Victoria Johnson | May 15th, 2012
No one's supposed to get lost these days. Smartphones have maps on themand compasses, too. But phones have a way of losing their signals when you most need them, and then there are the times you simply can't figure out which street on a crowded map that flipping little blue dot is indicating.
Or let's say, you just have a really, really lousy sense of direction, and no phone or GPS system made yet can help you. That's fine! Lots of people dont have a great one. But if it makes you tense to be lost or late and you'd like to get better, well, there are ways to actually improve your sense of direction. I knowIve done it myself. let's look at situations where people frequently find themselves lost.
The basis of a good sense of direction is having a sense of where you are. Look around you and pay attention to the landmarks where you live. Collect them, and note where they are in relation to one another. Once you have collected enough, it becomes a great way to navigate around town. Remembering to "turn left when you get to the place with all the lawn flamingos" will connect in your brain the way "go.3 miles then head north" never will. I like to picture that Im engaging with a 1:1 scale map and visualize my surroundings from abovethat megachurch a block west gets a little sans-serif t, the park up ahead a big block of pale green. So when I'm moving around I have a sense of where I am in relation to where I came from and where I need to be.
When youre going somewhere new, spend some time with Google Street View and practice your routes. Visually familiarize yourself with, say, the path from the train station to your friends house, or your hotel to that cute breakfast place. Then, if youre going to stay in that new place a while, start collecting landmarks there.
I once moved overseas for a short-term work situation, and my first landmark there was a cracked wall that a car had driven into. That wall marked the exact spot that I needed to pull the Stop Requested cord on the bus. By the time the wall was patched up, it was instinct.
In everyday life, though, I carry a notebook and a writing utensil all the time (this one!). Why not? It takes up almost no space. The paper is more important than the pen here: Ive taken notes in highlighter, lipstick. Believe me, you are almost certainly going to smear that address off your hand, so best to write it down somewhere safe (and unsweaty). And do this before you leave the house: you might not have a signal or your phone might die or you might straight up forget where youre going.
If youre really serious about wanting to improve your sense of direction and dont mind dedicating some effort into it, practice makes perfect. Try orienteering! It is, essentially, competitive map reading. Straight from the Orienteering website: "In orienteering, you use a map and a compass to locate a series of checkpoints shown on a specialized topo map, choosing routeson or off trailthat will help you find all the points and get to the finish in the shortest amount of time." And you know, its not even work. I did it once and can recommend it as a possible fun afternoon date, or with friends. And your improved map reading all but guarantees you the navigator front seat on road trips.
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But then there are the situations where even a good sense of direction may not be enough or where technology may fail you. The advice here may totally seem like common sense.
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Hotel services
Hotels are classified according to the hotel size, location, target markets, levels of service.
Size - Or number of rooms
Under 150 rooms
150 to 299 rooms
300 to 600 rooms
More than 600 rooms
Target Markets
Hotel target many markets and can be classified according to the markets they attempt to attract their guests. Common type of markets include business, airport, suites, residential, resort, timeshare, casino, and conference hotels.
Business Hotels: - These hotels are the largest group of hotel types and primarily for business travelers and usually located in downtown or business districts. Business travelers find these hotels attractive. Business hotels may include complimentary newspapers, morning coffee; free local telephone calls, Breakfast etc. In addition to these facilities like access to business center, personal computer, Wi-Fi and fax machines also provided to the guest.
Airport Hotels: - These types of hotels typically target business clients, airline passengers with overnight travel layovers or cancelled flights and airline personnel. Some hotels might give free transport between hotel and airport. Another attraction of these hotels is instead of charging the guest on a daily basis guest can also pay for their room on a hourly basis.
Suite Hotels: - These kind of hotels are the latest trend and the fastest growing segments in the hotel industry. Main attraction of these hotels is guestrooms with a living room and a separate bedroom. In exchange for more complete living room suite hotels generally have fewer and more limited public areas and guest services than other hotels. This also helps keep suite hotel's guestroom prices competitive in the market.Professionals such as accountants, lawyers, business men and executives find suite hotels particularly attractive as they can work and also entertain in an area besides the bedroom.
