Re: American Airlines response

From: H.W. Stockman (stockman3_at_earth-REMOVE_THIS-link.net)
Date: 01/15/05 

Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2005 17:25:34 GMT

"Mxsmanic" <mxsmanic@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:mfkhu0ldgkvcfsp9ud9k1l9s5914122f5t@4ax.com...
> H.W. Stockman writes:
>
> > They did, rather slowly.
>
> So they got paid even without their laptops. Which means that laptops
> are not a "need" on aircraft, any more than GPS receivers.

You didn't quote the rest of my note, which might have answered your
comment. So let me repeat the answer a different way.

People used to get paid a lot for riding on the pony express. That job
doesn't have high demand anymore. Technology marches on, and with it,
expectations increase. If your job involves calculations with spreadsheets,
or writing papers in word processors, you would be absolutely insane to do
the work first by hand on paper, then enter it into the computer when you
get home.

However, my personal belief is that people are too connected. I for one,
have gone back to the "old days" on the airplane; I catch up on work-related
reading, or explore ideas and derive results on a scratch pad. My job gives
me that freedom; many jobs would not be so generous. In the background of
this discussion, I wonder about a strong desire of many business people,
certainly a greater lobby than those who want to use personal GPS in flight:
namely, the people who are lobbying to use cell phones in flight. If those
people are ever given their desires, the biggest use of your GPS will be as
a mouth-occlusion device for a person sitting near you.

Perhaps that is an even greater fear of the airlines; if they allow personal
GPS in flight, sooner or later, the FAA will allow cell phones. The 5 hours
on a plane could go from boring to miserable.