Recent Articles
Accident on the Monash costs millions
May 4, 2006 Current Events, Melbourne Comments Off
Gridlock mayhem brings a city to a standstill for hours ( The Age / Stephen Moynihan and Selma Milovanovic )
From the article: “Melburnians’ reliance on cars became apparent yesterday morning when the accidents caused severe delays on the Monash, while alternative routes suggested to ease the congestion also remained clogged for hours.”
Yet more evidence of the transport problems in and around Melbourne. Supposedly the combined delays of all commuters cost the state millions of dollars in lost productivity. I have no idea how they calculate those sorts of figures..
Telstra LSS fees “not reasonable”
Apr 5, 2006 Telco, Telstra Comments Off
Watchdog snaps at Telstra’s fees (The Age / Lisa Murray)
The ACCC has considered the $90 connection & disconnection fee Telstra charges on its Line Sharing Service (LSS) is “not reasonable”. Telstra are apparently calculating the charge on the basis that they have to send a technician out to the exchange to perform only this one specific task. The ACCC argues that technicians visit exchanges frequently to perform other tasks and could do the LSS work at the same time. I agree with the ACCC on this one – it’s not appropriate for other telcos to pay Telstra extra for inefficiencies in their business, false or otherwise.
Yahoo & ninemsn to offer VoIP
Apr 4, 2006 Internet, Telco, Telstra, VoIP Comments Off
Yahoo, ninemsn tackle telcos (Australian IT / Michael Sainsbury and John Lehmann)
From the article: “LOCAL internet joint ventures Yahoo!7 and ninemsn are gearing up to inflict more pain on the ailing $33 billion telco sector, with the launch of cut-price internet-based voice services (VOIP) later this year.
The two groups join eBay’s ground-breaking Skype service as the latest threat to fixed-line revenues that last year earned Telstra $8 billion.”
Customer VoIP uptake is a major threat to the revenue base of the major telcos, especially when the consumer accesses the internet via Wireless or other alternative technologies. The startup costs for a VoIP provider are tiny relative to a traditional phone service provider so I think we’ll be seeing a lot of competition over the next couple of years.
Idiot drivers
Apr 3, 2006 Current Events, Melbourne Comments Off
F1 fever grips drivers (News.com.au)
From the article: “In the latest incident, police say they intercepted a 23-year-old man from Belgrave, in Melbourne’s east, who drove at 168kph in a 100kph zone on the Monash Freeway at Glen Waverley shortly before 8am (AEST) today.” .. “A few minutes earlier, another man aged 33, from east suburban Blackburn, was caught allegedly driving his Mazda coupe at 173kph in a 100kph zone on the Eastern Freeway at Kew.” .. “Earlier today, a 20-year-old man driving a BMW led police on a 109km chase at speeds of up to 250kph in regional Victoria.”
There is no excuse for travelling this fast on public roads. People who are caught at those speeds should have their cars crushed and be banned from driving for life. The risk they pose to public safety is simply unacceptable.
Sensis a wasted opportunity?
Feb 16, 2006 Internet, Telstra Comments Off
They’ve lost their Sensis ( The Age / Edward Mandla)
I won’t quote from the article, but it is a good summary of whats lacking from Telstra’s Sensis operation. In summary – everything.
USA administration unpopular with Australians
Feb 16, 2006 Current Events Comments Off
US sinks to new low in eyes of Australians ( SMH / Louise Williams)
From the article: “In interviews conducted between last October and January, only 29 per cent of Australians had a “mainly positive” attitude towards the US, while 60 per cent were “mainly negative” and 11 per cent undecided. This is down on last year, when 40 per cent of Australians were positive about the US.”
It would probably be better to clarify that it is the USA government that people take issue with – in particular the current occupant of the White House. Personally I’m just glad Bush can’t be elected for another term, unlike John Howard who seems to be in no hurry to retire.
Digital compression issues
Feb 7, 2006 Internet, Music & Entertainment Comments Off
At any rate, it’s a bit of a rip-off ( The Guardian / Adam Webb )
This article is a good look at the bitrate encoding of various paid music download services and what sort of difference in quality you can expect. Personally I have not purchased any 128k encoded files, such as those from iTunes, and I have no intention to in the future. I’d probably buy 320k encoded files, but I wouldn’t pay more than the 128k version. Ideally I’d prefer to get the audio uncompressed and do my own compression on it. It’s probably a very small minority of users who would want to do that..
Car use to be discouraged in the Melbourne CBD
Feb 1, 2006 Melbourne Comments Off
Plan to axe cars from city centre ( The Age / Liz Minchin )
From the article: “CARS will be driven out of the city in favour of public transport and bicycles under a radical new council strategy that abandons plans for a multibillion-dollar cross-city tunnel and suggests slashing speed limits in the CBD.”
The proposal includes reducing the city speed limit from 50 to 40km/hr, introducing tram/bus only lanes, and offering discounted public transport tickets to CBD shoppers. The plan really needs the assistance of the state government to improve public transport to the city, especially the train network. This seems like a good idea, but I can’t see much of it being implemented in the short to medium term.
Melbourne trains overcrowded
Jan 4, 2006 Current Events, Melbourne Comments Off
Suburban train passenger limits breached (The Age / Dan Silkstone)
According to the article overcrowding on some Melbourne train line has reached the point where Connex are in breech of their operating agreement. The agreement requires that there be a maximum of 798 passengers per six carriage train, but passenger figures indicate an average above this figure, even up to 950 passengers per train on the Sydenham line.
The government seems to be working hard to introduce additional parking fees and congestion charges for people taking their car to work to encourage more public transport use. They seem to be ignoring the fact that in many areas the public transport system simply can’t cope with more passengers. Perhaps the government should be focusing on fixing the public transport system before trying to discourage people from using their cars.
Premium SMS scam from 19900025
Dec 24, 2005 Australia, Enviroment, Telco 3 Comments
A lot of Australian mobile phone users have been the recipient of a premium SMS scam from the number 19900025. The message received is a really bad Christmas joke which you are charged up to $3.50 for receiving. A lot of information on the source of these messages has been uncovered at the whirlpool forums, but if you have received this message you should contact your phone company immediately to report the scam and dispute the charge. Hopefully if enough people complain quickly the scammer will be shut off before too many more people are caught.
Update: I called the number Juz gave below and left my details. A refund cheque arrived in the mail just over a week later.