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You’re becoming a little too unstable these days. You fritz out and lock up at the first sign of Flash, forcing me to minimize you to the taskbar and restore in the middle of a YouTube video or animation, or if all else fails, restart you. Do you see the problem there, Firefox? Do you? These interruptions are unaccepta... |
At one point I’ve had to reinstall you after you decided to crash and burn. One lousy crash doing something that was pretty damn simple, if I can remember correctly, and you keeled over, died and ultimately prevented me from firing you up again. Cue a fresh download (via Internet Explorer, which I would very much like ... |
Get your act together, Firefox, I’m considering switching to Chrome at this rate. And soon. |
Cool your jets, this isn’t another Fifty Shades post. What it is, though, is a more personal gripe about myself. More specifcally, this: |
Grey Hair FTLThat is my hair. See how it looks all grey and wiry and like some inhuman genetic experiment between Worzel Gummidge and Rogue’s (of the X-Men) Nice ‘n Easy? That’s because it is grey, it is wiry and it does look like Mr. Gummidge made out with out-of-date hair colouring shampoo and forgot to wash it out p... |
Tell a lie, I expected that I would start greying from an early age. I take after my dad for a number of things, grey hair and a temper shorter than a fly’s genitals included. What I hadn’t counted on was how grotty and unmanageable it would become. I do attack it with a comb, but after half an hour outside it’s all ov... |
I have also considered getting it coloured, but I don’t want my natural black or brown or whatever the hell it was before it started draining away from my hair. I thought about maybe a dark shade of red, but I’m not sure how my parents would take that. Plus, if I need to seek out part-time employment, that might kill m... |
But there’s no way in Hell, Hades or whatever afterlife you believe in that I’m chopping it all off. Don’t get me started on my facial hair. I’ve started shaving it off because the sorry excuse for a beard I had, which was as wiry as my hair, was itching something awful. Only thing is, now the emerging stubble is irrit... |
Blown It |
Link because the Hartlepool Mail’s player of choice sucks as hard as their video editing. |
One of the local papers in my area, the Hartlepool Mail, has taken to posting news videos on their website of late. Trouble is, videos like this one… well, they suck, to be honest. I’m no expert at video editing but, truth be told, you don’t need to be to pick out some of the most glaring flaws. |
Let’s start with the audio. Through a combination of the mumbly voiceover (SPEAK. UP.) and a criminal failure to tone down the volume of the demolition video itself, it’s a struggle to understand a single word. And I’ve lived in and around this area all my freaking life. An equal fail was allowing ambient and crowd noi... |
As for the video, it’s some sloppy cutting. The attempt to close the gap between the countdown to zero and the actual explosion slaps the viewer in the face with its blatant obviousness. Other cuts are even more disorientating. |
Honestly, I’m not expecting Hollywood-grade here, but dammit, Hartlepool Mail, you -can- do better. Far better. Hire freelancers if need be. |
USA | UK | Australia | Canada |
Q&A with 'Heads in Beds' author Jacob Tomsky |
A hotelier airs the hospitality industry's dirty laundry in his acerbic tell-all book |
Before you book your next hotel room, there are a few things you should know: The front desk may put a hold on your credit card for the entire cost of your stay, who you tip is more important than how much you tip -- oh, and your minibar glass was probably polished with Pledge. |
Don't be alarmed; it's nothing personal. It's just the way things roll behind the scenes in luxury hospitality, surely one of the craziest industries in the world. |
Just ask Jacob Tomsky, a military brat and 10-year hotelier who worked his way up from parking valet to Manhattan front desk overlord, with a particularly distasteful detour through housekeeping. Friendly tip: don't make direct skin contact with a hotel remote. Ever. |
Q&A with author Jacob Tomsky |
Heads in Beads |
Photo: Michael Lionstar |
In "Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality," hotelier Jacob Tomsky offers up a candid account of how a luxury hotel is run and paints a vivid portrait of the people who run it. |
Tomsky spills the chocolate-covered espresso beans and airs the industry's 1,000-thread-count dirty laundry in his acerbic tell-all book, "Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality." It's so authentic, there's no 13th chapter. |
