DaxThink: Digital life

Courtney of AdGabber comes this beauty from TBWA\Neboko for Heineken. For those of you who are lucky enough to have grown up in the UK with the world of the Two Ronnies, you will see comedic similarities to their infamous 'fork handles' sketch. See the 1976 classic sketch in all its beauty here. The best way to spend 6 minutes of your day!

On board my first Virgin America flight as I write this flying from San Francisco to Los Angeles for a few days of work. They are one of the first airlines to offer WiFi (courtesy of GoGo) during the flight.

Virgin America have embraced digital in a big way, including a very active Twitter account - @virginamerica - where they encourage on board tweets and messages - and I'm sure for more reasons than you have to pay $9.95 for the connection ;-)

Gadget lovers will enjoy the VA experience. The screens work before and during take-off which is a huge plus point for me. I watched the news as we trundled down the runway. Also, there are buttons on the touch screen for ordering your food and other items. When you have decided, simply swipe your credit card and they bring it to your seat, It means that apart from the complimentary beverage service, they don't keep disturbing you by walking up and down the aisle.

Gone is the no smoking sign on the ceiling too - it is replaced by a much more relevant "turn off electronic devices" sign instead. Even the safety video makes reference to 99.9% of people already know how to fasten a seat belt, nice.

What really surprised me was that the window blinds were closed when we boarded and 90% of people left them closed for take-off, even though it's a day flight. The cabin is bathed in a very pleasant blue colour and so it seems people preferred this to daylight.

VA are certainly setting standards that others will need to follow. Those fellow passengers today who normally have the misfortune to fly the regular US national carriers appear somewhat stunned by this experience.

Time to sign off, we are landing in LA soon...

This guy has embedded an RFID radio identification chip into his hand so he can unlock his gun cabinet without using keys or waving his RFID keychain at it. What's more, he used a damn big needle and got a friend to do it for him!

Hmm. More than a few questionable parts to this story (and having recently been to see Dan Hoyle's new play, "Right?", I now have an American stereotype in my head of why a gun owner might be the first to try this).

But the ease at which this was done, and the marginally useful function it provides, is an interesting insight into where this could go. These things are cheap to make and also cheap to add to the product you want to interact with and so every manufacturer is going to consider this at some point - so perhaps the smart money is on making the first "Personal Identifier" so that you have just one in your body and can give the details to anyone you want.

We could all be walking into car showrooms in a few years time and instead of picking up the keys, be telling the sales person our RFID number so the car will recognise us?

Interesting to read some of the comments on YouTube and different people's tolerances to the privacy and personal security issues this brings. In the UK we still have a backlash against ID cards because of privacy concerns and so I cant imagine my fellow Brits embracing this in the near future. But tolerances have a habit of changing once something stops being a novelty opening up a lot of new possibilities.