Nah… That’s a cop out, can you imagine if I was like that though. Writing one sentence on this blog instead of hundreds where one would suffice. But I’m not, so here’s a blog post about nothing.

Nothing, the word itself, is of no real significance, in fact you me even say nothing is less significant than nothing. But the absence of things, therefore nothing, may in itself have more meaning that some place where things are not absent. This can mean that:

Nothing > Things

And as Nothing has more characters in it and has an additional syllable it is quite obvious that:

Nothing > Things

However, it is quite obvious that having nothing may be far worse than having things. But it does then depend on which things you may or may not have. If you have a disease for example, this is worse than having nothing. But if you have nothing, disease wise, it may be said that you have your health. Therefore can nothing ever truly exist.

The existence of nothing can be proved by this blog post, although it is titled nothing the title in fact is not empty. The title has things in it so the word itself is not of any signifance.

Anyway I digress. In the event that you are attempting to describe a situation in which nothing truly exists you may use the word nothingness. However as nothingness contains nothing nothingness is not truly consistent with the meaning of nothing. That is that although something may be described as nothingness it is most likely that it is not in fact nothingness as nothingness contains nothing.

Therefore nothing is impossible. That is not that everything is possible, more that having nothing itself is impossible.

Though I may say my pockets contain nothing, therefore I am broke, this is true in the respect that my pockets do not contain any currency but it is not possible for the pockets to contain nothing. This is because although they do not contain currency they do in fact contain air and possibly snack food wrappers. However I will state that my pockets, or possibly my wallet is empty, knowing full well that in fact something is contained in the wallet and/or pockets.

If you say in fact that you have done nothing on a university assignment this is also untrue. Even if  you have not completed anything you have in fact thought about the assignment and that in itself is work that will lead to the end assignment.

“Oh but Stubbers” you may say “You silly little fish fillet, you’ve forgotten, what if I specify a time period in which I did nothing”. Ah yes, however during that time period you where breathing and your body presumably was working towards keeping you alive. If in fact it was then at that time you did do work on the assignment as staying alive will assist you in the completion of the goals set out by the assignment.

So next time you say you’ve done nothing, think about it, because even by saying you’ve done nothing you have in fact done a thing.

Today I read an opinion article written by a Senior Columnist with The Age, you can find it yourself at – http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/protection-racket-is-bad-policy-20090920-fwob.html

The article basically claims that the Australian government runs a protection racket for the other telco companies against Telstra. The ACCC has a long history of setting Telstra wholesale prices at levels which Telstra has claimed time and time again are unsustainable. However Telstra is still here today, and their profit statements show they aren’t doing too badly either.

I’m gonna grab a few paragraphs from this article and debunk a couple of myths that the article seems to be spreading

The competitors are basically marketing and billing organisations.

Early on it’s claimed that competitor companies, such as Primus, Optus, etc are nothing more than marketing and billing organisations. For starters this is a gross exaggeration at the lack of overhead work that these telco providers do. They provide all sorts of other services, the quality and level of these service depend on the specific provider. Just one example of this is TPG providing IPTV services, or voip services. Both things that Telstra doesn’t provide to the average customer.

Each ISP also has a significant backend network, each of which is configured in a different way depending on the target audience. To claim that all these ISP’s do is outsource to overseas call centers (which the article claims later) is a HUGE understatement of what these companies do. In fact many of them run local helpdesks, and employ many local technicians. Alot of them are even locally owned.

Big institutions such as hospitals, universities, utilities, big corporations, government departments and even schools already have access to direct fibre connections.

That certainly is not true. Many of the above institutions still operate on satellite services (and no, not just in remote areas) and DSL/Microwave services. Even then, many of these connections are not with Telstra, but with other ISPs.

In Devonport and Hobart, where the Tasmanian Government has been experimenting with building fibre to the home at Commonwealth expense, shows nobody wants it while the cheaper copper alternative is available.

Something many people sadly are forgetting or don’t know about Fibre is the possibility for huge advancements in media. The amount of bandwidth a FTTH connection could provide could be used for all sorts of things. It could provide access to all sorts of media, including opening the door for community TV stations to start up. With the reduced cost of being able to broadcast your media across a Fibre channel as opposed to getting your own transmission tower up doors would open all over the place.

The governments FTTH project is expensive, and it is a gamble, but to say it is not and probably never will be required is nonsense. It would pave the way for technologies which we haven’t even thought up yet. It would lead to more balanced services around the country as opposed to only being able to get fast internet if you happen to have a good enough phone line.

Copper wires, properly maintained, can give speeds up to 50 megabits, which is more than adequate for any need a household might conceivably imagine.

