Tag: International Travel

Mint Mobile Review: Is It Really Worth It?

Paul
Is it Really worth it?

*Disclaimer:  In the future I become affiliated with Mint Mobile, the link will be changed and I will be getting money for referring you to the site.  So use the links if you want to support my blog.  Thanks*

Mint Mobile and Me?

I’ve been using Mint Mobile for quite some time over two years now and I thought it would be high time to talk about it.   I wanted to discuss if it this would be a good way to save money or if it is even worth it.   I have my thoughts on this and we shall discuss this even more because maybe you have some questions that I can help answer.  I know that most people have their own ideas about this cellular service.  We will take a deep dive into how this is either good or bad but I believe this is mostly a good choice for people trying to save money as long as you are in the coverage areas.   There are several places that isn’t in the coverage area and you should decide for yourself before you go and switch.

International Roaming

This is was something that was big deal for me when I went traveling internationally.  I could keep my number and have friends and family contact me if they needed to.  So the internationally calling was something that drew me to Mint Mobile.   I will say Cricket Wireless which I was using before I switch didn’t have the types of roaming I was looking for and that was one of the reasons I switched.  Mint Mobile has a new way for people like me to be able to have international roaming called Mintnational which you can have choices of 1 day , 3 day, or 7 day international unlimited data roaming.   It starts at 10$ and goes up to 40$.  Which isn’t as bad because when I was trying to keep use my phone previously I had to keep loading up my wallet and couldn’t keep track of how much I spent until I got home.  It was way more than I payed unlike the 7 day pass now.   You decide how you want to do use it but it to me is well worth the price of keeping my number and having friends and family be able to text or call you if they need to.

Paying Month or Yearly

It can seem quite unusual to pay yearly and save money but the more you pay in advance the more money you save in the long run.  This can be a great way to save money and not have to worry about paying for your cellular bill each month.   They even have some great plans starting at 15$ and up to 40$ a month if you decide to go that way.  I like Mint Mobile because I can also use my phone as a hot spot unlike Cricket who wouldn’t allow me to do that even with my unlocked phone.  I really think they are trying to compete with other cellular providers in price and user friendly experience.   I know without a doubt that they have been very helpful to me and I am always happy that they will be there if I need them.  I always suggest paying yearly if you can and saving as much money by doing it that way.

Coverage area Mint Mobile

Coverage area as of Feb 2024

In the US the coverage area is quite big but as you can see there are areas in the western area that will not work with Mint Mobile. I am hopeful that they will fix those gaps but until then those areas will not work and you should visit Mint Mobile and see if your area is in the coverage area before you decide to market he switch.   I am glad I did and whenever I am about the US it has worked even in Los Angeles Internation Airport, which is where I stopped while doing my international Travel.   I had no issue with data and using my phone in LA.   I would assume that it should work just fine for everyone who lives there but I will not say for certain that it will work for you.

Finally I will say I recommend them for my cellular provider because of the ease of paying yearly and not having to worry about paying monthly and when tax season, I always go ahead and pay for the next year with the money I get from the government.  So I am saving way more each year.   I know this is just my opinion but I will say Mint Mobile is the one provider that is great at keeping me connected to my family and friends on a yearly bases.   🙂  I have yet to have any major cellular issues and traveling with my phone it is always connected to the cellular network.

How the IATA travel pass can verify USA or other countries vaccine cards

Paul
Example of a CDC Vaccine Card

Verification of Vaccine Cards

Several countries around the world are wanting people to have a way to verify that people who are coming into their country has gotten the vaccine. There have been a number of news articles of people who have faked the vaccine card for one reason or another usually just because they don’t feel like they need to get the vaccine. Requiring vaccine cards have never been new or original in traveling around the world. There has always been countries that require vaccines like rubella or Hepatitis B vaccine to enter their countries. We’ve seen many countries who would like to proof of vaccine and proven ways to knows that it’s not forged.

