EasyJet Speedy Boarding Madness

As I mentioned in my last post I wasn’t impressed with the way EasyJet board their flights

EasyJey don’t allocate seats. They let everyone choose seats as they get onto the airplane

Their boarding procedure works in groups in this order

Group SB: Passengers who have purchased Speedy Boarding/Speedy Boarding Plus

Group SA: Passengers requiring special assistance and families (maximum 2 adults) where at least one child is aged 5 years or under.

Group A: (reserved for passengers who have checked in online, and the first 30 people who check in at the airport)

Group B: (Everyone else)

On paper this looks like a good idea

People who pay more get on first and get to pick the “best seats”

People with children or wheelchairs are kept separate

Online check-in gets a priority which I see as a nice incentive (and it’s less people the check-in staff to deal with) but in practise is of little use on main holiday as you can only use it if you only have hand luggage

Everyone else just has to queue and pick from what is left

My experience went like this

When we knew which gate to go to we made our way over. Luckily we were waiting quite close to the gate so started the short walk. We then noticed a large family rushing to get to the front of the queue

Once we made it to the gate we were quite near to the front. I figured about 25 groups in front of us and I looked behind to see the queue starting to stretch through the airport

The flight was slightly delayed so people were getting hot and bothered. Especially when staff appeared near the gate but the gate remained closed (presumably they were waiting for the all clear from the plane)

Finally one of the members of staff came forward and asked for the Speedy Boarding group

She wasn’t letting people on but checking passports against boarding passes to save time when the gate actually opened which seemed like a nice gesture but the problem was the queue

The speedy boarding passengers started to come forward but the people who already had a place in the queue didn’t want to move. There was also only one lady checking tickets so everyone surged toward her thinking they were boarding so wanted to be seen first

She gave up and escaped and there was then some mumbled announcement which only came once and I never heard it properly

Since Bryony I had a 3 year old and 5 month old, hand luggage and a pushchair we started to move forward but stepped out of the surge as I was worried about losing Alice. We’d taken Evie out of the pushchair as she’d started to get upset during the wait.

The queue now lost all shape and when they finally started to board the Speedy Boarding group our place near the front had disappeared. Again the other boarding groups didn’t want to move so there was a lot of pushing and shoving as people tried to get on and I actually saw one group who weren’t in the Speedy Boarding group (the large family I mentioned earlier) trying to get through at the same time so they’d be at the front of the queue for the second boarding group!

Eventually I interrupted one of people trying to push past my wife (she was holding a baby! and they still pushed!) and he looked me straight in the eye with a look of contempt and said

“Are you a Speedy Boarder??”

It would have been really easy to be rude at this point and get into an argument but I replied with a simple

“Yes, yes we are”

Which seemed to take him by surprise and he stopped and let Bryony though

We managed to squeeze through only to see people rushing down the boarding ramp. While Speedy Boarders get on ahead of everyone else it’s still very much first come first serve on the plane. We were trying to fold up the pushchair in the middle of all this and no-one really cared about the fact we had two small children with us

While this happened Alice did actually get separated from us. I managed to grab her before she went onto the plane on her own. The door down the steps and onto the tarmac was slightly ajar but thankfully I managed to keep her away from that

Under other circumstances there was potential for the kids safety to be under threat. When Alice got pulled away from us she could very easily have been trampled and during the all the pushing and shoved in the queue Evie could have been hurt by arms, elbows or hand luggage on people’s shoulders or worse if Bryony had been pushed over.

I also have no idea what Bryony would have done if she’d stayed on her own as originally planned. She wouldn’t have heard the mumbled announcement and wouldn’t have heard the lady at the front trying to check tickets (though in my opinion airports, train stations and bus stations make very poor arrangements for the deaf anyway)

So what could have made it better?

