Great news from the National Broadband Network (NBN) this week that it has swooped on new technology to deliver quicker and better services to the squillions of houses and businesses lined up to connect to its giant nationwide internet system.
The new scheme will see NBN’s magic optic fibre wires delivered right up to the house’s front kerb, an improvement on the ‘Fibre to the Node’ system used up to date although not as flash as ”Fibre to the Premise’ which was an early plan.
While PS-sssst! dips its lid to the clever boffins who conjured up the kerbside solution, we couldn’t help notice they lost their way when it came to abbreviating the new service.
While ‘Fibre to the Node’ was easily shortened to FTTN and ‘Fibre to the Premises’ FTTP, the new ‘Fibre to the Kerb’ has been thrown a curb-ball and comes abbreviated as FTTC!
Of course in a world of political correctness one can’t discount the likelihood that the blunder is deliberate on the grounds that it’s better to be judged illiterate than to allow a four-letter abbreviation starting with F and ending with K fall into the wrong hands!
Unconsoled consultation
To a different kind of community consultation now with the Australian Capital Territory’s Directorate of Justice and Community Safety showing how things can be done – and energy saved – with a little creative thinking.
Announcing a very worthy program of road safety grants to fund ideas from the community that might make road safety safer, the Directorate (lovingly nick-named JACS) referred potential applicants to an informative page on its website that promoted the program, described its history, set out its Terms of Reference and outlined examples of its successes from years gone past.
The informative webpage can be accessed at this PS News link.
The page also offered assistance to potential applicants for the 2018 grants, like so: “The 2018 ACT Road Safety Fund Grants program was opened on 9 April”.
“Applications for this year close on 23 May 2018”.
“For more details about the grants program, go to ACT Road Safety Fund”.
Yep, both the above hyperlinks go to the same website.
What makes this remarkable is that the JACS website link takes visitors seeking more information on a full circle ride back to to itself!
One way to approach community engagement in more ways than one!
Birthday party
To Rama Gaind’s weekly win-a-thon now in which three lucky readers have the chance to collect a free DVD copy of the romantic comedy movie A Little Something For Your Birthday starring Sharon Stone and Ellen Burstyn.
To win a place as a winner, all we needed to do was answer Rama’s quiz question with the name of the actor who plays the male lead in the film.
That actor was Tony Goldwyn and the first three correct readers who emerged from the infamous PS News Barrel of Booty were Rosemary M from the Federal Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, Anne S from the national Department of Human Services and Veronica B from the Commonwealth Department of the Environment and Energy.
Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to everyone who took part. The winners’ DVDs will be on their way shortly.
For another chance to join in Rama’s Win-a-thon, simply follow the link to this week’s giveaway and give it your best shot.
Good luck!
Phantasy land
Another visit to Philomena’s world of PS Phantasy now in which everything is reduced to a particularly pithy platitude that positively pulsates with purposeful perfection.
Philomena’s positive proverb for the present week relates to conferences, conventions, convocations and collaborations causing us to contemplate the true connotation of the comment.
According to Philomena: “Conferences and meetings play an important role in the management of most large bureaucracies.
“This is because they demonstrate exactly how many people an organisation can operate without” she says.
Food for thought!
And Finally, in a world first for PS-sssst! one of our highly cherished and prestigious awards for creativity above and beyond the call of public sector duty has, for the first time ever, been awarded to a non-Australian Agency.
The US Department of Justice has scored the history-making accolade with the passage during the week of a new US law allowing law enforcement agencies in other countries – including Australia – access to data collected and stored in the USA.
While that may be a notable breakthrough in its own right, the true award-winning feature was the Department’s creative commitment to acronymic abbreviationism evidenced by the cunningly clever name it pinned on its new Act.
They called it the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act, or CLOUD Act for short.
Very clever!
The only things missing from the perfect equation are two more Acts to (a) Regulate American Information Networks (RAIN) and (b) Handle Australian Interests Locally (HAIL).
‘Til next week…..
