In 30 minutes I’ll be on a plane back to San Francisco. Gawd, I wish they had WiFi on planes right now. Can you imagine 10 extra hours to surf, catch up on different things, and generally enjoy the web?
Maybe in a couple more years. Anyway, I’m sure I’ll be doing posts when I get back to talk about several of the interesting things (and people!) that I ran into.
{ 55 comments… read them below or add one }
Sometimes it’s good to disconnect for 10 hours, Matt
. Enjoy your flight back. If you’re desperate, you could try an acoustic coupler with the inboard phone, but I doubt that will make you happy…
I wish you a safe journey home Matt
Even if they did have it on planes, you’d probably have to cash in most of your stock options to afford it for a 10 hour flight.
In fact Boeing did have a system that allowed just this. I’ve used it on both Lufthansa and Thai Airlines. The latency wasn’t great so logging into a terminal was frustrating, but it was good enough to (just about) make skype calls.
Unfortunately they have now withdrawn the service. (http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/17/business/net.php) For me the biggest problem was the battery life on my laptop.
When you get back check out the guys at the top of the serps for mobile phones. They got a cool 3.4 million links to get there. You might want to do something about it………..
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=mobile+phones
I’m surprised that you have any energy left after “visiting” Dublin’s finest. The only thing you should consider catching up on is the 40 winks left behind in the UK!
When I flew to Stockholm from Toronto on SAS they had WIFI service. It cost about $25 for the entire flight. I was actually able to surf and use my web cam (on my Mac). Was pretty cool.
Hey Matt,
Glad to hear you had a good time, looking forward to seeing some photos!
You reckon this Wimax malarky will be useable for planes? sure would help with the boredom if the inflight movie sucks lol
That reminds me of an article in last month’s Business 2.0 about the realities behind all the airplane regulations. I think if having your cell phone turned on or Wi-Fi on your computer could really down a plane, wouldn’t they ban the things? Come on. Osama would have used cell phones then!
I can just see the HUGE list that Adam Lasnik left on Matt’s desk(top) @ Google titled, “While you were away”.
I can also predict Matt’s next post will be something like “Catching up on my emails, no time to blog”.
Man, I got to get a life, sorry!
Signed,
The annoying guy at the office who is always in everyone elses business
=P
you do not have Google Cache on your laptop? hmmm
When I was in high school I think it was I saw someone use a giant old phone as their laptop modem. Now days you can have you dial-up connection through bluetooth if you are desperate.
Have a nice safe ravel back home, Matt.
You might consider a weather report about how Emmy and Oz reacted when they saw you and Mrs Cutts entering the house after a loooong no time no see
I got it you already read Google cache.
Don’t you have one of those computers that come with a couple of GB of “web content” pre-installed? Happy surfing LOL
Good Luck
I always take lots of sky pics when flying, if you took some nice ones, please upload
be nice to have either Wi Fi or a reeaaaaallly loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong network cable
now that you’re a lottery winner, a millionaire, why don’t you use your own charter?
Lufthansa Business Class would have let you.
Dear Matt,
and when are you planning to visit this part of Europe? (I am sitting in Hungary)
There are reallllly nice people here as well and there is a huge business potential in these countries too (HUN, RO, CZ, SK, SLO, HR)..
Have a great flight!
Several interesting things? Ok, so we sat our alarm clocks to like 14 hours from your post to read your next blog entry
I agree with Bogdan, you should definitely use your own charter now, after winning the lottery
Darius
Make sure you have a Guinness when you get back Matt! Nothing better when you get back from a visit to Dublin
Looking forward to a nice long post about the whole trip Matt… maybe some photos?
Safe travels, Mr. Matt!
Wish you safe travel to home.
Are there any airlines yet with Internet Connectivity? … Me thinks Mr Brandson should pioneer the concept for Virgin Airlines… that would make me buy my tickets with his airline.
I’m always glad with 10 extra hours to sleep. I love planes. ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Now u can rest even its not delibrate.
Well spotted Mad4. If you look closely, most of their links are coming from a well known ad network. I’ve been seeing sites using this doing very well in Google SERPs lately. Check out the top result on this SERP:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=loans&btnG=Google+Search&meta=&num=100
It’s doing using exactly the same ad network. Matt – it would be really good if someone could look into this.
Happy journey……Matt……….
Lufthansa overseas flights no matter if business or coach would offer you wifi for a little fee…. Realy great service.
Matt, you should have booked Scandinavian. They offer in-flight wifi for $30 on all flights crossing the big ole sea. Probably needed to fly over Copenhagen Denmark tho
Ryan, a fair point. British Airways offered a power adapter, but it was like 69 pounds ~= 140 bucks. Oy. On the bright side, I was able to finish a couple fun books.
roger balmer, I didn’t know that Lufthansa offers wifi for a fee yet. Interesting.
Matt,
I would prefer to have a teletransportation system.
It’s better that to have a Wifi system.
Imagine to travel around the world in a few seconds.
Keep up the good work.
Mac
Matt
Don’t know if you got a chance to checkout the picture of your good self on Umberto’s blog yet – you have now be usurped by Stone Henge, I hope you won’t get too offended!
Henry
I wish we had wifi on planes too. I also ran out of battery when I was flying back from the UK. Mac has a MagSafe Airline Adapter but it didn’t work on the plane
Hey Matt!
Well thats a really awesome thought having Wifi on planes! Wow then life would be so easy and simple!
Hope to see more of you when you are back! Happy Journey!
Manish
I always save my ‘paperwork’ ahead of time, like doing my timesheet approvals, project planning documents etc. I just run into battery life issues while on the plane.
Martin
You are so right Matt about having it on the plane. Can’t live without it.
I can spare you all your troubles cathing up
Google is fine as of today.
MSN is slowly(????) killing themselves with their new algo so you just have to wait a month or so and you can buy it for 2 cents.
Goodluck with your journey!
Have a save flight Matt – WiFi on planes the NEXT BIG THING! I may just get the domain right now aerowifi.com
I’m always happy for traveling because when I’m near a computer, I have a hard time reading a book (I jump up every 5 minutes with something on mind to search, translate, note down, or blog!).
> what is the sum of 10 + 2 ?
Still harvesting the mob intelligence huh? When will you release your Human Powered Calculator (TM)?!!
International flights are murder…I settle for a decent movie…
I hate travel, especially without a computer.
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/putting-our-money-where-our-mouths-are-boycott-the-riaa-in-march-239281.php
A boycott of RIAA products = good idea.
Matt
Your wife and your mom were in China last July.
This time you had your wife and father-in-law to UK and Dublin.
I guess its Mr. Cutts senior turn to travel with you next time
Traveling overseas with an American passport is becoming an increasingly unpleasant experience, computer or no computer, especially in Europe.
Matt,
Waiting for your blog post….
Pratheep
I was on my flight back to singapore yesterday.. it was quite boring.. wished I dont have to come back to work. Argh!!! :p
There is a compnay working on this in the US right now
Forget WiFi, how about a nice gigabit connection with a pull out plug right in your armrest?
It would be nice…. Usually I bring a few books and maybe a movie or two for my laptop. A power cable for a laptop would also be nice….
Hmmm 10 hours surfing time on a plane through Wifi?
I’m pretty sure this plane would be very special 
El Al Air lines Stopped their Wi Fi services in flights coz of ” not enough demand from users”