IT, Politics, RPGs: The Usual Trinity

[tcpip]

Submitted a paper for eResearch 2009 on research collaboration tools, comparing the various 'blogging technologies with the various social networking technologies and looking at ways to integrate them. Meeting two others next week, one from University of Melbourne and one from WASP. Went to Chris Samuel's 40th birthday gathering last week (welcome to the club), spent much of the time talking to an even older chap named Earl who was also having with birthday. Earl was an interesting chap, very savvy concerning mechanical and electrical engineering and analogue computers; that was a phrase I had not heard for some years.

Debate concerning revolution and reform continues at Left Focus. Perhaps on topic, Connex has lost the contract to run Melbourne's train systems and, more surprisingly, Yarra Trams for the light rail system. The new contractors have quite a job on their hands especially with the condition of infrastructure; again I refer to Dr. Gavin Putland's comments on financing the system. It is still a long way to go to a free, public and planned system.

Congratulations to Mouseguard for winning the Origins award for best roleplaying game of 2009. Next issue of RPG Review due in the next couple of days. Have submitted a review of Ardiun Adventure to RPG.net which is not particularly positive. Played New World of Darkness on Thurday which went well, and GURPS Krononauts this afternoon; we're in Danzig, February, 1945. Still selling off my surplus games on Ebay with more to come. On a related topic, went to see Star Trek last night at the Astor. Marzipan, one of Melbourne's most well-known cats, is looking a little old and tired. Plenty of Trekkies hawking their wares. Fairly impressed with the film overall.

Comments

[splodgenoodles.livejournal.com]

Hey where did that joke go?

I sent two people here looking for it...

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I deleted it; my sense of taste got the better of me.

[omnot.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about the phrase "User Pays" this evening, and it seems that there is a flipside that governments have lost sight of... something like "Free Saves" ("Freeness Saves"?). Meaning, if it is not clear in itself, that things that the government has the permission of the people to collect taxes for so that effort/resources can be pooled to provide more essential services and infrastructure for our buck... those things are more efficient and more just if the government just does its job and provides them. Free. It saves money to do so - in healthcare, for example, health problem prevention and prompt treatment = better quality of life, higher productivity and so forth.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Quite right; further these things can be calculated as a total transaction cost including the administrative and infrastructure costs to manage the system, plus the opportunity cost of how much time is spent by the user engaging in the transaction.

Every few seconds spent by commuters fumbling their way through those turnstiles in peak hour is lost productivity...

[zey.livejournal.com]

The new contractors have quite a job on their hands especially with the condition of infrastructure

It really does make one wonder what value there is in a government that prefers to blame shift instead of directly fix problems in state infrastructure.

Commercial enterprises are the least likely to invest toward the long term in normal times, let alone in the grip of a Global Credit Crisis ™. Governments are the only entities with the resources to invest in times like this, and they've instead deferred their responsibility for the next 8 years... quite possibly long enough for the system to be completely unsalvageable in 2017 :/

[omnot.livejournal.com]

Doesn't that mean the new Contractors are more accurately described as the new Scapegoats? If so, what manner of beastie would take over and what are their objectives?

[zey.livejournal.com]

I imagine any company would be quite happy to pocket the profits and run down the infrastructure til it falls apart. There's only a risk of financial loss if you're going to spend lots of money on fixing it up.

I'm sure they won't really mind being the scapegoats. Yeah, they'll cop it in the media, but, they'll have their cash to keep them warm and there's not really much the public can do in today's political environment.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Well, there is a sense that the contractors knew - or at least should have known - what they were getting in for. Connex, even in those conditions, performed quite poorly.

It never ceases to surprise me that the union movement - or workers, independenlty - doesn't take a closer look at mutualist solutions to government outsourcing.

[neoookami.livejournal.com]

I was quite pleased to hear about Mouseguard winning this year. It certainly deserves it. Now I just need to convince people to play it with me!

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Ditto! I've had the book sitting on my shelf for too many months now!