Many in the Dopplr community are freelancers or small business owners, with networks that span the globe. If you fit that description, we recommend you take a look at Going Solo, a conference made for you that’s taking place in Lausanne, Switzerland in May.

We’ve created a way for attendees to connect on Dopplr by joining a network of travellers associated with the event. You can read more about it on the Going Solo blog, and don’t forget to add your trip to Dopplr if you’re going.

UPDATE: the organisers have kindly given us a discount code for readers of our blog. Get your ticket now at a 33% discount by using this code: DPLRSG83H

It’s first-come, first-served as the code will only work for the first five registrations to use it.

Dopplr "badgegeist" Physical Prototype by Jerakeen, originally uploaded by blackbeltjones.

Tom mocked this up really quickly this morning.

It’s a dynamic version of our logo showing the city colours of where people are on trips to right now. It’s our equivalent of that LED sign that Google used to have on their wall showing current search queries… except a lot slower…

Currently it’s mocked-up using the crystal-case packaging of a Jawbone headset and an iPod Touch that’s connected over wifi to the script that generates the logo.

Here’s a Flickr video (or “long photo”) showing the componentry…

We’re going to try and make a bigger version for our office wall with RGB leds and an arduino as a summer project… Stay tuned!

AP: EU Allows Mobile Phones on Airplanes. Under the plan approved Monday, cell phone users could make and receive calls through an onboard base station. They will be allowed to turn their phones on after the plane reaches 10,000 feet, when other electronic devices such as portable music players and laptops are permitted. But a host of issues remain, from the cost of mid-flight phone service, to backlash from those who dread the thought of being trapped for hours listening to one-sided conversations.

Uh, oh…

I have no issue with someone making a mobile call in a quiet and unobtrusive way, preferably turning away from me and others so that we’re not bombarded with information we really don’t want to hear. Even a quick call to let someone know that the plane has landed is fine with me. It’s the loud, long, and ultimately selfish mobile callers who raise my ire.

To make the point that the chatter is intrusive, I sometimes visibly listen to the person who’s talking, and even take notes if obviously listening doesn’t work. Amazing how quickly these folks wrap up their calls.

This also works when people around me are having a loud conversation and ignore requests to lower the volume. (Most people in my experience simply don’t realize they’re bothering others, and are glad to tone it down when asked politely.)

Of course, my ultimate defense is listening to music with my noise-canceling headset. That should not be necessary in a halfway civilized world.

badgorama, originally uploaded by jerakeen.

As MattB said - it’ll remind people of a certain age (including us) of a ZX Spectrum loading screen…

NY Times: Better Airline Tracking Software Could Mean Fewer Stranded Travelers and Less Frequent Delays. And now, after upgrading their software, airlines claim they can make good on promises not to strand passengers. Those vows will be tested as the holiday travel season begins and winter storms descend on airports across the United States.

This is good news — if the system works.

The Register reports, “US demands air passengers ask its permission to fly.”

Under new rules proposed by the Transport Security Administration (TSA) (pdf), all airline passengers would need advance permission before flying into, through, or over the United States regardless of citizenship or the airline’s national origin.

Currently, the Advanced Passenger Information System, operated by the Customs and Border Patrol, requires airlines to forward a list of passenger information no later than 15 minutes before flights from the US take off (international flights bound for the US have until 15 minutes after take-off). Planes are diverted if a passenger on board is on the no-fly list.

The new rules mean this information must be submitted 72 hours before departure. Only those given clearance will get a boarding pass. The TSA estimates that 90 to 93 per cent of all travel reservations are final by then.

Well, this will empty some seats on US-bound planes, and persuade more people to avoid traveling to America altogether. BIzarre. Counterproductive. Paranoid.

Also unsurprising, sadly.

NY Times: At 30,000 Feet, Finding a Captive Audience for Advertising. As airlines look for new sources of revenue to offset rising fuel costs, more carriers are turning planes into marketing vehicles, installing advertising in hard-to-miss places.

Like on the seat in front of you, and on the overhead compartments.

I suspect I’ll go out of my way not to buy anything from any company that does this kind of advertising.

Bogata’s famous Museo del Oro has an incredible collection from ancient times. It’s a must-see stop for anyone who visits this city.

I confess, however, that the modern age has entirely captured me. When I came across the piece at left, my immediate thought was “audio headset.”

Guess I need to get out more…

United Airlines’ quality has deteriorated so significantly in the past several years as to be shocking. I’m not talking about charging for food in coach class; that’s a reasonable step, in my view, and in fact the fresh food United offers in coach is well worth the cost.

The condition of the airplanes, however, is shabby. Starting with maintenance: On at least five trips this year in Boeing 777 aircraft, we’ve been held up for hours due to mechanical problems. That’s more in a few months than I can remember in all the other years combined on the aircraft, the maintenance of which has been outsourced to China.

Is this a coincidence? All I know is that United’s maintenance system seems to be deteriorating, and from what I hear about other U.S. airlines United isn’t alone in this. All of which makes me hope that federal inspectors are being extremely tough on the airlines (assuming the U.S. government actually cares about such things anymore, which I no longer take for granted).

Mechanical woes are not the only sign of lower standards. This morning, boarding a flight from Washington to San Francisco, passengers were greeted by an odor that can only be called rank. To be precise, it smelled a bit like the inside of a public toilet. The flight attendant shrugged apologetically when several people asked him about it, saying only, “We smelled it, too.” Gee, thanks.

United employees are not terribly friendly these days, either. It’s hard to blame them, given the outrageous way they’ve been treated by their management, which is lavishing massive salaries and stock deals on the top people and whacking away at the rank-and-file in every possible way. The shamelessness of the executives there is testament to a system that rewards greed and treats actual work as an afterthought.

All this contrasts with the European carriers, notably Lufthansa, that I’ve flown in the last year or so. Everything from service to cleanliness of the aircraft to the attitude of the employees is superior to what I’ve seen on U.S. airlines.

It would be wise in many ways for the U.S. to allow foreign carriers to enter the market in competitive ways, not the barely competitive assignments of routes that allows a bad system to get worse. Sure, there are plenty of other items that need fixing, especially the archaic air-traffic control system and the cartel-like fortress hubs that let airlines dominate city air travel with such plainly problematic results.

I’d pay a few more dollars per trip for cleaner and better-maintained planes, and to pay a living wage to human beings whose livelihoods have been chopped away for years. But the fact remains: the airlines compete solely on price, apparently because passengers are choosing solely on price.

I’m with a group of journalists from Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe this week in California. More than half of them encountered airline delays in getting here. One of the group, 5 days after arriving, is still waiting for British Airways to deliver his luggage.

This is getting ridiculous…