Stopping the forgery

Each country is wondering how they can stop the forgeries of vaccine cards. No country wants to have take financial responsibility for someone who might get really sick due to the covid19. This is why countries are really wanting way to provide a way to know that someone has gotten the vaccine. The problem is that some people think they really don’t need the vaccine because of herd immunity, so why are they so worried about it. It’s one way to know that their immune system has been given enough protection from getting the severe version of covid19. I am sure there are other reasons and that is what I always hear.

The IATA Travel Pass Verification

When I say that IATA could verify that each vaccine cards in the USA or other countries to be authentic, is saying something that no other airline could do. If countries are looking to verify that the vaccine cards from countries that don’t want to share their vaccine data due to laws, such as the US. They can at least do some minor things while you register for a vaccine passport on their IATA travel pass app. I’m going to talk in length about this so please be patient and maybe someone will actually implement this in the IATA Travel Pass app.

There are several ways they can verify the picture of the vaccine passport to be authentic. They can have the Iata travel pass do image searches to see if there are images that are unique or close to the same exact type that is being submitted. There are several ways you can do that:

These are only two of several ways they can search the web and find out if it is not authentic or original, from the vaccine card that is being submitted.

Images not on the Internet

What if the criminals are being sneaking and keeping these cards off the internet. What options do the Iata Pass have to verify that it isn’t be used in other countries or accounts on the IATA travel pass? This is where it gets really interesting because there are several ways that can be used to verify that the vaccine card hasn’t been used in the past. They can get the Hash Value of the picture and store it in their servers for later on. Don’t worry, the hash value doesn’t save the picture on the server but keeps a copy of the hash value so they can search for that value and probably even keeps the account that it is associated with it for security reasons.

Imaging Hashing by pyimagesearch

As you can see it’s is really an easy process for phones around the world to hash a picture and send the hash to server to either use it to search for a copy or to record it so no other person can use it. I really suggest you go check out the pyimagesearch site and see all the ways that can be used to search for a duplicate hash. This would be a great resource for people to authenticate if they have a unique vaccine card or not.

Examine the Metadata

Metadata is according to Google “a set of data that describes and gives information about other data.” Basically when you take pictures with your phone, your phone records what type of phone was being used and many different things sometimes including the GPS location of the image being take. So they can examine the metadata and see a lot of stuff from the submitted picture of the vaccine card is coming from and also keep record of that information also in a database for reference for obvious reasons. They can also prevent photos being used if they have been edited before uploaded, for example there is a good little photo editor like Snapseed. It’s a great little app that can be used in Android devices to edit or change a photo.

Once it has been edited the metadata would show that it was edited by snapseed or any other photo editing software and thus should be thrown out for security reasons like that. So if someone is trying to get around the vaccine authentication they probably would have a very hard time in verifying there vaccine card.

This is what I would think should be implemented when making the IATA travel pass to help governments to know that the vaccine cards are as authentic as possible. I won’t say that people will not come up with ways to still submit forgeries, that will always be a problem. It however will make it more difficult for people to do that. It is my hope that we won’t have to use this for very long and this would just be a stop gap way to get travelers back to traveling around the world.

What do you think about this idea? Do you think they did this or do you think they will do this in the future? What’s your experience with the IATA travel pass?

How to Add #Loveisnottourism banner to your Social media profile pictures!

Paul

Social Media

It’s effeminately a very powerful to tool to use to make governments see us and hear our pleas and demands.   Everyone has learned that over the years.   Yet I look on some of the social media sites and don’t see the profile picture being changed.   I ask myself why didn’t they change their profile picture?  I can only assume some people don’t understand that your profile picture even on FB can make a tremendous impact in what someone or everyone see’s about you.   They rarely visit your profile and check for updates.   This can be a good or bad thing depending on how you want people to per-sieve you.   If you are a business or have a business and use your social media to promote your business.   I can see why it will look a certain way.   Yet we loose the value of ourselves when we don’t make our profile more pronounced when it comes to our loved ones.

