If a company wants my loyalty, they have to be loyal to me. Pretending to give a shit when my luggage goes missing or waiving the cost of one of those padded sleeping goggle whatchamacallits instead of carrying on like I'm trying to screw them out of the 2c those things cost would go a long way
Right, but you're the exception, not the rule. Airline customers *claim* they'd pay more for a fare that included things like free eyemasks and pretzels, but then when the time comes to book a ticket they pick the airline with the cheapest fare. Airlines have, in the past, tried to be 'loyal to you' and have learned it gets them nowhere, at least in the USA and Canada. Customers aren't interested in good service, they're interested in getting where they're going on the cheap, pure and simple - And with respect to service, passengers have reaped what they've sown. Compared to 20 years ago, airline fares are dramatically cheaper, and service is dramatically worse. Coincidence? I think not...
I would have no problem with getting a lower luggage allowance than someone of more healthy proportions
The maximum weight of suitcase most airlines allow on a domestic flight is 50 pounds. Most "Customers of Size" are way more than 50 pounds overweight - So even if you took away their entire luggage allowance they'd be out of luck...
Numerous airplanes (except the small ones) have varying sized seats (even in coach) - just like many movie theaters. Simply accomodating a larger passenger by placing them in a larger seat seems to be a viable method of ensuring people's comfort.
Can you provide some specific examples of carriers and seat configurations? I fly about once a month, mostly on US-based 'domestic' routes, and I'm not familiar with what you're talking about. An airline like United has 2 types of passenger seats on the aircraft - A wider 'business class' seat, and a narrower 'economy class' seat. United also has "Economy Plus" whereby they increase the seat pitch (the distance between the seat and the seat in front of it). Southwest is all one class, with identical seats.
A transatlantic mainline carrier might have four classes of service: First class, business class, "premium economy" and economy. However, this is rarely the case flying economy in the United States.
What I wonder is why the heck KS would be flying standby
'Standby' used to mean a cheap ticket bought last minute by a college kid with a backpack.
It doesn't mean that anymore. Let's imagine you're a millionaire like presumably KS is. You're booked on a 1pm flight, then get to the airport early and find out there's an 11am flight, so you try to get on that one instead. You're booked on the 1pm and on 'standby' for the 11am flight.
Given the negative PR that Southwest has just earned themselves, the cost of giving him a second available seat seems like a much cheaper option in hindsight.
Not really. How many people are going to boycott Southwest now? Virtually none - And those who might consider it will quickly change their mind and fly southwest anyway when they discover a ticket on United or AA is $30 more than Southwest.
As a traveler I hare airlines. They are a bunch of snivelling money grubbing slime balls who would never give anyone an inch more room than they paid for in blood.
The main reason airlines never give 'anyone an inch' is because their profit margins are unbelievably small - They transport thousands a day. An inch here and inch there, and suddenly they're bankrupt.
This happens largely because airline passengers day to day often have little brand loyalty. They simply shop for the cheapest fare.
can't even begin to comprehend what could you possibly mean by that
He's a bit of an uncouth coarse pig who can't get his point across in a level-headed fashion, but nevertheless he's correct. He's not talking about the Great Depression, he's talking about this:
I just don't get the appeal of American football... Everyone lines up, crashes into each other, play stops. Then they line up again, and crash again, and play stops again. Repeat over and over.
I bet if I edited all the stops out of a recorded game and just played it the thing would run for like 15 minutes?
On a volunteer basis I manage an older PC running Windows 2000. I recently installed Firefox on it to replace IE 6. It runs fine. To prevent user-confusion I deleted all the IE icons she could see, and changed the Firefox icon to the "Blue E" (sacrilege, I know, but what're you gonna do?)
Bingo! That's exactly what this initiative represents... Outsourcing to reduce government spending. In most government projects, salaries & benefits make up the largest percentage of the 'spending' - So if you want to reduce spending you cut labour costs.
I'm not an American and I don't live in the USA, but from the outside looking in, it seems to me the USA is running up GIGANTIC debts and deficits, with the citizenry unwilling to pay additional taxes (i.e. consumption taxes like a VAT) to fund government spending.
So to me this seems like a good way to get spending under control. You can't on the one hand be unwilling to pay taxes and on the other hand want the government to hire $80K/year coders - If the US citizens have said no more taxes then they have to accept government cost-cutting like this...
Glonass cannot truly be considered a viable backup for GPS since both are space based and subject to space based attacks from aliens, or from changing laws of physics, or from massive asteroid attacks.
These are all incredibly important points, but it's important to remember that terrestrial-based systems such as Loran run exactly the same risks.
