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Scam 1992

Last Sunday, my neighbour brought an old model railway back on track—the engines and carriages were well stored in a box and wrapped with a newspaper from 1992. Even though I was pretty fascinated by the old models, the paper took my attention even more.

Bill Gates once said, „We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction.“

Looking at this 31-year-old paper proves this quote 100%.

Most job ads have a particular gender focus; the ads are very stereotyped, and even though we still have printed newspapers today, the content is very different, and many things feel strange – and somehow wrong.
It will probably be the same if my kids look back to 2023 in 2054, and they will ask us, „How was this even possible?“.

Another fascinating thing is the amount of (printed) scam ads on some pages. These little ads promote „services“ like divorce support, credit help, and of course, massages. The way to contact those shadow companies is to use a chiffre number – the perfect system to stay anonymous – provided by the media company. The scam was probably part of the revenue model.

It was a pleasant experience on that Sunday afternoon, and even though I prefer to look forward, it can be fascinating to quickly look back and see what was „the normal“ just a few years back – and to reflect on how today’s normal will be in 30 years.

Merry Christmas!

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Etap 22i

Es hat geklappt: Ich habe eine Segelschiff auf dem Greifensee und zwar ein Etap 22i. Nachdem ich von einem freien Bojenplatz in Niederuster überrascht wurde, wurde ich zum Gebrauchtsboot-Analysten. Mit einer max. zulässigen Länge von 7.5m und einem eigenen Budget von CHF 6000.- schränkte ich mich etwas ein bzw. setzte die Messlatte etwas hoch. Zudem tat ich mich schwer in Genf ein Boot anzuschauen..

Nun habe ich eine Etap 22i i vom Bodensee inkl. so ziemlich alles und einem Anhänger – und für das Alter (1986) ist die „Ente“ gut im Schuss. Keine Osmose, immer mal wieder Teile und laufendes Gut ersetzt, ein paar Dinge extra wie z.B. ein Jütbaum.

Dinge die ich gelernt habe:

  • In der Westschweiz hat es verständlicherweise viel mehr Segelboote zum kauf
  • Inserate mit Vermerken wie „war im Winter immer in der Halle“ relativieren sich bei einem Boot das 30+ jährig ist und gerade mal ein paar wenige Jahre davon beim letzten Besitzer war.
  • Osmose ist ein grosses Thema aber auch ziemlich offensichtlich. Schwierig wird’s beim laufenden Gut und den kleinen Details etc. Ich war hier bereit für CHF 5000 ein entsprechendes Risiko einzugehen.
  • Der „Charakter“ des Vorbesitzer (sofern langjährig) ist wohl der beste Garant für die Qualität. Ein Liebhaber/Handwerker ist m.E. optimal.
  • Die Fotodokumentation der Boote ist meist miserabel. Anschauen ist Pflicht.
  • Gut überlegen, ob es eher ein Grillboot oder eine sportliche Yacht sein soll. Beides ist eher schwierig. Mit der Etap 22i bin ich klar beim Familienboot.
  • Es braucht NFTs für die Bootshistory

Natürlich fängts jetzt erst richtig an mit Unterhalt etc – aber hej der Sommer kann kommen.
A propos Unterhalt: Hier die vollständige Etap22i Dokumentation

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Meine Geschichte vr

Import real-world things into VR

My son loves to handcraft trains. His production speed is 2 – 3 models per day, bringing our storage to his limit.
Over the weekend, I was working on a possible solution: a 3D scan of the models.


But not just to solve the storage issue (even with the scan, we will not destroy the trains) but to bring his models to the virtual world and see what happens.
To „scan“ the model, I use the Polycam app. For this use case, it works surprisingly well and much faster than some of the (more) powerful PC applications.
I placed the model into a white styrofoam box and made 250 pictures from random angles. The result is impressive for such a simple process.

The import into the virtual world took me longer as I tried different „worlds“. In my case, Spatial worked the best.
I just had to connect my Oculus to my PC and move the .glb file into the Spatial folder. From there, I imported the object into my Spartial space.

