I have been traveling quite a bit lately and stumbled across this website recently in my research of collecting AAdvantage miles when flying American Airlines (Let me first start and say that I am not a huge fan of American Airlines anymore but I have to fly a lot and I tend to end up on their flights. Alaska Airlines, a OneWorld partner of American, however is a fantastic airline).
I won't go into detail since FewMiles did such a great job of it. My personal experience so far:
Call AA, asked if a Gold Elite Challenge was still available. The always helpful and friendly AAdvantage staff member stated yes and read me the basic rules. She also emailed me a copy as well. I have 90 days to get 5000 qualifying points and if successful will get Gold Elite on American up to February 2010! Not bad. It shouldn't be too tough and almost wish I would have tried the Platinum Elite Challenge. Need to start small first. I will let you know how this goes if I am successful.
UPDATE: Not that time has passed and I have been traveling way too much, I have reached the 5K mile mark and blew past it. Holy crap...I should have done the Exec. Plat. Challenge. Oh well. No crying over spilled milk. I should buck up and be pleased I get two free bags to check and get to board with Group 1. I am about to break the 50K qualifying mile mark and will be Platinum shortly. Flying back and forth from two huge business cities has not allowed me to take advantage of the upgrade perks but hopefully with Platinum I can get a few upgrades here and there.
If you know for a fact you will be traveling 10K miles in 3 months then do the Plat challenge. It is simple and you will appreciate it for the next year and change.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
MacBreak Weekly Episode 101 Picks
leo
- chopper, 2 across, toybot diaries (iphone games)
- phoneview (allows you grab stuff off of your ihpone (except music), grab call logs, sms messages, notes)
- cinema4D v11 (rendering, logos, set mockups, animation)
- google sketchup (powerful free 3d sketching app)
MacBreak Weekly Episode 100 Picks
merlin mann
- applecore atv (macmini hack)
- backtomymac sucks
- farfinder
- savebenji's (iphone app that lets you search for products via barcode, name, etc to see price comparisons)
- iwant (iphone app that locates places near you via GPS)
- onepassword (iphone app password scrambler)
MacBreak Weekly Episode 99 Picks
Arnold Kim
- dizzybee (iphone game)
- Aurora Faint! (iphone game)
- motionX poker (iphone app)
- Bloomberg stock app (iphone app)
- splashshopper (shopping list manager/iphone app)
Monday, September 8, 2008
MacBreak Weekly Episode 98 Picks
Merlin Mann
- omnifocus (task management app)
- pandora (internet radio for the computer or iphone)
- shazam (audio app that can record a music clip from the radio, then determine what song you just heard and give you an option to buy)
- ZenBe (to do list manager)
- midomi (audio iphone and web app that can recognize music like shazam)
- where! (location based iphone app)
- google iphone app
Quantum Cello
Recently listening to my RadioLab podcast, I was fortunate enough to catch some of Zoe Keating's musical creations. Check out the podcast link here or her web page here. She takes her cello along with a laptop and set of pedals to create's various musical loops. She has two albums out currently via her website or itunes.com.
I downloaded both albums and have listened to most of the tracks. They include any and all sounds that one could make on a cello. As she plays she uses the foot pedal to add and subtract loops to her track, all the while composing a work of art. It is a true mix of old and new music, as she is classically trained but cannot perform her work without a computer near.
I downloaded both albums and have listened to most of the tracks. They include any and all sounds that one could make on a cello. As she plays she uses the foot pedal to add and subtract loops to her track, all the while composing a work of art. It is a true mix of old and new music, as she is classically trained but cannot perform her work without a computer near.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
"Spaced" - now on DVD!!!
By now, American audiences should know who Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright are. If you don't, then go to your video store and rent "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz".
Before they got famous here in the States, though, they (along with Nick Frost and the beautiful and talented Jessica Stevenson/Hynes) starred in "Spaced," one of the funniest shows I've ever seen.
There are certain times in my life when I see something that speaks to me. The first time was when I saw "Mallrats" and thought, This is the movie I should have made. Watching "Spaced" gives me that same feeling.
The writing, by Pegg and Stevenson/Hynes, talks to the geek culture that I'm proud to be a part of. There are pop culture references a plenty, but even if you don't get them, you'll still like the show.
The show starts off by introducing Tim (Pegg) and Daisy (Stevenson/Hynes), two twentysomethings who live in London, but find themselves without a place to live. They meet up in a coffee shop, and find an ad for an apartment that would be perfect, except that it's only for a professional couple. So, they pretend to be a couple to get the apartment. The usual hijinks happen when they almost get caught in their lie, and the supporting cast is great.
There's Marsha, their constantly drunk landlady. Brian, their downstairs artistic neighbor. Twist, Daisy's best friend. And Mike, Tim's best friend, played by Simon Pegg's real life best friend (and at the time, NOT an actor) Nick Frost.
