Grant's Space

Do you think Siri is cool? Then you probably didn’t use the original app, and you probably also never heard of the 60′s program “Eliza”.

I used to be able to ask Siri for actual information, and get real answers. I could ask it to reserve a table for two at Beausejour at 8 o’clock, and it would place the reservation. I could ask it what good movies were playing nearby, and it would show a list of movies ranked high (on rotten tomatoes) that were playing near me with a list of theaters. I could even tap to buy tickets.

But no more. Siri’s become stupid. Like tragic car crash stupid. The kids in school make fun of it (literally). And that’s all it’s good for. If I ask it to make a reservation at a restaurant at 8pm, it’ll respond with “there’s a restaurant named Beausejour near you”. Great, I already knew that. Ask it for movies and it’ll just display a list of theaters. Ask it almost anything else and it’ll say “I don’t understand”. It’s not good at scheduling, texting, or calling; not better than just tapping and typing at least.

Why does it take hackers to try to revive what used to be a great app?

I miss Siri.

I’m a Starbucks “Gold” customer. Evidently, I still don’t go frequently enough for them.

In a move I can only assume was inspired by Netflix, they sent me a nice email. The whole letter’s below, but here’s the bullet points:

Free drink on our birthday! Sent as a postcard that you have to bring in (inconvenient, but what they’ve always done). The new part: You have a week to redeem it. Like I even check my snail mail that frequently.

Free drink every 15 “stars” (visits) if you’re a Gold Card holder (see below for the complex rules that make that happen). Again, sent as an inconvenient postcard instead of just being automatic like every other loyalty program. Now you have 30 days to use that card, or it becomes trash. Hopefully you don’t go into a Starbucks with it and get the “Sorry, this expired, look at the date. Feel stupid? No drink for you!” treatment.

Coffee Bean has better drinks anyway. Think it’s time to start going there more.

I’m waiting for the next email, in which they’ll say they’re splitting their drinks and food into two separate stores, and renaming themselves “drinkster”.

Here’s their email (including the paragraph on how to keep your status, which rivals some airlines):

My Starbucks Rewards fans,

We’re fine-tuning a few program benefits and wanted to make sure you knew what was coming. There’s a bit more information here than usual, but when it comes to understanding your rewards, we figure more is more.

Starting November 1, 2011:

FREE DRINK ON YOUR BIRTHDAY
Birthdays are special. And we’re still celebrating yours with a free drink on your birthday. Hooray! As long as you’re an active member (meaning you’ve used your Starbucks Card within the last 12 months), you’ll get a postcard for a free birthday drink. And about a week to use it, in case you need it to be a day-after-your-birthday drink. (Wink.) Check the “valid through” date and come on in for a treat.

FREE DRINK EVERY 15 STARS IN GOLD
The “Sweet 15″ free drink is alive and well. The only change here is that you’ll now have 30 days to bring in that postcard and enjoy a drink on the house.

KEEP YOUR STARS, KEEP YOUR STATUS
If you’re a Green or Gold member, the date you achieved that level is your anniversary date. To keep your Stars and your status, you just need to earn 5 Stars for Green or 30 Stars for Gold over the next 12 months (by your anniversary date next year). If you don’t make it, your Stars will expire and you’ll drop down a level. But we’ll help-we’ll send you email reminders of your anniversary date and encouragement to earn those additional Stars to keep the benefits you love. (Be sure to opt in to email.)

TUNE UP!
Now might be a good time to visit your Account Profile, note your anniversary date, track your Stars, reload a card and opt in to receive emails for special offers and announcements.

Thanks for reading. See the full details here.

Wishing you a year full of Stars,
My Starbucks Rewards

I just got an email from Netflix:

Dear Grant,

We are separating unlimited DVDs by mail and unlimited streaming into two separate plans to better reflect the costs of each. Now our members have a choice: a streaming only plan, a DVD only plan, or both.

Your current $11.99 a month membership for unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs (including Blu-ray access) will be split into 2 distinct plans:

Plan 1: Unlimited Streaming (no DVDs) for $7.99 a month
Plan 2: Unlimited DVDs (including Blu-ray), 1 out at-a-time (no streaming)
for $9.99 a month

Your price for getting both of these plans will be $17.98 a month ($7.99 + $9.99). You don’t need to do anything to continue your memberships for both unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs.

Translated, that means “we’re hiking up your rates by 50%”. Now that’s enough to drive customers away in itself, but Netflix decided instead to give us the option of cancelling part or all of our service. Evidently that’ll increase their profits.

Evidently Netflix doesn’t realize a couple things that their customers know:

1. Netflix has competitors, especially for their streaming service.
2. Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” selection is really crappy.

I’m not sure $9.99/mo for just the delivery service is enough, but it might be. I’m sure not paying $7.99/month for the steaming pile of streaming they offer. I replied suggesting they try this again after adding some real content for streaming.

I won’t do HULU+ until they stop showing ads during my paid subscription (which doesn’t sound likely anytime soon), so I guess it’s time to look into other services again, or just watch less TV… Any recommendations?

When I started this post, I was afraid I used some FlightPrep software. I was ready to delete it. Then I realized I’d considered their products, but found them inferior to other products out there. I felt they were an outdated company trying to catch up (and failing).

