Meu amigo leitor virtual.
recebi hoje um e-mail muito interessante de uma pessoa num quarto de hotel em S. Francisco.
Leia-o atentamente... veja só o que nos reserva o futuro (não tão distante assim...)
===============
BAD SIGNAL
San Francisco
September 4 2001
WARREN ELLIS
6.19am. Dawn's just starting to roll in. The downtown lights illuminate the fogbanks tumbling over the hills from within, making the city look like a lantern full of fireflies.
Can't sleep. My bodyclock's still screwed up from the flights and from getting about five hours sleep in the hotel the Web2001 Expo put me in. Not their fault, they grabbed whatever they could get and have a lot of people to accomodate. But there was, by the strong smell, a broken soil pipe on my floor, and the room was so small that the single chair couldn't be gotten to the low beside table, so I couldn't work. No food, no laundry service.
A couple of years ago, I picked up a Hilton Honors advantage card on a complete whim -- I'm slightly too far away from London Heathrow Airport to get there comfortably for early flights, so I get a room at the Hilton there the night before the flight. Found the card
in my wallet. Called the number. And a very kind woman whom I suspect was susceptible both to the English accent and the pathetic, pleading, sobbing tone of my voice, said, "I got the best view of the city you ever saw for you."
I'm thirty floors up at the Hilton San Francisco, with a panoramic view of this most beautiful of American cities, in a big room on a discounted rate, with a table set up by the broad windows for me to work at.
It's on my credit card, but I'm certain the Expo and myself can come to an arrangement. It's costing me money, which this wasn't supposed to, but now I can earn while I'm here.
And another weird thing. I have the Visorphone attachment for my Handspring Visor PDA. When I bought it, it was explained to me that, like most European cellphones, it'd work anywhere but the US and Japan. A while back, I put my Vodafone SIM card in the Visorphone, so that my little handheld is my phone as well as a wireless modem. On layover in NYC on the way here, I switched it on, just for the hell of it.
And the damn thing just locked into the nearest netowrk. It's a tri-band device.
So here I am with my Handspring, plugged into the Targus Stowaway fold-out full keyboard, sending this email to you wirelessly from thirty stories above downtown San Francisco.
I like living in the future.
Salon.com just got delisted by NASDAQ. That's an interesting start for an Expo about the present and future of the Web. It's at the Moscone Center, about six blocks from here. I'll grab breakfast and head over there about 11 to register and get a feel for the place. I don't have any press to do until tomorrow, so I can waste today, maybe hook up with Larry & Mimi, probably do some more writing (I have a couple of film notions and a couple of OGN notions I'm developing right now).
Dawn's broken weakly, and now the hills and far buildings look like they're swaddled in cotton wool. And I'm going outside for a cigar.
If this email arrives twice, please DON'T email me to tell me.
I'll know.
-- Warren Ellis
O'Farrell Street
San Francisco
Sept 2001
recebi hoje um e-mail muito interessante de uma pessoa num quarto de hotel em S. Francisco.
Leia-o atentamente... veja só o que nos reserva o futuro (não tão distante assim...)
===============
BAD SIGNAL
San Francisco
September 4 2001
WARREN ELLIS
6.19am. Dawn's just starting to roll in. The downtown lights illuminate the fogbanks tumbling over the hills from within, making the city look like a lantern full of fireflies.
Can't sleep. My bodyclock's still screwed up from the flights and from getting about five hours sleep in the hotel the Web2001 Expo put me in. Not their fault, they grabbed whatever they could get and have a lot of people to accomodate. But there was, by the strong smell, a broken soil pipe on my floor, and the room was so small that the single chair couldn't be gotten to the low beside table, so I couldn't work. No food, no laundry service.
A couple of years ago, I picked up a Hilton Honors advantage card on a complete whim -- I'm slightly too far away from London Heathrow Airport to get there comfortably for early flights, so I get a room at the Hilton there the night before the flight. Found the card
in my wallet. Called the number. And a very kind woman whom I suspect was susceptible both to the English accent and the pathetic, pleading, sobbing tone of my voice, said, "I got the best view of the city you ever saw for you."
I'm thirty floors up at the Hilton San Francisco, with a panoramic view of this most beautiful of American cities, in a big room on a discounted rate, with a table set up by the broad windows for me to work at.
It's on my credit card, but I'm certain the Expo and myself can come to an arrangement. It's costing me money, which this wasn't supposed to, but now I can earn while I'm here.
And another weird thing. I have the Visorphone attachment for my Handspring Visor PDA. When I bought it, it was explained to me that, like most European cellphones, it'd work anywhere but the US and Japan. A while back, I put my Vodafone SIM card in the Visorphone, so that my little handheld is my phone as well as a wireless modem. On layover in NYC on the way here, I switched it on, just for the hell of it.
And the damn thing just locked into the nearest netowrk. It's a tri-band device.
So here I am with my Handspring, plugged into the Targus Stowaway fold-out full keyboard, sending this email to you wirelessly from thirty stories above downtown San Francisco.
I like living in the future.
Salon.com just got delisted by NASDAQ. That's an interesting start for an Expo about the present and future of the Web. It's at the Moscone Center, about six blocks from here. I'll grab breakfast and head over there about 11 to register and get a feel for the place. I don't have any press to do until tomorrow, so I can waste today, maybe hook up with Larry & Mimi, probably do some more writing (I have a couple of film notions and a couple of OGN notions I'm developing right now).
Dawn's broken weakly, and now the hills and far buildings look like they're swaddled in cotton wool. And I'm going outside for a cigar.
If this email arrives twice, please DON'T email me to tell me.
I'll know.
-- Warren Ellis
O'Farrell Street
San Francisco
Sept 2001
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