Bad Usability: US Airways Flight Status

So I go online yesterday to check on the status of a friend's flight on US Airways' website. We're picking him up, and we want to see whether the flight is early, on time, or late, to adjust when we leave our place to head to the airport.

I click on "flight status" and I get this simple form:


I enter the flight number, and I click on Retrieve. Then, I get this message:

We're sorry, but we were unable to complete your request.
Please enter a departure city in the 'From' field.

Well, I don't know his departure city. In fact, this is the second leg of his journey, so even if I knew where he was flying out of, I didn't necessarily know his connecting city.

What gives? US Air has the schedule for this flight number. Why doesn't it show me the full itinerary and let me figure out which portion I'm interested in?

Fortunately, Yahoo Travel both had this information and was willing to share it with me. Thumbs down, US Air. You took an obvious task and made it harder than it had to be.

So Long Bloglines, Hello Google Reader

A long while ago I wrote about using Bloglines to keep up with my online reading. Since then, I've tried to use a few other browser-based readers, but nothing really made me compelled enough to switch. That is, until, on a recommendation from a coworker, I tried Google Reader again. Now, I've switched.

There's a few reasons why:

• UI - Google Reader looks better. Sorry, but when it comes to spending time with something, I want it to look good. With feed reading, the presentation of the content is important. Would you read a newspaper or a magazine if the copy was not easy to parse?
• Reading experience - there's one irritating feature of Bloglines that I've never liked. As soon as you click on a feed (or a category of feeds), all the items in the feed are marked as read. Even if you haven't read a single one of them! Google Reader marks things as read as your read them. Just like email. Much more sensible.
• Importability/Exportability - All of these readers are hot to trot on allowing you to import and export your list of subscriptions. That makes sense for consumers, so you can easily move from one reader to another. This allowed me to switch without having to resubscribe to all of my feeds of interest.

What's ironic is that that last bit is what really made me switch. If I had to resubscribe to all of my feeds, I would say "no way", since I have about 150 feeds I subscribe to. Yet, with Bloglines supporting import/export of subscriptions (as most all newsreaders do), I was able to use this feature to abandon Bloglines. Compare that to Netflix: if they allowed you to easily take your queue of movies to a competitor, how many people would they lose every month?

A last note: Bloglines never approached me for feedback, in the form of a "we care - tell us what you think" link for me to voice the above. There's no feedback link anywhere in their newsreading UI, on last check. Sure, the feedback cycle back into the product isn't instant. But people who are irritated tend to share their thoughts (as I am here).

Of course, I'll occasionally check Bloglines to see if they've improved. With import/export features in all readers, it's just as easy to switch back.

CEO Harry You Named Time Magazine Person Of The Year

Time Magazine just named their Person of the Year for 2006. And it's none other than Mr. Harry You, CEO of BearingPoint! From BearingPoint's web site:

Mr. You was named executive officer in March 2005. As CEO, he is responsible for formulating and executing the long-term strategies that position BearingPoint as a professional services leader in strategy, business process expertise and technology.... Mr. You is on the Board of Directors of Korn Ferry International, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and the Yale Graduate School Advisory Board.

Congratulations, Harry!

Five Ways To Be A Scrooge This Holiday Season

This holiday season, you may be inundated with people spreading goodwill all around you. You know, those giving and sharing types, trying to make the world around them a better place? Well, you can do something about it. Here's five ways to be a true Scrooge this holiday.

Spare change
The holidays are a time to buy a lot of stuff for people who have a lot of stuff. As you rush from store to store in a mad frenzy to buy, you may stop in at a espresso coffee chain and purchase an overpriced holiday latte. If you pay with cash, remember to not give any spare change to those who ask for it on the streets. Just keep drinking your coffee - the steam rising from the cup will fog your glasses so you don't have to look at those who ask for the coins jingling in your pocket.

Leftovers
It's fun to go out to eat over the holidays, as many restaurants have festive menus planned. With the size of entrees these days, it's hard to finish everything you order. Remember to ask for a to-go box, but then ensure you hold on to it tightly as you head back to your car. Even though the food will probably go bad in your refrigerator before you think about eating it, why give it to someone who didn't buy it, fair and square?

Volunteering
It takes a lot of time to get everything done this holiday season. There's shopping for gifts, writing out holiday cards, attending holiday parties...and not to mention the many gatherings with family and friends. Who has time to volunteer for even a few hours at a community food bank, or any number of other non-profits that help those in need? Besides, they hire people to do that work. They don't need extra help nearly as much as you need time to seek out that perfect cashmere top to go along with you new blank pants.

