Singapore airlines becomes a PayPal

Singapore Airlines - regarded by some as Asian's premier airline has teamed up with online payment service provider PayPal. If you are in the USA, Singapore, or some other Asia Pacific countries, you can pay for your tickets via your paypal account.

That should reduce the number of clicks you need to pay for your airfare down to 3.  No having to retype all those credit card numbers. 

I can see an iTunes 'one click' and password purchase just around the corner!

Eleven steps that Middle Eastern despots take

The latest episode of This American Life: Know when to fold 'em has a segment by Nancy Updike on the current spate of trouble in the Middle East. She lists the 11 actions dictators take on the path to losing power:

1. Shut down the internet
2. Send thugs (on foot or horseback)
3. Attack and arrest journalists
4. Shoot people
5. Promise to investigate who shot people
6. Do a meaningless political reshuffle
7. Blame Al Jazeera
8. Organise paid demonstrations in favor of your regime
9. Make a condescending speech about how much you love the youth
10. Threaten that the country will fall into chaos without you
11. Blame foreign agitators

Stage 12 which remains unspoken is simply 'Leave - get out'.

She spoke to Mark Lynch from the Middle East Studies program at George Washington University, and he got excited because Arabic language media have been publishing almost the same kinds of lists, and commenting sarcastically according to the stage the particular dictator has reached.

I wonder if we could draw up a similar list for labour party governments - or indeed coalition governments - especially in their 2nd terms. Anyone want to try?

When is a virgin really a virgin?

Virgin Blue /  V Australia is to re-brand as Virgin Australia as tipped by Australian Business Traveller who have been sleuthing amongst domain name registrations and come up with the fact that Virgin Enterprises Limited (the holder of the virgin trademark amongst other things) registered the domain name virginaustralia.com.au on 21st March. No link is provided, because it currently doesn't get you anywhere.

This is no big revelation, they were tipped to rebrand mid year, and presumably just had to drink the financial cool-aid to use the monicer, which I believe was licensed to Singapore airlines as part of the Virgin Atlantic brand.

Whether V Australia will be able to use 'Virgin Australia' outside of Australia is a moot point.

We may not have to wait until June to find out, as ABT suggests it might happen earlier.

For consumers, it will make sense to have Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America, and Virgin Australia. It might make the Virgin airline group sound more like an actual international airline, rather than a bunch of franchisees. Adding Virgin Pacific would just make it perfect!

Tap turning as a test of masculinity

There's a bathroom I visit regulary.

Recently new people moved in.  Two men, and six women.  So with me, there are only three people who visit the male toilet.

Since they moved in, the cold tap has required particular force to turn it on, due to the vigor with which it has been turned off.

This is no leaky tap. A gentle turning completed with fingertip touch staunches all flow.

Besides my obvious concern that the washer will be worn out sooner rather than later - do you think that this person is consciously providing a daily masculinity test for the other males in our building?

Should I place the sign I have prepared  'Tap turning does not need to be a test of masculinity' above the tap?

Or is this over-firm closure just a habit borne of their experience of poorly performing washers elsewhere?

My ear-buds stopped your car from stopping!

I walk 30 minutes to work and 30 minutes home nearly every day. I've been doing that for the last 30 or more years at one workplace or another.

Yesterday, in the last 20 metres of my walk to work, I crossed the road at a well marked, signposted, and speed bump style pedestrian crossing outside my workplace.

I was wearing ear-buds - but had turned the rather interesting (discussing the Bhagavad Gita ) edition of In Our Time with Melvyn Brag off on my iPod, as I usually do when approaching a road I need to cross.

To my right, traffic stopped, and traffic to my left was traveling slowly, as it was banked up towards the round-about which comes straight after the crossing.

When the car on my left did not stop as I was about to plant my foot in front of it, I raised my arms (to be noticed) and shouted out 'stop'.

The driver then started shouting within her car and miming that I should not be wearing earbuds.

I shouted. 'You have to stop - its a pedestrian crossing'.  More gesticulating and swearing within her car.

