FlightCaster

Knowing about weather condition in advance form the Weather Channel might affect our decision to plan for a picnic during the weekend. However, knowing of possible rain during the week will not stop us from going to our offices. It is only a matter of being ready with a raincoat or an umbrella.
On the other hand, what would be the situation if the FlightCaster is expecting a delay of 3 hours?
Are we supposed to adjust our arrival time to the airport to avoid the expected delay?
What about the case if the probability is ONLY a probability while the reality is that the flight is actually on time?
Are the airlines responsible for the information provided by the FlightCaster?
Are they supposed to deliberately delay the flight to accommodate the late arriving passengers who faithfully depended on the delay forecast?
The whole scenario is just an attempt to assess a reasonable level of dependability to the tool.
My argument does not change the fact that I bookmarked the site for further assessments once additional details become available. 

Date: 21 August 2009 commenting on http://www.techcrunch.com/

Untangling the Social Web

The basic equation stating that eye for eye and tooth for tooth is the fairest formula. Hence, for United Airlines to form a musical band to deliver an artistic apology to Dave Carroll makes a lot of sense. That option might be the most authentic apology with the hope to satisfy Dave’s expectations.

I commented earlier about the same incident (http://bit.ly/zURmT). Simply put, United Airlines was supposed to avoid the case to be so deteriorated like that. There should be some ongoing orchestrated efforts across the board to avoid similar situations to be mishandled by ignorant or careless airline service agents.

If the airlines are no longer capable of providing good competitive service, they have to seriously consider another line of business. For United Airlines, I would recommend the field of shoe-polishing. Who knows? They might find their way up and reach the sky again by the 25th century.
Viva all UA’s competitors!

Published at http://sparksheet.com/

Personal branding interview: Chris Anderson

Quite insightful article. That was my first time to see the newly coined word (freemium).

The word (complimentary) was used twice throughout the article. It was used by mistake instead of the word (complementary). However, the sentence (They all seem to complement each other.) of the last paragraph includes the correct form of the word. 

Date: 09 August 2009 commenting on http://bx.businessweek.com/

Touch and Go

Quite interesting piece of writing!
The technology is ever-changing and ever-evolving to the point that it might represent a challenge for many to be up-to-date with or even to interact with.

I would say that the most important paragraph of the whole article is: All technologies are good for some things and bad for others. I imagine a future where gestural interfaces, touch screens, and mechanical/ physical interfaces all exist side by side, used when and where appropriate based on the context of usage.

Published at http://sparksheet.com/

Airline Express ticket for Aeroexpress passengers

Definitely, interline agreements facilitate the travel of passengers. However, most Russian airlines do not consider that fact. They are normally acting like the Brothers Karamazov of the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky: brothers yes but no cooperation.
Arriving international passengers have no way to book their onward domestic connections with many Russian domestic carriers in advance due to limited or no ticketing/ booking agreements with the delivering air carriers.
Having said so, it is no wonder finding out that Sky Express (http://www.skyexpress.ru/) made the through ticking available on the Russian version ONLY of its website. It seems that Sky Express cares only about its Russian-speaking customers. If that was the case, why do they maintain an English version of their website?

Published at http://www.airrailnews.com/

CAUTION: Give your children sugar on a flight at your own risk

Definitely, the cabin crew is supposed to take whatsoever measures to maintain the safety of the flight.
Similar to the possibility of alcohol abuse by adult passengers, the sugar abuse is the parallel case for children.
Adults can get alcohol drinks as long as they are sober or otherwise they could endanger other passengers. By analogy, minors can take sugar-contained foodstuff as long as there is a guarantee that they can behave themselves especially if they are not accompanied by an adult.

Date: 23 July 2009 commenting on http://www.theflyingpinto.com/

Ryanair’s step too far?

With enough demand to make Ryanair sure of serving 67 million passengers in 2009 instead of 59 million passengers served in 2008, it is not strange anymore to expect Ryanair inventing more silly ideas:
• Asking the passengers to fly in their underclothes or otherwise, they have to pay for the weight of their outer-garments.
• Asking the passengers to fly standing. There will be ancillary charge for those passengers who are interested to fly sitting on bamboo stools, and even higher charge for upholstered seats. Oh goodness, it is horrible to think of the extra charges which are supposed to be paid by passengers who require stretchers due their medical conditions.

I proposed some more silly ideas to Ryanair in my article posted on 28 February 2009.
We will see if the passengers are willing to go for one more jump over the equation of supply and demand.

Published at http://www.forbes.com/