Fred Sandsmark's Blog

Sam Whiting's article in this weekend's San Francisco Chronicle Magazine about long-distance commuters on Amtrak's Capitol Corridor reminded me of a couple of similar articles I wrote nearly a decade ago. Both of mine were for computer magazines (CCN and Silicon Valley TechWeek) so they focused on the wired road warriors; Whiting's article does, somewhat, too, but has a wider focus. The technology part of the story has changed dramatically in the intervening years, of course; back in the 1990s, simple cell phone service was spotty along much of the Capitol Corridor, but now the trains have wireless Internet access. The computers have changed, too; here's a snippet from my CCN article, talking about the 110v electric outlets on the train. (The "Yard Dog" quoted in the article is one of the colorful conductors.)

Those outlets are important, because not every computer can run on batteries. "A while back, we had a rider who brought along a whole computer on a cart," recalled Yard Dog. "Computer, monitor, keyboard, mouse — he'd hook it all up and go to work," he recalls with a chuckle. "He didn't last for long."

The CCN article can be found here. I'll try to get the TechWeek article up and linked soon. (The magazine is long gone.)

Labels: clips, technology