IP: Tokyo Diary #2

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Saturday I went with Hide Takuda (CIO of Keio University) to the Akihabara.
If the Japanese economy is slow, one would not know it from the crowds at
the Akihabara. So what is new!


I saw the following:


1. a store which specializes in Pilots has a Newton keyboard hooked to a
Pilot (US keyboard). Worked quite well and extended the Pilot's
usefullness. If you are interested I have contact info.


2. lots of mini notebooks slightly bigger than the Libretto and with
pentiums and color displays. However all with Japanese keyboards. Some will
start appearing in the US someday.


3. there is a new pccard Handyphone modem card that is self standing (no
phone needed). The current data rate is 33 kbs soon to go to 64 kbs. Lots
of handyphones about and now lots of data use of it.


4. I bought a Minidisk player that is thin and light and runs hours from a
gum battery. I intend to copy my CD s onto the Minidisk for commuting. The
MD is in heavy use in Japan where it is assumed one copies rental CDs.


5 The big news in the computer arena in Japan is finally NEC has given up
on their proprietary PC and will now be all Wintel. Made a lot of sense to
do so and one wonders why it took forever to do o.


I enjoyed the Akihabara especially with Hide to translate and get lower
prices for me. Nothing earthshaking but I did return with a new MD player,
piles of ceramic kitchen knives and a terminal case of travel exhaustion
(see below) and a satisfaction of having had a professionally profitable
time, lots of fun with friends and good food (Japan does French better than
France and the Yakatori (sp) was fantastic).


Dave


[ a note sent earlier this am djf]


Last night I arrived at JFK after a full day in Tokyo and a long flight
from Narita on UAL. It was raining and I had a connection on TWA Express (
a UAL code share) to PHL. I arrived at 430 and my flight was at 620 pm (by
the way UAL has no way of telling you about the status of TWA express
flights even though they code share with them) . We boarded and taxied out
and waiting in line (20 planes ahead) got to the end of the runway and was
told
Philly had just instituted a ground hold due to traffic and weather and
there we waited for 45 minutes , then were told we would be released in 15
minutes. At 13 minutes Philly re-instituted a ground hold for 1/2 hour. We
went back to the terminal and there waited till 930 for the next flight.
That got offgate at 10 and waited till 1050 to take off. We arrived at PHL
at midnight . I got home at 130 am. 


For those who fly via JFK, TWA express aircrew were great, the ground staff
was ultra confused and in-efficient. It made US Air look like Singapore
Air. Check your code share and if you end up at JFK with a TW Express in
bad weather, take a taxi to NYC and take Amtrak.


Exhausted Dave






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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
 safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."       - Ben Franklin, ~1784
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