Friday 29 June 2007

Tennis racket improvements

I have some ideas on how to improve the tennis racket. Below are the rules that any tennis racket must abide by http://www.itftennis.com/technical/rules/equipment/appendixii.asp

a. The hitting surface, defined as the main area of the stringing pattern bordered by the points of entry of the strings into the frame or points of contact of the strings with the frame, whichever is the smaller, shall be flat and consist of a pattern of crossed strings connected to a frame and alternately interlaced or bonded where they cross. The stringing pattern must be generally uniform and, in particular, not less dense in the centre than in any other area.
The racket shall be designed and strung such that the playing characteristics are identical on both faces. The racket shall be free of attached objects, protrusions and devices other than those utilised solely and specifically to limit or prevent wear and tear or vibration or, for the frame only, to distribute weight. These objects, protrusions and devices must be reasonable in size and placement for such purposes.

b. The frame of the racket shall not exceed 29.0 inches (73.7 cm) in overall length, including the handle. The frame of the racket shall not exceed 12.5 inches (31.7 cm) in overall width. The hitting surface shall not exceed 15.5 inches (39.4 cm) in overall length, and 11.5 inches (29.2 cm) in overall width.

c. The frame, including the handle, and the strings, shall be free of any device which makes it possible to change materially the shape of the racket, or to change the weight distribution in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the racket which would alter the swing moment of inertia, or to change deliberately any physical property which may affect the performance of the racket during the playing of a point. No energy source that in any way changes or affects the playing characteristics of a racket may be built into or attached to a racket.

Monday 18 June 2007

NHS inefficiencies

In principle, the NHS is a great: free health care for everyone. But a recent article I read in the Telegraph "Surgeon praised by Blair gives up on UK" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/17/nhs117.xml
highlights the inefficiencies. What makes things incredulous is that the surgeon actually met the prime minister. The ideas he proposed were ignored completely so he has decided to work abroad despite a 44% pay cut. The methods employed by this remarkable surgeon reduced waiting times from a year to three weeks. He can do five hip or knee replacements a day whereas his colleagues can only do one or two.

Thursday 14 June 2007

Consistent brand packaging

I wrote about consistent supermarket brand packaging earlier and I never thought that well known brands would make the same mistake. Heinz in 1993 decided to launch a natural cleaning vinegar. This was due to some people using their existing vinegar for cleaning purposes. They actually made the packaging look very similar. I would never dream of associating what people eat with a cleaner.

But clearly there was a demand for it so how would you market it? For cost purposes, it made sense to use their existing design but the association is not good. I suppose even associating the cleaner with the food manufacturer was a risky move. I think I would not have introduced it at all. People were happy using the food version for the cleaning already. Although if they were confident that the product would beat the competition, building up new brand which does not highlight the association with Heinz.

Friday 8 June 2007

Witricity (wireless electricity) efficiency: environmental concern

The idea of wireless transmission of electricity is not new but the new thing is the increase in efficiency to 40%. This is a significant improvement but certainly not enough to justify everyone getting rid of their wires. Since we would use up more electricity, the environment will not be too happy.

There are potential uses perhaps in the medical world where it may be a necessity but unnecessary applications like powering laptops should not be pursued (unless the efficiency reaches the wire version level). I do hope this unfortunate explosion in public interest does not trigger a boom in demand for implementing this in all sorts of devices. The environmental impact should not be underestimated.

Wednesday 6 June 2007

Epilepsy and the 2012 London Olympics Logo

I did suspect that the flashing and the abrupt changes of the logo may trigger an epileptic fit but I did not write about it yesterday. The media have now highlighted this problem. As soon as I saw the dynamic logo, it reminded me of some flashing images that were triggering epileptic fits a while ago. It is a shame that a company that charged 0.4 million pounds could not think about the consequences well enough.

