NSW Opal Card Not Compatible With Airport Train

Getting off a 14 hour flight from Vancouver, I was disappointed to find my Opal card did not work at Sydney international airport station. The Opal card has a $10 minimum balance, but a train ride from the airport to city costs more than $10 (the link from the "fare calculator" page to say how much airport access costs is not working). As my card had a balance more than the $10 minimum it had not been automatically topped up to the minimum $40, but was less than the cost of the train fare and so was rejected. I suggest NSW introduce the system as at Vancouver airport, where those with pre-paid tickets do not pay the airport surcharge.

ps: Even when the card has been accepted at a railway station, I noticed that after the gate opens a red "Card Rejected" is displayed.

Vancouver from the 17th Floor

It is my last day in Vancouver, after a week conferring on computer education. My trip was to attend the 2014 IEEE International Conference on Computer Science and Education (ICCSE 2014). The conference was at the University of British Colombia (UBC) on a peninsular, next to Vancouver city. From my room on the 17th floor of the Walter Gage Student Residence, there is a magnificent view of forests below, ships on the water, the city skyscrapers and mountains in the distance. Most important for a university is good coffee and I found the Great Dane Coffee just around behind the Walter Gage.

UBC Malls

The UBC campus is very large with tree lined pedestrian  "Malls". The buildings on the malls have mostly been kept to four to six floors, to match the height of the trees. So while these buildings are large close up, they do not dominate when looking down a Mall.

There is an attempt to blend the new glass walled buildings into the old granite ones, by using granite bases and muted sandstone and grey colouring on the new ones. A good example is the Irving K Barber Learning Centre, which has been wrapped around the sides and back of an old granite one..

The ICCSE 2014 conference dinner featured a welcome from local indigenous performers. This had a fun bit of audience participation, with the delegates loosening up a little after getting up to dance as animal spirits (last year we had Sri Lanka Drummers).


UBC has two bus stations, one of which is serviced by electric trolley buses.This is something the city of Canberra might consider, in preference to trams. It is about a 30 minute ride to down-town Vancouver. I took a ride from UBC to the SFU Vancouver campus. The BC FareSaver Tickets allow you to get on and off buses and trains for 90 minutes. So I stopped off along the way to the city to shop at the Salivation Army Thrift Store (2714 West Broadway) and picked a pair of near new Italian shoes for $20.

The bus stopped outside SFU's Vancouver campus, near the waterfront. Across the road is the SFU Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue. The guard was kind enough to open up the Asia Pacific Hall for me to have a look at this impressive room. This is a circular parliamentary style chamber, with stepped seating. It is intended to facilitate discussion, rather than adversarial debate.

Sydney Smart Ticket on a Bus to Nowhere

The city of Vancouver is introducing their Compass electronic fare card progressively on buses, trains and ferries, saying "... we've learned from cities around the world that extended-delivery schedules are common with major-system changes...". That is certainly the case in Sydney, with the Tcard system supposed to be in place for the Sydney 2000 Olympics, but abandoned in 2007. The replacement Opal system has started being used on ferries and trains (and some buses from Monday). But when I went I tried clicking on "View a list of bus services that accepts Opal" the page was not found.

ps: I had hoped to try Vancouver's Compass card later in the month, to get from the airport (and avoid a $5 surcharge which international passengers are slugged with). But the smart cards are not generally available yet.

Events at the University of British Colombia in August

I will be at the University of British Colombia (UBC) 21 to 26  August 2014 to speak at ICCSE 2014 Conference, So I thought I would see what is on at UBC while I am there. Last year I spent a month around UWA, considering "Where is the University Headed?", dining at St Catherine’s College (which was about to become co-ed), gave a Seminar on Green Computing, attended concerts and gallery openings.

UBC is a much bigger place than UWA, but August is holiday time (which may be why the conference organisers chose it (available venues and accommodation). Even so I have found the UBC Eevents Calendar has some things on. Some are a little specialised, such as Menus from the Canadian Pacific Railway's Ships, Trains, Planes, and Hotels at the Barber Learning Centre, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m, 1961 E Mall, Vancouver, BC. A little more unusual is "The Metaphysics of Love Pilot Workshop", asking such questions as : "can you love a computer operating system?" (25 August 2014, D324 Buchanan Building).

A web search found more events:

Creating the Future- Partnerships for Inclusive Learning Conference, August 25-27, 2014 at UBC

It is frustrating that some event announcemtns provide little explanation of what they are about, for exmaple, what is Slackline UBC?

From Eventbrite:

Looking outside UBC in Vancouver, there is the "Transition Regional Workshop for Central & Western Canada", 23 -24 August, but what is it? Apparently it is "proactive transition to a low-carbon society, requiring resilient communities, ‘re-skilling’ for a low-carbon future, and re-localizing the production of basic needs, while emphasizing opportunities for greater connectedness and celebration.".

Walking Tour: The Cardero Street Heritage Stroll, Heritage Vancouver Society, 10am to 12 noon, 23 August 201.
  
Vancouver Craft Brew Cruise, August 23rd at 3:30pm and 8:00pm.

Tiny House Workshops (building an off grid Tiny Community Center),  Vancouver Community Laboratory, 1907 Triumph Street, Vancouve

What to See in Vancouver in August?

Any suggestions as to what to do in Canada in August? I have visited Vancouver briefly before, arriving from Toronto by train and have seen the whales.

I will be University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, 21 to 26 August 2014, to present a paper at the 9th International Conference on Computer Science & Education (ICCSE 2014). Normally when speaking at a conference I also give a free public talk for government, professionals and academics, hosted by a local body. Anyone willing to host a talk please let me know.

My paper for the conference is "Chinese and Australian Students Learning to Work Together Online: Proposal to Expand the New Colombo Plan to the Online Environment". This has attracted some interest, as the conference is organised by the China Research Council on Computer Education in Colleges & Universities.

The Australian Government's "New Colombo Plan" provides $100m funding for Australian university students to undertake part of their studies at universities in the Indo-Pacific region, to foster greater cultural understanding, technical and business links between Australia and the region. The aims of the origins and aims of the original and new Colombo Plans are compared and the option of to teach Australian and Chinese students together on-line, to meet the plan's aims are explored.

Worthington, T. (2014, August 22-24 ). Chinese and Australian students learning to work together online. Paper presented at the 9th International Conference on Computer Science & Education (ICCSE). Vancouver, Canada. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/11724

ps: I am a Distance Education Masters student at Athabasca University and so was thinking of dropping in to visit the campus, until I discovered Athabasca is 1,300 km from Vancouver. ;-)