Consumer Review: Melbourne Eastlink toll system, impossibly stupid.

The occasional h1bpositive blog visitor might recall the fine Winter's day out Matthew, Jamie and I had on the motorbikes back in June. After riding to Noojee, we came home via the much lauded Eastlink, Melbourne's new tollway, hailed as the poster-boy of public-private infrastructure funding.

We'd each organised our pre-paid tollway passes to travel on Eastlink, a bit of a bureaucratic nightmare as the rules and processes for motorcycles and cars vary considerably, and the Eastlink/Breeze web page would count among the worst possible User Interface designs ever created.


I eventually bought 4 passes over the phone (figuring we'd ride again out that way sometime soon), and had the foresight to email myself with the order details, just in case something went awry in future. Call it intuition, or call it twenty plus years working with computers and customers for a living.

To my amazement, in September, I got an overdue notice for riding on Eastlink without a pass. One trip, 12:32pm on June 20, 2009. Clocked riding into the Melba Tunnel in an unauthorised fashion. Outstanding Debt:

Toll charge $1.04
Invoice fee $8.45
Lookup fee $1.40
GST $1.08
TOTAL $11.97

I rang Breeze to seek an explanation. Now - quick caveat to my rant here - the lady I spoke to was sensational with her service, but, she's working for bozos. $2.5b bozos. First I had to quote the 12 digit invoice number - not the reminder notice 12 digit number, but the original invoice number buried in fine print of the letter on page 1. Man, these guys are planning for the future - no Y2k-like character limit for their invoice numbers. Not real easy to communicate over the telephone however.


That number, along with my registration plate, motorcycle type and colour, enabled her to see the infringement notice. Then, she logged into a second screen that enabled her to see if that license plate number had any purchases registered against it. Tick, tick, tick, one moment please caller, tick, tick... and yes ... there they are, 4 passes purchased on 19 June.

So... the 'computer' could see my registration plate had 4 passes credited against it, and the computer could see that I had made a trip on 20 June, but somehow the computer had recorded that at 12:32 on 20 June, the mighty Gixxer was without passes on the tollway. The pass ordering computer and the traffic tracking computer seem to be different computers.

I guess that could happen - the road construction consortium would have outsourced vehicle tracking, invoicing and administration to the lowest bidders, as they all do nowadays. There might have been a momentary glitch in 'the computer' as the Gixxer roared by? So maybe it's actually 3 computers? One on the road, one for ordering, and one for billing? Or 4? Road, ordering, billing, infringing? Or 5? Road, order, bill, infringe and reconcile?

As an IT professional, my mind boggles as to how these things happen, and it's an embarrassment to the profession. So, who are the chumps who put together this computer system, and how much did it cost? Perhaps they did it on the cheap?

The billing infrastructure was part of a much trumpeted $2.5b (yep, billion) traffic management system for this tollway. The winning bidder was Traffic Management Systems - a listed rollup of various Australian traffic signage and control systems companies, which is listed under the TTI stock code.

TTI's publicly stated turnover has only been in the range of $57m - $95m, stating turnover of $57m in the year the tollway system was built (they only had 6 months to bill between the contract being let in November 2005 and end of financial year in June 2006), then $81.5m in 2007, and $95m in 2008 when the roadway finally opened. Thus they clearly didn't get all of the $2.5 billion. I'm going to guess a mere $100m for the computer system over the 2+ years.

A $100m computer system then. Reckon they would only give that contract to a really proven and solid software development company, that had a track record and long term profitability. So let's check out TTI's track record of success during Australia's largest infrastructure boom from 1998 to today:

WTF? Peaking at $46 at the end of 1999, these guys are an unprofitable penny dreadful trading at not more than a few cents a share for years on end. Have been since a year before they got the Eastlink contract. At 6c a share, I could own the whole damn company with the money I'm paying in bogus $11.97 tollway fines.

Chances of them having the smartest IT people to make that system work? Not good.

