Posts by Vic

Re: @Some Beggar

> The anecdote of an anonymous interneteer versus the official IAM line.

Well, I'm going to chime in to support the anonymous interneteer; some (not all) of the IAM branches I've seen do exactly as he says.

Vic.

Re: Actually, I don't think that's true.

> at least give them a black-line demarcation that makes a moderate degree of sense.

And that's exactly the inability to understand speed I was talking about. No such black-line demarcation can possibly make sense, beause hazard is inherently a probability function, relying on many other variables as well as speed.

By convincing the population that 29mph === very safe and 31mph === very dangerous, we are making a huge mistake. The amount of sleep the driver had the night before is likely to be far more significant than a few mph. Ditto the state of his personal relationships, his job, ...

What we need to do is to get people to take responsibility for their own actions, not give them trite little "rules" which bear little or no relation to reality.

> perhaps you also might rather I limited my speed to mitigate any potential damage?

No. I'd rather you be regularly assessed for competence to drive, and I'd rather you be held personally responsible for any damage you cause.

I disagree with mandatory sentencing, but I would like to see an *expectation* that any driver hitting a pedestrian or cyclist will do jail time.

Vic.

Re: White Van Man

> most insurance companies will use No MOT as a get out on their policies

Insurance companies are legally prohibited from using such issues to refuse third-party claims. They must pay if the claim is proven.

They will, however, attempt to recover such losses from the driver.

Vic.

Re: compensate for hazard?

> Do accidents happen because of behaviour that can be reasonably

> assumed or expected to occur

Almost always, yes.

The problem is that so many road users simply don't put enough effort into working out what can be expected to occur.

Once again, I'm going to plug "Roadcraft". If you haven't read it yet - you should. It's cheap, and it *will* save you at least one accident. And make you feel very inadequate[1].

Vic.

[1] Strangely, it also made me much faster. Although I no longer drive or ride at the same top speed as I used to, the observational skills I learnt from the course mean that my average speed is quite a bit higher.

Re: Speed != bad driving

> Speed ... is easily understood

Actually, I don't think that's true.

By far the majority of the people I meet do not understand a square law relationship. They cannot see that a car at 40mph has approximately twice the energy of a car at 30mph.

But more importanbtly, IMO, a vast number of people cannot see that safety is not a black-line demarcation; it is categorically *not* true that $limit-$delta is safe, whereas $limit+$delta is dangerous.

So although speed does need to be considered when deciding if someone is driving safely, there are many other factors[1] which seem to be overlooked once an observer has decided to focus on speed...

Vic.

[1] Many of these are probably far more important than speed when it comes to the probability of having an accident[2]. Tiredness is the most commonly-ignored factor IMO - and it is arguably as dangerous as alcohol.

[2] Note that I am considering the chances of having an accident, not the aftermath of having had one. It is obviously the case that more energy is likely to lead to more damage. But I would rather people looked at ways to avoid accidents, rather than just mitigate the damage. I would much rather be missed by a car doing 40 than hit by one doing 30.

Re: If they really knew...

> When was the last time your insurance even held steady, let alone went down? I

Mine went down this week (renewal was yesterday).

It helps that I hadn't had a car for some years, so last year, I had no NCD. This year I have a year.

My insurer from last year still put the premium up, though, and didn't bother sending me a renewal notice - just told me over the phone that they were about to charge my card anyway., The bastards shouldn't even have had the number. Grrr.

So being pissed off with that company, I went looking. One quote that beat my renewal by £80 was - exactly the same company. Bastards.

I ended up going with someone else, for a lower premium, and a lower excess. I saved over £100, and got a better deal all round...

Vic.

Re: For anyone that did CS at Southampton Uni (ECS)

> Southampton, a city with such bad traffic management

Much of the traffic industry sees Southampton's management as *good*.

Quite a bit of the industry is around Soutrhampton/Fareham, so we get trials...

But the Bitterne Road junction is world-famous - traffic engineers around the globe know of it, even if they don't know which country Bitterne is in. Shame the whole design[1] went pear-shaped the minute they deregulated the buses...

Vic.

