It’s always good when you find someone
who shares the same interests as you,
especially when those interests are a touch
esoteric. All those eclipse-chasers I met in
Cairns, for instance. They’ve now gone back
to their daily grind, but for a brief moment
we were united by our shared passion for the
ultimate occultation, the obscurity of the sun
by the moon!
Similarly, I’m discovering more and more
people who share my enjoyment of patterns
in dates. You may recall I dedicated a whole
column (bmag, 21 February) to the subject.
Imagine my joy when someone tweeted me
at 8.09am on 10/11/12 just to make sure I had
noticed the sequence!
Another slightly geeky fascination of mine,
as yet unexplored here in the pages of bmag
but rekindled this week by reader Andrew
Birch, is the alphanumeric naming of our
motorways. Andrew wondered if I had noticed
the recent addition of an M4 (I hadn’t). He
was also keen to point out the curious case
of the missing motorway, the M6 (I’ll explain
shortly!).
My interest in alphanumeric motorway
names comes from growing up in the UK. A
trip to Manchester would begin on the A6,
before we joined the M6 at Preston and then
the M61 and M60. It’s a different language but
it’s just how everyone speaks.
Here, it’s never really taken off. The M1
to the Gold Coast was our first, yet despite us
also having an M2, M3, M4, M5 and M7, noone
seems to use those names.
If I’m telling someone how to drive from
Ipswich to Mt Coot-tha, I’ll say come up the
M2 onto the M7 then the M5. Often I’ll have to
start again: “Come up the Ipswich Motorway,
go past the Logan Motorway exit and onto the
Western Freeway.”
Of course, with the advent of in-car GPS
devices, does anyone really need to know
the names of roads? Probably not. Just as
the internet has rendered unnecessary any
knowledge that you once kept in your head.
Call me old-fashioned, but I like to think there
are things I know without having to consult a
piece of technology.
And so, for the record, here’s how the
motorway numbering works.
The odd
numbered roads run (roughly) north-south
and the even numbered roads are west-east.
The M1 goes from the Gold Coast to the
Sunshine Coast via the Sir Leo Hielscher
(Gateway) Bridges.
The M3 (A3 in parts) is the Pacific
Motorway from Eight Mile Plains to the CBD,
along the Riverside Expressway, up the Inner
City Bypass to Lutwyche and Gympie Roads,
meeting the M1 at Bald Hills.
The M2 is an odd beast. Travelling from
Ipswich, M2 refers to the Ipswich Motorway
as far as Gailes. Then the Logan Motorway
takes on the name M2, but not for the entire
length of the Logan Motorway. Turn onto the
Gateway Motorway at Drewvale and you’re
still on the M2 (until you meet the M1 at Eight
Mile Plains).
The M7 is the Ipswich Motorway from
Gailes to the Clem7 Tunnel and on to the new
AirportLink toll road. And the M5 runs from
Springfield to Toowong and will continue into
the Legacy Way tunnel once completed.
So what about the missing M6? The section
of Logan Motorway from Drewvale to the M1
at Loganholme still carries the old designation
“Metroad 6” (a six in a hexagon) and has yet to
be renamed.
Main Roads Minister Scott Emerson tells
me the introduction of new signage has been
gradual: “On top of the cost of replacing signs
on the primary route, there is also the cost of
signage of the tributary routes.”
But there’s a twist when it comes to the M6.
Mr Emerson says: “As you know it was sold off
by the previous government so signage is now
a matter for Queensland Motorways.”
This just leaves the brand new M4 which,
as Andrew Birch recently discovered and
was excited to share with me, is the Port of
Brisbane Motorway from the M1 near the
Gateway Bridges to the Port of Brisbane.
How could you not be fascinated by all of
that?!
Now here’s some homework for you!
Next time you drive south along Oxley Road,
see if you can work out what’s wrong with
the signage as you approach the Ipswich
Motorway.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Bmag Nov 6th 2012 - Slow news day, neighbourly wifi names
If there’s one expression I wish the 1990s
ABC TV show Frontline had not taught
people, it’s “Slow News Day”.
Research tells us people want light and shade
in their news reporting, not just serious analysis
or world politics, yet you spend just two minutes
on radio discussing a fun topic like the direction
people like to cut their sandwiches (I prefer mine
triangular, my wife likes hers in rectangles) and
someone will pipe up with: “Slow News Day?”
I’ve kept quiet about this until now. I understand that some people want deadly serious topics all day, every day; others, incidentally, demand more good-news stories from the media, so you can never please everyone all the time! But something happened that has caused me to break my silence! Discussing road safety last week, I asked listeners to remind me which way you should look when crossing the road (was it left-rightleft or right-left-right?). That was enough to see Petros tweeting “Slow News Day?”
Well no, Petros, it’s very simple. I didn’t want anyone, especially children, getting the wrong information and putting themselves in danger. So you can put away your convenient threeword cover-all media critique. And just in case you’re wondering, in Australia you should look right, then left, then right again.
Rental register feedback
In the last issue of bmag I asked you what you thought of a register for rental properties and their agents. The suggestion was made by 612 listener Steve who had an issue with overhanging branches from the rental property next door. Unable to find out from the tenants, Steve struggled to identify the property manager to discuss chopping back the trees.
