I got a comment posted on a a news.com.au/adelaidenow article

I wrote: I’m suspecting the whole two people praising TransAdelaide in the above responses actually work for TransAdelaide. I caught the 7:51am train (which is almost TWO HOURS after the initial “fault”), and by Mawson Lakes the train was packed. This usually happens, but today it was crazy. Another carriage wouldn’t go astray. Only a half-hearted “TransAdelaide would like to apologise…”, after we arrived.

It’s getting worse, their apologies mean nothing any more. Not just anyone, but everyone involved with the transportation system should not use their cars to travel to work. Instead, they should use their own system, pay the extravagant ticket prices (we pay more and more for a system that’s getting worse and worse, what the?), and put up with what we have to put up with.

It is beyond a joke and something serious will happen and TransAdelaide will be caught with its pants down. It’s only a matter of time.

I’ve been hearing this line more and more frequently, and it has begun to lose all meaning. When a train runs late:

Attention all passengers, TransAdelaide would like to apologise for the late running of this train.

Words that are fed into the mouth of whoever happens to be driving the train at the time, just to make the passengers feel better. It’s kind of a like a “boy who cried wolf” story. You think they mean the apology the first couple of times, but after it happens again and again you just lose all faith.

What am I talking about? Well, here’s a list of things:

Late running of trains with little explanation, such as a “signal fault”. I’ve heard news reports that a certain government has recently received a $37billion profit. Now if they actually did something with this money it would be good, like ripping up the old Adelaide track and replacing it with a new shiny one that isn’t at least 5 decades old. Yeah, it may be heritage and have a lot of history associated with it, but old things are dangerous. Nothing serious has happened yet, but it’s only a matter of time until something does. The most serious thing to my recollection is a train derailment just outside of Adelaide Station, where the top speed limit is 10km/h. The 1st November 7:51am train arrived on time, but stopped about 500m outside of Salisbury Station with no explanation, and no apology. Not that the lack of apology matters anymore.

Slow points on the track. For no explanation the train slows down to a crawl on some points of the Gawler track that I travel on. I have heard reports of trains doing similar things on other lines. If the track is faulty, then it needs to be replaced. I cannot stress how important I think this is. If some train driver is not fully alert on the job and they don’t slow down for this point, what happens when it derails? Catastrophe.

Timetables are extremely optimistic. If you ever catch the 7:51am train and arrive at Adelaide station and pass through the gates before 8:31am, walk over to the newsagency at the southern end and buy yourself a lottery ticket. Not once that I’ve caught this train have I walked through the gates at 8:31am, it has been as early as 8:32 and as late as 8:51. As a person who relies on the trains 5/7 days, they should be reliable, not random like a lottery.

There’s an election coming up soon, I wonder if that will persuade them to suddenly replace the trains and the track. If not, something will happen. When it does it will be catastrophic. It’s only a matter of time.

I unfortunately missed the “debate” between the Horrible John Howard and Kevin “K. Rudd” Rudd, and then today this came up in IRC:

<LegionX> lol….. how sad… a torrent of yesterdays debate… ;-P <Radar> haha :) <Radar> I doubt if you could call it a “debate” <Radar> needed more fight. <stefan> and less about the worm already <LegionX> they need an open debate.. with all candidates…. so all the loony parties can speak ;-) <Radar> Then would it be called a “mass debate”?

Think about it. It’ll come to you eventually.

I blogged a month or two ago, a fictional story based on this short teenaged italian kid who gets on the train every now and then. Usually he board the train with his friends and talks himself up, bragging about who he beat up this week. This week he boarded the train at Mawson Lakes, and punched the door. He was shouting obscenities at someone. I was on my laptop, so I didn’t pay much attention to him.

He usually gets off at Ovingham, and this time he did also. This is the same stop the fat lady on the wheelchair waits for the train driver to get out of the cabin and put down the planks so she can wheel all 150kg of her fat ass out the door. So the train was stopped.

All of a sudden there’s a noise outside of the train doors and all the passengers are looking outside at something. I was sitting with my back to the door so I didn’t catch the start of it. What I’m assuming is that this angsty Italian kid picked a fight with someone he shouldn’t have as he got off the train. Still assuming, the hero of this story got off the train with the kid and they proceeded to fight. Let me pause there.

The hero is a 30, possibly 40 something white male dressed in business attire, black pants, light-pink shirt and tie. The kid is dressed in typical teenager clothes.

And now let’s resume the story. By everyone else looking at what was going on outside it grabbed my attention also. So I turned to see what was happening and I see this kid try to punch this guy. He missed. The hero then rises one leg, pulls it back to his body and then kicks out all in one swift motion as the kid comes at him again. The kick plants itself directly into the kid’s stomach. This made many people laugh and cringe. The fight continues, going down the outside of the train and out of my view.

