Writing this afternoon from 35,000 feet above the Gulf of Mexico. We're returning from CTC10 in Tampa, Florida. The presentation on the reconfigurable courtroom went very well and I'll be looking to post it in some form soon as well as write more, on Library Laws about the first moot courtroom of its kind in the world.
When leaving Las Vegas I forgot to grab my freshly charged iPod from the car so made the trip with just the iPhone and the somewhat limited music selection I have on it. The beauty of the experience was finding just how well that worked. I really didn't miss the iPod at all. I couldn't listen to audiobooks but I usually get part-way into them on a flight and fall asleep anyway so it worked out well. Our flight is scheduled to get us home half an hour early. Flying back to Vegas on Friday is never my favorite thing. I'm tired, and want to get home and the plane is filled with people setting out on their vacations. The money they bring is appreciated and I'm glad they have a good time but the energy level is generally incompatible with my state of mind.
Across the isle on the plane are a couple of judges. Since I was a child we've had family friends who are still elected judges. Sharing the flight with the judges this time, however, has me thinking about how many other times I've shared flights with similarly important community leaders and never known it. Air travel remains one of the great equalizers, at least for those who are not in the "plane of their own category". It is a good reminder to take a few minutes and learn who you're flying with -- there are bound to be fascinating stories you'll learn along the way.
One of the greatest discoveries of this trip has been using Google Reader in Firefox in its Offline mode. Offline is great and works simply. Not in months have I been nearly this well caught up and it is a terribly simple process of clicking the online/offline button. Better yet, when I mark items as "Starred" or "Shared" those settings are remembered and downloaded as soon as I get back online. The biggest shortcoming isn't really Google's but for feeds like the Drupal Planet feed where I get just the first portion of the item I end up marking a lot of "starred" entries to read later.