Some ideas…

1) Organisation – Before announcing the gate put up some “posts & ropes” to clearly indicate where each boarding group should queue. The main problem I think started as there was one long queue of mixed boarding groups – However this wouldn’t stop people rushing down the boarding ramp

2) Clearer information – the lady who tried to save time by checking tickets either;

Shouldn’t have done it,

Made everyone aware of what was happening

and / or asked everyone to stay where they were in the queue and she could have walked along checking them as she passed

The token mumbled tannoy announcement was a waste of time too. It ideally would have come before she called people forward

3) Allocated seats – nobody rushes for a seat that is already theirs

4) Limited Speedy Boarding numbers – there seemed to be quite a few people in the first boarding group which is possibly why they were rushing down the boarding ramp. What if everyone on the plane paid for Speedy Boarding? Where is the benefit then?

I think allocated seats would have been the answer myself but EasyJet seem to see it as a benefit to choose your own seat

I don’t quite agree with this as there are only one to two “good seats” on a plane and the rest are all the same after that. The odds of getting the exact seat you want are quite slim. As we had Evie and Alice we ideally would have liked something with a little more legroom (especially as Bryony is breast feeding) but as soon as the pushing and shoving started I realised we had now chance of this. As we got on the place we thought about asking the people in the front seats if they’d let us sit there but I thought if they’d fought and pushed to be in a position to get those seats they wouldn’t give it up for a baby!

My theory was proved correct when almost everyone was sat down. The cabin crew announced that there was a mother with two children. They must have been at the back and were unable to find seats for them to sit together. The crew announced safety regulations meant they couldn’t sit apart and if there were any adults that could sit apart or if a couple were taking up two seats in a three seat row could they give up their seats. We couldn’t take off until this was sorted but they had to ask three times!

It would also mean they wouldn’t be able to charge for Speedy Boarding

A did a couple of searches and found similar experiences to my own – which sound even worse when there is a bus involved. Everyone bussed out at the same time but Speedy Boarders allowed out first. Madness (two from the Times website here and here – they are both worth a read)

When i was reading the in-flight magazine I spotted an email address that welcomes customer feedback so I’ll be sending a link to this post

There is a also a twitter account (@easyJetCare) so I’d be interested to hear any comments they have

I’ll definitely be thinking twice about using EasyJet in the future

Back in the UK

I briefly mentioned in my last post I was off for a holiday

I got back yesterday, a few days later than originally planned

We went to Puerto Rico in Gran Canaria and had a great time

Halfway through the holiday we noticed our youngest daughter Evie, had a couple of spots on her body. Having already been through chickenpox with our other daughter Alice, we took her straight to the doctors

They confirmed what we thought and promptly cancelled our flight back (which should have been on the Saturday)

After various discussions with the insurance company their original plan was to fly myself and Alice back and leave Bryony and Evie there. I pleaded exceptional circumstances as Bryony’s deafness means she can’t understand English speaking Spanish people (it’s the accents and it’s sometimes hard enough for me!) and they kindly agreed to let us all stay.

What originally sounds like a free extended holiday isn’t quite what it seems. Evie obviously couldn’t be in contact with anyone who hadn’t already had chicken pox (mainly children) so she was effectively confined to the hotel room. No swimming pool, beach, taxis, buses, etc, etc. We also were only expecting to stay for a week so had only taken enough clothes, money, etc to last that amount of time

Once we finally got the all clear on the Wednesday we got flights back to Gatwick (instead of Birmingham where we originally flew from) and were then driven back home. Our flight landed just after midnight and we opened our front door around 4:30am

I popped into the office yesterday afternoon and today is my first full day back. I’ve got a lot to catch up on!

We had a great holiday and tried not to let it ruin things but at the end we were just hanging around and all wanted to come home. My geek cold turkey was in full effect since my mobile phone was the only bit of tech I took with me and I’m dreading my next bill!

Never one to miss an opportunity though I made several observations while I was away that I may be able to apply to the business!

You can stop reading now if you were just interested about my holiday

Sales

Qualifying your prospects is important.

I saw lots of guys trying to get people into their restaurants and the most common opening line was

“Hello, have you had breakfast (lunch/dinner) yet?”

They then didn’t waste any more time on people who had eaten

Obviously they didn’t give up that easily so the next line usually was to ask if they were thirsty!

Pestering people will just piss them off

I don’t like to name and shame (much!) but this is a classic example.

On our first day we walked into the village and were immediately stopped by someone promising us free event tickets, drinks, etc, etc as long as we had a look at their facilities. He told us the idea was that we’d take a look and if we liked when if came back next we’d book with them.