Customer Service have promised to get back to me with how this all happened. I won't hold my breath, as without doubt that's yet another computer system they were recording my complaint details into when I rang.

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13.10.2009 Result!

Product Review: Suunto T1 Heart Rate Monitor

Suunto - Finnish for 'Disappointment'?

After my little heart problem in 2008, I decided to return to the Heart Rate Monitor market after several years in absentia, years spent muttering like a crazy person about pathetic battery life, interference issues, fragile chest straps and repeated disappointment.

In the 1990s, most bike shops were pretty reluctant to sell them, as they delivered way too many opportunities to test out the warranty service of the manufacturers.

The actual NEED to have a new gadget was too much of an opportunity to miss in life. The main result of my 5+ hours of internet research was the conclusion I really wanted a Power Meter of some kind instead. At several thousand dollars I was able to resist that temptation with ease.

My friend Glen has been a Polar stalwart for many years, valuing the data functions, the big watches, and the software for his PC. He was not loving the need to send them away to get batteries changed, which seemed bizarre in this day and age. Nor was he loving the data loss every time we rode under the power lines outside the Scienceworks museum on our Altona rides, but he'd worked out how to join 2 broken training sessions again on the computer.

I just couldn't get my head around their range of products. The ideally featured Polar HRM (for me) came as a bike computer, not a watch. I don't like a big hulking bike computer, I prefer my little minimalist unit. And I wanted something to wear in the gym.

Not to mention there was no way I was paying THAT much for an HRM!

With plenty of time on my hands recovering from open heart surgery, I finally concluded that the new Suunto range of HRMs, provided they lived up to the other products developed and sold by Suunto (avionics included), were a fine-looking, 12 month warrantied, and well featured product for a great price.

So, to cut a long review short, I'm here to tell you they're rubbish.


The critical flaw is the plastic watch face, and the lack of a protective bezel. Within weeks this watch becomes unreadable in normal use. It's not something you think about, how much you bump your watch. Now I know why the Japanese watches with plastic faces have such monstrous surrounds (think G-Shock). And why expensive watches have glass faces.


The flaw that actually killed by T1 was the screws in the back coming loose in Month 13 of ownership (I lost 2 before it became obvious) rendering it open to the elements, and subsequently ... dead.

Desperate to keep the standout cool factor of the Suunto range, I went back to the catalogue to find the unit that would overcome these problems - surely the really expensive ones had glass faces? Nope - 100% plastic across the range. Disappointment, thy name is Suunto.

Review Score:

Function: 7/10. While it held together (for 13 months), it proved to be an easily understood HRM. Unreadable, but easily understood. Battery life acceptable, and ability to change batteries in the watch and chest strap yourself highly prized.

Form: 2/10. Despite looking very cool in the box, life in the real world overwhelmed the Suunto - the plastic face became decrepit in no time, and then the screws that held the back in came out, rendering it ... dead.

Price: 3/10. Part of the reason for buying was the low price. I could buy 2 for the price of a Polar or similar unit in a mainstream brand. Then again, I would have to buy 2 (or in fact 3-4) if they have this lifespan.

Cycling Vintage Postcards - Eddy Merckx

I've bought a lot of stuff on eBay over the years, particularly when it comes to restoring vintage racing bikes.

I think this postcard might count as the dodgiest thing I've ever obtained, 99% likely to be a simple reproduction (including the signature) - which is pretty much impossible to tell on the web, and hard enough to tell in the flesh in this era of digital printing. I've seen way too many of this card since with the signature in identical position!

That said, I didn't pay much and it celebrates The Cannibal in full racing pose on one of the 2 coolest racing bikes in history.

Cycling Vintage Postcards - Fausto Coppi Bianchi 1953 World Champion

One of my bikes is a Fausto Coppi Lugano 53, a steel bike made in the 1990s to celebrate the great Fausto Coppis' world championship win in Switzerland in 1953.