The kid deserved it. He’s rude, he boards without a ticket, and he’s obnoxious. I just hope the next time he starts a fight with someone the train’s still moving when they open the doors and he’s the first one out.

When I was attending TAFE me and my friends used to play cards. I haven’t played cards in ages, and I’m kind of missing that fact.

So I thought I would host a Poker night for the 27th October. Open invitation. It will no longer be held at my Dad’s house. It will be held at a friend’s house who has kindly volunteered his shed for it. You know how to contact me.

EDIT: Yes I did have the third of November listed here as the date, but I had told people that it would be “not this saturday but the one after”, so just to make it clear it’s the 27th of October.

Many people that read this blog have my MSN address. For those of you who do not have my MSN address there is probably a good reason for it.

All times mentioned are Australian Central Time +0930 GMT, but in a week they will be +1030 GMT thanks to Daylight “Savings”

I would like to remind all of my readers (all 3 of you) that I actually have a job. This job involves me leaving my computer at near enough 7:40am every morning. Then I drive down to the train station, park my car, walk to the train station, wait for the train, get on the train, ride the train to Adelaide, get off the train and then walk to work (1.7km, the whole distance of Adelaide). I arrive at work at 9:00am. This means there is a whole period of 1 hour and 20 minutes where I am incommunicado. Do not leave me messages between 7:40am and 9:00am expecting a reply. You won’t get one until 7pm.

I arrive at work at 9:00am and generally then sign back in to messenger. You may leave me a message or attempt to strike up a conversation with me, but I am at work and whilst I’m here I am paid to work, not to speak to you.

IF my job DID involve speaking to you, that would be wonderful. Getting paid to talk to people about nothing in particular. It’s not. Don’t think it is.

I am at work until 5:30pm. This is a time that I almost always leave by. The only times where I may be still within reach are when there are Ruby Users Group meetings on (second Tuesday of every month), or I have taken the day off work because I am sick or for other reasons (there has only been one day in the past 5 months when I’ve done that, gg cold). If you send me a message after 5:30pm, but before 7:15pm, you will most likely not receive a reply until 9am the next day, if you’re still online. If you’re not then you have no hope of a reply unless you say whatever you said before.

If you are messaging me on a Tuesday that is not the second Tuesday of the month, or a Thursday immediately following a Ruby Users Group Tuesday, I am over my Dad’s house for dinner 99.9999% of the time. This means I am incommunicado from 5:30pm up until most probably 8:15pm. During this time I finish work, walk to the train station, wait for the train, get on the train, ride the train to Elizabeth, get off the train, walk to my car, drive to dad’s house, eat dinner, talk, drive back to mum’s house, and then log in to MSN.

If it is a weekday and after 10:00pm and I’m still online, this means I have left my computer on. It also means that I am sleeping. I will not reply until 7:00am the next morning.

That just about covers it.

I love writing. I hate it when people who get paid to write, twist words and wrongly report, like [url=http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22561539-2,00.html]this story on news.com.au[/url] this morning.

Firstly lets define “hack” and “hacker” (all from Wikipedia)

[code="Hack"] Hack has several meanings in the technology and computer science fields: a clever or quick fix to a computer program problem; a clumsy or inelegant solution to a problem; or a modification of a program or device to give the user access to features that were otherwise unavailable to them. [/code]

Fair enough.

[code="Hacker"] Hacker, as it relates to computers, has several common meanings, the unifying characteristic of which is only that it refers to a person who is an avid computer enthusiast. It is most commonly used as a pejorative by the mass media to refer to a person who engages in illegal computer cracking, but it can also refer to people engaged in ethical hacking, to the members of the open source and free software community or to home computer hobbyists. [/code]

And this is where it gets to the point. The media’s view of a hacker is:

[code="Media's View of a Hacker"] It is most commonly used as a pejorative by the mass media to refer to a person who engages in illegal computer cracking. [/code]

Journalists do not know how to report. The worst part? They get paid to fail at reporting. Let me explain the story.

The story’s headline reads “Hackers raid Liberal official site!”. Strike one. “Hackers” didn’t raid, alter or otherwise manipulate the Liberal’s official website. The problem is that the Liberal’s official website has a slight bug (read: the government can’t design perfect websites, just like us normal folk) which allows users to insert HTML into the page, in this case it’s a simple case of inserting something like:

[code="Hack Code"] [/code]

Simple really. Just copy and paste it after http://www.liberal.org.au/?action=wos.cfm%00%22%3E and you have yourself a nice quote from the PM himself saying that he’s going to give me lots of money to buy my Ferrari and Trophy Wife.

Back on topic. Journalists do not know how to report.