Tuesday 5 June 2007

Consistent Supermarket Brand Packaging

Here is a reason why supermarkets should not have consistent packaging (design looking the same) for their own brands. Asda used to have the consistent packaging for their juices as well as detergents. The last time I checked the juices, they had changed the design of the packaging so I think they have realised their problem.

2012 London Olympics Logo

The people who were responsible for the 2012 London Olympic logo have missed a great opportunity to get the public involved. Why did they pay 0.4 million pounds for the existing logo that was unveiled recently? Instead, they could have asked the public to send in their ideas (you can also give out prizes).

In order to choose the winner, they could have asked the public again. If there are too many designs, finding the best design could be difficult. Fairness could be maintained if the designs are displayed randomly so on average, every design would have its fair share of prominence. But people will probably get too tired to look through all the designs. A certain number of them could be selected by a certain panel of judges. Then the public can choose their favourite more easily.

Monday 23 April 2007

Volume difference between programmes and commercials

In the UK, if you are watching a channel that broadcasts commercials, you will not only be disappointed with the interruptions but you may also be frustrated with the increase in volume for commercials. So you may either use up the battery on your remote control to either completely switch the sound off or reduce the volume. You have to do the reverse once the programme is back on. Why do the television broadcasters do this? Just stick to the same volume for programmes and commercials.

Sunday 25 March 2007

Ikea and 25 pence shopping bag

I went to Ikea yesterday with my family. I was impressed to find that their durable (reusable) shopping bags have been reduced from 50 pence to 25 pence. I don't know if they are making any profit from it but it is an attractive price that should not put anyone off from buying them. If they are slightly smaller, they will be perfect for your groceries.

It is interesting to compare this offering by Ikea to the supermarkets here. If only they were prepared to offer something similar, we would have virtually cut out the waste from plastic bags. Why stop at supermarkets. The other stores that supply plastic bags should follow suit. Even if they lose money, the good deed to the environment should stick in the minds of the customers. I feel good moral business practices will be better in the long run. I think the short-sighted culture is to blame for not being able to stop the use of plastic bags at supermarkets.

There are much more radical approaches to reduce the waste from supermarkets but I fear that their short-sightedness will again be the obstacle to introducing them.

Monday 12 March 2007

Water company with swift response to email

I emailed this certain water company just before 3pm and I received a phone call within two hours. This is extremely impressive when you consider some other companies who neglect to reply at all or take one or two weeks to reply. Is this efficiency possible in other sectors?

Saturday 10 March 2007

Contacted BT about a mysterious phone call

Dear Sir or Madam,
I received a call from a stranger at 10:55am, Saturday 10th March 2007. I asked him what this call is about, he told me he is calling on behalf of Telco or Telcom (the line was very bad and I could not hear him clearly). Then he suddenly mentions something about BT broadband. I told him I don't think you should be asking me these questions. He put the phone down on me.

Should I be worried about this mysterious call? Does he work on your behalf? Since the caller withheld their number, I cannot investigate this matter. I would appreciate any information you may have on this matter.

Yours faithfully,
Dr Julian Hartley

Virgin Media (used to be NTL)

Things are not looking impressive for Virgin Media, the new owner of NTL. I did not receive a reply so I sent them another email:
______________________
Dear Sir or Madam,
I have sent an email but I have yet to receive a reply.

The email I sent concerned the price discrepancy between the cable 25 pound service compared to the non-cable service. I don't see how you can justify the difference in price. Since I can receive both services, I am interested in switching to your non-cable service. Although I would be interested in a more competitive price for the existing service.

Another thing I thought you may be interested in is the problem I had with NTL. If you do not want to repeat the same mistake, please contact me.

Yours faithfully,
Dr Julian Hartley
___________________________

Canon UK

Dear Sir or Madam,
I noticed one of your adverts in the newspaper and I wondered why it did not show off your product very well. I would be grateful if you have an email address I can use to mention this matter to the appropriate person.

