Yannick's Corner » Travel

Presenting my first paper at a conference

Yannick Lefebvre — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 18:38:40 +0000

After writing a few white papers on Human Machine Interface technologies, I recently wrote a paper that I presented as part of the 27th Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC). The event was being held in St. Paul, Minnesota, a town I had never visited. After travelling the world in my field for 11 years, and often going back to visit the same cities that I have seen before, it is a nice change to get to go to a new place. Here are some pictures that I took during my visit.

The ever-changing price of gas

Yannick Lefebvre — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:16:39 +0000

As I was driving on the Indianapolis highway after visiting a customer, I saw a big electronic sign for a gas station and saw the price change as I was looking at the sign. While I first thought that it was odd for the price of gas to change in the middle of the day, I soon realized that the price was changing back and forth between the price that you would pay with a credit card and a lower price if you paid cash. The difference was 4 or 5 cents a gallon if I remember correctly.

I guess it makes sense since credit card companies take a percentage of any sale charged to the card, but it still looks very strange at first and I don’t think I had even seen something like that before the prices went so high. Maybe they’ll start offering specials if we bring big barrels every time and buy in bulk Only time will tell.

Airlines make our life easier once again… not

Yannick Lefebvre — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:16:03 +0000

After a relatively calm travel summer, I started travelling again this week for a few days. As I was checking in through the self-service system in Montreal for US Airways, I was surprised not to be asked if I wanted to check any luggage. When I got to the counter, I was informed that this is because US Airways has a new policy where there is now a 15$ fee for the first piece of luggage you check in. Yes, you read that correctly. They are not charging you only for the second one or because your luggage is overweight. They are charging you for the very first piece of luggage that you want to check in!

Thankfully, my Elite status with the Star Alliance network waved these fees, but I can easily imagine how hectic it will get in the morning or at busy times when everyone is trying to get out on trips and have to stop to pay for this fee. Not only that, but a lot of people won’t want to pay the extra fee and will try to bring bigger and bigger items with them on the aircraft. From what I have seen in the six flights I took this week, this means more crowded overhead bins and people frustrated when there is no skycheck on some of the flights. If it does not fit on the plane, then they are stuck checking it.

US Airways is not the first airline doing this. I know that American started the festivities back in June, and now United and Continental joined, if not more airlines.

My next surprise came when they announced that beverages were no longer to be free on the plane. Not even water! So you need to pay 2$, cash only, if you want a regular drink, and 7$ for an alcoholic beverage. The lesson here is that you should now always bring something to drink on the plane. If we could at least bring our own water from home. But of course, as you know if you have traveled in the past two years, this is not allowed for security reasons. Therefore, you have no real choice but to put your money in someone’s pockets: the airline or the concession stands at the airport.

Personally, I wish they would just add 20$ to everyone’s airfare and just be done with it, let us check our luggage and give us something to drink on the darn plane. It would bring some order back into a situation that I feel will just get more and more chaotic.

My travels

Yannick Lefebvre — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:18:47 +0000

After keeping track of my travel on facebook for some time, I just decided to bring that information on my personal site. You will find a new map section that includes all of my travels around the world.

Flying through time and space

Yannick Lefebvre — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:24:45 +0000

I flew from Montreal to San Jose in California yesterday to attend a conference organized by one of our partners and visit an office that we have in this area. As I was waiting for my flight in Montreal a little bit before noon, I heard a very interesting computerized announcement from WestJet come over the loud speaker: “WestJet flight XXXX will be boarding at 12:80 am.” A lot of people looked at each other with a very confused look on their face. It’s not April 1st or anything, so some computer was having a really bad day.

The trip to San Jose was quite uneventful, with all flights departing on time, except for a very strange announcement from the flight attendant when we landed: “Welcome to San Diego”. Again, a lot of confused looks and a couple of laughs from the passengers, and the flight attendant did not even correct herself. Given that the two cities are about 740 km apart, we were really hoping that we were in San Jose.

The last funny tidbit of this venture was going to pick up my rental car. The San Jose airport has a consolidated rental car center with a single shuttle line deserving it. After getting on the bus and getting close to the center, they announced that the first stop was for Avis (the company I was using on this trip), Hertz, and shuttles for off-site rental car places! I pity the poor folks who have to get on a second shuttle to get to their car rental. Can’t they just have two different shuttle buses passing my the terminal to save people time?

Like many airports around the US these days, the San Jose airport is expanding. They are building a brand new terminal, which looks like it will cater a lot better to large aircrafts. Coming in on United Airlines on a large plane, we actually had to walk down stairs out of the plane and walk into the terminal. I had not done something like that in a long time. At least the weather was fairly warm.

Airlines have stooped to a new low

Yannick Lefebvre — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 01:05:24 +0000

As most of you know, I travel a lot for work. I am actually currently in Philadelphia visiting a customer. When I flew in on Monday, I saw something that completely astonished me: adversiting inside of the little foldable trays! How could they stoop that low!
Here is an idea of what it looks like. This is not the ad I saw and I did not take this picture but it gives you a good idea:

As you can see, this is quite invasive. After all of the ads that we see on the airport walls, did we really need this?

