Orly airport in Paris, France is experimenting with "virtual" boarding agents who always smile, don't need breaks, and never go on strike. "Bonjour! I invite you to go to your boarding gate. Paris Airports wishes you a bon voyage," the image appears to say, while the name of the destination flashes in front of it.
The pilot project in July and has so far been met with a mix of amusement and surprise by travelers, who frequently try to touch and speak with the life-like video images that greet them and direct them to their gate. The images materialize seemingly out of thin air when a live boarding agent presses a button to signal the start of boarding.
Images are rear-projected onto a human shaped silhouette made of plexiglass. Three actual airport boarding agents were filmed in a studio to create the illusion, which the airport hopes will be more eye-catching and easier for passengers to understand than current electronic display.
Airport authority AdP came up with the idea when it was brainstorming ways to modernize one of the dozens of boarding gates at Orly. Similar virtual agents have been in airports in London and Manchester since earlier this year.
The gate serves about 30 or 40 flights a day and about 1 million passengers a year pass through it, mainly on their way to destinations in the south of France and Corsica.
The experiment will be evaluated by the end of the year, after which it could be expanded to other gates and other airports.
Aug 23, 2011
Corn Starch Remedies
Just came across an article extolling the virtues of corn starch for many things. Pat a thick layer of it on grease stains or spills in leather or fabric furniture, or even on grease stains from things like pizza on wooden tables. On the furniture, let it sit for a few hours or overnight and sweep or vacuum it off. Cheap alternative to those other stain removers. One of the more common uses is to sprinkle on the carpet and vacuum it up. Corn starch takes out dirt and many smells from the carpet. Not many iron at home like they used to, but if you need a touch up, put a tablespoon of cornstarch in a pint of water and use is as a spray starch.
Labrador Retriever
These dogs originated in the region of Canada that’s now the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Local fishermen perfected a breed they called the St. John’s water dog, which were prodigious swimmers who would jump in the water and haul fishing nets back to shore.
In the early 19th century the Earl of Malmesbury began bringing the dogs to his English estate and trained them to retrieve the ducks he hunted. The Earl referred to his pack of pooches as his “Labrador dogs” in reference to their home region, and the name stuck as their popularity grew.
In the early 19th century the Earl of Malmesbury began bringing the dogs to his English estate and trained them to retrieve the ducks he hunted. The Earl referred to his pack of pooches as his “Labrador dogs” in reference to their home region, and the name stuck as their popularity grew.
Aug 19, 2011
Happy Friday
Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor.
It would be a tragedy not to be able to dream about a Happy Friday!
It would be a tragedy not to be able to dream about a Happy Friday!
What is the Dow Jones
Charles Dow was a legendary newspaper mogul and co-founder of The Wall Street Journal. The average is named after Dow and one of his business associates, statistician Edward Jones. In 1896, Dow created the first version of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The idea was to monitor the health of the business sector by tracking the performance of the country’s 12 largest firms. The Dow was originally measured in dollars, and accountants averaged the 12 stock prices. The first Industrial Average on record was $40.94. When the firms were doing well, that average went up; when they performed poorly, the Dow went down.
The measuring system has become more sophisticated over the years. The modern index includes 30 companies, and the Dow has to account for things like stock splits and spin-offs. The value of the Dow is not the actual average of the prices of its component stocks, but rather the sum of the component prices divided by a divisor, which changes whenever one of the component stocks has a stock split or stock dividend, so as to generate a consistent value for the index. Because of these adjustments, the Dow is now measured in points rather than dollars. A single dollar increase in any of its current members’ share prices causes the Dow to rise by about seven points.
A three-person committee, including the managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, handpicks the companies, looking for stocks with strong reputations, solid growth, and interest from a broad pool of investors. Of the original 12 companies selected, only General Electric is still in the pool. The 'industrial' in the average’s name is a throwback to the original companies. The Dow remains one of the best indicators of the overall health of the U.S. economy. Lately, the Dow is slipping, but hopefully will never get back down to 40.94.
