Gadling

Today I'm going to give you a closer look at a gadget that isn't just fun to play with, it's something that could actually help save your life.

The SPOT satellite messenger is part GPS receiver and part satellite locator beacon. The device receives your location from GPS satellites and relays it through even more satellites back to ground stations. It all sounds horribly complicated, but the SPOT messenger couldn't be easier to operate.

The device is about the size of a small digital camera and only has 4 buttons (help, on/off, OK, 911). Naturally the on/off button is for powering the device on or off. The OK button sends an email or text message to a predetermined recipient (as well as activating the tracking feature) and the help button sends a "help me" signal with a personalized message to people you have added to your SPOT account. And finally, the 911 button actually alerts a global rescue organization that you are in trouble and need immediate assistance.

This emergency assistance is provided by the GEOS Alliance, an organization underwritten in London which provides search and rescue services. SPOT accounts optionally include up to $100,000 coverage per year for rescue resources (including helicopter, aircraft and private search teams). When GEOS receives an alert message, they will first try to contact you and your emergency contact numbers. By holding down the 911 button for 3 seconds, you can cancel your alert request.

The buttons are fairly easy to press, which also means you run the risk of pressing them by accident if you pack the device in your luggage, so pay extra attention when stowing it. The SPOT messenger weighs 7.4oz/209 grams and is made of impact resistant orange plastic with a black rubber bumper. SPOT rates their product waterproof in 1 meter of water for up to 30 minutes. The device also floats, which is handy if you find yourself falling overboard, just be sure to attach a lanyard to the opening in the back.

Full disclosure: I know Flickr user sgoralnick, who uploaded this sweet composite image of the Pulaski Drawbridge in between Brooklyn and Queens in New York. But you know what? Her novel creation method for this shot deserves some recognition. This photo uses a technique called panography, basically a Photoshop trick that stitches together many different shots of a single image into one giant whole.

It's a novel way to think of taking a photo, isn't it? But that aside, I also think it ends up looking wicked cool. And sometimes, that's all that matters.

Have any panography shots you want to share with our Gadling readers? Or even a simple panorama? Add it to the Gadling photo pool on Flickr and it just might get chosen as our Photo of the Day.

Since it was sold to the BBC, everybody's favorite guidebook company has had uncertainty looming in its future. The brand took a step away from its paper-and-binding roots recently by signing a deal with Expedia and Hostelworld. The trio will join forces to provide an online hotel booking service.

Lonely Planet will put all those hotel reviews it has in its vaults to good use, while Expedia and Hostelworld will provide the nuts-and-bolts.

The move is good for LP. They are actively bringing the brand to an online audience, and by doing so, are ensuring their survival in a world populated by websites featuring user-generated travel reviews and tips. With guidebook writers already scouring the globe and bringing back write-ups about hotels, guest houses and hostels, it shouldn't drain the budget too much.

Expedia might also come out well in the deal. They are a giant among booking sites, but perhaps not much of a player when it comes to the backpacking set. By working with LP, they will gain exposure to a new group of customers.

Hostelworld and Lonely Planet are a match made in backpacker heaven. The budget accommodation booking service gets to put its name next to two of travel's biggest, LP gets the technical side of the venture taken care of without having to break a sweat, and Expedia, like I mentioned above, gets some exposure in a new demographic.

No word on when the service will be up and running, but I'm sure quite a few people are holding their breath in anticipation.

Photo from Flickr user ChihPing

Along with the tips for how to be a traveler that China would like to have back, the Hilton Hotels' be hospitableTraveler section also has a fun, interactive page that will give you a Chinese name. This is another way the hotel chain is helping people gear up for the Olympics in Beijing through its "be hospitable traveler" campaign.

It's simple. Fill in the boxes with your first name, last name, birth date-including year of birth, plus the quality you would like to bring to you, such as, wealth, or good character and, you'll be given your Chinese name.

The Chinese characters, the English spelling, and the meaning of your name are provided almost as soon as you hit the send button.

As the site points out, this is merely for fun. Acquiring an authentic Chinese name involves a more detailed process. Still, this is one way to while away some time.

The name I was given by the web site, Ran (surname) Ji Mao (first name) is sort of close to what my name was when I lived in Taiwan.

I was given a Chinese name where I worked in order to get paid.

In case you're wondering. Ji means: skill, ability, talent, and ingenuity. Mao means: thick, lush, dense and talented.

Dense?! Well, kind of.

Here is the link to the page that will give you your name. And here's a link to an article that lists the top 10 lucky symbols. The one in the picture means "blessing, good fortune and good luck."

To mitigate some of the loss from award mileage and ticket redemptions, airlines are making it harder and more expensive to use to earn and use your miles. Just last month, Delta Airlines instituted a fuel surcharge for booking an award flight; now in addition to taxes that you pay for that ticket you'll have to pony up up to fifty dollars for the privilege of booking it. Others, like American Airlines, are increasing the number of miles that you have to redeem for certain tickets and charging an additional fee to upgrade your seats into a higher class.

All of these changes are provoking industry analysts to worry about the future of frequent flier programs. George Hobica, founder of Airfarewatchdog.com, points out that some alternative reward credit cards are now more beneficial then keeping a miles card. Others, like Clark Howard point to the devaluing mile and wonder if it's even worth accruing miles at all, saying "Don't waste any effort chasing frequent flyer miles, which are like fool's gold."

Is the situation really this dire?

