Flask (a Python micro-framework) + all the available Python toolkits/libraries/plugins it works with, comes very close. It's easy to learn, and quick to spin up.
Like the idea! Especially on airports that are famous for their lines and waiting time (JFK...) winning time at immigration and avoid standing in line for a taxi quickly saves you 2 hours. For the business traveler that is almost 2 extra meetings, and for the family traveler that is 2 hours less stress and crying children.
I registered a domain name a while back 'DeliveryOnArrival.com' with the idea to also accelerate business travel. The plan was that you could travel with less stuff (and therefore could bring only hand luggage) and get what normally use and need delivered on arrival: at the airport gate, in your Uber, in your Hertz rental, or at your hotel. Never executed on it though, maybe a nice add-on service (I would use it).
Thanks for the kind words! Your thoughts are exactly how we're approaching our business. Business travelers, families, the elderly are just a few of the clients that we serve.
As for your baggage idea, check out a company called Dufl http://www.dufl.com/ We've spoken to them and they have an awesome service for not having to deal with your luggage.
It can be even simpler. I'm working in the enterprise software space and get multiple emails a week stating we have been selected as on of the 'Top X vendors in X' and won the award for Y by a certain magazine or by a local 'trade association', or can be part of a 'prestigieus' Top 100 list. The only thing we need to do to get the award is to buy some advertising space to cover costs. Normally this is between $3 and $5k.
The conversation pretty much stops after I indicate we are happy with the award and the nomination, but will not buy any advertising with them. Funny thing is: a few weeks later some of the vendors in the space will show of their new award of place on the Top X list on their LinkedIn pages :)
BBVA is expanding, first the acquisition of (Bank) Simple [0] and now Holvi.
One thing i'm not sure about: is this a sign that BBVA has a good digital strategy by acquiring these neo-banks. Or does this show that a stand-alone neo-bank is not a easy / realistic thing to accomplish (yet)? Most, if not all, neo-banks struggle to get real customers (e.g. regular users, outside the 'TechCrunch PR wave group') and are either acquired (BBVA doing well here) or becoming software vendors to banks, vs a challenger to banks (e.g. Moven (bank) [1]).
Perhaps these acquisitions are not so much a bet on "neo-banks", but rather serve as an insurance to make sure they never grow large and pose a threat?
BBVA Compass(1) was 30th in the ranking of the 50 largest banks in the U.S. (SNL financial data from 2013), definitely not the biggest one but it's harsh to say that it barely had any footprint.
You can disagree with whether this means they had barely any footprint or not, I guess that's semantics, but it certainly makes more sense that they would buy them to expand, not to get rid of a competitor.
I think BBVA might be trying to aquire their way out of digital oblivion. What I've seen of their customer interfaces are some of the worst I've experienced.
Their (non-digital) services are awesome. Only digital oblivion being solved here... their institution itself seems superior to most I've experienced... except being digitally horrible
Well, I've found the contrary: at least on Spain their app/web/ATM experience is much better designed than other banks with atrocious UX and WebView-based mobile apps.
Personally I always use articles like this to yet again change my personal to-do-list strategy, select a new fancy app/tool, pay for a year long subscription, start entering all that is on my mind, open it the next day, look at it, and close it.
I know the strategy, I have plenty of apps with an active subscription, but really making it a daily habit is the struggle.
It's really easy (and sometimes fun) to get mired in the "planning" phase of thing. You need to keep that drive when the things get more abstract and you'll eventually find the same drive again.
For instance, choosing a method, that's easy. Doing a bunch of brainstorming and coming up with projects to apply that method too, that's easy (for me). It's that next step, where you're actually designing the infrastructure of the system that's difficult. Suddenly you're getting distracted by things like Operating Systems, web hosting, bandwidth requirements, APIs, etc. And it becomes this huge, abstract project.
It's then that you need to stay focused. Even if you only commit to 20 minutes a day, you'll be surprised how far you get. I find that really it doesn't take that long for me to take an abstract problem and reduce it down to a component I can get up and running now. This reduces the amount of mental overhead I'm juggling drastically and allows me to continue.
It's the same thing at work for me, have you ever had that experience where you finish a feature, and it's time to jump into the next one? And it's almost like you can't do it. You need to breathe, because you've just been so focused at such a low level on this one feature, and suddenly you have to open your brain up to imagine the entire f#$@ing system again! And you need to connect end points, think about data structures, algorithms, libraries.
Another thing I recommend is trying to get some work done before you go to work. Your mind is pretty refreshed after a good nights rest and a decent breakfast, but much less so after two commutes and a good 8 hours in the office.
Finally, in my area there are a ton of meetups. A lot of these are just hacker hours. You get a bit of social activity and they tend to keep my focused (since who's going to bust out Hulu and toss on Seinfeld at the monthly ViM meetup? There's someone talking about macros up there! MACROS!). I'd recommend finding some of those. The interchange of ideas, and being able to bounce ideas off other practiced programmers is another tangible benefit.
And a free beer and slice of pizza (well never is definitely the wrong word here...) never hurt anyone.
Transport Inspection arrested an Uber employee in Amsterdam for not coorporating with providing the Inspecting documents Uber says are classified and helping competitors. Currently being detained. This after a raid in the Uber offices by the inspection last week.
1. American (Standard) 2. US Black Vernacular / Ebonics 3. Singaporean
1. English 2. Dutch 3. Swedish
I think it's cool that my English is good enough for it to judge me a native speaker, while it still has enough information to see similarities to other Dutch people who took the quiz. Swedes' English is quite good as well, so that makes sense as a third guess.
No idea where "US Black Vernacular / Ebonics" and "Singaporean" are coming from, however. I'd be interested to see which choices exactly make my English similar to those dialects.
* 'Who is Michael Ovitz' by Michael Ovitz
* 'High Growth Handbook' by Elad Gil
* 'Principles: Life and Work' by Ray Dalio
* '1491' & '1493' by Charles C. Mann