@ajsadauskas@aus.social
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

ajsadauskas

@ajsadauskas@aus.social

Australian urban planning, public transport, politics, retrocomputing, and tech nerd. Recovering journo. Cat parent. Part-time miserable grump.

Cities for people, not cars! Tech for people, not investors!

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ajsadauskas, to random
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

There was no drone delivery future. There was never going to be a drone delivery future.

Just like there was never going to be self-driving Uber taxis. Or Amazon Go supermarkets on every corner. Or hyperloops. Or earth-to-earth space travel on SpaceX rockets. Or level-five full self driving Teslas.

Just like there will not be a general artificial intelligence ChatGPT in the next couple of years.

They were all scams designed to lure dollars from investors and generate good PR.

It was all bullshit. It was always bullshit.

Nothing more.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/22/24137383/amazon-prime-air-drone-delivery-closing-lockeford-california-phoenix-arizona

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@nini I'm sure some of those things will eventually happen, in some form, in the future.

But at the same time, the tech bros made out like their companies were going to deliver these things in the next couple of years, knowing full well that was not the case.

drahardja, to random
@drahardja@sfba.social avatar

The Y2K bug is a great illustration that a well-handled potential disaster looks like “nothing happened” in retrospect. The fact that Y2K seemed to be a non-event is a testament to how seriously people took this emergency, and how everyone buckled down and averted a worldwide infrastructure disaster.

I started working at Honeywell Aerospace (AlliedSignal back then) in 1998, and by that time people were already working on Y2K issues. We were in the GPS navigation business, and there were real issues that would have caused aircraft navigation to go awry unless they were fixed.

People buckled down, found the bugs, ran simulations, got FAA sign-offs, and deployed the fixes to all affected aircraft well before Y2K. Thanks to the effort, “nothing happened”. But I assure you (bad) things would have happened if we did nothing. https://infosec.exchange/@tychotithonus/111670219441506220

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@drahardja Here's the Reserve Bank of Australia's report on all the work that was done across the financial services industry to prepare for Y2K: https://www.rba.gov.au/fin-services/resources/y2k-preps.pdf

It's worth noting the Australian financial year ends on 30 June. So a lot of changes had to be in place by then (in case there were problems caused by financial year 00 appearing in any systems).

There was also a bit of a dry run in January 1999, when the euro was introduced (something a lot of articles leave out).

"There was significant progress during the June 1999 quarter, with more than half of the banks reporting at end-June that all critical systems had been completely renovated and tested. Most of the remaining banks finalised testing during July and August. The few remaining systems where testing is yet to be finalised are systems where any problems would have little or no impact on retail bank accounts or the payments system.

"A comprehensive program to test the Year 2000 readiness of the Australian payments system, managed by the Australian Payments Clearing Association (APCA), was successfully completed, on time, by 30 June 1999 and no Year 2000 problems were reported by test participants. Because of this effort, the Australian public can be
confident that their usual method of making non-cash payments, such as ATMs, EFTPOS and credit cards, will continue to work as usual over the New Year period.

"Credit unions have approached Year 2000 preparations from an industry viewpoint. There has been a high level of cooperation between individual institutions and
considerable assistance from industry special service providers.

"The June 1999 returns indicated that the very large majority of building societies and credit unions had completed the testing and implementation phase of their Year 2000
project by end-June 1999. Where there has been some slippage in testing timetables,
this has been largely due to external service providers, an issue that was addressed by
additional testing periods in July and August. FI Scheme supervisors have encouraged
institutions to impose a freeze on changes to critical applications over the two main
periods of risk."

Non-Y2K updates to systems were also frozen at many financial institutions:

"APRA has also written to institutions suggesting that they should consider setting
periods in the latter part of 1999 and early 2000 (including the period around
29 February 2000) during which changes to critical systems will only be undertaken
if deemed absolutely necessary. This is to ensure that any changes do not introduce errors into systems that have already been tested. Most institutions have put in place a freeze period on changes to critical applications."

mekkaokereke, to random
@mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io avatar

Happy #BlackHistoryMonth !

I'm still not up to Black History! I'm still working through white US history. Bear with me! Almost there!

Q: Why does it seem like everything has to be woke now? Even our scientists?! It never used to be that way! Why does it seem like these days, even higher education has to think about race, when it didn't before?

A: Higher education, including STEM, did think about race before. That history has just been hidden from you. Because racism.

#BlackMastodon

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@mekkaokereke Thanks for sharing these threads. They're always incredibly interesting, enlightening, and informative.

