Technologist
I know it is just a game, and I know I have more important things to do than post this blog entry. But, I can’t help wondering what it is that I am missing about the ginormous kerfuffle encompassing Victoria and the NRL.
According to the official Storm website there are 36 players on the NRL squad. In the absence of any better information I will assume that this number is not unusual. So, what is the magnitude and significance of the overpayments?
The following started as a short Facebook update after I satisfied myself that most tweets about Mary MacKillop were negative. But, it kept on growing so it’s ended up here…
In case you are not aware, VicPolice sent (or caused to be sent) a SMS (text) message to somewhere between 1.5 and 5 million mobile phones yesterday. It reads
Extreme weather In Vic expected Mon night & Tues. High wind & fire risk. Listened to Local ABC radio for emergency updates. Do not reply to this msg.
I have been pondering my attitude to the VicPolice text message all day — and after discussing initial responses with other individuals, and reading a fair range of Web based public reaction, have arrived at at somewhat less inflammatory conclusion than what I had earlier today. But, my opinion perhaps is not as favorable, or forgiving as the “consensus”.
It would seem that the general consensus of opinion is that the message was, “a good thing”, or at least “not a bad thing”. This is based on the premise that it could only be good if more people were advised that there was an increased fire risk today and that it was a minor inconvenience if you already knew, or were not in a risk area.
However, a text message is directed to an individual, from an individual or organisation. Even if the message is “broadcast” to a large number of individuals, the message itself, arriving at a single mobile phone, is not a broadcast a message in the normal sense of the word. Therefore I conclude that, a personal message sent to people who have no exposure of risk, is unlikely to be effective.
It would be ridiculous to suggest that anyone living in high fire risk areas in Victoria was not aware of the risks they face and the need to monitor those risks. After all, the current risks are largely from the same fires that have already caused so much tragedy. So, the text message to them achieved nothing. And the text message to everyone else equally achieved nothing as the recipients were not at risk. Thus, the telecommunication companies who we are told were required to carry the cost of this exercise, simply wasted their time, bandwidth and money.
The underlying problem is of course is that it is virtually impossible to accurately predict a level of risk justifying that extreme measures be taken to advise the public. Equally, it is virtually impossible to identify exactly who is at risk. For example, today one could reasonably suggest that those most at risk were in fact non-Victorians visiting fire prone areas of Victoria. The shotgun approach of VicPolice apparently would not have reached many, if any of these at risk people.
Also, I would suggest that observations about lack of warnings on Black Saturday, by those who did suffer loss, did not relate to the general warnings before Saturday, but the apparent lack of specific warnings in relation to the nature and severity of the threat to individual towns and communities after the fires were raging.
In conclusion, without implying that the authorities were doing anything other than attempting to provide a service to the community, I doubt that the experiment could in any way be described as a success. And, in case you think this unreasonable, I am defining “success” as making a significant number of individuals who were unaware of the risk that they personally faced, take steps to protect themselves and their property.
I have been debating with myself whether or not to make this post, ever since the announcement of the Royal Commission into the Victorian bushfires was announced. Each time it was mentioned I was sure I heard a figure of $40 million being the cost of the enquiry. No, I thought, I must have misheard the figure — maybe it was actually $4 million.
So now I am confused. Why, because it appears that the Victorian government has allocated $10 million to aid the 7000+ victims of the bushfires (something less than $1,500 per head), but four times that amount to find out why they are victims.
The royal commissioner will have about $100,000 per day to spend during his enquiry. Some quick arithmetic gives the result that the commissioner could employ about 500 people earning average weekly earnings for this amount. On the other hand, most royal commission money is paid to lawyers. If there were 100 lawyers involved in the enquiry, there would be $400,000 per head available to them.
It also crosses my mind that governments are generally very quick to announce royal commissions, but notoriously slow at adopting any recommendations they might make. If we are to spend $40 million on an enquiry it had better be good enough for every last recommendation or suggestion to be adopted without any question from the government at the time.
