Holidays, e-etiquette and terminal boredom

In Florida, the ballot counting and lawsuit filing may have continued over last week's Thanksgiving holiday, but Silicon Valley pretty much slowed to a gentle idle.

Because Thanksgiving falls on a Thursday, most people get a four-day weekend and, because it is such a huge family holiday, most people go somewhere or have family to visit. Thanksgiving is too central to the US psyche for otherwise workaholic companies to expect employees to put in worktime.

The day of turkey worship is a bigger holiday than Christmas in the US and it often surprises non-Americans to hear that the two heaviest travel days of the year in the US are the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the Sunday after.

Given the youthful profile of most workers in the technology industry, that means a huge bail-out the length of the Valley. People return to wherever mom and dad are from (since almost nobody in California was born there) or have them out to visit. Given the high number of singletons in the tech sector - who has time for relationships? - most people probably fly back to the family nest.

Thus, this is perhaps the only time the region truly winds down for a few days and virtually no tech news emanates from the home of the microprocessor.

It got so bad over the weekend that major technology news site News.com in San Francisco led with a story headlined "Gates joins bridge tournament" (he was invited to an online tournament by financier Warren Buffett). The regional papers were forced to run general technology features, some plucked from the wire services, although this is ground zero for tech news.

Even the fact that the markets were up and at 'em on Friday failed to bring tech news fiends much joy, although some etailer shares rose as shoppers went online for the traditional post-Thanksgiving shopfest.

But on Monday, the morning commute down highways 101 and 280 once again clogged up the roads from Palo Alto southwards towards San Jose, as tech workers returned to their cubicles, checked their company share price (undoubtedly sagging, like everyone else's) and hit the keyboards.

Thankfully, everyone could gulp their morning espressos and lattes to the accompaniment of a nice, juicy tech item - headlined "The case - it's back!" in the San Jose Mercury-News. That's right, Microsoft is back slugging it out as it prepares to enter the next phase of its defence in the Department of Justice antitrust trial. If the long-running trial drove you mad with boredom over the past two years, you'd better slap a news filter on your computer because it's going to be around again for months, probably until early summer.

Of course, things could look up for the Redmond gang if Governor George W. Bush is declared president, since he is seen as friendlier towards the Microsoft view of the world and its interpretation of what constitutes robust competition (as opposed to trampling competitors out of existence).

Undoubtedly, Microsoft will get some additional pleasure if Mr Gore's court appeals are rejected, since the man leading the Gore legal team is none other than David Boies, the antitrust lawyer who led the Justice Department assault on Redmond.

Still, even if the US judgment against Microsoft is overturned or gutted, Redmond still has to face cases from the 19 state attornies, who also filed suit. They're saying it's not over 'til it's over, and will pursue their case to have the company chopped up.

Those who detest the spread of wired forms of communication will no doubt be cheered to learn that most Americans think e-mail is not the best way to "let someone know you care." Only 6 per cent of people surveyed by Luntz Research believed it was the ideal medium for warm and fuzzy exchanges. Three-quarters of those surveyed said people should be removed from theatres if, after warnings, their mobiles continued to go off. The same number think students shouldn't be allowed to carry beepers and mobiles in the classroom. Hurrah for this emerging e-etiquette!

I don't know about you but I love this kind of survey - maybe because it makes me feel relieved that I'm not the only one who, say, objects to being put on hold on a personal call so a friend can see if the other caller on their call-waiting service is more important than me. One-third of respondents find this rude and objectionable.

Personally, I like my mother's approach - she just hangs up rather than waiting around while the friend gabs with caller number two.

People seem to feel most strongly about what mobiles should be used for - it's OK to take calls while shopping but not while at church or synagogue, theatres, or restaurants. Three-quarters of people would like to see a law requiring mobile users to use a hands-free set while driving (amazingly, this is not yet required in the US, despite studies showing the danger of driving while clutching a tiny mobile).

People also object to being put on a speakerphone without being asked first or having someone added to a conference call without that person being announced.

However, e-mail increasingly does have its social place. Most people think it's fine to send out party invitations via e-mail or to send a thank-you for a gift. Some 63 per cent believe it's rude or inappropriate to send condolences by e-mail and 55 per cent say it's rude or inappropriate to ask someone for a date online.

Apparently, it's not in order to reprimand or fire someone through an e-mail either. How about conceding an election?

Speaking of e-mail, why doesn't Esat install a batch of its Webaccess terminals in Dublin and Shannon airports? You see them even in out-of-the-way pubs and the airports seem obvious locations.

One of the real pleasures of US airports these days is that many offer terminals where, for about £10 (€12.70) an hour, waiting passengers can go online. I'd much rather catch up on e-mail or do a bit of Web surfing while waiting for a plane than read all the newspapers and magazines I bought to read while in the air.

Given the high proportion of tourists and business travellers flowing through these airports, terminals in the terminals would be a sure winner.

klillington@irish-times.ie