For example, I had heard vaguely about Einstein speaking out against anti-black racism, but didn't know about his commitment to regularly teaching at HBCUs. (And given Einstein died in 1955—nearly a decade before the Civil Rights Act—that was a radical act.)

wikipedia, (edited ) to random
@wikipedia@wikis.world avatar

20 years ago today, the "Did you know" section appeared on English Wikipedia for the very first time! Here's how it looked.

Since then, we've featured more than 100,000 facts on the main page. We like to think that we've gotten a little better at choosing surprising hooks.

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@wikipedia Any chance of a Mastodon account that has the "did you know" section each day?

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

The meanest insult I've ever called someone, the one I reserve for people I really really don't like probably doesn't always hit very hard at the target.

"uncurious"

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@greeneralia @futurebird There's two other types of incurious person I've come across.

The first is the true believer.

The true believer is a lot like your solipsist you described. The difference is the emotions that lay underneath the surface.

With the solipsist, it's a narcissistic arrogance that he (it's often a he, just ask BoJo or Donald) is always right. Anything or anyone that disagrees with him is an attack on his status.

Whereas with the true believer, she's devoted so much of herself to the cause. But there's forever the fear, the nagging suspicion, that she could be wrong.

Both the solipsist and the true believer go out of their way to avoid opposing viewpoints — but for opposite reasons.

The solipsist knows the opposing viewpoint is not just wrong, but the people who suggest it are clearly morons! Whereas, the true believer's big fear is that she might discover that they have a point.

The other kind of person is the kind who lacks imagination.

For them, it's not the fear of the unfamiliar that keeps them away from new ideas.

Rather, it's that it doesn't even occur to them to ask the question of why things are the way they are, or how they could be different.

They see the autumn leaves falling, and it has never occurred to them to question how it is they changed colour.

The few explanations they have about the world are from what others told them, not from what they researched themselves, or asked about.

They often take the information they're given — especially if it's from an authority figure — at face value.

Most importantly, learning does not interest them. Show them a documentary, or take them to a museum, and they will be beside themselves with boredom within five minutes.

kagan, to random
@kagan@wandering.shop avatar

I always wonder if the people who write job postings realize that "fast-paced, dynamic environment" sounds like code for "chaotic, messy workplace with loads of pressure". I feel like some of them think it sounds cool, and so they put it in, even when the workplace actually has things under control. But I see it and I think, "Do I even want to apply there?" — and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@joannaholman @hakirsch @kagan Here's a few more common ones:

"Fun work environment" <- Our CEO or loves talking at the staff during our monthly in-office afternoon tea. You better have a damned good excuse not to attend the "fun"!

"Tasks include report writing" <- The CEO is too dumb to find the sales figures in our CRM system. You'll need to regularly, manually copy and paste them into a pretty PowerPoint slide deck that he'll probably never look at.

"Multitasking" <- We'll make you do the work of three people.

"Fast-paced" "tight deadlines" <- We overload you with tasks with unreasonable deadlines. There's no way you can get this project completed and signed off by everyone before the end of the week. We'll expect you to have it done by the end of the hour.

"Managing offsite teams" <- We outsourced our business processes overseas. You'll have to clean up the mess.

"Staying on top of market trends" <- Our CEO looks at the ways other companies in our industry enshittify their products or gouge their customers and says "let's do that too"!

"Agile work environment" <- You'll be micromanaged using daily standup meetings, JIRA, and kanban boards.

"Engaging with consultants" <- The CEO is being paid a five-figure salary to play Solitaire on his PC. Actual management decisions have been outsourced to KPMG. You have to deal with them.

"Some manual data entry" <- All the data is already in our core business systems. Unfortunately, management decided it was too expensive to pay for a Zappier integration to move it into our e-commerce platform, or for enough IT staff to set it up. So you'll need to input it manually, or else everything breaks. We'll hold you personally accountable for any errors.

"Supporting legacy applications" <- Our critical core business systems were originally written for a VAX machine and a Z80 system running CP/M. The people who wrote them are long dead. There's 40 years of cruft code. None of it was documented. They somehow sort of interface with the obsolete SAP and Oracle systems we picked up through a long-forgotten merger.

Data integration? Well, Anne from admin uses a Visual Basic front end to manually download a spreadsheet, which she then uploads into a Salesforce system that some of our departments switched over to during a failed IT transformation project 10 years ago.

Oh, and some of our backups are on Bernoulli disks in the cupboard. If by chance you see a working OS/2 machine pop up on eBay, make sure you bid for it.

