3 ms·
Modern taxis fail every one of these "tests", so the fact that RMS wouldn't use Uber but would continue to use taxis at all is merely RMS riding a hatred bandwa
by diminoten 12y ago
Modern taxis fail every one of these "tests", so the fact that RMS wouldn't use Uber but would continue to use taxis at all is merely RMS riding a hatred bandwagon in an effort to stay relevant.
Fortunately for us, he hasn't said anything remotely new, so we can continue to think of him as the 20th century man he is.
- dllthomas 12y agoYou can pay cash for a cab.
- lambda 12y agoUh, no. You can hail a taxi by hand, and pay with cash, and no one will have your information in a database that can be used against you later. While I don't agree with all of his reasoning here, he is correct that taxis offer you substantially more privacy than Uber, and Uber has been known to abuse the data they collect on passengers in several instances, so it's far more than just a theoretical concern.
- nemothekid 12y agohttp://gawker.com/the-public-nyc-taxicab-database-that-accidentally-track-1646724546 http://gawker.com/the-public-nyc-taxicab-database-that-accid...
- diminoten 12y ago> You can hail a taxi by hand, and pay with cash, and no one will have your information in a database that can be used against you later. No you can't. Plenty of taxis record the backseats of their cars, and you have no way of knowing which do/don't. Taxis don't offer you enough privacy over Uber, and the reason he's coming after Uber is because he wants to stay relevant, not because Uber is particularly bad.
- jpatokal 12y agoBut if you pay by cash, there's no easy way to match that recording to you. Also, I'm pretty sure RMS doesn't give a fig about "relevance". He's just applying his principles to the world as he sees it, and he's been doing this literally for decades: https://stallman.org/~rms/archives/index.html https://stallman.org/~rms/archives/index.html