Looking at the website, I feel that there can be significant improvements that can be made. For instance, there are too many words to read. If you are interested in further advice from a general customer perspective, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Although I have worked on Levi adverts where the image is very important, my background in physics keeps me alert on the functionality of the website.

Yours faithfully,
Dr Julian Hartley

Ssangyong cars

I wrote an email to Ssangyong cars:
__________________________
I reside in the UK and have come across one of your adverts in the Daily Telegraph (back page 28th Feb 2007) and became puzzled with a problem. Why is there a large price at the top and an asterisk directing you to the bottom indicating that the car shown is only slightly more expensive? Why not advertise the fact that the model shown is in fact only a bit more. The customer has to look twice to determine how much this model costs. Usually this is the case if there is a huge price discrepancy. But in the case I saw, there is hardly any difference.

Intrigued, I took a look at your UK website and found even more errors. Why are the prices not the same as the one in the paper advert? Customers lose confidence in you. Why do you keep offers that are obviously expired still on the website?

Even your global website has problems at least for the English version. If you are interested in me giving advice on your English websites from a customer perspective, please do not hesitate to contact me.
_________________________

It is remarkable that companies neglect to reply to emails. Are they not worried about their reputation? If they are treating a person that is trying to help in this manner, I have doubts about how well they can treat their customers.

Monday 5 March 2007

Alternative to commission based salaries

I have written about parking attendants and bailiffs who have no moral values because of their commission based salaries.

I do not see why bailiffs need to have commission base salaries? Why not set the number of places to visit in a day regardless of whether they can bring back any money? The incentive to go to more places than what they are set would be an increase in their salaries. The salary should not be based on how much debt they can collect. The salary should be based on the number of places they visit for debt collection regardless of whether they collect the debt or not. Since the more times they go to the same place to collect, the higher the debt becomes, the debt will be paid eventually.

The above will not work for parking attendants. They should be given a basic salary. Their salary will depend on the number of complaints being made towards each parking attendant. I presume the commission based salaries were introduced because they were worried about the parking attendants not doing their job and collecting money for nothing. Random checks can be made to see if they are doing their job. They will now stop issuing penalty notices unfairly. The problem with this method is that the companies who employ them are private and profit hungry. Their profit is derived from more penalty notices issued. They shouldn't have been outsourced in the first place. They should be operated by local councils again.

Eat as much as you like sushi in one hour. Make condition of ads clear

The previous post reminded me of this attractive offer of eat as much as you like sushi in one hour. We ordered a reasonable amount and we ate it pretty leisurely. We realised that there is only perhaps five minutes left so we ordered again. We were still eating after the hour and an irate manager came out and told me off for not finishing the what we had ordered in the time allocated. I told him that I thought we could order within that time and as long as we did not waste the food or take it away, it would be fine. I also said that we had obviously ordered too much to eat everything in the hour so why did you not warn us and we would have ordered much less. He told us to never come again.

You may have guessed that that restaurant is now long gone. As a customer, the offer was very attractive regardless of whether you had to finish it all in one hour. But just because the offer was not clear, the whole experience became bad. Do not rely on the customer to know the conditions.

Besides, which offer is better for the restaurant? Of course. Order within the hour but you don't have to finish it. You have a greater chance of feeling satisfied than with a time limit to eat. The time limit to eat will spoil the taste of the food.

Don't offer a customer with a condition out of their hands

Take Away (Out) Pizza delivery menu. I don't normally eat take away pizza but I was looking at their menu which had been hand delivered. I spotted an unfortunate mistake that could cost them dearly. They state an offer and provide the following condition: if ordered and delivered before 4pm. Now someone who looks at this offer at say 3:30pm will think twice about taking advantage of this offer. Since delivery is out of the customers' control, it is not wise.

Status unverified after completing necessary steps to be verified

I am surprised with PayPal for not being able to show straight away my verified status. I completed the necessary steps and arrived at a page saying that I am now verified. I went to the My Account page but my status is still unverified. This will cause unnecessary alarm. Surely this can be fixed.

