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Not a good lawyer
AN IRISH tourist used illegally obtained credit card numbers to live in luxury during a six-week crime spree in Australia that has been compared by his lawyer with the wild bachelor party in the comedy film The Hangover.
When your own lawyer compares your actions to the modern equivalent to "Caddyshack", you know you're in deep doo-doo.
(Tangental: A video podcast enacting court cases that would result from the mess-ups in major motion pictures).
Boston's smartphone-based ticketing system.
The service, which will reach full deployment this fall, will allow commuters to purchase their fare directly on their iPhone or other mobile device. To show proof of purchase that app will display an onscreen color good for that day’s travel. The system will also display a bar code that can be scanned by MBTA staff if additional inspection is needed.
And I'll bet it didn't cost billions of dollars.
Myki Panel is broken too.
Your email address validator is broken. It seems to only accept email addresses with com/net/org/gov in them, which completely bars people with .id.au, asn.au and csiro.au email addresses, in addition to people who have vanity email addresses from other countries, like .me or .ca, to name a few. Please fix this. There are a number of freely-available javascripts that will accomplish this simple task.
Been to an Apple Store lately, Mr Harvey?
'If you are in technology, which is audio-visual and computers, you are getting a hiding,'' Mr Harvey said.
I hear Apple's doing alright these days.
62.7 < 71.5
The city's trains, trams, taxis and buses were given an overall score of 62.7 out of 100 in a phone poll of almost 3000 people who use public transport in Victoria.
But the news is not all bright - satisfaction with V/Line country train services continues to decline, falling to 71.5 points, its lowest in many years.
Wait just a minute here. News is good for Melbourne public transport with a score of 62.7, but bad for V/Line, at 71.5? It's crazy-maths-day!
README NOW: About the NBN
Viewing 'internet subscriptions' as the business case for the NBN is like viewing the Sydney Harbour Bridge as a business entity which derives profit through charging tolls: worst business case ever. But when viewed (correctly) as an infrastructure we see how it opened up Sydney's North Shore and led to the development of several CBDs which have generated trillions of dollars for Australia's economy. It's also proved so globally noteworthy that it's generated a fortune in marketing Australia to tourists. What are the exact figures in all this? How can we tell? All I know is that they're huge and dwarf the cost of the original build.
This is by far the best, most balanced, most accessible, and most thorough article about the NBN I've ever read. It should be required reading for everyone in Australia.
As I've been saying for years: The NBN is not about fast Internet for all. The NBN is about replacing our ageing copper infrastructure (which has done a really good job for about 100 years) with an infrastructure made of glass, which should last (at least) another 100 years.
The DSL family of technologies is pushing what's possible over copper wires to an extreme that is one step away from voodoo. I'm frankly amazed that it works as well as it does. Copper's done. Finished. It's served us well, but it's time to move on, and glass is the future.
Putting aside the Sydney-centric-ness of it all (which will annoy more sensitive Melbnians, and I apologise) the analogy (above) to the Sydney Harbour Bridge is very apt. It's not about the direct benefits, it's about the huge indirect benefits. Quoting again from the article: "The entire NBN will be paid for by the cost SAVINGS to the health service".
Sure, it may end up being cheaper to wait 10 years for the technology to become more widespread, but thanks to the mining boom, we have the money now. Invest the money in infrastructure now, while we have it, and reap the gains for decades.
Follow the link. Read the article.
Only the Swiss
The US and Russia may be working on Mars missions, but the galactic ambitions of the Swiss are far more modest: they want to tidy up the Earth's atmosphere.
I can see the scene. A couple of Swiss scientists, laying on the hide of a hill on a warm summer's evening, looking up at the stars, contemplating the beauty and entropy of it all.
"It's very messy up there."
"Yes."
"We should clean it up."
"Good idea."
Driving in Europe
Andorrans live in a landlocked principality about the size of a shoebox hoisted into the Pyrenees between France and Spain. Within Andorra's borders, the roads twist and turn as if someone has flung spaghetti on the map. A straight road causes them tremendous excitement, which forces their foot to the floor. Thanks to the fact that they pay no income tax and only nominal property tax and GST, Andorrans are also incredibly wealthy, which allows them to treat speeding fines with disdain.
Amusing little article about driving in Europe. I've never driven there, although I've been over several times. It's always trains and public transport (or walking - I did a lot of walking). Next time I go, I think I'd like to try an Autobahn. Or perhaps driving in Andorra.
Australia could use elephants to control invasive grass
Elephants and maybe rhinoceroses could be introduced to Australia to chomp on an invasive African grass that also causes wildfires, according to an idea reported in a scientific journal on Wednesday.
Oh no no no. Remember what happened last time we had the brilliant idea to import a non-native animal to take care of an invasive plant? Cane toads! Now we have a plague of cane toads in Far North Queensland. Imagine: A plague of elephants. The mind boggles.