Very true. The fact is, our copper network is not properly maintained, and the technology for 50mbps over copper probably will never make it to Australias current copper network because of this. Today 50mbps is more than fast enough for a home users internet connection. But the fact is this doesn’t exist in Australia. The fastest you can hope to get is 22mbps. And that’s if you are lucky enough to be just around the corner from a major exchange, in a new building, where Telstra has recently laid new cable.

Too bad if you’re a mate of mine who was recently left without internet because a cow chewed through his “properly maintained” copper wire from Telstra. It wasn’t even buried. It was strung across the top of a fence.

I could go on but most people stopped reading a while back. The fact is Telstra is still making money, despite foul play cries for the past few years about product pricing on ULL and other such things. They still aren’t maintaining the copper network out in the bush. We haven’t heard anything in months about the so called FTTN project that was going to save us all.

My advice to you Kenneth Davidson is to take a closer look at the situation. And think about it. If the prices really are that unfair for Telstra, how are they still making money? How can they justify charging their retail customers what they do when their competitors charge SO much less and at much fairer terms? Why are their plans so much more expensive than others around the world? And why not separate Telstra?

Why not have a Retail and a Wholesale Telstra. Put everyone on the same footing.

Better deal for us Australians, better deal for those in the bush, and better deal for emerging ISPs.

The argument that downloading movies from the internet at least can be largely dismissed by the fact that box office earnings where up before the Global Financial Clusterfuck. The reason for this is simple, movies pirated before they release to DVD/Blu-Ray are shite. They’ve got people walking through them, the sound is often tinny and horrible, etc etc. I for one would much prefer to go to the movies and enjoy it than sit at home and for free get a shitty copy that will just make me want the last 2 hours of my life back.

As for music well, the issue here is that the recording industry still does not recognize the internet as a good way of getting their media out there. They aren’t REALLY paying attention to the internet and developing solutions that suit the end customer. They aren’t interested in realistic prices that reflect the fact that the cost of selling a set of MP3s is FAR less expensive than releasing to CD. The recording industry is VERY much to blame for piracy.

Finally, we come to my favourite medium, TV Shows. The fact here is that people simply don’t often have the money (with the exception of hard core fans) to pay upwards of 70 bucks for a season of a TV Show. The creators already got paid when it was on TV, and, much like movies, many people still tune in because they want to see their show first. I can only summise that TV show creators don’t really care less about the people who actually want to watch their show more than once. Otherwise maybe they’d make the damn things affordable.

But, the fact that I turn to more often than all of these is, many of the people pirating these mediums would NEVER pay for them anyway. They cannot afford them, it doesn’t fit into their lifestyle. If they hear a really good album, or see a really good movie, they’ll pay. Otherwise, why should they. People claim it hurts the recording industry, blah blah blah, well most of the people weren’t even going to buy the stuff at it’s current cost anyway.

So protip to the RIAA, charge reasonable prices, and provide the mediums we want, and maybe, just maybe, you’ll make a fortune and people will stop pirating!

Naturally I choose the train wherever I can. VLine books out 1 or 2 carriages on the train in order to allow their customers to use the XPT train while the other services are out of action due to the rail upgrade. They offered tickets on the XPT before this but I suspect this is the main reason why they do so atm.

So the train is faster, and frankly more comfortable, and there’s no changing between a train and bus at Seymour station. However, the cost of convenience is the staff. Every time I get on a VLine train the conductors are smiling, they ask politely for your tickets, and if you need to move seats they’ll ask you nicely.

Countrylink staff, in particular one member who I’ve seen a few times, tend to stop just short of yelling at your face. They’re not quite up to Connex ticket inspector standard but they get close. For example, hot meals are offered on board the service. Just as you get on at Wangaratta, and while most passengers who just got on are getting settled, an announcement goes over describing the choices.

It’s spoken as though to a child enough but heaven forbid anyone should have to ask for the choices again as the steward hurridly rushes through the cabin avoiding human contact wherever possible. I’ve seen someone ask before, it’s not pretty. I accidentally sat in the wrong seat this time as someone was seated in my seat and holding my ticket as though it was a prize the conductor turned around and asked the whole cabin very loudly to ensure that they sit in the right seat. All with her face looking like it’s about to go inside out from sucking on a sour lolly.

I’d mention her name but I stop short of that, it’s a little mean, besides most of them are just damn shocking. Oh and before I finish, don’t bring a snowboard or anything slightly large on board, you’ll get the “OK, WHO’S IS THIS!” talk. Srsly, I know you repeat the same things over and over, but it’s your fucking job to do so.

