Spent the day out and about today with friends visiting a number of spots around the CBD. First time since COVID struck. By the end of the day I was entirely sick of being told what and what not to do by all and sundry. Most annoying of all was the pursed-lips type, ordinarily the low ones on the totem pole, who obviously delight in giving people orders: You have to queue here, not there. You must wear a face mask. You must scan the QR code and sign in (and of course next comes the spam). You cannot use cash. Wait here until you are called. You must use the stairs -- the lifts are out of service due to social distancing. Only two of you can go in together, and so on, and so forth, ad nauseum.

I am left longing for a return of the time when I can go about my business without being given orders at every turn by non entities. May that be sooner than later.

It might be a tough call but I am thinking that by Christmas, all the coronavirus panic merchanting will be over and done with, providing there isn't any more stupidity with protestors grouping together again passing their germs on to others.

To be fair, the QR codes that are scanned on entry to many public areas have contributed to the ability of NSW Health to actively trace and isolate the numerous clusters that have popped up. I work at a hospital and we are using them there to filter visitors, contractors and the Hospital's own staff.

But yes, it can be onerous to stand in queues to answer questions umpteen times and in the case of where I work, there are times when people coming in either don't own a compatible phone or aren't tech savvy so they have to go through manual questioning as to their recent whereabouts.

My way of getting around it outside of work has been to avoid going to places where it is required and have chosen to do other things. I've been doing a fair bit of bushwalking of late and in about four weeks I will be taking some rare time off work and hitting a camp up the north coast somewhere - yet to be decided. Yes - there will be a radio hunt happening.

What I pray for the most at the moment is that soon we have a successful Australian-developed and Australian-made coronavirus vaccine.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

I have avoided doing such things, too. In small doses, here and there, it's not such a bind, but when you get it a every turn as we did today, it's a pain in the derriere. Actually, there was one souvenir shop where they didn't give us 'the third degree', but they had hand sanitiser on the counter which was good. I have no issue with using that stuff anywhere I go. In fact, IMO, using hand sanitiser after every transaction probably contributes more to avoid the spread of disease than any other measure.

I even went to the extent of staying away from the supermarkets when there were food shortages and long queues due to the level three restrictions that were on at the time, preferring a mix of takeaway and preparing home cooked food in advance and freezing it for later consumption. When I did go to the supermarket it was usually ten minutes before closing as I'd be one of the only ones there. I hate shopping so I make sure I know what I need before heading out and instead of browsing shopping lists on my phone I just get in, fill the basket and get the hell out ASAP. I've always been like that.

It's amazing - no matter how many times I ate things like curried bangers or shepherds pie, I never got sick of it.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

I had my car serviced the other day, and there were these QR code things all over the place. Lucky nobody cared if they were scanned or not, and my phone isn't compatible anyway. Even the hand sanitiser bottle was empty, and there's so few staff that nobody noticed.

Then I went down the road to a takeaway, and again, more QR codes, so I ignored them and just wrote my name in the visitor's register.

I don't know how to use a QR code anyway or what they are for, so like anything I don't understand, it gets ignored.

My phone doesn't do QR codes either, so we used a friend's who has already experienced "promotional material texts" (i.e. spam) from shops insisting on their QR code being scanned prior to entry.

I write my name down in the registers, but I use my pen.

Re a vaccine, despite the number of labs around the globe in the race, given the tough testing regime required I'm not hopeful for an effective one being available in the near term. And the risk with these nasty fast-mutating coronavirii is that a new strain can develop overnight that defeats any existing vaccine.

As I've said before, while ever we have poor, uneducated people -- for whom hygiene is a foreign word -- living cheek by jowl with animal hosts and that combined with cheap international travel, we'll be at risk of pandemics.

There shouldn't really be a need for a QR code (or manual questionnaire) if all one is doing is buying takeaways. All on-licences, pubs, unlicenced restaurants, clubs, etc require it because of government regulations as those who enter are staying for a long time.