It was quite a hard sell but I declined explaining it was just our first day.

We were stopped several times other people doing the same thing and on one day we walked from our hotel to the beach and were stopped nine times and they really don’t take no for an answer. It’s hard to be polite after a while

The company they were representing was Anfi (I’m not linking to them!)  and we were told by our holiday rep it’s a timeshare thing. The guys actually stopping people claim it isn’t which they are technically correct on. The website says it’s “membership”

Why is ‘Vacation Membership’ different to ‘Timeshare’?

Genuine timeshare is a potentially fantastic concept because it offers flexibility and affordability. However, Vacation Membership goes beyond this by filling in the gaps, expanding on the overall concept, and setting new standards you deserve and that only Anfi can achieve. Vacation Membership is what, in an ideal world, timeshare should have been.

That’s still time share in my book but even if it’s not the constant pressing just got on my nerves in the end and even if they were giving away free money I wouldn’t listen to them

If you are lucky enough to have a captive market you can charge what you like

Once you have checked into the airport and moved into the departure longue you HAVE to buy from their shops. Obviously their are security aspects to this but is it really an excuse to pick a prices out of the air?

I paid for 3 soft drinks, and 3 sandwiches and it cost £20. I wouldn’t mind if the food was high quality but it really wasn’t.

Service Delivery

Our insurance company fell down pretty hard in this area. While I agree they fulfilled their obligations to us the way they did it wasn’t great from our perspective.

Communicate

Several times I called and was told someone would call back. That’s fine as long as you actually do it. There were lots of times we were waiting for news that never came and I had to chase it down.

We were scheduled to check out of the hotel on Saturday morning yet when we were eating dinner on Friday night I had no idea if the insurance company had arranged for us to stay in the same hotel or if we needed to go elsewhere.

Empower your staff with good systems

The insurance company obviously run a 24 hour operation in case of emergencies so I understand that I’m unlikely to be able to speak to the same person every time. If this is the case you need to give them the tools that anyone deal with issues. I called lots of times and had to wait while our file was hunted down. It was obviously a paper file sitting on the desk of whoever had it last!

Communicate better!

It was arranged that a car would pick us up from Gatwick airport and take us home. I made it clear we’d need a car seat for Evie as she’s only five months old. Our car seat was several hundred miles away in my parents car as they were originally picking us up from Birmingham

When the driver arrived he had a booster cushion and a child booster seat. Evie can’t even sit up on her own yet so how was she expected to sit in a booster seat for the three hour trip back? Legally in a private hire vehicle she could sit unrestrained – on Bryony’s lap, but from a parents perspective we didn’t want that. Especially when it could have been easily communicated to the hire company

Go the extra mile

The places went to eat got our repeat business when they went that extra mile. In one place Alice got a free ice cream as encouragement to eat her main meal. A lot of the staff were extra friendly and helpful and made a fuss of the kids. All these people got our repeat business

Our hotel came under this too. The staff were great with us even after news broke of Evie’s chickenpox. I lost count of the amount of times someone asked me

“Is the baby ok?”

If I ever go back to Puerto Rico I’d more than likely use the same hotel

The insurance company did get some plus points too. They could have been insistent and made myself and Alice fly back so I was very appreciative of that. They also paid extra for EasyJet’s “speedy boarding” on our flight back which brings me onto our next point

Being organised is key to a smooth running operation

Our boarding experience was what can only be described as shambolic and at one point I actually worried for my children’s safety. I’ll post about this separately though as I think it deserves a post all of it’s own but at this point in time if i need to fly anywhere EasyJet won’t be the first name on my list

I’ll stop there as I’ve wittered on long enough

I’ve enjoyed my time off but I did miss my tech, though it did give me lots of time to reflect on where I am from a personal and professional perspective and I’m looking forward to the weeks ahead

UK TV Licensing

I was going to post about this a while back didn’t think it was that interesting but I haven’t posted for a while and I’m having a well deserved break next week so what better way to sign off than with a rant

If your not from the UK you may not know that in order for us to use a TV and receive broadcasts we need a TV License. The money from the license goes to the BBC who use it provide their range of services

Previously the rules were simple. If you had a TV and used it to watch programmes you needed a license

Nowadays there a lots of ways in which in you can consume TV programming via satellite, mobile phone, and over the Internet

The rules are still simple but the wording has changed

Do I need a TV Licence?

