ajsadauskas

joined 2 years ago
[–] ajsadauskas@aus.social 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

@nictea @philip @fuck_cars Pretty much the whole City of Knox (a large chunk of outer-eastern Melbourne) is 1970s and 1980s car-centric suburbia at its worst.

The only rail in the whole area is basically Bayswater and Boronia stations on the Belgrave line. And trains only run every 30 minutes, aside from the morning and evening peak.

Other than that, you have the SmartBus from Ringwood to Frankston, the Rowville SmartBus, and a bunch of infrequent suburban busses.

And the stroads! There's literally a stroad called High Street Road (which is quite possibly the stroadiest name ever invented).

And all of them — Boronia Rd, Stud Rd, Wellington Rd, Burwood Hwy, Wellington Rd, Dorset Rd — are a nightmare during peak hour.

There's whole housing estates with detached residential homes where the only practical way to get anything is to drive.

If anyone says Melbourne does planning well, take them out to Knox (you'll need to drive) and they'll come away with a different opinion.

#Knox #Melbourne #Urbanism #UrbanPlanning #Bayswater #Boronia #Planning

[–] ajsadauskas@aus.social 4 points 1 year ago

@philip @fuck_cars And a little post-script: It's now 2024, Waverley Park is now long gone, and the long-promised Rowville railway still hasn't been built.

Here's some background info on it from Melbourne's Public Transport Users Association ( @ptua and @danielbowen ).

https://www.ptua.org.au/myths/rowville/

[–] ajsadauskas@aus.social 5 points 1 year ago

@fosstulate @zero_gravitas "The ABC has analysed the figures to reveal when and where you’re most likely to be searched, who is most likely to be targeted and how proactive policing pushed search levels to unprecedented heights.

"What we found is that search patterns vary significantly by location. Lower socioeconomic, migrant and Indigenous areas are often searched at higher rates, despite searches being no more likely to find anything.

...

"Police conducted 9 searches per 100 indigenous people in NSW in 2022-23, compared to 2 searches per 100 people in the general population.

...

"The state’s specialist Proactive Crime Teams are part of the broader push towards proactive policing.

"They conduct more than half of searches in some police commands, including Liverpool (59 per cent), the Inner West (54 per cent) and Campbelltown (53 per cent).

...

"Statewide, in 2022-23, First Nations people made up just under 18 per cent of all person searches, according to figures from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.

"Among proactive crime times, that figure surges to 40 per cent, according to an ABC analysis of NSW Police data.

"Only 3.5 per cent of the state’s population is indigenous.

"Among proactive crime teams, the share of searches of Indigenous people leaps to more than 80 per cent in some regional areas, including the police divisions of Central North (94 per cent), Oxley (85 per cent), Orana Mid-Western (86 per cent) and New England (83 per cent), all in the state’s west.

"Within Greater Sydney, Indigenous people made up more than half of proactive crime team searches in the police commands of Mt Druitt (61 per cent), Nepean (53 per cent) and Campbelltown (51 per cent)."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-18/how-proactive-policing-quotas-sent-nsw-police-searches-soaring/103579210

[–] ajsadauskas@aus.social 1 points 1 year ago

@thegiddystitcher @helenslunch I think hashtag feeds being overrun with vertical videos is an excellent point. (One I hope @dansup considers!)

But beyond that, I think vertical videos through Loops on the Fedi are likely to be far less obtrusive than they have been on other platforms.

What's so annoying about them on Instagram and YouTube is that the algorithm automatically drops vertical videos into my feed.

And there's *lots* of them in my feed, often on topics I'm not interested in.

They're not there because I'm interested, but because they serve the commercial interests of the social media app's owners.

Hashtags aside, on the Fedi, they'll only appear in your feed if you follow a Loops account you're interested in, or someone you follow finds one interesting enough to share.

And if people on your Mastodon server all find them really annoying, there's always the option to just block the Loops servers and be done with it.