Monday 26 February 2007

Problems of online gambling

What puzzles me about online gambling is how it is allowed to operate with 2 huge problems.
  1. How easy it is to collude.
  2. The unusually high odds of getting several great hands competing against each other
The worst case scenario for the first point is to have everyone except one person colluding. They can be communicating over the phone to tell each other their hands. You just cannot stop this. They could say they will monitor the behaviour and find out the collusion but this will be assuming they will hang around for long enough. After scamming the innocent, they can close the account and open another with a different computer. Even with just two people colluding, it is a huge advantage over the other players. I imagine spotting the collusion will become harder if there are fewer people colluding.

The second point can be prevented but it would not be in the interests of the gambling websites. They are only interested in more people betting. The more people with strong hands at the same time, the more money will go in the pot. I cannot understand how these skewed odds can be maintained.

Friday 23 February 2007

Chip and pin problem

Chip and pin. This is a way to use our cards and we are told that there is more security. Well, the security increase is only completely true for the banks. Whilst for the consumers, we have much less proof that a card has been used fraudulently. Before, we could say that the signature is different and the experts would be able to prove this. By getting rid of the signature requirement,
the onus is on the consumer to prove that nothing untoward has happened. The best way is to have both: the signature and the pin.

Cheese stick packaging problem

I feed my daughter these small sticks of cheese individually packaged. My criticism is about opening the packaging. Why can they not design it so that no cheese will be left on the packaging? I tear it from the designated place and it leaves an awkward hole. Awkward because as I push the cheese out, the edges of the cheese scrape against the packaging taking bits of cheese with it. If they really want people to have all the cheese, they should design the packaging better. The impression I get is that the manufacturer is not bothered about their cheese being wasted? Surely they should be delivering a message that their cheese is so good that they do not want anything wasted. Too many things seem to lack passion these days.

More space in London Underground trains

Space is greatly lacking in the London underground trains. The space is constrained by the size of the tunnels. The size of the tunnels could be enlarged but this would be prohibitively expensive. So another solution would be to modify the trains. I remember being very disappointed by the most recent designs of the trains because they had become smaller. I can only think that this was due to a grave error. For the Northern line at least, the space problem has been exacerbated. You only have to look at the thickness of the walls and behind the seats. All that width is wasted for what reason? I have been on many underground and overground trains abroad and I find it incredible that the most recent designs require so much width for the walls. In contrast, the underground trains in Tokyo are incredulously thin. Don't squander so much space for the walls.

Another way to increase the space is to consider having the floor lower. But this may mean lowering the platforms and perhaps making the wheels smaller. The size of the wheels could be unaltered and cleverly housed underneath the seats. Although the heat from the wheels could be felt more by the people sitting down.

More thought is required but I do feel that more space can be claimed by the passengers.

Dell laptop battery problem

Although I have a laptop, I tend to use the mains rather than rely on the battery. I noticed that the battery life was getting shorter and shorter. I can only surmise that either the battery was faulty or that the battery was getting charged constantly. Once the battery is fully charged by the mains, shouldn't the mains stop charging the battery and let the mains power the computer? This appears not to be the case. I suggest that all laptops should be designed to solve this problem.

BT baby monitor problem

A baby monitor is useful when you have a little one. But I did not expect the design to be so poor. There is a clip that protects the housing of the batteries but this thing is very difficult to detach. This means that putting the batteries in and out of the monitor becomes difficult. I am staggered that such a design could be released to the public.