FlightPrep is posting on their site logical-sounding claims regarding a patent they filed and how they’ve tried to contact the maintainer of runwayfinder.com, grant him a free license during negotiation, etc.

Here’s what it really comes down to:

1. Lawyers are expensive and time-consuming. This is 1 person with a full-time job against a company with 4 full-time employees, and evidently enough capital to pay lawyers.
2. Sure, it’s good business practice to sue/buy the competition. Microsoft is famous for it. Microsoft is also hated for it. I won’t tolerate that tactic from FlightPrep. Delete.
3. FlightPrep claims that RunwayFinder is infringing on their patent and wants RunwayFinder to pay them to keep running. I run a couple of web sites – it’s not worth my time to deal with legal issues. I’m sure Dave doesn’t have time either (as he says). The mere claim of infringement overruns his resources.

I’m a software developer by profession, and software patent law needs some serious change. The problem is that people can patent simple ideas that anyone can come up with. Take Amazon’s “one click” for example. Store address and credit card information so that the user can use it later – patent! Evidently pointing out airports on a chart and letting you route (an existing process taught to every pilot) is patentable if you write a program to do it (by any means).

So yes, FlightPrep, you might be “playing by the rules”, just like the smart bullies did in elementary school. It doesn’t mean we want to be your friends any more.

Fire the person who thought that going after one of the most-used pilot tools on the web would be beneficial to anyone (including FlightPrep) and, after enough time to regain your reputation, I’ll consider using your software. If you’re still around.

(By the way, I prefer ForeFlight’s software to FlightPrep’s. I assume they’ll be sued next).

On August 29, 2010, Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus took a step backward in fare handling. Ironically, to announce the change, they ran ads implying that you wouldn’t need to use money on the bus any more. In reality, they were replacing the Little Blue Card (which allowed you to load cash onto the card and pay for your bus fare, transfers, express bus fees, etc) with various trip-based or multi-day-based passes (which don’t allow you to pay for transfers or express bus fees).

So, Dear Los Angeles Public Transportation providers, here’s why spewing advertising billboards about saving gas all over the city isn’t getting people on your busses and trains:

• Make paying simple
  Seriously, I’ve lost count of the times I’ve driven to work instead of figuring out if I have exactly $1.50 for the trip there and $1.85 for the trip back (and calculating that cost in the first place). Heaven forbid I get on the wrong version of the bus I need to get back (see a lower point) and need to pay an extra amount. Take a hint from Hong Kong and London:
  • Make it easy to load cash on the TAP card (hint: online, in EVERY Metro station, and on EVERY bus)
  • Make the fares simple! Seriously, it’s one rate if you’re staying local, another if you’re going into a different “zone”, another if you’re a student, another if you’re a senior, another if you’re taking more than one bus. GEEZ! It’s easier to buy a car than take the damn bus once! Remember the old KISS rule – Keep It Simple, Stupid
• Make the busses and trains run more frequently
  Some are fine, some aren’t. If a line runs less frequently than every 20 minutes, it’s basically useless. 5-10 minutes, and you’re talking about replacing my car. 10-20 minutes, and I’ll consider it if I don’t want to drive. 20 minutes, and I’m just gonna be spending my life at bus stops – no longer worth it.
• Make the busses run reliably
  This one’s huge. I was all set to bus to work and cancel my parking until the day I got left on the street for over 40 minutes one cold night because a bus (scheduled every 20 minutes…) just didn’t show. The busses sole purpose is to get me somewhere – if it fails that purpose, I have to find something else to get me there. LA Metro repeatedly fails that purpose.
• Make all transit lines use the TAP card
  “Can’t we all just get along?” Really, everyone’s got to use the same payment system to make the system usable. LA’s too big to have to guess at the three systems you might need to use to get somewhere more than a couple miles away (or even less than a couple miles away). The EZ transit pass is ok, but is only affordable if you’re going to only use public transportation; it loses the occasional rider.
• Make the bus/train lines simple
  Sure, it’s a big city, and the system’s going to be a bit complicated. But at least try for simplicity: Let’s take the 108 Metro bus for example. One out of every three trips, the route extends into Marina Del Rey. Same bus number, different destination. Really? Who thought that would be a good idea? So if you’re waiting for the 108 and need to go to Marina Del Rey, and don’t notice that the head sign says “Fox Hills Mall” instead of “Marina Del Rey”, you just got stuck at the mall, and have to hope you have the extra buck fifty or whatever it is to get the rest of the way (whenever the right version of the 108 comes). Again, the bus just failed to get me where I need to go – time for another solution.

Yeah, I know “running the bus every 10 minutes is too expensive”, and “there aren’t enough people on the bus to warrant it running more than every 45 minutes through this one section, but there is through this other section, and we don’t really want to have it be a transfer because the people coming in from Marina Del Rey would have to transfer blah blah blah”. And so, we widen the 405, because if you take the 761 into the valley, good luck figuring out how to get back (hint: it’s not on the 761). Make it easier to pay, faster to get places, and easier to comprehend, and maybe LA can join the list of world cities in which people who can afford a car use public transportation to get around anyway.