Big thanks to Russ Page for referring our site FreeMacWare.com to one of his contacts Chuck Joiner. Chuck runs MugCenter.com, a resource for Mac Users Groups. Last week Chuck interviewed me for his weekly podcast and the interview came out today. I talk about why we started FreeMacWare.com and our philosophy behind it, and I highlight a few apps. My piece runs from about 14:30 – 29:45. Thanks, Russ and Chuck.
I just learned about a new information service called Free411. You can call their number, 1-800-Free-411, and get directory services — the ones that usually cost a couple dollars each time — for free! The catch is you have to listen to a short advertisement. That’s an inconvenience I’m willing to live with for a free service like this. And if the ads are relevant to the information I’m requesting, I might even prefer to hear them.
(No relation to the Provo information site by a similar name.)
As I’ve mentioned before, Google has several services that it often keeps under the radar — Google Talk, SMS, and Picasa, for example. However, Google recently posted a page called “College life, powered by Google”. While there are no new services, it is a slick page that explains several of Google’s services and how they can help college students.
JetBlue airlines was founded just 5 years ago when David Neeleman set out to bring “humanity” back to the airline industry. He was president of local (Utah) airline Morris Air and invented the electronic, paperless ticket. Morris Air was then acquired by Southwest Airlines, where David Neeleman worked briefly. He then founded an airline reservation system called Open Skies that he sold to Hewlett-Packard in 1999. He then founded JetBlue in 2000, the airline that prides itself on providing everyone with leather seats and a TV in every headrest while still keeping fares low.
JetBlue has succeeded where others fail. It has been profitable every quarter since it went public in April 2002 — 14 consecutive quarters! In comparison, Delta has been profitable only 1 quarter in the last 18. (Granted, JetBlue may be unprofitable in Q3 2005 due to the super high gas prices these days.)
My friends that have flown JetBlue say they love it.
About an hour ago, I saw the emergency landing of JetBlue flight 292. It was headed from Burbank, CA, to New York, NY, when pilots realized the landing gear was broken. The wheel was stuck sideways like a stuck wheel on a shopping cart. After circling for a couple of hours, the pilots successfully landed the plane at LAX — quite a show! Flames burst from the wheel while the plane skidded to a stop, but it never fishtailed or went off course. They made what could have been a disaster a non-event. Job well done by JetBlue pilots.
Interesting side note: David Neeleman served an LDS mission to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I suspect that has something to do with JetBlue’s decision to buy over 100 aircraft from Brazilian plane maker Embraer.
If you use Firefox, and we all hope you use Firefox, then you should know about Extensions. Firefox Extensions let you add new functionality to Firefox — there are extensions for blocking ads, showing the weather, or checking your Gmail account for new mail. There’s even a Google Toolbar. Web developers will love the swiss-army-knife-of-an-extension from Chris Pederick.
One of the coolest extensions, with awesome potential, is Greasemonkey. Greasemonkey doesn’t do anything by itself, but when loaded with Greasemonkey scripts, it lets you change websites. If you don’t like the colors of a certain website, you can change them. Or you can add a Delete button to Gmail. There’s even a Greasemonkey script that will show you what books are available are your public library when you’re browsing Amazon.com. Greasemonkey is Burger King for the Internet — have it your way.
Here’s how I used Greasemonkey this week:
My home page is My Yahoo, which I like because I can customize it with weather, stocks, a Foxtrot comic, movie show times, and TV guide listings. However, the TV guide listings always look so busy — so many channels, so much on TV — it’s not well suited for quick glances.
So I set up a Greasemonkey script that highlights my favorite TV shows. If Seinfeld is on, I can easily see it because it’s highlighted in yellow. I love it.
TV listings on My Yahoo
TV listings on My Yahoo with Greasemonkey
