Posted on January 18th, 2011 by Douglas and viewed by 378 people
Posted from Los Angeles, California, United States.
Greetings from Los Angeles California!
I am very excited to be writing this quick update from my home state of California, the LA area. I arrived this morning on Uncle D(elta), which was an A330 from ATL to LAX. The person next to me was Don Lemon from CNN News, visiting LA for interviews for an upcoming story.
I arrived at the hotel, which sits on Avenue of the Stars in Century City, only 30 minutes from LAX, to be greeted by a beautiful lobby. This hotel changed to an InterContinental Hotel a few years ago, but this visit, was a refreshing look at where it the hotel is now.
Social Networking and a Hotel… In my travels last year to 10 countries and countless nights in hotels, some check ins get a response, but the InterContinental took it to the next level. My room is a beautiful Junior Suite that is on the corner of the hotel and floors above the street. Besides the amazing room, with parlor, bedroom, and two balconies, the views were spectacular.
Only being a few floors up, I could see the Hollywood Sign, Downtown, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica. I have had mixed feelings on returning back to Los Angeles, after leaving in 2004, but seeing the beauty of the area, reminds me why I call Southern California Home.
I returned to my room tonight after an amazing dinner to find a card from the hotel. They recognized my tweets and oddly my love for “Coffee with Baileys”. How could a hotel know that I had that on the plane today from ATL and that is my travel drink of choice? Now, is the Coffee and Baileys were to be free, I would be heading down now…. Maybe on Friday morning, before I leave at 8:30, one will be delivered to my room… (smile)
In addition to a beautiful room, amazing view, great staff, the savvy approach this hotel has taken to Social Networking gets them their own post in my blog tonight. INTERCONLA – Twitter . This hotel has taken an aggressive response to Social Networking and it was honestly, pretty cool. I have the doors open, listening to traffic, feeling the breeze, nice to be home.
Posted on August 4th, 2010 by Douglas and viewed by 111 people
Call Your Facebook Friends for Free From Your Android or iOS Device. For those of you on Facebook, Vonage is adding more value to the social networking site. You can now call your facebook friends from the android or iOS Device. Will this take off? A charge come later on?
Posted on August 4th, 2010 by Douglas and viewed by 124 people
In an article shared on Mashable today (RIP Google Wave ), Google Wave will no longer be developed by Google.
I remember when I first heard about Google Wave, received invites, and I wondered, how would this would engage me. Similiar to that of Google Buzz, two products that I don’t find on the “must have” applications. I will have to ponder for eternity, what was wave and what did I miss out on.
Posted on June 29th, 2010 by Douglas and viewed by 415 people
United Airlines refreshed the mileageplus landing page for its members of its frequent flyer program. The colors are vivid, and it’s very easy to navigate. Great to see how they highlight the promotions, upgrades, and current activity toward EQS / EQM thresholds. The page is very fluid, great job United! A mouseover the icon next to key words gives clear definitions of the context UA is referring to. I will still miss the iconic Tulip when it departs…
I can remember my parents and their Apple IIe, with the large floppy, flipping it over, and Print Shop, with Banner Sheet Paper! Amazing how things have changed from a technology stand point. Apple employees all receiving an iPhone in 2007 (wow), salary of $1, only 6 Board of Directors (including Al Gore), and income from Disney stock at $48M a year. While the salary is only a $1, the perks of the company far outweigh the measurement of such.
Highlights of the 100 Facts -
The Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan (the cube) is said to be one of the most photographed landmarks in the world.
Steve Jobs bought Pixar from George Lucas for $10 million and sold it to Disney for $7.6 billion.
Nine U.S. states don’t have Apple stores: Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming.
Steve Jobs bought Pixar from George Lucas for $10 million and sold it to Disney for $7.6 billion.
Apple once disposed of 2,700 unsold Lisas in a Utah landfill. The computer originally sold at $10,000 each.
The longest-lived Apple computer of all time was the Apple IIe, which was on sale for nearly 11 years.
Apple didn’t sell a Windows-compatible iPod until nine months after the iPod was introduced.
The time shown on all of the devices in pictures on Apple’s website is the same (9:41 a.m. for iOS devices and 10:50 a.m. for Macs). The time is coordinated with when the pictures will be shown during Steve Jobs’ keynote address.
Steve Jobs’ largest parody Twitter account is @ceostevejobs.
Steve Jobs pays himself an annual salary of $1.
Steve Jobs’ annual income from Disney shares is $48 million.
Steve Jobs has big feet, at size 14.
Macs last an average of six years. PCs last an average of four years.
The average PC owner spends 50 hours a year troubleshooting. The average Mac owner spends 5 hours a year.