I will try to post more of my travel adventures soon since I have been neglecting my blog a bit.

Heading for ToulouseEn direction de Toulouse

Yannick Lefebvre — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 18:59:22 +0000

As I write these words, I am zooming down the railroad on board of a high-speed train (TGV) between Paris and Toulouse, first stopping in Bordeaux. The speed at which this train is going is quite amazing, as we can easily see with the landscape zipping by.

I was not able to post regularly as I was hoping while in Paris since I did not have the right connector to hook my modem to a phone line. Come Friday, I did go in to the office which is when I posted my first blog entry.

The first part of my trip in Paris went very smoothly, with the customer being extremely happy of the results by the end of the three-day course. I was also able to hook up with my friend Jord who lives in Paris and was one of my co-workers.

In terms of visiting the town, I was the Grande Arche de la Défense, Arc de Triomphe, Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, Musée de l’homme, Tuileries, Halles and of course the Eiffel Tower.

On Friday night, as I was walking around town waiting to meet my friend, it was really nice to see tons of people having pic-nics on the sides of the Seine river, with a bottle of wine, bread and cheese or other things. There were a lot of young students but also older couples out for a small romantic escapade.

On Saturday, I visited a few of the historic monuments listed above and also went shopping to buy a few gifts. At Jord’s recommendation, I went to the Printemps and Lafayette stores. These are gigantic! Think about 7 to 10 times the size of a Sears or The Bay store in Canada.

All in all, a very full week but very successful. The only downside is being away from home and my family for so long. As well, I learned mid-week that I will only be back home for a week before leaving for the US for another class. So I will only have been home for a bit more than a week in June. Oh well, at least the vacation period is right around the corner so things should calm down and other people will soon be ready to give courses on the road. I guess we’ll just have to see people every week-end in July and August to catch up!
J’écris ces mots à bord d’un train à grande vitesse (TGV) qui file à toute allure entre Paris et Toulouse, avec un arrêt à Bordeaux. La vitesse de ce train est très impressionnante alors que l’on voit le paysage défiler par les fenêtres.

Je n’ai pas réussi à poster aussi régulièrement que je le souhaitais pendant mon séjour à Paris puisque je n’avais pas le bon connecteur pour relier mon modem à la ligne téléphonique. Ce n’est que le vendredi que je me suis rendu au bureau de la compagnie et a pu envoyer mon premier message.

La première partie de mon voyage s’est très bien déroulée, alors que le client était entièrement satisfait des résultats de la formation de trois jours que j’y ai donnée. J’ai égalament pu rencontrer mon ami Jord qui vit à Paris et à déjà été un des collègues de travail.

J’ai réussi à visiter pas mal de trucs en ville, dont la Grande Arche de la Défense, l’Arc de Triomphe, la Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, le Musée de l’homme, les Tuileries, les Halles et bien sûr la Tour Eiffel.

Le Vendredi soir, alors que je me promenais en attendant mon ami, il était très plaisant de voir une tonne de gens en train de faire des pic-nics sur les bord de la Seine, avec une bouteille de vin, du pain et du fromage, ou autre chose. Il y avait beaucoup de jeunes mais également des couples plus âgés qui s’offraient une petite escapade romantique.

Le samedi, j’ai visité quelques monuments historiques mentionnées plus haut et je suis allé magasiné pour acheter quelques cadeaux. En suivant les conseils de Jord, je suis allé aux magazins Printemps et Lafayette. Ils sont gigantesques! Imaginez-vous environ 7 à 10 fois les dimensions d’un gros Sears ou La Baie au Canada.

Somme toute, la semaine à été bien remplie mais extrêment positive. Le seul ennui est d’être parti si longtemps loin de ma famille. De plus, j’ai appris au milieu de la semaine que je serai à la maison qu’une semaine après ce voyage avant de repartir pour les États-Unis pour un autre cours. Au moins la saison des vacances arrive et ça devrait donc se calmer un peu. De plus, d’autres personnes devraient bientôt être prêts pour donner des cours. J’imagnie qu’il va juste falloir voir les gens plus souvent au Juillet et en Août pour se rattraper.

First day in FrancePremière journée en France

Yannick Lefebvre — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 09:12:33 +0000

First day in France. As soon as I got onto the train to go from the airport to my hotel, I remembered one of the things I really hate about Paris: singers and other performers in the darn train. They just get on board at a station and start singing or making noise of some sort and then expect people to give them money for their “performance”. It just gets on my nerves, especially after an overnight flight on which I only slept about 2 and a 1/2 hours.

I got to my hotel without too much trouble, already knowing the Paris transit system, and was a bit shocked by the size of the room I got for 98 euros a night in a 3-star hotel. It’s not much bigger than by daughter’s room, with a small adjacent bathroom. I guess I’ve been spoiled by some of my other trip like New Mexico when my room was about as big as the two large bedrooms in our house plus the main bathroom!

