Author Archives: Lance Wiggs

iTunes: Enough said. Microsoft lost the battle

“Enough said. Microsoft lost the battle in the consumer entertainment media space.: That’s Mauricio Freitas – Microsoft MVP and fan – in response to iTunes offering videos in New Zealand and Australia. There’s a critical flaw however. iTunes got big through usability, but most importantly because it made it easy to transfer your CD’s to …

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Never advertise during the Olympics

It seems that if you sponsor the Olympics then you get thousands of TV advertising spots thrown in. So – for those companies that sponsor the Olympics this is for you: STOP By now I now dislike your company, your products, and most especially your advertisements. It’s only day 4. By the end of the …

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It’s noisy when you fly, so should we talk on the phone?

Laws against talking on your phone on board commercial Us domestic aircraft are being pushed by US Congress. It seems some Congress-critters are upset at very loud and sometimes personal phone calls from people on planes sitting near them when flying back and forth to Congress. The Noise Airplanes (or aeroplanes) are very very noisy …

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Internet while flying should be free, like everywhere else.

Great news – Delta is going to offer WiFi on all domestic (USA) flights. Not so smart – sadly they see it as a revenue opportunity rather than a service, and will charge ($10 for up to 3h flights, $14 for longer flights) for it. I find it amusing that upmarket hotels typically charge (a …

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Not so funny when you could die

You may have seen this already. It looks like the plane wasn’t chocked (at least not properly), and with a gap opening up under passengers feet that was over 2 meters high (3 actually) this was a potentially fatal incident. It should be recorded as such – it’s a near miss – a zero barrier …

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Pay the bureaucrats more money not less

Not PC bemoans the highly paid Government sector. So does anti-dismal. I disagree. The alternative to highly paid bureaucrats is lowly paid bureaucrats. Lowly paid bureaucrats are far far worse than highly paid ones. Here are three resons why: Lack of talent – why work for Government when you can get more money working in …

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Mia Farrow sleeps with only a rope. In Darfur.

Who knew? Turns out Mia Farrow has been travelling to Darfur, Chad and CAR for a while now. Here’s NYTimes columnist Nicholas Krstof, who has been there a few times himself, and been one of the main people that has bought the plight to the attention of the US people and Government, on Mia: Several …

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Count those Olympic medals

The Olympics is pure, about simple athleticism, where nationalistic politics are put aside and we all enjoy the quest for sporting perfection. Right. The NYTimes has a really cool Medal Count Tool, which shows the rise and fall of countries in the medal tally over the years. Watch Australia – they get out-medalled (especially gold) …

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Digicell – getting bigger and bigger by helping people

Digicell is cleaning up – earning dollars by targeting poor countries with their mobile phone services, and earning kudos for liberating their populations from inefficient and often corrupt Governments and incumbents. Owner Denis O’Brien’s motto (via Forbes): Give phones to the masses and they’ll fight your enemies for you. I wish they’d invade Australia and …

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