Clueless
Wow.
Following up from frivolous calls after Melbourne’s earth tremor a couple of weeks ago, and just in time for yesterday afternoon’s tremor, Victoria Police put out a press release that reveals how many clueless people there are, who dial the Triple Zero emergency number for stupid reasons.
- January 2009 – Caller telephones 000 to advise operator that someone had stolen their watch three months prior.
- January 2009 – Caller advises operator that a solution for catching offenders is that police should design a Spiderman-type weapon that ejects a sticky net that covers the offender and renders them incapacitated. The caller later stated that they were not looking for fame or fortune for this idea.
- January 2009 – Caller rings to ask what time her dentist appointment was because she forgot.
- March 2009 – Caller advised operator that someone had stolen a marijuana plant form their backyard.
- April 2009 – Caller telephones 000 and states son has been missing for one minute.
There’s just no getting around it. Some people are idiots.
(And now I have the Spiderman cartoon theme music going around in my brain.)
Tags:
12 comments
Attn: Other Daniel Bowen
Attention: Whoever has tried to initiate a password change for the Gmail address “danielbowen”:
It’s not working for you because it’s not your email address.
It’s mine. That’s why the password assistance message keeps coming through to me.
If you’ve received this mail in error, it’s likely that another user entered your email address by mistake while trying to reset a password. If you didn’t initiate the request, you don’t need to take any further action and can safely disregard this email.
Yup. Disregarding.
Oh, and if you’re the same person (Stateside, somewhere, I think) whose friends occasionally email me, then I can only doubly emphasise: please learn what your email address is. I really don’t want to read any more of their lame jokes, construction work updates, travel plans, wedding photos, news of your ailments, or your mutual friends’ ailments. (That stuff should be personal, after all).
Thanks.
Tags:
4 comments
Park and ride
For all the prominence given to issues around railway station car parks, the number of people using them is only a fraction of the total numbers of people using the trains.
Source: Total users — Connex figure of 360,000. P+R users — based on an old figure of 27,500 spaces plus an estimated thousand new spaces added recently, times typical car peak hour occupancy of 1.15 (VicRoads). Obviously some people also park in nearby streets, but I suspect this doesn’t account for many compared to the numbers using the car parks themselves.
The cost of additional parking? In the current programme of upgrades,it’s costing $29.2 million for 1,700 spaces — or $17,176 for each individual space.
In contrast, running frequent (say, every 10 minutes) buses into the stations would help people travelling all day, not just the first-come-first-served who get the parking spots, and save the land around railway stations for more useful pursuits, like housing and retail. Well, anything other than car parks, actually.
(Oh wait, maybe I should have used a pie graph.)
Tags:
9 comments
I must be getting old
From a blog on the Australian Jewish News web site:
Recently I was on a bus and a young man got on in front of me wearing very low-slung jeans, so low in fact that his gutkes showed above the jeans.
I was sure that his jeans were going to fall off and I was just about to call out, “Excuse me young man, I think you are in danger of losing your hoysen!”
But I thought better of it and stopped just in time.
Slightly amusing Yiddish terminology aside, I concur — I don’t understand this fashion. I must be getting old.
“Gutkes” are better known as underpants. Underpants. That is, they’re meant to go under your pants.
Tags:
10 comments
Stewart vs Cramer
For those who missed it, last Thursday night’s Daily Show was a corker. Jon Stewart took on TV financial advisor Jim Cramer in one of the best TV debates I’ve seen in a while.
The interview was one of those classic television moments that crystallised the public mood in the credit crisis. Stewart articulated the anger and bewilderment of millions of Americans who now feel ripped off and afraid. He framed the question everyone wanted asked: how were the financial masters of the universe allowed to pursue their ruinous behaviour unchallenged for so long? — The Guardian
Definitely worth a watch if you haven’t seen it already.
Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer: The Extended Daily Show Interview
Tags:
1 comment
Less seats
No straps to hold onto / Standing in the doorways is easiest
Connex has a proposal to reduce the number of seats in some trains, as well as other internal carriage changes, including changing the doorways, and putting in more handholds.
…Flashback…
Almost six years ago, I took my newly purchased Canon A70 digital camera out to the mean streets of Fitzroy, to take pictures of John C holding a foldable chair at a tram stop, for a PTUA brochure entitled “Yarra Trams – BYO Seat“, protesting over the removal of seats from B-class trams, which also featured an image of “Yarra Sardines”.