I wish I had the perspicacity to shout "Darling, it doesn't matter if I have a Widescreen TV glued to my head - you have to stop. It's a pedestrian crossing."

When I got to the cafe below my workplace.  The best barista, who had seen it all said mockingly as he shook his head - 'you can't stop when someones wearing headphones'

This is not the first case I have experience of road rage directed at pedestrians merely doing what they are meant to - crossing at a pedestrian crossing.

OK, so drivers, if you can resist the powers of my magic ear-buds, here is what the rules are in NSW, Australia: Road Rules 2008 - regulation 81:

(1) A driver approaching a pedestrian crossing must drive at a speed at which the driver can, if necessary, stop safely before the crossing.

Maximum penalty: 20 penalty units.

Note: "Pedestrian crossing" is defined in subrule (3).

(2) A driver must give way to any pedestrian on a pedestrian crossing.

Maximum penalty: 20 penalty units.

Note: For this rule, "give way" means the driver must slow down and, if necessary, stop to avoid a collision-see the definition in the Dictionary.

And if its a Children's crossing - then the rules are even tougher:

(4) If a driver stops at a children’s crossing for a pedestrian, the driver must not proceed until there is no pedestrian on or entering the crossing.

Maximum penalty: 20 penalty units.

So drivers - please a little more respect on those pedestrian crossings - no more autopilot - just following the car in front please.

Servicing design

Since my first work in graphic design for print, I have been interested in the way people interact with a book or a brochure, an image or font - in fact with the whole product. How do they consume the product, their preferences and prejudices.

Moving into web design in the 90's opened up a whole new area of human interaction with design. Drawing from emerging field of computer/human interaction, the web added a new layer to this evolving discipline, which now encompasses information architecture, interaction and now even service design:

"The second ICID is looking at how interaction design is moving beyond human-computer interaction to creating delightful and responsible individual, social, and organizational experiences."

The 'ICID' in the title stands for International Conference on Interaction Design.  It's being held in Hong Kong in November this year, and I want to be there.

For more information go to http://www.icidconference.com/

Airline bed fantasy

Up, up and away . . .

At last - real beds at the pointy end.

Lufthansa is planning to introduce beds plus a seat for some lucky first class passengers who travel on the upper deck of 10 of their 747's.

The new first class cabin on 10 lucky Lufthansa 747 upper deck's

This would make if very soft and comfortable, and more pointed at, than pointy at the pointy end of the aircraft.

I personally am working on having right side blindness on entry to aircraft, so that I can only ever turn left.

Thanks to cranky flier

You wil be asimilated!

 I love Apple products - but this is just going too far:

According to ThinkGeek, the set "introduces children to the magic of Apple technology." There's an entire two-level Apple Store staffed by PLAYMOBIL™ associates, with tiny demo tables filled with minuscule Apple gear, software shelves, and even the kid's corner on the ground floor. Upstairs, there's a Genius Bar and a Keynote Theater staffed by a mini Steve Jobs figure. The Store is designed so that you can use your own iPhone 4 as Steve's screen in the theater, and there are simulated Keynote presentations available for download on the PLAYMOBIL™ website.

Comes to you via Joe.My.God

Office-home more than Home-office

Not a home-office, or office-home, but a desk in a Shanghai Grand Hyatt Suite

At my workplace, a new tenant has just moved in.

With about 7 or 8 staff, I expected them to use the pre-existing exchange phone system.  You can have multiple lines in, pick up from every extenion, have general and direct lines, as well as an answering machine, music on hold etc etc.

Instead they are using standard off-the-shelf (think Dick Smith/Harvey Norman/Good Guys) multiple station cordless home phone type handsets.

Each of their computers seems to be connected to its own domestic style printer. No networked printer. In fact I am not sure they are running any kind of network, or server.

They seem to be surviving on re-purposed kitchen tables and what I suspect are collapsible event-type tables. A domestic lounge, chairs, and a bunch of 'persian' carpets and beanbags seem to complete the decoration. Unlike our past tenants, no wall decoration, signage, or self publicty.