If you don't have a booth at the show, how are you getting people up to your suite to look at your products?
Depends on the nature of your business and the marketing you've done. If you're spending tens-of-thousands going to the show then typically you've already done an extensive email / mail / phone marketing campaign reaching out to the key individuals/customers you want to contact. At that point, it doesn't matter whether you're telling them to meet you at the Milano Meeting Room or trade show booth 20456.
The resulting delay due to evacuating everybody, screening the facility, and then rescreening everybody would result in millions if not billions of dollars worth of time and money lost.
The US government has shown time and time again that they aren't concerned about these 'soft costs.' Having an official at a podium stating that the "incident was taken seriously and handled professionally" is considered MUCH MUCH more important than saving soft costs.
our current security is fairly good at preventing physical metallic objects that could be used as weapons. This is a good thing
No, it's not a 'good thing' it's a bloody waste of time and energy that could be spent elsewhere. Ban guns and explosives? Definitely. But sharps? Who cares?
Any hijacking today would promptly fail if hijackers attempted to take a plane armed only with sharps.
The success of a hijacking very much depends on the weapon used. If a hijacker or hijackers have guns on board, well then I think people would remain in their seats. It's very difficult to storm an enemy armed with a gun.
Ditto if they claimed there was a bomb on board and they had a remote trigger 'somewhere' - People would likely keep their seats.
So should security screen for guns and bombs? Absolutely - X-ray laptops blah blah blah.
But anything less than a gun or bomb? I think people on board would react and beat the hijackers to death with the drinks cart, their laptops, duty free rum bottles, whatever. Even if a handful of hijackers had knives to the necks of the FAs, people would react and attack the hijackers, and even if they did have knives to the necks of the FAs and no one reacted, what would happen? The crew wouldn't open the locked flightdeck door - They'd just land at the nearest airport and it's game over for the hijackers. Flight crews don't give in to hijackers any more - The modis operandi has changed.
So with a trained crew and a locked reinforced cockpit door they wouldn't be taking control of the plane anyway, so the knives would be useless.
So should security screen for sharps? Waste of time. There's nothing a hijacker can do with a sharp other than injure or maybe kill some of the people on board. Where's the terrorist value in that?
I'll just continue to buy locked phones, and then drop 10 or 20 whole dollars to get them unlocked at the local electronics mall.
I think you'll see this model start to fail over the next little while, for two reasons -
1) As we move more and more to 'smart phones' like the iPhone that get 'updated' regularly by PCs, you'll see mechanisms whereby the locking gets 'put back' each time you attach the phone to your PC.
2) Networks will move to a model whereby they won't allow 'unlocked' phones on their network.
Personally, I think it's all rubbish. The cable company doesn't subsidize the cost of my TV in their cable package, my ISP doesn't subsidize the cost of my PC in their broadband package (yeah, yeah I know there's a smattering of this, but still...), why don't they just sell the me the phone and the package separately, and be done with it?
I know this is evil because it's Microsoft, blah blah blah (yawn)... However it's interesting to note that Malcolm Gladwell postulated something similar in his book "The Tipping Point." In the book, he speaks extensively on the value of the influencers in our society.
Many trends are ushered into popularity by small groups of individuals that can be classified as Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen. Connectors are individuals who have ties in many different realms and act as conduits between them, helping to engender connections, relationships, and "cross-fertilization" that otherwise might not have ever occurred. Mavens are people who have a strong compulsion to help other consumers by helping them make informed decisions. Salesmen are people whose unusual charisma allows them to be extremely persuasive in inducing others' buying decisions and behaviors. Gladwell identifies a number of examples of past trends and events that hinged on the influence and involvement of Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen at key moments in their development.
It's not about 'the right to drive' - It's about the right to be going about your business (including driving) and not being randomly pulled over by the police to determine if "maybe you might have done some kind of crime perhaps."
If I'm swerving all over the road, fine, or if you see me chatting on my phone (or eating a cheeseburger or watching a DVD or texting) then fine, but being randomly pulled over so the police can check my phone logs? Fvck that.
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If a company wants my loyalty, they have to be loyal to me. Pretending to give a shit when my luggage goes missing or waiving the cost of one of those padded sleeping goggle whatchamacallits instead of carrying on like I'm trying to screw them out of the 2c those things cost would go a long way
Right, but you're the exception, not the rule. Airline customers *claim* they'd pay more for a fare that included things like free eyemasks and pretzels, but then when the time comes to book a ticket they pick the airline with the cheapest fare. Airlines have, in the past, tried to be 'loyal to you' and have learned it gets them nowhere, at least in the USA and Canada. Customers aren't interested in good service, they're interested in getting where they're going on the cheap, pure and simple - And with respect to service, passengers have reaped what they've sown. Compared to 20 years ago, airline fares are dramatically cheaper, and service is dramatically worse. Coincidence? I think not...
