kilowatt-hour per household. In our area, this would reduce the next electrical bill by 8 cents due to the annual event.

Here is a more practical approach:

Replace the ten light bulbs with compact florescent bulbs, each consuming 13W. Assuming lights are on 4 hours a day, the annual savings amount to 1,270KWhr, reducing the electrical bill by $101 a year.

The problem with Earth Hour is that it can give participants a false impression. Turn off lights for one hour a year, and they think they are making a difference. They do not. It's the trap of feeling good about doing something immaterial, rather of doing something that makes a difference.

Instead, make it Earth Year, where your home's energy reduction takes place all year around, and is reduced further each year. We replaced our washing machine with one that uses about 11x less energy. LED lighting is replacing CFLs. Work at home.

T5

There is an old joke about the first fully automated airplane flight. As the plane takes off, a recorded voice explains to passengers how this airplane has no pilots, and that "...nothing can go wrong... nothing can go wrong...nothing can go wrong..."

The chaos at the opening day of Heathrow's $4-billion Terminal 5 reminded me of the joke. Earlier in the week, the press were given a tour. BAA (british airport authority) reps boasted how computers would run everything, from getting luggage to passengers before passengers arrived at baggage claim, to targeted ads via giant electronic boards. The computers would run everything, and nothing could go wrong.

As I read of the marketing boasts, two thoughts came to my mind:

-- the initial baggage disaster when Denver airport first opened.
-- that this building was designed five years ago, and things have changed a lot since then.

Complex systems create complex problems.

This Is London has photos and description of all that went wrong, starting with the two-hour lineup of employees trying to get into work but (1) having insufficient parking; and (2) being frustrated with the new computerized work check-in system.

This is why I always avoid Heathrow when travelling to Europe. Not that established airports are any better. Take the train from Amsterdam to the airport. Upon arriving, you enter a huge hall with zero signs directing you to your departure gate.

And sometimes things go right. I once had ten minutes between flights in Denver. I raced through the airport, got on board, and was resigned to my luggage not making it. As I looked out my window, I saw a baggage cart pull up with my suitcase on it.