#i booked a flight six months in advance so i could get a good price | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

pursuingheavenonearth · 7 months

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Mykonos, Greece: Arriving at the SuperParadise Beach, June 8, 2023

by David L. Brooks

In June of 2023, I took a one-month vacation to Greece, Spain and Germany, the two latter of which are actually my favorite places to visit. After six days on Mykonos, one of the most expensive tourist destinations on the planet, I traveled on to Gran Canaria in Spain's Canary Island (off the coast of Morocco), to Sitges, Spain (a small tourist-friendly seaside town, just south of Barcelona), and to Munich, Germany. It is true that, if you wait to last-minute for your hotel and flight bookings, you will be charged 3-5 times the early-bird price. I booked about 10 months in advance, so that may explain how I could stay at an adequate hotel room on Mykonos for less than $750 for six nights, where booking in June would have cost me $2500 for the same room.

June 8 — I arrived on the island of Mykonos on Thursday afternoon and stood in the airport lobby for a few minutes to use the free Wifi in order to get my bearings and to get Google Maps set so that I could find my way from the airport to my hotel approximately 2 km away. The airport lobby wasn’t huge but it was quite crowded with people waiting for other passengers, many of whom were paid employees of hotels that can afford such a perk for their undoubtedly wealthy guests, as most of the ‘waiters’ had either printed signs or flashed iPads with their intended traveler’s family name or at least their hotel’s name.

I had initially gone directly outside for several reasons:

1) To find out the weather and temperature,

2) to scout out the location of the elegant (new) grocery store where I had planned to shop for my stay’s worth of breakfast and lunch foods, and

3) to get a ‘lay of the land’ view of the immediate area so I’d be sure to have not made any serious miscalculations about my intended tasks: buying a reasonable‘load’ of the week’s groceries and then walking to my accommodation on rather narrow, heavily trafficked roads.

As everything seemed to be in order, I now made my way outside, across the narrow parking lot and then ventured to cross the highway to the upscale grocery store called Flora Supermarket. The building that the maze-like store was housed in was probably an old one that had been remodeled into its reincarnation as a modern grocery store. I say that because, my first impression was was a bafflement at the design and layout of the various departments and merchandise within them. The place was certainly much larger than it first appeared from outside. But perhaps the floor layout was by design and not one forced upon the architect/ owner as I had assumed at first. Obviously, they still used check-out counters at the front entrance. However, the rest of the stores was segmented into various sections of a typical grocery, but in a unique configuration—whether planned or by necessity— it certainly seemed to work positively for the customers. Dry goods were off to one side in their own alcove or rather their own space. Fresh produce had its own ‘wing’ as did the large area that encompassed the meat section, liquor section, and sundries that make a great shopping experience.

Therefore, once I had gotten acclimated to this new shopping layout, I could move from one section to another to complete my selection of the foods I had worked out that I could most easily make good use in an almost non-existent kitchen at the hotel I had never seen.

Once I found the hotel (separate story), I immediately jumped into the shower, changed into some more comfortable summer attire, and headed on foot towards JackieO’s. It was a steep decline down a steep hillside road with lots of construction of new residences on both sides of the winding street, devoid of much natural greenery.

It was amusing that I had almost taken them by surprise as I wasn’t quite dressed for a meal in such a swank establishment. I actually had to be shown and then escorted separately by at least three men, all restaurant employers ( bar staffer, then maître d’ and finally my meal waiter, before I was seated and shown the menu. There may have been one of two other person who were also involved in shepherding the sole customer through the almost labyrinthian level of the spacious culinary Mecca, known as JackieO’s.

The name JackieO’s is prominently displayed at various places along the roadway, so you really cannot miss it. When I got to the entrance of the restaurant itself, I asked the maître D’ if I could pass through the restaurant because I wanted a chance to explore the beach know as Super Paradise Beach located just outside the restaurant property. As seems typical for many Mediterranean cultures, the beach is both honored as well as garnered for its beauty and its wealth or as a valuable income source. I proceeded across the tailored and landscaped ‘plage’ passing by two other small but also well-known restaurant bars. Deciding finally to return back to the largest and most eloquent and practically opulent JackieO’s to try to be seated for an early dinner repast. Looking at the menu was simple enough. An appetizer looked good, but this time I figured I was not going overdo it as is my usual pattern. So I went directly to the main entrees: pasta, seafood and meat (or vegetarian). I choose the seafood pasta dish with original handmade pasta and strips of fresh squid in a lightly tomatoed sauce. It costs 35 euros, a bit pricey but this is Mykonos, after all. I also went ahead an ordered one of the four desserts: a sorbet concoction composed of lemon verbena cream, fruit salad atop a yogurt sorbet, decorated with honey crème and walnut crumble; the price is 20 euros.

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robotslenderman · 6 years

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I’ve just spent the evening being my parents’ entertainment while we all figure out the logistics of a trip I’m taking in six weeks that I had no idea I was taking in six weeks until mum asked me when I was taking it and I realised “OH SHIT IT’S IN SIX WEEKS”

SO the internet was down (again) today (the joys of an internet monopoly where Telstra can now make a killing off mobile internet and have zero financial incentive to get their shit together, thank you Libs!) so naturally my parents and I turned our hotspots on and congregated in the lounge room on our tablets because none of us can use our desktops. Bro, meanwhile, took a sleeping tablet and knocked himself out so he can sleep through the internet outage.

this is what my family has become.

The wine program my parents watched was a lot shorter than they expected so they had nothing to do after dinner. Mum and I get to talking about the uni exams, then uni itself, and I’m like “oh yeah next trimester I have to go up to the uni do the intensive school, I’ve put it off for as long as I can but yeah.”

“damn, when is it?”

“pretty sure it’s in April”

“can you check?”

“Yeah, sure -- oh, fuck, it’s in six weeks!”

see

I’m a distance learner so I do uni at home. the actual uni is up the coast, and for the intensive schools I’ll eventually have to go up to the university two or three times a semester to pass the unit. for Americans, imagine if you live in Vermont and have to go down to New York City a few times a year. It’s a road trip, basically. A six hour drive of a whole lot of nothing, because once you get out past Newcastle it’s just... bush, bush, and more bush until you get to Coff’s Harbour.

(I remember my Californian road trips being very confusing to us Aussies because “we’re in San Diego” “wtf, we haven’t even left LA yet?” “nope this is definitely San Diego”

because it was basically non stop towns and cities all the way down the coast except for, like, a thirty minute segment of the trip.

Australia is not like that. Road trips are 70% trees, 20% more trees, 4% somebody’s fields where you’re looking for cows, 4% of you finding the cows, 1% a random McDonalds in the middle of nowhere and 1% civilisation. Australian road trips are super boring because trees are only interesting for ten fucking minutes and the landscape on this side of the Blue Mountains does not fucking change at all, it is the same trees all up the coast.)

also, have I mentioned I have not saved up at all for this trip because I thought it was in April?

because I haven’t

at all

so my parents are bailing me out there O O P S.

SO cue me becoming that evening’s entertainment as my father whips out his phone and we spend the next two hours weighing up the logistics. Oh, hey, where should I stay? I’m pretty sure there was an option that had dinner included -- oh, nope, the college that includes dinner and breakfast is closed for the summer so it’s just the other colleges. How much is that per night? Oh, there’s only three options and they all cost the same, but they do have kitchens. Oh cool, we’ll make you a goody bag of noodles. Sweet, I’ll have the traditional college experience of living on noodles! Oh don’t worry, we’ll throw in some cup-a-soups as well, you can cook anything if you have a microwave. can I have some brown rice? yes you can have some brown rice, you strange freaky child.

Then we start muttering to each other about transport. Can Dusty drive? Well, Dusty won’t have her license by then. Well, actually, now the school holidays are over I’m cramming as many lessons as I can and will try to take the test within 4 weeks at the most. Oh good, so you’ll have your Ps, but you’ll be driving up there alone and six hours is a long fucking drive to take by yourself, let alone when you’ve been on your Ps for all of a month at most. Hmm, okay (this is Dad, now, who’s been silent on his phone for ten minutes throughout the transport discussion), there’s only X amount of flights and one of them is at 6AM I think that’s too early, etc etc.

So then we spend about an hour going on about plane flights before we all spontaneously, by silent agreement, drop that like a hot potato and go on about train tickets instead, where it turns out they’re like a sixth of the price of plane tickets. Dad and I spend about ten minutes talking Mum around on taking a train instead because it’s an eight hour trip and she said I’d be bored silly, and the plane trip is like five fucking minutes. but, like, I have a ton of books, a shitton of robot comics, a bunch of games and more on my tablet, and a couple of backup batteries so eight hours pissing around on my tablet is nothing for me, pretty much

(brief interlude as my parents snicker because back in their day if they were stuck on a train for eight hours, they could only take a book or two and that was all they got!)

so my mother’s like “yeah she’ll be fine” in that “oh, millennials are adorable” voice that old people sometimes get when they forget technology has advanced since the 70s.

And then cue the rest of the evening spent discussing train times like they’re absolutely fascinating, like the boring adult I have become, before Mum decides it is time for bed. Partway through a story where Dad’s telling me about the “box of rocks” that used to heat trains out in Broken Hill, where he spent his uni years, Mum comes back into the room with a plastic eyepatch and some tape and makes noises at Dad to tape her patch on, because she had cataract surgery yesterday and she has to wear it to bed for a week.

So, uh, yeah, I’m taking a couple of 8hr train trips for uni at the end of next month. Yay?

#Dusty's uni adventures #life stuff #I hope you enjoy my run on sentences as much as I enjoy writing them

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your-dietician · 3 years

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As China’s Communist Party turns 100, economic challenges loom | Business and Economy News

New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/economy/as-chinas-communist-party-turns-100-economic-challenges-loom-business-and-economy-news/

As China’s Communist Party turns 100, economic challenges loom | Business and Economy News

Shenzhen, China – Private education companies that provide extracurricular lessons to legions of Chinese children are in the crosshairs of the government, as officials seek to ease pressure on students and the financial burden on families.

Though aimed at private tutoring firms, the crackdown is symptomatic of wider systemic problems facing China as the ruling Communist Party celebrates its 100th anniversary this week.

Falling birth rates and a rapidly ageing population spell trouble for China’s future economic growth.

Income inequality, regional economic divides, and wide gaps in opportunity between rural and urban citizens were issues highlighted by China’s President Xi Jinping in a late January speech as pressing matters the nation must tackle to reach what he called an era of “common prosperity” in the coming years.

China’s leaders steer clear of the phrase “middle-income trap” – a condition where a country fails to reach a higher, more developed status – but that’s where the country could end up if leaders fail to address those fissures.

Xi’s remedies – better income distribution, education, social security, affordable medical care, housing, elderly care, child support, and quality employment; also mentioned in the same speech – are many of the same wants as most working families and youths.

Current structural and political barriers, however, may be too formidable to deliver those policies unless deeper reforms are implemented beyond piecemeal efforts such as lifting restrictions on the number of children families can have or trying to mandate less homework for school-age children.