You will need a TV Licence if you watch or record TV programmes as they are being shown on TV. It doesn’t matter what channel you are watching, what device you are using (for example TV, computer or laptop, mobile phone or any other device) or how you are receiving them (for example via terrestrial, satellite, cable, the Internet or any other method).

Technology such as BBC’s own BBC iPlayer   has made people ask the question “do i still need a TV license?”

The answer is still actually pretty simple as the quote above states

If you are watching a program online that is being broadcast at the same time as on TV

This means you’re well within your rights to use BBC iPlayer to watch programmes shown last week and not need a license

This does raise some interesting questions though.

If i have a TV license and watch TV on my laptop and then go around to a friends house who doesn’t have a license. What is the situation there?

I couldn’t find anything on the TV licensing website about this. I’ve been told by one or two people that your own license would cover you until you plugged the laptop in. This sounds a bit odd in my opinion. Plug what in? Do you mean power? An Internet connection? What if i’m using wireless and a long life battery?

So why am I interested in this?

We had a letter come to the office several months ago telling us we had been watching live TV online and if we persisted we’d need to buy a TV license for the business

As far as I’m aware we’re not sitting around watching TV but did our best to make everyone aware

We had another letter this week saying the same thing so we called them

They wouldn’t tell us how they knew we were watching TV (which i still maintain we’re not) and i can’t see ISPs giving up their log information to be honest without upfront legal proof/warrant (which is a whole chicken and egg situation!)

We were told that they would stop sending the letters but they may send an officer round to confirm we don’t need a license

How are they going to check exactly?

As i said above i can legitimately use services such as BBC iPlayer without a TV license

It then also raises the question of control as a business

Using various control mechanisms we can stop users doing lots of things but how do you control something such as the BBC news site which shows both live news broadcasts as well as old clips?

We can use technology to block specific IPs, domain names, even specific content such as flash video but can how we tell the difference between live content and old content?

Is it fair to just ban any site that has anything to do with BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky, etc, etc when a large chunk of the content is fine?

As always opinions welcome!

Other links

http://www.televisionlicence.info/

Do I need a TV Licence if I only watch programmes online?

Will I need a TV Licence to watch programmes on BBC iPlayer?

There are a LOT of sites out there with information and opinions on the TV license!

Why i don’t add Facebook applications

How vague is that?!

I don’t know what it’s going to do with the information it’s asking permission to access so it doesn’t get access

This particular application was one of those “Top 5” lists in this case “Your first 5 gaming systems in order”

All the application does is compile a list. So why does the application need access to my profile, pictures, and friends information?

Until i know exactly what it’s going to access and what it’s going to do with my data then I wont install any apps

Paranoid rant over

Dr Who Exhibition

Like any self respecting geek I’m a Dr Who fan

I read a ton of the books when I was growing up and since the BBC brought it back, Saturday nights has the wife and I tuning in (we’re especially gutted we’re only getting “specials” this year”)

So when we spotted a billboard advertising a Dr Who exhibition at the Coventry Transport Museum we had to get some tickets!

As well as the Tardis we got to see lots cool stuff from the show including models of various characters

A moving model of the Empress of Racnoss

Slitheen

K9!

Cybermen

At the end of the show we were “attacked” by Daleks and addressed by Davros! It was great seeing these characters come to life

While we enjoyed the content what wasn’t fun in my opinion was the organisation.

The exhibition was basically a path through the museum with exhibits to look at along the way. At the end of the path was the “Dalek and Davros show” (what a great sitcom that would be!)

Our tickets were for a specific time so the idea was that a group of people would go through then half and hour later the next group would go through

In practise this didn’t work which resulted in the exhibition basically being a very long queue. It did mean that we spent a lot of time on each individual exhibit if you wanted to look on the bright side!