I've only used a QR code once outside of work - at the Greenwood Hotel in Nth Sydney. I've also had to sign a form and write down my phone number at a Chinese restaurant in Nth Strathfield. That's about it.

One thing I applaude the NSW Government for during this period is keeping all public transport operating to standard weekday and weekend timetables. Whilst Sydney Trains is the only profitable part of the system it has kept tens of thousands of people in a job despite whole modes being unoccupied at times and thus millions of dollars being lost. In a city that has more buses than cabs, it has allowed people to keep apart where possible.

Robert, a QR code is basically a 2D barcode. You can scan them with a smartphone (Windows, Apple or Android) and allow the phone to do what the barcode wants it to do. The simplest ones just direct you to a website. Others can save contact details in your phone's memory or load information into an application, such as logging a security guard's visit to a customer's premises, checking on plant and equipment, etc.

If you scan the one above with your phone (assuming it has a scanning app) this one will open this site on your phone.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

I haven't braved public transport yet. I'll be awaiting the 'all clear' before using PT again.

Wish bloody Dan would open the border up for Travel..I have to go to Melbourne to pick up some gear I bought...I can now cross the border with a permit ,but I must stay local.
Bit land locked here at the moment.

Pete

Ive got a Atwater Kent breadboard sitting at a mates place in Brissy I can't get to.

Also have 4 consoles here I sold to a QLD chap that he can't get either.

I'm not anywhere near any positive tests for the zombie virus.

I have New Kriesler waiting for me in Melbourne and I can't go yet. We have not had a covid case here in 80 days ....just want my Kriesler it's a beauty....pete

Brad, my phone is too old. Even if it wasn't, I couldn't do any more than take a photo of the QR code - I wouldn't know how to "scan" it.

The other problem is unlike most people, I do NOT carry the thing around wherever I go - it usually gets left at home, unless I'll be away for a day or more. So, if these shops insist on scanning QR codes, I'll just have to go somewhere else.

I think, on Android, its pretty much the same thing. Though even in a 3rd party application, you just get the code in the camera's sight and then it pops a question, "Do you want to visit this site?". You can get apps that read traditional barcodes too and they work the same way, just show it to the camera. There's no need for the laser beams like the supermarkets have.

That said, whilst I bought a mobile phone fairly early in the peace, around 1991 I think it was, I am not a routine phone user and tend to hold my head straight up and walk like a person down the street instead of a zombine with my head buried in the phone. As a result the phone lasts a lot longer (I typically hang on to one for around five-six years) and I don't need to see a neck doctor.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9lh7lqZojc

It is the same where I'm oh god the virus'' its like a giant drama school, you can't do anything, yet my area has zero elements of the plague. And my area never did have any elements of it.

Talk about scared from the boogie man!

The public repressive society is in full swing, somebody only has to sneeze and suddenly your surrounded by 5 coppers along with 2 pollie correct medics.

Your almost wrestled to the ground and have test sticks shoved up your nose!

You find most of the powers that be, have all been watching too many end of the world movies!
Remember Steven Kings' The Stand, where the tall black feller was roaming New York ringing the bell' crying out ...... 'bring out your dead''

I'm sure our quacks and politicians are watching re - runs of that movie every night!

Dudley Do - Right - Danial Andrews, our illustrious Victorian state Premier (Dickhead) and leader of the Police Brown Shirts''
He has totally lost the plot, I guarantee his popularity has hit such an all time low, that he has now tripled his life insurance policy.

Right now he's about as popular as an eviction notice, he's really on the nose! No way in the world he'd ever get voted back in for another term. He'd be lucky to get voted in to draw a chook raffle at the local pub.

Must be 80,000 business people in Melbourne lined up to run him down in the street, soon as he heads out for a loaf of bread!

Maybe the next part of the stimulus the government puts out will be several tons of brass bells, issued to the people! Soon as you sneeze, ring the bell, next thing you know your front doors broken down and in pours 2 brown shirts and 3 medics.

They have really got to get over it all.... its long past ridiculous!

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Steve.