They will be expensive and will likely need the country’s most wealthy to pay heavier tax rates, either through property taxes or capital gains taxes. But implementing such policies is fraught with peril. Do it too fast and could lead to capital flight, problems in the white-hot property market and financial system disturbances that do more harm than good.

And there are other structural barriers. The country’s hukou system ties social benefits to a family’s rural or urban hometown, and the overemphasis on the gaokao – standardised exams – determine whether students can advance to university and achieve higher rates of economic success.

Growing pressures on parents and students over the past decade have increased the necessity to reform these systems as incomes have stagnated and social mobility has ossified.

That shift has given rise to much-discussed social conditions in recent months: tangping – or lying flat – an action of making as little effort as possible to get by, and its partner philosophy of “involution” – a feeling of despair or burnout, particularly among those involved in the 996 working culture, working from 9am to 9pm six days a week.

Sun Liping, a professor of sociology at Tsinghua University, recently wrote on his WeChat account that these conditions are affecting mostly younger middle-class and white-collar workers whose hopes have plateaued. Even after all their efforts to study hard and work hard, they feel they’ve reached a point where there’s no possibility to advance higher and more danger of falling back down.

So there’s little desire for more, or even any children, with housing prices so high in many cities, and with parents who are retiring much earlier than most workers around the world to support. Any extra cost has the potential of knocking them off that plateau.

After the government announced that married couples would be allowed to have up to three children, in an effort to boost birth rates, remarks appeared on social media highlighting that the policy shift did nothing to address the soaring costs of raising kids [File: Aly Song/Reuters]

This is a great change from the years following the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and early 1970s, and China’s reform and opening-up period, when the opportunities for families to change their social status through hard work and education were much greater, primarily since the starting point was so low for nearly everyone.

“Over time, a new elite formed and developed vested interests,” Imogen Page-Jarrett, a research analyst based in Beijing for The Economist Intelligence Unit, told Al Jazeera. “The threshold for people from lower-income backgrounds to move up in society became much higher.”

Liang Jianzhang, chairman and co-founder of the booking site Trip.com, has recently argued that China needs to deeply reform the gaokao system, vastly increase education expenditures and attempt to achieve universal college education for all of its youth to meet the needs of a more complex, innovative economy of the future.

Potential fixes creating more problems

The latest efforts to address some of the pressures facing China’s parents and youth have met with lacklustre response and sometimes satirical backlash.

Other government policies in the pipeline, like proposals for potentially banning online and offline courses during summer holidays, weekends and other non-school periods in places like Beijing and Shanghai, only set in motion other potential problems.

The idea, in theory, is to release pressure on kids and give them a real break from school so they do not end up burned out by the time they reach adulthood.

“I think one of the interesting things about a lot of these changes at the moment is that every force has an equal and opposite reaction,” said Julian Fisher, co-founder of consultancy Venture Education in Beijing. “When you’re pushing on learning centres, you’re pushing on a multibillion-dollar industry, and that impacts human resources and society in the sense that people are hired [for these tutoring jobs].”

Falling birth rates and a rapidly ageing population spell trouble for China’s future economic growth [File: Yan Cong/Bloomberg]

Fisher noted that this could also leave many families in the lurch, particularly when both parents work and may not have access to childcare other than education centres. “What are they going to do with their kids during the summer?” he asked, questioning what would happen if the government bans online and offline courses.

“Layoffs of tutors and teachers are likely if the new rules prohibit training on weekends and in summer and winter holidays as training institutions could see a significant drop in revenue, so they may lay off staff and teachers to cut costs,” Flora Zhu, director of corporate research at Fitch Ratings in Beijing, told Al Jazeera.

“In fact, online training institutions, which rely heavily on marketing to attract students, have already [been laying off staff] following the government’s stricter regulations on [allowable advertising for] training institutions.”

As China’s leadership becomes more nationalistic, increased restrictions on foreign involvement, ownership and teaching materials aimed at preschool to secondary school students in the past few months have also had an impact.

“Due to the political importance that Chinese leaders place on education, however, there are risks that these regulations foreshadow further restrictions on foreign participation in China’s education sector,” Alexander Chipman Koty, an analyst for consultancy Dezan Shira & Associates, told Al Jazeera.

Some of this is the opposite of reforms needed in the education sector, and what parents actually desire for children in terms of greater opportunity, which has led many of them to tap into online and offline courses outside of regular class time.

According to Page-Jarrett, China needs more private sector and foreign involvement that would push schools to improve and innovate and provide schooling for the more complex economy of the future, not less.

“Rote learning still features heavily in the education system and that for a time kind of worked when China needed a generation of engineers,” Page-Jarrett said. “Now what China needs is a workforce that can innovate. The education system needs to develop students’ crucial thinking skills.”

No lying flat when you’re already below …

The need for education expenditures and reforms is even more apparent for rural students and parents in China, who are fast falling behind their urban peers who have more opportunities and benefits just because of their urban residency status.

“The gap in the quality of education in rural areas became larger, not necessarily because education became worse in rural areas, but because it became better and more competitive in urban areas,” Page-Jarrett said. “For a low-income family it’s extremely difficult to get into a top-tier university and they might only be able to get into second- or third-tier one.”

For Scott Rozelle, a development economist and a co-director of the Rural Education Action Program at Stanford University, the whole “lying flat” issue is fully an urban problem.

“When you have a rural hukou, nobody ‘lies flat’,” he told Al Jazeera. “It is the exact opposite problem. There is no money for weekend or night classes. No one can afford to take anything for granted. Life and living is day to day. There are no opportunities with such poor schooling and healthcare.”

China has big plans for rural areas with a rural revitalisation programme, but so far this has mainly focused on rural infrastructure and agriculture improvements, and not tackled schools or rural social mobility.

While there has been some relaxation of hukou policies that allow for greater movement between rural and urban areas in some parts of the country, most of these efforts are tied to “talent acquisition” programmes – urban areas that want to attract the best and brightest, leaving the least educated on the outside looking in.

What is at stake in the failure to address these systemic challenges could become China’s Achilles heel. Social immobility and income inequality will increase social frictions, economic stagnation, and an eventual settling into the middle-income trap that China’s leaders would like to avoid, but usually fail to mention in words.

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lakhwanabhishek · 3 years

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Designing Speech Prototypes for the Future

Voice-enabled interfaces are challenging the lengthy dominance of graphical user interfaces and are fast becoming a common part of our every day lives. According to a survey run by way of Adobe, 76 percent of clever speaker proprietors extended their usage of voice assistants during the last year. In this article, I’ll proportion a flow that you could use to create voice-based reports. But before we dive into the particular hints on how to design for voice, it’s critical to understand the user expectations about it. Why Do People Expect More From Voice?

Voice User Interfaces (

VUIs

) not handiest introduce a trade in a way human beings interact with machines, but in addition they enhance the bar for the fine of interaction. When people interact with GUI’s and have issues with them, they frequently blame themselves, however when people engage with VUIs and are unable to finish a assignment, they blame the gadget. Why is that? Well, talking is the maximum obviously handy medium for communication among humans, and people are confident in their speakme skills. This can have an immediate impact on the retention price: A 2017 record by means of Voicelabs states there’s most effective a 6 percent danger a user could be active in the 2d week after downloading a voice application. Design Process

visible

interfaces for voice-primarily based merchandise. There are 5 steps should take vicinity before starting improvement a voice product: ResearchDefineCreateTestRefine

The tremendous aspect about this method is that it can be carried out to all types of voice interfaces, whether it's miles a voice-enabled, voice-best or voice-first. 1. RESEARCH

Similar to any other virtual product we layout, we want to use consumer-first layout inside the context of voice user interfaces. The goal of user studies is to recognize the needs and behaviors of the target user. The information you accumulate throughout this step could be a basis for product requirements. Identify The Target Audience

Defining and discovering the target market of a product must be one of the first steps inside the design system. Here’s what to cognizance on at some point of this step: Look on the current experience and how the customers are fixing their problem now. By figuring out ache points, you’ll find the cases where voice can benefit your customers.User language. The genuine terms that a target user uses while they talk with other human beings. This facts will assist us to layout a device for distinctive utterances.

2. DEFINE

During this step, we need to shape our future product and outline its abilties.

Define Key Scenarios Of Interaction

Scenarios come before specific ideas for app — they’re a way to think about the reasons a person might need to use a VUI. You want layout scenarios that have high price for your target customers. If you've got many scenarios and do no longer understand which ones are vital and which can be now not, create use case matrix to evaluate every individual state of affairs. The matrix will inform you what situations are primary, what are secondary what are nice-to-haves.

Make Sure Key Scenarios Work With VoiceThere need to be a compelling reason to use voice. Users must be able to resolve the problem faster or more effectively the usage of voice than any of the alternative stories. A few commonplace cases while voice interplay might be best for customers: When person’s arms are busy (whilst using or cooking);When the use of voice is an simpler and greater natural manner to have interaction (for instance, it’s much less difficult to inform your clever speaker to “Play Jazz” rather than jump to a media center and pick out the proper option using a GUI).Your goal for this step is to perceive both commonplace and precise instances that your users will gain from. It’s additionally essential to do not forget the restrictions of voice interactions. For instance, selecting from a long list of menu gadgets is complex with voice interactions. A excellent rule of thumb is to preserve selections short and to the point — 3 choices maximum. If you locate you have got greater than 3, it’s best to reframe the situation. 3. CREATE

With voice prototypes, it’s critical to begin on the drawing board. The first step is to address the voice consumer flows of your revel in, which is the premise from which all person interplay will map again to. Use Storyboards

Storyboards visualize interactions and flows in context and make them sense extra realistic. Write Dialogues

Dialogues are the constructing blocks of voice consumer flows. For each key scenario that the voice app will support, start creating conversational dialogues between the person and the app. Strive to make interacting with the app as familiar as having a regular conversation with a real person. Human conversation is complex; it often has many twists and turns. It might be essential to take this into account whilst working via your situations and writing dialogues.

A few general hints for growing notable dialogues: Reduce the variety of steps it takes to complete a assignment. Try to get rid of unnecessary facts and questions wherever feasible. Design ought to resolve the person’s trouble with the minimum number of steps. Remember that the longer it takes to complete the venture, the less enjoyable the revel in becomes. No one likes merchandise that drain on their valuable time, and this is specially true for repetitive obligations. Your app must provide a satisfying consumer enjoy whether or not it’s the primary time a user completes the challenge, or it’s the a centesimal time this month.

Don’t train “commands”. Given how tough discovery may be in voice, some designers attempt to train users commands so that they realize what to mention. Don’t do that. Phrasing need to be herbal and intuitive, so customers will understand what to mention mainly situations.

Be short together with your questions and responses. It’s relatively easy to overload users with too much statistics while you use long sentences. Try to simplify messages to their essence wherever feasible. Users enjoy concise and well-defined statistics from VUI. Think approximately what records is primary, and what facts is secondary. Follow the precept of Maximum of Quantity which says that a speaker gives the listener as much records as is important to advance the perceived purpose of the interaction however now not too much.User: “Where’s a very good region to head for pizza?” System: “I have 5 locations for you. The first one is “Pizza & Pasta” is located on 1300-1398 Diamond St San Francisco, 15 minutes far from you, open from 8:00 AM till 8:00 PM, the second is “Italy” which is located on 4100-4148 20th St San Francisco, 1 hour faraway from you, open from 9:00 AM until 6:00 PM,...”

