Categories
transport

Fare Free Friday

With public transport free today, it looks like some are taking advantage — there seemed to be more Seniors on the train this morning, enjoying a free trip into the city (even though it’s only $3.40 normally). But overall the train wasn’t markedly more crowded than usual, and it’s not like everyone abandoned their cars  ... [More]

Categories
dreams Melbourne

The stolen car dream, and Neighbourhood Watch

The stolen car dream I was going to visit my old uni mate Brian (who actually lives in Florida, though I saw him a few weeks ago when he recently visited Melbourne again). In the dream, he was staying at my mum’s house in Hampton. I parked in the usual spot when visiting her, and  ... [More]

Categories
transport

If you don’t always touch-off, it often doesn’t matter

The Myki mantra of “touch-on, touch-off” will reach fever-pitch as it gets pushed across the PT network. And people will say it’s a hassle. Which it is. The touch is (if everything works okay) quicker and easier than inserting a Metcard into a slot, but having to do it twice per trip negates that somewhat.  ... [More]

Categories
TV

Going digital

I finally got myself organised for digital TV, including Thursday night’s launch of ABC News 24. (The opening minutes of ABC News 24, posted by Adam Dimech) I’d been putting off buying a set-top box, remembering the rule that technology always gets cheaper over time. I was waiting for an HD set-top box with USB  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Uh oh

Every time your train is stuck inexplicably in a tunnel, every time a service is cancelled, the experience is not just eroding your quality of life. It is eating away at our city’s global competitiveness. — Boris Johnson, Mayor of London in the London Evening Standard, 15/10/2009 A power problem at Southern Cross Station has  ... [More]

Categories
PTUA transport

Myki trams and buses: day one

A journo mentioned a certain MP this morning was quoting some transport-related sections my blog — presumably the favourable ones, such as the post that talked about the Myki transition plan. While my posts here do not necessarily represent PTUA policy, I suppose this blog is part of the mix of being an advocate —  ... [More]

Categories
Net

Do not like (or dislike)

Have disabled the “Like” comments feature, after previously trying it with Like/Dislike, then disabling Dislike. Few were using it; bit of a waste of time for a site like this I suspect. Like or dislike a comment? Leave an actual response instead!

Categories
transport

Myki arrives on trams and buses

The government announced today that Myki will be valid on trams and buses from Sunday. Finally, Myki goes multi-modal in Melbourne! Assuming they stick to the rollout plan they had last year, which was pretty logical, it’ll go like this: (Graphic originally from the Myki web site. Taken down but re-posted via Whirlpool by Mathew.)  ... [More]

Categories
Health

Electric toothbrushes

In the past I’ve been unconvinced by the benefits of electric toothbrushes. They just seemed like a gimmick to me. That was until at a checkup last month when the dentist noted that the kids might well find them better, to counter less-than-perfect manual brushing. He recommended the Oral B brand specifically (interesting since the  ... [More]

Categories
transport

You passenger. Me train.

This picture has not been digitally altered. Maybe they got halfway through putting the stickers on the front, then realised the train was needed to run a service. In other news, while Metro got their June performance figures out almost two weeks ago, and Yarra Trams and V/Line have also published theirs, the Department of  ... [More]

Categories
Net Politics and activism Retrospectives

Ancient political history

Trivia for you: Back in prehistoric times, when most of you had never heard of the Internet and barely anybody used the Web, and way before Twitter and Facebook, I blogged the 1996 Federal election campaign. Several times a week I’d add something new, including a spoof leader debate transcript, a Hippy Party manifesto, Ron  ... [More]

Categories
Culture Working life

Dilbert archive search

The Dilbert web site now has a full archive and a keyword search, and even an embed feature, which has allowed me to find and embed one of my favourite Dilbert comics ever: …and this one, of course: