Why I'll Never Take A Normal Cab Again

Today I took a Taxi to the Airport, and now I know why ridesharing apps must and will win. (I can't drive--otherwise, I would've used FlightCar.)

The Taxi Cab Process:

  1. Wait at street corner waving at taxis as they buzz by. Hope that one is free and you can get a ride with them.
  2. Driver (I'll call him Joe) barely speaks English, I struggle to communicate with him.
  3. Joe's car is filthy.
  4. Joe decides to take his own convoluted route to the airport, not a standard one. I eat the cost.
  5. Joe claims some sort of toll that isn't on the meter. Can I believe him?
  6. Joe apparently doesn't take card. He forces me to walk to the ATM with him to withdraw cash, all the while I'm running late for my flight.
  7. Joe doesn't have change. I have to run around the airport with him to get change.
  8. This was a shitty experience. I can't rate Joe. There's no accountability. Many others will suffer the same fate I did and there's nothing to stop this.
  9. The worst part is that Joe expects a tip after this set of shenanigans, and I don't have the time to argue with him as to why he doesn't deserve one. 

The Uber Process:

  1. I open my app and press pickup.
  2. Driver (I'll call him Malcolm) arrives--I'm notified where he is and how long it will take him. There's not much chance in play here.
  3. Malcolm speaks English well, his car is maintained. If this weren't the case, he'd be fired as his rating wouldn't be >= 4.7 stars.
  4. Malcolm gets me to the airport via an appropriate route, and I can trust Uber to refund me if that's not the case. 
  5. I'm dropped off curbside (in style), the tips included, my card is charged automatically, and I can't catch my flight without the hassles of figuring out how to pay Malcolm in cash. I can even request a fare quote before traveling.

Technology-enabled disruption of industries is awesome.

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Thanks to Ishaan and Delian for looking at drafts of this post.


My Fortune Couldn't Be More True

Today, I received this fortune: "You will make some change before winning". (photo upside down)

And while I've received ones that were utterly false like "Eat more Chinese food, it's good for your health", this one couldn't be more true.

In order for a startup, a fortune 500 company, government, non-profit, or even a religious body, to succeed, it needs to be able to change. 

And that too, quickly, or else, I fear, their competition will be more fortunate.

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Massachusetts Introduces "Software Tax", Further Proving the Incompetency of Our Politicians

In the state of Massachusetts, there's apparently a new software tax for all software developed, upgraded, or customized (yes, Wordpress) by a third party (out or in state) for any business in Massachusetts, as well as a tax for any business that doesn't do ALL of their own IT work. (Does this mean AWS qualifies? Who knows??)

Here's the law:

“... computer software, including prewritten upgrades, which is not designed and developed by the author or other creator to the specifications of a specific purchaser. The combining of two or more prewritten computer software programs or prewritten portions thereof does not cause the combination to be other than prewritten computer software. Prewritten computer software includes software designed and developed by the author or other creator to the specifications of a specific purchaser when it is sold to a person other than the specific purchaser. Where a person modifies or enhances computer software of which the person is not the author or creator, the person shall be deemed to be the author or creator only of such person's modifications or enhancements. …”

Read more here: http://www.fastcolabs.com/3015446/why-were-so-frustrated-about-the-massachusetts-software-tax

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The Sad Truth

A friend shared a quote with me from the great French historian and philosopher, Alexis de Tocqueville.

“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.”

It's unfortunate that we're far past that moment in history. 

Read more about Alexis' writing: 

De la démocratie en Amérique (French pronunciation: ​[də.la.de.mɔ.kʁa'si.ɑ̃.na.me'ʁik]; published in two volumes, the first in 1835 and the second in 1840) is a classic French text by Alexis de Tocqueville. Its title translates as On Democracy in America, but English translations are usually entitled simply Democracy in America. In the book, Tocqueville examines the democratic revolution that he believed had been occurring over the past seven hundred years.

In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont were sent by the French government to study the American prison system. In his later letters Tocqueville indicates that he and Beaumont used their official business as a pretext to study American society instead.[1] They arrived in New York City in May of that year and spent nine months traveling the United States, studying the prisons, and collecting information on American society, including its religious, political, and economic character. The two also briefly visited Canada, spending a few days in the summer of 1831 in what was then Lower Canada (modern-day Quebec) and Upper Canada (modern-day Ontario).

After they returned to France in February 1832, Tocqueville and Beaumont submitted their report, Du système pénitentiaire aux États-Unis et de son application en France, in 1833. When the first edition was published, Beaumont, sympathetic to social justice, was working on another book, Marie, ou, L'esclavage aux Etats-Unis (two volumes, 1835), a social critique and novel describing the separation of races in a moral society and the conditions of slaves in the United States. Before finishing Democracy in America, Tocqueville believed that Beaumont's study of the United States would prove more comprehensive and penetrating.[2]


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The Bill of Rights Sometimes

The owner of Lavabit, a Dallas, TX based secure email service, was forced to shut down his company by the government without due process (or out of fear of no due process), and, furthermore, forced to refrain from sharing the details and reasons as to why the government had shut down his business.

"I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit. After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations. I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot. I feel you deserve to know what’s going on--the first amendment is supposed to guarantee me the freedom to speak out in situations like this. Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws that say otherwise. As things currently stand, I cannot share my experiences over the last six weeks, even though I have twice made the appropriate requests."

I thought that our government guarantees us citizens some rights. Since when did we switch to The Bill of Rights Sometimes model?

Read more here: http://lavabit.com/

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Naming Things

It's easier for something to become a standard when it's given a name.

It's funny how the best technique to do something as important as "absolute centering" in CSS, a fundamental technique in web design, hasn't been given a name until today.

"Spoiler alert: Absolute Centering only requires a declared height and these styles:

.Absolute-Center {
  margin: auto;
  position: absolute;
  top: 0; left: 0; bottom: 0; right: 0;
}

I'm not the pioneer of this method (yet I have dared to name it Absolute Centering), and it may even be a common technique, however, most vertical centering articles never mention it and I had never seen it until I dug through the comments section of a particular article."

Read more here: http://codepen.io/shshaw/full/gEiDt

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