Words to remember - Demonym

So I was watching a movie the other day (one of those set in WW2) and noticed that Jewish people were called Jews but German people were called Germans. Found it odd/interesting that in a few rare cases we have a different word between the generic adjective for things that come from a place, and the people that come from a place. I found I could distinguish the two by saying:

A [x] is [y]

So a Jew is Jewish

But a German is German.

Using this to stop myself getting context confused, I started running through different countries to try and figure out how often this occurs.

Australians are Australian, Americans are American, Canadians are Canadian. Seemed like most places I could think of were all boring and used the same variants.

Then I though to Great Britain and surrounds:

An Enligshman is English

A Scottsman (or Scott) is Scottish

An Irishman is Irish

A Frenchman is French.

Not as boring as being the same, but still pretty boring.

So I wanted to look this stuff up, but couldn't think what to look up.

Then stumbled across this on wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonym

Turns out Demonym is the word for a name of a person derived from their location name. Quite interesting reading on that page, recommend it. For instance, sometimes the reverse is true, and a place is named after the inhabitants, such as Thailand. Never made the connection before that Thailand is the land Thais inhabit.

Anyway, found all this a while ago... then forgot the words demonym, so now i've posted it somewhere i shouldn't forget again!

One example of why government web filter would suck

Look at smaller examples to see how bigger ones work.

In many work places, internet filters are put in place to prevent access to things that shouldn't be allowed at work.  Obviously if you are going to look at certain things on a work computer you are an idiot, but blocking of some other 'time wasters' happens as well, so things like facebook and myspace get blocked.  At the end of the day if you really feel the need to look at something blocked, whether you believe it is rightfully blocked or not, you can view it on your personal internet when you get home.

Anyway, interesting thing is the false positives that happen.  The other day I was googling some semi-work related stuff to understand stress as an engineering/geological idea.  This lead me to wiki page on Buckling, which appeared oddly to be blocked by works filter.

Couldn't figure this out, but someone who had seen the filter rules said there was something in there to block "uck.in" .  Looking up uck.in when I got home, I saw that this is a site which provides lists of anonymous proxies, so understandably the kind of site you would want to block at work (where such proxies would allow you to bypass all works filters).  However the filter for "uck.in" does not just block the hostname.  This blocks any url with "uck.in" appearing anywhere in the address, be it the host, path, or part of the query string.

Confused about why uck.in would match buckling?  The filter list uses regular expressions.  In regular expressoin, a period is a wild card for ANY character.  So will match "uck.in" as well as "uckain" "uckbin" "ucklin" "uck?in" "uck/in" "uck5in" etc... you get the idea. 

A few days later, xkcd put up this comic: http://xkcd.com/537/ but the image would not display? What was going on?  The image was called duckling.png.  There's that nasty regex again, better block it!

So obviously there was a flaw in the filtering.  We raised a ticket with the relevant group in charge of the filter, pointing out how they had mistyped the pattern and were blocking extra content.  The response was "thanks, we'll take that as a suggestion", which effectively means we can't be bothered fixing it, you can't show you need access to a site for work purposes which is being blocked.

So the annoying part?  If during my day to day job I one day I hit a URL with that in it, how do I know if I need access to it?  It might have the exact answer to a problem I need, or it could be a bogus link trying to sell a product (this is what happens when googling for solutions).  It would be very hard to show that I do need access when I obviously can't no in advance what's behind that url.

So I can see the same thing happening with government filter.  They get over zealous, block extra content, but they have no motivation to fix it so why would they?  Once something is falsely blocked, how can you prove it is erroneously blocked when you cannot access it in the first place to prove their is no objectionable content there?

Many other examples of why government filter would suck, this is just one.

Alcopops are dead hurruh!

So the alcopops tax got rejected in the senate last week.  I'm so happy that one of the stupid things the government has tried to brought in has actually been stopped.  There really seemed to be little evidence that the alcopops tax was doing anything to curb binge drinking, but it was providing a nice revenue stream for the government.

So I could rant on this at length, and I might just do that in a later post, but I just wanted to jot something down before i forget.

Was watching late line the other day after the senate rejected the tax, and Julia Gillard was on to spin how awful this was.  She made the point:  (read whole transcript here http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2008/s2520098.htm )

"What the Liberal Party has voted for in the Senate today is to return $300 million to the distillers"

This is a blurring of the point i feel.  The senate refused to pass the tax because it didn't do what it set out to do, which was curb binge drinking.  So the tax they have been collecting up till now has been illegally collected, and so yes it should be returned.  The government should not get to keep it!  Just because they don't like the distillers, it doesn't give them a right to tax them illegally.

