How jetBlue Stole Christmas
Update. February 23, 2010. From work today, I finally booked my flight with jetBlue . I was on the phone for sixty five minutes, sixty of those minutes were on hold.
There was a time when jetBlue was a special airline. Unlike Southwest Airlines (aka the 'flying bus') with their festival seating, jetBlue was affordable, the staff was friendly, and there was a TV set at every seat. An egalitarian airline, jetBlue has but one class. I'm telling you, flying jetBlue was a real pleasure, but all good things must come to an end.
In 2007, jetBlue let an airplane full of passengers sit on the tarmac for over 8 hours, and as a result, suffered their first real negative publicity to date. Not long after this incident, jetBlue created a passenger bill of rights and promised to do better. Well isn't that just super?! Eager to show the world that they had mended their ways, jetBlue overcompensated during the next snow storm, and canceled way more flights than their competitors. I know this to be true because every person flying into New York to attend my parent's 75th birthday party (their birthdays are very close, so they decided to hold one big party) never made it there, including me! Every other airline found a way to get guests to my parent's party, but jetBlue had its head up its fuselage that day.
So, the airline decided to err on the side of caution and cancel a bunch of flights, and I missed my parent's 75th (I'll catch the next one, don't worry), but what REALLY made me angry was that on the day in question you couldn't get through to jetBlue on the phone OR the web! I had no idea, at the time, if my flight was canceled or still on time. Unacceptable. I know a little bit about the web, and even if their site went down, they could have posted a static html page with flight info updated every 20 minutes. Regardless, a company the size of jetBlue should have web infrastructure contingency plans, especially if they are not going to answer the phone.
Torch This!
Sorry I haven’t posted for a few days, I’ve been too wrapped up in curling, biathlon, and women’s hockey. Yes, the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games are in full swing, and who the hell cares? The Olympics were intended to be a sporting event for amateur athletes from around the word. Athletics and sportsmanship were supposed to allow athletes from every nation to put aside their differences for a couple of weeks and hopefully increase understanding of different cultures. Sounds nice, right? Unfortunately, the reality of the Olympics today is a little less noble.
Today, the Olympic Games are no different than any other big sporting event. Professional athletes, corporate sponsorship, and massive marketing campaigns are the norm now. And far from promoting a sense of global fraternity, the only thing that people truly seem interested in is the ‘medal count.’ Did you know that cold climate countries do better at the winter Olympics than warm weather nations?! What about this shocking fact: countries with huge economies and populations tend to win more medals than small, poor ones!! I feel such a sense of pride when I check the medal count each morning and the US is kicking Kazakhstan’s butt. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
I better keep it short. I’ve been away from the TV for far too long. I hope I didn’t miss skeleton or freestyle skiing.
Nexus D’oh!
I owned the hottest Android-based smartphone for exactly 33 days. Today, Google announced the Nexus One Android phone. Google created (now administered by Open Handset Alliance) the free, open-source smartphone operating system, called Android. Multiple phone manufactures build Android-based smartphones, but Google stayed out of the hardware business until now. I own the Motorola Droid. Motorola has a massive marketing campaign pitting the Droid against Apple’s iPhone, and by the reaction of my friends to my new phone, it appears that the marketing is paying off. People know the Droid, and it selling very well. Technology moves very fast, and I knew that I wouldn’t have the leading-edge phone for very long, but 33 days?!
Google will really blow the wind out of Motorola’s sales with the Nexus One. The Nexus One is thinner, faster, and has a better screen than the Droid (and the iPhone!). Nexus also has specific hardware and software features like 3D and voice to text for all input fields. Not to mention, that when people think about the iPhone’s biggest competition from now on, it will be the Nexus One.
Think Different(ly)
Today, I am going to discuss the most controversial subject know to man. It's not health care reform or gay marriage. It's not religion or abortion. The subject that evokes more passion from geeks around the word is, of course, Apple. I can't think of another company or product that actually personifies its products in the way Apple does. The "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ads have turned one's choice of computer into a definition self. So much so, that Microsoft had to respond by personifying Windows with their own 'I'm a PC' ads.
I have a love/hate relationship with Apple, Inc. It's more hate than love, and the fact that I can feel hate or love for a corporation disturbs me. Years ago, during an animated discussion with my brother about Microsoft and Apple he gave me some advice. He said, "You shouldn't love or hate something that can't love or hate you back." This is not to be confused with loving somebody who doesn't love you back. Unrequited love is a whole different concept. My brother was referring to my ongoing angst over the Windows/Mac 'war' that was raging. That bit of advice really struck a chord with me, and I tried to follow my brother's advice from then on with varying amounts of success.
Let It Die
According to Yahoo Movies, the J.J. Abrams version of Star Trek has grossed $257,730,019 to date, more than any other Star Trek movie. I am the only human who hated this movie. New fans, old fans, Trekkers, Trekkies, men, women...all loved the film. Even George Takaei, the actor who portrayed Sulu in the original 60s TV show, liked it! He hailed the new film on the Howard Stern show. In a quest to find somebody that didn't like the movie, I even searched the internet, but, alas, I stand alone in my hatred for this dreck.
Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future was a positive one. He imagined a future where human beings settled their conflicts peacefully. In Gene Roddenberry's future racism, war, poverty, etc. did not exist. With varying levels of success, over 5 TV shows, an animated series, and 10 feature films, Star Trek extolled the virtues of diversity and tolerance. There were episodes and portions of films that succumbed to the pressure to make money over creative integrity, but taken as whole, the Star Trek franchise stood for something.
