Category: Travels

I’m back in New York after two fantastic weeks on holiday in Europe. If you’ve written, I hope to get through all my emails this week.

One observation I made moving through Ireland, France, and Germany was how little the Internet really assists in everyday life. Although hotels appear to be more likely to provide email access (even small hotels had a free computer in public areas) — and this proved useful to a significant percentage of those I saw — otherwise the media and tools we use are still mostly non-computer based. This isn’t necessarily a difference between the U.S. and Europe, just something I was able to see with fresh eyes as I myself abondoned the computer and mobile for two weeks.

I’m in lovely tho’ rainy Vancouver to co-teach our seminar. If you’re in the area do come by and say hello.

Some curiosities seen in Hamburg, Germany:

The U.S. Customs Services erected a kiosk to receive comments and suggestions…

…but after booting up it awaits a password

What new office buildings look like

My First Sony. I love the three progressively bigger green buttons to adjust the volume. Oddly, the arrows on the rewind button point to the right instead of the left. This is because the tape winds to the left, but I wonder if anyone actually uses that little window to judge how much tape has played, especially 3 year olds? This is aggravated by how the tape goes in “upside-down,” tape first, which fooled some people using it. There’s a little icon and arrow to the right that tries to help with that. In spite of these little faults, a neat little way to bring music to children.

In the bookstore in the mall, two shelves devoted to books about tieing knots. Notice the supplied red and blue rope.

The apartment we stayed in had these little water heaters underneath each sink instead of using one big, centrally located heater. A small challenge to my notion of what infrastructure in a house should be centralized. Unlike most German appliances, they worked weakly and inconsistently.

In New York’s JFK airport, the Brooklyn Beer Garden. And we wonder why U.S.-German relations are strained.

This weekend I’m heading to Philly for the ASIS&T Annual conference. You too? See you at the hotel bar on Saturday, 7:30.