The talk tries to provide all options in a unmarried turn. It’s better to try and narrow down the list through asking a clarifying question: User: “Where’s a terrific place to go for pizza?” System: “There are several pizza restaurants in the area — would you want to walk, or drive?”

Handle Errors

No depend how good your VUI may be, one element is for sure: things will cross wrong. And you want to layout for those situations. Graceful coping with of errors is one of the biggest challenges you’ll face whilst designing for voice and it’s vital to begin thinking about it right at the time when you write your dialogues. Here are a few not unusual cases that can purpose blunders states: Misspellings Some customers can mispronounce phrases and the natural language processing device won’t understand the request.

Ambiguity Even between humans, speech is every so often ambiguous. For example, someone may say “Good” and that would be described as ‘Yes, I agree’ or just be a demonstration that they’re listening.

Cases whilst the machine is unable to offer treasured information for customers. For example, the person wants to ebook a flight, but the machine doesn’t have relevant alternatives.

System: “I couldn’t discover any flights from San Diego to Dallas on Monday.”

It’s glaring that users face a dead stop. However, it’s relatively smooth to regulate the dialog to offer a few options for users:

User: “Book me a flight from San Diego to Dallas on Monday.”

System: “I couldn’t locate any flights from San Diego to Dallas on Monday. Would you like to look for another date?”Another example for food ordering app: User: “What’s the ZIP code for delivery?” System: “Hmm, 811415” User: “This ZIP is invalid. Try again.”Not simplest the word “Invalid” is too technical, but it also doesn’t help get the person again on track. It’s better to offer a consumer a touch so that they can recognize what they have to do next: System: “What’s the ZIP code for delivery?” User: “Hmm, 811415” System: “This ZIP is longer than expected. It ought to be five digits, no longer six.“ User: “81415”

Reflect Your Unique Identity

All voices venture a character whether you propose for one or no longer. Don’t leave your VUI personality to threat, replicate your specific emblem and identification in dialogues you write. Imagine how your perfect employee ought to interact with clients and attempt to reflect it within the wording of your dialogues. Tone of voice has measurable affects on customers’ perceptions of a product. That’s why it’s important to don't forget the emotional desires of your customers when selecting a tone.

Bake Empathy In Interactions

Voice interfaces should take user feelings into account. People like now not most effective pleasant humans but additionally friendly computers. For example, whilst someone wants to e-book a ticket for a flight and presents data about a trip, the machine would possibly respond ‘Sounds like a a laugh trip!’ The response have to be slightly special every time to prevent a sense of interaction with a machine. Confirm When A Task Has Been Completed

It’s vital to consider in which within the communique waft the users want confirmations. Usually, human beings assume a final confirmation on the quit of a talk. For instance, while a user schedules an event, they may want to hear the “The event is in your calendar now.” Another regular state of affairs is a checkout drift — permit the consumer realize that the transaction has been correctly recorded. Use specific confirmation for crucial moves and implicit for ordinary responsibilities. For example, in case you ask your Alexa to send money in your friend, a person probably wants to pay attention “The [amount of money] was despatched to [name of the person]” in preference to just “OK.” At the equal time, when you ask Alexa to turn off the lights in a garage, hearing “The lights within the garage are off” all the time is probably too much, so be sure to test confirmations cautiously to find out what confirmations your customers experience is important on the way to experience successful with the VUI. Leverage Context

A appropriate conversational device keeps tune of the dialog, memorizing all previous turns and of preceding interactions. A solid device will use this facts to create a better revel in for customers by providing a greater personalized experience. For example, whilst a person orders pizza, the device may remind them approximately their preceding order: User: “I want to reserve a pizza.” System: “Last time you ordered Quattro Formaggio from Pizza & Pasta. Do you need to order it again?”

User: “Yay, I do!”

Cover Alternate Phrases

People can use exceptional words to describe the equal issue, and it’s critical to take this moment under consideration whilst designing your VUI. For each voice person drift that you designed inside the previous step, consider the different ways users could phrase those requests. Consider word versions and synonyms that they could use. Depending at the capabilities of your voice product, the range of utterances that customers can vocalize whilst interacting with VUI can effortlessly run into the hundreds, making the task of mapping them out sincerely complex. Fortunately, there are special tools available that will help you with that. For instance, in case you design apps for Alexa, you may use Amazon Echo Utterance Expander for that cause. Test Your Dialogues

Now if you have all of your dialogues written, it’s time to begin testing them. Why? Because the manner we communicate is far much less formal than the way we write. To make sure you design dialogues that sound herbal, it’s crucial to check them earlier than moving to prototyping. Two simple techniques will assist you do it: Record and play audio together with your dialogs. You’ll listen nuances of phrases and sentences that just aren’t herbal.

Role play conversations to make certain they’re herbal and intuitive. A technique known as ‘Wizard of Oz’ will assist you quick identify the problems for your dialogues. If you’re Mac user, you may use a device called Say Wizard to make matters less difficult.

Prototype Your App

Now that we’ve written, mapped and tested our dialogues we can sooner or later circulate directly to designing and prototyping the revel in. Adobe XD makes it easy for designers to create a working prototype for voice-enabled Amazon or Google apps and check it with actual customers. The tool allows you to prototype the real voice inputs and outputs for the app. A standard interplay consists of person input and gadget responses: To design user requests, we need to create voice triggers. To upload a new voice trigger, drag a connector from an detail in one artboard to another. When the attributes menu opens, select Voice from Trigger menu and add your utterance within the Command field.

Speech Playback will simulate the reaction of the voice app. To add Speech Playback, you need to choose Time as the Trigger and set the motion to Speech Playback.

Adobe XD permits you to prototype for voice-first merchandise like the Amazon Echo Show, and voice-only products including Google Home.

Last but now not least, if you design Amazon Alexa Skill for Amazon Echo Show or Amazon Echo Spot, XD presents a VUI package for those gadgets. You can download it here. This VUI kit offers all of the building blocks you need to get began building an Alexa skill.

4. TEST

Testing is a mandatory a part of the design technique. Without checking out, you can’t say whether or not your app will paintings for your users or no longer. Test Your Prototypes With Target Users

Conduct usability testing periods with representatives from your audience, and have a look at how users interact with your app. Track the tasks completion fee and CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score). If viable, try to report a video for each session.

Use Test Simulators

Both Amazon and Google provide checking out gear that permit you to test your Skill or Action in simulation of the hardware gadgets and their settings. This trying out will deliver you a very good experience for the voice revel in inside the actual world.

5. REFINE

Refine the voice software after sending it to the market. Collect Analytics

Once you’ve rolled out your app, you have to track how the app is getting used with analytics. Here are a number of the important thing metrics to keep an eye out for are: Intents and utterances,User engagement metrics,Behavior flows.

Most of the metrics you want you will find inside your Skill developer account without any additional coding. Conclusion

Human-pc interaction has by no means been approximately graphical user interfaces. First and foremost, it has constantly been approximately verbal exchange. It’s obvious that voice will be a natural manner for the new generation of customers to interact with technology, and as a designer, you must be geared up for these new demanding situations and the possibilities they release for new ways of searching at interaction design.

#b2b ecommerce

#b2bservices

#b2b seo

#b2bsales

#Ecommerce

0 notes

secretcupcakesublime · 3 years

Text

Designing Speech Prototypes for the Future

Voice User Interfaces (

VUIs

visible

interfaces for voice-primarily based merchandise. There are 5 steps should take vicinity before starting improvement a voice product: ResearchDefineCreateTestRefine

The tremendous aspect about this method is that it can be carried out to all types of voice interfaces, whether it's miles a voice-enabled, voice-best or voice-first. 1. RESEARCH

2. DEFINE

During this step, we need to shape our future product and outline its abilties.

Define Key Scenarios Of Interaction

Storyboards visualize interactions and flows in context and make them sense extra realistic. Write Dialogues

Handle Errors

Cases whilst the machine is unable to offer treasured information for customers. For example, the person wants to ebook a flight, but the machine doesn’t have relevant alternatives.

System: “I couldn’t discover any flights from San Diego to Dallas on Monday.”

It’s glaring that users face a dead stop. However, it’s relatively smooth to regulate the dialog to offer a few options for users:

User: “Book me a flight from San Diego to Dallas on Monday.”

Reflect Your Unique Identity

Bake Empathy In Interactions

User: “Yay, I do!”

Cover Alternate Phrases

Prototype Your App

Speech Playback will simulate the reaction of the voice app. To add Speech Playback, you need to choose Time as the Trigger and set the motion to Speech Playback.

Adobe XD permits you to prototype for voice-first merchandise like the Amazon Echo Show, and voice-only products including Google Home.

4. TEST

Testing is a mandatory a part of the design technique. Without checking out, you can’t say whether or not your app will paintings for your users or no longer. Test Your Prototypes With Target Users

Use Test Simulators

5. REFINE

Refine the voice software after sending it to the market. Collect Analytics

Most of the metrics you want you will find inside your Skill developer account without any additional coding. Conclusion

#b2b website #ecommerce

0 notes

technicallyelegantruins · 3 years

Text

Designing Speech Prototypes for the Future

Voice User Interfaces (

VUIs

visible

interfaces for voice-primarily based merchandise. There are 5 steps should take vicinity before starting improvement a voice product: ResearchDefineCreateTestRefine

The tremendous aspect about this method is that it can be carried out to all types of voice interfaces, whether it's miles a voice-enabled, voice-best or voice-first. 1. RESEARCH

2. DEFINE

During this step, we need to shape our future product and outline its abilties.

Define Key Scenarios Of Interaction

Storyboards visualize interactions and flows in context and make them sense extra realistic. Write Dialogues

Handle Errors

Cases whilst the machine is unable to offer treasured information for customers. For example, the person wants to ebook a flight, but the machine doesn’t have relevant alternatives.

System: “I couldn’t discover any flights from San Diego to Dallas on Monday.”

It’s glaring that users face a dead stop. However, it’s relatively smooth to regulate the dialog to offer a few options for users:

User: “Book me a flight from San Diego to Dallas on Monday.”

Reflect Your Unique Identity

Bake Empathy In Interactions

User: “Yay, I do!”

Cover Alternate Phrases

Prototype Your App

Speech Playback will simulate the reaction of the voice app. To add Speech Playback, you need to choose Time as the Trigger and set the motion to Speech Playback.

Adobe XD permits you to prototype for voice-first merchandise like the Amazon Echo Show, and voice-only products including Google Home.

4. TEST

Testing is a mandatory a part of the design technique. Without checking out, you can’t say whether or not your app will paintings for your users or no longer. Test Your Prototypes With Target Users

Use Test Simulators

5. REFINE

Refine the voice software after sending it to the market. Collect Analytics

Most of the metrics you want you will find inside your Skill developer account without any additional coding. Conclusion

#b2b ecommerce #b2b content marketing #b2b seo #b2bservices #Ecommerce

0 notes

childoftheempire · 7 years

Text

a sense of adventure 4/4 (DJxOC)

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

I take a peek in the main street. “It looks like they’ve abandoned,” I say victoriously.

