Standing in a fairly long checkin line this morning, I considered using the self-service terminals, but dropped the idea. Why? Because my experience with
KLM led me to believe that it probably wouldn’t work, and I would end up being penalized for trying, by losing my spot in the checkin line.
This points to a lesson for airlines, if they want customers to use the machines, which save the airlines money: Make a clear promise that should it fail, you will get special service.
How? In the initial training period, position an agent next to the machines, to help people use them, solve problems, and if necessary do manual checkin at the counter. This will have the added benefit that this agent can keep track of what’s causing people trouble, so it can be fixed.
Yes, it’s an additional cost, but it should seriously help the adoption, thus benefiting everyone long-term.
I’m not happy with my current mac keyboard situation.
I have an Apple wireless keyboard, but I find the keys too hard to the touch. I prefer a keyboard with a really soft touch, like the keyboard on the PowerBook. I’d use the PowerBook keyboard, except it has a monitor attached to it.
Then I have a Kinesis keyboard, which is fine, except it’s not very well suited for the Mac. With a Mac, I really want the shift, control, option, and command keys there, right next to each other, since I use them all the time, and in conjunction with mouse clicks, so having them spread out between two thumbs and two pinkies, like you do on the Kinesis, is not practical.
Bonus question: What’s the difference between the “English” and the “English (Int’l)” layouts of the Apple keyboard, and which do I want?
Update: At the Apple store they said that the “English” version would have the pound sign, where the Int’l would have either a Euro or a Dollar sign. Otherwise they’re the same. So “English” means “British English”, it seems. That would’ve been clearer labeling.
Steven Johnson: Emergence.
The book includes some excellent stories, for example the one about Alan Turing’s death because he was gay, which I hadn’t heard before (may everyone involved suffer in hell), and Frans de Waal’s chimpanse stories, which I’d already heard on IT Conversation. Also, the description of biofeedback and neurofeedback machines which lets you see your brain in action made me want to buy one.
And there are some interesting perspectives, such as the history of the evolution of cities, and how it relates to the Renaissance and sharing of ideas, how cities have grown and learned, and how this relates to the internet.
But I was really bothered by the writing, which makes frequent use of strawman arguments, spending several paragraphs outlining a standpoint that no-one takes, just so that it can argue against it. And lots of words and effort put into puns and jokes that add nothing, instead of leaving them out, or working them into the text. Johnson could learn a lot from Gladwell and Surowiecki, who are great at keeping longer prose packed with information, or Lakoff, who is great at writing clearly and short.
In the end, while I understand what Johnson is saying, I wasn’t left with a clear picture of the idea he is trying to communicate.
George Lakoff: Don’t think of an elephant!
A frightening and fascinating deconstruction of right-wing strategies and tactics in American politics, covering the last two presidential elections, Schwartzenegger’s election in California, 9/11, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. I knew the situation was grim, but not this grim.
Apparently, the right wing has systematically funded research into use of language, such as “tax relief”, which frames taxes as being an affliction, the public as an afflicted party, the person who relieves people of the affliction as a hero, and anyone trying to prevent him as a villain. And the mere act of using their language (e.g. saying you are against tax relief) reinforces that belief system, and thus helps their case.
But it doesn’t stop there. Tax cuts are a strategic, because with a single stroke you have removed funding from almost any potential government spending, be it on social security, environmental protection, or schools.
Anyone who has shared the frustration and indignation of seeing Bush get re-elected with a 3.5 million majority of the popular vote, despite his miserable record in Iraq and the rest of the world, and despite his refusal to respond to the facts in the campaign, will find here some consolation and a way out of the misery. We can change the discourse, and here are the basic tools that we need to understand.
There’s still a lot of details that need to be worked out, what with some 30 years of catching up to be done, but the book outlines the path to take. “Are you for or against gay marriage?” “I am for equality, period. I don’t think the state should tell people who they can or can’t marry.”
Also, thanks to Lakoff for his excellent writing, and for keeping the book short, at around 100 pages. Steven Johnson could learn from this.
When I travel, people are frequently baffled that I’m not good at dealing with cold temperatures, despite being from a cold country. Why is that?, they ask, and so I asked myself, and now I think I know why.
See, what living in the north has taught us isn’t to endure being cold. It is that heat is scarce, and how to shield ourselves from the cold.
Because being warm in the north is, if not actually scarce, then at least something that cannot be taken for granted to come for free, we have learned to treasure it. I prefer a shower that’s almost too hot, whereas my friend Yon, who grew up in Cali where it’s 26 degrees every day year round, likes it when it’s a little too cold. To him, cold is scarce. A sample of two, I know, but I think it’s telling.
As for maintaining our body temperature, our techniques include staying indoor by the fireplace, covering ourselves up in plenty of clothes, hats, gloves, and boots, and dressing is multiple layers, with warm underwear, shirts, sweaters, wind-breakers, jackets, coats, etc. We always have an extra piece of clothing within reach, which we put on at the first sign of feeling cold.
So really, whereas people in warm places are used to the temperature swings that occur with clouds, sunset, or a little wind, and like getting a little chill, we are used to the same temperature every hour of the day, every hour of the year, and we don’t like the cold, so we immediately reach for a thin sweater, and Yon’s father goes “Why do you do that? I thought you were used to the cold!”
From Lakoff’s Don’t think of an elephant!:
Second, if you empathize with your child, you want your child to be fulfilled in life, to be a happy person. And if you are an unhappy, unfulfilled person yourself, you are not going to want other people to be happier than you are. The Dalai Lama teaches us that. Therefore it is your moral responsibility to be a happy, fulfilled person. Your moral responsibility.