Since I was not feeling too tired, I decided to go out on the town, do a little shopping, grab food and a few snacks. It was a really nice day to walk around. I also snagged some pictures which I’ll post when I come back in a couple of weeks.
Première journée en France. Dès que j’ai pris le train, je me suis rappelé d’une des choses qui me tappe sur les nerfs à Paris: les chanteurs et autres artistes dans les trains. Ils embarquent à une station et commencent à chanter ou faire du bruit en général et s’attendent ensuite à ce qu’on leur donne de l’argent pour leur ‘performance’. C’est fatiguant, surtout après un vol d’avion de nuit sur lequel je n’ai dormi environ que 2 heures et demi.

Je me suis rendu à mon hôtel sans problèmes puisque je connaissais déjà le réseau de transport en commun de Paris, et ai été un peu surpris par les dimensions de ma chambre que je paie 98 euros par nuit dans un hotel trois étoiles. Elle n’est pas beaucoup plus grande que celle de ma fille. J’imagine que j’ai été gâté par certains de mes autres voyages comme le nouveau Mexique ou ma chambre était grande comme les deux plus grandes chambres à coucher de ma maison en plus de la salle de bain principale.

Comme je n’étais pas trop fatigué, j’ai décidé de me promener, magasiner un peu, manger et me chercher des snacks. Le température était très belle pour marcher. J’ai aussi pris quelques photos que je posterai ici lors de mon retour dans quelques semaines.

Two weeks in FranceDeux semaines en France

Yannick Lefebvre — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 18:03:26 +0000

Another month, another trip. This time around, I am going to be spending two weeks in France. I will first be in Paris and will then move on to Toulouse for the second week of my stay. I will try to post some impressions of my trip while I’m there.
Un autre mois, un autre voyage. Cette fois-ci, je vais passer deux semaines en France. Je serai premièrement à Paris et me déplacerai ensuite vers Toulouse pour la deuxième semaine. Je vais essayer de poster quelques messages pendant que je suis là-bas.

On the road againEncore en train de trotter

Yannick Lefebvre — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 01:29:32 +0000

Another year, more travels. I am currently on the road once again, this time giving a course at a US Navy research base in the state of Rhode Island. The course is going very well so far with two days already done and three more to go.

I flew into Providence on Sunday night and could not believe how quickly I managed to get off the plane and into my rented car. Within 5 minutes, we already had our luggage. 5 minutes later, I was walking out to get my car and was driving off the parking lot soon after. I managed to get to my hotel fairly quickly. However, there were a few times on the road where I was a bit puzzled by the lack of road signs in this area. I ended up just taking good guesses.

I am currently playing catch-up to the great science-fiction series Battlestar Galactica. Andrée watches it and I have been lagging behind for a while but by the end of the week, I should have caught up to all of the episodes. The story on this show is amazing and well worth watching if you enjoy sci-fi. On another note, we saw the movie Serenity last week-end on DVD and quite enjoyed it. The story was well written and the effects and acting were top notch. The only annoyance was the way that the lead actor kept chewing his words, making it very difficult for us to understand some passages. I still recommend it though.

A final note on this post to let you know that our friends Isabelle and Jean have given birth to a healthy little boy named Kevin Hamel. He was born on wednesday last week weighing more than nine pounds. The whole family is in good health and is now back home. Congratulations!
Une nouvelle année, de nouveaux voyages… Je suis présentement sur la route une fois de plus en train de donner un cours sur unebase de recherches de la marine américaine dans l’état du Rhode Island. Le cours se déroule très bien et il ne reste plus que trois jours avant la fin de la semaine.

Je suis arrivé dimanche soir dans la ville de Providence et avait de la difficulté à croire à quelle vitesse j’ai pu atterrir et partir avec ma voiture louée. En 5 minutes, nous avions déjà récupéré nos valises. 5 minutes plus tard, je sortais déjà de l’aéroport pour récupérer ma voiture et je quittais ensuite le stationnement un autre 5 minutes plus tard. J’ai ensuite réussi à trouver mon hotel assez rapudement. Par contre, je me suis demandé si j’étais perdu à plusieurs reprises puisqu’il n’y a pas beaucoup de panneaux de signalisation par ici. J’ai seulement bien deviné mon chemin.

Au cours de ce voyage, je suis en train de rattraper mon visionnement de la magnifique série de science-fiction Battlestar Galactica. Andrée la regarde religieusement et je suis en retard depuis un moment mais je devrais avoir réussi à tout rattraper d’ici la fin de la semaine. L’histoire de cette émission est superbe et c’est un must pour les amateurs de science-fiction. Sur une autre note, nous venons de voir le film Serenity sur DVD le week-end dernier et l’avons bien aimé. L’histoire est bien écrite et les effets ainsi que le jeu des acteurs étaient excellents. Le seul truc ennuyeux était l’absence de prononciation de plusieurs phrases de la part de l’acteur principal qui nous empêchait souvent de bien comprendre certains dialogues. Je le recommende tout de même.

Finalement, une petite note pour vous laisser savoir que nos amis Isabelle et Jean ont donné naissance à un petit garçon en santé du nom de Kevin Hamel. Il est né mercredi dernier et pesait plus de neuf livres. Toute la famille est en santé et est de retour à la maison. Félicitations!