Earlier this year they stated that a group of hackers from the [url=http://valhalla.net.au]Monopoly Hackers League[/url] “hacked” the monopoly vote. Strike Two. This group of people included a member who made a program that automatically “spammed” the monopoly vote, making SA’s votes greater than any other states and placing Adelaide and the Barossa Valley on Park Lane and Mayfair. Again, they didn’t “hack” into anything.

I know that more than half the population of Australia are drooling morons (I used to serve them, I would know best), but must the journalists continuously hype their stories up waaaay out of proportion?

No. Report it as it should be reported. No hyping. No overexaggeration. Just the facts, nothing more. This problem is getting more and more rampant. We need more REAL journalists. People who KNOW what they’re talking about and don’t sound like they’re reading from a script or a teleprompter. Don’t dumb it down either, most of your viewers are adults. This is the age of technology. They’re hip, they know about these “ip-ods” (pronounced: ip-awd, like the ip in “dip” and awd as in “gawd”).

End of Rant.

On a completely separate topic, according to [url=http://blogs.news.com.au/adelaidenow/sa/index.php/adelaidenow/comments/walktoworkidontthinkso/]this post[/url] I have the legal right to report (read: call the police) other pedestrians that “impede” my path. This means you, little old lady with the shopping cart, and YOU, Mr. Business Man talking on his cell phone, both of which are doing 0.5km/h down a walkway.

Valhalla report up soon, and the rest of the photos.

Saturday 6:00am: Get up and prepare for Valhalla, involves packing, having a bath, getting dressed, and so on. 7am: Leave 7:15am: Stop in local shops to pick up drinks and snacks for the LAN 8am: Pick up Devastator 8:45-9:40am: Rock up with Devastator and help with packup 9:40am: Leave to get xD card for camera. 10am: Get xD card 10:20am: Return. Setup is done. 11am-12am Sunday: LAN. Went home because I was feeling tired. Somewhere in between this I received a text message from my friend wanting to go out on a bike ride with me Sunday. 1am: Dropped Devastator off home 2am: Got home.

Sunday 9:30 Wake up. 9:30:01 Feel the pain from Valhalla (throat, legs, back) 9:30:02 Realise I promised friend to go on a bike ride. 9:30-10:45 Mope around the house. Eat breakfast. Talk with mum and her boyfriend about lan. 11am: Rock up at my Dad’s house to borrow his bikes for the ride. He suggests going to the SANFL grandfinal. 11:05: Friend rocks up. 11:20: Leave to go to Smithfield Train station. 11:40: Board train into Adelaide 12:40: Arrive in town. 1:00: Ride to Hungry Jacks in Rundle Street for lunch. 1:15: Leave Hungry Jacks, ride down the Torrens. 2:00: Arrive at Seaview Road. 2:15: Arrive at West Lakes Boulevard. 2:30: At the gates to AAMI Stadium (thought kick off was 2:30) 3:30: Game starts 4:30-5:00: Game finishes. Centrals kicked ass. 5:00-7:00: Get back up to Adelaide via afore mentioned pathway. 7:00-8:00: Ride back on train to Smithfield station 8:00-8:30: Ride back to Dad’s house. 8:45-9:15: Go back to mum’s house in friend’s car, get pool cue. Go to Chicken Knight for dinner. Took dinner back to Dad’s house. Ate dinner. Played four games of pool (2-2, lost the last due to a technicality, black ball went in Sad) 9:20: Collapsed into bed.

Monday 7:00am: Wake up 7:01-7:20: Bath. 7:20-7:40: Get ready for work 7:40-9:00: Travel to work 9:00-5:30: Work 5:30-7:00: Travel back from work 7:00-9:30: Uploaded photos and wrote Valhalla LAN Report first draft.

Tuesday: 7:00am-5:30: Same as Monday. 5:30-8:30: Ruby Users Group Meeting 8:30-9:30: Travel Home 9:31: Collapse into bed.

Fun!

Written on the 2nd October:

This is going to be one in a series of lan “reports” I’ll be making for the coming few weeks. September-October seems to be a busy time for LANs where many have them scheduled on the following week from another, or even scheduled on the same day.

LPC (also known as Lan Party Central) is a lan held in Goodwood at the Goodwood Community Centre. 40 people registered for this event on the website (which is something I would like to see the Valhalla website have). LPC suffered from scheduling problems, due to two other LANs and a Nintendo WiFi party also, not to mention the AFL Grand Final on the same day (which Port lost horribly in HAHAHAHAHAHA). Attendance was sub-standard with a layout for around 60 people but only no more than 35 seats filled. The event ran from 10am-11pm with Devastator and I taking out the tournament with no less than a one hundred point lead. I also won the RANDOM door prize.

This LAN party is ran by Michael, Matt, Jamage (Jamie?) and others (whom I’ve forgotten the names of).

