A Time of Magic

Do you remember the hay-days of the first weather satellites going into orbit?

Back then, the word was that weather forecasting would be transformed. No longer would it be the case that the forecasters were basically guessing what the weather might be the following day nor even the following week. Oh no, they’d be able to tell you what it was going to be.

It’s been a looooong time since then, so how come the weather forecasts aren’t perfect by now?

Sometimes they are. But only if you live in somewhere that has fairly simple geography. We, on the other hand, live about half-way between the sea and the mountains. Net effect…. forecast of yesterday for today: sunny. Reality: cloudy and very humid.

What we really need are micro-forecasts for each area rather than the increasingly generalised forecasts of today. In times past, the forecasts were much better simply because the trained meteorologists presenting them took account of local geography and the like when making their forecast and would say something like “it’ll be raining across the region but in X it’ll be sunny”. Today we get flashy presenters rather than proper meteorologists so that ain’t an option for them.

Technology type products are peculiar things to buy.

For one thing, you can simply ignore all the “buy now while stocks last” type of sales offers as once the existing stock is cleared out, the new stuff will be cheaper and better. We’ve all gotten used to expecting that to happen of course.

However, lately some companies seem to be going even further than the “newer is cheaper and better” slogan and giving cash back offers on selected items. Now, in other industries those cashback offers would be to get rid of old or obsolete stock but that’s not always the cash in the field of technology.

Take for instance the Nikon D40x SLR camera that I bought last month. If I had bought the camera on its own it would have cost around £500 but by buying it together with an 18-55mm lens it was around £10 cheaper. OK, I know that RRP type prices are a joke in the technology area, but even so for the RRP of £600 just for the camera I was able to get the camera, the 18-55mm lens and a 55-200mm lens and that’s before you even count the £60 cashback that should be on its way to be by now.

Not quite as good a bargain but the Toshiba that I’ve just ordered also came with a £20 off voucher plus £50 cashback thus making it little more than the model below it in the Toshiba range and I get a whole lot more computer to boot.

It’s certainly handy to have one of those hi-tech x-ray machines in the airports but you still need to have trained staff to know how to pick out items that look a little peculiar on the screen. As the guy looking at the screen usually just sits there, it’s equally important that he’s supported by staff trained to pick out the “funnies” that he’s noticed.

Sounds easy, but, of course, it isn’t.

For a start, the guy looking at the screen should also search the case. After all, he knows roughly what he’s looking for. That used to happen but never seems to these days and it means that a lot is missed.

Take for instance my recent trip. I always carry a set of luggage scales which are basically a big spring and a scale that lets you read off the weight. They’re pretty rare these days and therefore unusual on the scanner. What I do if I remember is to take the scales out of the carryon bag and put them on the tray with the magazines or whatever I’ve bought.

So what happened recently? Well, as expected, the scales put a sense of panic in the guy looking at them on the scanner which was passed on to his colleague. Snag was that I’d forgotten my little clear plastic bag so just set my 30ml contact lens bottle on the top of the magazine bag in clear view. That had the effect that the security guy completely forgot about what he was supposed to be checking and concentrated on a tiny bottle of liquid.

OK, it wasn’t in a clear plastic bag but then the only reason for it to be in one is to limit the amount of such things that you can carry on and so that the security people can see it. A 30ml bottle is all of 3% of said limit.

Yes, it was only luggage scales, but what if he’d just forgotten about something else peculiar? Those scales weren’t even looked at despite me reminding him that he needed to look at them several times.

So, no, that extra technology is totally dependent on the security staff and, at the moment, those security staff aren’t as well trained as they could and should be.