Wednesday 21 February 2007

YouTube registration hassle

Has anyone else experienced problems registering with YouTube? After some hassle, I managed to register. I am surprised that such a well known website would have the following problem. I chose a username, password, retyped the password and solved the CAPTCHA (the image where you have to type the letters and numbers you see). I pressed the submit button and it complained that I did not read the CAPTCHA correctly. I had to type and retype the password again and solve the CAPTCHA. After several tries, I managed to solve it but this time, the username had been taken. Why not tell me before that the username is taken? When typing the username, you should immediately be able to check the availability. Why do I need to type and retype the password after each time I failed the CAPTCHA? Besides, why should the CAPTCHA be so difficult to solve? They have even a button you can press to tackle a new CAPTCHA.

Monday 12 February 2007

Camden parking attendant with no moral values

Below is an email I sent to the Camden Council.

My inquiry concerns a parking attendant (parking attendant number C1790). On Monday 12th February, I drove my wife to the Royal Free hospital for performing amniocentesis. We were in a rush to get to the appointment on time. I parked the car in South End Road NW3 and walked past the above parking attendant saying I have parked there just now and I am off to buy a parking ticket. Having paid 4 pounds 80 pence for the maximum 2 hours at 9.54am, I placed it clearly in the car. After the surgical procedure, I came back and to my horror there was a penalty charge notice marked 10.02am.

The parking contravention was: parked in a residents' parking space without clearly displaying a valid residents' parking permit. (Code 15).

I have checked on your useful website that it does seem to be permit holders only (a map showing this would be useful). So in this respect, I have made a terrible mistake (another suggestion is to identify the difference between the pay and display and permit holders perhaps by markings on the road).

However, I am disappointed to say the least about this parking attendant C1790. He could have easily warned us about the parking being only for permit holders. He knew very well that we were not permit holders because I told him that I am buying a parking ticket.

It is tragic that this incident has disturbed my wife very badly when she should be peacefully resting. I am looking forward to a reply from you that we hope will bring an amicable resolution to this horribly insensitive incident.

Yours sincerely,
Dr Julian Hartley


Many of you may have similar or even worse stories about parking attendants. I would really appreciate you to share your experiences with me.

Some other horror stories that I have heard are about the parking ticket not being displayed properly and receiving a penalty whilst you are buying a parking ticket. Another form which is possibly more common around the world is a coin machine allocated for each parking space (I suppose they should be all like this so you won't have problems of whether it is a pay and display parking space etc. Councils are cutting costs by having one machine that serves many spaces. If they are reportedly making a lot of money, they can afford to do so. This money must be spent on other things.). You have not many coins to buy enough time to park so you put a few coins that you have and go back in the restaurant for some more. You put more coins in to buy the amount you intended. All the time, the parking attendant sees this and yet a penalty is issued because of overfeeding (practice of topping up the parking meter so that you can park longer than the maximum length of time allowed).

Wednesday 7 February 2007

Hand soap dispenser

Although the mechanism creates a lot of waste, they are convenient. But I cannot help wondering whether they are manufactured in such a way as to preventing people using the soap sparingly. The one I am using at home squirts out a lot even when I try not to. They have not designed the dispenser with economy in mind. Why can't they design it so that the user has much more control over the amount of soap that comes out? This way we won't have to use an excessive amount of soap to just wash our hands and we will not be contributing as much to the pollution of the rivers and the sea.

Tuesday 6 February 2007

NTL internet down time compensation

I have been down for one week and the compensation was one week times cost of line divided by 30. Is this a reasonable or usual compensation package? I don't think so. Logically speaking from their perspective, this sounds the fairest way but I am afraid I am very disappointed. Why don't they come up with better compensation packages that will really convince users to stay with them? So what is reasonable? Why not reduce the rate I pay every month by half for three months? Surely this is a small price to pay to keep customers happy? I think the trick with compensation packages is to offer something that exceeds the customer's expectations.

If they carry on with their way of compensating, customer retention will be poor. Simple way to see this is to consider someone down for one month. Now would they be happy to have the next month free even though they have paid for the unused month? I don't feel compensated because they have only credited with me for the amount of down time.

