America’s gotten significantly heavier over the past 20 years and we should have seen this coming. First Kevin Smith gets booted off that flight, then that guy sues White Castle for not having plus-sized booths. Now, one of the nation’s largest ferry systems is obligated to carry fewer people on each trip.
If you’re anything like us, you were probably simultaneously overjoyed and cynical about the announcement that Sydney Ferries is offering free WiFi on 70% of its routes. Gus from Lifehacker spent part of today travelling around on the harbour with the express purpose of testing the service out, and perhaps surprisingly he disembarked grudgingly impressed.
I was going to be all snarky when I got this press release from Manly Ferries in Sydney saying that they’ve just launched a free Wi-Fi service across their fleet. I mean, what is this? 2003? But then I remembered that the Sydney public transport system is still kind of stuck in the dark ages, so getting free Wi-Fi is still a pretty big deal…
Sydney Harbour has had its fair share of accidents recently, and some of them have involved ferries. That’s why the NSW State Government is spending up big to arm its ferries with state of the art night-vision gear.
The ferries are currently trialling the night vision technology in order to avoid smaller craft in the Harbour. So far, it’s already cost $100K, and if it’s deemed successful and rolled out across the Sydney ferries fleet of 31 ferries, will cost over a million bucks.
I’m not sure what kind of gear is being used as part of this trial, but making ferry pilots wear Sam Fisher-type goggles isn’t going to help anybody (unless the ferry captain is a double agent, like Steven Seagal in Undersiege).
As much as I love my tech, and especially night vision tech, I can’t see how this is a good way to spend taxpayers money. How about we stick some of that million dollars into education?
[SBS news via Fashionfunky]
What are the odds? Google cameras are taking aerial photos of Sydney Harbour when… Boom! Two ferries collide, sending smoke, fire, splinters and ash to the bottom of – um – nowhere?
Obviously, the photo is a composite of several images where the ferries just happen to overlap. But considering the iconic nature of Sydney Harbour, wouldn’t it be reasonable to assume that somebody would check for overlaps like this?
We all know that Tokyo is a gadget lover’s paradise, but it just became the hippest hang out on Earth, thanks to the Jicoo Floating Bar. As Adam is off to Japan, we thought he’d need somewhere cool to chill, so Frucci; check out the oldie but goodie Floating Bar. The impressive vessel is styled in the fashion of a hulking great spaceship, and it reminds us of the lives as astronauts we gave up to become bloggers. Check out the gallery below.