So, is the distinction between the home and the office environment changing - or are our new tenants just running on a shoestring?

Everyone seems to have a home-office - but an office-home?

Hyatt-us

Hotel Carpet

I'm quite a fan of Hyatt hotels. Or at least they are the big chain hotel group that I remain faithful to.

It all started when the Grand Hyatt was the best hotel in Melbourne, then our relationship was cemented after a week long stay at the Park Hyatt in Tokyo. (you need a view of Mt Fuji from your window).

What won me over was the tray of coffee delivered each morning - at a time of our liking, with a hand written note detailing the day's weather. The real skill was the waiter delivering the tray without once looking directly into the room.

The loyalty points from those two weeks in Japan allowed me room upgrades from standard room to club to suite on every stay since. I've done it in Shanghai, Melbourne and Auckland.

So if not a Hyatt fan, at least a Hyatt faithful.

But I think that we might be falling out of love.

Recently at the Grand Hyatt Melbourne the phone booking agent offered an upgrade to a refurbished suite.

But on arrival the upgrade was to a rather old, sad, tatty un-refurbished room. You know the kind - scratches on all the woodwork, ingrained stains in the draylon covered lounge.

Questions were asked, apologies were made, free champagne and strawberries, and an à la carte breakfast was comped. My ill feelings were assuaged.

However the denouement was not so pleasant. The final bill - you know - the ones that is put under the door - was entirely inaccurate - other than the bed-night charges.

We had been erroneously charged for drinks ("I'll reverse that for you now"), charged for coffee during our comped breakfast; multiple charges for internet access on the same day etc etc. All that work done by the very accommodating assistant manager Ryan was all undone with one inaccurate piece of paper.

It wasn't so much the mistake, but that slight air of distrust, like you really had drained the mini-bar and not admitted it - that rankled.  Maybe its the Japanese grace I miss.

Texting while driving - there's an app for that!

As a pedestrian, I notice drivers texting all the time.  They do it at lights, and then continue after someone has honked them because they missed the lights change.
 

Back in January, T-Mobile launched DriveSmart, an Android app which automatically disables the ability to text whenever it detects that you’re driving.

That launch, it seems, has started a trend.

Sprint’s now getting in on the anti-texting fun, announcing plans to launch a similar (or identical, really; it’s made by the same people) service called “Drive First” in Q3 of this year. Like T-Mobile’s offering, this one’ll be for Android only. Also like T-Mobile’s service, it won’t be free — but at $2 a month, it’s less than half of the $4.99 that T-Mobile is charging.

You can always make money from people's stupidity

source

Phone tragedy - changing telco's

Recently a friend of mine and their partner moved all their telecommunications over to Telstra. They combined their mobile accounts, their landline, their internet, their mobile data plans, and their Foxtel all together to reap promised discounts, additional credits, and a single simplified bill.

If only we could bill the telco for the hours we spend letting them frustrate us
What they didn't sign on for was over 20 hours of frustration with countless Telstra consultants in too many locations to count. All either promised to solve the numerous problems (billing, promised credits, promised discounts, promised combinations of services) and didn't, or just passed the problem on - that old transfer roundabout.

Transfer roundabout 
I'm sure you are familiar with the drill: "This is not a sales problem, I'll just transfer you to technical support.", or "Oh your on a Mac, not my area, I'll have to transfer you." or the dreaded promise of no solution: "Well I will have to escalate this issue." - when to you it has already 'escalated' to mind numbing frustration.

Customer service
Now my friend is no slouch at customer service. Every phone call was logged, every consultant's name remembered, every conversation noted, every incident number recorded, and every consultant's ID taken down

What a waste of time for my friend, but what a huge waste of time for Telstra.

There must be a better way to manage customers than this.

Oh - and I forgot to tell you – my friend's old telco still thinks they are their customers, and bills them accordingly. Another poor call centre operator to argue with!

Elizabeth Taylor - we shared more than a birthday