09
February
2006
|
17:49 PM
America/Los_Angeles

Tales of the city--the Geek Beacon

I was showing my friend Jill the power of the Geek Beacon the other evening--it works wonders! In case you don't know about the Geek Beacon, let me explain with a couple of my earliest posts. . .

How to flag down a taxi cab from three blocks away on a busy Friday evening.


Geek_Beacon.gif I was running late and needed a taxi, but there were few to be seen along Geary Street, and with six lanes of traffic, it was difficult to be seen. Then, I spotted a taxi three, maybe four blocks away, but it was in a far lane, and likely unable to see me until closer, and by then it would be difficult for it to pull across two lanes of traffic to pick me up. But, pulling out my trusty Treo 600.


I switched on the screen, which is quite bright and large, and waved it high above my head. Within seconds the taxi flashed back a response, and it had time to move across two traffic lanes, and I was in the cab and on my way.


"That was the first time I'd seen anybody do that," Chuck Walker, the cab driver said. "That was very effective, I could see you from a long ways away. Otherwise, it's difficult to spot people unless they step out onto the road.


I told him that it was a spur of the moment thing, but that maybe we were both present at the creation of a new thing . . .


But what to call it? The taxi beacon? The taxi flash, or flash a taxi? Or, the "San Francisco wave," which would likely be shortened to the "Frisco wave" by outsiders, much to the annoyance of San Franciscans, who hate the term "Frisco."


What do you think that method of hailing a taxi cab could be called?




In a later post I decided on the Geek Beacon, suggested by SVW reader Pace . . .


I just don't want to be in New York next month and see people hailing cabs with the Geek Beacon, and calling it the "Manhattan Salute" or something, and claiming it for their own.

Or, in Washington, they'll start claiming that they invented the "Freedom Light" when hailing a cab.


No, the Geek Beacon demonstrates that indeed, we reside at the heart of all innovative thinking about everything. . .


Join me, and hold your Geek Beacon high (especially at night.)