Insert Clever Title Here

“Losing his best friend in a freak boating accident was bad enough.
But Google’s Street View has made a bad situation worse for Bill, from Victoria.”

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/08/11/1218306724273.html

Yes, but having the story as the front page on The Age (FAIRFAX) is not just as bad, it is worse.

Google pulled the image, I suspect that they are monitoring Streetview and repeated spikes of traffic to places may get their interest tweaked.  The geo-ref for this was doing the rounds on Friday, by that night the image had been pulled.  And it would have stayed gone, occasionally doing the rounds of email in boxes I am sure, but now main stream media pulls up the screenshot, puts it on the home page for a major newspaper and screams about privacy.

If Google can blur photos and details, why can’t “The Age”.  Sure the story has more impact with the image, but by having the image the story also has hypocrisy! And that is why I blurred out the main part of the image!

Tags: Annoyances, General, Media by Me
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Ok, have phoned Chadstone Vodafone to ask them to make sure that they have a phone in stock for tomorrow as it is the soonest we can get in to swap the phone.  However they can not guarantee they will have one in stock!

They have some (but will not say how many, and will not put one on hold for even 24 hours as ours is technically DOA!)

We are heading to a big fail, unless they just swap the phone out tomorrow I will not be happy.   I think part of the issue comes from the fact I know more than the sales people about the phones

The catch is they were doing very well up until this point.  We walked past the shop on Saturday saw they had the advertising and asked about the phone.  The guy went out the back, unboxed a phone and brought it out with a battery and it fired up.  All in 5 min, very slick. Thus why we brought it then and ther.  We had tried to see the phone a month earlier at Organiser World in the city.  They brought out the box and said see this is the phone…  thus they missed ou on the sale that vodafone got:-)

Will keep you updated

Tags: Annoyances, n78 by Me
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Here is today’s commute to work…  this time we were one car back at the railway crossing, so I decided to film people driving through the flashing lights…

And still have not heard back from “The Leader” yet either

and some one posted a comment as to who cares..

I’ll leave it to Top Gear to show you what happens when you don’t care.

Tags: Annoyances, video by Me
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I stole the title from the Wednesday July 30 Edition of the Moorabbin Glen Eira Leader. (credit where credit is due:-))

One of my pet hates is railway crossings and the way people drive them. So whilst waiting for the bus (my other pet hate at the moment is my broken arm which meant I wasn’t at work and had to take public transport) last Friday at 2 in the afternoon I took photos at the North Road Frankston Line railway crossing. For the purpose of showing what I mean.

According to the road rules you are not allowed to cross a railway crossing at any point when the red lights are flashing!  It has nothing to do with the status of the boom gate.  None, a lot of railway crossings do not have boom gates, only flashing red lights.

Here is the Text From Victorian Road Rules. Part 8 Traffic signs and road markings (Rules 88-108) [PDF, 146KB, 15 pp.]

123. Entering a level crossing when a train or tram is approaching etc.
A driver must not enter a level crossing if—
(a) warning lights (for example, twin red lights or rotating red lights) are
operating or warning bells are ringing; or

The interest bit is point one, not a sub sub clause, but the very first point here!  Now to reality of railway crossings I deal with. I travel over the North Road Ormond Rail crossing twice a day every working day on my daily commute.  Now two or three times a week I may get caught by a train.  It happens, big deal.  And occasionally I am one of the say first 5 cars in my lane.  So train goes passed gates go up and you all know what happens.  The drag race starts.  The lights are still flashing.  If I am not the lead car I will move up to the lights but not cross until time is up as much as I can.  This works until you are the road block!  Image sitting in your lane blocking traffic, all the while some idiot behind you is sitting on their horn. All because you are doing what you are LEGALLY meant too.  All for a less than a minute whilst the lights still flash.

The best crossing in my area is where the railway crossing goes over Neerim road.  The put in a set of traffic lights.  Suddenly no one crosses the Red Traffic light.  Flashing red lights and it is on for young and old however.

Now on July 30, the Leader has to story thanks to Victoria Police handing out press releases about an operation at my crossing and others in the area.  According to the paper, and I am going to presume they are working off the earlier of the two press releases says 14 people were charged at two level crossings in my area.  The later presses release says 46 were charged at these two crossings! However the press release is more generic so I will give the paper the benefit of the doubt.

