At 11:36 PM -0800 2/7/00, James H. Cloos Jr. wrote:
>>>>>> "Declan" == Declan McCullagh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
>Declan> That may be right -- I just got off the phone with American.
>Declan> The bottleneck seems to be San Juan, and American will happily
>Declan> fly you there on many available flights. You'll just have to
>Declan> switch to another carrier once you get that far. TWA
>Declan> apparently offers codeshare flights, for instance, so the
>Declan> situation isn't *quite* that dire.
>
>TWA and Continental codeshare w/ Gulfstream on a 16 or so seat prob
>between SJU and SXM. Functional, but the Eagle is nicer.
>
>American and (I think) Continental have direct flights from SXM to
>JFK/EWR; there may also be one to Philly.
>
>But note that seemingly random day-or-flight cancellations have been
>known to occur..... (Don't ask.)
These hassles are why many of us don't even _bother_ going to FC. Whoever
picked the out-of-the-way island of Anguilla, where having a copy of
"Penthouse" is banned, made a terrible mistake. The novelty of an island, a
la "Islands in the Net," is what Heinlein called a "funny once."
If I go to a conference, I go for the conference. Not for sitting on a
beach, which I can do in innumerable other places, including a few miles
from my house. I don't go to places which cost me $1200-1800 in travel
costs on top of $300-1000 conference registration fees on top of pricey
hotel fees.
(I guess if I were still working and my employer were picking up the
$3000-4000 costs, I might explain to him just how urgent it was that I go.
But I'm not, and I can't write off such a trip. So that trip really costs
me $5000-7000 in pre-tax income. No thanks. Especially when the paper you
folks seem most interested in is being done by our neighbors and sometime
list subscribers Miller, Franz, and Morningstar. Why pay $7000 for this and
a few other interesting papers?)
Now we're hearing about all of the hassles of getting to Anguilla, and the
limited hotel space, and the effects of major hurricanes. Think of it as
evolution in action.
I'll attend FC when it's held in the Bay Area, where it probably should be,
and when the registration fees are less than $300 and when the hotel room
rates are less than $80 a night and when no journalists or anyone else are
"comped."
--Tim May
print pack"C*",split/\D+/,`echo "16iII*o\U@{$/=$z;[(pop,pop,unpack"H*",<>
)]}\EsMsKsN0[lN*1lK[d2%Sa2/d0<X+d*lMLa^*lN%0]dsXx++lMlN/dsM0<J]dsJxp"|dc`
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES: 831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
"Cyphernomicon" | black markets, collapse of governments.
