(no subject)
On Stenaline home from Edinburgh. Had an incredibly good time, but more on that later.
So, as I said, I'm on the ferry, and wifi seems to be free for all. Strangely, I only discovered that my B&B had wifi on my last day, which was unfortunate, as it would have eliminated the ultimately futile task of finding a decent net cafe (although, seeing as I don't use my netsoc account so much, it's not so bad, these days I just want keyboards that aren't sticky and have their keys the right way around rather than also looking for ssh access). I could have camped in Nom De Plume (which seems to be attached to the local LGBT centre, and would be what I'd love to see outhouse's cafe become, but I know it's not going to happen), and constantly ordered drinks and nibbles while I fed my internet addiction, but the thought of camping with my netbook seemed skeezy, and also not what the holiday was about... which was switching off for a while.
It seems Virgin Trains have hooked up with T-mobile to do wifi there, and both my trains from Edinburgh to Hollyhead were Virgin 'Super' trains (which also have power points for mobiles and laptops in standard class) Catch is, it's not free unless you're first class. The thing is, I didn't feel cheated. I mean, I was on a decent train that offered very nice clean services, and got me from A to B, they even had a place for me to charge my phone or netbook. That's sweet at the best of times, and is bundled into the standard fare. Of course, the standard fare is a bit higher (or rather, you wouldn't get a supersaver ticket that ran through that company - it's been so long since I paid attention to rail fare structures in the UK that I'm very fuzzy on details). For some reason, I started thinking of what it would be like of Michael O'Leary (of Ryanair shame fame) ran the same service. Even the amenities offered by the standard class would be something you'd be paying a lot for. Want to charge your phone? £5 an hour please. Oh, you have a seat? I'm afraid you haven't paid for it. It's third-class with bolt-ons. With ryanair, I feel afraid to breathe without being charged for it. With Virgin, it's a very good standard class, with bolt-ons.
I guess what I'm trying to say is:
Imagine you want a birthday cake. Standard class with bolt-ons is a decent chocolate cake, with no frills except that it's 2-layer and has a bit of that creamy icing between the layers. If you want a nice hand-piped birthday message, sprinkles, sparklers and ribbons. You pay extra. So, if you go all out, you have a nicely decorated cake.
Now, take the O'Leary model. Like Virgin, you pay for the birthday message, sprinkles and other paraphernalia, but the underlying piece of 'cake' is a dog turd. Yes, you can buy an optional bolt-on of "chocolate cake flavour", but even a bit of cocoa (and, no ,I do not speak from personal experience) will change the underlying experience of ingesting canine defecation.
Ah, um, slightly off topic. I think what I meant to say was "wooo, wifi on a boat", not even Samuel J himself could be sick of this motherfuggin internet on this motherfuggin boat!
So, as I said, I'm on the ferry, and wifi seems to be free for all. Strangely, I only discovered that my B&B had wifi on my last day, which was unfortunate, as it would have eliminated the ultimately futile task of finding a decent net cafe (although, seeing as I don't use my netsoc account so much, it's not so bad, these days I just want keyboards that aren't sticky and have their keys the right way around rather than also looking for ssh access). I could have camped in Nom De Plume (which seems to be attached to the local LGBT centre, and would be what I'd love to see outhouse's cafe become, but I know it's not going to happen), and constantly ordered drinks and nibbles while I fed my internet addiction, but the thought of camping with my netbook seemed skeezy, and also not what the holiday was about... which was switching off for a while.
It seems Virgin Trains have hooked up with T-mobile to do wifi there, and both my trains from Edinburgh to Hollyhead were Virgin 'Super' trains (which also have power points for mobiles and laptops in standard class) Catch is, it's not free unless you're first class. The thing is, I didn't feel cheated. I mean, I was on a decent train that offered very nice clean services, and got me from A to B, they even had a place for me to charge my phone or netbook. That's sweet at the best of times, and is bundled into the standard fare. Of course, the standard fare is a bit higher (or rather, you wouldn't get a supersaver ticket that ran through that company - it's been so long since I paid attention to rail fare structures in the UK that I'm very fuzzy on details). For some reason, I started thinking of what it would be like of Michael O'Leary (of Ryanair shame fame) ran the same service. Even the amenities offered by the standard class would be something you'd be paying a lot for. Want to charge your phone? £5 an hour please. Oh, you have a seat? I'm afraid you haven't paid for it. It's third-class with bolt-ons. With ryanair, I feel afraid to breathe without being charged for it. With Virgin, it's a very good standard class, with bolt-ons.
I guess what I'm trying to say is:
Imagine you want a birthday cake. Standard class with bolt-ons is a decent chocolate cake, with no frills except that it's 2-layer and has a bit of that creamy icing between the layers. If you want a nice hand-piped birthday message, sprinkles, sparklers and ribbons. You pay extra. So, if you go all out, you have a nicely decorated cake.
Now, take the O'Leary model. Like Virgin, you pay for the birthday message, sprinkles and other paraphernalia, but the underlying piece of 'cake' is a dog turd. Yes, you can buy an optional bolt-on of "chocolate cake flavour", but even a bit of cocoa (and, no ,I do not speak from personal experience) will change the underlying experience of ingesting canine defecation.
Ah, um, slightly off topic. I think what I meant to say was "wooo, wifi on a boat", not even Samuel J himself could be sick of this motherfuggin internet on this motherfuggin boat!