The Quest for the Zero-Minute Month

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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON NOVEMBER 17, 2009 (on a blog hosting site that's not very friendly about exporting their data)

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Call me old school. After repeatedly having more minutes than I can use in a year, much less in a month, I still try to conserve minutes on my cell phone plan as if they cost $0.35/each. (When I started using cell phones that's what they cost.)
Neurotic, I know, but I can't help it – so instead I'm trying to embrace it.

During the next few months, with the help of a few key tools that I'll outline below, I'm going on a quest - a personal jihad, if you will - for the Zero Minute Month. From a practical standpoint it may be impossible for me to get all the way there but I'm betting that I can get my monthly minutes down to under, say, 200 anytime minutes.  The point is to demonstrate how, with a little care and the aid of some cool new technology, anyone can reduce their monthly cell phone minutes to a point so low that you could choose the cheapest possible plan and still have minutes left over.

Sky-High WiFi

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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JUNE 30, 2009 (on a blog hosting site that's not very friendly about exporting their data)

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Most times I'm asleep before takeoff. The routine, honed after 20+ years of heavy traveling and more than two million miles in the air, is more a result of muscle memory than thought. Backpack stored in overhead - check. Newspaper and reading materials folder in seat-back pocket - check. Earbuds firmly inserted to block noise and memorized announcements - check. Turn off phone - check. Wake-up when drink cart rolls down the aisle - check. Log into WiFi to get some work done - check - WAIT - what? WiFi? Up here? Yup.

After years of isolation at 35,000' and the ability to effectively block work-related communications thanks to a lack of Internet connectivity the wall has come down - or gone way, way up, depending on your point of view. It took years before the net's reach extended outwards from the home or office but now that's pretty much routine - wireless cards, hot spots, tethering a mobile to your laptop, etc., all keep us connected when we're on the horizontal. But now the reach has gone vertical. Just last week I had sky-high WiFi. And loved it.

Most of my flying has been spread across the three major airlines thanks to relocations that took me to Dallas (American), Chicago (United), Atlanta (Delta) and L.A. (take your pick). I'd never flown Virgin America before but had tried Virgin Atlantic for a couple of hops across the pond to London and liked it so I figured it would be worth a try.

Satellite Radio Is On Life Support

 

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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MAY 12, 2009 (on a blog hosting site that's not very friendly about exporting their data)

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Biking alongside someone for hours at a time gives riders plenty of time to talk. My #1 riding buddy (and great pal) Andy and I have clocked thousands of miles together, all the while talking about business, arguing about politics, laughing about the sheer stupidities of life and generally covering a lot of ground - both literally and figuratively.

A few years ago Andy got his first satellite radio and was instantly hooked. He loved the clear sound, choice of channels and absence of advertising. My comment, as we pedaled along, puzzled him. "Enjoy it while you can. It won't last forever," I said.

As with a lot of other predictions I'm off by a few years in one direction or another. However, I'm convinced that satellite radio is currently on life support and is doomed to be a marginal product for however long it lasts - despite the opinions of Andy and millions of his fellow satellite-radio-addicted compatriots.