For anybody with an NFC (Near Field Contact)-compatible phone (such as my new Google Nexus 5), you can use the this little app — Tag Info Lite to read Myki cards. Not that it’ll tell you very much — see below. All the actual useful information appears to be encrypted. Apparently in some parts of ... [More]
Tag: Myki
Travellers Aid do good work helping those who need a little extra assistance getting around. They have a fundraiser on at the moment: Myki card holders, for $2.50 postage and handling, and they invite you to add a donation (which I did). My sister loves the Keep Calm meme, so I got this one for ... [More]
From the (hopefully) easy to change, but quite beneficial department: What if they ditched the rule that to touch-on a Myki (without an active Pass on it) you need at least 1 cent, and made it zero instead? Why would they allow touch-on with $0.00? Well… Pros Myki cards would become a de facto single ... [More]
Refactoring is a legitimate strategy in software development. It’s where you feel the design is (more-or-less) right, but the software implementation has gone wrong, and needs to be completely cleaned-up, by chucking it out and re-writing it. So here’s a thought: if the single most annoying, unreliable, sluggish part of the Myki system is the ... [More]
How often does the Myki reader in the middle at the main entrance to Bentleigh station break down? Thanks to my archive of Tweets, the answer is: at least seventeen times since the start of 2010. Two of three #Myki scanners at Bentleigh stn this morning were inoperable, displaying this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielbowen/4544311585/ — Daniel Bowen (@danielbowen) ... [More]
The other week I experienced a Myki triple-whammy. Three modes, three stuff-ups. Tram (one with all Metcard equipment removed) – at least one reader that was initially out of service… another was running, but was incredibly slow. Bus (ditto; no Metcard equipment on-board) – one reader near the back door not working or switched-off (display ... [More]
Guess what? Another bug has been found in Myki. (No, this is not an April Fool’s joke.) You know how you can load a Pass (weekly, month, yearly etc) onto your Myki, and use it, and load a second Pass which won’t activate until the first one has finished? Well there’s a bug which sometimes ... [More]
One of the reactions to the news of top-ups on buses was that it would slow down buses because top-ups take too long. Some people claimed it can take well over a minute to do a top-up. I was doubtful about this, so I tried it. I used a note and a couple of coins ... [More]
Leader Newspapers is reporting that Myki topups will be allowed on buses from next month. A maximum of $20 will apply. Well, that’s about time. This is good news for passengers. Firstly, it means the Myki consoles will be activated, with Metcard equipment removed. The coexistence of the two systems has caused a lot of ... [More]
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Competing Myki top-up adverts
Noted at Flinders Street Station the other week, on one of those automatic rotating advertisement things: competing ads for Myki. “Even the shortest queue can be avoided with Myki auto topup” A few seconds later: “Top-up at 7-Eleven now!” (The third ad in the sequence was not Myki-related… after that it flipped back and repeated ... [More]
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Pictures from Violet Town
It was 44 years last week since the 1969 crash of the Southern Aurora into a goods train at Violet Town in northeast Victoria. (Upgrades to safety systems should ensure such a crash doesn’t happen again.) The CFA has published a set of photos and a fascinating article about the disaster — well worth a ... [More]
Another Myki stuff-up has been found. Myki cards have a four year lifespan. With many cards bought in Geelong in late-2008 and early-2009 now expiring, a number of users are getting replacement cards. Some are going back to the original retail outlets, post offices in Geelong and Corio, and buying new cards (the cost of ... [More]