Oh, and if there's any downtime, your job's on the line.

augustusbrown, to random
@augustusbrown@aus.social avatar

It's curious how rural/regional areas tend to vote conservative, but in order for their towns to survive, they have to implement socialist practices.

We saw it happening in Lockington (northern Victoria) as part of my planning course. Most of the services in town are a co-op. Even the pub.

Profits from Council-owned IGA supermarket will be reinvested in the community, says Shire President.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-08/norseman-iga-posts-profit-in-first-month-of-council-ownership/103205982

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@augustusbrown This is mostly just personal observation rather than hard research.

But in many rural and regional areas, there seems to be a divide between where people stand on economics, and social policy.

On economics, many people are likely to have at least some voluntarist/communitarian/agrarian socialist leanings — but they won't call them that explicitly.

So they'll sell their milk or produce to a farmers' co-op. They'll have a local credit union or Bendigo Bank community branch. They'll have a local store that's a consumer co-op. They'll have the local CWA, RSL, Rotary Club, and progress association. The local museum or historic railway will be run by volunteers as a nonprofit.

And they'll always be in favour of more government services and infrastructure. In fact, they'll often complain about how governments aren't doing enough.

At the same time, they'll be very conservative on social issues.

I'll get one of the big factors out of the way first: it's race.

New migrants often tend to move to the big cities first. That's where the economic opportunities are. That's where established communities are. As a result, many small towns can tend to be very white.

Likewise, Queer communities tend to gather in the cities, and many LGBTIQA+ people from small towns end up moving.

The big cities is where you tend to find upper- and upper-middle-class people who can afford to travel regularly, and bring home ideas from overseas.

The other part of it is that new ideas and cultural changes tend to happen in the big cities. That's where the universities are. That's where young people congregate. That's where the cultural institutions are — the galleries and theatres. That's where there's a critical mass of people to form artistic and cultural subcultures.

So the pace of social change is just a lot faster in the big cities than in rural communities.

Look at Melbourne or Sydney, and they've changed dramatically from 20 or 40 years ago.

Look at a small town, and main street is much the same as it was in the 1970s or the 1950s, and not that greatly different from how it was in the early 1900s.

And if people are still living in the 1950s or 1970s culturally, their social views will match.

ajsadauskas, to journalism
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

So WarnerDiscovery now wants to merge with Paramount Global.

Because apparently what the world needs now is even more media consolidation.

This is more than just a merger between two big Hollywood studios. It's a merger between two conglomerates that themselves were created through the merger of big media conglomerates.

Paramount Global came about through the merger of CBS and Viacom.

Along with Paramount Pictures, it also owns CBS in the US, Channel Ten in Australia, and Channel Five in the UK.

Oh, and also MTV, BET, Nickelodeon, VH1, Showtime, Comedy Central, Miramax Films, United International Pictures, Pop TV, and CMT, among many other assets.

WarnerDiscovery was formed from the merger of Discovery Inc with WarnerMedia, which itself was formed by merging Time Inc with Warner Communications, and then Turner Broadcasting.

Along with Warner Brothers, it owns CNN, DC Comics, The Oprah Winfrey Network, HBO, Cartoon Network, TBS, TNT, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, New Line Cinema, Castle Rock Entertainment, and a lot more.

And all that will be owned by one mega-corp if this deal goes through.

Now whose interest would such a deal serve?

Consumers? Creatives? Employees?

Or just Wall Street...

https://amp.smh.com.au/business/companies/warner-bros-and-paramount-plot-56-billion-hollywood-megamerger-20231221-p5et17.html

ajsadauskas, (edited ) to music
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

The Australian digital invention that changed the face of music—and made Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill possible.

Here's a really interesting video about one of the first all-digital synths, the Fairlight CMI.

Despite the early lead in a technology that would go on to be a cornerstone of a multi-billion-dollar tech industry, Australia gave up its leading role in the field.

https://youtu.be/jkiYy0i8FtA

@music @popheads

ajsadauskas, to music
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

So who's your favourite band or artist? What's your favourite song or album?

I'm keen to hear both who you're currently listening to, as well as your all-time favourites and guilty pleasures.

What do you like about them? How did you get into their music? And significant stories or memories?

@music @music

ajsadauskas, to Futurology
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

Quick heads up: Melbourne's Public Transport Users Association is now posting videos on Mastodon.

