Socket Jockeying

Ah me, it seems that the labeling of the behavior I and a friend call “socket jockying” (and the namesake of this blog) might’ve been bleeding edge.  While I only just created this blog months ago, we had labeled the behavior more than a year ago.  Today the NY Times is writing about socket jockeying (albeit with a different moniker - the alliteration friendly “socket seeker/ing”).  It seems that the wanderings of business travelers jockeying haven’t gone unnoticed and some airports are claiming that they’re going to add more power ports in the future.

Color me skeptical.  The airport I fly out of most is Detroit’s bright shiny new McNamerra terminal.  The thing is barely a few years old and there are very few (very very few) power ports there.  I’m not sure how you could be building a terminal that recently and not realize a need to course correct your design to include this need.  With this in mind, I’m not sure I trust folks that run these things to meet my needs.

Further, if airports do add power ports, I’m not convinced that it won’t be more like Minneapolis (MSP).  That airport, another I frequent, has plenty of power ports.  they’ve located them in every-so-often “business centers” (I know that UAL’s DIA concourse has these too).  These centers are cubicle-like spaces with power and often a phone and/or pay wired Internet access.

While this, on the surface, seems like a great idea, I’m here to contend that it misses the mark.  What I want is power near/next-to my gate.  Not down the concourse, where I probably cannot hear the person announcing my gate change, my boarding call, or *gasp* my name for a free first class upgrade (hey it could happen someday).  As such, even when I’m in MSP, I try to find one of the rare plugs near the gate I’m leaving from before trudging down the concourse to the nearest business center.

One gem that the NY Times article had that I hadn’t thought of:

Edwin Kelley, an engineer from Los Angeles, may have the most sensible interim solution: an extension cord with three outlets and a readiness to ask other travelers to share. “I’ve never been refused,” he said.

Genius. I’ll be adding this simple piece of technology to my weekly travel pack post-haste.