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Greater Auckland blog (Formerly “transport blog”)

Fergus Young, , , , Leave a comment

This is purely a personal opinion as a layman and ordinary rate paying member of the public

I will be direct, the General Feeling I get from reading the Greater Auckland (“GA”) blog is while I understand they want to do “good”, I’m not certain they are managing to quite “read the room” and question whether they are connecting with or otherwise effectively communicating their vision to the General Auckland public

I did know the main editor of Greater Auckland blog, Matt Lowrie personally, but only for a brief moment during the ‘The Campaign for Better Transport’ days. Great guy, but admittedly, may not agree with a lot of his and his cohorts’ more recent view points surrounding urban design and transport matters outside of our common desire to see improved access to alternative travel choices.

There are two distinct issues personally which have probably contributed towards my sentiment…

  • I do recall feelings of being left out when they began focussing almost entirely on Trains and the City Rail Link at the expense / neglect towards tackling the lower hanging fruit aspects of improving access to both public and alternative transport options for major employment areas that were and remain to this day, very car dependent, like East Tamaki Industrial and Highbrook (I remember they were at least on the initial onset, attacking the AMETI project saying it was very car and roads focussed).
  • That I feel great moral anger at some of their readers/supporters Militant support of Auckland Transport’s overbearing video enforcement of frankly poorly indicated bus lanes
  • The comments section under many of the artciles seems have increasingly turned into an Authoritarian-Left Anti-motorist echo chamber with little consideration that many members of the public have to drive due to lack of travel choice.

While I understand they appear to acting with good intent, I question whether they are going about things the right way and appear to be pushing more ideological aspects (what “They” themselves want to see) in an Authoritarian-Left like manner rather than the practical aspects (that would bring the most utility to the general public)

Greater Auckland blog (Formerly “transport blog”)

Switched to Bidbud to search TradeMe

Fergus Young, 2 Comments

Admittedly, got tired of using TradeMe new redesigned site (issues include an unintuitive search function and slow web page load times that frequently time out giving me internal server errors), have switched to using Bidbud.co.nz.

Bidbud’s interface I feel is a lot faster and easier to use for searching stuff than persisting with TradeMe’s new website interface,

Switched to Bidbud to search TradeMe

Bus Lane Locations in Auckland (Link to map)

Fergus Young, , , , , 2 Comments

Was contemplating compiling a map myself of Auckland’s Bus Lane network, but it looks like Auckland Transport themselves have already created a Bus Lane and Special Vehicle lane map, albeit, one that is a bit out of date. (Will press Auckland Transport to update it,  particularly Queen Street and Mount Wellington Highway).

Click here or the image below to access AT’s Bus lane / SVL Map…

Given the plethora of Bus Lanes and Special Vehicle Lanes popping up in Auckland recently catching many otherwise law abiding people unaware, I feel it has come to the point where motorists in all practical intents and purposes now have to consult this prior to heading out in order to avoid running foul of the rules and ending up with a $150 NZD fine.

Warning, rant incoming: While I’ve never received an infringement from AT for anything I’ve done and while I do support the idea of special vehicle priority lanes where implemented appropriately to aid High Occupancy Vehicles to move more freely, I am steadfast in my view Auckland Transport could be doing considerably more than they have to aid the public to comply. These include…

  • Running advisory campaigns to advise the motoring public to please check for the latest information regarding bus lanes on the map (linked to at the top of this post)
  • Ensure that as a public service any and all Bus Lanes, Transit Lanes and Special Vehicle lanes are swiftly updated and marked on the map as soon as they are laid down.
  • Modify placement of bus lanes to aid people to easily merge into the general traffic lane. Right now, the way many bus lanes are drawn are pretty abrupt allowing drivers little chance to recognise and get out of the way of a bus lane.
  • While AT already have videos online on how to use or drive on bus lanes, there is very little practical information for drivers to navigate around bus lanes. e.g what happens if you find yourself approaching a lane that you don’t know how to safely get out of?

As a personal opinion, while the “Green team” (being environmental advocates) seem to be the one’s advocating heavy handed (Orwellian-like Camera) enforcement in the name of a climate emergency, they run the real of risk of becoming tyrants themselves. As an aside, It’s almost like they are demanding that people immediately put both their livelihoods and current living arrangements on hold and comply with their demands on issues such as climate change and the environment (as in, stop driving our Internal Combustion Engine powered vehicles right away).