Now that the streets are clear and that the thrill of the chase has abandoned my veins, I am left wondering what to do next. It is clear to me that DJ wants us to leave on his Nubian ship. However, I am not sure about the decision to take. I have a reputation here and it would do it no good to slip unnoticed into the night, leaving behind Mr Rosario’s corpse. But I can hardly come back, sweaty and wearing stolen shoes, claiming my innocence in the man’s unfortunate death. I consider going back to my flat in downtown Canto Bight and calling the pink office to announce my resignation, pick up a few belongings and take the next flight to Coruscant to my family. I could still sell the necklace there... But as the plan takes shape in my mind, I find myself not truly believing in it.

“Right, I guess I should be going home,” I say, but my voice is weak to my ears.

“You’re not going anywhere,” he says briskly.

I scoff at this. “We’re not bound in any way. You can’t order me around.”

He shrugs. “You’d be right if you were any girl, but you’re the Pearl. Can’t pass the occasion, it’s against my p-p-principles.”

What? I thought he was only after my money. But there is now a definitive possessive edge to his gaze and I don’t like the way he is nonchalantly leaning against the stone wall.

“So what if I’m the Pearl? What’s the difference?”

“You’ve got something precious that a lot of people would kill for.”

A tingling sensation settles in my navel. Without thinking, I unclasp the gems around my neck, and stammer “Well… uh, then take that, and leave me.”

He pockets the necklace without looking away from my face. “I wasn’t talking about the diamonds.”

I suddenly become very aware that I am alone in a poor lighted backstreet with an undoubtedly dangerous man I have only met less than a hour ago. I inadvertently stumble backward and he lunges to right me. His hands are hot against my bare shoulders. He nods, as if he were agreeing with something he earlier thought to himself.

And I know I should be afraid. I know I should shout for help, though I know he has a gun in his coat and maybe many more weapons that I am not aware of. But I don’t cry out. I don’t lash out. There is something about his rugged appearance that beckons me to stay, the fleeting feeling that there is much more about him that I don’t know yet, and I cannot repress the growing, magnetic attraction he exerts upon me.

“Come with me,” he says simply. This time, it is not an order. But I will follow him, as I have during this evening, without questioning his decisions, and surely he has to know it because his smile is too knowing to be entirely innocent. To hell with caution! I have spent a year easily resisting the longing looks of many men and women, all alike in their adoration of my body, and this time, all this man needs to do is to share a little adrenaline for me to fall prey to his actions. I am used to pretty faces asking me out but this man oozes both a sense of adventure and of danger, a lust for trouble that I have rarely, if ever, seen; and I cannot deny that the thrilling glimpse of life that he has shown me makes me want to beg for more.

Coruscant has not seen me for a long while, it can wait a little more.

“I can’t believe I am doing this,” I admit quietly. “I’ve never done anything like this before.”

“You better get used to it, sweetheart,” he grins, dropping his arms. “Now come on.”

The road to the space port is easy, our pace lighter as we leave the darker corners of the city to bigger avenues, and find ourselves navigating again the never-ending flow of those of who live during the night, whether by choice or by biological need. Now that the flamboyant necklace has left my throat, I am again a girl among a sea of others, my little black dress and high heels a common sight in the colourful, boisterous frenzy of the almost warm evening, and though DJ still has that palpable aura of danger around him, and the less drunken party-goers unconsciously avoid his immediate proximity, his presence does not feel incongruous in the crowd as he fits in the standardized role of the man who brings a pretty girl to his ship for the night.

The streetlamps dot the way to the station, revealing sparse clusters of young night workers raucously attempting to drum up business before the oldest, dirtiest commercial spaceships. But we do not go in that direction, and instead turn left to the private hangars hiding out of sight the most luxurious cruisers when their owners are in town.

I feel sorry for the sleeping security guard as we step over the low gate, and we continue our way without coming across anyone except a few late workers and pilots heading with hurry to the core of the city.

After a series of twists and turns among the buildings, DJ stops in front of a golden gate, frowning.

“Okay,” he says, his voice unsure, “I think it’s this one, but I’m really not sure.” “You don’t even know where you parked your ship?” I ask in disbelief.

“It’s not exactly my ship,” he mutters. He ducks his head as I shoot him an angry glare.

“What do you mean, it’s not yours?” I distinctly recall the conversation over the Nubian ship.

“It’s gonna be mine a few seconds, just you wait,” he answers evasively. I shrug. I guess I will have to learn patience if I am going to travel with this man.

He produces the white device and waves it uncertainly before the identification panel. The little thing is seriously beginning to intrigue me.

“What is it?”

“This is the secret of my success,” he announces casually as he swiftly puts in back in a hidden pocket. I elbow him in the ribs. “Don’t boast, or I’ll steal it from you next time it’s out in the open.”

“What was that for?” he asks.

“I still haven’t seen any success,” I retort playfully.

At that very moment, the door slides open, revealing an old-fashion Nubian ship. The sleek, elegant design is unlike everything I am used to see. This is the stuff of legends, the kind of ship you only see in forbidden engineer books or on the darkest parts of the holo-net. Nowadays, ships are designed to be efficient, not beautiful.

“And here’s my beauty,” DJ announces. “The canons on each side were added a few years ago. It used to be a transport ship, and I think every c-c-component inside have been upgraded too. She’s about sixty years old, you know.”

DJ waves again his bypass device before the ship, which opens slowly. “Get in!”

The interior is very lavish. Whoever decorated it obviously felt some sort of nostalgia for the artistic period preceding the rise of the Empire. It feels like a Jedi master could burst out at every corner, brandishing his lightsaber like in the days of old. Or maybe the décor has never been redone, and everything is still as it was intended to be so many years ago.

We advance to the flight deck. DJ unceremoniously sits down in one of the pilot seats while I take the other.

“Well, I trust you to fly that thing, because I’m not really familiar with that type of starship,” I announce. “Don’t worry,” he grins as he takes control of the ship.

“So, this isn’t your ship, right?”

“Now she is, but she used to be Firenze’s. Man is so rich he doesn’t even think about locking her when he’s not using it. He thinks he’s above theft or something.”

“He doesn’t fly her himself, does he?”

DJ laughs. “Kriff no! I’d be damned if he even knew how to manage a speeder.”

The engines roar to life, and the rooftop opens. I hear DJ shouting to me “Buckle up, this is going to be rough!”

I only have the time to reach for the belt when DJ removes the brake and the ship takes off at an astouding speed. A minute later, we make the jump to hyperspace, leaving behind the decadent city and its corrupted inhabitants.

DJ then turns to face me, a smug grin on his face that spends shivers down on my spine.

“So, about that deal we made…”

The tingling in my stomach returns. I raise an eyebrow. “I’m not being paid in stolen ships.”

“Yeah, I figured that out. I take it you don’t want d-d-diamonds either.”

“That’s right.”

“You said you wanted credits, no?”

I usually take credits. I believe that if someone wanted to really unite the galaxy, they would have to do it using credits, the only universal thing that everybody wants. They have a value everywhere, and the First Order struggles to control them. DJ produces a considerable amount of credit chips and hands them over to me. “How much do you take?”

But I have a better idea.

“You know,” I begin slowly, and I know there is a wicked smile dancing on my lips, “I’ve spent the past months satisfying halfsleeping old men and too quick younger ones. It’s been a while since someone has properly pleased me…”

“That’s your price? I make you come and then you’re mine?” He shakes his head. “Too easy.”

“Oh, but I haven’t mentioned the duration. You only have the length of the trip, which is – I check the flight data screen – six minutes and thirty-four seconds.” I half expect him to strip me of my clothes immediately, but to my great astonishment, he pushes some buttons on the control panel and pulls another two levers. The ship suddenly jumps out of hyperspace, the white trails of stellar light turning into the black emptiness of outer space. DJ leans towards me and gives me a knowing smirk. “You have no idea how to fly that thing, have you.” I had not thought about that at all.

Lust darkens his eyes and he playfully adds: “Little Pearl, what is it that makes you so famous?”

And I know he reads on my flushed face and the way I press my thighs together, trying to contain the burning fire he instils in me, that I am not wholly opposed to his idea of spending the next few hours.

Cheeky bastard.

And that was the end! I hope you enjoyed my story, and thanks to everyone who liked it!

#sw #star wars #dj sw #dj star wars #benicio del toro #tlj #the last jedi #star wars tlj #fanfiction

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shirlleycoyle · 5 years

Text

Does Jeff Bezos Have Huge Feet? An Investigation

“To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them that they can never have; it turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed. Just as a camera is a sublimation of the gun, to photograph someone is a subliminal murder—a soft murder, appropriate to a sad, frightened time.”

– Susan Sontag, On Photography, 1977

"The feet pics, darling. It's been 15 days. You don't want to make me angry."

– An internet meme, 2018

Everyone in New York has a story about a close-call with a celebrity. In a city that's home to one million millionaires and almost 80 billionaires, a run-in with the rich and famous is bound to happen eventually. I don't frequent the right ticketed sex parties and don't have the foresight to book tables 10 months in advance, so this is a rare occasion for me. But one time, I showed up to an indie zine fair allegedly 10 minutes after Jeff Bezos, his body-double, and a bodyguard detail, left.

My only regret in my entire six years as a Brooklyn resident is not leaving my apartment for this event even 11 minutes earlier. Not because I need to get a glimpse of that shiny head perusing anti-capitalist art, but to get a peekie-see at his feetsies.

Months later, I found myself standing at the entrance of the Liberty Ferry in Battery Park on a 30-degree day, gazing at a spot where Bezos walked last spring, closely examining the stones where his shoes once tread. How big were those shoes, I would ask myself on this unholy pilgrimage.

To the general public, the size of Bezos' feet is a mystery no one seems to have the answer to except the man himself. I sought to discover it.

THE CURRENT CLAIMS

There are dozens of websites devoted to celebrities' bodily measurements, including statistics about their height, weight, eye color, age, and astrological signs. Most of these sites include an entry for Bezos and on average, they agree on the basics: He's five feet, seven inches tall, weighs around 154lbs, is 57 years old, and has brown eyes.

Some sites go further than others, but most conflict on the feet. Several attempts have been made to try to guess the size of his feet. Gossipgist.com says they're a 14, a size so large and uncommon, most shoe size charts don't list it, and that sometimes require a special order. Celebrityboss.com says 10. Celebrityinside.com cites his "distinctive features" as being his cleft chin, asymmetrical eyes (the right one is always a little bit more closed than the left), and his "style of laughing." This last note is haunting, but it's not what I'm here for.

WikiFeet Men—"the collaborative celebrity feet website"—also lists Bezos' foot size as "unknown." And if the good folks of wikiFeet don't know, it's safe to say that no one really knows the truth, except the man himself.

In 2004, Amazon's top reviewer Joanna Daneman crossed paths with Bezos at an Amazon-sponsored event, and noticed that "he has really large feet." So large that, six years later, these flippers stand out in her memory. Then again, she also characterizes him as "really tall," which he objectively is not.

He is 5'7. His feet can't be that huge.