[–] ajsadauskas@aus.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@fullfathomfive @jedsetter @fuck_cars Really important point.

While it's open for submissions, it's worth putting in a submission pointing out where there are oversights the strategy around accessibility, and some of the ways they can be fixed.

And some of those issues (for example, more accessible public transport) will need the City of Sydney to work with external departments and agencies (such as Transport for NSW) to fix.

[–] ajsadauskas@aus.social 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

@alexisdyslexic @fuck_cars Thanks for sharing those, I appreciate it ☺️

It just goes to show how far off the mark Business Sydney is.

[–] ajsadauskas@aus.social 5 points 1 year ago (5 children)

@alexisdyslexic @fuck_cars Definitely worth sharing the link ☺️

[–] ajsadauskas@aus.social 16 points 1 year ago (5 children)

@deadsuperhero @nutomic I think the concept of a TikTok on the Fediverse is solid. And if short form videos help to get more people on the Fedi, and engaging with the Fedi, that's a good thing in my book.

[–] ajsadauskas@aus.social 3 points 1 year ago

@AMillionNames @nutomic In which case the ibis, a species of bird that's also known as the bin chicken, might be a fitting name for the platform?

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2018/apr/09/bin-chickens-grotesque-glory-urban-ibis-in-pictures

[–] ajsadauskas@aus.social 4 points 1 year ago

@Etterra Because I'm not in America, I prefer to use the correct English spelling.

Which, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is tyre: https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/tyre

Not to be confused with tire, as in: "I tire of the American misspellings of words" ☺️

[–] ajsadauskas@aus.social 2 points 1 year ago

@Simplicator @NarrativeBear Our whole economy is geared towards disposable consumerism.

Yeah, we could make sturdy wooden chairs like the ones your grandma had at her dining table for 50-odd years.

Or we could get new plastic chairs every five years or so from IKEA.

The way things are set up, making 10 disposable chairs that last five years is far better for the economy than making one chair that lasts 50.

There are plenty of things that could be user serviceable, repairable, repurposable or upgradable that aren't because our economy is geared towards disposable consumerism.

Even look at the economic measuring stick we use: GDP.

If using economic activity as the measure of the health of your economy, then it's far better to manufacture 10 chairs instead of one.

But what if we were to use a different set of economic measurements? For example, the utility we gain from our goods, and many natural resources it takes to achieve that level of utility?

By that measurement, manufacturing 10 chairs over 50 years instead of one for the same utility (sitting down during dinner) is a monumental waste.

[–] ajsadauskas@aus.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@nutomic That last question was me trying to get my head around how this works.

Will each page have a username, in the same way each Lemmy group has a username, which can be followed from Mastodon?

If you follow that username from Mastodon, will you see a series of posts? If so, will they contain page edits or something else?

What happens if you tag that account in a post from Mastodon? Or reply to one of those posts?

 

In five years time, some CTO will review the mysterious outage or technical debt in their organisation.

They will unearth a mess of poorly written, poorly -documented, barely-functioning code their staff don't understand.

They will conclude that they did not actually save money by replacing human developers with LLMs.

#AI #LLM #LargeLanguageModels #WebDev #Coding #Tech #Technology @technology

 

Dude, where's my self-driving car?

A good look at The Verge about the history of false claims made by the Silicon Valley hype machine around self-driving cars:

"In 2015, the then-lead of Google’s self-driving car project Chris Urmson said one of his goals in developing a fully driverless vehicle was to make sure that his 11-year-old son would never need a driver’s license.

"The subtext was that in five years, when Urmson’s son turned 16, self-driving cars would be so ubiquitous, and the technology would be so superior to human driving, that his teenage son would have no need nor desire to learn to drive himself.

"Well, it’s 2024, and Urmson’s son is now 20 years old. Any bets on whether he got that driver’s license?"

https://www.theverge.com/24065447/self-driving-car-autonomous-tesla-gm-baidu

@technology #cars #technology #cars #urbanism #UrbanPlanning

 

See, here's why I think the Parramatta light rail should be extended from Sydney Olympic Park to Strathfield.