The issue I have with the current level of bus lane camera enforcement is that it pits Auckland Transport (as a CCO) against the very public they are supposed to be serving fostering a rather divisive and counter productive “Us” vs “Them” sentiment along with contributing to the general public’s erosion of respect towards Authority.

I also fear that this may be a slippery slope and unless strongly challenged, will encourage other government departments to copy Auckland Transport and start rolling out a regular fines regime to use against the public they are supposed to be serving.

Furthermore, it raises an issue with so many otherwise Law abiding people getting pinged over an ever increasing array of ‘Strict Liability’ offenses now suggests people who otherwise have the best intentions are now no longer able to go about their lives without worrying about the the state coming down on them for an innocent mistake.

I will admit, I feel very strongly about how Auckland Transport are currently handling this and feel their current stance is highly corrosive to their own public image and is actually causing the general public to turn against Auckland Transport and their initiatives. I am currently locked in ongoing discussions with Auckland Transport about their conduct, as a civic concern, urging them to reconsider their approach and offering suggestions as to what they could do instead to improve public guidance, and education in order to aid compliance around bus lanes.

Auckland Transport and the “Green team” (including the likes of the ‘Greater Auckland / Transport Blog‘ people) need to be “reading the room”, they need to realize they need the support and understanding of the public in order to progress with their vision of achieving a transportation modal shift in Auckland.

While I can totally understand sitting on a bus that has been impeded by cars is a frustrating and irritating experience, comments online that I’ve seen from advocates directed against general motoring members of the public that happen to unintentionally drive into a bus lane I feel is completely unhelpful, divisive and unproductive. Statements such as “Selfish Idiot” and “It’s SOOOOO simple, just stay out of the bus lane” reeks of a total lack of both consideration for others and understanding of the situation. Work with the public, not against the public.

Edited 22 November 2023: – Fixed some egregious spelling mistakes

 

Bus Lane Locations in Auckland (Link to map)

Annie Crummer at Matariki Vibes 2022

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Annie Crummer at Matariki Vibes 2022. Effectively walked into this on a leisurely local neighbourhood afternoon walk without realising there was even this free concert on.

Annie Crummer performing on stage at Matariki Vibes 22

The free concert also had House of Shem, Che Fu, Herbs, among other acts. Hosted by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei.

Wasn’t particularly packed at all. That said it wasn’t widely publicised either and had to really search for it online upon returning home from my walk.

Annie Crummer at Matariki Vibes 2022

NZ Topo maps Android disambiguation

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Up until now, had been using ATLOGIS “NZ Topomaps” app for Topographic maps for use outdoors in the NZ Bush. However much to my chagrin, despite paying them some coin for their Pro version find that they changed it now be a yearly subscription at $20.00.

Now using the similarly named NZ Topo maps developed by Mason Blackwood. Have paid for the Ads Free version.

 

NZ Topo maps Android disambiguation

Former Thrifty Car Rental Australia operational structure now rebranded as SIXT Australia

Fergus Young, , , , , 4 Comments

The NRMA’s car rental division, Kingmill Pty Ltd, formerly operating as Thrifty Car and Truck Rental Australia have since been rebranded as SIXT Car Rental Australia upon expiry of their original Master Franchise agreement with Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group (DTAG) in the United States.

This change includes some of their network of sub-franchisees throughout Australia including, Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd and Pacific Automotive Holdings Pty Ltd which have followed their franchisor to rebrand as Sixt Car Rental Australia, while some other now former franchisees have either stayed on as Thrifty, changed over to other car rental brands or are in the process of establishing their own independent car rental brand.

Whether there will be any real material operational change with SIXT Australia (from how they usually did things under the Thrifty brand) or whether it’s essentially just a brand change (in the form of “same pig different lip stick”) remains to be seen. It is sincerely hoped that certain franchisees will take this opportunity of a clean slate in which to substantially improve their conduct and move on from some of their former practices (Including charging of fees outside of the written legal documentation and deliberately trying to deceive customers such as myself through the posting of multiple false testimonials pretending to be happy customers).