In fact, Yarra Trams were so riled up by the brochure that they threatened legal action.
Apollo tram bum rack seats / Modified Comeng train layout (pic: Channel 9)
So, what’s different about the new Connex proposal to remove seats from trains?
1. It’s less seats removed. The “Apollo” tram layout saw 28 out of the 74 seats came out — around 38%. This time it’s 44 out of 268 (per 3 carriages) — about 16%.
2. The removal of seats from trams was about squeezing more people in, when a better solution would have been to put on more trams. This time, it’s also about better using the existing space down the aisles, and getting people away from the doors, to speed up loading/unloading “dwell” times so that more trains can run. This is particularly a problem at CBD stations in rush hour, when the theoretical dwell time is 30 seconds, but reality can be three or four times that much because the last lot of refurbishments led to a really hopelessly inefficient design that encourages people to block the doors. Quicker loading = more trains can run = less crowding (and probably no overall reduction in seating).
3. The change is being accompanied by lots more rails/poles, largely solving the current problem of having almost nothing to hold onto when standing in some spots.
4. This time around, they actually mentioned it to people before doing it, and explained why, and are keen to have people see it on a demonstration train, and discuss the changes, rather than presenting it as a fait accompli.
It’ll be interesting to see what people think when they see it. I’ve already heard a range of opinions, varying from “outrageous, they shouldn’t take away any seats” to “why don’t they take out all the seats”? I suspect there’s a balance to be found somewhere there.
And it’ll be interesting to see how effective it is at reducing dwell times.
Tags:
23 comments
Email bankruptcy
Every so often you realise a clear out is in order.
When I realised yesterday there were a thousand items in my Gmail inbox, I decided I had to do something.
So I started at the bottom of it, and started clearing and filing. I’m about halfway through it. In the process I found some emails that I had meant to answer or otherwise action, but never did — some from 3-4 years ago.
I’m declaring email bankruptcy on my Gmail account.
Apart from one or two, I’m not replying to any of them now. I have actioned a few things though. So finally, as was suggested by Chris in early 2005, that photo I took in 2004 of the mural in Yarraville has been added to the Trugo article in Wikipedia.
If you emailed me ages ago, expecting a reply, and never got one, I can only apologise. I read every email I get (well, apart from the obvious spam), and I do intend to reply when it’s needed, but sometimes things move so fast that replies get left behind.
For future reference, if you hear nothing within a week or so, give me a gentle reminder. I’ll do my best.
Thankfully my other email boxes aren’t in such a state. Well, not much.
Tags:
2 comments
More on Myki
Apparently I’m a militant.
[Myki] has been slagged by public transport militant Daniel Bowen by reference to the hideous early 1980′s hit ‘Hey Mickey’ recently revived in cheerleader films of dubious repute. — Vexnews — news for patriots (?!)
Hmmmmm.
Interesting that they linked to a blog post where I thought I was quite impartial about Myki. Well, except for the title.
Meanwhile, the results are in from Myki’s first week on Geelong’s buses. Noted flaws include:
- passengers being over-charged, with the system charging for multiple two-hour tickets within a single two-hour period
- no lower limit on the amount that can be added to a Myki ticket on buses, leading to some users paying small amounts of money to the bus driver each time they board — the very type of time-consuming transaction Myki is supposed to eliminate
- slow response times when scanning on and off
- resultant slow “dwell” times for buses, causing delays
- little or no information about fares available at bus stops or on-board buses
- single-use tickets showing no expiry time or cost information
- machines periodically not working, including not registering scans
- uncertainty and contradictory information about the penalty fare for failing to scan off at the end of a trip
- inadequate help from the Myki call centre, with operators giving excuses such as “I’m not in Geelong”, despite Geelong being the only city to be using Myki so far
Not a bad little list of problems for something that had already been trialled and tested internally, and then with real passengers on the Bellarine Peninsula!
No doubt some of these can be fixed, and to their credit, the Transport Ticketing Authority has been in touch with the PTUA Geelong branch to discuss them.
But others appear to be bigger design flaws and may be tougher to fix.
Time will tell.
Just remember folks: this is your tax-payer dollars (and quite a few of them) at work.
Tags:
10 comments
