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SF Cab Riders Can Now Surf the Internet
Ant sent in this SF Chronicle story about Yahoo equipping 10 San Francisco cabs with laptops and radio modems as an ad gimmick. I plan to add this feature to my limo pretty soon - and I'll run Linux, of course, which I'll bet the Yahoo cabs don't. Heh!
"Help, my taxi crashed!"
I have linux running on several laptops and I've never come across a laptop recently that couldn't be made ot run linux. The worst I've seen is the laptop I'm using now, which won't do sound under linux due to the neomagic sound card.
All these machines are immensely stable, as stable as any desktop I've setup linux on.
What browser plugs are missing? I have real player, java and flash all working properly on my linux laptop. What else would you add? QuickTime, I suppose, probably an mpeg player, but I don't see how lacking those "ruins" the experience.
Hmmm... Net surfing in a speeding taxicab. If you crash, does that refer to the browser or to the cab itself? Or does that depend on what city's cabbies are driving?
- -Josh Turiel
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
Second, the average joe-schmoe on the street isn't comfortable with X. Everybody knows windows, so they'll feel warm and fuzzy using it, and using it is what they want. They don't want people going "Wow, that LOOKS like netscape, but I don't get any of how the rest of this stuff works..."
Plus I've yet to see a good collection of browser plug-ins for linux, which can really ruin the surfing experience for someone.
Nope, this is one of those "Linux not for the desktop yet" issues. For the average user of this service, windows is still the way to go. Don't like it? Fix the problems. :)
They'll run FreeBSD, like the rest of Yahoo. ;)
Those poor cab drivers will probably need to bone up on their tech if they're running Windows in their cabs. Can you imagine the guy in back asking "Hey, what does this do?" "Why is the screen all blue?" "What's an exception?" That's too much disctraction for the poor cabbies. The ones who don't speak english are better off, actually.
Hey! They should put a guide in the back. "What to do when the computer stops responding".
What a coincidence. Right before I saw this story I heard a segment on CBC Radio's Basic Black about a man in Aspen, Colorado who owns and operates the "Ultimate Taxi." In addition to an internet connection, there is fog on the floor and crazy lights, including a laser, all over the place. Apparently the driver also sings and plays music on an in-car keyboard and MIDI drum kit. Don't ask me how he does this while driving -- you'll have to watch the MPEG movie. Geez, and I just wanted to get home!
/. account mysteriously disappears?
Don't you hate it when your
I once participated in setting up a box to play MP3s in a bar. It was supposed to be operated by drunk clueless people, and it ran Linux. Why ? Because when it booted, it booted up an X server with a nice background image and an MP3 player. No window manager, no logins, no start buttons, no nonsense.
By the way, it also booted from the network, so there was no need to fsck if people power-cycled it.
In fact, it worked really well. There was no way people could minimize/close the MP3 player, and even if they managed to do so, a simple power-cycle would bring the box back up and functional in less than a minute.
You don't need notepad to surf the web, especially not in a cab. I'd go with an OSS anytime, if I had to set up such a system again.
It sounds like they thought of theft alright, but I'm not sure they are ready for the abuses that public devices suffer. Looked at a phone booth or bus stop recently? How many drunks tossing their cookies into the keyboard will it take before replacement is required? I won't speak of other sources of bodily fluids.
Then there are the people who just think it's lots of fun to configure black text on black background and similarly hilarious stunts.
And the old favorite, lets see who can leave the most disgusting screen for the next customer game. Who may of course be a child. Best reboot 'tween customers I think.
It also possibly sounds a bit dangerous perhaps. Those who unthinkingly leave cookies might have others using those same services, logged to their account, after they leave the cab. Remember to logout from Yahoo mail, and to *not* check "save password." Remember, this allows console access, so security is meaningless. You need to deal with password catchers and copies of BO2K thoughtully left by customers for the next victim.
I suspect that after a short time, cabs will provide a place to connect your laptop if you wish, but will make no attempt to supply one.
This guy put a Webcam, laptop, and cellular modem in his taxi. Since it runs 24/7, I'm sure that his cell phone bill is through the roof.
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Discuss
9. "I'm 128-bit encrypted. It's safe to give me your money."
8. "Fast? My nickname at the cab company is T3!"
7. (Running Microsoft) "Where do you want to go today?"
6. (Running Linux) "Watch me ride at the speed of a charging penguin!"
5. ("In" driver) "W3r r u h3adin???? # pr0b13m0!!!!!!"
4. "What address? Sorry, lady, that's a 404!"
3. "I'm gonna try to get to the superhighway."
2. (Overdoing it) "www.thankyouverymuch.com!"
And the top reason Internet-savvy cab drivers say...
1. "Ever heard of the Blue Windshield of Death?"
"There is no surer way to ruin a good discussion than to contaminate it with the facts."