<p><a href="http://www.jonobacon.org/?p=1247">Jono’s post</a> about taxi cabs and close calls with death reminded me of how little hassle I’ve usually had with cab drivers.</p> <p>I usually chat away to cabbies, and tip pretty generously on most occasions, but one guy in San Francisco took the biscuit, and didn’t get tipped. Or chatted to, as I was giving him directions.</p> <p>I had to go 8 blocks from Clay to Green carrying a load of crap in plastic bags, so thought “fuck it, cab”. There was one across from the hotel. “Battery and Green”, I’d asked. “Do you know how to get there?” he replied? I thought he was implying it wasn’t that far, or did I know where I was going? Nah, he was asking because <strong>he didn’t bloody know where it was</strong>. Then, when I gently discussed how cabbies in the UK have to do The Knowledge before they’re let loose on the streets, he told me that that was “not true, they can just go out and drive like here”. Hey, don’t mind me, I only bloody live there. I ended up having to guide this guy to the destination as, by his own admission, he’d only been working for two days, including that one.</p> <p>Then there was the private cab driver who, on taking me from Chelmsford town centre to Stansted Airport on a Friday afternoon, seemed to be dominating the conversation. He was basically chatting me up. He even broke my cardinal rule, which is when taking a cab for work travel, expense the bare fare, but pay with a tip. That way, the tip comes out of my own pocket. But nooooo, this guy threw an extra fiver on the receipt. “There you go, mate, something back for yourself”. Brrrrrr. I took a meal off my expenses that week to counter it.</p>

These days we're designing frameworks for user interaction rather than static artefacts. Clever observation.

Air, Flex and Silverlight are "back to the future" approaches for Rich Internet Applications that would have us believe that the future of the web lies in a proprietary animation engine (Flash) or an ancient and proprietary fat client architecture (Silverlight). I couldn't agree more: these solutions are not the solution. We'll see how it all turns out, but like Christopher Keene, my religion goes to Ajax and an evolution of HTML to accommodate applications needs while still retaining the original openness that made the Web a success.

posted by pollianicus at 2008-08-18 11:48

1. pollianicus: One banana, two banana, three banana, four, five bananas make a bunch and so do many more

posted by martinLivvi at 2008-08-18 07:48

1. martinLivvi: Presumably including all those not celebrating A level results .
2. martinLivvi:
3. genghis: Caption: "Look, 3 Es. Good job Daddy gave Cambridge say march money."

posted by martinb at 2008-08-18 05:53

1. martinb: (moved from Twitter. Hat-tip: Chickyog)

posted by martinb at 2008-08-16 21:48

1. martinb has a bad feeling about this

posted by garrettc at 2008-08-15 14:23

1. martinLivvi: ...just not with Paxman

posted by martinLivvi at 2008-08-15 12:46

1. martinLivvi: Complete with requisite set of Web2.0 bling - it's in Beta & uses Google Maps

posted by martinLivvi at 2008-08-15 11:50

1. martinLivvi: ...and Hermione^W Emma Watson got straight As in her NEWTs^W A levels

posted by martinb at 2008-08-15 05:46

posted by garrettc at 2008-08-14 08:42

posted by MartinLivvi_ at 2008-08-12 14:14

1. MartinLivvi_: Yes, it's another aspect of the opening ceremony that was faked.
2. MartinLivvi_: The stadium was real, though, right?

posted by garrettc at 2008-08-12 11:21

posted by tara at 2008-08-12 09:19

1. tara: See... I'm only trying to be healthy
2. tara: ;-)

posted by martinLivvi at 2008-08-11 16:29

1. martinLivvi: Computer Generated

posted by martinLivvi at 2008-08-11 16:29

1. martinLivvi: Computer Generated

posted by martinLivvi at 2008-08-11 16:29

1. martinLivvi: Computer Generated

posted by martinLivvi at 2008-08-11 16:29

1. martinLivvi: Computer Generated

posted by martinLivvi at 2008-08-11 16:29

1. martinLivvi: Computer Generated