Have you ever thought why we don't think of airports as the perfect place to meet new people? We use them as transit areas or places to shop and eat mostly on our own. I believe it would be a great idea to turn airports into spaces where people can expect to socialize. For example, why don't companies that offer speed dating services operate at airports? Wouldn't you like to have the option to spend some of your transit time meeting someone new from another country? Sometimes I imagine how wider and more meaningful our circle of friends, dates and acquaintances would have been if airport space was designed to have venues where passengers can take part in group activities with people they meet for the first time. Just a thought.
http://www.thinkaloo.com
Thursday, July 1, 2010
The end of book publishing
Executives in the publishing industry fear eBook distributors such as Amazon (kindle) and Apple (iPad) will spell the end of their business by eating into their market share or by precipitating a devastating fall in book prices. While Amazon, Apple and their ilk are formidable enemies, the final death blow to traditional print publishing will not be given by eBook distributors. It will come from printer manufacturers. The invention of home-use printers which allow consumers to not only print but also bind books from home fast and reliably and for less than $9.99 (the cost of buying an ebook on Amazon) will spell the end of book publishing as we know it.
Imagine it. Ebooks along with a custom cover of your choice are available to download online. With a click of a button consumers can then print and bind the book from home. The book will look and feel exactly the same as if they had bought it from the bookshop round the corner. For the cost of an ebook or less, consumers can have the paper version of it printed and bound at home. No shipping cost, zero delivering time.
Everyone predicts eBooks are the beginning of the end for book publishers. I am not so sure. Ebooks will compete fiercely against traditional books and will eat into the market share of traditional book publishers. But, mark my words, the end of traditional book publishing will take place only when fast and reliable home-use printers are introduced in the market.
http://www.thinkaloo.com
Imagine it. Ebooks along with a custom cover of your choice are available to download online. With a click of a button consumers can then print and bind the book from home. The book will look and feel exactly the same as if they had bought it from the bookshop round the corner. For the cost of an ebook or less, consumers can have the paper version of it printed and bound at home. No shipping cost, zero delivering time.
Everyone predicts eBooks are the beginning of the end for book publishers. I am not so sure. Ebooks will compete fiercely against traditional books and will eat into the market share of traditional book publishers. But, mark my words, the end of traditional book publishing will take place only when fast and reliable home-use printers are introduced in the market.
http://www.thinkaloo.com
The unexpected benefits of not naming a product
I know it's crazy not to name a new product but does that mean advertising it with no name can never work? I must say I don't know of any product that wasn't named something before it got launched and for good reason. But some moron executives love to explore every aspect of an otherwise unnecessary dilemma. So what if a company didn't give its new product a name and went ahead and advertised it anyway? Sounds crazy? Yes, but hold on. For a start people might talk about how stupid it is that the company didn't name its product and that's a risk, but so long as they talk about it, they will have to call it something. In trying to figure out what to call it or how to refer to it, they end up asking questions or thinking about what the product is about. That means they end up paying attention to your product and isn't that the ultimate goal and prize in advertising a product? :)
http://www.thinkaloo.com
http://www.thinkaloo.com
Can you help prove an Italian superstition Wrong?
In Italy we omit number 13 from the national lottery. We are convinced 13 brings bad luck. The level of clinginess to the conviction makes me mad. 13 brings bad luck. Yeah, right. Less numbers in a lottery means marginally higher probabilities to win and that is bad luck in Italy, because if you are Italian, you play the lottery to enjoy good luck, not to win money. It's only natural that we do everything in our superstition to eliminate "bad luck" from the game!!
To prove the myth wrong, the government could change lottery rules and require that the winning combination always includes number 13. If you are worried Italians may lose their sleep when they buy a lottery ticket with the number 13 in it, well they will, for a few minutes, and then go right back to dreaming they are the ones to win the lottery.
Don't take too seriously my suggestions if you are not superstitious yourself. In the absence of number 13 in the lottery, however, the government should consider announcing winning tickets on the 13 of every month or make Friday the 13 the day when multi-million-euro jackpot tickets are drawn.
If people start spreading fantasies that those lucky jackpot winners had a tragic fate later in life the government can threaten that if people continue to spread such stories they will be the ones to win the next jackpot!
