Google celebrates 150 years of London Underground – and could we have bought Oyster?
As seen at google.co.uk on Wednesday. Very cool.
(Large version found via the Going Underground blog)
Note the subtle shading of fare zones, which reflects how they look on the official maps.
It’s been claimed in the past that in Melbourne we couldn’t adopt an existing smartcard ticket system like Oyster because Melbourne had specific needs. I disagree… London has zones, trains, trams, buses and ferries. We have zones, trains, trams, buses. A handful of ferries run in Melbourne, but aren’t part of the integrated fare system.
Not so different.
Perhaps it wouldn’t have saved much money to buy Oyster (Sydney is doing so, and it’s costing a similar amount to Myki), but I bet it would have saved time getting it running, and from what I’ve seen, we would have got faster response times on the readers.
That said, Brisbane implemented Oyster as “Go” card, and has had some issues. And Myki’s ambition was to cover most of Victoria with fare zones – I wonder if Oyster could have handled that. (V/Line buses run to Canberra and Adelaide. Adelaide was going to be zone 73.)
But of course now Myki has been cut in scope to go no further than the V/Line commuter belt — 13 zones in all. I suspect it could have handled it.
And the rumour is some in the bureaucracy are beginning to realise the way Myki was built was a mistake. Too late now.
Who “owns” your surname?
Go to Google News (preferably in an anonymous browser window so it’s not skewed towards your usual searches — though it will detect your location/country).
Search for your surname. Who comes up top?
For me it’s Immigration Minister Chris Bowen.
- Related: Google’s top ten Daniels
The timewaster
The curse of the Internet and the short attention span — there’s too much stuff to look at.
So I check my email.
Then I have a look in Google Reader.
What’s Twitter doing? Okay.
Facebook? My turn in Scrabble yet?
Might check a couple of the news sites and see what’s happening.
And the Whirlpool forum?
OK, all under control. But hey, I wonder if there’s any new email?
Rinse and repeat. How do I break this cycle?
I once had an idea for it: a combined mega-reader/aggregator that would grab data from all those sources and more, configured by the user. It would rank everything according to a priority — again, configured by the user — perhaps the emails from your boss and/or spouse at the top, the dull email newsletter which you should read but don’t want to at the bottom, and news bulletins somewhere in the middle.
So you could see everything in one hit, all prioritised.
I even came up with a name and a domain name for it: View My World.
And I did some rough designs on it, but never got to the coding stage.
I still think it’s a good idea, and anybody who’s got the time and inclination to work on it should give me a shout, maybe we can come up with a collaboration.
Meanwhile, amusingly, ViewMyWorld.com is now registered by Microsoft, and appears to be a recruitment web site.
(Anybody who wants to develop the Screaming Room idea should also give me a scream shout. I already have a prospective subscriber in Derrimut.)
Navigation
A few years ago I did a comparison of the results from online trip planners. Here’s an update of sorts.
I tested 247 Flinders Lane (which is an address on a one-way street, in an area with lots of turn restrictions and pedestrian streets) to see what the various navigators would do. For the destination I just put Bentleigh (my neighbourhood).
Yahoo Maps couldn’t give me an answer, reporting that “Driving directions cannot be determined between these locations”. I tried giving it a specific destination, but it wouldn’t do it.
1. Head west on Flinders Ln towards Flinders Way 0.1 km
2. Turn right at Elizabeth St 0.1 km
3. Take the 1st right on to Collins St 0.5 km
4. Turn right at Russell St 0.2 km
5. Turn right at Flinders St 0.2 km
6. Take the 1st left on to St Kilda Rd 4.6 km
7. Turn left at Fitzroy St 77 m
8. Turn right at St Kilda Rd 1.3 km
9. Continue onto Brighton Rd 1.9 km
10. Continue onto Nepean Hwy 4.1 km
11. Slight left at Centre Rd 1.5 km
Google decided that just entering the suburb for the destination would go to the post office.
The directions are pretty good, but St Kilda Junction confused it; you don’t (you can’t) turn at Fitzroy Street when headed southbound; you turn briefly onto Punt Road, which then leads you onto St Kilda Road.
1. Continue on Flinders La, Melbourne – head towards Degraves St
2. Turn left onto Degraves St, Melbourne at Punt Hill
3. Turn left onto Flinders St, Melbourne
4. Turn right onto Swanston St, Melbourne at Young & Jackson Hotel
5. Continue along St Kilda Rd, Melbourne at Arintji Cafe & Bar
6. Veer right onto Punt Rd, St Kilda
7. Continue along St Kilda Rd, St Kilda
8. Continue along Brighton Rd, St Kilda
9. Continue along Nepean Hwy, Elsternwick at McDonalds
10. Veer left onto Ramp, Brighton East
11. Continue along Brewer Rd, Brighton East
12. At the roundabout – take the 2nd exit onto Brewer Rd, Bentleigh
13. Arrive at Brewer Rd, Bentleigh
Curiously it’s led me to somewhere well outside the logical centre of Bentleigh, though it might be the geographic centre of the suburb.
It figured out St Kilda Junction, but got the initial directions completely wrong, directing me to turn into Degraves Street, which is mostly closed to traffic, and then to do an illegal right hand turn from Flinders St into Swanston St. I kinda like the use of landmarks for directions though.
