Travel

A new TfL website is on the way. It's been kept under wraps for a while, but was recently shown to select media partners and invited bloggers. Now the rest of us can take a peek. Fancy having a play? The new website is available in beta at beta.tfl.gov.uk. Or at least some of it is. TfL are releasing their latest creation bit by bit, starting with the function they think you're going to use most. It's the Journey Planner, which now becomes Plan My Journey, given pole position top left. Beneath that is My Status, previously Live Travel News, which is another signal of things to come. TfL are offering a website you can partially personalise, one that remembers your journeys and can be taught which lines you use. Much more importantly, they're taking a huge leap into the future and designing a website that's mobile first. Essentially you'll have an app in your pocket, that's appears to be the plan, helping you to move around the capital more efficiently. Most of the site is currently off-limits, so often you'll find yourself on the "the feature you’ve selected is not available yet, please come back soon" page. Even line status isn't quite ready, although it appears the home page will only show you which lines are disrupted, not which have a good service. Which leaves journey planning as the main function to explore. I thought I'd have a go at getting from A to B to test the site out, and here's what I found. Journey 1: Tottenham Court Road to East Finchley, today, 12 noon. As soon as you start typing in the first box, a list of possible starting points comes up. By the time you've typed "tot" the list of options is down to four, and Tottenham Court Road is easily selected. This has three tiny icons next to it - a bus, a tube roundel and a mysterious yellow square which (it took me ages to discover) means coach. Typing the E of East Finchley brings up another long list, in which (highly suspiciously) the top two options are the two cablecar terminals. I wonder if that's an accident, or if someone deliberately nudged the sponsor higher in the ranking. The word Emirates certainly seems to be appearing more than it deserves on the beta homepage. There are then two options, as there are now, either to depart "now" or at a time of your choice (to the nearest quarter hour). Another button offers accessibility and travel options, again familiar to current users, so you can for example turn off rail travel or request a journey with various degrees of step-free access. Meanwhile, if you've noticed, there are tabs at the top of the search box for those who'd rather cycle or walk than take public transport. Ready to go? Plan your journey. A little whirring picture appears while your journey is being loaded, most likely a cartoon bus rushing past a rolling urban landscape. And there are your details - choices summarised at the top, and results listed below. This particular journey takes 20 minutes via the Northern line, and four timed options are presented. It's here that one of the biggest changes on the new site becomes evident. Previously the four options would have appeared in a small block, covering about twenty square centimetres of your screen. Now you may have trouble reading them all in one go, as the presentation expands to includes a shedload of empty space. Some of that is filled if you click on "View details", but this is a simple journey so there aren't many. What's happened is that TfL have optimised their presentation for mobile users, who require minimal text, and in portrait format. If you're viewing the site on a laptop or desktop, anything with a landscape screen, most of the extra width is left unfilled. Sat at home that's a bit annoying because you have to scroll down a lot more than you've come to expect. Stood on a pavement with your smartphone in hand, however, it's ideal. The "View on a map" option looks particularly impressive if you're cycling or walking, because you can enlarge the map to

