You’ve watched the show, now download the ringtone! If you’ve got a mobile phone that allows you to set MP3 files as ringtones, grab this MP3 and be delighted with the blaring trumpets of Compass every time you get a call. Better yet, set up a personalized ringtone for calls from 902-629-6400 and know instantly when your favourite Compass reporter or producer is calling!

At long last an episode of the newfangled Compass can be watched on the web.

There’s a bold new SCTV-like opening montage with trumpets blaring accompanying a dizzying array of flying heads and PEI landmarks. It’s a little unnerving to see Sally Pitt’s head flying through the air sandwiched between a lobster and a lighthouse:

I’m dumping the video into an MPEG right now (handy instructions on doing that to follow shortly) and will watch the whole hour once I return from dinner; more accolades and biting commentary to follow.

All of the check-in and gate counters in the new cross-border terminal at Halifax International Airport are fronted by pulsing lights that slowed change colour from red to green. They are purely ornamental — the lights colours don’t mean “stop” or “go.” But people in line have no way of knowing that, making for confusing line behaviour. Stop. No, go. No, stop. Oops, no, go.

Those sharp minds at Toyota think of everything: my rental RAV4 even has an “Auto LSD” button. I haven’t pressed it yet, because being wiped out on acid would decrease my ability to function in a business environment. But it’s nice to know that I could if I wanted to.

Oh, by the way, I eventually made it here to New Hampshire (see here if this confuses you). I left the Westin in Halifax at 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning, opting for the hotel’s Town Car to get there ($53) rather than a repeat performance in the “visits every hotel in Halifax” $16 shuttle bus. I was at the airport and in line by 7:05 a.m., which was miraculous, and had a nice chat with the driver to boot.

Despite the ALL CAPS warning on my Air Canada itinerary that the latest time I could check in was 90 minutes before my 8:40 a.m. flight, there were no Air Canada staff in place until 7:15 a.m. — in other words, 5 minutes past the deadline. They seemed unapologetic about this, and I was none the worse for wear in any case.

Customs was open this time (again, see here) and pleasantly free of lines, so I was in the U.S. departure lounge by 7:30 a.m.

When I ordered a cappuccino at the coffee shop/bar inside the waitress looked at me like I was insane: they had coffee and that was it. I had a cup of tea. Similarly, when I ordered the “bagel and fruit salad” I was told they had no fruit salad and that I could substitute an apple if I wanted. I stuck with a bagel. Sometimes you pine for the consistency of a Starbucks.

It was like Old Home Week after a while, as all my old friends from the cancelled flight to Boston the night before regrouped for the morning flight down. We left on time, arrived 25 minutes early, and I was at the Hertz counter by 9:30 a.m.

Hertz was having a bad day, and the #1 Club Gold system had imploded by the time I got there, so the promised “step off the bus and into your car” glide was interrupted by 15 minutes waiting with a bunch of other frustratees until my car was ready. My “Toyota Camry or Similar” turned out to be a Toyota RAV4, a vehicle with all the downsides of an SUV and none of the get up and go. It also smells like vomit, which is never a good feature in a car.

By noon I was at Yankee and as the day continued, I didn’t even get a chance to set up a makeshift workspace, as meetings began as soon as I arrived and lasted until quitting time. The highlight of the meeting day was taking the wraps off the new Content Management System we’ve been concocting for the past several months. I ended up spinning a more-complicated-than-it-needed-to-be metaphorical tale of “content baskets” and cut up a perfectly good printed copy of Yankee Magazine in the process, but in the end I think everyone got it, baskets or no.

Today was another long day here at Yankee. Had breakfast with expat Canadian Gerry Hull at The Bagel Mill where they make their cappuccino “American style” (i.e. way, way too much coffee, and limp foam). It was good to meet Gerry, and to find out that, in his own way, he’s a part of the Wayne Green Universe of southern New Hampshire. And he’s got angora goats too!

We had our first bona fide video conference today, as one of our flock was at home in southern Massachsetts for a dentist appointment, so teleported in with iChat A/V running on her MacBook. It mostly worked — there were a couple of bandwidth bottleneck-related fuzzifications, and we lacked a wide-angle lens on our end to get everyone in the conference room “in the picture.” But I did get to experience the upsides that video “telepresence” offers over just being on the phone.

The Dublin General Store, where I had lunch, as been renovated (again) and was in fine form: they made me up a hummous and smoked turkey sandwich and were over the moon about being able to squeeze two protein forms into one wrap.

Tonight I’m rendezvousing with Lou from Utah who’s flying in as I type; he’s doing some work with Yankee and this will be our first chance to meet.

Tomorrow is another day of meetings, and then a long slog back to the Island with an overnight in Halifax. If I get back to Charlottetown by my scheduled Friday morning arrival time it will be a pleasant miracle.

Via Robert comes even more airline news: Halifax will again be an Icelandair gateway. Nothing is showing up on their reservations site yet, but methinks this might be a way of getting to reboot this year while avoiding London and Frankfurt and getting to see Iceland at the same time.