I handed my Oculus over to my son and let him play. His first question was why the train was not moving. I told him I would take this as the next challenge ;)
He enjoyed playing around and scale/turn the object; he probably prefers the real one. However, the digital version may live longer and is a great way to showcase his work to a bigger audience.

This is another example of VR as a powerful „add-on“ to the real world.

But now, I must find out how to make the train move. More to come.

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Retro Joystick DIY

Finally, I finished my retro joystick project – and the result is as beautiful as I thought :)

My daughter helped me to build it using an Arcade Kit from eBay and some spare wood.
The quality of the buttons and the stick is surprisingly good for the price and no driver is needed on Windows 11 (just plug and play). Really cool.

Play

Great project  – and the kids love it as they struggle with the big and ugly state-of-the-art joysticks. Happy days :)

 

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Experiencetable (vs. Timetable)

I joined a fascinating and almost philosophical discussion about train/rail travel a few days ago.

In today’s world, train travel is all about a safe & quick journey from A to B. Minimising the time and the number of changes is critical for more than 90% of travellers (and here in Switzerland, the train companies are excellent at delivering this).

Train travel: Faster, faster, faster.

This strong focus on time makes it difficult for leisure companies as their focus is „the experience“ – and not the time.

Considering the small number of leisure travellers, it is evident that leisure is a little mouse next to a cheetah (who loves to run amazingly fast).

Will a cheetah ever go slow?

The question that drove our discussion was whether the mouse is sometimes too focused on the cheetah and should better focus on the neutral ground, aka train tracks.

As shown below, the grid in Europe is incredibly large. Using this grid only to move people & freight as quickly as possible from A to B would be a waste.

Where is the beef? Here.

What would happen if we start to think about tracks as we do about streets, the sea or even the air space? Train tracks are just a grid to enable movement from A to B for whatever reason.

The idea to use the grid to move as fast as possible is established but not so using the grid to have a wonderful experience (don’t blame the cheetah). With this mindset, it is no longer about adding leisure train travel to non-leisure train travel but creating a parallel world.

The „experience-based timetable“.

This is how it works:

Let’s say you must travel from Zürich to Bern; both destinations are little dots in a massive train track grid.

Based on your reason for travelling, you choose the timetable based on time or the timetable based on experience.

Let’s scale this to Europe and the route from Rome to Bruxelles. The timetable based on experience shows you the most beautiful lines, while the timetable based on time shows you the fastest way.

It is up to the reason to travel on which timetable to look at.

This is just an example but with this holistic perspective, we no longer have a pure „product view“ on leisure train travel. This may help to think even bigger – and to may understand the cheetah better :)

What do you think?

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Yes I work in VR and it is (already) great

Back in the day, I was thrilled about the possibilities of VR – and I am still. However: I could not imagine that working in a VR could be a thing. Travel in VR? Yes. Gaming in VR? Yes. But just working?

It is probably not the most obvious thing (which is porn), but it is great fun and an excellent add-on to a working day at the desk, like going for a walk or working at the Starbucks or library. 

The frameworks are getting better every day, and with the recognition of keyboards like Apple’s Magic Keyboard, even typing becomes more natural. Creating a PPT presentation is still less efficient but drawing on a whiteboard is amazing. Also, MS Teams meetings are already a great experience, as well as surfing the web and reading.  

Here is my setup:

  • Oculust Quest 2
  • vSpartial (app) and Horizon Workspace
  • Apple Magic Keyboard
  • Surface 4 

The Surface 4 is not recommended because the Oculus PC Software does not support the Intel Iris Xᵉ Graphics. Therefore, it is not possible to connect the Oculus Quest with a wire for better graphics.

I am looking forward to sharing more experiences.

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Thank you London!

In knapp einem Monat fährt der Lastwagen mit dem Schweizer Nummernschild vor. Nach drei Jahren kehren wir zurück in die Schweiz, nach Uster. Hätten wir vor drei Jahren gewusst was auf uns zukommt mit dem ganzen Corona Schlammassel wären wir wohl nie losgezogen. Zum Glück wussten wir es nicht und hatten die Chance eine verrückte und fantastische Zeit hier in London zu erleben.

