Erik Benson has some ideas for improving the taxi service

Better taxi technology

RSS feeds for everywhere a taxi has picked you up and dropped you off. In-taxi "rate your ride" display. Statistics on your driver’s rating. Better credit card integration. Perhaps there should be a button for "need to get there fast", "want to take the scenic route", and "would prefer not to have conversation".

Classic!

He’s right, I think an overhaul of the taxi service is well over-due. If clean, reliable taxis with knowledgeable drivers are possible in an LSD-inspired rabbit warren (aka London, also, the black cabs not the mini-cabs), why not anywhere else?

The taxi service needs some tech updating too. Yellow Cabs have an online booking service, where you can register your details. This I suppose would be useful to a regular user, but if I just want to get from the office to tonight’s designated watering-hole, why should I have to go to all the trouble of creating a username & password. Taxis Combined have a better system - 2 steps: where I am & where I want to be.

Also, taxis use some serious logistical technology to co-ordinate the location of all the taxis around the city, why couldn’t some of that info be aggregated into one place. As far as I know, all the major cab companies use GPS systems to locate their cabs around the city. Why not put that info onto the net somewhere? It wouldn’t need to be real-time or anything, maybe refreshing every 5-10 minutes.

Possibly integrate it into Google Maps once they finally get on with getting Australian street info into it. This would allow you to see where the nearest cab is and how long it’s likely to take to get to you. The system could automatically SMS you when the cab is just around the corner, reducing the amount of time cabbies need to waste waiting for people to get out of the building (and not forcing people to wait somewhere where they can see the street).

This sort of thing would be more useful if it was controlled by some separate agency, like the The NSW Taxi Council, rather than individual comapanies having separate ones, but that may not be a commercial possibility (getting compeditors to work together & all that). Having a central location where a customer can find out where the nearest taxi is and how long it will take to get one would, I think, make it much more likely that people would use them.

Celebrating Thirty-One Years of Marriage: Ten Things I’ve Learned and a followup by David at Ridgecrest Blog. I designate both posts as required reading for anyone who has entered, or is considering entering, into marriage.

Best points:

Forgive! Eric Segal’s characters in Love Story liked to say, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” What a crock! The only human being who has no reason to say they’re sorry is dead.

…

Love and take responsibility for your kids, if you have children.
Some men and women view their children as unwanted impositions, which is a tragedy. If you’re not willing to take equal responsibility for the upbringing of your children, then don’t have them. But if you are willing, they will bless you and your marriage.

And you’re not allowed to change your mind after your kids are born or adopted! They don’t go away; neither should your commitment.

10. The best gift a man can give his children - is to show them how much he loves their mother.
11. The second best gift he can give them - is his time.

Also highly recommended is Mark’s It’s Time to Dethrone Romance.

Ask Engadget: Best home espresso machine?

I have a pretty boring job. I’m not complaining, but I’ve just been looking for a good espresso machine for home use
to get me going in the AM. Semi-auto is fine, but full auto’s probably a little much, and it needs to be something
that works well, won’t require a lot of maintainence, and that the wife won’t kick out of the kitchen because
it’s so ugly. I hear the Rancilio Silvia has the best bang/buck, but is there anything else out there worth the cash?

Looking at Hong Kong in Google Maps & I came across this building, which looks really interesting, but I’ve got no idea what it is. Anyone able to help me on this one? It’s located at 22.283245 North, 114.173012 East.
Update: It’s the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Thanks Scott!

sydneyanglicans.net: Tea and Coffee

Glenmore Park is neither ‘country’ nor a ‘regional centre’. It is the Grand Labyrinth of Western Sydney, a maze of roads into which hapless drivers are thrown, never to be seen again. The only reason there are so many people living there is because they couldn’t find their way out again!

It’s funny ’cause it’s true!

Erik Benson has been busy rebuilding All Consuming. Along with updating the interface & functionality, he’s also added tagging rather than fixed categories and the ability to add things other than books.

My little list, which as of right now consists of two Terry Pratchett books, will be getting added to regularly! (There’s RSS feeds for each user too, but unfortunately no feed for the ‘Latest Consumed’ list yet.)