If you’re in a vehicle and you were traveling at the speed of light and you turn your lights on, would they do anything?
often asked by Steven Wright.
Supir taxi yang enggak tau jalan itu…
Ibaratnya koki yang enggak punya indra penciuman.
This past year or so (maybe longer), there’s been a flood of new taxi drivers in Jakarta. You are more likely to get a cab with a new driver than experienced ones (unless you happen to be on the premium cabs, you’ll know which ones they are from sight). As a result, a lot of them don’t know the roads.
Contrary to popular belief, Jakarta is technically not a city, it’s a province made up of five big cities, South, East, West, North, and Central Jakarta, and one regency, the Thousand Islands. Unless you regularly do cross-town runs, you’re not expected to know the roads in other parts of town. If you’re a cabbie though, you’re supposed to know major landmarks, tourist attractions, significant buildings, and malls (there’s more than 100 of them).
It’s a wonder then that plenty of regular cabbies don’t know these places, and these include those of Jakarta’s most well known cab company, the Blue Bird Group.
More than half the time I get on a BBG cab I have to give directions to the driver because he’s new, but these are not for obscure or specific destinations. These are areas like Kemang, Pondok Indah, Blok M, Sudirman, Senayan, all the major locations of South Jakarta. It’s like a New York cabbie not knowing where Manhattan, Queens, or Brooklyn are, or a Melbourne cabbie not knowing how to go to Fitzroy, Collingwood, South Yarra, or Glenferrie from the city.
Last year I got dropped off 10 minutes into what would have been a 40 minute cab ride from Senayan to Pondok Indah because the guy had no idea where Pondok Indah is and he said he knows every road in Jakarta except in the South. Fucking ridiculous isn’t it?
What the fuck was the guy doing in the south if he had no idea where to go in that part of town? He should have just pissed off back to wherever he came from rather than taking me on board.
Friends have told stories of how they had to tell cabbies how to get from Blok M (a major transit hub) to Ratu Plaza, a 30 year old landmark that’s at the tip of Senayan. That’s a 10-15 minute ride with regular traffic. The country’s biggest and most well known stadium, the GBK, is in Senayan and these drivers had no idea where it is.
So yes, as the quote above from Alfa says, “a cabbie who doesn’t know the roads is like a chef with no taste buds.”
Adobe shuts down two application stores
Adobe is shutting down two of its app stores dedicated to mobile and desktop application distribution, Adobe InMarket and the Adobe AIR Marketplace
I didn’t even know it had an app store let alone two to shut down
Adobe shuts down two application stores
Andy Rutledge rethinks how news sites should be designed with the NY Times as an example.
Digital media is simply digital media; if you do it right you publish once and it works anywhere. If you’re using an app to deliver content, you’re doing it wrong.
RIM streamlines the company, consolidates executive positions
The second time today TechCrunch broke the news. This time it’s the beleaguered Research In Motion whose smartphone business is under serious threat from Apple and Google. The Canadian company is letting 2000 of its employees go, that’s just over 10 percent of its workforce. It also pushes out one COO, and shuffles the others. Balsillie and Lazaridis remain.
RIM streamlines the company, consolidates executive positions
The elusive Facebook iPad app revealed
TechCrunch reported that Facebook actually already has an iPad app hidden within its iPhone app, presumably waiting for a roll out in the near future but an enterprising hacker figured out a way to activate the app and posted a couple of pictures and where to find the app. Shortly after TechCrunch posted more photos of the app which looks quite polished and ready to go.
Facebook previously had downplayed the importance of the iPad with Mark Zuckerberg himself saying that the iPad is not mobile, possibly implying that the company may not be considering writing an app specifically for the Apple tablet.
With this revelation, Facebook obviously had written an app for the iPad, it’s just a matter of time before it is made available publicly, instead of through a hack.
Madeon – Pop Culture (Music Video) (by levmyshkin)
Organized cables (by Erdinen)
Having a mess of cables is always frustrating.
I got this idea when my mom was going to throw away an old bike tube. I thought that i could use it as a rubber band.
The good thing using the rubber tube it is really durable and you can cut it in any width you want.
I found that for long thin cables like headphones is easier to keep it organised in the pocket with a broader rubber band. And its easy to take it out if you would need the headphones for music or a long call. And it is just as easy to put it back after use.
And the best of all its almost free (well you need to sacrifice a new bike tube if you don’t have one or find an old one) and its a bit better for our environment if you use an old one.
Smart re-use solution.
Turntable.fm’s co-founder Billy Chasen has his business on lock, literally. You don’t use keys to enter Turntable.fm’s HQ, you send a text message from a white-listed phone number and voila, it opens. This is a much smarter, safer and cheaper option than handing out a ton of keys.
UPDATE: This won a Twilio prize and he explains how to build one yourself.
AuliaSays 