Keen Kabbie
Sep. 3rd, 2006 12:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skyringWe had an early mark on Friday. The first aid instruction finished around lunchtime, we had a brief talk from the fleet manager, and then we were sent off with best wishes.
It's Father's Day here tomorrow, and I'd noticed an advert in the paper for a GPS system at a special price, $200 off the normal.
It's pretty much the same system as Mike (the cabbie I jockeyed for two weeks back) has. A pocket computer (running Windows Mobile) with a builtin GPS system. I was attracted to this because it goes beyond the dedicated in-car displays. I could use it to answer email or write blog entries, for example, and later transfer them to my home computer.
Mike seemed very happy with the capabilities of his system
So I headed off to the electronics shop and bought one of these things. They were selling well, and as I came in, the staff were bringing out more boxes from the backroom. It came with a voucher for the next year's updated maps, which I'll be sending in.
Naturally, I tried to get it working in the car for the trip home, and naturally I failed to get it running. It came up with a message saying "Waiting for GPS" and I spent a frustrating afternoon paging through the manual, installing software, fiddling with the settings and so on.
It wouldn't work, and I was on the point of heading back to the shop when I decided to google the error message and the model number - maybe others had had this problem and there was a simple fix.
And so it was. All I had to do was keep the thing outside, with a clear view of the sky, for about fifteen minutes. The first time takes the longest, and afterwards it will pick up the satellites in short order.
I got to test it out when I drove to the airport to pick up my wife. It gave me plenty of warning for turns, told me which exit to take on the various roundabouts, and if I missed a turn, it would recalculate the route and get me headed back on the right track, all instructions delivered in a robotic female voice.
I played with it a bit more when we went grocery shopping in Queanbeyan, and let my daughter take it with her when she went off to do some babysitting.
It's reasonably user-friendly and I'm looking forward to getting more use out of it when I start taxidriving for real. I must get some velcro tape so I can fasten it to the dashboard. It comes with a clunky sort of suction cap and gooseneck arrangement, which I don't like at all. Mike has his velcroed onto the cab, where it is handy, doesn't block his view and is inconspicuous.
Speaking of Mike, I gave the cab owner a call this morning, letting him know that I'd passed the course, and where I was in the process. He's in desperate need of drivers and not happy that my police check will take another couple of weeks to come through. Not much I can do about that, but at least I can jump through all the other hoops while I'm waiting.
He suggested that I might like to get some more jockeying experience under my belt, and wouldn't you know it, within five minutes Mike was pulling into my driveway and I was off with him again.
This time around I've got more idea of how the system works, and so I could see how the material we learnt in the classroom translated into practice.
A quiet day, and we only had two jobs in the three hours, both from the City main rank. So we swapped stories of the course and the instructors, other cabbies, ways of doing things, tactics for getting around the city.
He confessed that he was still keen on cabbing, and even though it was a quiet Saturday, if he wasn't driving, he'd be probably shopping with his wife. "She likes to shop for homeware, and I'd be walking beside her down some aisle full of cushions or placemats, thinking that I'd rather be..." here he gestured out the windscreen, "...sitting in a cab on the Bunda Street rank waiting for a fare!"
He loves his job, and the only reason he doesn't drive ten hours a day seven days a week is that the owner insists his cabbies take one day off a week.
I'm keen to get started, and I fondly waved him goodbye when he dropped me back home before ending his shift.
It's Father's Day here tomorrow, and I'd noticed an advert in the paper for a GPS system at a special price, $200 off the normal.
It's pretty much the same system as Mike (the cabbie I jockeyed for two weeks back) has. A pocket computer (running Windows Mobile) with a builtin GPS system. I was attracted to this because it goes beyond the dedicated in-car displays. I could use it to answer email or write blog entries, for example, and later transfer them to my home computer.
Mike seemed very happy with the capabilities of his system
So I headed off to the electronics shop and bought one of these things. They were selling well, and as I came in, the staff were bringing out more boxes from the backroom. It came with a voucher for the next year's updated maps, which I'll be sending in.
Naturally, I tried to get it working in the car for the trip home, and naturally I failed to get it running. It came up with a message saying "Waiting for GPS" and I spent a frustrating afternoon paging through the manual, installing software, fiddling with the settings and so on.
It wouldn't work, and I was on the point of heading back to the shop when I decided to google the error message and the model number - maybe others had had this problem and there was a simple fix.
And so it was. All I had to do was keep the thing outside, with a clear view of the sky, for about fifteen minutes. The first time takes the longest, and afterwards it will pick up the satellites in short order.
I got to test it out when I drove to the airport to pick up my wife. It gave me plenty of warning for turns, told me which exit to take on the various roundabouts, and if I missed a turn, it would recalculate the route and get me headed back on the right track, all instructions delivered in a robotic female voice.
I played with it a bit more when we went grocery shopping in Queanbeyan, and let my daughter take it with her when she went off to do some babysitting.
It's reasonably user-friendly and I'm looking forward to getting more use out of it when I start taxidriving for real. I must get some velcro tape so I can fasten it to the dashboard. It comes with a clunky sort of suction cap and gooseneck arrangement, which I don't like at all. Mike has his velcroed onto the cab, where it is handy, doesn't block his view and is inconspicuous.
Speaking of Mike, I gave the cab owner a call this morning, letting him know that I'd passed the course, and where I was in the process. He's in desperate need of drivers and not happy that my police check will take another couple of weeks to come through. Not much I can do about that, but at least I can jump through all the other hoops while I'm waiting.
He suggested that I might like to get some more jockeying experience under my belt, and wouldn't you know it, within five minutes Mike was pulling into my driveway and I was off with him again.
This time around I've got more idea of how the system works, and so I could see how the material we learnt in the classroom translated into practice.
A quiet day, and we only had two jobs in the three hours, both from the City main rank. So we swapped stories of the course and the instructors, other cabbies, ways of doing things, tactics for getting around the city.
He confessed that he was still keen on cabbing, and even though it was a quiet Saturday, if he wasn't driving, he'd be probably shopping with his wife. "She likes to shop for homeware, and I'd be walking beside her down some aisle full of cushions or placemats, thinking that I'd rather be..." here he gestured out the windscreen, "...sitting in a cab on the Bunda Street rank waiting for a fare!"
He loves his job, and the only reason he doesn't drive ten hours a day seven days a week is that the owner insists his cabbies take one day off a week.
I'm keen to get started, and I fondly waved him goodbye when he dropped me back home before ending his shift.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-09-03 05:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-03 05:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-03 05:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-03 05:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-03 05:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-03 06:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-03 06:59 am (UTC)Me life's like a poem, it's all on the meter.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-03 07:27 am (UTC)Who found making puns entertaining.
He picked up his first fare,
Began punning with flair:
She said, "think I'll walk, though it's raining!"