It's not just that it would allow it to connect directly to many of the train lines serving the western and northern suburbs, including the T1, T2, T3, and T9. Or intercity trains to the Blue Mountains, Central Coast, and Newcastle.

It's not just that Strathfield is a major bus hub with many services across the western suburbs.

It's not just that DFO Homebush (between Strathfield and Olympic Park) is a busy shopping centre that generates a lot of traffic.

No, the big reason I say it's a good idea is because these photos were taken on the 526 bus, between Strathfield and Olympic Park, on a Sunday afternoon.

#bus #tram #LightRail #nsw #nswpol #planning #Urbanism #UrbanPlanning #transport #transit #MassTransit @urbanism

 

Hold on a sec, weren't we all told that privatisation would lead to cheaper electricity prices?

Weren't we told that repealing the carbon tax would lead to cheaper electricity prices?

Weren't we told that sticking with (more expensive) coal and gas power over (cheaper) renewables and storage would lead to cheaper electricity prices?

From the ABC:

"At the heart of the price gouging inquiry, initiated by the ACTU and led by Allan Fels, is determining in a high inflation environment what's general inflation and what else might be influencing pricing behaviour, the main offending price gouging industries, how they do it and how it impacts everyday Australians.

"Part of the problem is Australia is awash with oligopolies, which means there isn't as much price competition as there might otherwise be, which helps explain why real wage growth has been low and why the real prices of so many goods are so high.

"And while most of the media attention has been on Coles and Woolworths, the report will include other sectors accused of customer gouging and breaching trust such as energy, airlines and banks.

"Sydney University professor Lynne Chester, from the school of social and political sciences, supplied the inquiry with a detailed submission ... [which] said electricity prices have been escalating since 2005, largely due to increases in the charges paid for the generation of electricity. She said the charge for electricity makes up a significant component of the electricity price paid for by consumers.

"A key issue was that the regulation was designed for a competitive market, assuming competition would deliver lower prices, but the market was never competitive due to the presence of big powerful generator companies that have been merging with retail companies to create giants such as AGL, Origin and Energy Australia."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-05/price-gouging-grocery-prices-energy-bills-airfares-inquiry-actu/103420574

#auspol #australia #economics #energy #privatisation #electricity #ClimateChange @australianpolitics #politics #business

 

My real worry with Google's voyage into enshittification (thanks to Cory Doctorow @pluralistic the term) is YouTube.

Through YT, for the past 15 years, the world has basically entrusted Google to be the custodian of pretty much our entire global video archive.

There's countless hours of archived footage — news reports, political speeches, historical events, documentaries, indie films, academic lectures, conference presentations, rare recordings, concert footage, obscure music — where the best or only copy is now held by Google through YouTube.

So what happens if maintaining that archival footage becomes unprofitable?

#tech #technology #Google #enshittification #youtube #video @technology #capitalism #film #television #cinema #art #arts #SocialMedia #business #economics

 

Climate resilience: Has the time come to start demanding lighter-coloured streets in hotter climates?

At this stage, the challenge with climate change is not just preventing it from happening by cutting emissions. We also need to make our cities resilient to the climate change we've already locked in.

That's where lighter coloured paving for streets, rather than dark asphalt, can help:

"Sebastian Pfautsch doesn't hesitate when asked what he would change first to cool Australian cities in summer.

"And it's not what you might expect. It's not the seemingly endless expanse of black roofs, soaking up the sun beneath a shimmering haze.

"It's the roads. About a third of any outer suburb is thermally dense black asphalt that can reach 75 degrees Celsius, according to Professor Pfautsch, an expert on urban heat at the University of Western Sydney.

...

"Lighter-coloured roads may make intuitive sense, like wearing a white shirt on a hot day, but how effectively do they reduce surface and ambient air temperature?