The measuring system has become more sophisticated over the years. The modern index includes 30 companies, and the Dow has to account for things like stock splits and spin-offs. The value of the Dow is not the actual average of the prices of its component stocks, but rather the sum of the component prices divided by a divisor, which changes whenever one of the component stocks has a stock split or stock dividend, so as to generate a consistent value for the index. Because of these adjustments, the Dow is now measured in points rather than dollars. A single dollar increase in any of its current members’ share prices causes the Dow to rise by about seven points.
A three-person committee, including the managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, handpicks the companies, looking for stocks with strong reputations, solid growth, and interest from a broad pool of investors. Of the original 12 companies selected, only General Electric is still in the pool. The 'industrial' in the average’s name is a throwback to the original companies. The Dow remains one of the best indicators of the overall health of the U.S. economy. Lately, the Dow is slipping, but hopefully will never get back down to 40.94.
Why do we say Hello
Thomas Edison wrote a letter to the president of the Telegraph Company in Pittsburgh, PA. In it, he suggested that the word, 'hello' would be a more appropriate greeting than 'ahoy', as was suggested by Alexander Graham Bell for answering the telephone. That is why we pick up the phone anywhere in the world and say: 'Hello, Allo. Alo. Bueno. Pronto. . . wazzup!
Computer Cookies
Cookies are used to save a user’s information and relay this information between your computer and a website. This is used to authenticate a user, provide easier access to password controlled sites, or save various preferences of the user. Cookies are also used to track the sites you visit as well as what you buy online, and then can be read by companies to send direct ads to you, based on your visits. There are many other uses for cookies, but they are all for the web site owners and not users.
The reason the word cookie is used seems to come from a comparison to fortune cookies – the dessert common from fast-food Chinese inside which there is a slip of paper with a fortune. Early internet programmers likely noticed the similarities of a program that saves information within its code and the fortune cookie slips of paper. Cookies are placed on your computer and you are not told. I have an aversion to anyone saving anything on my computer so I regularly delete all cookies. All browsers have a delete cookies feature.
The reason the word cookie is used seems to come from a comparison to fortune cookies – the dessert common from fast-food Chinese inside which there is a slip of paper with a fortune. Early internet programmers likely noticed the similarities of a program that saves information within its code and the fortune cookie slips of paper. Cookies are placed on your computer and you are not told. I have an aversion to anyone saving anything on my computer so I regularly delete all cookies. All browsers have a delete cookies feature.
Reduplication
Computer Cookies comes close to some familiar nonsense words that have become part of the language called reduplication, such as, heebie jeebies, okey dokey, zig zag, fuddy duddy, hocus pocus, itsy bitsy, mumbo jumbo, and more. These repeat some sound from one word and make another. Most take on their meaning from usage. I have my bling bling, but I am not trying to be hoity toity.
What's in a Name, TelePromTer
Hubert J. Schlafly Jr. was the onetime “director of television research” at 20th Century Fox. One day, in the late 1940s, he received a request from the vice president for radio and television at Fox, Irving Kahn. Kahn had been talking to a Broadway actor named Fred Barton, who told him that he had an idea for a mechanical device that could help him remember his lines. Kahn asked Schlafly if he could build the contraption.
He attached a motorized scroll inside a suitcase shell, printed half-inch letters on the scroll, and set the device next to the television camera and the teleprompter was born.
Schlafly, Kahn, and Barton all quit their jobs and founded the TelePrompTer Corp., which revolutionized not only television production, where it was first used on a soap opera. President Herbert Hoover was the first prominent politician to use a teleprompter in a speech at the 1952 Republican national convention. Later Lyndon Johnson was the first president to use one during public appearances.
He attached a motorized scroll inside a suitcase shell, printed half-inch letters on the scroll, and set the device next to the television camera and the teleprompter was born.
Schlafly, Kahn, and Barton all quit their jobs and founded the TelePrompTer Corp., which revolutionized not only television production, where it was first used on a soap opera. President Herbert Hoover was the first prominent politician to use a teleprompter in a speech at the 1952 Republican national convention. Later Lyndon Johnson was the first president to use one during public appearances.
