Don's Favorite Beer

Beers change and my taste changes, but for the moment my favorite beer is Bison brand Chocolate Stout.  I picked it up at a Whole Foods store in Fort Lauderdale, unaware of the price or even that it is USDA organic.

I am no expert on beer, but I'm partial to stout, porter, and similar heavier beers like this one.  I won't buy Bison Chocolate Stout in Minnesota where I live, if it's even available, because it's pretty expensive and some other excellent beers cost much less.  But it was a very tasty treat.

AirTran Airways Trip Review

Three of us flew AirTran Airways from St Paul, MN to Fort Lauderdale, FL, to run the A1A Marathon on Sunday, February 21, 2010.

AirTran has an excellent web site - I had no problems with ticket purchase or check-in. After the purchase, I enrolled each of us in AirTran's A-Plus rewards program, then went back to add those perks numbers to the flight itineraries. No problem. On-line check-in went smoothly as well, with the computer seating the three of us together in one row. I could have changed those assignments, but had no need. Receipts and tickets were printed easily.

One disappointment: A few days after the purchase, AirTran changed the itinerary from a "direct" flight with one stop in Atlanta to a connection in Atlanta, thereby adding the possibility of a missed connection and doubling our risk of lost luggage. The new flight schedule actually got us into Fort Lauderdale at about the same time, but with only a 45-minute connection in Atlanta. That's good when the first flight is on time, but how often does that happen in winter/spring weather? Concerned about missing the connection, I phoned and asked for a later flight from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale (about an hour later) and was quickly and courteously accommodated. No problem. If we had known that the direct flight would become a connection, however, we might have bought non-stop tickets on Delta in the first place, even though that cost a bit more.

But disappointment became appreciation when we discovered, at the gate for the first flight, that our seat assignments had been moved to the business-class section, which affords more space for long legs and laptops.

On board, while enjoying the hospitality of business class, I launched Internet Explorer 8 (x32) on a brand-new laptop running Windows 7 Professional x64, hoping to use AirTran's GoGo Inflight Internet service. No dice. I could connect to the GoGo web site at an incredibly slow pace, but nothing else at all, and could not figure out how to pay for a "flight pass." Then Google Chrome to the rescue! Upon launch it immediately redirected to the pay-here page, as IE should have done. I declined to pay $10 for the remainder of that flight, but now I thought I knew how to make it work. Just DON'T USE Internet Explorer.

I am constantly amazed by the shoddiness of the software that Microsoft considers fit for the market. They seem to think that they can get away with anything, and depend on their marketing clout to cover their technical sloth. We only have to buy it, not like it. But that's for another post on Peagravel.

The second AirTran flight, from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale, was miserable. AirTran employees were courteous and helpful as before, but we three were together in the very last row of the Boeing 717 (upgraded DC9, MD80). Not only is there no window in that row, but the window of the next row forward is completely obscured by the huge jet engine just outside it. The seat backs are right up against the lavatories, so close in fact that the seats cannot be pushed back. This unpleasant two-hour ride was partly my fault too, of course, because I didn't know enough to change the seat selection when I checked in on line - I forgot how bad those seats are in a DC9. We were very happy to be off that flight.

When we arrived in Fort Lauderdale our bags had already arrived, apparently on the connection that we thought might be too close. I thought that air travel security required that bags fly with the passengers, but these definitely went ahead.

Checking in for the return flights, I was careful to get seating assignments well forward of the back row. The plane to Atlanta was full, and we were not offered a free upgrade to business class. The woman ahead of me put her seat back as soon as she was allowed, and kept it back throughout the flight. That left very little space for my large laptop, which would have been cramped even if the seat did not go back. I doubt that the seat-to-seat space is different from any other airline. Certainly it isn't better.

I think that people who want to push their seats back should pay a fee to the person behind them whose space they will use. Make it plenty high. It's rude. Maybe it should only be allowed between 10 pm and 6 am. Never would be fine too.

On this flight, neither browser would automatically redirect to the Wi-Fi login page. I did manage to get there eventually, by entering the URL directly into the Google Chrome address window. When I tried to play their stupid game to get a discount voucher, however, it complained that "Flash 10" was not installed on my computer. Then when I clicked the button labeled "Get Adobe Flash Player," I got an error message saying "this web page has a redirect loop." Bottom line, I couldn't play the stupid game without Flash 10, and I couldn't get Flash 10 without first buying air time. I do have Adobe Flash, by the way, and it does appear to be version 10.

The flight left Ft Lauderdale at least 20 minutes late, because the inbound aircraft had arrived late, but it landed in Atlanta only about five minutes late.

