The insanity

Firstly, this article is worth a quick read. And now for the kill:

1. Of course myki is going to be a tracking device. That's the whole bloody point. While it won't be 100% effective until everyone has one, at least it will give the Department of Transport an idea about the comings and goings of regular travellers. Why? To improve services!

2. People travelling on concession cards will have to give up information? No shit! How on earth do you think they get the concession card in the first place? By walking through the magic door? And for the millionth time - you don't have to register your myki, but it helps in the situation where you lose it.

3. Google-style targeted marketing? Um, how? This project has been a bit of a problem since day one and the only way this scenario would happen is if the DOT sold that information to a third party. Which they can't.

4. As for the legal implications of being tracked, this does not happen in real time. The info is downloaded when the tram returns to the depot. However, if your accused of a crime and you happened to be on PT at the time, it would be nice to know that it may well provide you with an alibi. As for law enforcement services obtaining that information, does anyone know that they can actually get your phone records? Bank details? And any other shit that can be obtained? Oh My God! The sky is falling!

Look, personally I'm not happy with myki as it will slow down the service for trams and it seems to lack a bit of friendliness when it comes to machine stuff-ups (ie you're wrong - always). However, it seems as though the amount of pre-release bad news propaganda is reaching critical mass. It seems like a rather viscous attempt to make this appear even more half-arsed than it really is. I wonder why all this is happening and how much of an impact myki will have on the next election.

Idiots

Every day everyone encounters idiots. Every so often one enjoys the moment of being one, but with a little luck and a pause for common sense to kick in, nobody gets hurt, no laws are broken and we move on.

However, in recent years as the population has increased and things like public liability become hot issues, idiots who should have been weeded out of the gene pool have gone on surviving, some of them long enough to reproduce, thus passing on their idiot genes.

In the course of my day, I encounter dozens of them.

Red light? Nup, not for them.
Bicycle helmet? Optional- not much to protect anyway.
Speed limits? So that's what those numbers are for.
Indicators? We should all know where mum wants to try and steer her 2 tonne tank.
Parking signs? What?

These are just a tiny fraction of the problems encountered. Please feel free to add others!

New Tram Laws

http://www.roadrules.vicroads.vic.gov.au/12_rule_driving_with_trams.html

What's new: Laws involving passing and driving with trams are here!

What's staying the same: The pathetic, non-existent level of enforcement.

Valid?

"a probe had found validators aboard the tram Mr Gappan was on had worked"
-The Age, 5/11/09

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

How do they publish this?

In an effort to appeal to the conspiracy theorists out there, Mr Everson has written in today's Age with some grave concerns about myki. I, like many people, am quite concerned about this new system, however this writer takes it a little bit further by spouting claims without first consulting the large amounts of info out in the public sphere. Let's get stuck right into it then (article in italics, my rants in bold).

Will myki be our new Big Brother?

THE new public transport ticket system for Victoria, myki, will allow you to top up your swipe card account with money. The card will include a user's personal identification information. It will have to be read at the start and end of each journey and will record the time and place and the user's identity.

Correct to a point. Myki offers a voluntary registration, which is handy when cards get lost.

This is not only a ticketing system; it is a passenger-tracking system, almost as pervasive as closed-circuit TV cameras, which at present are not fed to a central point in this state; the new ticket system will be. Tracking trains is a good idea. The difference is that passengers are not railway property.

The whole point of Myki is just that - to track the movements of passengers to better decisions can be made in planning of services. If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, big deal. However, if you've got the tree hooked up to a computer... The claims that passengers are not railway property is lame. Who, at any point in history and aside from this author, has made such a claim?

Will the card be owned by its purchaser or remain the property of the transport operator? Will it be illegal to use another person's card? Will card records be admissible in court? Can such records be demanded by prosecutors? Will security agencies be given access to this passenger-tracking system? Will a legal guardian be able to monitor the movements of a minor using such statements?

Robert Everson, Dandenong

Who cares who owns the card? Especially considering the following statements, that have no impact - tickets, right at this moment in time are not transferable, are admissible in court and I dare say any records can be demanded by prosecutors in court. Yes, they can get to your phone records, Robert! How on earth would a legal guardian gain access to this information? If a serious crime has been committed and it exonerates or implicates the person in the crime, I dare say this information would be granted. I somehow don't think anyone can waltz into Google and discover that their little loved one was actually boarding the 96 at Bourke St at 9:46pm instead of attending their pole dancing lessons.

I simply cannot understand how a letter of such poor research can get printed. The author is wrong on almost every issue. Why The Age would waste column space on this is beyond my comprehension and I feel I must return to my tried and true response to anyone bagging public transport, especially the ill- and under-informed:

If you don't like it, take your money and get inside a taxi. Leave the rest of us alone.

Smart?

I've had mobiles that have been able to access the internet and my current one can certainly browse. However, the sole reason why I don't use it is that's it's so damn expensive. I read the fine print on my contract and the price plans and it's simply not worth it - especially when I can access it from home on my very generous iinet plan. Besides, it's very rare that I'll find myself in a situation where the net is needed urgently. I'm usually pretty prepared as it is.

Anyway, low and behold, a story appears about how people are opening up shocking bills for over-used and over-priced services. This happens with alarming regularity - it happened when mobiles became very popular years ago. Then it was kids getting sucked into the SMS scam which sent amazingly over-priced crap to their phones daily for a month before the bill appeared.

What bothers me so much is how people can somehow claim not to have done any homework before using their products. Given my car issues, the same could be said for me, but I've never got a five figure bill for it. Yet. Either way, I take responsibility for my choice and have learned to live with my massive credit card bill. I haven't gone crying to an ombudsman or Today Tonight to have a moan about how awful some faceless company is.

What's the saying? Buyer Beware!

A whole bunch of news

OK, it's been a long time and I'm taking a breather during my ferocious house cleaning, but here goes.

1. More car trouble. Leaning again to the right, but taken to Pickards and all sorted. This was after a $1975 service from Zagame's that failed to identify several issues with the car (one namely being the gear part under the car is being held together by half a dozen plastic straps instead of the actual part). Anyway, had a great chat to Adrian (?) down there and I don't think I'm heading back to Zagames, as their service and correction cost me 1/10th the dealer damage. Problem solved there.

2. Things are dragging a little bit at work, however I did get some good feedback (finally!) regarding a job I was unsuccessful at applying for. I'm now applying for a different job at a different depot. Other side of town. Neat stuff!

3. My credit card situation has become a major issue and I'm now going to be living a rather frugal life for the next few months while I kick my own arse into gear. This, plus the car loan and the upcoming rental increase (yeah, Merry Christmas to you too, landlord), is going to make life for me rather interesting. A payrise is due at the end of the year, but that's never enough, as the union fees increase, coupled with everything else going up, usually swallows any gains. Never mind.

4. Girlfriend situation: Wonderful. Every minute is great and I'm still happy (not that that's a shock!). Her birthday is coming up and I'm considering my options. By the way, if you're reading this Lou, get back to work! ;-)

5. Recently applied to be a contestant on Deal or No Deal with girlfriend. It was better than I expected. I could get drafted at any moment, but I'm betting it's the better half that gets tapped on the shoulder.

Anyway, I'd best be back to work. It's 8:30pm and I'm still hacking away at the flat. It's looking better now the clothes are down the end of the place out of the way. God I'm a lazy fucker. I have to change.