The Thrifty brand in Australia under it’s new structure has now been returned back to it’s parent Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group (DTAG) / The Hertz Corporation and now appears to be largely hitched in together with the Hertz branded locations through out Australia. In a nutshell, the people running Thrifty Australia as of now is not the same people running Thrifty Australia as of a few months ago. Continue reading “Former Thrifty Car Rental Australia operational structure now rebranded as SIXT Australia” →

Former Thrifty Car Rental Australia operational structure now rebranded as SIXT Australia

A2 Hosting Shared tier impressions

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Update: 27 December 2019 – Have now received confirmation of a refund from A2 Hosting.

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At the same time of setting up my Digital Ocean droplet as part of the Early December site move, created an account with A2 Hosting on their shared “turbo” server (with “Performance Plus” add on), drawn in by the positive reviews on Webhostingtalk and their up to “20x faster” marketing along with their 66.6% off Black Friday Specials

I copied NUI.NZ to both a Digital Ocean Droplet and to my account on A2 Hosting (both at their respective Singapore data centers) to begin comparing the two. After some testing, discovered that the Digital Ocean droplet performed faster for my use case in terms of responsiveness, speed and consistency.

  • NUI.NZ on Digital Ocean loaded up in 3.2 seconds on Average.
  • NUI.NZ on A2 Hosting shared turbo loaded up in 3.9 seconds on Average (with Caching enabled and A2 Optimisation plug in installed) but was bursty / less consistent and felt so much less snappy and responsive overall.

A2 Hosting’s marketing had led me to believe that I would have access to 2 CPU cores and 3GB of RAM on a burst basis versus the 1 CPU and 1GB set up with my 5 USD/month Digital Ocean VPS droplet.

Additionally, setting up their A2 Optimisation plugin they had developed for WordPress and then clicking “Optimize all” will crash even a shiny new and fresh install of WordPress into the white pages of death. If the aforementioned didn’t crash it, enabling Memory Cache on the WordPress instance will most certainly crash it. After much frittering around I did manage to get the plugin to work but only in rather limited situations I’ve found. It is my belief A2 Hosting should seriously consider removing the plugin as it is I believe impacting their brand.

I’m also a little bit disappointed with how they have structured their so called “any time” refund policy. Within 30 days, you can get a full refund, after 30 days however, what they will do is re-bill you at the regular rate for the rest of the paid up period then give you what is left. I struggle to think of anyone who will be (willingly) paying regular rate given the performance I’ve seen of their shared hosting product. I have to admit, this has darkened my regard I have towards the A2 Hosting brand.

I have now requested a cancellation and refund under A2 hosting’s 30 day risk free policy. Given prior experience with Shared hosts and my impression of some of the way A2 Hosting do things, I don’t have enough faith to see out the full 3 years with them

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I have to admit, over the years, I’ve started really souring of Shared hosting in general and believe it should be left for only of the most insignificant of web projects (Personal websites). Sure, if you are a largely a neighbourhood bricks and mortar (Vet Clinic, Dentist, Hairdresser, etc) business and just need a site with a handful of static pages (and may be a blog, but would argue at a stretch) then Shared Hosting may be Okay.

If on the other hand you’re a business who is almost entirely dependent on the web, it should go without saying you shouldn’t be using budget shared hosting… ever. Unfortunately, I see many businesses and online only retailers for what ever in their right signing up for shared hosting, installing Woo Commerce / Presta shop and once their site goes down or goes slow, they are seen screaming to high heaven on all the support channels and web hosting forums begging for a resolution.

A2 Hosting Shared tier impressions

Swazi Apparel to move part of their manufacturing to Thailand

Fergus Young2 Comments

Swazi NZ, Davey Hughes in a YouTube clip has announce they are moving production of their Fleece and Base layer clothing lines from their Levin Factory (here in New Zealand) to Thailand. The technical garments such as raincoats and jackets will still be made in New Zealand.

This in my view represents a not so insignificant change of direction from their original brand values and which they built the brand on.

Swazi Apparel to move part of their manufacturing to Thailand

Carefully packaged and shipped – License code for Office 365 Online

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Well packaged for Delivery. Box containing a Microsoft Office 365 box wrapped in Air Pillows. The only important bit was a line of code to activate your Office 365 subscription online.

May be a just a little bit excessive in the packaging…

Of course an argument could most certainly be made that it would have been cheaper and easier to simply E-mail me the code… though obviously packaged like this as a “matter of process” / “Matter of course” and to their credit, it did showed that Noel Leeming takes the effort to ensure goods are packed in a way to minimize the chance of damage during transit.

Carefully packaged and shipped – License code for Office 365 Online