I think there were two reasons for this

1) There were far too many people each group

2) With the Daleks and Davros at the end it meant that only a few people could see this at a time and everyone else had to wait for them to finish which is what basically caused the queuing

This would be bad enough under most circumstances but it’s made even worse when you have children in tow! (Luckily Alice was very patient and Evie slept through it all)

We tried to not let it ruin the visit for us but I felt very sorry for the people after us. They were queuing out of the door!

I’d certainly recommend a visit. But maybe during the day when it’s quieter

(Pictures courtesy of Bryony Parkes!)

Competitive Advantage?

I’ve really neglected my blog this year

Having baby number two has monopolised a lot of my time and something had to give. I started a couple of posts but deleted them as they didn’t seem too great to me

Now that I’m getting used to the sleep depravation (actually that should be, now that getting used to the extra sleep depravation) I’m hoping to get back into the swing of things and what better way than with a good rant!

I’m a massive fan of the streetfigher series of games so I’ve been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Streetfighter IV

I had a quick look on the Game website this morning and saw this

Bargain i thought and as there is a Game store just around the corner from the office I thought I’d pick it up on the way home

When i got to the shop i was disappointed to find it was labelled up at £34.99.

I enquired at the desk and was told that the website is a “separate division so they work to different price lists”

I’m fully aware that online stores have lower running costs compared to the shop. Surely this means the shop needs to “add value” so I’ll purchase in store as opposed to online

One of the easiest ways to differentiate yourself is by having great customer service but this isn’t something I’ve ever experienced in a Game store to be honest. There is never enough staff on meaning you always have to queue which gets on my nerves. The knock on effect to this is when you do have a question there is never anyone to speak to!

So as far as i can see the only advantage i get from buying it in store is the fact i get it straight away

I’m not that desperate to get the game though this instant and the website has free delivery with a two day turnaround

I only really buy from Game as i have a ton of points on my loyalty card (which you have to pay to get….) so once I’ve used those i can’t really see me going into a Game store again

Am i being unreasonable?

Microsoft Live ID – How many do you have?

The problem of digital identity has been discussed many times by people a lot smarter than me. What frustrates me is when something seems obvious but doesn’t work that way

I have a Microsoft Live ID. I’ve had it for years and years. It’s the ID I use for Live Messenger, it’s the ID I use for my Xbox Live account, it’s also my hotmail address and it’s the account I use when taking Microsoft exams.

All these things are specific to me.

You probably already know as an IT professional you can associate your Live ID with your employers Microsoft partner profile. This helps them as their Microsoft partner status can rely on the amount of staff they have with Microsoft certifications. Also key people in the organisation can be given access to the Partner portal to manage the company relationship with Microsoft

So what’s the problem?

I recently booked some Microsoft training for myself and others at the company on the partner portal. The invoices for these are delivered via email.

When i received them the company name on the invoice correctly read “IBIT Solutions” but the invoice address was my home address

There was a problem with the invoice amount which was a priority so once this was sorted i asked about the invoice address

In the reply i was told that the invoice will be sent to the address in the my Live ID and if I wanted to change that I’d need to do it myself

I replied back to query why their system used the email address from the my Live ID and not the partner profile yet it was able to get company name ok. The reply i got back was

What I am trying to make you aware of is, when you choose to associate yourself to a company in the Microsoft Partner Programme, you can do this without using the company address – which is what you have done. It’s optional, either you use your home/private address or the company address – it’s completely up to you  – your choice.

If you would like the invoices to be sent to the company address then you will need to edit this in your individual profile to affect these changes.

Your individual profile is xxPersonalIDxx and you have associated this to a Partner in the Microsoft Partner Programm using your own address. The system recognizes you as being an individual associated to IBIT Solutions, but as I have already mentioned -  because the address field(s) are to be filled out by the individual, using either your home/private address or the same address of IBIT Solutions will result in you being sent an invoice to whatever address it is you have used to create your account with.

If you opt to enter your home address then the system will issue you with an invoice to the email account you have associated to IBIT Solutions using the address you have entered in your hotmail account (individual profile).

Of course, to avoid this you can associate xxCompanyIDxx and use this email alias to book yourself onto events and have the invoices sent to your company email account with the company address and not to your hotmail account which you have set up using your home address.