Update: There’s a special page on the Icelandair website specifically for booking from Halifax. Looking at dates in late May and early June, looks like the lowest return fares are in the $700 Canadian range, all taxes and fees in, which isn’t bad.

The Westin Nova Scotian charges $12.95/day for Internet access in the room. Fortunately for me some kind neighbourhood sole with a Wifi access point named “carlito” charges nothing. Thanks carlito!

It’s 6:00 a.m. and I’m up to get ready to catch a cab back out to the airport. With luck, the next time you read something here I will be in southern New Hampshire.

I left Charlottetown at 4:45 p.m. en route to Halifax on an Air Canada Dash 8. A mechanical problem with the original plane caused them to substitute a new plane, with a new flight number, and this caused the departure to be a little late. When we arrived in Halifax the ground crew wasn’t ready. And so by the time we hit the gate it was about 5:45 p.m. Just before we deplaned I was told that I needed to see the Customer Service desk about my flight to Boston.

The Customer Service desk had a line-up of about a dozen people, so I continued on into the U.S. connections area. And ran smack dab into a giant closed gate in front of a deserted security checkpoint. I was trapped in some sort of vortex between the U.S. and Canada, and there didn’t seem to be any doors that would take me back from whence I’d come. I cried out. A helpful security guard arrived and told me that customs closes at 6:00 p.m. sharp, that I was out of luck, and I had to walk to the other end of the airport to rebook my flight.

So I headed to the ticket counter, stood in line for 20 minutes, and found out that, indeed, I was stranded in Halifax for the night, rebooked on the first flight out tomorrow morning. They booked me a room at the Airport Hotel, and then went to see if they could fine my bag.

An hour later, it finally emerged that (a) my bag had actually made it all the way to the plane (which is a violation of international law, isn’t it?) and (b) the flight to Boston ended up being cancelled anyway so (c) my bag was waiting down at the other end of the airport.

I hoofed it down to pick up my bag and then headed to the Airport Hotel (yes, it’s actually called the “Airport Hotel”) shuttle. Except that the shuttle was busy being loaded with about 17 dozen senior citizens with 5 giant bags each. So I caught a cab.

At the Airport Hotel they told me that they had no record of my reservation, that Air Canada had made a mistake, and that I’d have to go back to the airport. I tried phoning the Air Canada reservations number to see if they could help, but after an extended debate about whether I should have had my “booking reference number” at hand, I was told that this was “an airport issue” and that I’d have to go back to the airport.

So I went back to the airport. In a shuttle bus filled with happy Newfoundlanders who, earlier in the day, had headed to St. John’s, made it within 10 feet of the runway at the airport there, only to be turned back by weather to Halifax. They were going to the airport liqour store for “provisions.”

Back at the airport I was greeted by the ever-helpful Christine (perhaps the kindest and most helpful Air Canada employee I’ve ever met; she’s also from Newfoundland) and she dropped everything to find me a room somewhere. She finally found a room at the Westin here in downtown Halifax, this time with a real confirmation number, and sent me off with a handshake and thanks for being a gentleman and not losing my cool. This woman deserves an award.

Next onto the “Airporter” shuttle bus and into Halifax. It seems that the Westin is the absolute last stop on the run, so after visting every hotel in both Dartmouth and Halifax we arrived at the Westin about 9:30 p.m. Six hours after leaving home.

I’ve just had a fantastic club sandwich from the hotel’s room service, and I’m scheduled to head back to the airport at 6:30 a.m. for an 8:40 a.m. departure to Boston. I have no faith that will actually happen, but it’s worth a try.

I count myself lucky: the flight I missed because customs was closed was eventually canceled, and not everyone on that flight could get out in the morning because the morning flight filled up quickly. So there was a silver lining.

The irony of all this is that I specifically chose to fly through Halifax because, now that they have U.S. Customs pre-clearance, the trip wound be much faster and absent of the hassles of connecting in Montreal. Oh how wrong I was. Air Canada, the Halifax Airport and the U.S. Customs Service are going to have to work some flex into the system if this is going to work.

Lessons learned: people from Newfoundland are really nice; don’t get angry at Air Canada staff and they’ll warm to you; travel on the east coast in wintertime is always an adventure.

Interestingly enough, Johnny just emailed that Delta has announced direct Charlottetown to Boston flights starting in June. This will provide a complete Air Canada-free solution for getting to Boston, just what Rob was looking for this morning.

I just finished taping a short segment for tonight’s Compass about the change back to calling the show Compass. It’s all very Möbius loopy. Ironically, I’ll be on a plane to New Hampshire when the first reborn hour-long show airs tonight, so I’ll have to watch on the Internet once I get to the Jack Daniels Motor Inn in Peterborough.

I just want to take a moment to lavish praise on S3 Browser, a graphical user interface for Amazon’s S3 storage service. It’s exactly the tool I needed yesterday to help me get a handle on our our network backup to S3. It works. Thanks.