It was my job directing traffic at Mt Buller, and unless I’d had a really shit day I did my best to do it with a smile and apologise when I felt I couldn’t. To everyone in customer service, just fucking smile, at least you have a job these days.

Cheers,
Stubbers

Fact is CCTV in the CBD is abysmal, it’s either not being monitored, not being maintained, or is just shit. There is no reason we can’t have a CCTV system that covers the CBD and is monitored 24×7 by a few operators. I really cannot understand why the government doesn’t just invest in a system that covers the CBD and the major ways in and out (ie, up to the trains/trams/taxis). That way when an incident occurs, an operator can be tasked to managing the incident, rolling back the tapes (or even watching it live), tracking the people involved as they leave. Track what train they get on, get into Connex’s CCTV system (which also needs work) find out where the train they’ve gotten onto is going. Then just tell the train to reduce speed and give the cops time. Cops roll up at the next station and arrest all the people. All in 30 mins tops. It’s not really that hard people.

All it takes is a bit of money and a bit of co-operation.

The other side to the issue seems to be that Victoria Police is underfunded and desperately needs more police on our streets. If you doubled the number of cops on Melbourne’s streets, put them into cars each by themselves, you could never be more than a couple of blocks from an officer. Supply them all with Tazers and pretty soon the criminals will get the message. Victoria Police means business. Right now it feels like they don’t. They just don’t seem to have the resources to do anything about the CBD issue.

How many more people have to end up in hospitals before the government and Victoria Police act and do something useful for a change?

In short, more police, more resources, more non lethal but very painful weapons, and a CCTV system that actually works and allows police to track people across the CBD and out on the major arteries and I reckon we’d have this problem licked in no time.

I’d check the TPB blog for further info but the site appears to be non responsive for now at least. All that can be said about this so far is that it’s getting immediate attention from a few corners of the interwebs and I’m sure the mainstream media will pick up on what should be an interesting story.

For now at least, http://www.finanztreff.de/kurse_einzelkurs_charts,i,666994,zeit,8.html, watch the GGFX investors dance like a Texas man who just struck oil!!!

Sources
- http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-sold-to-software-company-goes-legal-090630/
- http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/06/30/its-no-lie-pirate-bay-purchased-by-gaming-giant-closing-track/
And more!!

I’m sure almost all of you first had the response, no more Connex, hells yer! We’ve all associated Connex with everything that’s bad about our public transport system, graffiti on trains, lack of security, delayed trains, canceled trains, and of course, where would we be without the trench-coat wearing cheap badge holding ticket inspectors. But the reality is quite different. Even though Connex seems to have failed at running our rail services for the past few months in particular we could just as easily see a repeat with a new company. In fact, conditions could get worse. We could just end up with slightly different coloured trains that run even slower.

The fact is I believe alot of the blame lies with our state government. Their lack of funding for metro rail infrastructure, especially the continual broken promises to deliver new trains, has left Connex with a car with flat tires. The fact is, it doesn’t matter who’s driving the car, it simply cannot work as well as a car with pumped up tires. As for Yarra Trams, I don’t know why they’re loosing the contract. The trams seem to be as on time as the possibly can to me. Without the government taking some very unpopular action and pushing for clearways and priority lanes to be extended trams simply cannot be relied upon and will always be effected by traffic conditions.

At least those taking over the contracts in December seem to have good backgrounds. With the consortium taking control of the Rail System involving the company that runs Hong Kongs rail system, where a train is late if it takes more than 60 seconds. The Tram System is set to be controlled by a company that runs trams in Paris, a city that has a very good tram system.

Let’s hope these companies do better than their predecessors, otherwise we’re just going to end up with a bunch of money wasted on paint. Let’s just hope that our state government really is interested in improving Melbournes Metro Rail network.

Source – http://www.theage.com.au/national/new-train-tram-operators-for-melbourne-20090625-cxgx.html

My current internet in my apartment is connected by a data point to my room by a small ISP that solely provides broadband to apartment buildings. So you’d think that it could have great potential to be fast. Say with an ethernet backbone to the interwebs and big download quotas and awesomeness… But no, that would only happen in imaginationland…

Instead the service that this half arsed ISP provides is 384 kbps down 64 up… A speed that is atrocious when compared with the current services availible in metro areas with an average of 18 mbps down!! The hell… Also the quota on this plan is 2gb… For every 5 days… Who the hell does that, everyone else does it by the month. Seriously… WTF… But my confusion continued when I realised how much it was costing me…

A fifty dollar connection fee… OH NO someone had to create a new account on the central server, like… 5 seconds work… And boom… You get charged 50 bucks… But that aside, how much do you think i’m paying for this broadband service. 10 bucks, 20 bucks, no sir. I’m being ripped off for a large 49.95 per month for this half rate dodgy arse service! I can’t browse and chat on my VOIP at the same time… It screws with it too much. What a fucking rip.