In response, Alicia Wright emailed: “I couldn’t help but feel sometimes renters get a bad rap. We’ve had plenty of neighbour problems in the past but the main offenders were people who owned houses in the street. Who do you complain to when the problem is the owner?” I want to be clear about this. I wasn’t having a go at renters and I don’t think Steve was either. It’s just that sometimes – when it’s about trees, fences, development applications and the like – you need to contact the owner or their agent.
Matt Troughton offered a tenant’s perspective: “We rent and had a neighbour complain directly to our agent about our dog barking. The agent would give us no info, no times or dates, due to ‘privacy issues’. It would have been easier to solve the issue if [the complainant] had come straight to us!”
Don’t steal my internet
Still on the subject of neighbours, I hear the latest way to send a passive-aggressive shot over the fence is to hide messages in the name of your wireless internet network. Some people never allocate a name but it can be handy if you have several networks within your home, perhaps one for guests and one for your family.
Technology commentator Peter Black mentioned the phenomenon on my radio show, citing overseas examples like “Stop Stealing My Paper” and “Your Music is Too Loud”, but it took very little prompting to gather similar WiFi names from around Brisbane.
Emma Gunders told me: “We’ve got ‘Don’t Steal My Internet’ somewhere around us. We think it might be the new people across the road.” In Sam Eeles’s street there’s “Get Your Own WiFi”. And Ian Harper’s computer picks up the very pointed “B*gger off”.
Thankfully, from what I can gather, many of the creative WiFi monikers in Brisbane are merely aimed at soliciting a laugh. Around Guy Law’s place, there’s “Your Mum” and “Free Willy”, Jen Hansen picks up the groanworthy “PEN15”, Alexandra Nash’s neighbours have “Boobies (.)(.)”,
Cath Allen says there’s “Surveillance Van 4” somewhere near her and Sarah Margrath’s devices pick up “Where are my pants?”
James Kennedy is someone who has a message hidden in his WiFi name. He told me: “Spencer, the kids named my network ‘Furious Dad’. As a result the neighbours are very well behaved! LOL.”
And Susan Hetherington recalls: “Ours used to be called VirusVault. The IT man who set it up said it would deter people.” Okay, I know you want to do it. Go ahead, put the magazine down for a moment and see what WiFi names your phone or tablet can pick up where you are right now!
I’ve kept quiet about this until now. I understand that some people want deadly serious topics all day, every day; others, incidentally, demand more good-news stories from the media, so you can never please everyone all the time! But something happened that has caused me to break my silence! Discussing road safety last week, I asked listeners to remind me which way you should look when crossing the road (was it left-rightleft or right-left-right?). That was enough to see Petros tweeting “Slow News Day?”
Well no, Petros, it’s very simple. I didn’t want anyone, especially children, getting the wrong information and putting themselves in danger. So you can put away your convenient threeword cover-all media critique. And just in case you’re wondering, in Australia you should look right, then left, then right again.
Rental register feedback
In the last issue of bmag I asked you what you thought of a register for rental properties and their agents. The suggestion was made by 612 listener Steve who had an issue with overhanging branches from the rental property next door. Unable to find out from the tenants, Steve struggled to identify the property manager to discuss chopping back the trees.
In response, Alicia Wright emailed: “I couldn’t help but feel sometimes renters get a bad rap. We’ve had plenty of neighbour problems in the past but the main offenders were people who owned houses in the street. Who do you complain to when the problem is the owner?” I want to be clear about this. I wasn’t having a go at renters and I don’t think Steve was either. It’s just that sometimes – when it’s about trees, fences, development applications and the like – you need to contact the owner or their agent.
Matt Troughton offered a tenant’s perspective: “We rent and had a neighbour complain directly to our agent about our dog barking. The agent would give us no info, no times or dates, due to ‘privacy issues’. It would have been easier to solve the issue if [the complainant] had come straight to us!”
Don’t steal my internet
Still on the subject of neighbours, I hear the latest way to send a passive-aggressive shot over the fence is to hide messages in the name of your wireless internet network. Some people never allocate a name but it can be handy if you have several networks within your home, perhaps one for guests and one for your family.
Technology commentator Peter Black mentioned the phenomenon on my radio show, citing overseas examples like “Stop Stealing My Paper” and “Your Music is Too Loud”, but it took very little prompting to gather similar WiFi names from around Brisbane.
Emma Gunders told me: “We’ve got ‘Don’t Steal My Internet’ somewhere around us. We think it might be the new people across the road.” In Sam Eeles’s street there’s “Get Your Own WiFi”. And Ian Harper’s computer picks up the very pointed “B*gger off”.
Thankfully, from what I can gather, many of the creative WiFi monikers in Brisbane are merely aimed at soliciting a laugh. Around Guy Law’s place, there’s “Your Mum” and “Free Willy”, Jen Hansen picks up the groanworthy “PEN15”, Alexandra Nash’s neighbours have “Boobies (.)(.)”,
Cath Allen says there’s “Surveillance Van 4” somewhere near her and Sarah Margrath’s devices pick up “Where are my pants?”
James Kennedy is someone who has a message hidden in his WiFi name. He told me: “Spencer, the kids named my network ‘Furious Dad’. As a result the neighbours are very well behaved! LOL.”
And Susan Hetherington recalls: “Ours used to be called VirusVault. The IT man who set it up said it would deter people.” Okay, I know you want to do it. Go ahead, put the magazine down for a moment and see what WiFi names your phone or tablet can pick up where you are right now!
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