Monthly Archive for March, 2010

Hamilton City Council on SeeClickFix.com

Published on March 18, 2010 in Great Ideas. Closed

I’m working hard to get Hamilton City Council to use SeeClickFix.com as a method of reporting issues within the city. Below is a widget that you can use to submit issues to SeeClickFix.com, and people who monitor that area (including Hamilton City Council) will be able to see.

Air New Zealand’s Flight Booking API

Published on March 12, 2010 in Observations from the Web. Closed

So today I was using grabaseat and clicked on a destination and noticed that the URL returned was:

https://flightbookings.airnewzealand.co.nz/isbook_en_NZ/book/searchForFlights.do?tripType=return&origin=Auckland&searchLegs[0].originPoint=AKL&destination=Osaka&searchLegs[0].destinationPoint=KIX&searchLegs[0].tripStartDate=1&searchLegs[0].tripStartMonth=APR&searchLegs[1].tripStartDate=1&searchLegs[1].tripStartMonth=MAY&searchType=fixed&adults=1&children=0&infants=0&bookingClass=economy&promoCode=&rememberFare=&locale=en_NZ&region=nz&utm_source=Air%2520NZ%2520Fare%2520Finder&utm_medium=Fare%2520Finder&utm_campaign=airnewzealand.co.nz

Instead of the usual https://flightbookings.airnewzealand.co.nz/isbook_en_NZ/book/searchForFlights.do

And then realised that Air New Zealand accepts both GET and POST variables in their searchForFlights.do page. Until this I never really thought about the data you pass on to the Air New Zealand search engine.

I fired up Tamper Data, which is a Firefox plugin, and lets you view information submitted via GETs and POSTs, and to the right is a screenshot of the POST variables. Fairly straight forward. Do note that if you try and access this page randomly you’ll probably get a CAPTCHA page you’ll have to solve. But anyways, a cool method to bookmark a search to a particular destination.

The Launch of Kenning Innovative

Published on March 9, 2010 in Career Development and Great Ideas. Closed Tags: .

I’ve been pretty busy at work doing data migrations here, and test plans there, and so the business can seem a little neglected…

But I’ve been inspired by a few different events:

  • Watching the New Zealand version of The Apprentice  with 21 year olds battling others;
  • Seeing a friend of mine go from some CDs to launching a profit-making dance party;
  • Wondering what’s happening with my company, and will I be a millionaire before 30?

And so after a bit of inspiring, I decided to launch a new research brand where my new ideas can go under. Here it is:

I hope you like it. I’ve been thinking about a research brand for quite some time, and kicked around some ideas:

  • Kenning Internet Labs
  • Kenning Innovation Labs
  • Kenning Research
  • Herald Internet Labs
  • Herald Innovation Lab

All floating around the ideas of research and innovation. I even looked at companies like Aperture Science and Computer Associates. In the end, I came up with Kenning Innovative. I thought about Kenning Innovation, but then decided on Innovative because Kenning is innovative, not just the results of the company.

Anyways, the first product to be branded is the Resourcer prototype at http://goresourcer.kenning.co.nz. I’ll keep you in the loop as more products are added.