Entry tags:
A Day in the Cloud.: LAX to SFO
I'm writing now on WiFi on a Virgin America flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
"But![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tablesaw," you protest, "however did you get to San Francisco in the first place?"
Well.
Last week I got a cryptic e-mail asking what I was going to be doing today. The answer was "working," but I asked if I should change this answer.
The e-mail had come from a friend who works at Google and who was looking to pack a flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco with puzzler/gamers to help promote A Day in the Cloud. The game was meant to be played anywhere on the internet (you can still play right now, if you've got a free hour), but to promote Virgin America's connectedness, they were also having special contests where different Virgin flights would compete against each other for a prize in addition to a chance at the grand prize. Also, this particular flight would have some press coverage.
After some back-and-forth,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ojouchan and I got the day off of work and were confirmed for the free flight.
So we got up early and drove to LAX, where there was a nice little breakfast spread before boarding. The plane looked fantastic, and everything went really well.
Right up until everyone started competing.
Apparently, there's a big difference in demand between WiFi that you pay for ($9.95 for one flight, apparently) and WiFi that you don't pay for, especially when there are prizes on the line. The moment everyone opened up their laptops, the sign-on screen that stood between us and the Internet became slower than frozen molasses.
Ojou and I had special problems in addition. Ojou's computer had some weird application (possibly from its previous life as an employer-provided laptop at my firm) that prevented her from signing on. I was making progress (slowly) when my laptop (actuallycramerica's laptop; it's complicated) died when the battery ran out. Of course, the battery was not supposed to run out, as I'd plugged the laptop directly into one of Virgin America's much-vaunted regular power outlets. Mine was dead, though. An attendant ran the cord back to a different row that had a free outlet, and I restarted the computer, but at the end of the queue again.
Eventually, Ojou and I got on at about the same time, some of the last people on the flight. It was painful listening to people shout out requests for answers and hints when we couldn't even see the game. (Later, we solved those puzzles pretty quickly, so we could've been some help.)
After we'd been playing for about ten minutes, the Google employees started coming through the cabin letting us know that we were going to have to turn off our WiFi early. Why? Because one of the reporters was going to be doing a live broadcast, and they needed the bandwidth. We ultimately got to see less than half of the contest.
We were sad. Not only did we not get to solve the puzzles (which ranged from cheesy "let's learn about Google" questions to impressive little gems), but we didn't get to contribute very much. We're not sure exactly how the scoring worked, but we were pretty sure our meager 13,000 feet combined wouldn't make much of a difference.
But for all the problems, we did have an ace in the hole, or rather, an ace in first class. The real ringer for the northbound flight wasonigame, and while most of us were asked to disconnect for the news broadcast, he was allowed to keep going.
The Google person sitting next to us had access to the two planes' scores and let us know that it was close, possible a thousand feet difference. And all our hopes rested on Onigame. The press crowded around the front of the plane, and we started chanting his name from the back.
Finally, we had the results. LAX to SFO beat the opposite flight. Everyone who participated would be receiving the prize of an HP Netbook. As the two people on the flight with probably the oldest laptops (and mine wasn't even mine!), we were very pleased.
(Not so pleased was the woman who had booked a flight not realizing that she wasn't on an airplane so much as a press event. When she found out that we'd been circling so that we could finish the press broadcast and that she might miss the connecting flight to take her to the hospital bedside of a family member, she was a bit upset.)
We got off the plane and grabbed a bite to eat in the airport, then hopped on the flight back south (the one that we're on now). I suppose we could've paid for a later flight and spent some time in San Francisco, but hey, we're cheap. Besides, we already had a plan.
It may be a cliche, but after winning, we're going to Disneyland.
"But
tablesaw," you protest, "however did you get to San Francisco in the first place?"Well.
Last week I got a cryptic e-mail asking what I was going to be doing today. The answer was "working," but I asked if I should change this answer.
The e-mail had come from a friend who works at Google and who was looking to pack a flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco with puzzler/gamers to help promote A Day in the Cloud. The game was meant to be played anywhere on the internet (you can still play right now, if you've got a free hour), but to promote Virgin America's connectedness, they were also having special contests where different Virgin flights would compete against each other for a prize in addition to a chance at the grand prize. Also, this particular flight would have some press coverage.
After some back-and-forth,
ojouchan and I got the day off of work and were confirmed for the free flight.So we got up early and drove to LAX, where there was a nice little breakfast spread before boarding. The plane looked fantastic, and everything went really well.
Right up until everyone started competing.
Apparently, there's a big difference in demand between WiFi that you pay for ($9.95 for one flight, apparently) and WiFi that you don't pay for, especially when there are prizes on the line. The moment everyone opened up their laptops, the sign-on screen that stood between us and the Internet became slower than frozen molasses.
Ojou and I had special problems in addition. Ojou's computer had some weird application (possibly from its previous life as an employer-provided laptop at my firm) that prevented her from signing on. I was making progress (slowly) when my laptop (actually
cramerica's laptop; it's complicated) died when the battery ran out. Of course, the battery was not supposed to run out, as I'd plugged the laptop directly into one of Virgin America's much-vaunted regular power outlets. Mine was dead, though. An attendant ran the cord back to a different row that had a free outlet, and I restarted the computer, but at the end of the queue again.Eventually, Ojou and I got on at about the same time, some of the last people on the flight. It was painful listening to people shout out requests for answers and hints when we couldn't even see the game. (Later, we solved those puzzles pretty quickly, so we could've been some help.)
After we'd been playing for about ten minutes, the Google employees started coming through the cabin letting us know that we were going to have to turn off our WiFi early. Why? Because one of the reporters was going to be doing a live broadcast, and they needed the bandwidth. We ultimately got to see less than half of the contest.
We were sad. Not only did we not get to solve the puzzles (which ranged from cheesy "let's learn about Google" questions to impressive little gems), but we didn't get to contribute very much. We're not sure exactly how the scoring worked, but we were pretty sure our meager 13,000 feet combined wouldn't make much of a difference.
But for all the problems, we did have an ace in the hole, or rather, an ace in first class. The real ringer for the northbound flight was
onigame, and while most of us were asked to disconnect for the news broadcast, he was allowed to keep going.The Google person sitting next to us had access to the two planes' scores and let us know that it was close, possible a thousand feet difference. And all our hopes rested on Onigame. The press crowded around the front of the plane, and we started chanting his name from the back.
Finally, we had the results. LAX to SFO beat the opposite flight. Everyone who participated would be receiving the prize of an HP Netbook. As the two people on the flight with probably the oldest laptops (and mine wasn't even mine!), we were very pleased.
(Not so pleased was the woman who had booked a flight not realizing that she wasn't on an airplane so much as a press event. When she found out that we'd been circling so that we could finish the press broadcast and that she might miss the connecting flight to take her to the hospital bedside of a family member, she was a bit upset.)
We got off the plane and grabbed a bite to eat in the airport, then hopped on the flight back south (the one that we're on now). I suppose we could've paid for a later flight and spent some time in San Francisco, but hey, we're cheap. Besides, we already had a plan.
It may be a cliche, but after winning, we're going to Disneyland.