Today the notebook is an ubiquetous accoutrement for any business traveler - whether or not the trip is for business.

We warriors of the road hunch over them in airline terminals. We search out wireless broadband hot spots. We tackle spread sheets and presentations while en route. We’re "on" the notebooks at any chance we can get.

Driving from hotel to airport a CNBC commentator talks about productivity continuing to rise in the U. S. economy.

Why? Because of digital and telecom technologies.

Well, that and all of us hunched over the notebooks anywhere we happen to be. And when we’re moving we have our always-on, wireless broadband networked PDA’s.

Arriving at LGA for a stint through CLT on the RIC, to my horror, I realize I left the Dell LAttitude in the kitchen. "You have to FedEx it to the hotel," I pleaded.

"Not so fast, buddy!" I hear.
"What?"
"You have a lot of confidential information on that puppy. Doesn’t make sense to risk the loss."

"Whaa, what am I going to do without it?"

"What did you do before?" I’m asked. Good question. I hustle to the news stand picking up newspapers to calm my jitters. "Ahh. I have the nifty new Treo. I can work on this on the plane.

"But wait! I’m running low on power." I move to Starbucks. "The power outlets don’t work! Yikes!" On to Gate 18. They don’t work there either. On to another gate. "Dead, dead, all of them are dead!" I moan.

Some college kid sitting on the floor with his long-life, deep-discharge PC, says, "In Holland they arrest you for stealing power!"

What is the world coming to? On I go, finding working outlets and new juce in the business center. Oh well, a long drink till I have to run back to the plane seems to suffice.

Back at the gate, I find myself sharing this lonely state with another warrior. "Great," he says.

"What do you mean ‘great’?" then he utters the words I have heard ever since on this trip anytime I bemoan this computerless state."

"You’re FREE!" the wariors chorus. (Think, Yes We Have No Bananas by Frank Silver and Irving Cohen.)

Epilogue. As the trip unfolds, I have spent one whole flight having conversation with my seat mate, hung out with my friend Monte Nagy and several of his DuPont colleagues, got my hair trimmed, saw "The Kingdom" (which I liked), and I’m still going.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 26th, 2007 at 7:56 am by John Mallen and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.