The show is hilarious, and it speaks to me, because that was kinda the life I was living at that time, being twenty-something and loving comic books and hating "The Phantom Menace". And Edgar Wright's camerawork is gorgeous, much better than anything on American TV. The show is shot in the style of a horror movie, and it's because of one of these episodes (Episode 1.3 "Art"), that "Shaun of the Dead" got made.
You can get the whole series on DVD now, and I'd recommend doing just that, especially if you've seen the other two movies.
Before they got famous here in the States, though, they (along with Nick Frost and the beautiful and talented Jessica Stevenson/Hynes) starred in "Spaced," one of the funniest shows I've ever seen.
There are certain times in my life when I see something that speaks to me. The first time was when I saw "Mallrats" and thought, This is the movie I should have made. Watching "Spaced" gives me that same feeling.
The writing, by Pegg and Stevenson/Hynes, talks to the geek culture that I'm proud to be a part of. There are pop culture references a plenty, but even if you don't get them, you'll still like the show.
The show starts off by introducing Tim (Pegg) and Daisy (Stevenson/Hynes), two twentysomethings who live in London, but find themselves without a place to live. They meet up in a coffee shop, and find an ad for an apartment that would be perfect, except that it's only for a professional couple. So, they pretend to be a couple to get the apartment. The usual hijinks happen when they almost get caught in their lie, and the supporting cast is great.
There's Marsha, their constantly drunk landlady. Brian, their downstairs artistic neighbor. Twist, Daisy's best friend. And Mike, Tim's best friend, played by Simon Pegg's real life best friend (and at the time, NOT an actor) Nick Frost.
The show is hilarious, and it speaks to me, because that was kinda the life I was living at that time, being twenty-something and loving comic books and hating "The Phantom Menace". And Edgar Wright's camerawork is gorgeous, much better than anything on American TV. The show is shot in the style of a horror movie, and it's because of one of these episodes (Episode 1.3 "Art"), that "Shaun of the Dead" got made.
You can get the whole series on DVD now, and I'd recommend doing just that, especially if you've seen the other two movies.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Google Chrome; UPDATED
I happened to see in the USA Today that Google offered up their beta of the new web browser. I hit the website today and downloaded the app. Fortunately my admin locked laptop let me install it with no worries. The videos on the download page are not terribly helpful but the comic is quite insightful and perfectly Google. I am a fan of many google apps and so far recommend this one as well. It is easy, straightforward, and the autocomplete for search, favorites, recent searches, etc is a very nice feature.
One cool feature is that you can grab the tab and move it around or pull it out and make it a new window. I also like how it makes the address bar yellow/gold when you are on a https page. I travel often and need assurance that I am within a SSH connection. I look forward to when they port this over to the Mac....not sure when that will happen as some of Google's betas stay beta for a long time.
I am pretty sold on Firefox 3 currently, so this version will have to really stand out for me to convert. Hopefully Steve Gibson will verify how robust this app is regarding security and that will make a difference in my browser of choice as well. Curious to see about how this app works with plug-ins, since my Firefox 3 is full of helpful plugins.
UPDATE
UPDATE
First drawback of Chrome: Pandora.com normally runs a lot of doubleclick adds that I never realized until I used Pandora on Chrome. The noscript add on for Firefox always blocked the extraneous double click crap which currently Chrome cannot. I realize Pandora make’s their money on ads, but I don’t want to see them, especially from doubleclick. I realize noscript is necessary since I choose to opt-in to any javascript in Firefox. Maybe Chrome is inherently more stable and secure and won’t let any malicious JavaScript overtake my computer. I still have become very used to controlling my web experience and only allowing the scripting necessary to view the pages I surf to. I enjoy blocking almost all advertising using noscript. BTW – have I stated how much I love noscript lately?
Will have to use firefox for Pandora from now on.MacBreak Weekly Episode 97 Picks
Merlin Mann
- 1Password @ www.agilewebsolutions.com/products/1Password (password manager)
- Quicksilver @ www.blacktree.com (check out the new version now that it is open source)
- RooSwitch @ www.Roobasoft.com (app profile catcher)
- RooVid @ www.Roobasoft.com
- www.mogulus.com (IPTV streaming site)
- amadeus pro @ www.hairersoft.com/AmadeusPro (audio app)
Leo
- Tweetdeck @ www.tweetdeck.com
- tworl @ www.tworl.com
MacBreak Weekly Episode 96 Picks
Jeff Smith
- Whatsize @ www.id-design.com (finds what is lurking on your Mac)
- appzapper @ www.AppZapper.com (simple uninstaller)
- burger king gold card
- Cocktail @ www.maintain.se/cocktail (all around mac tweaker)
- Visigami google app @ code.google.com/p/visigami (app and screen saver; pulls pics from flickr, picasa, etc)
- Silouette/Roto Effects @ www.silhouettefx.com/roto (green screen app/rotoscoper)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)