Posts by Matthew Poole
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Hard News: Judge Harvey: My part in his downfall, in reply to Russell Brown,
strongly faults the Herald’s reporting of the comments.
Granny’s overall tone has been pretty negative towards KDC, in both “factual” (I know, it’s Granny) and editorial content. I’m really not surprised that an opportunity to slap the judge was leveraged fully, though I doubt the intent was to get Harvey off the case.
It’s nice to know that our judiciary take the appearance of independence so seriously, but it’s a huge blow to have lost Harvey’s expertise as the presiding judge. I hope that he will be consulted, even if it can only be as a source of technical nous.
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Hard News: It's not funny because it's…, in reply to Terry Baucher,
Terry Baucher, about an hour ago
That really is a terrific speech by Julie Ann Genter. Logical, constructive and fact based. Everything the current National government isn’t.
There, fixed that for you.
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Hard News: It's not funny because it's…, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
You see one reason they’re dragging the clearance/rebuild out? Keep wages down, make bigger profits.
Dragging the rebuild out increases their fees if it makes the work cost more. Keeping wages down, however, will reduce their "profits" since they're being paid a percentage-of-costs fee rather than getting a lump sump and doling it out with their fee being whatever margin remains.
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Hard News: If wishing made it so ..., in reply to Rich of Observationz,
If outlets are required to report EFTPOS details against transactions, that means any non-cash topup will potentially hook it to a name. So a large percentage of cards will become personally identified eventually.
You speak as though that's something that's likely to become law. They might become identifiable but, again, it's avoidable by topping up with cash, buying a new card, etc. There are many, many loopholes in this supposed tool of mass surveillance that's about to make all your movements belong to Big Brother.
You’ve then got a system that can classify people as ‘potential troublemaker’ on a basis of being in certain areas (or ‘predicate drunk/druggie’ if they’re measured as being out and about in entertainment districts late at night. That’s then available for employment checks, benefit offices and the like.
It's already available from financial records, where your electronic transactions show not only exactly where you were but also how much you spent and, roughly, how long you were there for. A transport card will show you went between point A and point B at particular times. Spending records will show you were in particular premises at particular times, and particulars of your spending.
You'll forgive me if I'm not quaking with fear at what unregistered transport cards might show when we live in a largely cashless society. -
Hard News: If wishing made it so ..., in reply to BenWilson,
everything to do with the number of buses, and their timing
Again, adding new buses at peak time requires purchasing additional buses. It means putting on more staff. It's expensive to add peak-hour services, and they're also an inefficient use of resources because they're not utilised for all but about six hours a day during the working week. There's nowhere near enough off-peak demand to justify keeping them all on the road, which means that there are millions and millions of dollars of vehicles sitting in depots and on roadsides for about 80% (114 hours out of 144) of the time.
Even if there's a case to have conductors at peak times, when the trip time issue is at its greatest, you're still going to have to hire as many conductors as there will be peak-hour services and then figure out what to do with them in the off-peak when there are no services for them to work. Even more so if you have multiple conductors for a single peak-hour service, since the off-peak services will be comfortably serviced by just a single conductor. Technology doesn't have that issue.
As for security, a driver with their cash box locked behind armoured glass is a lot safer than a conductor who's roaming the vehicle with a loaded money belt. You can secure a fixed position against casual attack, but it's much harder to secure someone who's walking about amongst the passengers.
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Hard News: If wishing made it so ..., in reply to Tamara,
when I got my hybrid card I had to register to use it. They do know who I am.
Had to or chose to? I used my card for months before I registered, and the only reason I did was so I could check the balance online. The card's useful the moment it's got money on it, unless something significant has changed.
ETA: From the HOP site:
We recommend you register your HOP
(my emphasis)
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Hard News: If wishing made it so ..., in reply to BenWilson,
Sorry, I honestly read that as sarcasm. Bloody context-less intertubes :/
Even if everyone paid with Hop and that took only one second per person
Ideally, and this is where Snapper fails, it’s so quick that you wave your card past the reader on the way through the door (except for about one passenger in every few hundred who has to swipe again). That’s how it should work, and if “real HOP” performs as intended that’s how it will work. Obviously there’s an element of user training required to make things that slick, but it works overseas. So we’re now talking about passengers paying as they enter, without a pause. “Real HOP” also ignores other RFID cards, so it’s much easier for users to consistently get a first-time read.
I don’t doubt that conductors are a better customer experience, but they’re more bodies on the bus, and worse they’re bodies that need enough space to be able to move about freely. I’ve been on both buses and trains that were so packed that trying to have a circulating fare collector would’ve just pissed off the passengers if movement were even possible. It’s common in Auckland for peak-hour buses to be literally full from stem to stern and just blaze past people standing at stops because there’s no space for anyone else to board. Trying to have a roving fare collector in that situation would be impossible.
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Hard News: If wishing made it so ..., in reply to Rich of Observationz,
If you want to see who travelled to the venue of various demonstrations, you’d probably have more luck.
"Sir, sir, HOP Card number 9010 0660 0400 0226 has been tagged on and off in the vicinity of multiple demonstrations."
"Excellent work, constable, but do we know who uses that card?"
"No, sir, not a clue. It's not registered and the last five top-ups were with cash at various convenience stores. We believe they live near New Lynn train station based on travel patterns. That narrows it down to about 15,000 people, sir."Yes, I'm absolutely terrified. If the authorities have enough data to figure out who you are without your HOP card having been registered, they don't need the card at all. It's just a convenience for them in figuring out roughly when and where you've been travelling after they arrest you for something and record the card number.
I could also conceive of multiple ways to completely throw off any attempts at data matching, if I were particularly worried about being tracked. Use multiple cards. Regularly swap cards with friends who're similarly concerned. And so it goes. In the absence of compulsory registration it's still entirely possible to use HOP without giving the authorities much useful data. Or just use cash. -
Hard News: If wishing made it so ..., in reply to Stewart,
I think you’re getting a little too intense about all this time wastage stuff.
What Tamara said. If I want to take public transport for the experience, I'll jump on a long-distance train. Around town I want the trip to be as quick as possible because I have places to go. The alternative is taking a car, after all, and if we accept sloth from public transport because people shouldn't expect it to be efficient we'll fail to attract people to use public transport for serious purposes.
As for toilet and coffee breaks, the longer each trip takes the more it eats into the driver's legally-restricted hours. If you want me to go all "efficiency-Nazi" on something I'll start talking about how the drivers are work units within the public transport system, and delays in boarding passengers impacts on the productivity of those work units. For everyone else, it's mostly just about getting from point A to point B in the shortest possible time, which means making the system as efficient as possible.
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Hard News: If wishing made it so ..., in reply to Rich of Observationz,
Nobodies mentioned yet the ability to use the system to track people’s movements
Until there's a compulsion to register your card and/or a prohibition on topping it up with cash, the cards aren't tied to a particular person. Online topup will, obviously, tie the card to a particular person, as would topping up using an electronic payment, but if you hand over cash to the local dairy to get the card topped up it's as effective as handing over cash to the driver.