I replied back to explain that i still don’t “get it”

If i’m signed into the Partner Portal surely it’s obvious that anything I’m doing there is on behalf of the company? Why would I want an invoice to be addressed to me?

If i created a new company specific Live ID where would my Microsoft certifications sit?

If I (or any other employee) left the company they would expect to take their certifications with them as they are personal to them and they would that Live ID to associate with the new company. Surely using a company specific ID here doesn’t work?

I’d also then have two Live IDs to work with and signing in and out of anything that uses the passport network is a pain in the neck as far as i’m concerned

Just wondered how everyone else deals with this? Are you maintaining multiple Live IDs?

Are there any guidelines on how you should deal with Live ID’s when work situations and personal life are blurred (again the Certification thing, I feel is a good example)

Otherwise just let me know if i’m completely missing the point?

I was always under the impression that I’d only ever need one Live ID for signing into multiple services

The person i was swapping emails with has since said that he can see my point and will forward my query onto the relevant team so we’ll see if anything else happens

Mojave Experiment – My Thoughts and consumer perceptions

I stumbled across the Windows Mojave website on various blogs last week (I think I saw it on Steve Clayton’s blog first)

Here’s one description

“Microsoft last week travelled to San Francisco, rounding up Windows XP users who had negative impressions of Vista. The subjects were put on video, asked about their Vista impressions, and then shown a "new" operating system, code-named Mojave. More than 90 percent gave positive feedback on what they saw. Then they were told that "Mojave" was actually Windows Vista.”

A couple of days after this the site had a teaser with the date July 29th marked as the release date

So that’s today and the Vista Team Blog has a post with some more details

Here’s the bit that annoyed me a bit (maybe that’s too strong a word but it’s all that springs to mind right now)

Finally, some people have asked if Mojave is the big marketing project we’re working on – it’s not. The Mojave Experiment is just that: an experiment we conducted on the fly that yielded interesting results. We’re publishing the video today because we think you’ll also find it interesting.

Why not make this a marketing project??

The experiment proved that the average consumer has preconceptions about Windows Vista that need to be put right.

Advertising and brand are areas where Microsoft are really losing out at the moment in my opinion and as this shows too many people make judgements based on what they have heard

Just another example,

When I was getting ready to come into the office this morning there was an advert for the new iPhone on the TV

The main message of this particular advert was that the iPhone was now 3G and that meant faster Internet access

If you went and asked the average consumer what HSDPA is I’m sure they would have no idea but because of adverts like this one they’ll have the preconception that the iPhone has the fastest mobile browsing speeds. 3G “sounds” faster and is more marketing friendly than HSDPA

I’m not the only person to say this sort of thing but please Microsoft, advertise just a little

Bitter? or just a difference of opinion?

I just found an article on the BBC News site titled,

It’s not the Gates, it’s the bars

As I started to read down this I thought it was a journalist with a Microsoft grudge who hadn’t done his research and it wasn’t until I got to the end that I realised this wasn’t exactly the case

The article was written by Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation.

The name rang a bell so I looked up his wikipedia entry and he’s the guy who launched the GNU Project and developed EMACS

Go read the whole thing yourself but here’s a couple of the sections I’d like to take issue with

“Microsoft’s software is distributed under licenses that keep users divided and helpless. The users are divided because they are forbidden to share copies with anyone else. The users are helpless because they don’t have the source code that programmers can read and change.

If you’re a programmer and you want to change the software, for yourself or for someone else, you can’t.

If you’re a business and you want to pay a programmer to make the software suit your needs better, you can’t. If you copy it to share with your friend, which is simple good-neighbourliness, they call you a "pirate".”

I’m sorry Richard this is called BUSINESS

Firstly, if I create something and expect to be financially compensated for it I expect every person who uses/owns it to pay up. Not just the first person who then passes onto everyone he knows who then in turn pass it on to everyone they know, etc, etc

Currently the same applies to DVD’s and music. If you copy those and pass them on for free then you are a pirate it’s not “good neighbourliness”. The fact that it’s software is irrelevant

Your obviously a big fan of free software. Well am I too. But I don’t believe that ALL software should be free. People still need to earn a living so if they decide they want to make money from their software. Good for them

If someone makes some similar software and charge less for it (or makes it free!) then that first person has to make their software even better. That’s called competition!

