I was walking back from Wagamama in Camden when there was some hubbub in sleepy Kentish Town. Down from the sky came the Virgin sponsored ambulance and landed in a football pitch. I checked the news for reports of what happened but nothing came up.
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It was supposed to be a simple round trip flight from London to Gibraltar. Hunter and I booked a the flight about a week out, so we were stuck going with easyJet, aka sleasyJet. They try to con you into thinking they’re cheaper, but they charge you for checking bags and the website has an opt-out insurance scheme for £9.95 pp. No thanks.
Our flight was scheduled to depart at 7am from London Gatwick. We left at 4:15 to get to the airport on time. We arrive at the airport at 5:30 to find a massive queue…the kind where you think you found the end, but a lovely BAA employee tells you to keep going. Not only is this the man that gives you the bad news, but he has to wake up at 3am to do it. Goes without saying he’s not the most accommodating individual.
We got to the front after some confusion at 6:30, at which time our friendly junkyJet check-in lady told us boarding started in ummm 4 (!!!) minutes with no particular sense of concern. We sprinted through security, stuffing our extra belongings into laptop bags. We were unaware of crappyJet’s one bag per person rule. After 20 minutes on the security line, we sprinted a mile to gate 34A, to find the flight attendant closing the gate.
We had arrived at the airport a good hour and a half before takeoff, and because of the poorly managed queue, we had almost missed our flight
So, this got me thinking, maybe shittyJet’s poor management wasn’t just sloppy, it was intentional. They want you to miss your flight. It’s part of their business plan. Modern airlines have computer check-in; they’re cheap and ease staff burden. LousyJet had no such computers and a horrible queuing system. They charge you massive amounts to change flights should you not get there in time because of their shit queue. Any industrial engineering student could make a more efficient system overnight. Queueing Theory 101 innit. It could be made more efficient by doing three things.
- Computer check-in
- A proper queuing system
- Priority check-in for flights that leave soon
But that wasn’t the worst of our problems with sleasyJet. Our return flight was diverted into Malaga because of weather. Instead of discovering this through the airport monitor system or a regularly updated website, we heard it through ridicuJet’s primitive PA system. So, we slowly shuffled into overpacked buses on our way to Malaga. No company representative to answer questions, just a massive blob following each other confusedly. Luckily, Hunter and I were the first off the buses so we were in group A boarding priority. Ace.
My friend Thayer just posted an entry on Twitter and social media. I wanted to commiserate with her, and add that whenever I followed Loic and Jason Calacanis, they auto-followed me. Seems to be another form of social spam.
Then I had a problem: I had no idea how to share it with her. I could IM her on MSN, send her a tweet, post a comment on her blog, send her a private Facebook message or wall post, call her, text her, email her, or finally, write about it here. Contextually I probably should have posted a comment on her blog, but the larger issue is becoming where to send the message? It’s overwhelming.
On a side note, I was taking a midday snooze in my room and heard this loud man talking on the phone in my office. Scared the shit out of me. Turns out I had left a blog post open. Talksalot Calacanis embedded ustream into his blog. Ugh ugh. Audio should not be on by default.
Journalists ‘more dangerous’?
Published March 31, 2008 Journalism Leave a CommentTags: appeal to authority
In today’s Independent, the most popular article deals with the possible link between mobile usage and cancer. The first sentence is
Mobile phones could kill far more people than smoking or asbestos, a study by an award-winning cancer expert has concluded.
Does this sound like an appeal to authority? The article refers to ‘growing evidence’ without giving it. Of course the possibility of danger from mobiles exists, but to what extent? Was this research done on humans? What measures danger, death? Etc, etc.
Dr Khurana is well-respected. Fine. But I think that the journalist and/or the scientist are reaching.
Presidential ad? or movie trailer?
Published March 28, 2008 Americana , Election 2008 Leave a CommentTags: john mccain
Which one is a movie trailer and which one is a presidential ad?
For those of you who don’t stay up on the hottest airport news, Terminal 5 opened yesterday at London’s Heathrow. The queen paid a visit two weeks ago to offer her blessing. T5 is one of the largest, most expensive infrastructure projects…ever.
It has been under planning for 20 years. But to the consternation of the Brits, there have been — gasp — some glitches. Some bags got lost, some flights got canceled. The public is outraged and wants those in charge to pay. And everybody is shocked that the big cheese didn’t say sorry soon enough.
The whole thing seems bizarre to me. Weddings are planned for months. Try asking brides about planning and outcomes. Or what about Rome? You think the Colosseum’s innovative seating worked on opening night? T5 opened yesterday. Chill.
…then again, if T5 loses my bag, I’m going to freak out.
When I was eight or nine growing up in suburban Philadelphia, I received a package in the post. I have no idea why it came, maybe because of my Cub Scouts involvement. It was a do it yourself entrepreneurship kit, complete with a shopping catalog and instructions.
The goal was simple: sell mainly household-type items and get a commission. Brilliant. Finally a way to increase my bank account faster than waiting for annual birthday and Christmas cheques. My father helped me create a bespoke invoice, with the help of an ASCII editor and a dot matrix printer, and off I went from house to house.
I didn’t do random selling to my neighbors for that long, but I made enough cash to impress a kid. It taught me two valuable lessons: 1. you needn’t do ‘normal’ things to earn money (e.g. mow lawns and deliver newspapers) and 2. your level of success is directly related to your actions.
In the fall of 2005, one of my best mates Hunter Morris, from university, was visiting me from London. We were brainstorming ideas for different companies we could start. We discussed the idea of founding a new type of betting exchange (aka prediction market). I was very familiar with the concept from my trading job in Chicago.
Both of us had recently completed computer science degrees and thought we could create something that would beat any existing betting exchange website. In August 2007 both of us left our full time jobs, myself at UBS and Hunter at Wolverine Trading, and set out just to do that.
And Smarkets be thy name.
Welcome. It’s high time that I set up my own personal blog. Instead of telling my close, personal friends my thoughts, why not share them with the anonymous internet?