Conference Centers: - These type of hotels focus on meeting and conferences and overnight accommodation for meeting attendees. They also provide High quality audiovisual equipments, business services, flexible seating arrangements, flipchart etc. These hotels mostly located outside the metropolitan areas and have facilities like golf, swimming pools, tennis courts, fitness centers, spas etc.
Convention Centers: - Convention hotels are larger in size compared to conference centers and likely to have more than 1500 rooms. These hotels are huge and have sufficient number of guest rooms to house all the attendees of most conventions, even the size of the meeting rooms, ball rooms, exhibit rooms are quite huge.They usually cater to convention market for state, regional, national, and international associations.
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Levels Of service
World class service: - These are also called luxury hotels; they target top business executives, entertainment celebrities, high- ranking political figures, and wealthy clientele as their primary markets. They provide upscale restaurants and lounges, concierge services and also private dining facilities. Guestrooms are oversized, heated and plush bath towels, large soaps bars, shampoo, shower caps and all amenities. Housekeeping services are given two times a day including turn-down service. Above all luxury hotels give personalized service to the guest and have a relatively high ration of staff members to guests.
Mid-Range Service: - Hotels offering mid-range service appeal it the largest segment of the travelling public. This kind of hotels does not provide elaborate service and have a adequate staffing. They also provide uniformed service, food and beverage room service, in room entertainment's and also Wi-Fi. Property may offer a specialty restaurant, coffee shop and lounge that cater to visitors as well as hotel guests. Types of guests who like to stay at these hotels are business people, individual travelers, and families. Rates are lower than luxury hotels as they provide fewer services, smaller rooms and a smaller range of facilities and recreational activities.
Economy / Limited Service: These hotels provide clean, comfortable, safe, inexpensive rooms and meet the basic need of guests. Economy hotels appeal primarily to budget minded travelers who wants a room with minimum services and amenities required for comfortable stay, without unnecessary paying additional cost for costly services. The cliental of these hotels include families with children, travelling business people, backpackers, vacationers retirees etc. These types of hotels might not offer food and beverage facilities.
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: . Hotel is obliged Registered guests are obliged
Main rules in hotels
1. The hotel is only authorized to accommodate properly registered guests. For this purpose, guests are to present their valid national ID card or passport, or any other valid proof of identity to the relevant hotel employee immediately upon arrival. The hotel is to issue guests with an accommodation card immediately upon registration, which will contain the name of the hotel, the name of the guest, the room number, the price for one nights accommodation, the duration of the stay, and the time by which the room must be vacated on the last day of the stay, along with advice on keeping valuables in the hotel safe.
2. Upon arriving at the hotel, guests who are already being accommodated are obliged to prove their identity to a member of staff with a valid hotel card if requested to do so.
3. In special cases, the hotel may offer a guest accommodation other than that which has been arranged.
4. On the basis of a confirmed booking the hotel is obliged to accommodate a guest from 2.00 p.m. to 8.00 p.m. and it is obliged to reserve the room for the guest up to this time unless the booking stipulates otherwise.
5. The hotel may offer guests who ask to extend their stay a different room to the one in which they were originally accommodated.
6. The hotel is obliged for damage to items that have been taken into the hotel by or for an accommodated person.
8. The hotel is only obliged without limits for jewels, money or other valuables in the event that these items were accepted by the hotel for safekeeping or if they were damaged or lost as a result of the actions of a hotel employee.
9. The right to compensation for damage must be exercised at the hotel without undue delay, but no later that within 15 days of the aggrieved party learning of this damage.
10. Guests are to use their rooms for the agreed period. If the period of accommodation is not stipulated in advance, guests are to check out by 10.00 a.m. on the last day of their stay at the latest, and they are obliged to have vacated the room by this time. If a guest fails to do this, the hotel is entitled to bill him/her for another days stay
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11. Guests may not move furnishings, or interfere with the electrical network or any other installations in the hotel rooms or on the premises of the hotel without the consent of the hotel management.
