Tampa Taxi Shots

New Taxi Place

The new place is www.tampataxishots.info  and www.tropicoftampa.blogspot.com I need to switch my urls over from Godaddy but they have now expired (just one more that I owe money too). I want keep this Tim Fasano's Blog or something. Sorry about all the changes ut Blogger offers so much more. And its free!

Software Issues And Spam Comments

To my friend and former cab driver Larry I have not been ignoring your comments, I have been having a problem with my software trying to get rid of all the spam comments. I set the controls to kick all comments into the SPAM folder so I could decide which post goes up. I only look once a day in that folder, so your comment could go 23 hours before posting. I now allow 'real-time' comments because Typepad allows me now to block the IP address of commentators. Don't use your roommates computer! He has been baned from my site, and that is why they don't show. Comments from that computer will go to spam. I do let some of his comments on the blog. But you know how he can be. 

Thanks Larry, you have been the best commenter I have ever had. 

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I was on the old 32 stand this morning because the new great computer system took a crap. They said the home office was doing maintenance on the system, so we reverted back to the old voice system for much of the morning. Sorry for those new drivers, they did not have a clue of what to do. 

Richard and Big Mike came rolling up and that was good. When you are on computer there are no stands. That means you don't get to see the friends you made over the years. Now I feel like the Matag repair man...it can be very lonely now. 

Tampa Blogs

People often ask the taxi drivers questions. They want to know what time you started your shift, how long you have been driving a taxi and what is the most interesting thing that has ever happened while driving a taxi. I do not know if they think it is a romantic adventure, but they sure seem to romanticize cab driving. 

People always enjoyed my stories, and they were not hard to think of. Just about every day something happens that probably does not happen to the average Joe. Where else can you go from taking a physicist downtown to a Relativity conference and five minutes later picking up an urban drug dealer? Stimulation occurs all day long.

Cab drivers also like stories. When we would sit on stands waiting for the next call, we would tell the other drivers what happened on the last call, or the one yesterday that everyone had heard about. You would think this was just about taking people from point A to point B, but it is not. It is much more than that. 

Often, people would suggest that I write a book about all that. Most people seem to have seen the HBO show Taxi Cab Confessions and think that is what happens to cab drivers. Yes. That is what happens to most cab drivers. 

I had thought about doing a book, but never really knew how to approach the task. In the last twenty years, I had written nothing more complex then a grocery list. Then I heard about something that seemed exciting. 

In 2005 a new phenomena was taking off on the internet called web logs - commonly called blogs. At that time, these online journals were growing exponentially in just a few short months. In addition, cool software was available to the average person, so anyone could start a blog. 

I never thought what I did was very important but starting a blog would allow me to communicate even the most trivial of things instantly to anyone on the web. I came up with a name called Tampa Taxi Shots.

Originality is important to me and I did not want to copy what someone else was doing. The concept of taxi driving experiences was now going to hit the web and I was hoping people would visit my blog. I was correct on that.

There was a growing online community of local Tampa Bloggers. They were growing in numbers and putting out great content. They were reporting on local matters ignored by local newspapers. The St. Pete Times began to notice. 

They did an article in TBT about the local blogging scene. In fact, that article inspired me to get into this. It validated that anyone with a keyboard could get started. In fact, I still have that TBT. 

Unfortunately, many of the blogs profiled in that article are not published anymore. Sticks Of Fire was the biggest casualty. I guess life moves on and people move on.

Blogs are now a source of information that we can access anywhere, even on mobile devices. There is no telling how many there are now. 

I know that I miss some of the early ones. I kind of wish they would come back.

 

Lost In The Travel Section

I asked a fare while on the way to Tampa International Airport if they where checking their emails on their cell phone. It seems they were doing much more then that. They were reading a book. They had an Amazon Kindle, and they could get formated newspapers as well. I felt like Fred Flintstone as I looked at the hard copy paper that I had paid 50 cents for out of a machine. I often wonder if this fast changing technology is good for humanity.

