Joel johnson, of Dethroner and Boing Boing Gadgets, was planning on spending the week in the woods with all sorts of high-tech gear run from solar power. he ran into a problem with the flow of electrons, and is considering packing it in. the quote?

No need just to stay out here enjoying nature with no internet.

read more about his plight over @ BB Gadgets

<mike> hello. just got back from maine.

<frank> business or pleasure?

<mike> fun

<frank> I’ll watch the blog for photos of toilets

to see this view, approach on KS 61 from Hutchinson.

this stall is more sturdy than any portion of my house, garage, or any vehicle i own. in fact, i could probably stack all the above named objects on top of this thing.

the lock is sturdy enough to defend you from invading armies. it sounds like lockdown time in the state prison.

and don’t even think of stealing the toilet paper.

okay, so i guess i have a ‘restroom’ theme as of late.

this was in Montana, btw.

the boston accent can be defined by the following rules:

1. do not pronounce Rs, unless:
2. the R is between 2 vowel sounds that would otherwise be too difficult to pronounce without it, and:
3. in that case, attach the R to the second vowel sound instead of the first, plus:
4. inject Rs between 2 vowel sounds, or anywhere it would make a phrase easier to say.
5. plus, any soft “o” sound or “a” sound, becomes “aaaaaah”

how does it all come together?

examples:

“boston” is “baaaahston” (rule 5)
“park” is “paaaahk” (rules 1 & 5)
“car and truck” becomes “caaah rand truck” (see rules 2, 3, 5)
“pizza and coke” becomes “pizzaah rand coke” (rules 4, 5) although “coke” in this case might be replaced by “tonic” which in some neighborhoods, is used as a general reference to all carbonated beverages.

got it? now get outta heeah and go get me a papaah rand a beeah.

for further review, the stiffs at wikipedia have a scientific-like explanation of the boston accent.

with these 2 inputs of data, i hypothesize that they seek to maximize profit by making tickets the most expensive at the time people wish to book their trip. let the early birds pay a “normal” fare and enjoy the widest selection, let the late-comers possibly eek out a bargain, or get fleeced, depending upon scarcity.

farecast.com apparently aims to give the consumer the power to harness trending in airline fares and choose to make their purchase at the most favorable time. farecast’s CEO blogs that their accuracy is between 70-75%.

read on for my first experiences using farecast, as well as my take on their objectivity and purpose.

first, i must say that i’m a data geek. i love trending. the best part about it, i find, is that it helps me to turn an arbitrary decision into a calculated one. even if i get burned after a calculated decision, i feel better having tried to do the smartest thing.

my first impression of farecast is quite positive: i like to see “buy now” or “wait,” and how sure they are of this prediction (if only meteorologists gave you a % of confidence in their forecasts!). i’d been watching a particular trip on their website for a while before i realized i could add it to my RSS reader, so for the past 10 days or so, i’ve been watching it there:

for the most part, they were right on the money. i even found that when i looked up airlines that are not included in their index, the trends were pretty much the same.

while monitoring a different fare (same destinations, different dates) i saw prices suddenly and inexplicably drop by about $100. i bought them. they immediately went back up to almost as expensive as previous.

did farecast predict this large a drop? technically yes. they predicted a drop, of $30 or more. so there we go.

is it a total victory? do i intend to trust all my purchasing decisions to them in the future? of course not.

i have a comfortable window inside of which i buy airline tickets. with useful tools, like farecast, i have now expanded that window. but i do not trust them implicitly. here’s why:

they’re still trying to make money. not the least noble of goals, but one has to figure that they will not carry this idea to its fullest logical extent, for fear of hurting the very business that provides them their lifeblood.

to use this tool most effectively, one would expand the scope and allow you retrieve a prediction based upon historical trends and analysis, e.g. instead of “prediction? wait.” one might get “the best time to buy this fare is two weeks from now.”

why should they not do this? widespread use of such a tool could drastically hurt airlines. the ability to predict sales and loading, and more importantly – the ability to generate marginal profit (that above and beyond operating expense and nominal margin) would be greatly compromised.

so, they’re still a business, and still must maintain a faustian bargain with the airlines. but they do provide a valuable tool that can help you save money, if you’re willing to trust them to your comfort level.

bottom line: i feel i saved money due to my usage of farecast.com to monitor airline fares.