Die ersten Monate bebten und schüttelten – und dann stand alles still, um nun wieder in Schwung zu kommen.
Wir bewegten uns erfolgreich gegen den Strom und suchten zu Beginn die Ruhe und danach die „Unruhe“.

Mehrere Tausend Bahnkilometer liegen hinter uns. Strände, Städte, Museen, Theater, Festivals, Velotouren… Und das beste: Der Aufbau einer unglaublichen Community in der Nachbarschaft.

Wir fühlten uns hier so zu Hause wie man sich nur zu Hause fühlen kann. Vielen Dank London! You get out what you put in :)

Auf bald!

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How to identify scams on Facebook marketplace

Here in London, the Facebook Marketplace works surprisingly good and is very popular for selling chairs, tables, plants etc. to neighbours. As the marketplace has no verification features it is a paradise for scams.

I spend a few hours with some of them to see how they behave and if they become more professional in the recent years.

In terms of grammar skills and writing chat messages the scammers are on a surprisingly high level compared to the „old fashion“ email scams. Also most of the fake sellers spend a lot of time convincing me to buy. With some I had chats with more then 30 messages.

Here is a popular fake selling pattern:
  • The scammer advertise gadgets like Nintendo Switch for cheap (but not super cheap).
  • They ask you to collect but they send you an address outside of London.
  • As option they offer you free/cheap shipping but with pre-payment.
  • You will never get the parcel.
A few simple tricks to identify scammers:
  • Pretend to be at the pick up address. They will come up with crazy ideas about why they are not at home.
  • Ask them to transfer you £10 after you transfer £10. They will refuse it.
  • Start a fake discussion about photos on their Facebook profile (good fun guaranteed)

What surprised me the most is the scammer use real Facebook profiles. Probably they are hacked but at the first sight, it looks like a real person is behind the ad.

Some conversions:

„Jane“ has no idea about her cover photo. When I told her I was in Barcelona once too she replayed how beautiful it is.
It is in Rome…

The fake profile

Dieses Bild hat ein leeres Alt-Attribut. Der Dateiname ist JaneProfile-1024x980.png

Dieses Bild hat ein leeres Alt-Attribut. Der Dateiname ist Barca-1024x255.png

 

I cannot get into online banking

When I asked Jane to pay me £10 back she told me her online banking is not working. How would she see my full payment then?

 

My daughter is a home. She is 12.

When I told Kevin I am at the pickup location he told me his daughter is at home and I need to transfer the money.

In short: Stay alerted and never pay in advance :)

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Playtime!

Last week I had the opportunity to experience the Jungfrau region and it was just amazing: Jungfrau Joch with fresh snow, cliffwalk, mountain go-carts & flyer on the First and a nice walk on the Männlichen. Here is some 360 degree footage. Good times :)

Sphinx Jungfrau Joch
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Why working in travel changed for the better

GetATraveltasker is a non-profit initiative to #RESTARTTOURISM 


In the last few months the human resources side of the travel industry was strongly dominated by the following topics:

  • Hundreds of people lost their job
  • Working from home became a thing many people like to keep
  • With the restart of travel, many travel companies are short on staff but  have no time/budget to hire and train new staff

This situation causes major issues in our daily business and at the same time, it is very sad knowing so many people desperately looking for a new job in the industry.
Long term I see big opportunities to change the way people work in travel.

As 90% of the tasks can be done remote the hybrid working model makes a lot of sense.

But there is more: Travel is a seasonal business and most travel companies struggling with short peaks and long downs. This is not just inefficient but also boring for the employees – even they have some maintenance tasks to do during low season.

I strongly believe it is time for the travel industry to move on to a more flexible working environment – and to leave the busy and loud basement located offices behind.
A hybrid „Freelancing Experts“ model will help us to build the backbone of the industry.

Get the experts when you need them & let them work on other projects during low season.

This is not new at all. Many industries like IT, health and creatives have adapted this model many years ago. Now it is time for the travel industry to change.

With „Get a Traveltasker“ I like to take a step in this direction and help to #RESTARTTOURISM. The project is non-profit and I hope it will help all those travel champions out there to get found and get hired (again) to build a better travel industry.