There's scant data available on any sort of foot-to-height average, but anthropometric data from the University of Rhode Island cites an average ratio of 6.6:1—for every 6.6 inches of height, average males have one inch of foot length. For Jeff's 67 inches, we could assume his feet are 10.15 inches long, approximately a size 8.5. But Bezos, one of the richest and arguably most powerful men to ever flap his footsie-wootsies across this humble planet, is no average man. Perhaps his body defies norms as well.

My working hypothesis at this point is that as a short-to-average height man, and a billionaire, he carries himself as if he's a much taller dude, but maybe his feet are disproportionately large compared to the rest of him, making them seem enormous in photos and eyewitness accounts.

We have to confirm via forensic photo analysis.

EXHIBIT A: THE SHOE THAT FITS

Bezos' wikiFeet entry contains a handful of paparazzi photos, mostly of him barefoot or in sandals on vacation. In some, his feet seem very large. In other photos, the perspective changes, and his feet seem impossibly petite.

One thing is for certain: the man fills out a pair of strappy sandals. I thought these were Birkenstocks, due to their iconic two-strap slide design, so I emailed a handful of Bezos feet pics to the Birkenstock company, hoping for some enlightenment.

A spokesperson replied within 20 minutes: "Hey Sam, they are not Birkenstock."

I asked Zappos, which is owned by Amazon and therefore Bezos, if it could help ID the size or shoe. A spokesperson there, while apologetic, was unable to give me any information.

But the UK tabloid Daily Mail had the answer all along: They're a $531 pair of Prada slides. Reinvigorated with hatred for the rich, I turned to the foot fetishists of Reddit.

I messaged the mods of r/CelebrityFeet, a forum devoted to celebrity feet, my very earnest request for help. Do they know anything about these elusive sweeties? If they do, they aren't telling. I was promptly silenced for even asking:

When I asked a mod for r/jeffbezos if they knew anything about their #1 guy's feet, they told me to "learn to code." On to the next.

I messaged u/jokes_on_you, who helped me debunk the faked Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez foot pic last year, if he'd be willing to lend his trained eyes to the investigation of Bezos' feet. He asked me to send my own foot pics in exchange for information, which in a non-journalistic context might be a fair price to ask. But according to Motherboard editor-in-chief Jason Koebler, trading quid-pro-quo foot pics with a source would "set bad precedent."

Fine.

EXHIBIT B: THE SUPERYACHT TENDER

In the wikiFeet photos, Bezos strolled his $531 Pradas through a December 2019 vacation, set aboard fellow bald billionaire David Geffen's yacht in St. Barth's. This big boat, I learned, is named the Rising Sun, and is manufactured by ship builder and navy contractor Lürssen, which also manufactures naval ships armed for warfare.

(The photos, it turns out, are owned by a firm called The Mega Agency. We know this because we bought one of these photos from the company for the very reasonable price of $250.)

Rising Sun is a 453-foot long superyacht, and has capacity for at least one "tender," the name for the little day-excursion sized boats that come with ships that big. One of the wikiFeet photos from the St. Barth's trip is a group picture on a tender, seemingly exploring some sea cave, with Bezos front and center, barefoot.

View this post on Instagram

Having a great time in the Balearics

A post shared by David Geffen (@davidgeffen) on Aug 6, 2019 at 3:52am PDT

His feet look humongous in this photo. Most usefully for our investigation, his left foot is placed right next to a straight line of paint on the floor. If we knew the square footage of the floor area of this tender, we could potentially deduce the length of this piece of floor paint—and therefore, the foot.

I emailed Lürssen, maker of $200 million yachts and war vessels, and definitely did not mention any feet. But they still wouldn't give me anything helpful.

"We do not comment on our yachts (or their tenders) to the press as a matter of confidentiality," Timothy Hamilton, director of Lürssen Americas, replied. "Best of luck with your article; it sounds interesting!"

Timothy, you have no idea.

EXHIBIT C: CLINTON CASTLE FLAGSTONES

At this point, powerless and frustrated at our inability to learn a simple fact about a multi-billionaire whose unprecedented empire is in part fueled by the wholesale and dangerous collection of data on millions of innocent civilians, we reached out to a true professional for help.

Motherboard managing editor Emanuel Maiberg contacted Eastern Europe/Eurasia lead researcher and trainer Aric Toler at Bellingcat, the award-winning open source investigations team that previously used images posted to social media to discover key information about the downing of flight MH17 in Ukraine and unmask Russian government assassins.

Toler generously agreed to aid our investigation. We were heartened to hear from him that we were on the right track. "If anyone can figure it out, it's wikiFeet," he said, before we explained that it was not responding. Then he, too, suggested we find a photo of Bezos' feet next to an object we can measure. But while we were fixated on the photo of the Big Foot on the superyacht tender, Toler provided this crucial image of a Bezos photo opp in Battery Park. More specifically, according to the Getty Images caption, "Statue Cruises Terminal in Battery Park in New York."

Jeff Bezos arrives at the Statue Of Liberty Museum Opening Celebration at Battery Park on May 15, 2019 in New York City. Getty Images

Here, again, we have more straight lines next to his feet, in the form of large, identical flagstones. This we could work with; if we could get down there and measure the stones, we could theoretically calculate a rough foot length.

Before I headed out to wander Battery Park on a very cold February afternoon, Koebler, Maiberg, and I did some Google Street View exploring to find the exact location the photo was taken.

In the Getty photo, everything in the background is slightly compressed—a result of using a telephoto lens, as photojournalists capturing Bezos often use. But I had my landmarks: a distinctive bush, some columns, this gray monument building, and Castle Clinton.

With the coordinates dialed in (40°42'11.7"N 74°00'59.4"W) I headed to Manhattan's southernmost tip to walk in Bezos' footsteps. As I got closer to the spot we'd seen in photos, I saw the flagstones.

I moved slightly out of view of a park ranger and got to work taking measurements. Each stone is about 55 inches by 52.5 inches.

I sent this data back to Maiberg's forensic photo lab (Microsoft Paint) and he set to work:

If a little more than four and a half of Bezos' shoes fit in one of these stones lengthwise, that's around 11.9 inches of shoe.

If you account for the shoe being a little bit bigger than the foot inside, and reference various shoe and foot size charts, one can assume his feet are around 11 inches long.

These measurements are obviously not accurate to the nanometer, but even by the widest margin, the length of Bezos' shoe is between 10 to 12 inches long. It is likely somewhere closer to the middle of those two extremes, and while we don't know for sure, we are confident that his feet are not notably large, and certainly not a daunting size 14.

At least in this respect, Bezos is just an average man.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

If I'm being honest with myself, I don't feel better with this information. Maybe some things should remain mysterious.

Throughout this investigation, however, when I ranted and raved in dark hours to friends and loved ones about my week-long quest, several people asked, "Why?"

The pursuit of knowledge is always worthwhile. If the tagline of the newspaper Bezos himself purchased is to be believed, "Democracy Dies in Darkness." Information wants to be free. Etc. The feet of a billionaire should be no less subject to scrutiny than, say, the feet of a congresswoman. When the boot is on your neck, measure it.

Amazon did not respond to a request for comment on the size of Jeff Bezos' feet.

Does Jeff Bezos Have Huge Feet? An Investigation syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

0 notes

lolcat76 · 7 years

Note

*whispers* what about a ghostwriting au though. like one of them is famous and is supposedly writing a memoir and the other is hired to actually do it. the writer is bitter and the famous one hates talking about their life.

Years ago, while hugging a toilet seat in the Georgetown Universitydorms and throwing up what felt like a week’s worth of bad cafeteria food,Laura promised herself she’d never, ever listen to Marcie’s advice again.

And yet, here she was, waiting in the lobby of Marcie’s law firm to meether new client.

It could have been worse, she could have listened to Marcie’s advice togo on that blind date (Are you frakkingkidding me, Sean Allison? Gods, Marcie, I taught him how to spell kangaroo!”).She could have let Marcie talk her into joining Richard Adar’s political campaign,but the whole reason she puked her guts out that night in the dorms was thatRichard Adar was pouring ambrosia down her throat, and to this day, she couldn’tthink of him without wanting to toss her cookies into the nearest trashcan.

She’d spent four months locked in her house, she was about to grow mossfrom sitting on her couch, and Marcie wasn’t wrong – she needed to get out intothe real world again.

Ghostwriting a military biography wasn’t nearly so bad as dating aformer student. Or selling her soul to a former…whatever Richard was.

***

She had a habit of arriving early – the hallmark of the oldest child.She had pads, pens and her laptop set up a good 20 minutes before he graced herwith his presence.

“Sorry,” he said, as he dropped into the chair opposite her. “You’dthink retiring would be easier.”

Given the number of times she’d tried to retire, she couldn’t help butagree.

“You’re here now,” she said, pasting on her best smile. “Let’s start atthe beginning.”

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say. Bill Adama started andstopped at the beginning a good ten times before she finally snapped her laptopshut. He wasn’t giving her anything to work with, other than military clichés anda rampant case of heartburn.

“Maybe we can start again tomorrow?” she asked, but she fully intendedto be on her couch tomorrow in her pajamas with a bottle of wine and some bad daytimetv.

“Maybe,” he agreed. “Sorry. Some stories are hard to tell.”

No shit, she thought. Some biographer she was, that she couldn’t cough up onefuck to give about Bill Adama’s war service. It couldn’t be worse than her ownhistory.

She’d tried, and she’d send a bill for four hours of freelance work at50 bucks an hour to Marcie, and that would buy her at least another week beforeshe had to dig into her parents’ life insurance.

***

She was halfway through the morning talk shows and a bottle of champagnewhen her doorbell rang the next day. Expecting the mailman, or some onlineshopping, or even the Caprica City Police asking her sternly why she’d rackedup six street cleaning tickets in the last few months, she flung open the door,only to find Bill Adama glaring at her.

“Oh, it’s you.”

“Likewise,” he grumbled. He held up a flask, and by the sound of it, itwas empty. “Got something to drink?”

Before the accident, she’d never had more than a bottle of wine on hand.Now, she had a fully stocked bar for him. She gestured to the shelves that usedto hold her books. “Take your pick.”

***

Two soap operas, three game shows and two bottles of Laura wasn’t surewhat exactly later, they were finally talking. Who knew that the secret to awriter’s success was getting her subject drunk and making him watch Days of OurLives?

She was still wearing her pajamas, still hadn’t brushed her teeth, butat least she had the presence of mind to pick up her phone and start recording himas he talked.

At least, she hoped the button she hit was record. Two bottles ofwhatever weren’t exactly sitting well with her either.

She was used to having the most tragic backstory in the room, but Billtalking about his youngest son…Jesus, Laura wanted to shove him out the doorrather than let him watch her eyes fill up with tears.

She wanted to shove him out the door rather than write about it too, butshe’d taken the advance, and she didn’t back down from a job, no matter howmuch she hated it.

“And your older son?” she asked, trying to sound sympathetic, orindulgent, or anything other than the cold, dead person she’d become.

“He likes me about as much as you do,” Bill said.