But the other madness is here is that the local paper could have had a whole story that went way beyond the copy and paste of the press release. Image if the paper had taken the time to send one reporter down to the level crossings on any given day, forked out for a little foldaway chair and a thermos of coffee and given them a camera.  At this point the story should have been. “Cops catch 14 people, we catch 400″.  Or say “Speed Camera generate Revenue and require no Police to lift a finger, Railway Crossings require police to be on site, guess which one the Police Target!” O.k., so that is a bit long :-), but then I am not a headline writer :-).

Here are some numbers to consider.  If the fine was $500 (it is up to $567 according the Leader’s article) and 12 people cross illegally on an average crossing, we have $6000, times two for both directions; we have $12,000 in revenue for the State Government for 1 crossing.  Say that one crossing has 50 movements per day that is $600,000 in one day.  Now if there were 50 crossings like this that is $30,000,000 dollars in one day.  I am sure that money could go a long way in helping to make all level crossings safer.

Perhaps this would have been a better story for the Leader to have written.  Granted would have taken a bit longer than the press release rehash

P.S
I have emailed this blog post to the author of the story, will let you now what happens :-))

Tags: Annoyances, General, Photos by Me
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This blog post is simply a way of saving me a shit load of time later.  See I was witness to an event that I just know is going to come up as a law suite.
So here goes.

At approximately 11:40 on Monday the 15th of July I was walking on the northern side of Glenferrie Road near the intersection of Barkley Ave having just finished an appointment at the Cabrini Hospital to have my broken arm checked, when i saw some movement that caught my eye.  I noticed a woman in her late fifties lying on the ground moaning.  Having just suffered a nasty fall myself two days earlier I quickly walked the short distance to where she was lying to try and render assistance.  This was somewhat difficult with shopping in one hand and my right arm in a sling.  I helped her to sit with her back to the wall, at which point it was obvious that she had hurt herself quite badly.  There were a couple of very nasty cuts to her face.  These cuts were bleeding very heavily as well.

I asked her if she wanted me to call an ambulance, and after two goes, she said, no call my husbands paging service which I did at (11:45) He returned my call 3 min later at which point I told him that his wife had taken a heavy fall, our current location and that he should get here ASAP to take her to hospital.

A kind man from a computer store gave us a box of tissues and a few council workers stood around, one of which had a big bottle of water which she used to clean her hands.  She was in a lot of pain and obvious shock.  During all of this the council workers were busy stating to me and anyone that would listen, that the pavement where she had tripped was another work crews area! I must say i found this some what distasteful at the time.

At 11:55 or there about her husband turned up. He parked the car on Barkley Ave carrying with him a bag of medical equipment (his wife earlier telling me that he was an eye doctor) came over kissed his wife on the forehead.  Then things got weird.  He stood back from her, told here to look up and took as photo of her with his phone. Then he walked away 10 meters took more photos of the scene, all the while I was still comforting his wife.  He then got into a brief argument with two of the council workers, whilst I gathered the woman’s personal possessions and tried with only one arm to move a barrier so that he could get her into the car. By 12:05 he finally had her in his car and he said he was going to take her to Cabrini Hospital.  I took a couple of photos of the scene at this point while 2 more council workers told me it was not their fault.  One even made the very bad taste that the husband might have pushed her.

Now, this is the bit to get me out of going to court. Firstly it was obvious that there were road works.  The noise alone would have alerted a blind person to the hazards.  And the area the woman tripped did have signs etc. Also what the woman tripped on was a lot less rougher than say the cobble stones on the street.  The husbands primary reaction was one of looking for some one to blame (and blame later such was his attention to detail in photographing the scene).  It was an accident plan and simple.  The poor woman tripped, as I did 2 days before hand in a different suburb.  I feel for her, I really do having been forced to take a week off work and typing this blog entry via one hand hunt and peck. She will be in a lot of pain for quite some time and may well have some scares to show for it.  The actions of both the husband and the council workers still makes me sick.

We have moved into a world where litigation is king and blame shifting sits right next to him on the throne.
Accidents happen, that is why they are called accidents.

Tags: Annoyances, General, Photos by Me
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