mathieutozer.com

I'm not going to do anything rash and go jump in front of a train, but now my options are slightly different.
Questions and things
* Can I have my $112 graduation application fee back, please?
* Who do I contact?
* I now still have a 3rd year Computer Science subject to take, so I need to check what's on the Monash Menu, and when.
* Enroll in that subject in first or second semester 2007.
* Do I need to see someone about organising this?
* Can I get some centrelink payments? Taking 1 unit isn't a very large load. Better to be on "New Start"

Wow I'm kind of giddy. At least I know for sure now. In that way it's kind of a load off my shoulders.

I sat down to wait for my 14.40 train, taking the first few notes on a blog post about how annoying some parts of the all new Southern Cross Station are. And the following drama unfolded...

* Look at the alternate designs.
* How annoying are the once a minute ear drum bursting announcements?
* And the platform design is so confusing to passengers.

Platfrom 1 2 3 N C S??

wtf?

11 min to go: Attention VLine customers, the 4.40 South Geelong service will be departing in 11 minutes from platform 4, North. the 4.40 South Geelong service will be departing in 11 minutes from platform 4 north. Thankyou!

10 min to go: Attention VLine customers, the 4.40 South Geelong service will be departing in 10 minutes from platform 4, North. the 4.40 South Geelong service will be departing in 10 minutes from platform 4 north. Thankyou!

9 min to go: Attention VLine customers, the 4.40 South Geelong service will be departing in 9 minutes from platform 4, North. the 4.40 South Geelong service will be departing in 9 minutes from platform 4 north. Thankyou!

8 min to go: Attention VLine customers, the 4.40 South Geelong service will be departing in 8 minutes from platform 4, North. the 4.40 South Geelong service will be departing in 8 minutes from platform 4 north. Thankyou!

7 min to go: Attention VLine customers, the 4.40 South Geelong service will be departing in 7 minutes from platform 4, North. the 4.40 South Geelong service will be departing in 7 minutes from platform 4 north. Thankyou!

6 min to go: Attention VLine customers, the 4.40 South Geelong service will be departing in 6 minutes from platform 4, North. the 4.40 South Geelong service will be departing in 6 minutes from platform 4 north. Thankyou!

5min to go: Attention VLine customers, the 4.40 South Geelong service will be departing in 3 minutes from platform 4 north. the 4.40 South Geelong service will be departing in 3 minutes from platform 4 north. Thankyou

4 min to go: Attention VLine customers, the 4.40 South Geelong service will be departing in 3 minutes from platform 4 north. the 4.40 South Geelong service will be departing in 3 minutes from platform 4 north. Thankyou

Attention VLine customers please do not board the train at platform 3 central until further advised. please do not board the train at platform 3 central until further advised.Thankyou

Attention VLine customers please do not board the train at platform 3 central until further advised. please do not board the train at platform 3 central until further advised.Thankyou

3 min to go: Attention VLine customers, the 4.40 South Geelong service will be departing in 1 minute from platform 4 north. the 4.40 South Geelong service will be departing in 1 minute from platform 4 north. Thankyou

2 min to go Attention VLine customers, the 4.40 South Geelong service will be departing in 1 minute from platform 4 north. the 4.40 South Geelong service will be departing in 1 minute from platform 4 north. Thankyou

And then it departed.

And I was still sitting on the platform.

A little verbose, don't you think?

Let me start by saying, I hate bad design. Especially on the scale of a major, flagship project by the Victorian government. I mean this thing cost $$$.

I got up and looked down the platform at my departing train, a little bit pissed off. All I had been thinging of was how annoying the over enthusiastic computer lady-voice was over the loudspeaker, which I could feel drumming far too deep in by bosom every time she spoke.

First of all which way is north? Just which end of the platform is North?
That was one of the first things I wondered when I walked on the platform - where the hell is my train departing from? I'm in a vast bobbing like boobies structure and I have no way of getting my bearings.



Here's platform 4 and 3, as seen from the alleged 'Central'.


What doesn't help with grokking this arrangement is that there is only one South platform, and that's on platfrom 8. All the others start at Central, and have a North.



And here's a close up of the sign:

How about a sign on the sign saying something like "This in Central" "This way to North"??

By the way this is the SECOND time I've missed a train because of this North, Central, and South arrangement. I really must be dumb. I thought: I Am Dumb.

As I write this, I got on the train and sat down, after triple, nay quadruple checking the location. Settling down to reaaaly fry this piece of crap station in this blog post, a frantic inspector came in and asked me where I was headin'.

"Geelong", I say - he looked relieved, so did I.

The other couple who had gotten on said "Ballarat". He then quickly ushers them out the door with "That's your train there, right down there, right down the end." "Huh?" "Quick!" "Down the end and around a bit!".

Like said, I didn't think I was stupid, but for a moment there I thought, maybe I am. But the fact that this has happened twice, and I have whitnessed the confusion with other passengers today, I conclude that it is the design of the station, not people's stupidity, that has caused me to miss my train.

Although initially I didn't think the overall architecture of the station was bad, my admiration soured over time. I saw some pictures of some of the proposed alternatives, and now I always look at what was built and think of what it could have been. Anyway, it's not that bad, and could put up with it if it were functional.