She hoped that wasn’t true. She didn’t want him in her house, she didn’twant him drinking the expensive whiskey her father had left her, but she likedBill. He was depressing, no doubt about it, but he knew how to guess the priceof Chuckles candy on The Price is Right, and he didn’t seem to mind that shehadn’t brushed her teeth in days when she asked him about his youngest son’sfinal flight.

In fact, he seemed to like the fact that she was prying into hispersonal life while she was wearing ill-fitting pajamas. As far as first dateswent, it sure as hell wasn’t the worst she’d had, and Bill didn’t even know itwas a date.

***

Six weeks later, she had enough to write her profile. She could type itup from her couch, where she sat in the same pajamas she’d worn when he firstshowed up on her doorstep, but she hesitated.

She could spill his secrets easily, and he’d never told her not to.

She could also send an email to Marcie, telling her that Bill Adama wasthe most boring person she’d ever met, and Marcie would accept it withoutquestion. She could write up a short profile for People Magazine that made Billa hero, and happily accept the $500 for the job.

Or she could just…not.

She sent a blank Word document to Marcie, along with a note that said “Youowe me.” She shut down her computer and changed out of her ripe pajamas to apair of jeans and a crimson sweater, and met Bill Adama at the door.

“Aren’t we finishing up?” he asked.

“Something like that,“ she said.

Years ago, she’d promised herself as she threw up that she’d never fall prey to Marcie again. Today she thought about sending her oldest friend athank-you note. Laura tucked her had into his arm and walked with him, steps matchinghers, into the park. “Tell me a story,” she said. “A story you want to tell. I’mready to hear it.”

#spaceparents #laura roslin #bill adama #lolcat fic #fic prompt #okaynextcrisis

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dontshootmespence · 8 years

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Becoming Real: A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes

In this installment of Becoming Real, Diana, Luke and Spencer will be going to Disney World. @coveofmemories @the-slytherin-ice-queen @cosmicjennifer

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Their trip had been scheduled for the second-to-last week of her summer vacation before the start of what turned out to be third grade. The week prior, Diana had spoken of nothing but Disney World. Seeing the princesses. Seeing if Moana would be there, even though she was a new character. Taking a picture in front of the castle. She’d literally talked of nothing else for a week, and now they were off the plane and in the hotel. The Art of Animation hotel. In the Lion King room. Which made Luke supremely happy.

“Can we go to the Magic Kingdom now?” she asked excitedly, jumping up and down on her bed and snuggling under the warm covers. They’d barely walked in the room.

Both of them desperately needed to use the bathroom, but she was already raring to go. Typical almost-6-year-old behavior. “Can Daddy and I pee first?” Luke laughed, causing the young girl to blush and plop down onto the bed.

“Yes, Dad.” She smiled.

“Then we can go.”

Within the hour, the three were walking into the gates of the Magic Kingdom, unable to take their eyes off Diana’s joy. Even a picture couldn’t adequately capture this moment. Only first-hand knowledge would do - and the look is one they’d remember for the rest of their lives. Luke hadn’t been in here in years and much had changed since, and Spencer had never been before, but they couldn’t bother taking in everything around them when Diana looked so happy she wanted to cry. That look was completely worth everything that they’d ever done or would do. “You wanna take a picture in front of the Mickey flowers?” Luke asked, lifting her up off the ground and placing her in front of the topiaries.

“Do you want me to take a picture of all three of you?” one of the female employees asked, an enormous smile on her face. It was a genuine smile, not one of those smiles that employees put on because they were supposed to. Gratefully, Spencer handed the woman his camera, as he and Luke hopped up onto the ledge to sit on either side of Diana. “Say Mickey Mouse!”

“MICKEY MOUSE!” Diana screamed, causing bother men to laugh out loud. After taking a few more pictures together, they grabbed the camera, thanked the woman profusely and started walking down Main Street, where Diana got distracted by every doll, every piece of clothing and every delicious cupcake imaginable. “Can I get a cupcake?” she asked, walking into the Confectionary. The cupcakes inside were as big as her head, covered in sweet buttercream icing, sprinkles, and even whole cookies. After much deliberation, they’d decided on sharing a cookies and cream cupcake, complete with Oreo cookie topper between the three of them.

“Where are we going first?” she said, bit of cupcake still speckling her cheeks.

Before they left, the had planned a couple of fastpasses for some of the most popular rides, so Peter Pan’s Flight, Big Thunder Mountain, and Ariel’s ride all had specified times. Otherwise, they’d be waiting in line. “We have a fastpass for Ariel at 10 AM, so why don’t we go wait on line for Buzz Lightyear?”

“To infinity and beyond!” she cried, running ahead of them toward Tomorrowland. Good thing they’d introduced her to the Pixar and Disney/Pixar movies too. Thankfully, it wasn’t too crowded, so by the time they made it over to the ride, it only had a 20-minute wait. “So what do I have to do on this ride?”

Spencer had done his research. “On this ride, you have to help Buzz save the galaxy from the evil Emperor Zurg. You’ll sit in either mine or Dad’s lap, and you’ll shoot a laser at those Z-targets,” he said, pointing to an example of one on the wall. It wasn’t even 10 minutes later that they made it onto the ride.

“Oh, the colors are pretty,” she said as the ride slithered its way into the first room, painted head to toe with targets that would help Buzz save the galaxy. She decided to sit on Spencer’s lap for the first ride, so he showed her how to press the buttons and then pulled out his phone, holding it the side to document how happy she was. “Daddy, I got a hundred-thousand points! Look!” she screamed, aiming her laser gun upward at the ceiling again. “The hand target is worth 100,000 points!” Before they even left the first room, she had a little over 300,000 points and Luke had about 50,000.

“How is she doing this?” he screamed, getting way into this and acting like a sniper, getting behind his laser gun and closing one eye.

Spencer laughed at Luke’s intensity, watching as Diana somehow picked out the highest point target in each room and racked up the points. “You know you’re not actually supposed to close your eyes when you shoot, right?”

“Shut up, Spencer!” he cried.

After earning an impressive, especially for a girl who was barely six years old, 734,500 points, Luke picked out a badge with her rank on it and placed it around her neck. “You can help me save the galaxy anytime, baby.”

“Yay! Ariel now, right?”

“Yup!” Spencer said, picking her up and setting her down to sit on his shoulders. This time, Diana decided to sit on Luke’s lap in the clam shell that would take them through the story of The Little Mermaid.

As the ride started, Diana’s face lit up and she leaned forward in the cart, singing along to the music and reaching out to touch the scenery, even though it was far from her grasp. “Under the sea! Under the sea!” she sang, bouncing up and down in Luke’s lap.

“That was amazing!” she said. “We can’t go again, right?”

“Not unless we want to wait on a really long line,” he said, wishing there was a way to get her on again. “But there’s still so much to see.” The carousel was nearby and as soon as she sat on the horse, her sadness at not being able to go on the Ariel ride again washed away.

Minutes later, after Diana descended the carousel every inch the perfect princess, they took her to Philharmagic, which was a 3D sing-a-long with the classic Disney movies. That one didn’t have a big waiting time, so they went on three times in a row before Diana said she would be okay going on something else. “I could go on that all day.”

“How about we do our Peter Pan ride now?” Luke said. For some reason, despite how old the movie was, this ride always had a long line. She liked the ride, but if they were ever able to take her back, they probably wouldn’t waste a fastpass on it.

Once they left the It’s a Small World ride, which stalled right toward the end, causing Luke, Spencer, and basically every adult in the room to nearly lose their minds from the repetitive music, they made their way through Liberty Square, where they stopped for food, water and in Diana’s case, a quick 15-minute power nap. “Do we have the roller coaster now?” she asked sleepily, rubbing her eyes in an attempt to wake up. “Am I big enough for it?”

“Yes,” Spencer replied, noticing the caution in her voice, “But if you’re scared and don’t want to go on it, that’s okay. Dad and I won’t be mad.”

“Can I sit in between the two of you?”

“No problem,” Luke replied.

“Then I think I’ll be okay, especially with Thumper in my lap.” He hadn’t left her side all day. When she looked back on these pictures, she’d be surprised at the amount of pictures that contained she, her fathers and her trusty bunny friend.

On the fastpass line, which was still a ridiculous 30-minute long wait, Diana was shaking, grabbing on to one of their hands tightly enough to leave marks. “We don’t have to do this, Diana,” Spencer said again. He didn’t want to make her do anything she didn’t want to do, but she insisted she wanted to go on.

As soon as they were in their seat and Thumper was belted in with her, the train car shot over the hill and Diana started screaming. Both Luke and Spencer immediately panicked, thinking that their daughter was too hysterical to enjoy anything, but when they looked down, she had her hands in the air, smiling as wide as was humanly possible. “This is fun!”

Thank god she ended up enjoying it, because something malfunctioned with the ride, causing anyone on that particular train to get two rides for the price of one. “That was amazing! I’m so glad I went on!” she said, hugging Thumper close to her chest as they left the ride.

“Good job facing your fears baby,” Spencer said, giving his baby girl a high five. When her hand hit his, he was astonished by how big her hand was. It seemed like only yesterday she’d wrapped her tiny hand around his finger. But right now, there was no time to get nostalgic. They had places to be and fun to have.

They’d been planning this trip for a year. Before they even booked plane tickets to Florida, they had reserved a dinner at the park’s newest restaurant, the Be Our Guest restaurant. The music played while you ate, the Beast came out and roared during dinner, and Belle even roamed the dining room. It was nearly impossible to get a reservation if you didn’t book months upon months in advance, and they new she would love it. “We have dinner reservations now, peanut,” Spencer said, taking Thumper and holding him while he grabbed one of her hands.

Luke grabbed the other, swinging Diana between them as they walked toward Fantasyland where the restaurant was located. “I think you’re gonna like it,” he smirked. She kept asking, but they refused to tell her where they were going to eat until they walked in. As soon as she saw the enchanted roses on the centers of each table, she realized where she was. “Do I get to meet Belle?” she asked happily, her lip quivering at the possibility of meeting one of her favorite princesses. After watching the major Disney movies, she’d decided that her favorite character was Moana, but Moana wasn’t a princess, she was a voyager, so her favorite princesses were, in order, Belle, Jasmine, Rapunzel, Tiana and Ariel. Belle’s love of books immediately made Diana love her the most.

“Yes, you do, Diana,” Luke said, as she climbed into the seat at their table. “And look.” He pointed behind her, smacking Spencer in the arm. She was his favorite princess too.

“Hello, young princess,” Belle said, much to Diana’s overwhelming joy. “Thank you so much for accepting our invitation to dinner tonight.”

“Thank you for inviting me,” she said, slowly standing up from her chair. For the first time in her young life, she was starstruck. Luke and Spencer had told her before that not everyone liked to be hugged so she had to check. “Can I have a hug?”

“Of course you can, sweetheart,” Belle replied, crouching down near the table and giving Diana a hug as Luke snapped picture upon picture. The look she’d had this morning when they’d walked in was one of awe, but tonight, Diana looked as though she’d never seen anything as amazing as this real-life princess. “Maybe one day you can come to my library?”

Now that made her entire day. “Yesssssss, I love the library,” she said. “I would have fallen for the Beast too.”