The next and last flight left the Atlanta gate five minutes early, but stood in line behind several other aircraft for some time before taking off. Atlanta is a very busy airport. We were in coach again - the plane was full and no upgrade was offered.

This time Chrome tripped on the Flash 10 error again, but Internet Explorer got access to the game if I keyed in the correct URL. It stopped briefly for the Flash 10 error, and then went ahead anyway. But after collecting the code generated by the game, I needed Chrome to get to the pay-here page that would actually connect me to the internet. Upon entering the code, I was offered free internet access, so I connected, and from then on both IE and Chrome worked properly, as did email. I do like having internet access aboard the aircraft, and there may be times that it will be worth the cost.

The final flight got us back to MSP about 15 minutes ahead of schedule. That was most welcome.

Overall impression of AirTran: They do seem to try harder than Delta, the other airline I've flown most recently. At bottom, though, they are in the business of making money by cramming as many passengers into their planes as possible, at the expense of comfort and enjoyment, just like the other airlines.

The in-flight internet service was very hard to access and rather expensive, but worked well once I got connected.

Automated Spam Blog Comments, Spambots

Overnight, a blog that I manage got an automated "spam comment" from an organization purporting to raise money for children in Haiti.

The people who did this use "spambot" software which leaves comments on thousands or millions of blogs in one operation. Sunshine got one on a blog as well. I deleted the comment, of course. No legitimate organization would try to raise money by spamming other people's blogs.

Please don't get sucked in. Most of this spam is just self-promoting, but increasingly they want your credit card numbers, or worse.

If you visit a blog, ANY blog, and see a comment that has little or nothing to do with the blog content, please DO NOT CLICK a link in that comment, no matter how legitimate the link or the cause may seem. Just clicking the link might make you the victim of a drive-by virus infection with, potentially, the ability to quietly deliver all of the private information on your computer to people who would love to have it.

Be safe, Don

OnStar Failed Us

Last spring we acquired a Saturn Aura with OnStar, a satellite radio control system.  It requires a monthly subscription, but theoretically it offers some nice benefits, such as:

• Monthly diagnostics, which come in the form of an email,
• Automatic 911 calls if the air bags deploy, and
• Remote door-unlock, in case we should inadvertently lock the keys in the car.

We haven't locked the keys in the car in years.  It's hard to do, actually, because these days we don't lock with the buttons on the doors - we use the remote, which is attached to the keys.  Today, though, Sunshine unknowingly dropped the keys into the trunk of the car, with the other doors locked, and when she closed the trunk the keys were inside.  You get that sinking feeling ...

She had never called OnStar, so she called me.  I called OnStar.  They agreed to unlock it, saying that it might take as much as ten minutes.

Well, ten minutes is a very long time when the temperature is zero (actual air temp) outside.  She was in Sam's Club parking lot, so she could go inside, but if she was concerned that OnStar would unlock the car and then the contents would be vulnerable, so she couldn't really stay inside.  She stayed close to the building where she could watch the car.

Meanwhile, not entirely trusting the system, I got in my car and started the 15-minute drive to her location, expecting to get a call at any moment saying that I could turn around.  The call never came.  When I got there the car was still locked, so I unlocked it with my remote.  Sunshine found the keys immediately.

When she got into the car she heard the end of a conversation on the car's speakers, and heard the caller hang up.  She didn't hear the beginning of that conversation, because she was LOCKED OUT!  OnStar did us no good whatsoever, and in fact my call to them only slowed me down when Sunshine was actually at risk.

I'm a little upset about that, and try not to make decisions when upset, but I wonder how long we'll continue to pay $17.45 per month, over $200 per year, for a system that let us down when we needed it the most.

Bernafon Verite Hearing Aid Review

I've had my Bernafon Verite (Vérité) hearing aids for almost two months now. My first hearing aids. I was reluctant, but it was time. I bought two aids, even though one ear has only a slight loss.

Bottom line: I'm very glad I bought hearing aids, and I'm glad I bought two. I got them at Costco. It feels as if I have bionic hearing, able to hear things that I couldn't before, and maybe even things that others can't hear. Don't turn the TV up for ME any more! Speech recognition is much better, the most important benefit, and these aids have still more to offer.

