London: Hair Today, NokiaTomorrow

Thanks in part to a gentle nudge (which some might call a "reboot") from the boss, I've made it to London for the Symbian Smartphone Conference. Not that I needed much nudging -- I'm pleased as all dickens to be here and looking forward to what I can learn, especially in terms of applications built using Nokia's Open C.

While the conference itself doesn't kick off (another term the boss likes to use), I've already had *almost* enough action for the week. It all started with the Delta flight out of Atlanta. We hadn't been in the air 15 minutes, when the plane's info/entertainment system went bonkers. Instead of a movie, all I could see in front was screen-after-screen of Red Hat Linux configuration info scrolling by. Now I like configuration data as much as the next guy, but not at 20,000 feet in the air. All I could think of was Hugh Thompson's talk on How To Crash an In-flight Entertainment System which I've heard one time too many. It's amusing to hear Hugh's rendition of the process, but less so to hear a flight attendent say over the plane's loud speaker that the "system is rebooting" and will be up shortly. To heck with the movies playing, let's just keep the plane "up", okay?

Upon reaching London, the first hotel I camped out at was a small 6-story bed and breakfast that promised "free Internet access." And yes, it did have wireless access as long as you were in ground floor lounge. My room was on the 5th floor. But I did discover that there was one hotspot that I could pick up a signal in the room; move it 18 inches any way, and the signal was dropped. Unfortunately, that spot was on top of my pillow. Still, it was access.

Thinking it might be a good idea to be prepared and have a handle on what and where I'll be working for the next few days, I moved from Central London to the ExCel Centre in the dockyards of London. After forking over 10 pounds for Internet access in this somewhat more grand hotel (it's on a boat -- a floating hotel, if you will), there was no access to broadband. Free wireless, of course, but in the lounge. So they moved me to another room which does have access, so I'm happy.

When strolling over to the ExCel Center, to my disappointment, the Symbian show is a day or two from being set up. But to my great amusement, the event at the venue was a hairdresser's convention by Salon International 2007 -- "three days of live hairdressing....the biggest hairdressing event EVER to take place in the UK.

When it comes to hair, my instructions to my barber (ah, he might take offense at being called a "stylist") is "short on the sides, and flat on the top." Boy was I out of my element. Still, I have to say, style-wise, hairdressers have it all over software developers. I mean, London hairstylists ROCK!

By my next posting, I hope to have some interesting technical details about what Symbian, Nokia, and others are up to when it comes to developing applications for mobile phones. But they're going to have to be good -- the hairstylists have put up a high bar to beat.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 11:57 AM  Permalink