In fact it is worse because the phone calls I have made to them have cost me.

Monday 5 February 2007

Bank and double standards

HSBC are offering 5.75% interest on their online saver for new customers. Existing customers will get 5.25%. Is this kind of thing common around the world? I am familiar with banks offering attractive packages just for the first few months but this appears to be a longer offering.

It is a shame that the banks are banking on their customers to be loyal enough to stay. Do they not think that satisfying their existing customers will be more beneficial than luring new customers using unfair tactics.

I feel that if banks offer a package that improves over time would be better. For example, if you stay with us for a year, we will offer you 0.25% above the Bank of England rate. If you stay two years, it will be 0.5% above Bank of England rate. Do you not think that this would attract more customers?

drink-drive limit

Is it wise to have a drink-drive limit? Why not ban driving completely if you are under the influence of alcohol? I say this because the driving of some people may be affected even when they abide by the law. This may be particularly upsetting for people who are not easily influenced, it is better than having a misleading law that may result in deaths on the road.

hiking shoes slippery

I like hiking up mountains and I bought a pair of Merrell hiking shoes. They look very nice but there is one problem with them. They are fairly slippery on concrete and rock. Maybe they were designed for walking on soil? It would be interesting to know if anyone else felt the same?

London Underground and Mill Hill East Station

The line branches off into two. One going to Mill Hill East Station and the other which services 4 more stations. I have often wondered why not have two trains say that service the people in Mill Hill East? Although they would have to get off at Finchley Central (station at the junction), the service should be more frequent.

Well, it looks like they have finally done this last year.

Accordion buses in London

When you think of buses in London, almost everyone will say double decker buses. But these days, we find long single decker buses that are connected by something akin to what you find on accordions (this allows the bus to bend in the middle). Why have they introduced these? They are really a menace on the roads to pedestrians and other cars. Someone who allowed these things to be introduced on the streets of London has made a grave mistake.

The only reason why they still infiltrate the streets is because they cost a lot of money to put them there. I suppose no one is going to be brave enough to take them out of service. Or could they? Well, no.

Phone-in quiz TV

I have briefly watched such a thing and I became curious as to how they arrive at the solution. I am on about the quiz which has only one answer which tend to be numeric. These things seem impossible. I think they have a right to publish not just the answer but also the step-by-step process in arriving at the answer. This should clearly send a message to the people phoning in that they have next to no chance of getting the right answer. I think at the moment, they are debating about publishing the odds of getting the answer. This may not be adequate because how would you accurately calculate the odds?

Printer ink

Printer ink is extremely expensive. I suppose they are trying to recoup the money from offering the printers very cheaply. The manufacturers say that the cartridge is expensive to manufacture but why not reduce the cost of the next purchase if the consumer sends the empty cartridges back? This makes environmental sense as well. The manufacturers are not doing this so we have companies that collect the empty cartridges, refill them and resell them.

I made a mistake in buying such a product from inkprices.com. It did not last very long so I suspected there was a fault with the cartridge or perhaps there was not enough ink put in. I returned the cartridge but they just told me that the cartridge was fine. So they did not send me another equivalent product. They have now my cartridge to refill and resell.

The moral is not to part with the evidence. It sounds a bit obvious but I didn't do so because I believed that they would send it. Another moral is not to blindingly trust someone. Again something obvious but I did otherwise because would I be willing to investigate further by getting an independent opinion on the fitness of the product? Alas no.

It would be interesting to know whether the law can protect the consumer in a case such as this? It is difficult to protect the consumer when the product in question is perishable or used up.

What do I want to do here?

I want to document my thoughts about any inefficiencies around the world and I do hope that something good will come out of it. Your comments will be greatly appreciated.

Inevitably, since I am based in London, what I write will focus more on things around here. But I think all issues can be relevant one way or another, depending on the way you interpret them. Comments that give a global perspective will be greatly appreciated.
Hello and welcome to my blog.