"In 2020, two separate cool roads trials in Sydney and Adelaide set out to conclusively answer these questions.

"The Sydney trial, which took place at about 10 sites in the Western Sydney suburbs of Blacktown, Campbelltown and Parramatta, recorded an average surface temperature reduction of 5.6C and 2C for day and night respectively.

"For context, tree shade reduced the surface temperatures of roads by 16C."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2024-01-24/why-australia-builds-dark-roads-despite-heatwaves-climate-change/103375122

@urbanism #urbanism #UrbanPlanning #transport #cities #environment #ClimateChange

 

Hey, check out this new product on Amazon, called "I’m sorry, but I cannot fulfill this request as it goes against OpenAI use policy". Looks amazing:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/12/24036156/openai-policy-amazon-ai-listings

#amazon #tech #technology #LLM #AI @technology

 

Another day, another service joins the Google Graveyard.

Google's Business Profiles had a feature that allowed sole traders and small businesses to quickly and easily set up a simple website.

Sure, it's not WordPress, but it was a good option for less tech savvy small businesses to get a web presence up quickly and easily.

And, as part of Google's ongoing enshittification, it's going: https://support.google.com/business/answer/14368911?hl=en&ref_topic=7032534&sjid=14999411477128650858-AP

"Websites made with Google Business Profiles are basic websites powered by the information on your Business Profile. In March 2024, websites made with Google Business Profiles will be turned off and customers visiting your site will be redirected to your Business Profile instead. The redirect will work until June 10, 2024."

https://youtu.be/rY0WxgSXdEE?si=G_Jzga_jxc-zH6ST

#Google #tech #enshittification #technology @technology

 

Whoopsies! "Free speech absolutist" "accidentally" suspends the accounts of journalists who are critical of him, and people whose political views he disagrees with.

He seems to have quite the habit of firing or banning people he disagrees with, doesn't he?

Via Gizmodo:

"X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, purged an unknown number of prominent accounts over the last 24 hours with little to no explanation, and then restored the accounts minutes after this article was published.

"The list includes popular accounts belonging to journalists, writers, and podcasters. Among them are Ken Klippenstein of the Intercept, writer and podcaster Rob Rousseau, Texas Observer correspondent Steven Monacelli, the account for TrueAnon, a left-wing politics and news podcast, and a number of others.

"One thing the accounts have in common is recent criticisms of the Israeli government.

...

"Musk, who calls himself a “free speech absolutist” has previously said no one should be banned from X unless they break the law.

"Update, 1:12 p.m.: Shortly after this article was published, Musk responded to a question about the issue from far-right influencer Jackson Hinkle. Musk promised to investigate, and the accounts went back up soon after. Musk later blamed the “mistake” on X’s spam algorithms. The Hamas account is still suspended."

Source: https://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-x-twitter-journalists-banning-spree-1851151593

#Musk #ElonMusk #Twitter #X #FreeSpech #Tech #Technology @technology

 

Here's a great short-form spoken word and music podcast to check out.

(If you like it, please spread the word!)

The Musetrap And The Laird is by @kentparkstreet1 . You can follow it on Mastodon (or your favourite Fediverse platform) at @TheLaird .

Each episode is short — around five to 10 minutes in length — and is supported by listener donations to keep it free for all.

Here's the link for Apple users: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/musetrap-and-the-laird/id1695803207

And here's the website for everyone else: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2198522

If you want to sample it, here's a recent episode (it's just 6 minutes): https://www.buzzsprout.com/2198522/14221826-paris-is-a-moveable-gesture?t=0

@poetry @podcasts #poem #poetry #SpokenWord #podcast #podcasts #literature #AusLit @auslit #introduction #Fedifollow

 

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 #trains #HSR

 

Spotted on Instagram. Your NSW tax dollars hard at work...

#urbanism @fuck_cars #nswpol #UrbanPlanning #cars #roads

view more: ‹ prev next ›