Bring back the QR site’s train timetables! November 3, 2009
Posted by faelix in ocity.Tags: public transport, QR
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I went to look on QR’s website for information on a train for a friend today. I always go to the QR website for train timetabling information because it doesn’t suck. It tells you what time the next train is, which platform you need to be on, how long the journey will be…
But it’s gone! There’s now a link to the USELESS translink website’s timetabling. The most unhelpful timetabling system I’ve ever seen. Who CARES what the train service is called. As if the train even says “SHIP” (for Shorncliff – Ipswich) – it says “Shorncliff”. And it also doesn’t say how long the journey will be, nor what platform you need to be on.
QR! Bring back your timetable to your website!
Asian Fail October 30, 2009
Posted by faelix in moron-ocity.add a comment
Overheard by my workmate on the train.
School student 1: I heard she got an asian fail! Oh, so bad!
Student 2: What’s an asian fail?
Student 1: B
Toilet Paper goes over October 23, 2009
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I’ve previously posted about whether toilet paper should be hung over or under. I found this post today which has helpful diagrams that support my arguments. Nuff said.
Bejeweled Blitz Stats can’t cope! October 12, 2009
Posted by faelix in curi-ocity.Tags: bejeweled blitz
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There’s too many scores for Bejeweled Blitz’s Statistics to handle!
the new bejeweled blitz has arrived October 12, 2009
Posted by faelix in curi-ocity.Tags: bejeweled blitz
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The new version of Bewejeled Blitz is finally active on Facebook!
A friend of mine asked me what my secret was to getting the high scores that I do. I replied that it was mostly chance. And it is. As previously mentioned during the reviews, it’s possible to score massive bonus points from the Last Hurrah with nothing except random chance.
PopCap need to introduce more higher score badges – currently, the highest score badge is just 250k, however I’ve now scored 4 of them. My current score is over 350k, and a friend has over 300k. The ease with which highscores are possible has shifted the range of scores up.
Having said that, it’s definitely not a case of making just one match and watching the gems explode and your score increase. There are approaches and techniques that you can apply, but chance can often play against you and you can end up with a piddling 17k or 3k.
Cascade. Although in this new version you can make new matches while the previous one completes, I’ve lost the chance to create hyper / rainbow gems a few times by making matches and then seeing that if I had not made that match, but waited for the previous match to complete, I’d have been able to make a rainbow gem. Allowing the gems to cascade is sometimes still useful. Your speed bonus is not affected if you wait, which is also good. As long as you make a match as soon as the cascade is over, you can still keep working towards Blazing Speed.
Speed Bonus. I’ve still to figure out exactly how the speed bonus scores are calculated, but I’ve gotten plenty of speed bonus points and multipliers. The more fast matches you make, the faster the gems move, meaning you can make more matches even faster! And if you keep up the speed (and you have sound on) you’ll hear the crackle of the flames as you approach Blazing Speed. Once your entire speed bonus text has turned orange you get Blazing Speed.
Regular Board:
Blazing Speed Board:
Speed Bonus Score:
If you are trying to get a high score, the most critical thing to NOT do is be entranced by the completing matches and pretty explosions. Ignore them and look at the gems that are not moving for a match. If you’ve got good reflexes, you can watch the gems as they scroll down the game board in anticipation of a match with gems that are already there.
And finally, practice is definitely the best thing. It means you’re playing lots of games and there’s a chance that the randomness will work in your favour.
Enjoy! And thank you again to PopCap for a most fun game! :D
PopCap seem surprised… October 10, 2009
Posted by faelix in ocity.Tags: bejeweled blitz, facebook, popcap
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The latest post from PopCap – the makers of the most fabulous Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook reads as follows
Wow – everyone must really be enjoying the new Bejeweled Blitz! Over 90 million games have been played in the last 24 hours. For Pete’s sake people, take a bathroom break once in a while…
(can you tell I am one of those people who have not taken a bathroom break? ;) )
Translink’s Go Card stupidness October 7, 2009
Posted by faelix in moron-ocity.add a comment
I recently relented and bought a GOCard for my train travel.
The reason I relented is that I have now become an infrequent traveller.
I used to buy a paper monthly ticket. And although I would typically only travel the 10 commuter trips, I still had the option to also travel on the weekends, or more than those 10 commuter trips.
The monthly tickets cost me $108.80. The same price of 4 weekly tickets at $27.20 each. Which worked out to $2.72 per trip. A single ticket (if you buy it each time you travel) is $3.40, or, if you buy a “daily” (which is a “return” in the old terminology) $6.80.
So, even just buying a weekly paper ticket is a HUGE saving over the course of a year. (Assuming one works 48 weeks of the year – a saving of $326.40)
I would buy monthly tickets because even though they were the same price as 4 weekly tickets, you’d get a few more days than 4 weeks.
The benefit of the paper tickets is that you can travel for more than just the 10 commuter trips and the extra trips are effectively free.
You do NOT get that with the GOCard. You pay for -every- trip you take. Yeah, sure, you get 50% off for any trips over the typical 10 commuter trips, but you’re still paying for it! RIP OFF!
Anyway, back to the GOCard stupidness. I needed to top up my GOCard on my last trip into the city. I knew I had only 60 cents left o it. So, I tagged on (that’s the terminology they use in Perth. The terminology they use here “touch on” is just too wrong) and the machine reported that I had $0.60 available. I proceeded to the “top-up” machine. Aside from its bad design, bad user interface, neglect in taking parallax erros into consideration among other things, it lets you add credit to your GOCard.
It asks you to touch your card to the card reader circle. Then select the amount you are going to top it up with, then you have to insert your money, then you have to touch your card to the reader circle again. If you choose to print a reciept, it will have automatically deducted $5 – the maximum amount it will deduct if it thinks you didn’t touch off at the end of your journey. Of course, this disturbed me greatly the first time it happened. I knew what I had done was not wrong, and I kept the receipt in case I needed to dispute the issue. When I tagged off in the city, the available balance was correct, having deducted only $2.72 off my correct card credit.
Why is it, however, that whomever designed and programmed this made the systems do such a BAD thing? They need a good kick in the head and butt. Why were they so lazy?
Using Googles Search Results October 3, 2009
Posted by faelix in curi-ocity, ocity.Tags: google, research
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I recently had the opportunity to observe another person’s behaviour with a set of google’s search results.
He had approached a friend with a question and said that he could only find lots of results of other people who also had the same problem – he had not yet been able to find anyone who had a solution.
My suggestion was to add the word “solution” to his search terms.
I went with him to his computer and observed.
The first thing I noticed was that he specifically used the “+” feature.
While I am very aware of this feature in the search, I rarely use it, as I seem to be able to find a useful result quite often without it. I’m more likely to use the “-” feature.
The second thing I noticed was his (seeming) instant dismissal of what I would have clicked on – forum posts. True, the description of those forum threads that are displayed by the google search results are typically merely stating the problem, but often the solution is also there.
Other factors led us to leave the problem and not do further searching that evening, however, my observations of the interactions with the search results fascinated me. They showed me how differently people think and how differently they respond to the same set of information.
Not so Green Bags September 29, 2009
Posted by faelix in ocity.Tags: environment, green bags, plastic, rant, recycling
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“Oh, save the planet, don’t use the environmentally unfriendly plastic bags, use these re-usable green bags instead.”
Which are also made of plastic. They’re non woven polypropylene. According to the wiki article, the NWPP bags can be recycled. So can the plastic bags that they’re meant to be replacing. I don’t forsee anyone thinking that they can chuck their worn out green bags into the recycling bin though. As far as I’m concerned, we’re replacing one plastic bag with another.
