OT - Internet and on-line booking questions for the group

On Wed, 08 Dec 2004 15:43:44 GMT, Jay Honeck wrote:

I turn once again to you, the great internet gurus of aviation, for answers
to the mysteries of the web...

Yesterday NPR announced that only a third of internet users are connected at
high speed, using either DSL or cable. This truly surprised me, and I'm

really?

well, broadband availability is not that high - AFAIK esp in more rural
parts of the USA. we have an estimated 70% broadband availability here, but
this does not mean that those who can have it also use it. IMNSHO there are
about 10 to 20% private broadband users out there (from all potential
users), there might be a 50% broadband usage from all internet users.

absolutely amazed that so few people have made the jump to high-speed
internet -- I could never, ever go back to dial-up, and have been on cable
modem for years.


it is availability. (and costs). brodband most likely has fixed monthly
costs; users that only check their mails once every 2 days (or less) don't
have need for more than a modem or ISDN.

Because of this rather shocking statistic I instantly redesigned our webpage
so that the home page is smaller and opens more quickly. (According to what
Frontpage was telling me, it would have taken several minutes to open over a
^^^^^^^^^

check the sources of your pages ....

28.8 modem!) It never dawned on me to design the page for dial-up, because
I thought slow connections were on there way out!

WEBSITE QUESTIONS for the group, if you please:
************************************************* *
1. Does anyone know what the average speed modem is being used by the 70% of
people still using dial-up?


most like 56k - you then average at about 48.000 baud connections with
that.

2. I hear people say that Java is "evil" all the time -- yet it seems that
every cool effect on a webpage requires Java. What is bad about Java
scripting? How about "Flashmedia"?

content is what a website makes it cool (IMVHO)
JS and Flash makes it possible to execute code on your machine.

3. I have pared our opening page back to practically nothing, yet it STILL
seems to be taking too long to open. I added a new "hit" counter
yesterday -- could that be slowing it down so much? (It's

don't give too much on that counter. rely on the webstatistics you
hopefully receive from your hoster (most likely a link to a site)

www.AlexisParkInn.com if you want to take a gander at it.) How long is it
taking to open on your computer?


from Europe with broadband (!) access: about 10 seconds
with Java and JS disabled: about 3 seconds.

4. I tried to look at the page from Mary's computer (which has the screen
resolution set to "Mr. Magoo" settings) -- and it locked up her computer. I
re-booted and checked on the Microsoft website, which showed that she had,
like, ten "critical updates" to Win XP that she had not installed -- so I
installed them for her.

install Firefox - at least give it a try. it is free.
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

Now the page runs normally, but I'm worried about having a website that
might actually freeze someone's computer.

to be on the save side: remove everything JS related.

Can anyone see anything on the
page that could have caused that? Or was it just a glitch in Mary's PC?


who knows? but most likely there are more PCs out there without all
available patches installed.

An ON-LINE BOOKING question for the group, if you please:
************************************************* *
I am about to sign a contract with a company that will provide us with
real-time, on-line reservation and GDS support for hotels. This will
completely change the way we do business, and will add a significant cost to
our operation.


significant? only for that? well, then this has to be a really good thing.

How many of you guys actually make real-time, on-line hotel reservations?

only speaking for me: when tavelling as a European tourist in the US (as a
pilot, for that matter) I only look up the area where I am travelling and
maybe check out some hotels in the area and call them when I am close to
them. For me, there are still to many college boys working the desk with
too little knowledge. (yes, generalising)

My gut feel has always been that we would eventually have to jump on this
band-wagon, because more and more people are booking on-line. However, this

what are your sources?

newly released figure, showing such low high-speed internet usage, really
makes me wonder if people are actually using on-line bookings much, or if
this is a tiny minority using it only occasionally.

not internet usage or high-speed internet usage in general is the question.
the main question is: what is your target customer using? it's time for
profiling. :-)

Thanks for your help! (Your reward for helping me is getting to view this
goofy new video, forwarded to me by a British pilot. It's yet another in a
series of bizarre ads for Ford automobiles that apparently works to sell
cars in Britain. See it at:
http://alexisparkinn.com/photogaller...rd_sportka.wmv

this one is old. I doubt that it was used by Ford for advertising.

#m

--
The policy of the American government is to leave its citizens free,
neither restraining them nor aiding them in their pursuits.
Thomas Jefferson