1. Depart -37.81673, 144.96600 on Flinders Ln (West)
2. Turn LEFT (South) onto King St (0.1 km)
3. Road name changes to Kings Way (2.3 km)
4. Bear RIGHT (South) onto Queens Rd (2.0 km)
5. Turn LEFT (East) onto Union St (0.4 km)
6. Turn RIGHT (South) onto Punt Rd (0.3 km)
7. Keep STRAIGHT onto St Kilda Rd (1.3 km)
8. Road name changes to Brighton Rd (1.9 km)
9. Keep LEFT onto Nepean Hwy (4.1 km)
10. Keep LEFT onto Centre Rd (1.5 km)
11. Turn RIGHT (South) onto Loranne St (0.0 km)
12. Arrive -37.91806, 145.03544 (0.0 km)
This one has also led me to the post office. Unlike the others it preferred Kingsway to St Kilda Road, but I can’t see any flaws with its logic, though it did decide I should go all the way along Union Street to Punt Road — that may well be faster than turning off Union Street at St Kilda Road.
And for non-drivers, how about Metlink’s journey planner?
From 247 Flinders Lane (Melbourne City)
Walk about 220 metres to Flinders Street Railway Station (Melbourne City)1. Continue along Royston Pl 20 m about 1 min
2. Turn right at Flinders Lane 80 m about 2 min
3. Turn right at Swanston St 120 m about 2 min
4. Continue along St Kilda Rd 10 m about 1 min
5. Arr: 10:08 am To Flinders Street Railway Station (Melbourne City) 210 m 4 minDEP: 10:08 am Flinders Street Railway Station (Melbourne City) Platform 8
Take the train towards Frankston — Time 21 min
ARR: 10:29 amGet off at Bentleigh Railway Station (Bentleigh) Platform 2
DEP: From Stop Bentleigh Railway Station (Bentleigh)
Walk about 50 metres Time 7 min
10:36 am To Bentleigh (Bentleigh)
Metlink decided “Bentleigh” meant a street next to the railway station. Not sure why.
The instructions to walk to the station assume that Royston Place is a thoroughfare; It’s a deadend; you can’t get to Flinders Street station that way. Update: Ah, it assumed I was starting in Royston Place, not walking through it. Not sure why it would do that though. And it didn’t send me via the quickest pedestrian route, which is the Degraves Street subway.
But the train trip itself is correct.
Unknown why it thinks it’ll take 7 minutes to walk 50 metres at the end of the trip. Maybe it’s adding a bit in case the train is late, or you have to wait for a train at the level crossing.
So, Bing gave the best result. All the others appear to need some attention.
Searching for Google
Google has announced (somewhat early, and amongst other things) the top Australian searches of 2009.
Most popular searches of 2009
YouTube
Hotmail
eBay
MySpace
Yahoo
Gmail
Bebo
Seek
So plenty of people search for Google in Google, despite the idiocy in doing so, and more significantly, the inherent dangers:
Big advertising
You know those sandwich board advertising things? A-frames, I’m told they’re called. The IGA in Ripponlea has recently got one. It’s as big as a person.
On the bright side, it’s unlikely to blow over in the wind. Though if it did, it’d probably kill somebody.
Update: Speaking of advertising, I just added Google ads here. I’m not convinced it doesn’t make the site look cheap and tawdry, but I’ll give it a go for a week or two.
Whatthe?
What the F— do you think you’re doing, Mr White Stationwagon? Where the F— did you get your driver’s licence? Why the F— do you think you can decide as you’re driving through an intersection in the left hand lane, that you are suddenly going to turn right, across three lanes of traffic, cutting me off as I’m about to turn right the other way, leaving my car helplessly stuck in the intersection? It’s not as if that’s a F—ING hook turn there, and even if it was, you didn’t do it F—ING properly, did you?
Ahem. Pardon that burst of invective, but I don’t particularly like having sudden scares like that as I’m peacefully driving home of an evening. I think I’ll eat some chocolate.
The rest of the day before that was comparitively calm. Went to work, did stuff, had dinner, headed home.
At Melbourne Central Station I tried to balance on some weirdo bar things they’ve installed, which are too low to sit on or lean against, and got out the book I’ve been reading, Sue Townsend’s Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman. It’s not quite as compelling as Adrian Mole ever was, and on some train journeys I can’t be bothered getting it out to read it. But I’ll keep at it for a bit longer, if only because (a) my sister gave it to me, and I’d feel guilty if I didn’t give it a proper go, and (b) given its extremely pink cover, to prove I’m comfortable with my sexuality by reading it in public.
When I got off the train I wandered into the supermarket, thinking I might pick up one or two items, and coming out with $25 worth. The teenaged checkout chick was astonishingly chirpy to each customer, jabbering away as she scanned things, asking if I’d been at work, had it been a hard day, how many hours I worked (?!) and finally remarking as she scanned the two chocolate bilbies I’d bought for the kids’ Easter presents, “Oh! They’re so cute!” It’s situations like these that I always wonder what the reaction would be if a jumbo box of condoms was in the mix.
It’s been a fun April Fools Day, scouring the media for spoof reports. On the net the most successful has been the Google “G-Mail” one, having been picked up by the major outlets including CNN, BBC and News.com. I suppose they can all claim later they were in on the joke. The original press release pretty much gives it away. ABC Online originally covered it like the others, but now seems suspicious. Funny stuff.
PS. 2/4/2004. Or is it real after all??
