Monthly Archives: February 2004

CAPPS-II: Privacy in Travel

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Edwad Hasbrouck mentions something that might have an impact at work: TSA finally starts talking to travel execs about CAPPS-II

These same privacy clauses in travel management contracts were almost certainly violated when airlines (including jetBleu and Northwest), CRS’s (including Sabre), and third-party PNR processing firms (including Airline Automation — now part of the Amadeus CRS — and Acxiom) shared PNR data with government contractors and agencies for profiling tests. As recognition of the issue grows, so does the likelihood that all these companies handling, and secretly disclosing, reservation data will face breach of contract lawsuits from corporate travellers, in addition to the current crop of class action lawsuits by individual passengers.

“PNR” is “Personal Name Record,” and is something I build every time I make a reservation for someone. Our main client (our team is “tied” to just one account) may or may not be one of those whose travel manager went to this meeting. However, I doubt it, they’re hardly ever up to speed on current and future issues in the industry, and also very slow to implement optional updates.

It’s possible this issue might be important to those higher on the food chain than I am; likelier that it’s not, and won’t be an issue for our client. Hard to say.

However, if any of the international travelers I’ve encountered ended up on the “wrong” list under CAPPS-II, there’d be h e l l to pay. One lady went ballistic recently because of a clerical error — her passport was cancelled by mistake by the local Passport Office (Department of State) instead of having extra pages added. NO explanation, no apology, and when they replaced the passport, they sent it offsite by regular mail and back rather than issue it onsite. Why? We don’t know, that’s government work for you.

So — given the high quality of government work in general and knowing a bit about the TSA in particular, I’m not really optimistic about CAPPS-II, and apparently there are a lot of people in the industry who totally oppose it (mostly because it’ll cost a lot of money to implement, but still – it’s dependent on government work, and that’s not good).

Sushi Station: Fast Food Express

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Last night after our adventures at the Botanic Garden, we needed something to eat, fast. So we went to Sushi Station, which filled the main criteria: it was nearby, fast, and cheap-ish.

Unlike another sushi place we’ve been to with a train motif, this one has a refrigerated case covering the “sushi line,” and plates of nigiri and such travel along a belt made up of interlocking discs (each one has a bite taken out of it, to allow for the next disc upline to rotate around the corners).

It’s good, it’s quick, it’s pretty inexpensive — and then I realized they’d added a little toy sushi train on 3 different plates, probably as a spacer so they know how long a given dish has been on the line.

So the photo of the sushi choo-choo is now in the “Stupid Cameraphone Trix” section, along with a picture of the little sign attesting to the freshness of the fish. I’m assuming the Japanese characters are a translation of the English romaji, or vice-versa.

It’s a fun restaurant – the music is highly variable, last night they were playing jazz. They use an automatic welcome-machine at the door that says “Welcome” in Japanese in a very high-pitched voice, but everyone else on the staff calls out “welcome,” too. The colors are odd and garish, and it attracts a lot of Japanese families and lots of ex-pat types living in the States. For this reason, I had a mild flashback to my solo trip to Japan — it was possible to pretend I was in a robo-sushi joint somewhere near the commuter rail station in a large city.

They’re located in Rolling Meadows — which is actually “flat stripmalls,” but they couldn’t really name the town that, could they?

Solo Transarctic Trek

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Polar expeditions have always fascinated me – here’s a new one:Serco TransArctic Expedition

Hmm. Makes me want to dig out my old Victory Sings at Sea CD and play “The Northwest Passage.”

Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea;
Tracing one warm line through a land so wild and savage
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea.

(Wow, the CD is back in print! Excellent, excellent, excellent stuff.)

“No Donut For You”

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Even error messages are humorous over at Orkut….

Bad, bad server. No donut for you

Unfortunately, the orkut.com has acted out in an unexpected way. Hopefully, it will return to its helpful self if you try again in a few minutes.

It’s likely that the server will behave this way on occasion during the coming months. We apologize for the inconvenience and for our server’s lack of consideration for others.