Part Valentine, part poison-pen rant, "Heads in Beds" unveils the (mostly) human beings behind the front desk, in the bellman's uniform and maid's apron, and the hardworking stiffs with the power to turn your stay into the time of your life or a weekend at the Bates Motel. |
Here's one hotel tour you won't find on any concierge list. |
Q: What's our biggest misconception when we enter a luxury hotel? |
A: Thinking that it's some sort of perfunctory operation where everything is decided. Actually, there is a lot going on. We're all moving around and everyone you deal with affects your stay. Because it's not a Monday-through-Friday job, the person who helps you today might not be there tomorrow or in five minutes. You'... |
Q: Tipping, of course, is the currency of this wonderful, temporary land of luxury. What's the secret of doing it right? |
A: Tipping is such a strange phenomenon. Basically, it's kindness manifested. If you walk into a four- or five-star hotel, there's a lot of service going on between the valet, the doorman, the bellman and housekeeping, which is an incredibly hard job. So it's very nice to tip them. If there's room service, you tip them... |
Q: You also suggest slipping a moderate-to-large bill to the front desk agent at check-in. Why? |
A: Because that will directly improve your stay in the form of an upgrade, or at least get you a room away from the ice machines and elevators and something with a big closet and a big bathroom. And you now have an ally -- not just any ally but a strong ally because front desk agents have quite a bit of power. When you... |
Q: Most of us seek out the concierge for local dining and entertainment suggestions. What's wrong with that? |
A: The good thing about the concierge is if you want to eat at a nicer restaurant or see a play or other high-end cultural event, the concierge has most likely had a first-hand experience at that. On the other hand, there's a lot going on at the concierge desk that people don't know. For instance, they receive kickback... |
Q: Who should we consult instead? |
A: People travel to a city to get to know that city and the bellmen and the doormen, almost 100 percent of the time, are born and raised in that city. When they give you a recommendation of what they like to do in this town, you can understand that it's really from the heart and that's what they think you would enjoy b... |
Q: Hell hath no fury like a hotel worker scorned. What are some of the ways that an overlooked or insufficient tip is likely to come back to haunt us? |
A: There is sort of a culture of revenge. I think every service industry has something like that. What sets the hotel industry apart is we have quite a bit more access to your personal life. It ranges from the classic, such as throwing your luggage against the wall and damaging your personal property, to playing around... |
Q: Speaking of dirty little secrets, your peek inside housekeeping is pretty disturbing. |
A: Housekeeping is an incredibly detail-oriented job. Cleaning 10-12 rooms a day and getting everything perfect 365 days a year is absolutely impossible. We're human beings. It's a tough job. I mention the mini-bar. OK, sometimes they clean the glasses with furniture polish to get them spot-free. They're not provided w... |
Q: You maintain that a hotel TV remote is virtually impossible to clean. |
A: When you start thinking about what happens with that TV remote, it does change your idea about it. Then again, you probably rode in a taxi cab to the hotel, and I guarantee you that taxicab is much dirtier than anything you might find in your hotel room. And I'm pretty sure it wasn't disinfected. When I was in house... |
Q: One of the ongoing challenges of a front desk agent is dealing with guests who are irate because their credit card is suddenly being declined all over town. Why does that happen? |
A: When we're authorizing your credit card for the whole stay, it's important to know that a hold is going to be put on it, and that hold is usually going to be the room and tax complete, plus generally about $100 a night for incidentals, just to make sure that if you're using the minibar or in-room dining, we have tha... |
Q: How can travelers avoid that problem? |
A: I would recommend knowing what your credit card limit is and having a good idea of how much is going to be put on hold. Also, be aware that you almost always can change the credit card you pay with at the end of the stay unless you've prepaid on an Internet site. It's almost impossible to get your money back if you'... |
It's almost impossible to get your money back if you've prepaid. |
Q: Is there a stigma associated with guests who booked online? |
