Hashemian Blog

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Sunday, July 26, 2009

Neuschwanstein Castle

If you ever find yourself in Bavaria, southern Germany, one of the attractions you won't want to miss is the Neuschwanstein castle. The castle was built in the late 1800 by King Ludwig II but its design was borrowed from the splendid castles of the medieval period.

What makes the Neuschwanstein castle a popular destination is its amazing location, perched on a hill at the base of the Alps mountains, its enormous size, and its majestic design. It seems like the king spared no expense in making sure that the castle was grand in its splendor and beauty, bringing it to the top of its class among its peers.

Being a private king, the castle was off-limits to the public, but after the king's death it was opened for all to come and admire the structure.

That's why on a recent visit to Bavaria, I put the castle in my list of places to visit and it didn't disappoint. The castle is about a 2-hour car trip from Munich. Once we reached the town of Fussen, we just followed the signs to the location. There's ample parking at the base and the castle is about a half hour walk up. There are also horse-drawn carriages that can take people up the hill for a nominal fee. Parts of the castle are off-limits but visitors can still wander about the grounds as they try to imagine what living in such a structure must have been liked. There are also guided tours inside the castle in English and German.

With its combination of history, natural surroundings, and architectural beauty, the Neuschwanstein castle is a treasure well worth a trip to experience.

Neuschwanstein,germany,bavaria
Labels: social
<Neuschwanstein Castle>

// posted by rh

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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Credit Card Foreign Transaction Fees

This is probably old news to some but it came as a surprise to me. As I have done so for many years, I booked a flight online with a foreign carrier with offices in the US and made a credit card payment in US Dollars. About a month later I got slapped with an unexplained foreign transaction fee. After some inquiry I was told that my credit card was charged in an overseas location, probably the airline's headquarters in their native country, and per new rules I had to pay this fee even though the amount charged was in US Dollars.

Credit card companies have gotten real sneaky with their fees these days. In today's global economy when you make a purchase using a credit card, you can't be sure where, geographically speaking, your card may be charged. In my case, the order was probably routed to the carrier's datacenter in their native country. In past this was of no consequence as long as the amount was in US Dollars. But now the greedy credit card companies have decided to tack on additional fees for these cases.

Something to be careful about the next time you make a purchase. The price you pay may not be the final price. What's next? Charging fees if you use your card outside your hometown? Seems silly, but nothing is beyond these shady companies when it comes to helping themselves to your hard-earned money. So much for the consumer protection laws.

credit cards,credit card fees
Labels: credit cards
<Credit Card Foreign Transaction Fees>

// posted by rh

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Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Pandora Starts Charging

In case you don't know who or what Pandora is, it's a music Web site that learns about your taste as you tag or rate the songs it plays, so after a while it ends up playing mostly what you like.

Pandora's algorithm is decent but far from perfect and sometimes it tries to please too much by sticking to a tight list of songs, so there are the occasional repeats. But that's fine, since the best thing about Pandora is that it's free.

But we always knew the good times wouldn't last. Last year there were a couple of emails indicating that they were haggling with the music industry on licensing issues, basically over money.

Tonight came the email outlining the results of their negotiations. It was what I had expected. Users now get 40 free hours of listening every month. If they want more, they are charged $0.99 for the remainder of each month. Or they can pay $36/year for unlimited listening.

I guess for now I'll take the 40 hours and maybe go without for the remainder of every month. The $0.99 isn't such a bad deal either, but obviously it won't last either. My feeling is that after a couple of years Pandora will phase that out and just go to a flat-fee subscription service.

No, I don't like this at all, but I try to see it from the other side's perspective. The music industry is evil, but someone must pay all the people that make their living off music, from the artists down to the janitors who shine the studio floors. Pandora deserves to make some money too, as the radio stations do. But their advertising model just doesn't command the same earnings as radio. I guess radio stations have a more targeted and captive audience.

So for now the burden of keeping Pandora alive has fallen on the listeners' shoulders. I sure hope they make it through and don't go belly up. I've grown rather accustomed to listening to it while at work.

pandora,online music,music,music industry,riaa
Labels: music, web
<Pandora Starts Charging>

// posted by rh

1 comments

Friday, July 03, 2009

Google Translate, Persian

Google Translate has been around for some time. you paste in a block of text or a URL, set the source and target languages and off it goes, translating.

Aside from the omnipresent Spanish, German, and French translations, Google had been steadily adding other languages to its list, save one, Persian (known as Farsi in Persian language,) until now.

It's a well-known fact that Iranians are one of the most active Internet users in the world, certainly far and above the others in Middle East. That is more noteworthy given the censorship and restrictions by the government. I wonder what the activity level would be if people are given complete freedom of expression. Then again, it may just be the political situation that has given rise to the Internet-savvy generation who has been pushed into harnessing technology for its causes, but I digress.

It seems that the interest surrounding the post-election turmoil in Iran finally pushed Google into adding Persian to the list of their languages. They should have done it a long time ago, but better late than never.

The Persian translation page is in alpha mode (read, crude), but it's a good start. Being fluent in Persian, I tried the translator for a number of sites and text-passages, and I give it a barely passing grade translating to and from English. In most cases it was coherent enough to get the main concepts across. Of course, translation technologies as a whole still have a long way to go, and they may never reach human proficiency.

As an example, this Persian sentence:
با گوگل ترجمه فارسی در حال حاضر ، شما دیگر باید با دوستانم تماس فارسی تبلیغ خود را به دولت ایران را برای شما ترجمه :)

is translated from:
With Google translating Persian now, you no longer need to call your Persian friends to translate Iranian government propaganda for you :)

Not exactly a perfect translation.

Here's the Persian translation of this blog's home page.

google,translation,google translate,persian,farsi,iran,language translation
Labels: google, technology
<Google Translate, Persian>

// posted by rh

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Sunday, July 26, 2009

Neuschwanstein Castle

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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Credit Card Foreign Transaction Fees

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Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Pandora Starts Charging

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Friday, July 03, 2009

Google Translate, Persian

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