ride joe ride

When we sold our car a month ago, one of the prime facilitators of that decision was knowing that we are lucky enough to have two car sharing options close to our home: Igo and Zipcar. This weekend we tried Igo for the first time (we’ve used Zipcar a few times already). For a variety of reasons, we really want to make Igo our default service: they’re locally conceived and based, they’re a non-profit organization etc. This weekend’s experience left us wondering if we’d use Igo again, however. Here’s why:

1. After a couple of unplanned stops we realized we were not going to make it back on time. No problem, we thought, we’ll just extend our time. Since Igo’s site isn’t at all iphone friendly, Allison called the number on the dashboard (which included the wrong number option to select). We were asked to enter our member number. No sweat, I had my member card handy and that’s where the member number was right? Wrong. The number printed on the back of the card isn’t the member number. In fact, the actual number does not appear on the card. When Allison tried to get past the automated phone system, she was re-routed three times to again enter the number. Yeah, the one we didn’t have. Finally, we abandoned our last stop not knowing if we were going to make it back on time.

This is just horrible user interface. If the member number is essential for doing something like extending the reservation, it should be printed on something which you certain to have in the car while using it. End of story.

2. When we finally talked to a person after problem #1, we overreacted and got too much extra time. We decided to be good Igo citizens and fill up the gas tank (which earns some credit toward the usage fee.) This turned into a 20 minute fiasco. The filling directions were unclear and inaccurate seeming to be left over from a previous fueling procedure. Going into detail would put you to sleep. This needs to be fixed.

3. After dropping off our groceries (and Igo card it turns out), we headed back to park the car. Unlike Zipcar, Igo’s key/card procedure has you do all “intra-trip” locking and unlock via the actual car keys — you use the card only to activate and deactivate the car at either ends of your use. This also means that the penultimate step in using the car involves locking the car manually with the keys inside it. This isn’t a problem because then you just deactivate the car with your card once the doors are locked. Unless you left the card somewhere. Or locked it in the car in your purse. Then you’d be standing by the car, your purse locked inside with your phone (which you might have used to call Igo) and card (which you might have used to get back into the car) sitting there in the back seat. Yeah. We were lucky in having just left our card at home with the groceries, but the potential for a real problem is right there. There is a better way of doing this. Zipcar has it.

See here (registration possibly required). From the sounds of it, marketers have finally noticed steampunk and are now going to be trying to make some money from the “subculture.” So like, watch for steampunk video games and Halloween costumes. It was nice to see the band Abney Park mentioned. Last time I checked on them, they were still calling themselves “goth.” They were already sporting the steampunk goggles, though, so they must have been on their way to being the first steampunk band.

Why steampunk? A computer teacher I know puts a mechanical typewriter in his classroom, and he notes that it’s by far the most popular device in a classroom filled with technology. The kids like to see the mechanical effect of the pressed key and how it results in the stamped letter. Our ubiquitous computers are far more mechanically complex of course, but most of that complexity is invisible. They’re just boxes. Steampunk brings some of that fascination with mechanical beauty back into those boxes. Google “steampunk” along with “mouse” “keyboard” or “computer” for some examples.

For now this is going to be a sample post to allow me to test pulling blog content on to the front page via RSS. I suspect that I’ll have something to say here shortly. Or maybe not–I know how these blog things usually go.