After taking a picture, she said goodbye again, giving Diana one more hug before leaving for the next table. She didn’t sit down though. Instead, she ran to the opposite side of the table, enveloping her arms around Luke’s neck and then Spencer’s. “Thank you,” she said to them both, small tears forming in her eyes. “This is amazing. I love you.”

#otp: it's all good #spencer reid x luke alvez #spencer reid #luke alvez #reidvez #ralvez #dontshootmespence #becoming real #a dream is a wish your heart makes

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tamboradventure · 4 years

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5 Myths About Booking a Flight that You Need to Ignore

Posted: 6/1/2020 | June 1st, 2020

Let’s talk about cheap flights. We all know airlines are out to screw us over — and no one wants to be the person who gets stuck paying the highest fare. That’s why we spend hours upon hours in front of the computer, researching articles on airfare, and trying to game the system like we’re attempting to outsmart a used car salesman.

I’ve written about finding a cheap flight before — and even my process for booking a flight — but today I want to talk about some persistent and inaccurate myths about booking a flight that have stuck around through simple inertia and lazy journalism.

There’s a lot of articles out there that will list “secret hacks” that will save you thousands. “If you book a flight on a Tuesday during a blood moon while standing on one leg, you’ll get the cheapest flight possible!” Ok, that’s an exaggeration but I read a lot of articles that are straight-up inaccurate and outdated that, today, I want to explain which “rules” are straight-up lies so you don’t follow them, save hours of time, and still end up with a cheap flight!

MYTH #1: You Should Search Incognito

This is the worst myth of them all. It makes sense. We all know that every company in the world uses cookies to track our online habits. So why wouldn’t airlines track us? There’s a belief that airlines are watching our browsing habits and then raising ticket prices when they see us looking at the same route(s) over and over again.

Lots of websites will tell you to use a browser’s “incognito mode” to avoid this. Turn them off, stop being tracked, and trick the system, right?

Except this is not true at all.

There’s no evidence that airlines behave that way and numerous studies by booking companies have shown there is no variance in pricing when you use incognito mode.

And, typically, when you abandon your cart, businesses discount prices to get you to complete your purchase not raise them higher.

According to Scott of Scott’s Cheap Flights, one of the most popular bargain-flight websites,

“There’s no evidence that airlines are showing you a different price based on your cookies. We are mistaking airfare volatility for a Truman Show–esque interpretation that the airlines are out to raise fares on us. Airfare is constantly changing, often by the hour if not by the minute these days. When a flight you’re looking at goes up in price, there’s a temptation to think that it’s because of your cookies, but Occam’s razor is that the price went up because airfare is constantly changing.”

They searched the same Denver to London flight 100 times in a row, and on the first search and the hundredth search, the price stayed exactly the same.

Another study by CheapAir found the same thing.

The average economy fare changes 61 times each day. Airlines use sophisticated software to change prices based on demand. Additionally, they put their inventory not just on their own website but also on hundreds of third-party websites so millions of people are looking at the same flights at any given moment. The system is constantly updating itself based on ticket sales and demand.

After all, there are only so many seats on a plane. You just can’t add more!

That’s why prices change.

Searching in incognito mode is simply not going to help you find a cheaper flight.

MYTH #2: It’s Better to Book on a Tuesday

Back in the day, most airlines used to drop flight deals on Tuesdays and that would lead to other airlines following suit. Thus the old adage to book on Tuesdays.

But Hopper, a popular cheap-flight app, analyzed the data and found that only 1.6% of flights were cheaper on a Tuesday.

These days, as I mentioned above, airlines use dynamic pricing and artificial intelligence to constantly change their pricing. The algorithms consider a variety of factors: historical and current demand, seasons, weather, particular events, etc.

According to Scott,

“Some websites still claim there is a single predictable time each week when fares are cheapest. When airfare was first sold online, airlines and online travel agencies would often load their fares just once a week, say, Tuesday at 2pm. There were a limited number of the cheapest fares available, and so if you were one of the first people to book right after the new fares were loaded, you really could get a great deal. Nowadays airfare is changing by the hour if not by the minute, driven less by humans plugging in fares each week and more by complex computer algorithms.”

So there’s no “best day to book.” Waiting for a Tuesday likely won’t save you any money.

Book your flight on whatever day you want.

Myth #3: There is a Perfect Time to Book

Airfares don’t actually change that dramatically. Until about 21 days before a flight, they are pretty steady. I remember talking to the Google Flights team once and they found there’s only typically a $50 difference between the highest and lowest price point.

That doesn’t mean it couldn’t swing more radically. As I said, airlines change prices based on a lot of factors. Sometimes that $50 swing could be $100 or $200 — but, barring an event that drives up demand, airfares tend to be in a narrow range up to 21 days before a flight.

After that, thanks to antiquated rules, the system thinks that a “last-minute” flight — three weeks away or less — must mean a business traveler and so fares rise. (So never book less than 21 days before leaving!)

Generally speaking, the best time to book a flight is about 2-3 months ahead. Why?

Most people book about 2-3 months before they go away. If you’re a family going on vacation, you don’t just do it on a whim. You take time off work and plan months in advance. So airlines know that and about 2-3 months before a trip is generally when prices reach equilibrium between supply and demand.

MYTH #4: Websites Can Predict Prices

Websites that predict prices are just taking an educated guess based on historical pricing. Don’t put too much stock in these predictions. The past is not prologue and a spike in demand or a concert or other event can change the price of a ticket outside its historical range.

I like the price meter on Google Flights because it lets me know the general historic price range of this fare. But any website that says “wait to book because prices are going to go down” is full of shit.

Airfare is incredibly volatile. There are a limited number of seats on planes and dozens of variables — from overall economic conditions to the price of oil to competition from new budget airlines to the difficulty of predicting travel interest for a specific flight 11 months from now. No one knows what the future holds. The recent pandemic is proof that modeling the future doesn’t work.

These websites have no idea what future airfare will be and are just guessing.

As Scott echoes:

“It’s important to distinguish between when is cheapest to travel and when is cheapest to book. We know a lot about when it’s typically cheapest to travel: January through March and September through November. That’s not to say there are never cheap flights in June. Think of it like an NBA game: just because one team is favored doesn’t mean there’s never an upset. This is all to say that anyone who claims to have cracked the code and be able to predict with certainty whether a flight six months from now will go up or down in price is doing you a disservice.”

MYTH #5: There is One Best Booking Website

Why do you see prices vary from website to website? Third-party websites often buy tickets in bulk and the prices depend a lot on what booking class they’ve purchased (usually they buy the cheapest and most restive fares which is why those flights are always unchangeable). Plus, again, thousands of people could be booking at once and so as the cheaper seats go, the prices go up!

That’s why, while I love Skyscanner and Momondo, I check lots of other websites before I actually book.

But, while I love them, remember: there is no single best website out there for flights.

Prices vary among all these platforms. That’s why you have to search multiple websites and meta-search engines.

There’s no single best booking website, only the best one at the time of booking.

***

Any article that claims to show you the “secret” to cheap airfare is probably too good to be true — because if it worked so well, airlines would have put an end to it a long time ago. You can’t outsmart the airlines. You can only bend the system to your advantage.

There’s simply no magic bullet to finding cheap airfare.

As much as we all want there to be one.

Book Your Trip: Logistical Tips and Tricks

Book Your Flight Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner or Momondo. They are my two favorite search engines, because they search websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is being left unturned.

Book Your Accommodation You can book your hostel with Hostelworld as they have the largest inventory. If you want to stay somewhere other than a hostel, use Booking.com, as they consistently return the cheapest rates for guesthouses and hotels. I use them all the time.

Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it, as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. I’ve been using World Nomads for ten years. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:

World Nomads (for everyone below 70)

Insure My Trip (for those 70 and over)

Looking for the best companies to save money with? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel! I list all those I use — and they’ll save you time and money too!

The post 5 Myths About Booking a Flight that You Need to Ignore appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

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#IFTTT #Nomadic Matt's Travel Site

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seatercarrental-blog · 5 years

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secretcupcakesublime · 3 years

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Designing Speech Prototypes for the Future

Why Do People Expect More From Voice?

Voice User Interfaces (

VUIs

Voicelabs

states there’s most effective a 6 percent danger a user could be active in the 2d week after downloading a voice application.

Design Process

Many designers assume that designing voice-based stories is completely unique from graphical user interfaces. That’s not real. Designing voice-primarily based reports isn't always a brand new path in UX layout; it’s a next herbal step. It’s viable to adapt the layout system that we use for visible interfaces for voice-primarily based merchandise. There are 5 steps should take vicinity before starting improvement a voice product: ResearchDefineCreateTestRefine

The tremendous aspect about this method is that it can be carried out to all types of voice interfaces, whether it's miles a voice-enabled, voice-best or voice-first.

1. RESEARCH

2. DEFINE

During this step, we need to shape our future product and outline its abilties.

Define Key Scenarios Of Interaction

Make Sure Key Scenarios Work With Voice

There need to be a compelling reason to use voice. Users must be able to resolve the problem faster or more effectively the usage of voice than any of the alternative stories. A few commonplace cases while voice interplay might be best for customers: When person’s arms are busy (whilst using or cooking);

When the use of voice is an simpler and greater natural manner to have interaction (for instance, it’s much less difficult to inform your clever speaker to “Play Jazz” rather than jump to a media center and pick out the proper option using a GUI).

Your goal for this step is to perceive both commonplace and precise instances that your users will gain from. It’s additionally essential to do not forget the restrictions of voice interactions. For instance, selecting from a long list of menu gadgets is complex with voice interactions. A excellent rule of thumb is to preserve selections short and to the point — 3 choices maximum. If you locate you have got greater than 3, it’s best to reframe the situation.

3. CREATE

Storyboards visualize interactions and flows in context and make them sense extra realistic. Write Dialogues

Handle Errors

Cases whilst the machine is unable to offer treasured information for customers. For example, the person wants to ebook a flight, but the machine doesn’t have relevant alternatives.

In all cases, the talk shouldn’t turn out to be in a dead quit; the gadget should offer valuable options. Always try to get the dialog returned on music. Let’s test out the primary example: User: “Book me a flight from San Diego to Dallas on Monday.” System: “I couldn’t discover any flights from San Diego to Dallas on Monday.”It’s glaring that users face a dead stop. However, it’s relatively smooth to regulate the dialog to offer a few options for users: User: “Book me a flight from San Diego to Dallas on Monday.”

Not simplest the word “Invalid” is too technical, but it also doesn’t help get the person again on track. It’s better to offer a consumer a touch so that they can recognize what they have to do next: System: “What’s the ZIP code for delivery?” User: “Hmm, 811415” System: “This ZIP is longer than expected. It ought to be five digits, no longer six.“ User: “81415”

Reflect Your Unique Identity

Bake Empathy In Interactions

Leverage Context

User: “Yay, I do!”

Cover Alternate Phrases

Prototype Your App

Speech Playback will simulate the reaction of the voice app. To add Speech Playback, you need to choose Time as the Trigger and set the motion to Speech Playback.

Adobe XD permits you to prototype for voice-first merchandise like the Amazon Echo Show, and voice-only products including Google Home.

