Filed 5 October, 1995 for publication 12 October, 1995
763 Words
By Jason Romney
I could see it in the embarrassed eyes of the British Airways flight desk operator as she looked up from her computer. `Prepare for the worst, and then some', they said.
The Friday night flight back to Melbourne from Heathrow Airport, London, was canceled. This exhausted warrior, desperate to get back in time to write a conference paper to be delivered Wednesday morning, was faced with a compensation choice of either 250 pounds cash or 400 pounds towards his next BA flight. That wasn't too bad, as misfortunes go.
But then comes the punchline: a forced night at the Heathrow Hilton, thrown in before a Saturday departure.
Would I get away with it? I had most of the raw materials I'd need to get started on the `Business on the Internet' keynote paper already digitised in my notebook thanks to my PaperPort (reviewed here last month). I'd also downloaded to a local CompuServe line in London and Cambridge, numerous e-mails with relevant information throughout the previous two weeks European travel.
All I really had to do was draft an emergency outline and send it off to the conference paper publisher via e-mail by, say, 7am London time to meet the deadline. OK, another crisis managed. Almost.
Having grappled at length with the telephone of my French hotel (see this column last month), the battery of my trusty TeleAdapt acoustic coupler had passed away and I really needed to plug my Netcomm PCMCIA modem directly into the phone outlet. In such circumstances, the sight of a British Telecom proprietary plug has a uniquely depressing effect on any Warrior trying to remain optimistic in a crisis.
My Netcomm V34 PCMCIA modem was also starting to show strain. After long periods of operation it was becoming almost too hot to touch and dropping its line - which Netcomm has since told me is a problem they are investigating when it is used with certain models of notebook computer. Models such as my Toshiba T4900CT...
Down at the Hilton reception, the concierge looked sheepish. Yes sir, of course we can help you with a British Telecom plug adaptor box - indeed, they're very popular items. Erm, so popular, in fact, that all our adaptor boxes are currently in use and we don't expect to get any back until mid morning tomorrow...
The crucial adaptor did indeed arrive mid-morning - with a charming typed letter about how, should the warrior wish to avail himself of the (5 pound?) adaptor permanently, 40 pounds would be debited to his hotel bill.
As it happens, your economy travelling correspondent had already found a workaround by talking his way into the opulent First Class British Airways Flight Lounge which provided a complimentary modem line. True, it also sported a hideous BT format plug.
But the true warrior never gives up. So moved by my despair was the on-duty customer comfort officer that she again overlooked my miserable economy ticket and fished from the bottom of a brown paper bag behind the inquiries desk one of the cherished BT to RJ11 adaptor plugs.
Heathrow Hilton: It was too little, too late. British Airways: May you always rule the air!
Mind you, I was already starting to feel jet lagged and hadn't even left London. In the remaining hours before the flight I tinkered with an intriguing little 55 pound device I picked up at the vast British consumer electronics show, Live '95.
The Reveal Voice Mail for PC from Electronic Frontier (e-mail: nick@elecfron.com) can turn your notebook, if it has a supported sound card, into an extraordinarily sophisticated voice mail system and speakerphone.
A small plug in your com port connects to your sound card and phone line. You can then place and answer full-duplex telephone calls from your PC hands-free - even initiating your own selection of `music on hold' to take another call if your telephone supports Telecom's Easy Call features.
The device will also act as an answering machine in your hotel room while you're away, recording messages to your hard disk after delivering a message you leave, different for any one of up to nine pass-word protected voice/fax mailboxes. The software naturally includes an automatic dialer with phonebook record.
Installation was easy and the unit works surprisingly smoothly. I've already set it up so that if it's the Heathrow Hilton calling, I'm out.
* Jason Romney is a solicitor and information systems consultant at Price Brent's Information Media and Communication Group. E-mail: jromney@werple.mira.net.au
ENDS