Cab 4 Me.

About 5 years ago, when I joined my first job, during one of the usual boardroom sessions, our boss while explaining technologies such as 3G and IMS, and he went to explain the future...

He said, let's say, it's your first time in Chennai, and you're walking in Mount Road not knowing what the name of that road is, and you'd think, you'd want a taxi, all you'd have to do is sms and say ' I want a cab' and within a few minutes, a cab will find you and pick you up. I thought to myself, this sounds so James Bond types ! He went on to explain, this is really possible, because, your phone will be GPS enabled, the cab, will have a GPS device, so the cabbie will locate you with your unique device identity, something like the IMEI number.

As much exited, fascinated and overwhelmed I was to even to listen and imagine technology like that is really possible, over time, I thought, it's all big talk, but nothing's going to really happen.

Then Google Earth happened. A little later Google Maps happened.

And today, I came across this,

cab4me

cab4me allows Android users to call cabs from anywhere in the world. It combines the Google Maps with GPS/Cell location awareness to allow users to order cabs without even knowing the address they are at.

That said, will have to wait and see, how many of these apps really go on a become that killer app, like the 'sms'. 'Push to Talk' was launched in a big way, with many hopes, it crashed even before it took off. We'll have to wait and watch, time will tell.

Great Quotes.

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.
-- Benjamin Franklin

If somebody comes up to you and says something like, "How do I make this pony fly to the moon?", the question you need to ask is, "What problem are you trying to solve?" You'll find out that they really need to collect gray rocks. Why they thought they had to fly to the moon, and use a pony to do it, only they know. People do get confused like this.
-- Max Kanat-Alexander

I don't care if it works on your machine! We are not shipping your machine!
-- Vidiu Platon

I'm beginning to wonder if the sum total pain caused by the box-and-arrow crowd has outweighed the occasional usefulness of UML.
-- Carson Gross

You do not have to spend a lot of time and effort on those who strongly resist change. You only have to help and protect those who want to change, so that they are able to succeed. Put another way, your job is not to plant the entire forest, row by row -- it is to plant clumps of seedlings in hospitable places and to nurture them. As they mature, these trees will spread their seeds, and the forest will eventually cover the fertile land. The rocks, will, of course, remain barren regardless. ... once you have figured out who cannot be converted, you should not waste more time trying to persuade them.
-- David Hutton, The Change Agents' Handbook

A nation ... consists of its laws. A nation does not consist of its situation at a given time. If an individual's morals are situational, then that individual is without morals. If a nation's laws are situational, that nation has no laws, and soon isn't a nation ... Are you really so scared of terrorists that you'll dismantle the structures that made America what it is? ... If you are, you let the terrorist win. Because that is exactly, specifically, his goal, his only goal: to frighten you into surrendering the rule of law ... He uses terrifying threats to induce you to degrade your own society.
-- William Gibson, Spook Country


picked up from here