4. TEST

Testing is a mandatory a part of the design technique. Without checking out, you can’t say whether or not your app will paintings for your users or no longer. Test Your Prototypes With Target Users

Use Test Simulators

5. REFINE

Refine the voice software after sending it to the market. Collect Analytics

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deniscollins · 5 years

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In the Race for Cheap Airfare, It’s You vs. the Machine

According to research by the Montreal-based airfare prediction app Hopper, the average price of a domestic flight changes 17 times in just two days, while international flights change a dozen times in that span. If you were an Expedia executive, would you introduce a system that would scan the internet for prices on airline tickets that were already bought through its system, and, if a cheaper fare for the same flight and class of service was found within seven days of purchase, automatically cancel and rebook the ticket without any action required from the traveler or the traveler’s company: (1) Yes, (2) No? Why? What are the ethics underlying your decision?

Optimistic that you can easily find the best airfare and hotel rate for your next vacation or business trip? Think again.

Travel providers now use artificial intelligence software to re-price their offerings, sometimes dozens of times a day, to maximize revenue. For business and leisure travelers, the result is a variation of the cat-and-mouse game, where travel companies are almost always the cat.

Traditionally, hotels and airlines priced their offerings depending on peak demand periods, past sales data and the number of current reservations. Individual hotel properties could make changes if, for example, their hotel was emptier than usual for an upcoming date and a lower room price would spur demand.

Now, changes in travel pricing are being made much more frequently. The practice, called “hyperdynamic pricing,” is poised for significant growth, said Angela Zutavern, a managing director at the technology consulting firm AlixPartners and the author of “The Mathematical Corporation: Where Machine Intelligence and Human Ingenuity Achieve the Impossible.”

Hyperdynamic pricing factors in lots of data. Along with historical and seasonal information, the new A.I. systems scan the web for global news events, weather predictions, trending Google searches, social media posts, local event schedules and other factors that could affect demand, Ms. Zutavern said.

Did the singer and rapper Lizzo just announce a concert tour? The system may anticipate a spike in demand at hotels in cities on her tour and raise rates there. Have hurricanes been in the news? Flight prices may need to come down to entice travelers to tropical locations.

“The systems give hotels and other travel companies the ability to make more frequent changes, experiment and then see the impact of the price changes,” Ms. Zutavern said.

Theresa van Greunen, assistant vice president of corporate communications of Aqua-Aston Hospitality, based in Hawaii, said her company manages Marriott and Hilton-affiliated hotels, which each have their own proprietary dynamic pricing systems. It also manages about 40 independent hotels that use Aqua-Aston’s pricing system. All employ artificial intelligence.

“A.I. gives us more insights into our data, and opportunities to be more nimble,” she said, not only in room pricing, but in suggesting to hotel management how to price special offers and whom to send those offers to, based on expected financial returns.

These kinds of insights are “especially important to smaller operators trying to compete with giant global brands,” she said.

Some travel companies are buying technology companies to jump-start new pricing capabilities. Last fall, Oyo Hotels and Homes, an Indian hospitality chain, bought Danamica, a Danish data and dynamic pricing company.

In response to the fluctuating prices, corporate travel departments that book business trips for their employees have begun to develop strategies to catch the lowest prices. Last year, Egencia, Expedia’s booking platform for corporate travel departments, introduced a feature that would scan the internet for prices on airline tickets that were already bought through its system. If a cheaper fare for the same flight and class of service was found within seven days of purchase, the system would automatically cancel and rebook the ticket without any action required from the traveler or the traveler’s company.

Egencia is rolling out a similar feature for hotel rooms that scans for price drops and rebooks the room at the lower rate. The company charges clients a small fee when it finds and rebooks lower rates.

Egencia is also introducing Smart Mix, which analyzes business travelers’ data to determine their preferences — taking morning versus evening flights out of their home city, for example, or staying at certain hotel chains — and combining that information with their employers’ travel policies to suggest appropriate flights and lodging.

Individual consumers can’t compete with the resources and computing power of the travel companies, but there are a few ways they can improve their odds of getting a good fare or room rate.

Gary Leff, founder of the travel blog View From the Wing, advises travelers to avoid booking hotel room rates that cannot be refunded or changed, even if the price is slightly lower than a more flexible rate. He recommends instead that travelers periodically check for lower rates on the hotel website or other sites that the hotel might match. Members of some groups like AAA can often get a rate as low as the nonrefundable rates without the restrictions, he said.

In addition, many travel agents can offer discounted hotel rooms and airfares, passing along savings they get from working with consolidators who buy blocks of airline tickets and hotel rooms at discounted fees.

Travelers can also try to learn more about the hospitality ecosystem in places they like to visit, said Fred Lalonde, chief executive of Hopper. Large cities like New York, Boston and Chicago that have a high proportion of business travelers and a large hotel selection often have relatively stable pricing three to six months in advance, Mr. Lalonde said.

Prices begin to drop sometime in the last three months ahead of check-in, so travelers can generally find the best deals then, he said, although they may not get the exact hotel or neighborhood they prefer.

There are also more companies that track pricing, predicting if a price will rise or fall and sending alerts. In August, Google started including “insights” in its Google Flights travel booking feature, displaying, for example, airfares that were lower than average in green and airfares higher than average in red, for some routes. In the fall, it briefly tested a “low price guarantee” service that promised anyone who booked a flight on Google that it would monitor the fare and pay the difference if the fare dropped before the flight took off. The company said in an email last week that it wasn’t sure if it would run that feature again.

Hopper said it analyzed 10 years of airline pricing, monitored hotel pricing around the world and tracked customer behavior to offer travelers advice on the timing of hotel room and airfare purchases and optimal routes. It also suggests alternatives to save money. The company said it had about 45 million customers in 120 countries.

Hopper also analyzes customer interactions within its system to make suggestions. If, for example, a large number of travelers who are monitoring the price of flights from New York to Rome are also monitoring the same dates for New York to Milan, Hopper’s A.I. recommendation system may suggest Milan as an alternative destination for all customers monitoring the Rome prices, even if they haven’t thought of flying to Milan.

“If enough people are doing it, the system sees it as a viable alternative that customers might want,” Mr. Lalonde said.

Hotels are more likely to display different prices for the same room on different websites than airlines do, he said, so Hopper monitors the web for lodging packages, flash sales, prices available only to customers in certain locations and other rates.

“We do all the foraging,” Mr. Lalonde said. The company receives commissions for the sales it makes.

The next wave of dynamic pricing systems will use “unstructured” data in addition to the “structured” data they already use, said Wilson Pang, chief technology officer of Appen, a company in Sydney, Australia, that supplies data to travel companies and others for their A.I. systems.

Structured data is clearly defined, like temperature predictions and historical sales. Unstructured data usually needs to be interpreted. The location of a photo taken from a hotel balcony posted on social media with the caption “Nice view!” needs to be identified and tagged. In a hotel review, the sentiment of the user needs to be discerned.

“These kinds of information could eventually be used in the pricing model too,” Mr. Pang said.

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altertonative · 5 years

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Gargano Peninsula on your own - practical information and the cost estimate

1. How to book the cheapest flights?

Planning a vacation on the Gargano peninsula, you should start by looking for cheap flight tickets first, because it will be one of the larger one-time costs to which you can easier adapt other expenses. The more flexibility you have in choosing a convenient time, the easier it is to find a cheap flight. The nearest airport from Gargano operating among low cost airlines is in Bari, located about 130 km from Manfredonia. On the other hand, we flew to Pescara, which is about 220 km from Manfredonia, but Naples airport could work well too, because it is located also about 220 km from Manfredonia. It is rare that you have so many airport options, so finding tickets at a good price, even in the high season, is not so difficult. However, you must remember to buy them at the right time, preferably between 8 and 4 weeks before the scheduled departure. I bought tickets in mid-July, six weeks before departure.

2. Where to rent a car?

The Gargano Peninsula is easiest and most convenient to explore by car, because public transport doesn’t reach all the hidden and further corners of the peninsula and may also limit you in time. It is best to book the car in advance, because thanks to this you will probably get an attractive price. You can rent a car at the stage of buying plane tickets, but you should always read the regulations carefully, as usually the deposit in such reservations is very high. In Ryanair it was 3.200 euro, which means that the main driver must have such amount on the credit card when picking up the car. If he or she doesn’t have this amount, the rental company will refuse to issue the vehicle and the cost of the reservation will not be refunded. So what can we do if we don't have the resources? We can either book the car on the arrival at the local rental company for example, where they usually don’t require such a high deposit, and sometimes don’t even require a credit card; or we can use other in-between companies. The most important thing to remember is that the credit card must be in the name of the main driver, in other words, the person indicated as the driver must be the credit card’s owner, therefore we cannot, for example, borrow a card from someone else.

I rented a car a month before departure. According to the regulations, the deposit should’ve been 300 euros, but on arrival they only blocked 200 euros on my credit card. The man who served me didn’t know English very well, so I didn’t even ask why it happened ;) I’ve booked the pickup from the airport on Thursday at 22:00, and return of the car on Monday till 17:00 = 4 days. We landed in Pescara before 21:00 and immediately went to the car rental stand. There was no problem to issue the vehicle to us sooner. It is important to be careful with the working hours of the target rental companies. If you have a very late flight, you must make sure that there will be someone who will give you the car. Some companies charge extra fees for picking up the car during non-standard business hours, so make sure you’ve checked that carefully.

When booking a car, I chose: Volkswagen Polo or similar, economical, 5-door, with air conditioning, manual + full insurance + second driver.

3. How to drive in Italy and in Gargano?

On the arrival, it turned out that we got a well-equipped two-year Peugeot 208, 1.4 diesel, which was really comfortable to drive. First of all, it managed on steep and winding streets, but also it didn’t mumble on the highway. We drove from and to the airport through the highway. The section from Pescara to Foggia (A14) costs EUR 12.60. However, the section from Bari to Foggia (A14) costs 20.67 euros, and from Naples to Foggia (A16) 18.48 euros. Foggia is the nearest motorway exit to the Gargano Peninsula. If you want to pay in cash for the highway, the ticket is picked up at the entrance to the highway - you need to drive up to the gate with the money sign or Biglietto inscription on the sign above the gate, and take the ticket which is already halfway out. At the exit on the highway you return the ticket and pay - special vending machines are set up, which are able to give you the rest.

It really pays to cover the distance by highway, because it is much faster and more economical. By the highway there are numerous gas stations and restaurants. Coffee at the petrol station costs 2.00 euros, and a large piece of pizza from the oven costs 3.95 euros.

Driving through the peninsula it feels like a roller coaster: sharp turns, steep cliffs, narrow roads, high fluctuations, large falls and elevations. Tourists drive here very carefully, which can not be said about natives accustomed to this type of road. Try to keep out of the way, because the Italians don’t really care about tearing the car and they will squeeze into even the narrowest streets. The main thing is to be careful and not overestimate your abilities behind the wheel. Such a drive doesn’t have to be stressful, treat it wisely but as fun!

4. Where to buy your travel insurance?

5. Cost estimate.

The exact cost estimate for the entire trip can be found below:

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