If you want some interesting short form transport advocacy clips in your Masto feed, make sure you follow the PTUA @ptua 😊

@fuck_cars

ajsadauskas, to TeslaMotors
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

Free speech absolutist sues an environmentalist group, because it helped an anti-hate campaign group engage in free speech by conducting and publishing research about hate speech on his app.

He claims the anti-hate group used its free speech to "to advance incorrect, misleading narratives".

As a result, "several unnamed advertisers were no longer spending on the platform, paused advertising or decided to not reactivate campaigns" after reading its research.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/aug/08/x-corp-accuses-climate-group-of-helping-anti-hate-researchers-target-twitter-elon-musk

ajsadauskas, to twitter
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

Prominent "free-speech absolutist" threatens to sue Jewish anti-hate group because it engaged in free speech he didn't like.

"Elon Musk has threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League after accusing the civil rights group that campaigns against antisemitism and bigotry of trying to “kill” his X social media platform.

"The owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, said the ADL was trying to shut down his company by 'falsely accusing it and me of being antisemitic'."

If your list of enemies includes the ADL, then there's a more-than-reasonable chance that you're an anti-semite.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/05/elon-musk-sue-adl-x-twitter

@technology

ajsadauskas, to delhi
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

Whoopsie! Sydney's road planners just discovered induced demand is a thing, after opening a new motorway.

For those outside Sydney, the New South Wales state government recently opened a new spaghetti intersection just west of Sydney's Central Business District.

It was supposed to solve traffic. Instead, it's turned into a giant car park:

"For the third straight day, motorists and bus passengers endured bumper-to-bumper traffic on the City West Link and Victoria Road. A trip from Haberfield to the Anzac Bridge on the City West Link averaged an agonising 44 minutes in the morning peak on Wednesday.

"Several months ago, Transport for NSW’s modelling had suggested traffic from the interchange would add only five to 10 minutes to trips on Victoria Road through Drummoyne and over the Iron Cove Bridge during morning peaks.

"Those travel delays have now blown out."

So what do motorists say when their shiny new road that was supposed to solve traffic instead turns into a massive traffic jam?

'Dude! Just one more lane!'

From the article:

"[Roads Minister John] Graham and his Transport boss Josh Murray appear reluctant to do what many motorists reckon is the obvious solution.

"That is, add lanes or make changes at the pinch-points that are causing the pain. A three-lane to one merge point from Victoria Road onto the Anzac Bridge, along with two lanes merging into one on the City West Link, are proving to be painful bottlenecks."

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/how-planners-got-rozelle-traffic-modelling-horribly-wrong-20231129-p5ensa.html

@fuck_cars @sydneytrains @urbanism

ajsadauskas, to Trains
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

There's a new RMTransit (@RM_Transit) video up about high-speed rail from Melbourne to Sydney.

It's definitely worth checking out. Reece makes the case that more overnight sleeper services and electrification are an important first step: https://youtu.be/IMUcV_nxsWY?si=8reQjPjsrwVTcecx

My two cents on the topic is that HSR from Melbourne to Sydney should implemented as a series of incremental upgrades, rather than a single megaproject.

Between the 1970s and 2010s, the Hume Highway between Melbourne and Sydney was incrementally upgraded to a freeway-standard continuous dual carriageway road: https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/operations/roads-and-waterways/environment-and-heritage/heritage/hume-highway-duplication/history

It wasn't done as single megaproject. Instead, it was done in small segments. A bypass around a town. A section of road between two town upgraded to dual carriageway. Eventually, over 40 years, the whole road was upgraded.

We should be doing the same thing with the train line from Melbourne to Sydney.

Not as a multi-billion-dollar megaproject, but as a series of discrete projects to upgrade sections of track to electrified HSR standard: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/feb/24/start-building-now-to-fulfil-sydney-melbourne-high-speed-rail-ambition-labor-urged

That means faster train journeys from Melbourne to Sydney today, with full HSR rolled out incrementally over the longer term.

@fuck_cars

ajsadauskas, to Banking
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

Wonder why there's a cost of living crisis in Australia?

Why comfortable oligopolies gouge customers? Why there's no competition in industries like banking, aviation, or supermarkets?

Because this is how Australian competition law operates: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/20/anz-suncorp-bank-merger-decision-approved-accc-tribunal-appeal?CMP=aus_bsky

@australia

ajsadauskas, to random
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

I've argued before that it's better to aim to get gross emissions as low as possible, instead of lauding net zero claims that have been achieved through (potentially fraudulent) carbon offsets.