International Travel

On my previous post I talk about all the travel bans and where you could look to find out information about  what might be required of if you could get into the nationality.   The next problem we are dealt with is that we need to make sure every government hears our desires, and wants, and not be able to keep us quite!

Setting your Picture profile up!

Now that you’ve decided to change your profile picture you have a few options to add a small text around or in your picture profile to make sure people better know what it is you are wanting them to see.   Here’s a few options:

First Option:

You can go to Love Is Essential website and upload your profile you want to use and they will gladly put a text in your picture with “Love is not Tourism” banner.  See below for example of what it might look like.

Second Option:

I used Facebook and uploaded a picture and Told Facebook to add a Frame to it.   I searched for “Love is Not Tourism“.   Then I added that frame to my Profile Picture and Your done with that part.   Now if you want to use that frame with other sites such as Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, or any other social media just download the picture by right clicking on your profile picture and save image to device or Desktop.   You’ll need to view your Facebook profile picture and then you can easily grab it.   I personally like this one better because it doesn’t obscure your picture but people can see your profile picture.

Third Option

This option is for those who don’t have Facebook or wants to make it even personalized.   You can smartphone apps like Snapseed or other Picture edition apps for your phone device.  You can add your personal messages to any photo then upload them to all your social networks.   This way everyone can see your text and know that you are wanting your local governments to know where you stand on this issue.

Finally,  If you do this it will help your cause because maybe one of the important people on Facebook, or even some other social network will see it and put pressure on the governments to allow loved ones into the country.

If you enjoyed this post please feel free to share it with others and encourage them to update their profile pictures and support our cause!

International Travel Bans due to Covid 19(Sars-Cov-2)!

Paul
Manilla Old Shop-1&
Manilla Old Shop By John (Flickr)

It’s Globally

We’ve all been frantically checking to see when we’ll be able to travel to see our Fiances, boyfriend, Girlfriend, or that Significant other! It’s been a mad house for us all! I’ll say it is hasn’t been easy since most places went on lock down March or April this year (2020). Thanks to Covid-19 we’ve all had to be by ourselves and that isn’t normal or right.

Where to Go?

Are you asking this to find out if you can go see your other half or just so you know if they can come see you? Either way the point of this post to help you find out which sites might be able to help you find out that information. Each government has their own regulation and requirements or are just not allowing foreigners to come into the country. This is all due to the over whelming need to keep the virus from getting out of hand. There are several resources you can use to find out if you can travel in the first place. I like to at least try to help those who might want to know keep track of the current world wide situation and if you can travel to a particular country and back!

I’ll be frank this won’t be a very long post because I just want to make sure you know where you can go to find out if you can travel and what you might have to do. The rest is up to you on how you do it. I strongly recommend going to each governments websites and see what they are allowing to come into their country and what they require to be able to get into it. Some are requiring 14 days of quarantine and others are requiring PCR (Up the nose) and IGGM (Checking to see if you been in contact with anyone who has had covid19) blood test! Either way it will be uncomfortable for you!

Let’s Start!

We will now talk about where you could go to answer all your questions on this:

  • International Air Travel Association (IATA) — Has a great website to see which countries are allowing you to travel to and from. It however doesn’t exactly tell you what is required to get into that country!
  • CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) — Has a good Travel Notices for those who worry about getting the virus while travelling. You can weigh it down to how much you might be at risk when travelling.
  • The World Tourism Organization — Keeps up to date what they know. This is almost a blog type of publishing. They publish new stuff every few weeks or when a countries come out of or goes into lock down. It however has limited amount of information but still good to check!

These are about all I could find and as such should at least start your journey and keep you updated on when you might be able to fly. If you are looking to get tickets to fly, Why not save some money and follow my tips on getting the cheapest plane tickets!

Remember to share this post with others so they can find out more ways to keep up to date on travel bans and when you might be able to fly again. Remember we are all in this together!

#LoveisNot Tourism