My aunt and cousin are visiting from interstate. Over dinner last night they were telling me that the most confusing thing about Metcard is the requirement to validate it straight after buying it at a railway station machine. I saw a businessman (evidently an occasional user) make that mistake yesterday morning. He realised after walking ... [More]
A few years ago I did a comparison of the results from online trip planners. Here’s an update of sorts. I tested 247 Flinders Lane (which is an address on a one-way street, in an area with lots of turn restrictions and pedestrian streets) to see what the various navigators would do. For the destination ... [More]
My view, as I’ve expressed before, is that healthy debate is important, but it relies on the participants sticking to the facts, and not just making things up. Otherwise you get stuff like this, which concerns a Bacchus Marsh resident who apparently misinterpreted what he read and contacted Leader (newspapers) with concerns about seniors ticket ... [More]
Superb! Charlie Brooker on what makes a generic TV news report: (via Mumbrella)
Two things I hate are getting up early, and driving in heavy traffic. This morning I did both, for the sake of The Car. The Car was bought from Alan Mance in Melton. (“Don’t take a chance, go to Alan Mance.”) To maintain the three year used-car warranty (which mind you only covers certain types ... [More]
Nothing says Happy Valentine’s Day like Hot Cross Buns.
When asked “Do you have an Everyday Rewards card?” at Safeway, what’s the quickest, most polite way of saying: “Yes I do, it’s tucked inside my wallet somewhere, but I know full well that there’s no benefit to me if it’s scanned on a transaction less than $30. This one is only $15, so I ... [More]
Sometimes I ponder if I should have gone ahead and bought a manual car. I can handle it okay, but gears are just another thing to deal with. As summer comes along, one has to remember to rev it a bit more when the aircon’s on, otherwise you make an unscheduled stop in Stall City. ... [More]
During the school holidays, the kids and I will often leave the car at home head out to not just attractions in the CBD, but also to parts of the city we might not normally get to. Partly for the joy of exploration, but also partly because Jeremy is keen on hunting down secondhand video ... [More]
The City of Glen Eira has some pretty psychedelic playground equipment in some of its parks. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what you’re meant to do with it. This one I don’t think many people would have problems with. You get on and it spins around, alarmingly fast. Pretty easy. This thing however, reminds ... [More]
Twitter allows one to search, and provides RSS for search results, so you can feed it into RSS readers like Google Reader to keep track of Twitter references to your preferred keyword. So I thought I’d set up one for Bentleigh, which tells me what’s going on in my neighbourhood. Happily I don’t live in ... [More]
Was having a chat to somebody the other week when Liz, a fellow Bentleigh resident and fellow troublemaker, wandered past and said hello. Liz has got active in the debate over social housing, following the furore over a proposed development in the very SE-corner of Bentleigh to accomodate disadvantaged women. (In my book given it’s ... [More]
I’m ISP shopping. I’d been considering it anyway, as I’m still using ye olde ADSL1, and in the past couple of years, ADSL2+ has become available in my neck of the woods. I’ve been using my current ISP, Netspace, for about 7 years, I think. Over that time they’ve been pretty reliable, but not without ... [More]
I found this Lego set on Amazon UK. It’s actually way more elaborate (and expensive) than any I remember seeing in the Australian catalogues, but what I thought was really funny was that Amazon has attached a legal-sounding age restriction to it, as if it was an adult video game or DVD, or alcohol. “Not ... [More]
I noticed the other day that the ABC Local web sites were down for maintenance. They got a revamp in mid-2008 that left it incredibly messy. Apart from the garish green and black colours, it was impossible to find things. It’s like they forgot that they’re most often promoted via the ABC Local Radio stations; ... [More]
“Food”? What, it’s not really food? (Frankston) Could this be a conduit to the future? (Northcote Station) Road sign that actually goes around a corner (Wonthaggi)