So, is it only me who is confused?
Australian Banks are apparently not making enough profits so have announced new ATM fees including a “disloyalty” fee for using another bank’s ATM machine. The new fees means that we could be paying $5.00 for a visit to an ATM! Read more about the plans here.
This has to represent all that is bad about our banking system and the way that banks are taking advantage of technology. Firstly, how can anyone suggest that we do not suffer under an evil cartel. The bank leaders in Australia could form a synchronised swimming team and not even have to practice before winning gold at the Olympics. Secondly, can you imagine any bank having the gall to require their tellers to demand $5.00 from customers before serving them? Unfortunately, it’s easy to rip an estimated $200 million per year from customers when it’s done by a machine!
OK, maybe their synchronised actions do not qualify as a cartel in the legal sense, but I’m sure that Joe Citizen wold be unimpressed by arguments that it is pure coincidence that the banks all raise and lower interest and fees by remarkably similar amounts, generally within hours of each other.
Anyway, inspired by a campaign against a stupid copyright law change in New Zealand which has seen the Twitter trend #blackout reach Number One spot, I’m launching #disloyalty to see if we can send a message to any banks considering this unfair fee.
At the time of the launch, a search of recent tweets referring to the disloyalty fee found just one result from @sdipietr
And another thing, I’d love to hear an explanation from from St George (Westpac) why a credit card charge in a shop is reflected in my account balance in real time, but the reversal of the same transaction – 5 minutes later, same credit card, same eftpos machine, same computer system, same everything except the direction of the money flow – takes 3 or 4 days to be reflected in my balance.
For the last four days since the horrific fires in country Victoria, we have been exposed to amazing stories of tragedy, bravery, selfless contributions, and horror. We have seen grown men and women reduced to tears, and even political leaders unable to retain their composure in the face of the enormity of the disaster. Australians from all walks of life have unselfishly committed time, money and anything else they can spare to try to mitigate the effects on those who have been directly affected by the fires. Contributions and condolences have come from all parts of the globe.
So it beggars the imagination to hear the reports tonight that a member of the Victorian Police Force apparently felt that the owner of the Narbethong timber business who had lost everything in the fires, and and whose son is still missing, had not quite suffered enough. It is simply impossible to understand what this Police Officer was thinking when he issued an on the spot fine for driving a vehicle without number plates.
This officer should be immediately publicly named by the Commissioner of Police and summarily dismissed as being a individual totally unsuited to the role of a guardian of society. This lunacy cannot possibly be tolerated or condoned in any way by any rational thinking human being.
The only “good” thing about this situation is that a commercial news channel was prepared to broadcast details of the event so that we could all hear about it. However, they did not go as far as to name the Police Officer involved even though the name was in their possession at the time of the report.
Now something has to be done about it. And in a public forum, not behind closed doors.
Over Easter there was a tragic level crossing accident in Victoria which resulted in loss of life.
Afterwards, it was explained that it was “too expensive” to install boom gates (supposed to cost $500,000) so it is up to us to drive more carefully.
How stupid are we? TAC happily spends *MILLIONS* of our premiums on advertising and sponsors a football competition (the AFl’s TAC Cup).
Just a fraction of the money wasted on advertising or paying for young men to chase a ball around a paddock could have saved the lives so tragically lost.
I have a new definition of “old”. If you can remember when you were allowed to be an idiot, you are definitely *OLD*!
Recently someone made the comment that you’d have to be an idiot to ride a bicycle without wearing a helmet. Maybe that is true, but on that basis anyone of my age would be an idiot. From about the age of 10 I rode to school and, when I lived in Broken Hill, regularly rode on the highways to go camping. In those days *no one* wore a helmet. To the best of my knowledge the bike helmet did not even exist.
Not many years before that, racing drivers wore a leather “helmet” to protect them from the wind as they drove at speeds of over 100 miles per hour.