Here's a great illustration of why carbon derivatives are a poor substitute for real emissions cuts:

https://www.theguardian.com/news/article/2024/jun/04/the-warring-conmen-at-the-heart-of-a-5bn-carbon-credit-scam

ajsadauskas, to tesla
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

After sacking the charging team at Tesla, the "free speech absolutist" has found a new way to save some a few dollars: Cancelling Summer internships he's already promised to students.

The interns get paid US$35 per hour:

https://gizmodo.com.au/2024/05/teslas-interns-reportedly-feeling-the-wrath-of-elon-musk/

ajsadauskas, to random
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

There's a hidden economic benefit to great urban planning in cities: Tourism.

People want to visit good public spaces, with walkable (ideally pedestrianised) main streets, quality public transport, and vibrant local communities.

And good quality urbanism is not just for big cities either:

https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2024/6/3/how-to-build-strong-towns-that-are-irresistible-to-tourists?apcid=0062267bab2d55e67ed09101&utm_source=safestreets

ajsadauskas, (edited ) to music
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

Disgraceful conduct by Pandemonium Festival promoter Andrew McManus.

He has apparently taken to Facebook to threaten ticketholders who have asked for a refund with violence.

This as the wheels have almost completely fallen off his Pandemonium Festival: https://www.smh.com.au/culture/music/what-s-going-on-punters-left-hanging-over-controversial-rock-festival-20240322-p5fehb.html

@melbourne

ajsadauskas, to Trains
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

Looks like Sydney Trains is going to drop the jargon from its PA announcements.

From the SMH:

"Commuters will soon be told to “get off” the train, rather than “alight”, after Sydney Trains resolved to overhaul its station announcements to favour colloquial language.

"The phrase “this train terminates here” is also being retired, due to concerns the word “terminates” is difficult to understand."

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/this-phrase-terminates-here-sydney-train-announcement-overhaul-20240502-p5foby.html

@sydneytrains

ajsadauskas, to auspol
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

So despite climate change, Australia's federal government has just committed an extra $3.25 billion into building a toll road and a 20-lane freeway widening.

For those who wonder why Aussies think toll roads are a scam (https://aus.social/@LesserAbe@lemmy.world/112405373613706682), here's a great example of why.

"Pouring an extra $3.25 billion worth of federal funds into Melbourne’s North East Link is a good use of taxpayer money, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has insisted, despite the project’s cost doubling just a few months ago.

...

"The North East Link – which includes 6½ kilometres of tunnels – will stretch from Bulleen to Greensborough. It will widen the Eastern Freeway by up to 20 lanes.

"Allan revealed in December that the 10-kilometre toll road had more than doubled in cost since it was first announced.

"The toll road was initially budgeted at $10 billion and reassessed in 2019 at $15 billion. But the government revealed last year that the updated cost estimate was $26 billion."

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/federal-funding-to-boost-victorian-road-link-by-3-25-billion-20240509-p5ii7b.html

@fuck_cars

ajsadauskas, to architecture
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

A huge congratulations to @philipthalis on his well-deserved award.

Philip is undeniably both one of Australia's most respected architects and a tireless advocate for good urban design.

More importantly, he's not afraid to speak up publicly against bad state government planning decisions, as he did with Barangaroo, even when there's a personal cost.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/architect-philip-thalis-paid-the-price-for-being-outspoken-now-he-s-won-the-profession-s-gold-medal-20240510-p5jcjb.html

@urbanism #Planning #UrbanPlanning #Cities #Urbanism #Buildings #Architecture #Transport #Architect #Walking #Walkability

mpesce, to random
@mpesce@arvr.social avatar

This is nothing short of a full-stack AI-ification of search. Google is using its Gemini AI to figure out what you’re asking about, whether you’re typing, speaking, taking a picture, or shooting a video.

http://windowscopilot.news/2024/05/16/google-is-redesigning-its-search-engine-and-its-ai-all-the-way-down/

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@mpesce Huge opportunity here for someone to build a search engine that searches web sites.

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@vividspecter @M500 It's also important to note that there's a huge difference between a social critique and a personal insult.

The lack of viable transport alternatives is a systemic issue. It's not a personal moral failure.

It is not a personal moral fault to drive where no good alternatives exist.

The solution is not a different personal transport choice. The solution is systemic change to how transport, infrastructure, and planning are delivered.

The survey looks at how people have been socially conditioned to accept the systemic issues.

It involves a lot of blame shifting, and victim blaming.

It involves dropping or changing a number of socially accepted rights and wrongs as soon as a car is involved.

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