Configuration:

• Two identical behind-the-ear high-tech Berafon Verite aids using "receiver in the ear" (RITE) technology. In the hearing industry, the "receiver" is actually the loudspeaker that makes the sound for the ear. The connection from the aid to the ear is a wire, not a plastic tube.
• There are lots of colors. I got blue ones. What the heck.
• Open-fit, which means that a disposable soft-plastic dome holds the speaker in the ear rather than a conventional ear mold. The dome has holes which allow some sound to bypass the aids. If I had a more-severe loss, the open fit would not work because of feedback, but the Verite and its RITE work with ear molds too, of course.
• Power speakers, rather than normal ones, for reasons known only to the guy who ordered the aids for me. I suppose he assumed that my hearing would eventually get worse and I would need the extra power.
• Bluetooth: To borrow from an old commercial, "This is not your father/mother's hearing aid!" More about Bluetooth later.
• The SoundGate is an extra device which hangs around the neck (with a breakaway safety cord) and can control channel, volume, and connections to any of several Bluetooth devices.
• This configuration cost about $3000 in Minnesota, about half the price of high-quality aids from the conventional hearing-aid providers that we checked. That's a $3000 savings, the best reason to shop Costco for hearing aids.

Hearing:

• Sounds are crystal clear, especially voices. This is what a hearing aid is about, and it works! When I take the aids out at night, sounds seem soft and dull by comparison.
• There is no perceptible delay between sound from the aids and sound coming into the ear directly through the open-fit domes.
• Feedback is minimal. When it starts, as it might if I hold something (like my sweetie) next to my ear, the feedback is quickly detected and controlled by the computer in the Verite.
• Noise management: As a hearing-aid newbie I'm not sure what to look for. I do notice that the Verite suppresses white noise in a quiet setting. It doesn't seem to do much to quiet the loud roar in the passenger cabin of an airplane, but maybe it works too fast for me to detect the suppression.
• The two aids communicate with each other, so that if, for example, the channel is changed on one it will also change on the other. It works.
• No telephone switch. The Verite automatically detects the presence of a phone receiver held against the ear, and switches that aid to a special telephone channel until the phone is removed from the ear.

Bluetooth, hearing aids that do MORE:

Basically, the hearing aids with the SoundGate control unit can act as a Bluetooth headset for listening to TV or music, or for talking on the telephone:

• You've seen people walking about with a gizmo sticking forward from their ear, obviously talking to someone. Perhaps you've done that too. Well, now you can do that without the ostentatious ear ornament. Your cell phone rings, you push a little button on the SoundGate hanging around your neck, and you are in conversation. You listen with both ears, and speak forward, which reaches the SoundGate. I love this feature, and it works well, though the Bluetooth sometimes takes too long to connect. I have a new Motorola W766 phone from Verizon, and the combination produces the clearest voices I have ever heard on any phone.
• Bernafon includes a Bluetooth adapter for use with a TV or music device. Mine is plugged into the TV set's audio output, so I can run to the kitchen and still hear the TV, even with other noises in the house. The audio is adjusted for voice, however, which is fine for listening to the news and most shows, but someone looking for high-quality music would be disappointed.

Room for improvement:

• There is no OFF switch on the aids or at the SoundGate, for those times that ambient sounds are just too loud: Washing/drying dishes (clank-clank), amplified music, train going by, announcements in the airport, whatever. Noise management does not seem to help those situations. You can turn the aids off by opening the battery compartment part way, but you risk dropping the battery. Better to take the aids out of the ears. I did anticipate this problem and asked the fitter to program channel 4 (the last channel) for very low gain, so I can just switch to channel 4 when the ambient noise is too loud. That works.
• The Verite responds to single-tone noise (whistles, beeps, squeaks, some alarms) by reducing its gain at that tone, I think. But when the noise is gone, the Verite becomes VERY responsive to exactly that tone, resonant, sounding hollow at that tone, as if sounds were traveling through a steel tube. It usually doesn't quite whistle, but comes very close. It can be restored to normal function by changing the channel and changing it back. It happens in either ear, maybe both. It's a bug in the software that should be fixed. I wonder if they can fix it and download new software to my aids.
• According to the Bernafon literature supplied by Costco, the Verite also comes with a Bluetooth telephone adapter for use with a standard wired telephone. But it doesn't. A bit of false advertising by Costco. I expected the adapter, and would have used it in my office. I'm asking Costco to make good on their advertising.
• It comes with a cute little box to contain the aids at night, but I can't figure out how to fit them into the box without bending the RITE wires. I think the box is made for conventional aids with plastic tubes instead of wires. Hard to believe that they would send a box that doesn't work.
• The Costco guy from whom I bought these aids was unable to fit them properly, and I ended up going to a different Costco store to get them working as they should. This is only partly a Bernafon problem - mostly a Costco problem.
• My biggest beef:  These aids are not at all tolerant to moisture.  I'm a runner, but I can't wear them when I run because running equals sweating.  I knew that when I bought them, but I sure miss them when I run.