Big enough, small enough
St George Bank is using the slogan “Big enough. Small enough.”
Which is why this made me laugh:
Clearly, that’s not small enough.
(They’ve taken it down in the last day or two.)
Happy new year, everybody.
Myki: the cases for and against
It’s a year today since Myki was switched-on in Melbourne. There were a lot of problems on day one, and many others have been highlighted in the last twelve months.
In today’s Herald Sun, Paul Mees argues Myki should be scrapped and replaced with a system from elsewhere, such as Perth’s SmartRider.
I argue that while it was a bad idea to build it, it may now be too late to scrap Myki; to do so now may waste $700 million, and it should be kept — but only if problems with it can be fixed cost-effectively.
Equally, a decision to keep myki must only be made if it can be made to work properly, and without going further over budget. We don’t want to be throwing good money after bad.
Slow and inconsistent readers, beeps that can barely be heard, reliability problems with vending machines and cards, slow online transactions, and incorrect charging have all plagued the system, and must be fixed.
So must design problems that make the system unfriendly to use: beeps for “touch-on” and “touch-off” that are indistinguishable, touch-offs on buses resulting in queues at doorways, and a plan for single-use short term tickets to require activation if bought from stations but not on trams and buses (which would inherit a problem from Metcard that enormously confuses occasional users).
I came to this conclusion after considering the key facts that while it’s had problems this year, the system largely works now; and most of the capital costs have already been spent, meaning it would be a huge waste of money to scrap it (and would probably cost more to find a replacement, though Mees disagrees on this).
Of course it makes sense that it’ll be the government’s full audit of the system that will determine what happens from here. Will be very interested to see what it says.
PS. People may have forgotten, but Metcard had big problems in its early years too. What’s that saying? Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.
Tags: Myki, public transport
29 comments
Build your own Metro
Sick of how Metro’s running? Then build your own!
(ABC News, 26/12/2010.)
Tags: Metro, public transport, trains
2 comments
Coolest Mini ever
Spotted in Centre Road, Bentleigh:
Tags: Mini, Space Invaders, Video games
2 comments
Merry Christmas
Quieter than usual due to my boys being away in Hawaii, but I chatted with them on Skype this evening.
Presents are easier now all the adults in the family have switched to (non-anonymous) Kris Kringle… and of course we stuffed ourselves full of heaps of food. The only downer was being locked-out of my sister’s house for a little while, and I managed to get the wrong thing for my niece’s dolls house. Whoops. (Yes, I have the receipt.)
But overall, a good day. Hope the rest of you had a good one.
Perfect for a train-spotter
Looking for a last-minute Christmas gift for a train-spotter? Got a budget of hundreds of thousands of dollars?
Then splurge and buy them a home in this new development in Caulfield East.
Urban Art Apartments is an artistic, inspired residential development in Caulfield East which is surrounded by lush greenery and designer art pieces. The development will feature a range of 34 architect designed 1, 2 and 2 plus study bedroom apartments. Each apartment will include European stainless steel appliances, split system heating/cooling and acoustically treated. The large, beautifully landscaped communal courtyard garden is an ideal place for all residents to enjoy the sun or you can gather with friends in your own private terrace. Visitor bike parking in basement and on ground level. All apartments have one car space.
It sounds good… until you realise the precise location, which is smack bang in the middle of the junction between the Frankston and Dandenong train lines.
I suspect that even with the best sound-proofing in the world, that is a location only a train-spotter could love.
Update 25/12/2010: Bonus photo:
(Anybody else thinking of that scene in the Blues Brothers in the flat where the trains rumble by every few seconds? Yup.)
Have a Merry Christmas everybody.
Tags: Christmas, real estate, trains
20 comments
Dream: the late start
Just had an interesting dream.
I dreamt that I woke up at 11:48am (according to the clock) today. (I’d intended to get up and out early, with a planned half-day at work followed by various errands before the shops shut for Christmas.) Somehow I’d slept through the alarm.
Despite it being late, I was very sleepy. I stumbled through the house and was surprised to find the washing machine running, yet I couldn’t recall having set it to run the previous night.
On the back porch I found my stepfather Peter, up a ladder looking at the drains (not unknown for him), but with suit trousers on (unusual). Nearby on a seat was a man who appeared at first glance to be my Uncle Frank.
Peter said he was urgently checking the drains, and that he’d also had to shut the water off. I replied that I’d need it on, as I was running really late and had to have a shower shortly. He said okay, he’d switch it back on.
Then I woke up in the real world. The clock was actually on 6:05am, about an hour before I usually get up. *Yawn*.
Tags: Christmas, dreams, family
2 comments
Lego: Santa’s little helper
For the past year or two, Lego have advertised heavily around Christmas time on billboards and in newspapers. Surprisingly, they don’t direct you to the Lego web site, but say to search for “Santa’s little helper”.
This is tied into their advertising for those keywords on Google, which goes through to their web site with a gift suggestion applet. (For some crazy reason lego.com.au goes to a completely different web site.)
I guess they’re assuming everybody uses Google, not Bing or Yahoo or anything else, where Lego is not a prominent result for those keywords (though Bing suggests it).
Nonetheless, Lego seems to be doing well. An article in last week’s Sunday Age notes that the company faced bankruptcy in 2003, but has bounced back. And I know that when looking around Chadstone on Monday night for Lego for my nephew Leo for Christmas, some of the Lego shelves in Toys R Us, Myer, David Jones, Target and K-Mart were looking a bit empty.
And I’m not going to pretend I didn’t wish I was buying some for myself. (That Lego train set 7938 looks rather good.)
Tags: advertising, Christmas, Lego
5 comments