Toys
Every year, it's all about getting kids to go see Santa. You have to find the best place to take your kids to have their picture taken with Santa. Cost is no matter, right? What will the friends and family think if you don't send them that cute picture of the kids screaming their heads off while sitting on a bearded man's lap? While you're waiting in line for the jolly red giant, you may notice some people doing toy drives, collecting toys for kids so they can have a few things to open for the holidays. Make sure to steer clear of that racket! I mean, come on, who do those toys really go to, anyway?

Music
Often times, musicians sing and play instruments on the streets during the holidays, in order to entertain people but also to earn money. It's great that these people want to share their talents with the rest of us, but after a while it can get pretty irritating, can't it? Make sure you never give them money or purchase any of their CDs. There's plenty of places these people can get gainful employment. If they're so into singing and playing music, why don't they audition for the orchestra?

So there you have it - five easy ways to be a Scrooge this holiday season. There are plenty more, so I welcome people's comments on ways they've passed on the grinchy spirit to others!

Seattle Windstorm 2006

Last month was the snowstorm. This month brings a windstorm. And we're not even into the wintery portion of the winter season. What gives?

Seattle weathered the storm in various ways, largely dependent on location. Downed trees and power outages were the primary problems, as were flooding and mudslides. Seattle City Light reported 170,000 without power this morning. And, there were places that felt the effects of too much water falling too quickly. The Seattle Times and PI newspapers couldn't print their dailies because of power outages at the presses. The online editions didn't suffer, however. As for us, the central city was fine this morning, as far as I could tell - no power outages, no flooding.

Redmond and Bellevue were another matter. All of the intersections I went through while driving around this morning were without power, which means no functioning traffic lights. Lots of old trees, fences, signs, and the like were uprooted and toppled. Someone calling into KUOW reported the biggest traffic backups in Bellevue to be because of people lining up for gasoline (2hr waits) or Burger King.

Island County and the Skagit Valley are apparently doing worse than King County. The same situation there: power outages, downed trees, and the like. The problem there is that there's more damage, and people are more spread out, which means it's harder to get power and services back up to a lot of people quickly.

It's been an interesting November and December, from the weather standpoint. Who knows what the new year will bring?

Christmas Song Lyrics Are Weird

Radio stations like Warm 106.9 are playing non-stop Christmas songs this month, so I've gotten my fill of holiday tunes. But, I've noticed some songs are rather weird, when you really listen to them.

One example is that festive, merry song, "It's the most wonderful time of the year." The lyrics begin:

It's the most wonderful time of the year
With the kids jingle belling and everyone telling you
"Be of good cheer"
It's the most wonderful time of the year.

Ah, yes - what canonical visions of the holidays! But then things get weird:

There'll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories
of Christmases long, long ago.

What? Ghost stories? Glories of Christmases long ago? What is this, a song about Blackbeard and stories of plundered treasure? War and strife? What gives, song? I don't think I've ever told someone a ghost story over a Christmas gathering, especially having to do with past glories of some sort.

I must be missing the point...who can enlighten me?

The Darfur Wall

A friend of mine, Jonah Burke, recently launched a web site that smartly combines technology, novelty, and humanitarianism. The Darfur Wall is set up to collect aid money in honor of the victims of genocide in Darfur, Sudan.

The premise is simple: 400,000 gray numbers are on the virtual wall, one for every victim. For $1, you can light one up. From the site:

The numbers 1 to 400,000 cover the 40 panels of The Darfur Wall. Each number represents a person killed in Darfur. By donating $1 or more you can light a number, turning it from dark gray to brilliant white. As we light the wall, we acknowledge the importance of each life lost, we cast light upon a tragedy too many have ignored, and we overcome one barrier to peace.

Better yet, Jonah & co. are paying the costs of running the site, letting 100% of the proceeds go to four organizations which are helping address the crisis in Darfur.

Please help spread the word, and donate a dollar (if not more) when you get a chance.

Bad Video Game Advertisements

Remember those old video game print ads? Remember how bad some of them were? Well, the folks over at 1up.com are doing some round-ups of the worst. What's sad: I remember several of these. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

A Second Snow Storm

It snowed again this week, this time Wednesday night. A lot of people in the neighborhood came outside around 10pm to make snowmen, throw snowballs, and enjoy the winter dusting that made the familiar look unfamiliar. The snow was transient, however: most of it had melted off by the next morning.