Once again, I was there that night. I was right behind the flight of his winning final goal. Delirium followed, and I still get chills watching this footage. Awesome.

Russell Ingall seemingly forgets to change down gears until the very last moment in the midst of this passing attempt on Will Davison. Just love the quick downshifts when he suddenly arrives at the first corner, and realises that he’s still in sixth gear!

Great stuff!

And here is the code used to achieve his deceptive behaviour, as it appears on his site today:

The funny part of their defense of the comments is that they proudly stated that his comments didn’t apply to his proposed internet filter, and that the comment “should be taken in the full context of the interview” (IPTV content regulation), is that he was actually right in saying “you can’t regulate the internet” – even in terms of his stupid filter! Why?

Well, just so you understand – the department have clarified that the transcript makes it clear that the minister was discussing Australian content levels and not internet regulation generally. Okay.

There is currently a secret meeting underway in Mexico in regards to the protection of copyrighted works on the internet, with the aim of producing the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). A whole raft of countries/nation states/economic unions are involved – the United States, the European Union, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore, Jordan, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia. Yes, take note – Australia is a part of this. Read more about what ACTA is about here:

It is interesting that the leaked draft of the section of the ACTA proposal relating to digital enforcement of works on the internet seems to make clear that governments cannot mandate internet filtering.

Hang on – Australia is a party to this proposed trade agreement, which seems to explicitly forbid internet filtering, yet Conroy still wants his internet filter implemented? It is becoming more and more apparent to me that not only Conroy is completely out of touch with even the general goings in the industry(s) covering the portfolio he is RESPONSIBLE for, but he also is unaware of other “secret” dealings the government he is a part of is participating in internationally, that broadly affect large swathes of his own policy agenda!

We should be demanding some kind of explanation here. This is not good enough. Not only does his proposed filter not work; not only is it not required; not only do huge numbers of people not want it – Australia is at the table negotiating a trade agreement that will apparently FORBID it! If he doesn’t understand just how people don’t want it, here’s the results of a Sky News Australia poll from December 20th 2009:

I think it’s hilarious that the Department of Broadband, Communcations and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) spokesperson makes the point that it is “important that the comment was heard in the context of the full interview”. How about you monkeys respond in the full context of my posting? I specifically said:

Okay – this comment was specifically in the context of IPTV, but if you can’t regulate the internet in terms of IPTV, how can you regulate it in terms of anything else? How is IPTV content any different to any other internet content?

Minister/Department, you’ve taken my post out of context! I specifically made light of the IPTV context of the comment, yet – as per usual – you bent the question I asked towards your own agenda. I even directed people towards a full download of the interview to make their own judgement!

Why does the Minister and the DBCDE consistently refuse to answer the questions raised by constituents? Why do they continually deflect even the remotest criticism of their plan and twist it in their own evil ways? Do they even remotely understand that the stupid filter they are so in love with, won’t actually work? That it simply won’t prevent access to the material they claim it will block?

If they are so confident that they can block specific URLs, why can’t they block the IPTV URLs, thereby enforcing “content rules”? Filtering the internet in ANY WAY is “enforcing content rules”! You know why? Because some of these IPTV streams are owned/will be owned by the big media moguls – (either people who have already achieved that status, or will BECAUSE of IPTV). Why piss off the big media barons who might make campaign contributions?

Yeah, because they might make campaign contributions.

Wouldn’t it be a better idea not to piss off the people who can vote you out of office, Mr Conroy?

The context of the following portion of the discussion was IPTV and how it might effect minimum Australian content regulations, so I have to admit that the context is not specifically in regards to internet filtering, however the interesting sound bite, spoken from his very mouth, is “You can’t regulate the internet”. Take extra special note of the “very pregnant pause” when he realises what he said! A full download of the interview is available here.

Okay – this comment was specifically in the context of IPTV, but if you can’t regulate the internet in terms of IPTV, how can you regulate it in terms of anything else? How is IPTV content any different to any other internet content?

To me, they just do not seem to understand the flow on effects.

Mr Westcott said Geelong passengers wanting to transfer to the City Loop would be forced to change trains at Footscray, from where they would only be able to use Sydenham line trains to gain access to the loop, because Werribee trains travelling though Footscray only ran direct to Flinders St.

“The Sydenham line is the most overcrowded in Melbourne, so forcing Geelong passengers to squeeze on to these already packed trains in peak hour is a recipe for chaos,” Mr Westcott said.

As a backgrounder, the current situation is that regional trains from Geelong, Ballarat, and Bendigo share rail lines with metropolitan trains on the Werribee, Williamstown, and Sydenham lines. Any hold up with a regional train effects the metropolitan trains (and of course, vice versa). The RRL is designed to provide a dedicated track for the regional trains to run on, taking them away from the metropolitan lines. This has the effect of allowing more trains to run on both regional and metropolitan lines – as they would no longer need to compete for track access.

Paul Westcott says that with no access to North Melbourne station for RRL, passengers wishing to transfer to the metropolitan network to use the City Loop – (which they would previously have accessed from North Melbourne) – would be forced “to squeeze on to these already packed trains in peak hour” at Footscray.

Mr Westcott, the trains are packed at North Melbourne anyway! While I do not currently need to use the City Loop, in the past I have often had to wait for three or four completely full services to pass by at North Melbourne, before a train with space available arrived.

Further, Footscray is the PREVIOUS station, so at that point, they should be LESS crowded, and given the RRL will free up track access for metropolitan services, there will be more metropolitan trains which they can board at Footscray, which reduces crowding even more. Passengers would also have the option to travel all the way to Southern Cross and switch to a City Loop service there – since Southern Cross is actually part of the City Loop!

As for North Melbourne station, exactly where would Mr Westcott propose more platforms be built? There’s not exactly any room to build even two more platforms to serve the RRL. In a perfect world, you would build new platforms at North Melbourne and at Footscray. This is not a perfect world.

Changing onto more (and less crowded) City Loop trains at Footscray is actually a definite plus. Travelling all the way to Southern Cross and catching the City Loop from there – (remembering the train wouldn’t be stopping at North Melbourne) – would be negligibly different. Given the regional trains won’t be affected by delays in the metropolitan network, travelling times should be more reliable, and absolutely more predictable.

Now, if we can just stop all these new regional trains from breaking down, we’ll be cooking with gas!