Daily Archives: January 5, 2009

On Keynote Queues

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Wondering about the kind of person who would wait in line overnight to see an Apple keynote.

I’m not going to Macworld Expo this year. I used to go regularly and didn’t miss a show for about 10 years. Then I started skipping them. It just didn’t seem worth the time and expense. I went last year but am skipping this year.

I always watch the Apple keynote presentation, though. For a while, it was available as a live Webcast. Since then, it’s been available a day or two afterwards as a streamed QuickTime movie. That’s good enough for me.

Evidently, it isn’t good enough for some people. When I finally tracked down the date and time for this year’s Keynote address on the Macworld Expo Web site, I also stumbled upon some information for attendees wishing to see the presentation live. Here’s part of the instructions:

FOR PLATINUM PASS ATTENDEES:
As a Platinum Pass attendee, you have priority seating to view the Keynote in the main presentation room, based on availability. You may queue up on line any time beginning Monday evening, along 4th Street adjacent to the Moscone Center. We urge you to make every effort to be on line by 7:00am Tuesday morning to ensure your place in the queue, as we cannot guarantee seating late arrivals. Show management staff and security will be present to assist with any questions.

I should probably mention here that the folks who have “platinum passes” spent $1,695 to get them — if they bought them before December 1. If they waited, they paid $1,895.

I don’t know about you, but the thought of waiting on line in San Francisco overnight in January after paying nearly $2K for “priority seating” seems a little extreme. What kind of person would do this?

Now there’s a lot of hoopla over the fact that Steve Jobs is not doing this year’s keynote address. There’s even a bunch of whiners who claim they’re going to give Phil Schiller, who is doing the presentation, the cold (and silent) shoulder with each announcement. (These could be the same people who are willing to wait in line overnight to see a trade show keynote address.) So although I don’t expect a bunch of people to be standing out in the cold tonight on 4th Street (or Howard Street for the people who don’t have “platinum” passes), I do wonder how many people stood on line overnight in the past. Anyone have this info? Use the comments link or form for this post to share it.

Today’s Scams

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Will it ever end?

I need to start by mentioning that I have so much spam protection set up for my e-mail accounts that I get a total of less than 30 unsolicited e-mail messages a day — on 10 e-mail accounts. I think that’s pretty damn good, considering what’s going on out there.

Yet today, I got TWO scam messages before I started my day’s work. I want to take a moment to mention them because I want to help educate people about how scammers are trying to separate unsuspecting people from their money.

I’ll pay you $8000 with my credit card and you give me $4,820 in cash.

The first was a repeat of a scam that I first experienced in May 2007. I wrote about it here. This is a twist on the old scam where you’re selling something and a buyer wants to use a certified check to overpay you and get the excess cash to “an agent” for some other purpose. In my case, what I was selling was helicopter tour services. The “client” was from Germany, planning a vacation in the area, and wanted to prepay for tours around the area for his family. The first time I saw this scam, I got sucked in a bit — until the prepay part, which included money forwarded to a “logistic agent.” Alarm bells went off. You can read all the messages and my accompanying thoughts in the post I linked to above. I highly recommend this post for anyone selling any high-ticket items — goods or services — on the Web.

Today’s message sounded familiar when I read it. A search through my blog using the word “scam” brought it up to refresh my memory. A comparison between today’s e-mail message and the May 2007 message resulted in many identical words and phrases — even the 95-lb weight of the 16-year-old son.

I replied with a link to the post, using TinyURL to mask the URL:

You might want to read the following for more information about how we handle reservations like this:

http://tinyurl.com/5tcryd

Busted!

For security reasons we have sent you this message as an attachment file.

If that doesn’t send off bells and whistles, you deserve to be scammed. The e-mail message in question was supposedly from Barclay’s Bank. I don’t have an account there, so there was no chance that I was going to open the attachment.

The attachment was an innocent-looking HTML file. It could have contained any kind of malicious code or links to a site that would install malware. It could have simply prompted me to enter my Barclay’s account information, which it would then forward to the scammers so they could suck money out of my account.

This might seem simple to everyone — don’t open an attachment. But if you have a Barclay’s account, and the message says the attachment is part of a new security program, and you’re gullible, you might just open it.

Don’t. Open. Any. Attachments. In. Messages. Unless. You. Know. They’re. Safe.

4 Great Articles about WordPress 2.7

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Why reinvent the wheel?

WordPress LogoLast night, the folks at Automattic updated WordPress.com to version 2.7. The self-hosted version of WordPress is still in beta, although Release Candidate 1 (RC1) was released two days ago.

I’ve been working with WordPress 2.7 for about two weeks now (since Beta 2) and am absolutely thrilled with it. The Dashboard and administrator interface has been completely reworked to make it not only more useful, but easier to navigate. Sure, a lot of folks will be grumbling about the change from horizontal-on-top to vertical-on-left navigation, but when you look beyond the obvious, you see a true user interface improvement.

There are plenty of other new features, too. But rather than write my own article about them, here are links to four other articles written by folks who clearly love WordPress as much as I do. Read up, upgrade, and enjoy!

2.7 Gets Here in 2 Days! by Jane Wells on the WordPress.com blog was the first official announcement of 2.7’s upcoming appearance on WordPress.com. Jane helps fuel the excitement with a great description of the new features.

10 Things You Need to Know about WordPress 2.7 by Aaron Brazell on Technosailor states, “This is not your grandma’s WordPress!” (Not sure if I should be offended by this; there’s a chance I might be old enough to be his mother.) He then goes on to describe and state his opinions of the new features.

WordPress 2.7 – 20 Must See Features by Sean P. Aune on Mashable lists the 20 features he finds most notable with a few screen shots.

