I work Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. There is no such thing as paid holidays when you’re an independent contractor driving a cab. In fact, it’s more difficult to get time off during the holidays since nobody else wants to take those undesirable shifts.
So, I ended up working Sunday, Monday (Christmas Eve) and Tuesday (Christmas) as usual.
Highlights from the shifts follow after the break.
If you like the Wii and/or virtual reality, watch this video. I try not to post too much ‘me too’ content on this blog, but this is an important community service. Be sure to watch through the end.
Link (Engadget Post)
UPDATE: Here’s a link to Johnny Chung Lee’s site with information about this project.
Despite mucho complaints and an unsuccessful strike by cab drivers, all New York City cabs were still outfitted with touch-screen GPS systems.
Some drivers protested because of tax concerns — with GPS tracking there will now be a permanent record of trips, forcing them to pay Uncle Sam in full. Others aren’t so happy about the 5% cut that credit card companies take when fares are charged. And, still others fear a privacy loss that GPS brings, perhaps making it more difficult to take the ‘scenic route’.
Now there’s another reason to complain: these touch-screen computers are far from secure. A minor IE error allowed one user to access the Start menu and even the filesystem. And this thing takes your credit cards? It’s a bit scary.
In 2006 the United States’ Federal Communications Commission decided to axe analog television. Analog TV, the kind of TV you received before you had cable and tweaked with rabbit-ear antennas, will go dark in 2009. Broadcasters have been transitioning to digital television, commonly known as HDTV, which requires a smaller part of the electromagnetic spectrum. (Physics primer: TV signals are just a form of electromagnetic radiation within a specified range of frequencies allocated by the FCC. High frequency electromagnetic radiation is visible as light. Read more than you could ever want to know on Wikipedia.)
Since digital TV uses less space on the EM spectrum, we can now use this extra space for something else. The FCC is holding an auction for some of this newly freed spectrum, specifically some parts of the UHF 700 MHz range. Google, among over 200 other companies, will be bidding in January for rights to these chunks (in addition to chunks available only regionally).
Most blogs and news outlets discuss Google’s imminent domination of wireless carriers. Dreams run wild of Google coming to save us from the oligopoly of oppressive mobile telephone operators. Or, some think Google might step in and be an angelic ISP, providing free or nearly free wireless access.
The sad truth is the bandwidth being auctioned is relatively limited. It’s probably not enough to operate a full fledged mobile company. It might be suitable for a wireless ISP, but perhaps at a prohibitively high cost due to the physics of the 700 MHz spectrum.
Instead, this spectrum might be most suitable for what it was used for before: television. The 700 MHz spectrum could be used as a backdoor to disrupting Comcast’s and satellite providers’ dominance of delivering video content.
Why is this spectrum not as suitable for wireless internet or mobile? Am I on acid? Would Google want to compete in the video delivery arena?
Let’s break this down.
The Examiner reports a Muni bus hit a pedestrian Monday evening bringing the total number of “pedestrian incidents” to 20 since the start of Muni’s fiscal year on July 1.
20 incidents? Why so many? Is this excessive? Yes. Is this Muni’s fault? Yes. What causes this? Poor management and overzealous union agreements.
During the shift
During my Sunday (day shift) and Monday (night/morning) shifts
It’s raining tonight and I start in an hour or so. You would think that’s a good thing. We’ll see.
At the December 11 meeting of the San Francisco Taxi Commission SFPD Sergeant Reynolds admitted 80% of the time they were unable to pull images from taxi security cameras.
On this blog, I often write a quick summary of what happens during my shift as a taxi driver in the City. Sometimes I’ll pick up friendly yuppies going to a baseball game. Sometimes I’ll pick up a transgender prostitute and her customer who soon demands more drugs. I never know what’s going to happen.
Before I started driving a cab, I worked at a media buying agency owned by the Omnicom Group. What would a ‘shift’ blog entry look like from a day in the office? Would people be interested in reading my blog if I wrote about that line of work? (Probably not.)
Here’s what a blog entry would look like from a typical day in the office.
I showed up as an ‘extra’ to work on Thursday. I wasn’t regularly scheduled to work, so that makes me an ‘extra’. I show up to the garage around 6am and wait for a car to become available. As a day driver, I always have to be back at the garage by no later than 5pm, so the earlier I get out, the better. Cars become available when scheduled drivers or owners don’t show up, or when someone out on the road wants to end their shift early — a ‘short shift’ (they pay a prorated amount for the hours used). I was lucky and got out on the road by 6:30am with plenty of time to make good money.
Summary follows after the break.
kfarr 