The competitions were: 1. Flatout 2 2. Warcraft 3 (DotA) cancelled to due lack of interest (aside: hahaha ahem) 3. Call of Duty 2 4. Unreal Tournament 2004 5. Quake 3

Unlike a certain other LAN (read: Ragnarok) there was actually a timetable which was strictly kept to throughout the whole day.

Flatout 2 was ill-configured on my PC, with the incorrect settings for the Xbox 360 controller so I was unable to go forward for the first match (all were derby), unable to change out of first in the second, and was finally to participate in the third match, only to come 5th.

The next competition was held much later in the day, at around 6pm. I arrived back from picking up a CD-drive from my house, only to find the competition had begun with only two other competitors. The map was Carentan (personal favourite) and I quickly assumed second position the leaderboard (thanks to my cheersquad for the morale boosting) only to be denied first position by a hacker known as kizmit (who apparently has 400 hours on xfire and therefore has no life). Kizmit took out the competition with 31 frags to my 22 (to my recollection). When I joined I was 12 frags away from kizmit, so it was an alright effort.

Since Devastator attended the lan with no computer (not realising I was going), I let him use mine to play the Quake 3 match after which LINKhe complained about using my mouseLINK. Devastator reached the fraglimit of 50 before BigWilly who only trailed by 2 points.

Then there was the Unreal Tournament 2004 competition. Devastator played again, taking a rather clear lead (80 something points at the end of the match THERES A PIC SOMEWHERE) and only needed to win the competition by 25 points in order to claim first place on the leaderboard.

For our efforts we received: AMD Backpack AMD Vest 5 x AMD Stressballs (one of which my Mum’s dog has now destroyed) AMD screwdriver (which I have now destroyed) Miami Vice PSP Movie (I think I’m missing something from this list)

There was also an Xbox 360 with Halo 3 on it, two (or three) gamecubes with Super Smash Brothers and Mario Kart: Double Dash on them (I placed 8th in Double Dash, a personal best) and a Wii on which the Wario: Smooth Moves competition was held on. I placed 1st in the mini-games only to have all my ropes cut and therefore be out of the game. There was a huge interest in the console with almost continuous Super Smash Brothers going (in which I did not stand a chance). I cannot wait for Super Smash Brothers for the Wii to come out and even though I am not a “Nintendo Fan Boy”, I love the way this game plays.

The LAN wasn’t as good as I was expecting. I was expecting much more participation in the computer gaming side, something similar to the interest in the consoles. With the Call of Duty 2 competition only attracting three players (two of which were sniper whores, guess who) it seems that this is dying at LAN parties. Counter-Strike: Source received about 8 players, which is still less than what I would usually like to play with it. LPC needs more people to attend, and maybe I just went on a bad time, but it wasn’t really up to my standard of lanning and the only reason I am going next time is to see if it does improve. If it does, then it might become another regular LAN that I attend.

5/10

The next LAN party I will be attending is Valhalla, which is on the 6th/7th October held at St. Clair Recreation Centre, Woodville. I will have photos up for this report later.

Rails 2.0 Preview Release 1 was released a couple of days ago. The original idea was of this post to go through all the changelogs and find out all the stuff I thought was cool and list it here. The problem is that there’s too much cool stuff. [url=http://blog.rubyonrails.org/2007/9/30/rails-2-0-0-preview-release]DHH summed it up quite nicely.[/url]

My favourites are: 1. hasone and hasmany for restful routes. For example, [term]map.resources :forums, :hasmany => :topics[/term]. 2. Sexy migrations. 3. The way it loads faster, mashing all the javascript/css into one file so it only gets two files (one for js, one for css) instead of 6 or 7. 4. Instead of specifying [term]topicpath(@topic)[/term] for a topics path, now you can do [term]topic_path[/term] and Rails will know what you’re talking about.

One thing I’m annoyed at is that routes like [term]forumedittopicpath(forum,topic) [/term] to edit a topic now become: [term]editforumtopicpath(forum,topic)[/term] Going through each page and finding all the routes that use this will be a pain, and I’m considering making a small ruby script to do it for me.

TOMORROW, I hope to get the LPC report up!

Angus asked me today to code him a method in Ruby to work out if a date is a leap year. He gave his example:

[code="Angus's Example"] if not (year % 4) and ((year % 100) or not ((year % 100) or (year % 400))) [/code]

tut tuts Angus, use ! instead of not, && instead of and, and || instead of or!

Ruby has this built in method called [term]leap?[/term] and its source looks like this:

[code="Ruby's Source"] def leap? self.class.jdtocivil(self.class.civiltojd(year, 3, 1, ns?) - 1, ns?)[-1] == 29 end [/code]

Now I’m sure there’s a reason they’re doing all that, but I have a shorter way:

[code="My Code"] class Date def leap? yday != 60 end end [/code]

[term]yday[/term] returns 60 on all years that are not leap years, so why not just check that value?