Another fantastic google maps mashup. Wikimapia. Check out what’s in your area.
Economics at play with Rickshaws in India
I sometimes find catching a rickshaw a harrowing experience. As a “ferengi” (foreigner) you end up having a much tougher time trying to bargain with drivers (I’ve only caught one where you didn’t have to bargain at all). I’ve learned some lessons like not asking how much it is to get to some place as they’ll normally double or triple their prices. It’s also not a great idea to descend on one or two taxis as a large group. They realise that you all want to get somewhere in one go, and can immediately collude to increase prices.
On the other hand, heading as an individual to a place where there is a group of rickshaws generally means you can at least bargain your way back to a normal price. If someone is asking too much, it’s just a simple matter of going to someone else (of course, this can backfire if they want to collude as well).
Interestingly this casts my mind back to economics back at University. Large supply (lots of rickshaws) and limited demand (just me) will work in my favour of pushing the price down. Large demand (big group of us) and limited supply (two or three of us) result in pushes being pushed up. Price elasticity of demand is represented by how much you want to get somewhere, while price elasticity of supply depends on how much the rickshaw driver really wants their business. Both of these fluctuate as the traffic increases/decreases in the evenings.
As interesting as this is, I’d prefer the approach rickshaws in Bombay operate by simply putting on their meter.
My First Tripadvisor Contribution
Can be found here.
Hopefully it will be useful for people in the future.
Asking for a Caffeine Overdose Anyone?
Then read about a guy who hit all 171 Starbucks in New York in a day. Check it out here.
Do Your Part: Use Blackle, Not Google
Apparently having a large white background consumes more power as your computer needs energy to light up every single dot (pixel) on your screen. Here’s a new site called Blackle that effectively restyles google so that you can get the same power and be more energy efficient.
A UK version exists as well for all those out there. Save some watt hours now!
8 things about me meme
I’ve been tagged by the 8 things about me meme thanks to Gerrod. The rules start something like this:
- Each player must post these rules to begin the meme.
- Each player starts with eight random facts or habits about themselves.
- People who get tagged must blog about their eight things and post these rules.
- At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
- Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
Not one for rules (and because this meme’s been going around for a while) not to mention that most people haven’t been following the last one, consider yourself tagged if you’re reading this and blog about it if you want to participate.
- My hair grows ridiculously long ridiculously quickly. This meant either very shaggy hair, or a haircut every two or three weeks. I always get comments about how quickly my hair grows out. I took nature’s hint and just let it grow.
- I had a shaved head in grade twelve. Of course, back to point 1, it was all fine by school formal later that year.
- I’m pretty disinterested when it comes to watching most movies, but I’ll always happily watch any horror or thriller movies when the opportunity presents itself.
- When I read a book, I generally don’t finish it all because it doesn’t interest me, or I have to read through it as fast as I can.
- I always carry a pen and paper with me (where it’s practical) everywhere I go, in the form of a Moleskine journal, or more recently the leather Ciak one that Suz and Al got me last year for Christmas. You never know when you will have a great idea and want to write it down.
- I went to my first memorable concert during my first year at work. Amber from uni invited me to see Endorphin at The Zoo in the Valley and since then, I’ve been addicted to seeing live acts where I can.
- I never thought I’d last more than two years in the same job for the same company. I’ve now been working for Thoughtworks for over three and a half.
- Despite considering myself a foodie, I don’t consider myself one of those foodie snobs. I think some people feel pressured to take me somewhere nice or cook over the top food, but I’m just as happy with what you might consider fairly ordinary food.
Facebooked
I managed to miss the entire myspace thing probably due to generational things more so than anything, but it seems like the Facebook wave has hit me. I can definitely say I’m not (yet) addicted to it (I don’t have plans for installing the Facebook Firefox sidebar). In a good way, it’s at least put me in contact with people from school and University I’ve not chatted to for a while.
Exposed to iPhone-mania
Last night I had a few people around at my flat for a bit of a catch up. Mike, currently visiting from over in the States, who’d recently bought an iPhone fortunately had it with him so we all got a little hands on sneak preview. Strangely he’s had to take the sim card out since they can’t disable global roaming at the moment and would cause his bill to sky rocket.
The iPhone looked a lot smaller than I imagined it would be, approximately the same size as the current standard iPod. The interface is simple, with a single button at the bottom and everything else controlled via either motion or touch sensors. Its interface is, for the most part, very intuitive. For example, unlocking the phone simply requires a finger drag from left to right across the “lock” icon displayed on the screen. Predictive text input is much more advanced, context sensitive if you’re web browsing or texting and autocorrecting based on the letters in the vicinity (and not just the buttons you pushed).
My most favourite bit was definitely when you put the phone into iPod mode. Turning the phone on its side turns it into a visual display of all the albums where you can flip through each and every one that’s currently on your phone. A flick of the finger moves either left or right, and a longer drag results in a much faster way of going through them all. Visually very satisfying!
I can’t say that I’m going to convert any time soon considering I’m pretty happy with my current phone and can’t really justify the premium.