Brisbane's 3 Public Transport methods

So in sunny Brisbane we have three different mediums (is that the word?) which are integrated into our public transport system. Bus, Rail, and Citycat (there are ferries, which are a poor mans citycat ).

So they all have their uses, but one interesting thing I find is how their ticketing acquisition structure differentiates.

Bus - buy ticket from driver WHEN you get on
Train - buy ticket from vendor/machine BEFORE you get on
Citycat - buy ticket from vendor/mahine AFTER you get on

Which is better? Let's discuss buses vs trains for a bit, as this is what I have most exposure to.

You are running late for a train, you see it pulling into the station as you run to catch it. But you don't have a ticket. Do you jump on train without a ticket and risk a fine, or buy a ticket but accept you will miss that train, possibly waiting half an hour for another? But you run to a bus stop just as the bus is arriving! hurruh you made it. you jump on and get a chance to fish some cash out and buy a ticket.

So now we are on our form of transport we carry on. However the pro/con is now reversed. At each train stop, there is a specific stop time, usually under a minute where people can get on/off the train, and we continue on. All very uniform, no delays.

As each bus stops, you get everyone fishing their cash out, trying to find change, ask the driver what ticket they need, and you can end up with lengthy unpredictable delays at each stop.

Now look at the city cat. With the city cat, there is only a small delay at each port allowing people on and off the citycat, no requirement to have a ticket for this part. One on the cat (and after it has perhaps taken off and you are en route along with all other passengers), you can purchase your ticket.

Citycat is obviously superior! Why can't we use this on other forms of transport?

When visiting Melbourne, the Tram system there is run like the Citycat. The driver is seperate and only responsible for driving the tram, each tram has a ticket machine on board so you can buy a ticket. Would be great to have something similar on trains, though with the overcrowding we have I guess that's almost impossible to use in rush hour.

An interesting thing we saw in Japan with buses was that you pay for your ticket when you get OFF the bus. Gives a bit more leeway, as once on the bus you can sit down and work out how much you should pay. Gives people a chance to organize themselves more than when they get on (when running late for a train, you can't stop and pull out your cash in preparation easily)

I broke my ear

So the xmas rush is over, but it feels like i've spent most of the last few weeks under the weather.

Had some friends over for drinks a few weeks back, had a great time, but later in the night we decided we'd had enough beer and that gin and tonics would be the go.  I have a couple of kick scooters (like the skateboards with a stick for steering) so though it would be a good idea to ride down to the local bevan (7 11).

Now I live at the top of a hill and ride down it on my scooter on the wy to the train station each day I go to work.  Sit on the brake at the back to control speed, keep an eye on whats coming up, and everything's peachy.

After a few drinks however, going down in the dark seemed feasible.  So of course couldn't see much of what was on the road.  And also decided to let rip with the speed.  Surely worst that happens if i have to slam the break on at the bottom of the hill. Even knew where a soft patch of grass was at the bottom lest slowing down doesn't work and I need to bail.

Turns out, after picking up a bit of speed, the speed wobbles take over and bam!  Scooter went one way, I rolled the other. Landed on knees and left hand and rolled left, bang my shoulder, and finally my head.  Heard a bit of a bang or pop noise and the hearing in that ear went all muffled.

Got back up, found my glasses, and we made our way onto bevan and back.  Hearing didn't seem to be getting any better so rang 13 health to tell them my symptons.  They said probably not anything to worry about, but suggested I call out the after hours doc to check me out.

So rang that number, and they sent a doctor out, took about half an hour.  Checked I didn't have concussion, stuck a light in my ear and gave me the all clear.  Just to get it checked if it got worse or pained up.

So go to work the next day, and find out that chewing causes massive pain and clicking in my jaw near ear.  Got bad toward end of arvo, so bailed out (GF picked me up) and went and sat at dr's waiting for a chance to see one (no appointments available).  Only had to wait about 5 mins and got called in.  Same deal, shine light in ear, nothing to see.  Suggested I go for a CT scan.

So the next day I go to Wesley and get a CT scan.  Was kinda cool, though the waiting for results kinda sucked. They told me it would be an hour to hour and a half wait.  Ended up being two and a half hours.  Went back to doctor with results.

