Jinn of Quality and Risk

Amazing article about Delta's information system and cost-cutting initiatives, in Baseline: ... Delta thinks it has an ace in the hole that could make it the last major airline to survive terror, war—and the inexorable onslaught of low-cost competition. Over the past five years, Delta spent $1.5 billion on a computer and communications infrastructure, called the Delta Nervous System, that cuts inefficiencies out of virtually every area of its operation—an investment that Delta chief information officer Curtis Robb notes Delta could not afford to make today. A study by Baseline finds Delta is realizing about $700 million this year in savings and is generating $150 million in new revenue from such things as maintenance, which previously hadn't been a profit center. The Delta Nervous System linked some 30 to 40 customer and flight databases that track everything from reservations and ticketing, to check-in and baggage handling, to flight and crew operations. Delta in February flew 2,100 flights, carried almost 300,000 passengers, used 7.3 million gallons of fuel, served 87,000 cans of soda, and, to keep that soda cold, boarded 219,000 pounds of ice. Every day. 

CNET News: At first glance, creating an army of satisfied customers seems an obvious way to build a business. But as a leading computer software company has learned to its surprise, satisfied customers aren't necessarily good customers. Indeed, the company discovered in a recent survey that there was no correlation between customers' satisfaction scores and their actual purchase behavior. Why are customers who say they're satisfied, not necessarily repeat customers? Because satisfaction is a measure of what people say, whereas loyalty is a measure of what they actually do. Many managers still don't recognize this fundamental difference, so they use customer satisfaction and customer loyalty interchangeably, as though they were synonyms. 

In multiple languages, an online Go tutorial: The Interactive Way To Go. Go is a great boardgame that develops strategic and tactical skills, with a few simple rules. [via Urban via Tesugen.com] 

Last year I was pleasingly tempted by Apple's 800 MHz Titanium Powerbook. Well, I'm still lusting, but now it's become a 1GHz aluminum alloy siren, featuring a wider screen, and 54Mbps WiFi, and Bluetooth, etc. I'll take a 30GB iPod with that. 

The Economist invokes the four horsemen of the Apocalypse: Infectious diseases are in the news. Here are reports on four of them (second report [anthrax], third [influenza], fourth [SARS]). First malaria, which kills ten times as many people a day as SARS has killed in total so far.

Malaria infects more than 500m people a year, killing about 2.7m (most of whom are children). Besides the human toll, the disease causes huge economic damage. It is all the more terrible given that just 30 years ago malaria was almost wiped out: In the 1950s and 1960s, insecticides such as DDT helped to control or eradicate malarial mosquitoes in much of Asia and Latin America. Not to mention Southern Europe. Then came the ban on DDT, courtesy of the environmentalist movement. Malaria kills millions of people every year because DDT, the best tool to protect and save them, has been outlawed based on irrational claims, in the name of environmentalism. The pseudo-scientific claims have been systematically refuted, the murderous ban remains.

See also: Media panic: SARS vs the flu — what about malaria? (2003-Apr-29)
Mosquitoes with malaria in the US (2002-Oct-10)
Silent Spring vs mankind (2002-Sep-27)
Environmentalism and malaria vs man (2002-Jun-13) 

Creative Commons: The Framers of the U.S. Constitution understood that copyright was about balance — a trade-off between public and private gain, society-wide innovation and creative reward. In 1790, the U.S.'s first copyright law granted authors a monopoly right over their creations for 14 years, with the option of renewing that monopoly for another 14. 

The Lucky Bamboo Shop offers a FAQ with care instructions. In short, don't ever cut the bamboo, change the water once a week, and keep it away from direct sunlight. Some may be interested in instructions for real bamboo gardens.