As of this past Saturday, my brother is now a married man. He and his wife live in California, and I spent Halloween attending their wedding and the past week visiting with my family in that state. I am happy I was able to take a week off from my day job and spend it with my relatives for the occasion. It was a beautiful ceremony and a fun reception and party, and within a few weeks, the new couple will be traveling to Costa Rica for their honeymoon.
The wedding was on Halloween, but costumes were not required.
I was happy to find a great deal on airfare for the cross-country travel. Delta Airlines offered a rate of $250 including tax for the round trip travel from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport. This rate is about $100 less than the lowest rate I have ever paid for a trip for the Philadelphia or New York area to the Los Angeles area and several hundred dollars less than the typical rate.
In order to qualify for this low rate, I had to make a few sacrifices:
JFK is not my preferred airport. Either Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) or Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) are more convenient.- When checking in for departure online, I was charged $15 for checking a bag in addition to my carry-on luggage.
- After arriving at the airport, checking my luggage, and proceeding through security, I was directed towards a shuttle bus to take us to our gate at a different terminal.
- On the flight, we are treated to amenities like a full-featured, personal media center but if we want a meal we would need to pay at least $8.
- The seats on the flight offer less legroom than I am used to from other airlines like JetBlue and Continental. By the time I booked the flight, exit rows and bulkhead seats were unavailable.
- LAX is not my preferred airport, either. A better choice for the Los Angeles area, where my brother lives, is Long Beach Airport (LGB). When visiting my mother, I would prefer John Wayne Airport (SNA) in Orange County.
- Unable to check in online in advance for the return trip, I was charged $20 for having a bag checked. I also left a tip for curbside check-in.
Considering the price was half of what I might otherwise pay for a trip to California, I was willing to put up with a few annoyances. Although I like JetBlue, I feel no particular loyalty to any one company. I do not travel enough for frequent flier rewards to have any impact on my purchasing behavior.
Do you have a favorite or preferred airline or airport? Do you stick to your favorites or are you willing to compromise on comfort for a great airfare?
Photo credit: Hong Kong dear Edward
Most of the time when you hear the term “facial recognition,” it’s used by people trying to attract you to a new digital camera, or software, or a plugin for Facebook.
On an individual level, it’s little more than a way to help your camera focus, or group and search your photos. But if you’re using it on a larger group level, you can make it do all sorts of nifty, and possibly dangerous, things.
Deterring Crime
For example, in Indiana recently, a convicted forger was caught trying to establish a sixth fake identity by a facial recognition system used by the motor vehicle department.
Airports are trying to use it to catch suspicious people when they appear in huge crowds. It shouldn’t shock you if I say that airports detain many people every week for doing nothing wrong. I’m a little worried that this would lead to even more false alarms.
YouTube has got a way to detect celebrity faces in their videos, which can help them, among other things, find videos that are breaking copyright law. There’s no reason, however, that it can’t also learn your face, and find you in other videos it has indexed.
Convenience
Some Windows-only laptops are using it to bypass the need for a startup password. I’m eagerly looking forward to the day when it might replace all my passwords, but there are a few kinks to work out first: most importantly, the Internet is not particularly secure, and I wouldn’t want just anybody to be able to activate my computer’s camera and look around. It’d have to be more of a system where, say, the bank’s Web site asks the local machine, “are you sure it’s really him?” and my computer replies Yes or No.
But if we could get that to work, I’d be a much happier man. I sit down, I’m logged in. I walk away, I’m logged out. Instantaneous, foolproof (?) security.
Toshiba is also working on creating fewer needs for drivers to take their hands off the wheel. One line from this article is kind of ridiculous, though:
Toshiba has found a way to make changing the radio station in your car as easy as blinking your eye.
That had better not be the trigger for changing the music. We, as a people, do a lot of blinking.
Beyond the Face
Microsoft is wanting to combine face recognition with voice recognition and movement tracking (and maybe more) with their new Project Natal. I am so far a big fan of the XBox experience, even if Windows drives me batty, so I have high hopes for this. I can’t help but think that background noises, like a dog barking, will cause a significant amount of trouble.
Conclusion
My American dream relies heavily on the notion of being able to go through an entire work week without anything in my pockets, or hanging off my belt. If facial recognition can be proven to be more than, say, 99% effective, sign me up.
But it also depends on a lot of trust in the authorities we place in power. I’ve seen corrupt behavior. You probably have, too. Do you imagine these technologies will help or hurt?
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