Do you work for free Richard? How do you pay for your house? Your food? Your computer hardware? At some point money comes from someone working. People make money from the skills they have. If that’s making software then so be it

Secondly, the bit where you talk about not being able to pay a pay a programmer to make the software suit your needs is way off the mark

Microsoft make a big deal out of the fact they are a platform company

Let’s talk about one of their flagship products as an example, Microsoft Office

For some years office has come bundled with Visual Basic for Applications. It allows you to turn the program into a platform where you can then add on extra functionality where making use of the products core functions as part of that. It’s so simple even I can do it!More recently we’ve also had the Visual Studio Tools for Office which perform a similar function but allowing you to take full advantage of the .NET framework

Next,

“In the UK, Microsoft established a major office in Gordon Brown’s constituency.”

So what? Microsoft have offices all over the UK. In the same way they have them all over the US and all over the world?

Then,

“There’s also the Digital Restrictions Management: software features designed to "stop" you from accessing your files freely. Increased restriction of users seems to be the main advance of Vista.”

Is DRM Microsoft’s fault? How does it “stop you from accessing your files freely”?

YOUR files that YOU create are completely under your control. You’ll need to explain this one to me I’m afraid

I think what your talking about goes back to the pirating issue. Media companies want to protect their property (music, video, etc). They ask Microsoft (and Apple, have you used iTunes on the Mac recently?) to help them do that.

I’m no fan of the restrictions we get when buying media online nowadays but your blaming the wrong people I think

Finally (I could go on but as I’ve ranted enough)

“In 1992, when the GNU operating system was completed by the kernel, Linux, you had to be a wizard to run it. Today GNU/Linux is user-friendly: in parts of Spain and India, it’s standard in schools. Tens of millions use it, around the world. You can use it too.”

and there is the problem

As you said in 1992 you had to be a wizard to run GNU/Linux. At that time you didn’t need to be a wizard to run Windows 3.11 not long after that Windows 95 arrived and you sure didn’t need to be a wizard to run that. My mom was able to use Windows 95!

If the user friendly version of GNU/Linux your talking about had been available back then maybe the Microsoft we know today wouldn’t exist. But that’s not what happened

I applaud the promotion of choice but not in attacking the way someone else has done it without a decent argument

Go make a better O/S and shout about why it’s better than the rest.

Your article gives no compelling to move to Linux (or any other O/S) other than “it’s free”

How many free cars, homes, computers are there in the world?

Tell me about features and benefits. How it will help my parents get the pictures from their digital camera?

I’m sure Linux has plenty to offer in that respect but your not talking about any of them

I’m not ranting about this purely because I’m a Microsoft fan

I’m all for a choice and freedom. I use open source software too (I used Notepad2 for the first time yesterday….why haven’t I used this before?! It’s great!) but it’s not the solution for every scenario. What got me riled here is the way your going about your argument

You can check out Richard’s personal site and his blog if your interested in seeing his other causes

That is all

Buy Now, Try Later

I’m not going to name and shame this time but was a little disappointed at a recent response i got to a query

Basically “Company X” had a hosted service i was interested in. I wanted to know how their management tools worked on a day-to-day basis. I’m already a customer with them so i sent an email to ask if they had a demo account, or trial period on which i could test their service to see how it performed with the view to purchasing if all was well

As of now, we do not have a demonstration site.

However, after you have purchased the package, you can cancel it within 60 days and avail our refund policy.

Company X offers a 60-day Money Back Guarantee. You’ll receive a complete refund if you cancel a package within 60 days from the date of your initial order.

So i have to agree to buy it before i decide if i like it? Then if i don’t like it after all i have to go through all the hassle of cancelling and getting a refund?

Lots of online  service providers are happy to let you try their products out before you sign on the dotted line

Surely from a business perspective free trials are like having an extra member of staff in the sales team. If your confident enough of your product once the prospect has had a taste they’ll become a paying customer before long?

If i were in sales i’d say the prospects qualify themselves (did i get away with that?)

Or am i expecting to much as a potential customer?