WordPress 2.7 arrives Thursday night is a shorter and more to-the-point piece by Joshn Lowensohn on cnet news. It links back to the first article here (which I also think is the best) for a full discussion of features.

I’ll be writing a bit about WordPress for Maria’s Guides as I find new tricks and tips to share. I’ll also be revising my Lynda.com training material to cover the new features available on WordPress.com.

Tips for Flying at Lake Powell: Lake Powell and the Airports

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The first of a four-part series about flying at Lake Powell.

I’ve been at Page, AZ on the dam end of Lake Powell for about a month now. Although I already knew quite a bit about flying at the lake from numerous photo jobs here, I’ve picked up quite a bit in the past month, mostly from my pilot neighbors at the campground. Since I have enough material to blog about it, I figured I’d write about it, mostly to get my mind off politics and the tech book I’m working on.

Anyway, this will be a four-part series and this is the first part. I have notes for the other three parts, so I’m sure I’ll get them done — probably within the next week or so.

About Page and Lake Powell

Glen Canyon DamPage is the town built in the late 1950s to house the workers on the Glen Canyon Dam, which was under construction at the time. It sits atop a mesa to the east of the Colorado River. The current population of the town is about 7,000, but it attracts approximately 3 million visitors a year.

The dam was completed in 1963 and water began collecting behind it in what would become Lake Powell. It took 17 years for the lake to reach its high water mark at 3,700 feet elevation. Since then, the water level has fluctuated considerably over the years. As I type this, the water level is at 3,629 feet, a full 71 feet below full pool. Around the water line is a tall white line: the so-called “bathtub ring” that marks the high water line.

Lake Powell with CloudsLake Powell is outrageously beautiful. Its clear, blue water reflects the clear Arizona/Utah sky. Its red rock canyons, buttes, and other formations change throughout the day with the light. Deep, narrow canyons cut into the desert, making mysterious pathways for boaters to explore. When the wind and water is calm, the buttes and canyon walls cast their reflections down on the water. In the rare instances when weather moves in, low clouds add yet another dimension to the scenery.

I love the lake.

Flying at Lake Powell

The best way to see Lake Powell is from the air.

On the LakeSure, it’s wonderful by boat — especially by houseboat over 5 to 7 days with a bunch of good friends or family members — but views are limited from the ground and distances take a long time to cover. Let’s face it: the lake’s surface area is 266 square miles (at full pool) and it stretches 186 miles up the Colorado and San Juan Rivers. You could explore the lake by boat for a year and not get a chance to visit each of its 90 water-filled side canyons.

So if you have a plane (or helicopter) or feel like splurging on an airplane tour, you’ll get a special look at the lake that few people see. I highly recommend it.

[Air]Ports of Entry

There are technically four airports along Lake Powell. You can see them all on this pieced-together sectional. (The lake straddles the Las Vegas and Denver charts.)

Airports at Lake Powell

  • Page Municipal (PGA) is the main airport. It’s on east side of the mesa where the City of Page sits, and has two runways. Runway 15/33 is the more commonly used runway; it’s longer. But for strong crosswinds, there’s also 7/25, which does not have a parallel taxiway. There are two FBOs competing for the fuel business (AVFuel and BP). There are tie-downs and a mechanic on the field.
  • Bullfrog Basin (U07) is at the Bullfrog Crossing marina. I haven’t landed there (yet), but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t have any facilities. It does, however, have transportation to the marina, where you might be able to get lunch.
  • Cal Black Memorial (U96) is 10 miles from Halls Crossing. It’s a nice airport with a good, lighted runway and 24-hour fuel pumped by Maury, who lives there. (Maury’s getting over some surgery as I write this, but I hope he’ll be there if you stop in an visit. Tell him Maria with the red helicopter says hello.) There’s a shuttle to Halls Crossing, where there’s a lodge and boat rentals, during regular business hours.
  • Hite (UT03) is near Hite Landing. This is a very scary runway — narrow and perhaps slightly crooked — and it’s marked “hazardous” on charts. The last time I drove through the area in 2005, the Hite marina was high and dry and the area was deserted. It might be a bit more active now that the water level is up a bit.

Landing at PGAMost people fly into Page, since it’s the only airport near a town. If you come in from the northwest and land on Runway 15, as we are in this photo — well, we’re actually lined up for landing on the taxiway — you’ll make your descent right over the lake, west of Antelope Marina. (The town is all that green stuff to the right.) Taking off on Runway 33 has you shooting out over the edge of the mesa and lake. Pretty dramatic stuff. I have a lot of fun with it since I don’t really “climb out” after takeoff. The airport is at 4316 feet and the lake is currently at 3629 feet, so there’s no reason to gain altitude if I’m just cruising the lake.

Cal Black has the distinction of being the closest fuel to Monument Valley — about 25 miles away, I think. I made quite a few fuel stops there on a 3-day photo job at Monument Valley and even flew in before sunrise one morning. (Scary stuff; there’s nothing else out there.) I don’t know enough about Bullfrog to provide any tips, but I’d recommend staying clear of Hite.

If you’re a helicopter pilot and think you can set down anywhere near the lake or on one of its islands or buttes, think again. Lake Powell is in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and off-airport landing is prohibited. If you’re caught doing it, you will get in serious trouble with the National Park Service and the FAA. I don’t think it’s worth it, do you?

Coming Up

In the next three parts of the series, I’ll cover the air tour operations, which all pilots flying in the area should be aware of. Then I’ll tell you about some points of interest on the lake. Finally, I’ll tell you what to expect if you fly uplake, beyond the Confluence of the San Juan.

Meanwhile, your comments are welcome here. I’m especially interested in hearing from pilots who have landed at one of the four airports along the lake. Save your tips about points of interest for Part III or IV.