United Airlines' decision to count spending only on tickets issued by United for purposes of earning elite status marks a fundamental blow the concept of airline alliances, undermining its Star Alliance partners and begging the question, will airline alliances soon be nothing more than marketing gimmicks? Say Lufthansa is running a sale and I buy a business class ticket from Frankfurt to Los Angeles from the German carrier for $2,500. The routing is Frankfurt-Chicago-Los Angeles and back the same way and all flights are operated by United Airlines. Despite being Star Alliance codeshare partners and A++ joint venture partners (they share revenue on these flights), the price of the ticket would not count toward my minimum spending requirement because it would be issued on Lufthansa (220) stock rather than United (016) stock. Thus, United has now weaponized booking and balkanized loyalty in the Star Alliance. United has weaponized booking in trying to monopolize it, making it a condition for loyalty and essentially going to war with its partners for business, alliance partners that cannot be labeled purely as competitors like AA and Delta. And that is certainly United's prerogative. But it undermines the implicit promise of the Star Alliance network, pursuing loyalty by siphoning revenue from other member carriers in a race to the bottom. Surely other carriers will follow. If I were a CEO of one of the Star Alliance member carriers, I would ask United CEO Jeff Smisek to explain himself in front of everyone else at the next CEB meeting. What if every carrier followed United's lead? In the aggregate, it will drive away Star Alliance loyalty because consumers will be less incentivized to book with Star Alliance, even if the price is a bit more, knowing that the benefits are diluted. Paying an extra $100 for elite status + lounge access is a lot easier to stomach than paying $100 more only for lounge access... What if Thai, Singapore, Asiana, ANA, and new member EVA decide that if United will not "count" flights on codeshares booked through them, they will no longer count flights not booked on their own ticket stock. Despite United's notable Pacific route network out its Tokyo and Guam hubs, conscientious frequent flyers of these programs will scale back purchasing from United, opting instead for booking on their own carriers, who presumably would market their own flights more prominently than United codeshares. United thus looses revenue. The problem is not that I won't be able to qualify for 1K status next year. I may well be in Germany, which would exempt me from the requirement all together. The problem is United has unleashed a snowball that I fear will gain in intensity and size as other carriers contemplate retaliation. The result: the consumer is crushed, or at least in a position much worse off than before. The "good" news is that there are rumors of a Star Alliance systemwide tool under development that would track spending in a uniform manner across Star Alliance. I have no inside information in this regard, but if it is the case, why doesn't United wait until it is rolled out to implement its new revenue-based scheme? It is not far-fetched to wonder, for penny-wise, pound-foolish reasons, that even if such a tool become available United would still mandate tickets be issued on United stock in order to satisfy minimum spending requirements for elite qualification. This is a sad chapter in the story of airline alliances, an indication that the future world of airline alliances will be limited to something like the three Ls---lounges, luggage, and logos. That's not something to celebrate.

what shall i say friendsI had a work daythat is enoughI learnedand that is enoughI droveand that is enoughI woke upand that is enoughor is itjust read the idea of a mouse becoming a fish or perhaps always wasfree in the water to swim as one wisheswith easehow niceto swim freeare you still playing at being a mouse tiredworking does this to youdidn39t sleep well last nightthat tires yoube

5 nights in this lovely place Cannot wait to wake up here and explore the wonders of London

Today we picked up our travel documentation Cash passports with 200 on them already international student cards travel insurance confirmation of Naples accommodation and of course our flight tickets Into London and out of Milan with 5 weeks of travel across Europe in between it is feelingso real now152 days but who is counting

Hi everyonePlanning it in Autumn 2013 Spring 2014 Flexible itinery to experience a bit of Scandinavian East Europe in a single trip of about 3 weeks Priorities are the Nature culture People Art Cuisine etc of the Region interacting with local people on the way...Talk to you soon.

Is this how they usher in the Cloud era? Today Adobe announced Photoshop CC that is only available to cloud subscribers. Adobe should not release such lame updates to Photoshop and Lightroom to convince people that the cloud-subscription software is exciting. They should make dramatic improvements – things that photograpehrs can’t live without. Can we live without “Smart Sharpen” and “Intelligent Upsampling” with Photoshop. Err, probably. The Lightroom improvements are equally underwhelming. You know that the updates are lame when one of the top bullet points is “Include video in your slideshows!” How did THAT become one of the top-most-requested features? Here's a list of some of the features with Photoshop CC. I am not thrilled. Also, that seems like kind of a lame photo they are using to show off their product, isn't it? Maybe Photoshop has gotten to the point where it is just kind of like a pencil or a paintbrush -- they can't be improved upon. Maybe Adobe really has run out of ideas (except for ideas around new business models where you get to pay them every month). It also worries me that Adobe is running out of ideas for their photography-related products. Their “big features” are, at best, incremental improvements. They are certainly not exciting enough to drive millions to subscribe to their cloud subscriptions. Their biggest idea, sadly, seems to be cloud-based subscriptions. Business-model confusion with Adobe Adobe’s PR and marketing team has a whole list of reasons about why Cloud-based subscription is so awesome for Photoshop. They have a few good points in there, such as it is easy to do incremental updates. But mostly, the reasons are lame and not exciting to amateurs and hobbyists who can’t afford to shell out a ton of money every month. Here is the confusion: If Cloud-based subscriptions really are so awesome for Photoshop, why do they have a completely different business model for Lightroom? They tell me, well, Lightroom is more for hobbyists and casual people, and Photoshop is more for professionals. I think that sounds kind of ridiculous, don’t you? What is especially confusing for me is, “How do I explain this to people?” I get a bunch of people that come to this website or to the HDR Tutorial (new and improved, and free as always, btw!) to get advice on what kind of software to get. We get a lot of new photographers who don’t really own any software. Now I have to give confusing advice: “Well, you really need Photoshop and Lightroom. Photoshop you have to pay every month for, but Lightroom you can just buy once.” People are like, “Whhhhaaat?” Why have two business models for such complementary pieces of software? It’s completely confusing to new people, and moderately confusing to veterans. Anyway, these are the kind of confusing decisions that come out of committees. I hope they clarify things soon, and I also hope they have a business model that is less punitive to beginners, students, and hobbyists that can’t afford the high price of cloud-based subscriptions. It’s not like Netflix or World of Warcraft with their monthly fees. You pretty much have one kind of customer there. With photography, you have the full span of professionals and studios to ameteurs and hobbyists. In my judgment, it’s too punitive to have One-Pricing-Model to rule them all. Daily Photo – Sunset in New Zealand before the Blizzard We are expecting a major blizzard coming into Queenstown tonight! We just got back from the grocery store to stock up. I’ve got all my cameras fully charged and ready to go… I’ll try to hit as many places as I can with the fresh snow… chains are ready and all is good to go! Super-excited. And, speaking of the article above, I can’t think of any of my images that could have been improved if