12. A guest may not use his or her own electrical appliances, which are not used for the guests personal hygiene (electric razors, massage devices, hairdryers, etc), in the hotel, and especially not in the hotel room.
13. Lounges and common rooms are available for receiving visitors. A guest may only receive visitors with the consent of the appropriate hotel employee during the period from 8.00 a.m. to 10.00 p.m. upon entering this visit in the visitors book at the reception area.
14. If the guest becomes ill or injured, the hotel is to ensure the provision of medical assistance or, as the case may be, to arrange for the guest to be taken to hospital.
15. Upon departing, guests are obliged to turn off all water faucets, as well as the lights in the room and its facilities, and to shut the door as they leave.
16. For security reasons, it is not appropriate to leave children under 10 years of age without adult supervision in the hotel room or other areas on the hotel premises.
17. Dogs and other animals can only be accommodated in the hotel on condition that their owner proves that they are healthy and pose no health risk. The cost of accommodating animals is billed according to the applicable price list.
18. Guests are to observe nighttime peace and quiet in the period from 10.00 p.m. to 7.00 a.m., i.e. they are not to disturb the other guests accommodated in the hotel.
21. Guests are obliged to pay for any damage they cause, if they are unable to prove that they are not responsible for this damage.
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Instructions for booking tickets through Internet:
- For travel by air, visit one of the major airline travel booking sites to book airline tickets online. Popular sites include Priceline.com, Orbitz.com, Hotwire.com, Expedia.com and Travelocity.com, though there are of course others. If you want to book directly with an airline, the top airline sites are aa.com, jetblueairways.com, united.com, delta.com, continental.com, iflyswa.com, and USair.com. Enter your destination along with the trip departure and return date to find a listing of flights (coach, first class or business class). When you find a time and fare that fits your needs, select the flight and purchase it online with your credit card.
- If you want to travel by bus, go to Greyhound.com or PeterPanBus.com to book bus tickets online for trips in the United States and Canada. Explore the e-fares, online specials and advance ticket deals available. You will be given a long list of departure times for the date you choose---select a time and purchase the ticket with your credit card. Download the e-ticket from your email account and print it to be presented at the gate where you will depart. (They will ask for your e-ticket.) The bus driver or clerk assisting him will scan the bar code on your ticket.
- Rail tickets can be found and purchased at Amtrak.com for local or cross-country train trips. Enter your city of departure and destination, indicate whether you are traveling one way or round-trip and the desired travel date(s) to make fare and schedule choices. Decide if you want to travel in a seat or book a cabin for a long trip. Check the "Hot Deals" section of the website for special fares for travel in certain regions, like the Northeast and Midwest. You can also schedule a multicity trip with more than one stop using the Amtrak site.
- If you are looking for cruise options, go to Expedia.com, Carnival.com, Priceline.com or CruiseCheap.com to book cruise tickets online. Decide where you want to sail to and then choose your closest departure city. You will be shown available months for cruise travel and the duration of the available trips before booking with a credit card. Most rates are based on double occupancy. You may also need to book an adjoining flight for travel to the cruise's departure point or from its return port after the trip.
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Multitasking
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From the earliest time people have been trying to do several things simultaneously. They can read a book, cook dinner, talk on the phone, and do many other things at the same time. As cars have become available, the time of multitasking has increased: people drive, listen to the radio, eat, and smoke in their cars at the same time.
Now an arsenal of new technology (from notebook computers to cellular phones and portable televisions) makes it possible for everyone to multitask all day.
The computer industry introduced the word "multitasking" into the vocabulary. Mainframe computers that handled networks were the original multitaskers. Apple's and Microsoft's software turned millions of personal computers into multitaskers. Today millions of people can set their personal computers to multitask while they are themselves multitasking: talking on the phone, receiving faxes, and looking through newspapers at the same time.
