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Melbourne Photos Toxic Custard newsletter

New camera

Obviously the best camera you have is the one you have with you. Normally that’s my phone. Sometimes I’ll also have my ~4 year old Canon IXUS 115, which is compact, but takes some great photos. But for my birthday I treated myself to a DSLR, a Canon 700D (spotted on sale + cashback offer  ... [More]

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Photos from ten years ago Toxic Custard newsletter

Old photos from September 2005

Another in my series of photos from ten years ago. Bourke Street (at Swanston Street) tram platform stops just being completed, it looks like. Note the old “The Met” tram stop sign — in a mix of brands with the then-new Metlink and Yarra Trams. The realtime display must have been pretty new. And of  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Burke Road crossing removal progressing

On Saturday I took a look at the Burke Road level crossing removal — it’s being done as part of the same package as the North/Mckinnon/Centre Roads crossings, but is well ahead of them in terms of progress. The official web site has details of the project — because there’s space available, the new rail  ... [More]

Categories
Geek

New blog template

I quite liked the old blog template, but I know there were a few issues with it on mobile devices, and I didn’t have the time/energy to fix it. So as part of trying out new web hosting, and making sure WordPress is all updated, I’m trying out a new template. Again, I don’t have  ... [More]

Categories
Toxic Custard newsletter transport

Design: It probably won a prize #SoCross

Back at uni, in one of my subjects we read a great book called The Design Of Everyday Things. In it, author Donald Norman highlights bad designs, often noting: “It probably won a prize”. One of the hallmarks of good design at railway stations is being able to see the information that you need to  ... [More]

Categories
transport

You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs

I think everyone accepts that public transport is worthwhile, but not perfect. The Age today highlights rail capacity problems. The source document is a presentation from PTV, and page 5 summarises the bottlenecks: (This is similar to a diagram in the 2012 rail Network Development Plan) So, change is needed on the public transport network.  ... [More]

Categories
Consumerism Home life Toxic Custard newsletter

How long does a dishwasher last?

Just on five years ago my dishwasher door spring broke. In that instance a secondary fault also affected the actual washing of dishes. Now another door spring has broken. It hasn’t affected the washing – it’s just the door is heavy, and needs to be opened very carefully. Repair from Fisher And Paykel is expected  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Just another #Myki issue: V/Line default fares

Default fares kind of make sense (an assumption about where someone travelled if they don’t touch-off), but the way they’re implemented under Myki leaves a lot to be desired. An example from Saturday, when I zipped down to Geelong and back on the train. Summarising the official history: 12:15 Touched-on at Footscray (zone 1). The  ... [More]

Categories
Melbourne

View of the city from the outer west

If you catch a train towards Geelong, just after Deer Park, where the train branches off the Ballarat line to head south, you’ll see a great view of the city on your left. (View it larger) Against the bluey-grey skyline, the wheel stands out of course, as do the silos in Kensington-ish. In the foreground  ... [More]

Categories
Consumerism Toxic Custard newsletter

Investments

Sorry, few updates this week due to general busy-ness and a web hosting issue that prevented posting. Last year I dipped my toe in the sharemarket: I bought shares in Xero, the cloud accounting service. They were about $25 at the time. Since then they have dropped in price by about half. If only I’d  ... [More]

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Melbourne Toxic Custard newsletter transport

St Kilda Road and Swanston Street

I for one welcome our new public-transport-loving overlord. As recently as Friday, new Prime Minister-designate Malcolm Turnbull was riding trams in Melbourne: And here comes today's tram – the number 70 to take us to Hawthorn and a morning with @JoshFrydenberg pic.twitter.com/zeGCmct6nj — Malcolm Turnbull (@TurnbullMalcolm) September 10, 2015 It’s great that — unlike Tony  ... [More]

Categories
Toxic Custard newsletter TV

It’s okay

I don’t know if anybody’s done this before, but… It’s from The West Wing, the finale of season 1, a signal the staff work out to indicate that the Space Shuttle has resolved an issue while on a mission. The show is known for infusing humour into the drama — in this case, the Shuttle  ... [More]