Stupid QANTAS

I've been flying with Virgin Blue since they started and if I had any lingering doubts about returning to QANTAS, this past weekend has resolved them. The only problem that flying with Virgin Blue causes is that they only fly into Launceston, a two hour drive from home. To make it easier, I decided to fly QANTAS into Devenport instead. I will not be making the same mistake again.

I caught a taxi to the airport at 12:10 and checked in to find that my flight had been cancelled, but I'd be able to get the next flight after that and still make my connection. This was fine with me, it just meant I'd be spending the hour wait at Canberra instead of Melbourne. We landed in Melbourne at 14:25 (the time my next flight was supposed to start boarding) and I rushed to the departures screen to determine which gate my next flight departed from, only to find that it too had been cancelled.

I eventually found a customer service desk with staff and discovered that, yet again, I'd have to catch a later flight. In an attempt, I suppose, to make up for some of the inconvenience they gave me a voucher to get a meal. Melbourne airport is a particularly boring place, though the numerous and frequent announcements about delayed, rescheduled, redirected, reassigned and cancelled flights did keep me (and the throngs of other affected passengers) somewhat entertained.

At the end of the day, QANTAS got me to Devenport more than three and a half hours later than my itinerary (booked not three days previous) stated, thereby inconveniencing myself and my family and resolving any doubt in my mind as to whether I'd be returning to QANTAS.

At the other end of the spectrum, the QANTAS ground and cabin crew were pleasant and helpful. It's a pity their logistics aren't as good as their service.

I'm on my Way...

The mid-semester holiday starts, for me, when I submit my second report for Milestone Papers in Computing, that is, tomorrow morning. Rather than spend the next few weeks in cold, wet Canberra, I'm going to wet, cold Tasmania.

While I'm there, my Internet access will be rather limited and I hope, in-spite (or perhaps because of) this, to get a lot of work done on my honours project.

Stupid Blinking Lights

I have never liked strobing lights. From flashing on the TV screen, to lights at clubs, flashing lights make me uncomfortable. I doubt that it is photosensitive epilepsy.

Lately, I've been irritated by the banner adds for the US Green Card Lottery (or whatever it is called). For some reason, someone has decided that a large blinking red/yellow block would be the best way to advertise the Green Card Lottery (which, in my opinion, has to be the single stupidest way to manage an immigration system).

I'm not sure if it has effected any photosensitive epileptics, but it sure as hell shits me off something chronic!

Web 2.0

I've been playing with some of the tools that people are talking about when they mention the Web 2.0 or, at least, the current day ancestors of those future systems:

CafeSpot
del.icio.us
Tag Cloud
CiteULike