They had a little note there saying suspected frature around temple bone or something, because of evidence of air bubble, but no visible fracture lines.  Doctor couldn't see it and said give it a week and get  second opinion from ear nose and throat doc.

Since then pain has gone away, but hearing hasn't improved.  Constantly feels like there is water in my ear , but with consistency of air.  Same muffled feeling.

So now it's next week, but I have the flu.  Which has screwed up my ears nose and throat so doesn't seem much point seemed anyone about my ear at present.  I really hope it repairs because I'm a bit of an audiophile and while I can deal with it in the short term, the thought of never again hearing a song or movie in balance as it was originally intended frustrates me to no end.

More Public Transport Frustrations

So Brisbane has this great idea, night buses! On a Saturday night, they run buses along key routes for standard bus fares, so you can get home for the cost of a bus ride instead of a cab ride.

So we were out at the regatta in Toowong tonight, till about 2ish, and decided to wander back to the RE in the more central part of Toowong as it was more likely to have a Cab line up.

Get the the RE, and we notice the bus sign, which is at the cab rank, is showing that a bus will be coming in 10 minutes!  Well buses are certainly cheaper than cabs, so why not wait to catch the bus a couple of stops?  It's a Night bus, 464.

After a while, the display updates.  Seems our bus is delays. but we can wait a bit longer.

So we wait and wait, a few cabs pull up to see if we want a ride, but move on when they realise we are not waiting for them.

After sitting here waiting for 20minutes, another bus appears on the display, this one is due at 2:44pm.  So even if this one doesn't show, it's nice to know there's another one half an hour away.  Hopefully we don't need it.

So at around 2:20, the display turns off for the now very late bus, and only the 2:44 is left up there. Not happy.

Suddenly, at about 2:25, we see a bus coming around the corner! yay!

We jump about and wave to hail the bus.... but it just keeps going.... all the lights on the bus are on, and we can see there are only 4 or 5 people on it.  But no stopping, it just keep going.

So now we are really furious and realise we need a cab.  But of course it's now 30 minutes after the pub has shut so no cabs are coming, they're all headed back to the city.  Finally after 8 minutes a cab takes pity and turns around to pick us up.

Furiouser and Furiouser now, we get back and get on the phone to complain to translink, who have  a 24 hour complain/contact line.

We get told that night buses only do pick ups in the city, then the rest of the route is only drop offs.  I can sort of see that makes sense, but then why do they have the timetable on at the bus stop?! They say, oh, that's so people know when the bus will be dropping people off.  Pah! That is so rubbish.  I occassionally catch buses from the Cultural center in the city, which is an end of line stop for a lot of buses.  These buses DO NOT show up on the display for arriving buses.  So thanks to their inconsistent logic, we wasted half an hour waiting at a stop.  Thanks brisbane transport.  thank you indeed.

Brisbane public transport is frustrating!

So needed to get from Toowong to the City on Saturday.  On a Saturday trains run every half hour and are pretty reliable, but had just missed one and was supposed to get to the city by 2pm.  Next train wasn't till 1:56pm and would take 15minutes, so a bus seemed a better option.

Buses run fairly frequently, and there are a number of different buses, but they all get you to the city on fairly standard routes.

Firstly, the display board was out, so weren't sure when an actual bus was going to arrive.  Looked at the schedule though and there were 2 due pretty soon.  So about 5 minutes later a 444 bus pulls up, which we jump on.

The bus then sits at that stop for a minute!  While we're sitting there, another bus overtakes us.  Gah!

We finally take off, and get to the stop near the wesley hospital.  I hate this area, because it seems like EVERY time I get a bus, it stops here and they change drivers, which seems to take anywhere from 1 - 5 minutes, but never with any indication.

Yup that's right, we stopped there. Sigh.  So waiting there, and another bus pulls up behind us, i was hopeful that this was the changeover bus.  Nope, it pulls away. damn i could have gotten on that bus instead!  So no indication about when we will be leaving, we just sit and wait on the packed bus.  It's 5 minutes before a driver arrives who gets on our bus, tinkers about as they do, before finally getting us going again.  In this time I count 3 other buses that pass us.

Would be so nice if they could just tell us which buses are the ones worth getting on, I would have happily waited for one that wasn't going to stop at a bus stop for 5 minutes where i'd forced to watch other buses I could be on pass me.