Thoughts from 11582 meters above sea level
On the plane from Perth to Singapore and had some random thoughts that I wanted to write down. So I’ve grabbed my portable keyboard and Palm T5 to do a little thinking. Just a bunch of random thoughts here so feel free to browse.
Personal Content:
I just stood up to have a stretch and looked around me at the other passengers. About 75% are tuned in to their own personal content. On the Boeing 777-200 that Singapore flies there are individual screens for each passenger. No I’m not sitting in business or first class, I’m talking Row 43 Seat H. According to the guide there are 14 movies, 26 TV channels, and 12 music channels to choose from, or if one would like there are 8 computer games that you can play, which the 12 year old behind me has been playing since we took off.
So what does this all mean? People want to be in control of their content. Remember the days on long flights when there were one or two movies and a big screen that every one had to watch? Those days are coming to an end, we want to control our content, to be able to watch what we want, when we want, we want the ability to choose our content whether it’s between movies or music, or what shows up on our Google homepage. We want to be in control and those airlines or web sites that allow us to control the information are the ones that are going to succeed in the 21st century.
Millennials:
I had to laugh the other day at a millennial moment. Our friends that we were staying with in Perth have two daughters: Mia 3 and Alix 2. We traveled with them for the two weeks we were in Perth and enjoyed their company tremendously. Yesterday as we were getting ready to pack to go home I took a picture of Mia and Alix. As soon as the picture was snapped Mia said, “Can I see it?” So I showed her the picture I took with my digital camera. She laughed and wanted me to take another. It dawned on my that she only knows digital cameras. She is growing up in a time when you can see the picture you took seconds after you take it. My wife and I both still love the fact that we can take 20 pictures of a sun set and then go through them and save the one or two we really like. But that is ‘coolÂ’ to us it will be normal for Mia and Alix. Even Alix at age 2 knows that when her picture is taken she can see it instantly on the camera. It took me until our last day to realize this, but they had been doing it throughout the whole trip. I just find that fascinating.
Magazine Read:
Picked up the magazine PCAuthority before getting on the plane, a great article about Web 2.0 and the tools that are developing around it. A good write up on OpenOffice 2.0 (which I will download when I get home) and an open-source zip file program I hadn’t heard of before called 7-zip. I’ll give that a try too.
Internet in the sky:
On its flights from Singapore to London and from Singapore to the US, Singapore Airlines is now offering in-flight Internet. It’s been out for awhile, all though I haven’t been lucky enough to be on a plane with it. I wonder what the future holds for in-air access. Will it be come standard on all flights like soda and peanuts? Will it ever become free?
In-flight entertainment
Thought I was done writing until I switched plans in Singapore to head to China. This entertainment package is even better then the last plane. I just found the audio book section and plan on listing to “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and “The 8th Habit”. Both books by Covey, and both I’ve been wanting to read. Being an audio learner this is perfect and will take about 3 hours of my 5 hour trip. I love this airline, no wonder they consistently get a 5 star rating.