What's worse is as the train pulled out I despairingly called my Dad, my pickup in Geelong, and sold him what had happened. I look over the ledge and the train had stopped. Had the driver seen me and waited? This surely never happens. I get back downstairs again and head towards it again. And then it pulls away again.

Doubly stung, I thought about what I was going to say to the ticketing lady when I demanded my money back! But Dad called again and said he'd wait, depending on how long it would be. Mum really wanted to see me. It's Mum's birthday, I couldn't give up now.

Checking my laptop for the train times, looking for the next one, and checking it against the slick flat panel displays, I found that the information didn't match up. I had only downlaoded this timetable a few hours before, so it's recent.

Look at how gleefully I'd optimistically highlighted that 16:13 train!


Anyway, the 16.55 train was non existent.

I took a few more snaps to show the lack of "This is platform FOUR CENTRAL" signage anywhere there were signs. This includes the lack of "THIS WAY TO PLATFORM FOUR NORTH" signs.

While we're talking about these displays, when you say a train is 'due', wouldn't that usually mean, going to be arriving in x minutes? Apparently at Southern Cross it means when a train is departing.

So I'm still sitting inside the 17:13 on platform C3, waiting for it to depart.

Now it's a bit rich to gripe about something without offering a solution or some alternatives, but I'll leave a comprehensive solution for another day because I've wasted enough of my precious time explaining what's wrong.

I will say though that I understand that they have more trains in the station at a given time than can be afforded a single platform for each, but really if I have to put up with the North / Central / South kerfuffle then please put some clear signs in to make it obvious to first time users.

That would be much more effective than repeating loud, obnoxious, inaccurate and inhuman announcements every minute through the same loudspeaker, even though they pertain to different trains. I feel as though if I hadn't been hearing anything at all about my "Service to South Geelong" through a loudspeaker that I might have been prompted to seek out where my bloody Service to South Geelong was, but of course I ewas being deafented by it every minute right above my head so I assumed I was in the right spot.

So basically, as my sister Jasmine put it, it's just a big bunch of people running around trying to find their train by trial and error. It's mayhem!

But at least it doesn't smell like urine anymore.

Wow! I needed that sun!
I spent a couple of hours down at the Prahran pool reading "The Search" in the overcast, but hot sun today, and taking dips too cool off when needed. Back home now I feel calm and weathered like I haven't felt for a while now. I'm going to have to make a point of getting out into the weather this summer, because it's not coming as naturally as it used to.

I'm enjoying The Search too. Very interesting story about the history of internet search businesses and the real world implications that search can have.

Taking a few moments out to blog a few dot points

I'm now an intern at plasq and will be for 3 months! w00t!

Here are some of the software bits and pieces that are keep me busy:

* A productivity tool.
* Getting openCV tools running on Mac OS X.
* Words, language learning software and their related tools. (Open Source)
* A simple wiki and software issue tracking application for internal plasq use.
* Book scanning software (Open Source)
* 3D art project using Blender (maybe open source later)
* Fitness log book application
* Tackling the problem of offline edits on online multi user documents.

There are other apps that I'm also part of through testing, and I'm also taking part in a brainstorm of others as well, but unfortunately I can't talk about them publicly :-)

So that's plenty to keep my busy for my own personal, southern hemisphere version of a "Summer of Code".

Finishing up my last exam, I arrived home to this useful notice:

Felt like a bit of an old hack walking onto the exam venue today, seeing people last minute cramming in the stairwell before they went in.

I also felt awful because I knew the exam was going to be evil, and I didn't have any friends to chat with and complain about how evil it was going to be before the exam.

Thoughts I was having:
"With all the colour and wonder in the world, why the hell am I sitting in a drab Caufield racecourse with thousands of people in rows scribbling lame answers to questions on paper?"
"I feel like just running away to live a life in Brazil"
"What would an intelligent agent do in my situation? Maximise his utility given his current knowledge base and precepts of the world"
Etc etc

I spent the rest of my time observing all the different groups of people. How you can see the geeks over there, the commerce students over here. I thought about how many high strung hours have I spent sitting at the Caufield racecourse.

My head was in another world, all I could think was "I'm a miserable failure and I know nothing about what this course requires of me".

Finding seat 1415, and snapping the Monash ID onto the desk (something I mentally note as a milestone in each exam), I was still full of miserable dread. Not really a healthy kind of head space.
The invigilator checked the underside of my buscuits for cheating notes.

The announcer made one admission to human-ness, reading "Please check the the paper you recieve is the one you were hoping for!" This is the first time I've ever heard anything that deviated from the norm.

The paper actually turned out to be alright. The stress of it all dropped away as I read though it. Sure, I couldn't answer it all, but it wasn't going to be something that I would be battling to write anything for every single question.

I ended up leaving about 1 quesiton blank, because I had NO IDEA and I made guesses at another 2 or 3, but the rest I had something to say. And I did it all in an hour. In a 3 hour exam. Hmmmm... I know the lecturer isn't given over to verboseness, perhaps his his admission to not wanting long answers to have to mark for hours and hours? The faculty only has limited man hours.

It remans to be seen whether I pass this or not, but my current head space is certainly an improvement on the past week, where I was certain I didn't have what it takes.

I'm going to the gym.