- lioninside -

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.

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!

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

 

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 :)

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 :)

GetATraveltasker is a non-profit initiative to #RESTARTTOURISM 

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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.

During the last weeks in lockdown, I built my own office gym. Even I am looking forward to going back to a real gym I started to love my own place.

I do have a bit a lack of leg training but all the rest is covered using resistance bands, a swiss ball, pilates roll, water tank barbell,  yoga mat, box, two screens and markers (recommended).