Though it’s pretty easy to see that Texas A&M star QB Johnny Manziel is literally “living the dream,” what if in reality he’s just another young athlete getting screwed? Yes, “Johnny Football” has access to the best parties, elite travel opportunities, pretty girls and boatloads of fans but at the end of the day what is it all really worth? Think about the bottom line for Manziel: what does he really have to show for his first-ever freshman Heisman and his skyrocket ride to fame? Sure, we’ll always remember him, but if he gets hurt in 2013 or turns out to be a one-hit wonder with zero pro prospects, what does Manziel take with him when he goes? The answer here is really simple; nothing. Manziel—in partnership with coach Kevin Sumlin and a group of talented teammates—has managed to turn Texas A&M football on its ear and with that the university, the SEC conference and college football as a larger entity, has enjoyed huge financial rewards. And, due to the way the NCAA defines “student athletes” Manziel and his band of talented on-field cohorts have virtually nothing in their bank accounts to tell of their storied success. Though money doesn’t always define success, when you’re dealing with a multimillion dollar-generating sport like college football, it’s tough to stomach the fact being a top cash generator doesn’t mean you’ll see a single penny. The truth is given an alternate universe Johnny Manziel’s wild popularity—which is not just limited to the confines of College Station, Texas, the Lone Star State or the SEC region of football—could equal a tidy sum in endorsements, appearance fees and profit-sharing.That is if the NCAA allowed such crazy benefits to the “student athletes” whose participation actually generates the dollars. Isn’t it ironic that the kid who is clad in a Texas A&M uniform with “Adidas” plastered all over it won’t see a single penny from his school’s relationship with the athletic supplier? Yes, isn’t it just a bit odd that Manziel can’t—by NCAA law—earn a dime from sales of jersey’s bearing his name and number and that he’ll never get a piece of the action from his image as an Aggie? Not in a video game, not in a photo and not in footage that can be sold as a part of Texas A&M’s glorious revival and foray into the SEC ranks. Sure, Manziel may cash in his epic collegiate career on a full-fledged and very lucrative stint in the NFL, but the chances of that happening, in reality, are slim especially given the difference between the two levels of play (more pronounced at the QB position) and the risk of injury. So, how much money would Manziel be looking at after just one single season at A&M if the NCAA opted to raise the shifty veil separating amateurism from the stacks of cash in the college football coffers? Well, you’d have to figure given the frenzy associated with the first-ever freshman Heisman winner and the first bronze statuette in Aggieland since John David Crow carried one home in 1957, that the number could easily exceed a million bucks.Especially if the right marketing people struck while the iron was hot. This all leads to the obvious question of who really has the right to make money off Johnny Football? Is it the institution where he enrolled to play college ball? Is it the SEC who negotiated his TV rights, the BCS which rules college football, ESPN which covers it so completely, or is it the NCAA which allows all these parties to reap in huge gains by utilizing a sentimental shield misnamed “student athlete?” On one side, college football isn’t a business because Johnny Manziel is not an “employee” of the program he works for even though he earns that same institution a boatload of cash by using his talent and risking his athletic future. Yes, college football

How to make the most of what your compact camera has to offer when taking holiday shots.

No trip to SouthDakota is complete without a visit to the majestic sculptures on the Mountains. We visited Mt. Rushmore twice. Once during the day to see George and Abraham in the sunlight and then at night for the lighting. Each time was unique. But the evening was the most special. All active and former service men were invited on stage to introduce themselves and Troy was one of them. Here were