Coincidentally, I also have a signed postcard (the signature on the back matches the sticker on the bike uncannily - I guess he autographed about a million things in his time!) celebrating his win in Switzerland.


Coppi also cleaned up the Giro that year, one of only a handful of cyclists ever to win a major tour and the Worlds in the same year. Chapeau!

Cycling Vintage Postcards - Fausto Coppi Emotonico 1946

The story of Fausto Coppi has been written many times, and I've no need to try to outdo any of the authors.

When we were in Italy to see the 1995 Giro D'Italia, we found ourselves stuck in Florence on a quiet Sunday morning. We're read about a Sunday market in the hills nearby, with a bus that went to Fiesole, leaving only a 5km walk along country roads.

One of the treasures collected that day was some bike racing postcards from the 1940s and 1950s - plenty of the stall holders refused to sell us anything being foreigners, but somehow my passion for cycling won out.

This card dates from the period when Coppi was restarting his career after the war. As a prisoner in a low security environment he had enjoyed a small opportunity to get back on his bike, and came out of retirement with the minimum of sponsors, one of whom was Emotonico.

He won 3 stages of the Giro in 1945, competed in several other major races and his career, once in danger of being starved to death by the deprivations of life as a POW was reborn, with life on a major trade team.

Cocksure - Malcolm Gladwell on the Global Financial Crisis

This story from the New Yorker is an excellent teaching tool for Australians and New Zealanders attempting to understand or explain the underlying causes of the GFC.

Speaking at a special conference in May, Gladwell, reflects on whether it was incompetence or overconfidence that tipped us all into 2008's recession, and has subsequently cost the US Government North of $5 trillion (so far) to try to dig their way out of the shit.

He uses the case of the British army, arriving at Gallipoli in April 1915 at the peak of their military powers - by far the superior combatant, but frittering away their advantage while they set up their battle 'governance' - ships offshore for the command, soldiers ashore with all the administrivia of the typical British Army battle setup being put in place before they attacked. Their confidence of victory was supreme.

Amazingly, this was after a shockingly failed naval attack on the Dardennelles, which had effectively telegraphed the British intention to invade 4 long weeks before the fateful late April beach assaults.

Infamously, on April 25th when the British command realised their cocksure attitude had just cost them the strategic advantage against an opposition perceived to be Turkish rabble with limited ammunition, they pressed the button and proceeded to sacrifice 44,000 Allied soldiers on the beaches and hillsides of Gallipoli, with 96,000 wounded. The Turkish army lost nearly 87,000 men, while the Anzacs had 11,000 casualties and 24,000 wounded.

The many ensuing battles at Gallipoli are ingrained in a generation of kiwis and Australians minds - in a way they were nation-forming, as they they were for modern Turkey.

New Yorker is kind enough to offer their embedding code to bloggers, so I encourage you to watch this video and then buy a copy of the New Yorker some time to encourage them along. The print industry needs all the help it can get these days!

It's not about the money - bogus taxes disguised as 'road safety' (again)

Living in America I learned one important fact - the moment someone says "it's not about the money", they might as well go to the nearest whiteboard and write up in blue marker "actually, it's all about the money".

I've written before (perturbed of Port Melbourne?) about the money being made by the advertising and media industry from bogus anti-speeding advertising campaigns developed to allegedly prevent people speeding on Victorian roads (as opposed to cleansing the obvious tax raising nature of the speed cameras). Now the Victorian opposition have outed some further facts on the road safety impact of the massive increase in speed camera installations across Victoria (from a story by Clay Lucas in the Age, September 29, p3):


That would be nothing then.

$437m will be raised this year by the Victorian Government from speeding taxes, up from $397m last year. That buys a lot of government salaries and screwed up IT projects (don't even get me started) for Mr Brumby and his village improvement committee.

I suppose we should be delighted someone in Australia (other than the mining industry) can manage to grow their business in the Global Financial Crisis.

Click on the article to read the whole sorry thing.

Go forth and make your voluntary tax contributions, Victorians.