Orangutangy

Tag: Things I hate

  • Hotels & resort fees

    Hey, just a little DID YOU KNOW?

    Hotels can charge a mandatory resort fee above the current online display price. This is very common in Las Vegas where heavily ‘discounted’ hotel rooms are offset by the large fees. EG: $60/night room + $20/night resort fee. Currently the FTC is cracking down on OTA’s  (Online Travel Agencies), making sure they at very least display the resort fees. This is good, but I don’t think it’s going far enough. Hotels should be required to incorporate resort fees into the normal display price. Although it’s pretty obvious why this would benefit the consumers, I think it’d greatly benefit the OTA’s as well.

    There’s no incentive for OTA’s to display the price with fees if there’s no enforced standard. Consider these two displays:

    • OTA1: $50 + fees
    • OTA2: $70 (includes fees)

    Which is more expensive? You wouldn’t be able to tell without further investigation. If the fees were $30, OTA2 would actually be cheaper, but appears more expensive on first glance. Most travelers do a lot of comparison shopping- engaging with 4+ sites at a time. In my experience at Hotwire, this initial glance makes a huge difference. People won’t even navigate to the next page (where the fees are spelled out) if the initial price is more expensive than other sites. The competition is so tight that without an FTC mandate, Hotwire and other sites wouldn’t be able to afford displaying the fee-inclusive price.

  • Sifteo Cubes: Review

    Sifteo Cubes: Review

    Mom gave me a set of Sifteo cubes for my birthday. I took them out for a trial run that weekend, but haven’t sat down with them to develop until today. (Potentially) awesome gift?

    Here’s the lowdown:

    • For about $150, you get 3 cubes, a charging/storage box, and a wifi adapter usb dongle.
    • To play with your cubes, you must have a base computer to run the Siftrunner app. This app hosts the games that communicates (via the usb dongle) to your cubes.
    • In the Siftrunner app, you can switch games, purchase new ones (using their credits), and pair/disconnect 1-6 cubes. Currently only 19 games on the marketplace.
    • The cube inputs/sensors include: 1 main button (on the screen), an accelerometer, a 129x129px display, NFC sensors along the edges (detects contact between cubes)

    Pros:

    • Lots of potential. Input methods are diverse.
    • Build quality: The cubes feel solid, screens are bright, button is buttony
    • I like the charging box. Great idea. Nice that the dongle hides inside when not in use.

    Cons:

    • Don’t like having to have a computer host without the ability to use it as an additional input/output device (Although it outputs an app’s sounds- which is odd.)
    • Wish an ipad or tablet could host.
    • Already bored with the games. With only 19 games and no near plans for a paid marketplace, hard to justify developing new games. (forum posts mention developers should use a paypal donate button. Seriously?)
    • Their “Creativity Kit” is very very limited. It allows you to make a list of “Put 3 words in the right order” puzzles.
    • Pricey for potential

    Final word

    By themselves, I think Sifteo cubes are kind of lackluster. To be honest, I even feel a little cheated for my mom’s sake. Sifteo used the media to drum up a noise for the holiday push before their games and infrastructure was even ready for prime time. I saw them at a GDGT event back in November 2011, and they didn’t have any games running at the time. Now I see that they still have ways to go. Until they get a better infrastructure for developers (a payment method), I can’t truly see it as a viable game system/platform or even endorse it for my friends.

  • Scene 7 headache

    I recently had to alter some Scene7 output – and I’m very dismayed by the lack of documentation! I don’t have access to the template builder but had to provide specs- very very hard process. Finally figured it out, but

    rendering mode = sharp

  • no love for blogger

    by the way, trying to show html coding in blogger sucks.

    Editing footers in blogger also sucks. This is why I moved to wordpress!