Seen him lately? He is a fat slob
http://datingismiserable.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/jen_playboy.jpg NSFW.
I would have no problem with getting a lower luggage allowance than someone of more healthy proportions
The maximum weight of suitcase most airlines allow on a domestic flight is 50 pounds. Most "Customers of Size" are way more than 50 pounds overweight - So even if you took away their entire luggage allowance they'd be out of luck...
Numerous airplanes (except the small ones) have varying sized seats (even in coach) - just like many movie theaters. Simply accomodating a larger passenger by placing them in a larger seat seems to be a viable method of ensuring people's comfort.
Can you provide some specific examples of carriers and seat configurations? I fly about once a month, mostly on US-based 'domestic' routes, and I'm not familiar with what you're talking about. An airline like United has 2 types of passenger seats on the aircraft - A wider 'business class' seat, and a narrower 'economy class' seat. United also has "Economy Plus" whereby they increase the seat pitch (the distance between the seat and the seat in front of it). Southwest is all one class, with identical seats.
A transatlantic mainline carrier might have four classes of service: First class, business class, "premium economy" and economy. However, this is rarely the case flying economy in the United States.
What I wonder is why the heck KS would be flying standby
'Standby' used to mean a cheap ticket bought last minute by a college kid with a backpack.
It doesn't mean that anymore. Let's imagine you're a millionaire like presumably KS is. You're booked on a 1pm flight, then get to the airport early and find out there's an 11am flight, so you try to get on that one instead. You're booked on the 1pm and on 'standby' for the 11am flight.
Given the negative PR that Southwest has just earned themselves, the cost of giving him a second available seat seems like a much cheaper option in hindsight.
Not really. How many people are going to boycott Southwest now? Virtually none - And those who might consider it will quickly change their mind and fly southwest anyway when they discover a ticket on United or AA is $30 more than Southwest.
As a traveler I hare airlines. They are a bunch of snivelling money grubbing slime balls who would never give anyone an inch more room than they paid for in blood.
The main reason airlines never give 'anyone an inch' is because their profit margins are unbelievably small - They transport thousands a day. An inch here and inch there, and suddenly they're bankrupt.
This happens largely because airline passengers day to day often have little brand loyalty. They simply shop for the cheapest fare.
Please show me where I was "uncouth"
commodore64_love (1445365) writes: "No dipshit. The depression started in 1920 and ended in 1921."
can't even begin to comprehend what could you possibly mean by that
He's a bit of an uncouth coarse pig who can't get his point across in a level-headed fashion, but nevertheless he's correct. He's not talking about the Great Depression, he's talking about this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depression_of_1920%E2%80%9321
Think of the *children*!
I just don't get the appeal of American football... Everyone lines up, crashes into each other, play stops. Then they line up again, and crash again, and play stops again. Repeat over and over.
I bet if I edited all the stops out of a recorded game and just played it the thing would run for like 15 minutes?
I have windows 2000, with IE6
On a volunteer basis I manage an older PC running Windows 2000. I recently installed Firefox on it to replace IE 6. It runs fine. To prevent user-confusion I deleted all the IE icons she could see, and changed the Firefox icon to the "Blue E" (sacrilege, I know, but what're you gonna do?)
She barely realized she wasn't using IE anymore.
Two thumbs up - You are so right!
People who oppose this altruistic venture should log off WoW for an hour or two and go read "Major Barbara."
"They would take money from the devil himself and be only too glad to get it out of his hands and into God's".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Barbara_(play)
Maybe all the fanatics will die out leaving only the sane among us alive?
Tragically no... The herd immunity protects them.
"Measles shot? Why should I get my kid a measles shot? None of my kid's friends ever gets the measles."
Nothing but a crappy robot stuck in the sand
decrease government spending in the first place.
Bingo! That's exactly what this initiative represents... Outsourcing to reduce government spending. In most government projects, salaries & benefits make up the largest percentage of the 'spending' - So if you want to reduce spending you cut labour costs.
I'm not an American and I don't live in the USA, but from the outside looking in, it seems to me the USA is running up GIGANTIC debts and deficits, with the citizenry unwilling to pay additional taxes (i.e. consumption taxes like a VAT) to fund government spending.
So to me this seems like a good way to get spending under control. You can't on the one hand be unwilling to pay taxes and on the other hand want the government to hire $80K/year coders - If the US citizens have said no more taxes then they have to accept government cost-cutting like this...
