The Roaming BoomersFriday Photo – Butterfly at the Desert Botanical Garden
I captured this at the Desert Botanical Garden’s Butterfly House.
Baby Boomers, Smartphones, Travel Apps, and Your Privacy
I’m about to launch into a prolonged series on some of the exciting travel apps that are becoming available for our smartphones.
However, before we lay awake at night dreaming of all the cool things we can do on our Droids, iPhones, and Blackberrys, we should take a moment to contemplate some of the privacy concerns that are surfacing in the technology world.
You see, that free application isn’t really free.
Chances are very high that in exchange for playing a game slinging Angry Birds, or taking advantage of a Groupon deal, they are in-fact selling information taken from your smartphone to data-mining companies.
Now, the simple fact of the matter is, you can’t do a darn thing about it. Your choice is to accept the intrusion into your privacy, or not to download the app.
I suspect that we will see lawmakers get involved in this situation, but for now, it’s down-loader beware!
Here’s a recent video from the folks at The Wall Street Journal on this very subject.
We’re Gaga Over San Francisco’s Blue Bottle Coffee
Blue Bottle Coffee ~ San Francisco, California – When we were preparing our trip to San Francisco, we went to our vast network of subscribers, fans, and friends to inquire about must see/do types of things.
Immediately percolating from the crowd were euphoric commendations for Blue Bottle Coffee.
Please understand, these were not just folks saying, “while you’re there you should” type suggestions. No. These suggestions were more akin to pining and lamenting as folks daydreamed about the day they had their first taste of San Francisco Blue Bottle Coffee.
With all the hubbub over this coffee, we arose on a brisk San Francisco Saturday morning, and made our way to the Blue Bottle Coffee location in San Francisco’s famous Ferry Market.
As we crossed the street to the market, we were serenaded by the guy in this short video, followed by the sweetest words imaginable to a couple of roaming baby boomers yet to have their morning caffeine fix.
I can still hear her voice, “do you want a latte“?
Not so fast, Missy, I thought to myself, and then I proclaimed, “I want to sample the best of Blue Bottle Coffee“. Immediately, from behind the steaming coffee machines, a guy called out, “then you want the Gibraltar“.
He then went on to explain that the Gibraltar (pictured above) was an off-menu item, and featured equal parts of their organic espresso and steamed organic milk.
“Sign me up“, I said, and immediately he went to work pounding, pouring, making swishy sounds from steel machines, and proudly set a large shot glass of caffeinated wonderfulness in front of me.
I took a sip of this steaming hot nectar and immediately my eyebrows raised, my mouth puckered just the slightest from the faint bitterness of the bean, and my eyes rolled back in my sockets from pure glee.
Wow! That’s good!
As you have probably by now surmised, The Roaming Boomers® are gaga about Blue Bottle Coffee. When you travel to San Francisco, you absolutely must get yourself some!
Nude Avatar for Airline Screenings Begins Testing by Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
After many months of protests from the U.S. airline traveling public, it appears that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has come up with Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) software that doesn’t create an image of our genitals while doing airline security screenings.
This software, when it encounters a potential threat, produces a nude avatar rather than a graphic nude depiction of every individual. Furthermore, if there is no threat, a simple blank green screen is produced that proclaims “OK”.
If the initial tests are successful, then all the privacy concerns go out the door and those TSA security screeners peeking at our genitals behind closed doors can stop the intrusion.
The software will be tested at Las Vegas McCarran International Airport (LAS) starting yesterday, February 1, and at Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) in the very near future.
This appears to be a far more logical solution to everyone’s privacy concerns.
What do you think?
Help Wanted – Social Media Assistant
Social Media Assistant
The Roaming Boomers® is an online, luxury travel website working towards becoming the world’s quintessential online resource for luxury baby boomer travelers.
Rather than merely pointing to a list of luxury properties, we actually visit luxury properties around the world. We sleep in their beds, eat their cuisine, visit their spas, swim in their pools, and report back to our subscribers our experience.
In addition to this we offer travel news, travel gadget reviews, and are soon to offer a “rewards club” where our subscribers can get exclusive travel deals and win cool stuff!
Further, we are actively building communities on Facebook and Twitter.
Currently, the proprietors (David & Carol Porter) are filling all functions of the enterprise. However, in order to spend more time in owner-type duties, we must get some help.
The duties of Social Media Assistant include, but are not limited to:
- Daily communication/assignments from owners.
- Ability to work within, and accomplish deadlines.
- Absolute integrity.
- Possess strong writing skills
- Possess social media skills to include: blog postings, Facebook postings, Twitter postings, as well as uploading skills to sites like YouTube, Flickr, and more.
- Possess skills to create blog postings that will include various multi-media such as YouTube videos, and properly optimized photographs.
- Possess strong skills to optimize photographs taken by owners for inclusion into website.
- Possess strong skills to compose video presentations to include underlying music scores, optimized photographs, as well as various pieces of b-roll.
It is essential that the successful candidate be proficient using the following programs:
- WordPress
- iPhoto
- iMovie
- Photoshop
Note: more advanced versions are acceptable for use, but all owners originals are to be stored in our Mac environment.
Compensation is negotiable with experience. We are open to speaking with those who perform these duties for a variety of companies as well as those who would like to focus on our company and potentially grow with us.
Please note that we are not looking for an employee, but are looking for a subcontractor relationship.
We invite you to explore our website at theroamingboomers.com, and be certain to explore our growing “In the Media” section.
We thought it important to also share with you some of the critical industry benchmarks we have earned thus far:
- Hubspot Grade = 94. We score higher than 94% of ranked websites!
- Alexa Ranking = 628,818. We are in the top 2.02% of all websites!
- Klout Score = 55. We have earned “specialist”. According to Klout, this makes our advice second to none!
We are very excited as our company continues to garner industry respect, and as we continue building value for the many thousands of luxury, baby boomer travelers we look forward to serving.
If you would like to become an active participant in our success, please send your resume/credentials to david@theroamingboomers.com
Items we would like to see along with your resume:
- Samples of your blog posting ability.
- Samples of your photographic/photoshop skills.
- Samples of your experience with iMovie, and/or other such programs.
- Samples of your writing skills.
We look forward to hearing from you soon!
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