While multitasking is not bad for computers, it may be a bad thing for some people. Psychologists say it is possible for the human brain to process two or more tasks at the same time, but only one of them receives full attention. Multitasking makes people's stressful lives even more stressful. Experts say that although a lot of people believe that multitasking enchances their productivity, in fact it can reduce it.
Because of the limitation of the human brain, multitasking can lead to many mistakes. Indeed, a person who is doing several things at the same time may put the wrong number in a spreadsheet or send a message to the wrong e-mail address. Moreover, people on the other end of the line don't usually like to talk to a person who is doing something else while talking to them. It may alienate the people from the multitasker.
Multitaskers also like to do more than one thing at once even in their leisure time. They cannot watch television without reading a newspaper or have dinner without watching TV.
Now multitasking takes place nearly everywhere. A lot of businessmen and managers are never far from their notebook computers and cellular telephones. They are almost always doing two or three things at once, driving and dialing, speaking and typing on their computers. On airplanes they are using their notebook computers to answer e-mail messages. While driving, they are speaking on their cellular phones. "Why wait?" they ask. "That's the world we live in right now".
Answer the following questions:
1. What is multitasking?
2. Are you a multitasker?
3. How many things are you doing at the same time: at your office, at home, when you are driving to your office or home, when you are watching TV or having dinner?
4. Would you say its dangerous to be a multitasker? Why?
5. Is a multitasker do many things only at work or even at home? Give examples.?
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What is the Internet?
While it may seem like a simple question, defining the Internet isnteasy. Because unlike any other technology, the Internet can be whatever we make it. We can shape it. We can mold it. But most importantly, we can use it to connect people, communities, and countries around the world.
Some thirty years ago, the RAND Corporation, America's foremost Cold War think-tank, faced a strange strategic problem. How could the US authorities successfully communicate after a nuclear war?
Postnuclear America would need a command-and-control network, linked from city to city, state to state, base to base. But no matter how thoroughly that network was armored or protected, its switches and wiring would always be vulnerable to the impact of atomic bombs. A nuclear attack would reduce any conceivable network to tatters.
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And how would the network itself be commanded and controlled? Any central authority, any network central citadel, would be an obvious and immediate target for an enemy missile.
During the 60s, this intriguing concept of a decentralized, blastproof, packet-switching network was kicked around by RAND, MIT and UCLA. The National Physical Laboratory in Great Britain set up the first test network on these principles in 1968. Shortly afterward, the Pentagon's Advanced Research Projects Agency decided to fund a larger, more ambitious project in the USA. The nodes of the network were to be high-speed supercomputers (or what passed for supercomputers at the time). These were rare and valuable machines which were in real need of good solid networking, for the sake of national research-and-development projects.
How does it work? The Internet works because open standards allow every network to connect to every other network. This is what makes it possible for anyone to create content, offer services, and sell products without requiring permission from a central authority. It levels the playing field for everyone and its the reason why we have a rich diversity of applications and services that many of us enjoy today.
Unlike the telephone network, which for years in most countries, was run by a single company, the global Internet consists of tens of thousands of interconnected networks run by service providers, individual companies, universities, governments, and others.
The evolution of the Internet is happening now. More than just its infrastructure, how we use it and where we use it to connect are in a state of continuous change.
Internet network security is significantly facilitated by a number of Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) in eight countries and within a number of service provider operations and private networks. They were formed to continually monitor the network for security incidents, serve as a repository for information about such incidents, and develop responsive advisories.
Internet Ecosystem is the term used to describe the organizations and communities that help the Internet work and evolve. These organizations share common values for the open development of the Internet.
The Internet Ecosystem term implies that the rapid and continued development and adoption of Internet technologies can be attributed to the involvement of a broad range of actors; open, transparent, and collaborative processes; and the use of products and infrastructure with dispersed ownership and control.
The Internet as we know it today has been the basis of one of the most amazing technological revolutions in history. It has brought the world closer together as a boundless platform for human expression, creation and innovation.
But the Internet is facing perhaps the greatest challenge in its brief history: the distributed management of the Internet is threatened by regulation, take over and inaction.
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