They're only real purpose is to provide a way to "smoke" when you can't light up a cigarette.
That's exactly their purpose - so, for example, nicotine addicts can get a hit of their legal drug in an airplane's washroom. (I'm a nonsmoker.)
Fuck e-cigs
No one has religion like a convert :)
Glonass cannot truly be considered a viable backup for GPS since both are space based and subject to space based attacks from aliens, or from changing laws of physics, or from massive asteroid attacks.
These are all incredibly important points, but it's important to remember that terrestrial-based systems such as Loran run exactly the same risks.
If you don't have a booth at the show, how are you getting people up to your suite to look at your products?
Depends on the nature of your business and the marketing you've done. If you're spending tens-of-thousands going to the show then typically you've already done an extensive email / mail / phone marketing campaign reaching out to the key individuals/customers you want to contact. At that point, it doesn't matter whether you're telling them to meet you at the Milano Meeting Room or trade show booth 20456.
The resulting delay due to evacuating everybody, screening the facility, and then rescreening everybody would result in millions if not billions of dollars worth of time and money lost.
The US government has shown time and time again that they aren't concerned about these 'soft costs.' Having an official at a podium stating that the "incident was taken seriously and handled professionally" is considered MUCH MUCH more important than saving soft costs.
our current security is fairly good at preventing physical metallic objects that could be used as weapons. This is a good thing
No, it's not a 'good thing' it's a bloody waste of time and energy that could be spent elsewhere. Ban guns and explosives? Definitely. But sharps? Who cares?
Any hijacking today would promptly fail if hijackers attempted to take a plane armed only with sharps.
The success of a hijacking very much depends on the weapon used. If a hijacker or hijackers have guns on board, well then I think people would remain in their seats. It's very difficult to storm an enemy armed with a gun.
Ditto if they claimed there was a bomb on board and they had a remote trigger 'somewhere' - People would likely keep their seats.
So should security screen for guns and bombs? Absolutely - X-ray laptops blah blah blah.
But anything less than a gun or bomb? I think people on board would react and beat the hijackers to death with the drinks cart, their laptops, duty free rum bottles, whatever. Even if a handful of hijackers had knives to the necks of the FAs, people would react and attack the hijackers, and even if they did have knives to the necks of the FAs and no one reacted, what would happen? The crew wouldn't open the locked flightdeck door - They'd just land at the nearest airport and it's game over for the hijackers. Flight crews don't give in to hijackers any more - The modis operandi has changed.
So with a trained crew and a locked reinforced cockpit door they wouldn't be taking control of the plane anyway, so the knives would be useless.
So should security screen for sharps? Waste of time. There's nothing a hijacker can do with a sharp other than injure or maybe kill some of the people on board. Where's the terrorist value in that?
I'll just continue to buy locked phones, and then drop 10 or 20 whole dollars to get them unlocked at the local electronics mall.
I think you'll see this model start to fail over the next little while, for two reasons -
1) As we move more and more to 'smart phones' like the iPhone that get 'updated' regularly by PCs, you'll see mechanisms whereby the locking gets 'put back' each time you attach the phone to your PC.
2) Networks will move to a model whereby they won't allow 'unlocked' phones on their network.
Personally, I think it's all rubbish. The cable company doesn't subsidize the cost of my TV in their cable package, my ISP doesn't subsidize the cost of my PC in their broadband package (yeah, yeah I know there's a smattering of this, but still...), why don't they just sell the me the phone and the package separately, and be done with it?
I know this is evil because it's Microsoft, blah blah blah (yawn)... However it's interesting to note that Malcolm Gladwell postulated something similar in his book "The Tipping Point." In the book, he speaks extensively on the value of the influencers in our society.
From http://www.wikisummaries.org/The_Tipping_Point
Many trends are ushered into popularity by small groups of individuals that can be classified as Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen. Connectors are individuals who have ties in many different realms and act as conduits between them, helping to engender connections, relationships, and "cross-fertilization" that otherwise might not have ever occurred. Mavens are people who have a strong compulsion to help other consumers by helping them make informed decisions. Salesmen are people whose unusual charisma allows them to be extremely persuasive in inducing others' buying decisions and behaviors. Gladwell identifies a number of examples of past trends and events that hinged on the influence and involvement of Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen at key moments in their development.
Driving is not a right.
It's not about 'the right to drive' - It's about the right to be going about your business (including driving) and not being randomly pulled over by the police to determine if "maybe you might have done some kind of crime perhaps."
If I'm swerving all over the road, fine, or if you see me chatting on my phone (or eating a cheeseburger or watching a DVD or texting) then fine, but being randomly pulled over so the police can check my phone logs? Fvck that.