Wiki
As you may or may not know, a wiki on the internet is a group of interconnected sites that is built from user interaction. Wikipedia, Encyclopedia Dramatica and Metapedia are all examples of this “wiki” model. WikiLeaks has recently been in the headlines for its collection of unclassified, classified information. Wikipedia is a brilliant collection of facts that are donated, then editable by anyone. The idea is that the masses will keep the information honest and correct.
In Hawaiian, “wiki wiki” means “quick.” Creator Ward Cunningham decided that a “wiki” online would be a quick way to access and manipulate vast amounts of information.
In Hawaiian, “wiki wiki” means “quick.” Creator Ward Cunningham decided that a “wiki” online would be a quick way to access and manipulate vast amounts of information.
Pants, Britches, and Trousers
A friend of mine, Bill Biermann asked me why pants and shorts are always plural while a shirt is singular. It sent me to the web, my favorite personal library. It seems that in the beginning, pants, shorts, trousers, knickers, and the like were made of two pieces of material and fastened at the waist, like modern chaps. The plural just stuck. Shirts were always made of one piece of material. So, we have one shirt and one (pair of) pants.
Incidentally, pants is short for pantaloons, which in the beginning were closer in shape to stage tights. The name comes from a Venetian character in Italian comedy, who was the butt of the clown’s jokes and who always appeared as a foolish old man wearing pantaloons. Later the word was applied to fashionable pants.
Trousers came into the language in the seventeenth century from the Gaelic trowse, a singular word for a slightly different garment and a later version of it was trews, taken to be a plural because of the final s. Breeches, or commonly britches, has always been plural and were originally warn as undergarments, then the name was given to shorter pants that ended about the knee and were fastened at the bottom with a broach or string, Breeches is really singular word that uses a plural form.
Some tailors, such as in London’s Savile Row, often refer to a trouser and the singular pant. A few fashionable tailors in the US also use the singular. I am sure they do it, just so people keep asking the question.
Incidentally, pants is short for pantaloons, which in the beginning were closer in shape to stage tights. The name comes from a Venetian character in Italian comedy, who was the butt of the clown’s jokes and who always appeared as a foolish old man wearing pantaloons. Later the word was applied to fashionable pants.
Trousers came into the language in the seventeenth century from the Gaelic trowse, a singular word for a slightly different garment and a later version of it was trews, taken to be a plural because of the final s. Breeches, or commonly britches, has always been plural and were originally warn as undergarments, then the name was given to shorter pants that ended about the knee and were fastened at the bottom with a broach or string, Breeches is really singular word that uses a plural form.
Some tailors, such as in London’s Savile Row, often refer to a trouser and the singular pant. A few fashionable tailors in the US also use the singular. I am sure they do it, just so people keep asking the question.
John D. Rockefeller
Two months before his high school graduation, history's first recorded billionaire, John D. Rockefeller, Sr., dropped out to take business courses at Folsom Mercantile College. He founded the Standard Oil Company in 1870, made his billions before the company was broken up by the government for being a monopoly, and spent his last 40 years giving away his riches, primarily to causes related to health and education. This high school dropout helped millions get a good education.
Recovery.Gov
The government has a mobile app for your iPhone that shows details of how the stimulus money is and is not being spent. It also has many other details on the web site for your reading pleasure. Did you know that over a hundred billion dollars from the Stimulus has still not been spent?
Aug 13, 2011
The Eyes Have It
Do you remember in the early days of TV that many studies predicted that children would ruin their eyesight by sitting too close to the TV. Those studies have long since been debunked as they proved to be false.
Now, a new study shows that habitual smartphone usage dulls vision as users generally hold their devices too close to their eyes. The study says people hold papers and magazines 16 inches away from their eyes, but smartphones at 14 inches. One ophthalmologist suggested that people get reading glasses. Hmmm. . .
Now, a new study shows that habitual smartphone usage dulls vision as users generally hold their devices too close to their eyes. The study says people hold papers and magazines 16 inches away from their eyes, but smartphones at 14 inches. One ophthalmologist suggested that people get reading glasses. Hmmm. . .
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