Cathay Pacific Airlines recently reported that they have had to alter their flight schedule after they were told that Beijing's airport would be closed during the opening ceremonies for the Olympics. According to the Associated Press, the airport will be closed from about 7 p.m. until just before midnight on August 8th. This is one of the many precautions that China seems to be taking to increase security during the Olympics.

Certainly, the usual security fears associated with a major international event are part of the equation. Add to that the fact the Olympics would be a perfect stage for people from the provinces of Tibet and Xinjiang to voice their discontent to the world.

Plenty of things could go wrong for China during the month of August. The airport closure is just one example of the actions authorities are taking to make sure nothing that would cause a loss of face for China actually comes to pass.

Another face-saving measure: vetting all opening ceremonies performers for Tibetan sympathizers. You can be certain that Bjork or Richard Gere will not be gracing the stage on August 8th. Those who will perform have been issued a warning by Beijing: "The content of the performance should not violate the country's law, including situations that harm the sovereignty of the country... incite racial hatred and ruin ethnic unity."

Attendees have already been given their set of rules. Makes one wonder if it wouldn't be more of a blast to wait until after the Olympics are over to pay China a visit.

Photo from Flickr user Melinda

If you happen to be near Helena, Montana, here's an option for an outing you probably can't find in your own back yard. I wouldn't have known about it myself if I hadn't picked up Section D of today's The Montana Standard this morning while staying at my friend's house in Butte.

The article on The Last Chance Ranch caught my attention. The ranch offers an old-fashioned wagon ride through the forest to dinner in one of two tipis. The dinner, a home-style cooked prime rib feast, includes a performance by Bruce Anfinson who is well known in these parts as the Charlie Russell of music. Charlie Russell was a western style artist whose work now fetches thousands of thousands of dollars. I mean thousands.

Anfinson says that he aims to give people a slice of the real Montana that he loves. Songs reflect Montana history and culinary traditions. Expect huckleberries. The ranch, now owned by Anfinson, is 102 years old, and according to the article, this is a well-worth it western experience.

Here's the Web site link for the ranch with info about how to register for the dinner.

As a chronic over tipper in restaurants I've always been a bit confused when on a plane. While very occasionally an attendant will accept a tip, most often they move off before you can even try. Sometimes they outright won't accept a tip. I've been in union jobs where the union disallows tipping in order to get a higher wage. Is this the case? I tip at the very least a dollar a drink at a bar, and I figure an attendant deserves even more than that. What gives?

Cliff F.

Before I can address Cliff's question about tipping flight attendants, I have to say that I want you, Cliff, on one of my flights! Please let me know when you're traveling again and I'll trade onto the trip. Why? Because you sound nice. Because good passengers make good trips. Trust me, I'm not saying this because you're a big tipper, but because you understand the plight of the working class. As for your question about tipping on flights, flight attendants, at least the ones at my airline, are not supposed to accept tips. Why aren't we allowed to accept tips? I'm not sure - exactly. But my guess is it has something to do with the higher wage flight attendants make opposed to other service industry workers, like Cliff mentioned. Even though I do not accept tips (it's my job to serve you that drink!), that tip, the one I did not accept, is greatly appreciated. So thank you, Cliff, for thinking of me. And I'll be looking for you on my next flight.

Heather Poole

It seems that we have been averaging about one crazy passenger a week lately. And those are just the ones who make it into the press!

You typically read about the in-flight drunkards, angry folks, and people with out-of-control children. But I can't remember the last time we had a 'misbehaving nudist' story.

The AP reports that an American Airlines flight from Boston to Los Angeles was diverted to Oklahoma City yesterday after a passenger emerged from the bathroom naked. He then tried to open an emergency exit door before being subdued by other passengers, specifically the members (no pun intended) of a professional soccer team.

Members of the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer (and others on the plane) saw the erratic passenger near an exit door, grabbed him, and placed tie wraps on the man.

American Flight 725, a Boeing 757, arrived in Oklahoma City at 1:35 p.m. CDT, and said nudist was taken into custody in Oklahoma City and placed under psychiatric evaluation.

Makes you wonder what he was doing in the bathroom naked. Some sort of mile-high club self-initiation?

It's raining outside, so this morning was the perfect opportunity to sit down, browse through all my boarding pass stubs and enter them in a new application I'm testing.

Flightmap is a flight logging program that keeps track of every flight you have taken. You can log the flight number, aircraft type, airline and geeky things like the aircraft registration number and your seat number. Frequent fliers can even keep track of their award and status miles.

The application has an internal database that calculates the distance between all airports in the world, and naturally, it can also convert airport names into airport codes.

Once you have entered all your flights, you can view a summary that displays your most frequently flown routes, the longest and shortest flights you've ever taken as well as your most popular airline.

The best part of Flightmap is the ability to generate high resolution maps of your flights. In fact, Flightmap can generate stunning maps up to 32 megapixels large, which is great if you want to print them as a poster. If the built in map colors don't interest you, then you can even export your flight history as a Google "KML" file, which can be imported into Google Earth (which is totally useless, but oh so cool looking).

Once you have created a map, it is fairly easy to save the image file and set it as your new desktop background so you can show all your colleagues what a well traveled individual you are.

Flightmap is a very slick, easy to use application and the interface is nice and clean. You can view a guided tour of Flightmap here. The application costs 19.90 EUR ($30) but a try before you buy version is available on their site, albeit with several limitations; maps are "defaced" and you can only export your first 10 flights.

All in all, it's been great to finally have a nice place to save my flights. There are some other services with similar features, but this is the first one I've come across that is not web-based (which means it's easy to take along with you). Now if you don't mind, I've got some more flights to enter!