That's a threat no Italian can easily ignore. If the threat is dismissed, it means people agree to be bought off by the government and Italians are known to have a very bad relationship with bribery and corruption to the point that they perfectly resist to it by totally yielding to it. If they pay notice to the threat, well they won't, because what sane Italian will ever refuse millions of euros in order to say that he doesn't believe the superstition is true.
Arguably then, the most powerful threat the government can make in order to put the superstition to the test is to choose everything in relation to the lottery in terms of number 13. As I've said, jackpot total winnings can have number 13 in them, they can always be announced on the 13 of every month with a preference for Fridays, and whoever is really against that, is welcome to be the lottery's winner and then refuse to take the money if they actually believe in the true power of the superstition...
http://www.thinkaloo.com
To prove the myth wrong, the government could change lottery rules and require that the winning combination always includes number 13. If you are worried Italians may lose their sleep when they buy a lottery ticket with the number 13 in it, well they will, for a few minutes, and then go right back to dreaming they are the ones to win the lottery.
Don't take too seriously my suggestions if you are not superstitious yourself. In the absence of number 13 in the lottery, however, the government should consider announcing winning tickets on the 13 of every month or make Friday the 13 the day when multi-million-euro jackpot tickets are drawn.
If people start spreading fantasies that those lucky jackpot winners had a tragic fate later in life the government can threaten that if people continue to spread such stories they will be the ones to win the next jackpot!
That's a threat no Italian can easily ignore. If the threat is dismissed, it means people agree to be bought off by the government and Italians are known to have a very bad relationship with bribery and corruption to the point that they perfectly resist to it by totally yielding to it. If they pay notice to the threat, well they won't, because what sane Italian will ever refuse millions of euros in order to say that he doesn't believe the superstition is true.
Arguably then, the most powerful threat the government can make in order to put the superstition to the test is to choose everything in relation to the lottery in terms of number 13. As I've said, jackpot total winnings can have number 13 in them, they can always be announced on the 13 of every month with a preference for Fridays, and whoever is really against that, is welcome to be the lottery's winner and then refuse to take the money if they actually believe in the true power of the superstition...
http://www.thinkaloo.com
I need some help/ideas with my thesis
Since I came up with the following idea for my term paper, I'd appreciate if you could give me your comments and feedback. I would like to argue that humans decide the length of a word based on the frequency of use of that word in every day talk. The more often a word needs to be used, the less syllables it will have when you compare it to words that are not destined for use on practical, every day needs. The reasoning is that, it's more practical and easier to communicate in shorter words to get more work done through the day. Shorter words facilitate faster human interactions. I want to argue that this logic is universal across all languages. Any help, ideas on how to argue this are greatly appreciated. If you are a non-English speaker and your native language has a daily vocabulary which is unusually polysyllabic, please let me know about it, thanks.
http://www.thinkaloo.com
http://www.thinkaloo.com
Monday, June 28, 2010
Order duty free online and pick up at the airport
It's such a great idea, I wonder why it took us so long to try it. A time saver for people who have very short stopovers. Do the shopping online, pay with your credit card in advance and simply pick it up at the airport. I don't think many people will disagree this is a great idea. If I was to predict which retail businesses will see an increase in sales over the next few years, duty free shops that offer online shopping would be the ones to bet my money on. A site which covers every duty free shop from every airport in the world will become the next eBay success story. eDuty.com? :)
http://thinkaloo.com
http://thinkaloo.com
Can we make luggage pick up more comfortable?
It's unrealistic to expect that, in bending to pick luggage up, people will always know to bend their knees first. The risk of applying undue stress on the spine or even injuring it by bending over too much will always be there. So what can we do to improve the design of the baggage claim carousels? We could control the level of comfort by setting the height of the carousel to a better height but what is a better height? People have differing heights and one height can't fit all. One option would be to design the carousel to come in a gradient of heights as it circles around and let people stand in the area of the carousel whose height best matches theirs. Another thought to improve the experience of picking up luggage is to take advantage of the tilted surface of the carousel and allow the protective bar that prevents the luggage from falling off to open and close with the press of a button and have the luggage drop directly into the trolley.
http://thinkaloo.com
http://thinkaloo.com
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