The modern world does not look any different from the one I grew up in as a little kid in the ‘60s. I see houses, cars and telephone and electrical wires strung aloft in the neighborhoods; styles have changed, but that is just fashion. What I do see are brick and mortar retail stores beginning to vanish along with newspapers because people can simply go online to buy whatever they want, and get a better price. I know I buy almost every book I purchase from Amazon. They always have a better price, and consistent delivery, and essentially every title known to man.

      I am sort of angry at myself for doing it this way, but I still like to enjoy a Saturday afternoon at the local bookstore with a fresh cup of coffee while I browse and look for the books that I will eventually purchase somewhere else.  I still find it very relaxing and there is something tactile about holding a physical book in your hand and thumbing thru it, instead of just reading a brief synopsis of it and a photo.  I had no idea that people would start getting their news this way.

      Can you really find everything you want and need on a website?  How can it be easier or more efficient to navigate than a newspaper with sections that proceed in a linear fashion?  I do not know, but apparently, millions do.

      We will one day live in a world where people will have no idea what its like to curl up on an easy chair on a Sunday morning with that ubiquitous cup of fresh coffee and slowly read and spend time with yourself, without the time pressure you have been under the previous part of the week.

      Does that make us a better society?

      Does that improve our humanity?

      Are we robbing ourselves of a synergetic connection with the world while we are lost in the Travel Section? Once things are gone, they can never be experienced again.

      They say Britain’s undeniably most significant contribution to Western Civilization was afternoon tea.  Is it just the caffeine or is it sitting down to drink tea that we enjoy. Relaxation and contemplation nuance the rewards of life and your humanity in many ways.  That is how I feel about the vanishing of newspapers and perhaps books.      

I Finally Got A URL For Tampa Taxi Shots

I finally got a URL tamapataxishots.com from Godaddy.  I am using it on my "shadow blog" on Blogger.  The reason is after two days of not being able to figure out how to link it to Typepad, it took two minutes to link it to Blogger.  Sorry, but some times you have to be practical. Plus, Blogger is free. I have been paying Typepad money for five years. Can't really afford it. Check out my 'shadow blog.'

Another Week, Another TV Blackout for NFL - TheStreet

the Tampa Tribune pointed Bucs fans to mascot-appropriate pirated live streams from ATDHE.net, Justin TV, BlipTV and Ustream. They don't have the expressed written consent of the NFL, whose representatives say they'll "vigorously protect our product" though cease-and-desist letters and takedown notices, but loyal, frugal fans are using the option anyway. Plus, with the NFL's free broadcasts shown in HD and a game from another market replacing the blacked-out hometown matchup, borderline fans are still offered a crisp view of NFL action for the double-digit cost of an HD antenna.

via www.thestreet.com

The NFL may try to force these alternative networks to cease and desist from shown the Tampa Bay Bucs in the Tampa market, but they have brought this on themselves. The internet, direct TV, digital this and that, people can find other ways to see an NFL game other than paying $25 to park and $10 for a paper cup of beer. Free markets folks. The NFL is literally pricing themselves out of fans.

LandWarNet Is In Tampa

There is a massive Army trade show in Tampa this week called LandWarNet, and it is having a huge economic impact for the area. These are the kinds of events that will really put a few bucks in your pocket. This type of event has not been seen in Tampa in at least three years. I hope it is indicative of the recession coming to an end. knock on wood.

The military and defense contractors are at the Tampa Convention Center showing all their new high-tech gadgets to the brass, so they can use our ingenuity to kill the enemy before they kill us. A lot of computer guys, and hardware guys and everything electronic and james Bondish is for sell this week. The bad guys don't have a chance. It makes sense to have this in Tampa because the United States Central Command is located here at MacDill Airforce Base.

These people are also partying like animals at night, so we are busy round the clock. Talk about a stimulus plan.

...photo courtesy of US Army

WINTER IS GONE

Say goodbye to winter. Things are getting nice right now.  This post was an experiment in moble posting from the field.  I am not at my computer; I am in the field using a cell phone.  Pay your cab bill or I will come to your house.  You do not want that.  This image was from my camping trip last month when it was -1 degrees!