Teachers and students using Macs are found to be 44% more productive.
When it was first released Steve Jobs gave every Apple employee a free iPhone.
Apple began work on a touch-screen tablet before work began on the iPhone. The iPad wasn’t released until three years after the iPhone, however.
The very first image shown on the Macintosh was of Disney character Scrooge McDuck.
In 2010 Apple’s market cap exceeded Microsoft for the first time since 1989.
Posted on May 4th, 2010 by Douglas and viewed by 357 people
A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a website called Widgetheads.net. It was a website dedicated to Delta, including news, fleet information, among many other components. What impressed me the most about the site was the fleet information, down to the tail and livery of the plane. Sadly, it recently ceased with a note on the site.
Dear Fellow Widgetheads,
I regret to inform you that Widgetheads.net has shut its doors for good. This decision was made due to circumstances that are out of my control. However, the decision has absolutely nothing to do with any legal issues regarding Delta Air Lines. Please do not contact me offering assistance in any way, including financial or informational. There is no way to bring Widgetheads.net back online. I want to thank everyone who has visited the site over the past years, and especially those that contributed. As I’ve said many times before, this site would have not gotten as far as it did if it wasn’t for you. Its status was more than I could have ever imagined. So again, thank you for your support. I am very aware of the impact that this has on the aviation community. Please trust that I would not have done this if there was any possible way to stop it. Don’t let the actions of this website stop you from following the greatest airline on the planet. I trust that all of you widgetheads never lose the Delta Spirit. May the Widget live on forever!
Sincerly,
Justin
A lot of effort went into creating and maintaining the site, we may not know why it really went away since offers of financial support or informational is not warranted.
Posted on March 14th, 2010 by Douglas and viewed by 274 people
My website has been hosted through ipower for 8 years, and this year, the domain was not renewed but the hosting was. This resulted in the website being down for 3 days before it could be reregistered. It is back up, and without the travel, I hope to have more updates soon!
Posted on January 13th, 2010 by Douglas and viewed by 340 people
While clicking through random links on my iPhone today after landing in Houston, I stumbled upon a reference to a website called 13 Love Stories.
“13LoveStories.com presents a series of short films that redress the absence of such images. Featuring real voices and personal photographs, the films provide direct access to a diverse cross-section of committed couples in and around Los Angeles.”
Here is the overview video of the project put together at UCLA.
With my love of travel, and never knowing who you may meet where, this one I enjoyed.
I don’t often speak out about the topic, but in all points of view, if you are not gay, then why should one care so much… Sad to see a small, small minority being discriminated in a land where we should have the right for Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. I guess that the pursuit of happiness was not meant for all… We came so far yet our culture has so much farther to go.
Do you have NetFlix? Enjoy Warner Brothers? Be ready for a 4 week delay for new Warner releases. Warner, in agreement with Netflix, will allow them to be shipped 4 weeks from DVD release. Once Netflix becomes dated, and no longer can offer fresh movies, I would think some will look at alternatives. I won’t buy DVDs, I have a cabinet full of them, and with On Demand, I can find something to watch with friends. With my Netfix, I reduced mine to 1 at a time, probably because I don’t have an App for managing my NetFlix, or I would remember to add New Releases when I see previews. Though I don’t watch too much TV, other then DVR.
Will Blockbuster follow NetFlix? Will RedBox increase sales, or be impacted? More to come, as always.
A friend shared this article with me on December 18th, and I thought it would be timely to write an article about it.
The everchanging landscape of social networking continues to leave me beside myself. I was recently driving alon the highway, and an app sent me an alert of a coupon for a place that I was passing. While the iPhone allows you the option, I elected to?”Allow Location”.
Combining this with Yelp and Google would make for a very interesting but next level marketing capabilities. While I think Google is on it’s way to world dominatin, one website at a time, it would be a step in the right direction if one thing alone would happen, google maps integrate Yelp Reviews. Yelp recently launched the monocle component which allows the user of the iPhone to search around them by holding the phone up and see reviews of locations within the phones screen. The power of Google, the power of the Yelp community, seems like it would be an interesting but promising win.
Anyone else believe someone else will try to outbid for Yelp?
Call Your Facebook Friends for Free From Your Android or iOS Device
In an article shared on Mashable today (
United Airlines refreshed the mileageplus landing page for its members of its frequent flyer program. The colors are vivid, and it’s very easy to navigate. Great to see how they highlight the promotions, upgrades, and current activity toward EQS / EQM thresholds. The page is very fluid, great job United! A mouseover the icon next to key words gives clear definitions of the context UA is referring to. I will still miss the iconic Tulip when it departs…
While reading an article about 
A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a website called 