So after 2 months of this I’m ready to stab someone, and decide, for my own safety and those around me I should get the hell away from this service and get a proper DSL service. This is where TPG comes in. I wanted a naked DSL 2+ service with 50gb quota for 59.95. 10 bucks more than my current deal and I get greatly improved quota and speed. Yer… I held myself back just a little there… So I contact TPG, I have to get my phone connected to Telstra first, thanks to the brilliance that is the sale of Telstra.

So I get onto Telstra. Who, are increadibly fast. There is a tech at my door 4 business days later, really nice!

He hooks up my phone line pretty easily and heads off. He’s barely out the door and I’ve logged the request to have the line disconnected so that the naked DSL can be connected. It is now the 4th of April. I sit around constantly refreshing the installation status page on TPG’s website to find out when my service will be activated. 2 days later on the 6th TPG reports it has logged the request with Telstra.

Skip forward in time to Friday the 17th. 8 business days later (the public hols where in there somewhere) and I’m still refreshing that damn page. So I figure I’ll call TPG. They’re very sorry but Telstra has gotten back to them with the 7th of May being the expected connection date. The 7TH OF MAY. And then it hits me. Remember all that industrial action going on over in Telstraville, remember how the strikes are not affecting Telstra customers. According to Telstra. I think I just figured out what is taking up the slack. Telstra wholesale customers, and indirectly end users are being screwed over by the wonder that is telstra!

So in short. This is just another FUCK YOU TELSTRA post. And to those who defend Telstra by saying there are queues and they’ll be getting stuff done as quickly as they can, yer sure. I like the part where they can come to my house and connect my line in 4 days. Yet it takes them almost a month to just walk the fuck downstairs into the basement and change afew patch cables. Seriously guys. Hawthorn exchange might be a high building… But it aint that damn high!

Anyway stay tuned… Maybe I’ll have good interwebs some time in the next mellinium!

But the main issue of late seems to be the heat, which brings with it alot of problems, particularly relating to cables expanding and contracting with temparature changes. While the heat has subsided now it’s important to remember at the time alot of issues where seen, including the issues with trains not being able to run. The heat and strange wind conditions probably caused the fire at Beechworth (I’m not commenting on the one in the article because I don’t have firsthand knowledge) and it simply could not be contained because of the weather conditions.

But I’ve gone on long enough, on to the article. It talks about a moronic group of bloodsucking lawyers (no offence meant to any lawyers out there, except the ones in the article) taking on the company that manages the power infrastructure that may have started the fires near Horsham. For one thing, this is jumping the gun because the cause hasn’t been established, but secondly, what good is this supposed to bring. It’ll be legal battle that will cost both sides heavily and only result in the power company having less money to maintain a network that obviously needs attention.

So this court case will do nothing except take money away from the companies that did incredibly well under harsh conditions to restore power. I’m disturbed that anyone would be so stupid and damn short sighted as to encourage this case, but it seems they are. It’s court cases like these that add infinite amounts of red tape to everything and make it harder for things to get done. But hey, that’s not important, all the lawyers in this case care about is the money.

The fact is, even if the power lines started the fire, what right do people have to claim money from them? IMHO none… Not an ounce… Fires are often started by faulty electrical equipment, but obviously these people seem to think that ANY faulty equipment is unnaceptable which means that power companies will have to shut down power more often to ensure that such things don’t occur again, and yet they still will. These fires happen all the time, a possom gets fried by lines somehow and some sparks hit the ground, the heat causes earthing cables to warp an then they break causing sparks, and usually the CFA is on hand to secure the incident before it gets serious.

The fact is the weather was so shocking there is nothing that could be done to prevent the fire getting large enough to be unmanageable. People need to accept that these fires happened, stop trying place blame (except in the case of arson) and rebuild their lives. Cases like this do nothing for anyone in the long or short term, eventually the people may get some small settlement, or they may not, in the long run everyone looses.

Except the lawyers, I’m sure they’ll sue again when the milk in their office goes off because the power company had to cut power to do complex checks to ensure their lines are still safe… And I’m sure they would to…

Article Source – http://www.theage.com.au/national/power-firm-faces-legal-action-over-bushfires-20090313-8xj2.html

Articl Source – The Age – http://www.theage.com.au/national/doyle-calls-for-ban-on–hailing-cbd-taxis-20090304-8o35.html