High Speen Connection

My computer must be getting old.  I have broadband wireless from AT&T and it is a great service.  However, my connection now will only hold now for a few minutes, and then It falls off.  I bought my computer in 2004 and I guess it's just time for a new one. 

Problem.

The economy and my business is so bad that its going to be a tall order.  For now I am using the high speed internet connections they have at the library.  I can down load images off of email and load videos to YouTube with a plug in flash port which acts like a hard drive.  so I should be alright for now.

I do miss having stuff that works.  I guess it is just the way things will be until Obama is gone.

I must of been in a hurry, the image is a little blured.

Photos Posted Live On Taxi Shots!

Tampa Taxi Shots will now be posting lmages live from the field. Typepad has a new feature that will allow email mobile posting of my cell phone pictures. Now how cool is that?

THE GABLE FILM V THE FASANO FILM

A recently discovered 1959 8mm film shows a primate caught on film by my Grandfather, Orlando Fasano, near a swamp area that would soon become Disney World.  It is very simular to the Michagin Dogman Gable Film in that it shows a family outside with their dog and then they are attacked by a bear/dog creature.  Nobody has been able to debunk the Michagin Dogman film taken in the 1970's.  It has been on the internet for the last five years.

USBFLASHDRIVE 2.0

I never knew there was such a thing.  I have always tried to mess around with disk, misplace them, or 6 months later they wont load anymore.  I remember when we used floppy disk.  Remember those?  I had a fare in my cab this morning and he told me about something called a USBFLASHDRIVE.  They are cheap, and can hold about a billion times more than a floppy ever thought of doing.  I was advised to upgrade to the new way of saving images, text and videos.  This little gadget is beyond cool, and is very fun and simple to work with.  All  you do is stick it into one of the ports in the back of the computer and you will hear a dink.  That is the drive being activated and it is called an "E" drive or something.  Just save your stuff to that. I am confident now that I have solved my redundancy problem.  The one I got today at Best Buy has 4 gbs of memory.  That seems like a lot to me.

GPS

I have a GPS.  I wish I had got this technology a long time ago.  Man, does it make a cab drivers life easier.  Even though I know the Tampa area very well, there are streets I am not familiar with and neighborhoods that are like a maze, such as Culbreth Bayou and Davis Island.  All you do is enter the address and it will guide you in with a women talking to you all the way.

I had it added to my Metro PCS phone service.  It is a new feature that they are offering and It works just like the bigger dash mounted cams that are common.  Why pay $300 when you can have it on your cell phone?  If you can text, you can GPS.

Tampa Taxi Cab Music Video Is Out!

"It's 6 am, thats when my day begins. I work the streets...just to pay my lease..." So the lyrics of TAXI RIDE go. This video was put together by Andy at Tampa Taxi and the song is played by his band. It is beyond cool. If you really want to see what we see and get  that pulse of the cab driver, it is well worth downloading this video I found on YouTube.

Look What I Can Do!

Even Larry could not figure it out. I got this new fangled cell phone las Spring and I knew it could take photos but I could never figure out how to download them to my computer. The problem is most of my friends know about as much about computers and stuff as I do. No a lot.

Well, today I was at a restaurant I like to go to on Kennedy Blvd. called Cafe Con Trey The family  that runs it is Spanish/Black and they are cool and serve good food.

This morning, Los (who won the Weekly Planet award as the best drive thru attendant in Tampa) was sending an email from the same exact phone I have. I asked him what he was doing. I explained the problem I had with photos and he showed me how to send an email so I could download an image. Well what do you know? The photos on this post were taken with my cell phone. Not bad color.

Sometimes you stumble bum into things. Watch this video and hear an actual cab driver talk about illegal logging and the environment. Download Video000.wmv 

I got a Domain Name!

I just got a  domain name for my blog. www.tampataxishots.com should be up in running within 24 hours. The reason I did this is because I get searches every day that makes me believe people think I have a domain, can't find it and then do the search. This should help