I didn’t do anything to bust it, honest.

Kerry Waffles (With Maple Syrup)

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Kerry Backs State Ban On Gay Marriage (but civil unions are O.K.?)

The Redhead Wore Crimson : won’t be voting for Kerry, and I’m thinking neither will I, unless he waffles back over the line.

Dang it — people should be free to marry the person of their choice (there – nobody marryin’ no trees nor dogs around here. And no multiples). I’ve had it with the “holy matrimony” bullhocky argument — I heard some Episcopal rector from Texas on :NPR earlier today, solemnly intoning that marriage was a gift from God. Eep. He’s from the other end of the Episcopal buffet from me, I’m thinking.

Gift from God? Matrimony holy? Bullcrap. Marriage was originally a way to transfer inheritance, property, and bloodlines. All that religious symbolism, while pretty, was window dressing. It was all about the ducats – especially in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, when only the rich people bothered to get married in church.

All the peasants (that’s you and me) just lived together and were considered married by all and sundry, including the local priest. All he really cared about was that progeny got baptised.

And if I recall aright, marriages used to take place in the church porch way back when… not inside the church, because they were too bawdy and disruptive. Must check on that.

Hmm.

Hmm. Whoa, Martin Luther said that? Hmm.

And just to chime in with a not a few others, there are more gay people getting married in various places around the country than there were last week, and my marriage is just fine, thankyewverramuch.

I don’t think much of the “civil union” compromise anymore. It doesn’t seem like it’s anything other than it is – a sop thrown to gay constituents by politicians who can’t bring themselves to go all the way out on the limb.

I’m disappointed in Kerry. If he’s the only alternative to Bush, I’ll vote for him, but he’s going to hear a lot about gay marriage before then. I dare say he might come around eventually.

Although… we’d better make sure things are right in Florida this time around. Last time, a vote for Gore didn’t matter a hoot, owing to our wonderful Electoral College.

And we still have that because… why, again? Oh, right, another Constitutional amendment required to dump it.

Bother.

Chicago Koen

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We did make it out, late in the day, to the Botanic Garden. It wasn’t cold, and there weren’t many people there because there was nothing “pretty” in bloom yet. Still, it has a spare beauty in the winter and is always worth a visit in reasonable weather.

So we took a lot of photos. I don’t know how David’s came out with the new camera, but mine aren’t so bad…
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England Redux

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I’ve finally started transcribing the next England trip journal. I’ve been putting it off for a long time because:

  • 1. it’s really long, because I stopped writing daily entries for a week.
  • B. We took a boatload of photos the whole time, and that means Photoshop.
  • Tha-rrreee. I got bad news from home in the middle of that week, and have been mulling over how to present it in the entries.

However, I decided to break it down into workable chunks by location and date, so that the lengthy “afterwords” for each place were easier to deal with.

So maybe at least one, possibly two England/Scotland entries by tonight.

Also, I bought a really helpful book:Photoshop Elements for Digital Photographers”, and is also pretty funny.

One Drawback of Warmer Weather

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“It’s 50 degrees!”

Since it’s supposed to be nice today, we’re going to the Chicago Botanic Garden
just to get out of the house, take some pictures, and enjoy the day. It’s early
for there to be much in bloom – still late winter here, though there might be
snowdrops or something.

“It’s 50 degrees!”

I have a co-worker that has some rather odd ideas about “seasonal attire.” I’m
actually a little concerned that the weather is warming up, because very soon
(much sooner than you would think physically possible), she will start wearing
shorts to work. If anyone says anything to her, such as “But… it’s March,”
her reply is always a cheerful “It’s 50 degrees!” We had a very mild winter
last year – one early December day she showed up in shorts and a few people
pounced on her with variations on the phrase “Are you nuts? It’s December!” and
the answer was always the same (lather, rinse, repeat). So if the weather is even
somewhat decent next week, she’ll be in shorts, chanting her mantra:

“It’s 50 degrees!”