A: From the hotel's perspective, guests who book online are already concerned about saving money, so they're probably not going to be ordering breakfast every morning served in the room. They also chose the hotel based on a list sorted by price, which means they didn't say, "Oh, I'm going to Chicago. I'm going to stay ... |
Q: Is there an equalizer strategy with the Donald Trump crowd? |
A: You can absolutely book over the Internet, but the best thing you can do for yourself is to call ahead a couple days before you arrive -- and I mean call the hotel and talk to a front desk agent -- and find out what your reservation looks like. These bulk reservations often come through to the hotel with zero reques... |
Q: I'm guessing we might want to continue that relationship in person, right? |
A: Absolutely. If the desk agent you talk to seems really nice, get their name and ask them, "Are you going to be there when I check in? I really appreciate your help and I'd like to thank you in person." That tells them that this person is going to arrive, they might see you and you might be held accountable directly ... |
Q: Although you like hotel work and seem uniquely suited to it, you don't understate the emotional cost. What's the hardest part of working a luxury front desk? |
A: I've done some dirty business. It's pretty amazing what you can get away with because it's very hard to track down specific things such as who did what and when. Anything I did was all minimal, but I've known people who got caught being really out of line and were fired. Even when I was dealing with people's bad sid... |
See related: Hotels a hot spot for credit card fraud, Tipping your waiter or waitress? Ditch the credit card, pay with cash, Best bets for hotel rewards cards, |
Published: August 16, 2013 |
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Mark Steyn And Enoch Powell |
Following up on my post below, here`s more from Mark Steyn: |
“The central argument of [Steyn`s book ] America Alone is that culture trumps economics: Even assuming there was a modest economic benefit to mass immigration, would you be willing to lose your country for it? In order to keep a handful of mills open, would you want your Yorkshire town to adopt Mirpuri practices of cou... |
All I can say is that at least one member of the political class did put it like that–the Right Honourable Enoch Powell, member for Wolverhampton who said in 1968 that |
It is like watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre. “ |
Which doesn`t, of course, mean that Steyn is wrong–the rest of of Britain`s political class made a decision to ignore Powell`s warning and condemn him for having uttered it. He predicted that, too: |
“Above all, people are disposed to mistake predicting troubles for causing troubles and even for desiring troubles: “if only”, they love to think, “if only people wouldn`t talk about it, it probably wouldn`t happen”. Perhaps this habit goes back to the primitive belief that the word and the thing, the name and the obje... |
Take the 2-minute tour × |
Suppose you need to define a class which all it does is hold constants. |
public static final String SOME_CONST = "SOME_VALUE"; |
What is the preferred way of doing this? |
1. Interface |
2. Abstract Class |
3. Final Class |
Which one should I use and why? |
Clarifications to some answers: |
Enums - I'm not going to use enums, I am not enumerating anything, just collecting some constants which are not related to each other in any way. |
Interface - I'm not going to set any class as one that implements the interface. Just want to use the interface to call constants like so: ISomeInterface.SOME_CONST. |
share|improve this question |
There's some similar discussion here: stackoverflow.com/questions/320588/… . I would use a final class with a private constructor so that it cannot be instantiated. – Dan Dyer Jan 26 '09 at 12:13 |
Sorry but "I'm not going to use enums" turns this question into "what's the best way to do something stupid?" – cletus Jan 26 '09 at 12:14 |
I'm not saying you are going to implement the interface. But there is no point of using an interface to do that. So, go with the final class : ) – Megacan Jan 26 '09 at 12:16 |
What's the problem with Enum? You can allways use it to collect 'some constants which are not related to each other in any way'. Hmm? – gedevan Jan 26 '09 at 12:23 |
Conceptually, an enum is a bad choice if the constants are not related. An enum represents alternative values of the same type. These constants aren't alternatives and they may not even be the same type (some may be strings, some integers, etc.) – Dan Dyer Jan 26 '09 at 13:22 |
9 Answers 9 |
up vote 18 down vote accepted |
Use a final class. for simplicity you may then use a static import to reuse your values in another class |
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