Hawaii Trip - Preface

Paradise camp fire caused lots of life loss, house destroy, property damage and air quality pollution. It has been a while since last long vacation at Cancun (I traveled between China and California quite often in past 2 years), so I definitely need a break to relax and enjoy some fresh air. I firstly looked at Chicago and New York, but gave up after knowing the cold weather, then I looked at Florida and Hawaii. After comparing price and POI (points of interest), I decided to go by myself to Honolulu, the Oahu Island for a Thanksgiving break. It cost $1050 for flights+hotel+airport pickup on Expedia.com, actually if I decided earlier, the price could be around $900. I didn't rent car as the island has convenient TheBus and Trolley public transit.

Hawaii is the top vacation destination, and it is indeed such a great place for relax, dining and shopping. Hawaii became the 50th state on August 21, 1959, the same year Alaska joined the union as 49th state. There are over 140 islands that make up the state of Hawaii, but tourists only visit the six largest islands out of eight major islands. In order of size, the islands are Hawaii, Maui, Oahu, Kauai, Molokai, Lanai, Niihau, and Kahoolawe (which is not populated). Those same islands in order of population are Oahu (including Honolulu), Hawaii (The Big Island), Maui, Kauai, Molokai, Lanai, Niihau, and Kahoolawe.

The most famous parts of the state of Hawaii, Waikiki Beach, Pearl Harbor, Diamond Head, and the Polynesian Cultural Center, are all on the island of Oahu.  More people visit Oahu than any of the other Hawaiian islands, because of those sights, and because there are more direct flights from the United States and other countries to Oahu, than to any of the other islands. But each island is unique and each island is worth visiting. Oahu is the highly recommended one for first time visitor.

My trip started with direct flight from SJC to NHL on Nov 23, and ended with 1-stop flight from NHL to LAX to SJC on Nov 27 morning time. It was a fantastic and unforgettable 4 days 3 nights trip to the Aloha State.

Aloha is the Hawaiian word for love, affection, peace, compassion and mercy, that is commonly used as a simple greeting (hello or goodbye) but has a deeper cultural and spiritual significance to native Hawaiians.

Keywords: Hawaii islands, Expedia, Aloha

US wireless carriers

US has 5 major carriers AT&T Mobility, Sprint Corporation, T-Mobile US, and Verizon Wireless, as well as regional carrier US Cellular Corporation. Mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) in the United States lease wireless telephone and data service from these major carriers.

For example,

• Google Fi leases T-Mobile, Sprint and US Cellular.
• China Telecom Americas (CTExcel) uses T-Mobile
• China Unicom Americas (CUniq) uses T-Mobile
• FreedomPop uses AT&T and Sprint
• KDDI Mobile uses AT&T
• NTT DoCoMo USA uses T-Mobile
• Straight Talk uses AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon
• Walmart Family Mobile uses T-Mobile
• Xfinity Mobile uses Verizon
• TracFone leases AT&T, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular (feature phones only), Verizon

There are some other brands are subsidiaries of these top carriers. For example,  

• Cricket Wireless LLC is a prepaid wireless service provider in the United States, a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Inc. It offers mobile voice, text, and data using parent AT&T's nationwide network. 
• Metro by T-Mobile (formerly known as MetroPCS, stylized as metroPCS) is a prepaid wireless carrier brand owned by T-Mobile US. 
• Sprint Includes Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile USA.

Accessibility (a11y)

Accessibility (a11y) is a measure of a computer system's accessibility is to all people, including those with disabilities or impairments. It concerns both software and hardware and how they are configured in order to enable a disabled or impaired person to use that computer system successfully.

The word accessibility is abbreviated to "a11y," with the number eleven in the middle referring to the number of letters that the word contains between the first and last letter. It follows an Information and Communications Technology (ICT)-oriented convention, just like internationalization (i18n) and localization (l10n), which are used mostly in the software community.

When people talk about "accessible" PDF files, they usually are referring to "tagged" PDF files, even though there is more to an accessible PDF than tags. PDF tags provide a hidden structured, textual representation of the PDF content that is presented to screen readers. They exist for accessibility purposes only and have no visible effect on the PDF file.

HTML tags and PDF tags often use similar tag names (e.g., both have tags named h1) and organization structures, but they really are quite different. If you are comfortable with HTML, you will probably have an easier time creating and editing tagged PDF files.

Videos should be produced and delivered in ways that ensure that all members of the audience can access their content. An accessible video includes captions, a transcript, and audio description and is delivered in an accessible media player.