[1] The plan was to stop people buying the cheaper housing on the East side of the river, then driving in and out of the city every day,. So there is a complex set of junctions between Athelstan Road/Bullar Road and Bursledon Road that make driving private cars harder if you venture off the main road, but prioritises buses (top bit of Bitterne Road, Garfield Road). The idea was to make public transport *much* more viable than private. And then they deregulated the buses, so it isn't.

Re: lucky people

> nice habit of turning red on the main road, to allow side traffic to join

You want to try living in France.

Some parts of the road network still use the "priorite a droite" law, which means that slow traffic joining from minor roads has right of way over traffic already on the main road.

Other parts of the road network do not use this rule.

Vic.

Re: Exactly

> taping a couple of neodymium magnets to the frame or pedals.

I wouldn't bother with that.

The sensor loop is a parallel tuned circuit - you've got a big coil of wire in the road, and a capacitor across it. The whole is driven by an oscillator - you've got a high-Q filter, so when in tune, there is negligible current flowing.

When something metal passes over the loop, the circuit loses tune, so current starts flowing. This is a very sensitive detector.

Over time, the components and road environment age, and you'll get some drift in the tuning. I did read about an idea to allow the loop driver to auto-tune, but I've no idea if that ever made it into production - it's a long time since I've done anything in this field.

Vic.

Re: Exactly

> I'm sure some can

When properly set up, they all can. It's part of the design spec.

Some of them are not properly tuned, and so the discrimination is not as tight as it should be.

Vic.

Re: Exactly

> I've seen bicycle specific sensors

Standard vehicle sensor loops are supposed to be sensitive enough to pick up bicycles.

I know of one in Southampton that is clearly out of tune, because it doesn't detect my bike.

Vic.

Re: Exactly

> What this guy is proposing is a city-wide model

Existing traffic systems have been using a city-wide model for decades.

He *might* have come up with a clever new algorithm. He probably hasn't - most such "innvoations" have a fundamental flaw that has been overcome many times[1]. But what he has *not* done is to create something entirely new - a city-wide, flow-modelled control system with feedback loops of varying sizes is in existence in most major cities around the world, and has been for a very long time.

Vic.

[1] My favourite is the single signal head: every year, some educator uses his influence to get in front of the bods at one of the big traffic companies to show off his latest protege's idea. This idea will inevitably be a signal head with a single lens, and a multi-coloured illuminator behind it. This used to be separate bulbs and a bit of optics, now it's assuredly LED. He will go through all the supposed benefits of simplified maintenance etc. Eventually, one of the audience will crack, and utter that fateful observation "red-green colour blind"...

Re: Interesting.

> But how do you fix Bushey Arches?

Nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

Vic.

Re: This is new?

> they had those black rubber bars across the road

The black rubber tubes are actually a census point. They are connected to a box chained to a pole somewhere close, and are used for gathering information about road use for planning purposes - they can determine class of vehicle, speed, wheelbase, etc.

But you're right that VA junctions are old news - only the sensors are predominantly buried into the road.

Vic.

Re: I call them

> then there is their other name :Doners

They're kebabs?

Vic.

Re: Darwin rules

> The trouble with motorcyclists is that the the menaces are in a majority.

This is not true.

Sadly, many car drivers feel the need to "educate" motorcyclists, despite not actually knowing what thay are talking about...

Vic.

Re: @jake (was: spinny!)

> Do a little research

Do your own research.

Just because someone built a monowheel does not mean that they are useful. They fundamentally cannot brake hard., as just a few minutes' reading or thinking would dsemonstrate.

It's possible to build a 1200cc unicycle. That doesn't make it a practical vehicle.

Vic.

Re: spinny!

> Mr Garrison of South Park invented the vehicle you are thinking of

Actually, they were a real invention dating from the second half of the 19th century. People really thought they could work. People were wrong...

Vic.

Re: Yes but...

> what would happen if VW did throw some of its GDP-of-a-small-country

> R&D budget at creating a hovercar

Someone would crash it.

The trouble with having no direct contact with the ground is that all acceleration needs to be done by way of vectored thrust - directed fans and the like. Unless your name is Apollo and you have a big "USA" decal on the side, that thrust tends to be comparatively low compared to the mass of the vehicle. So you get comparatively small acceleration.

That means you have to look much further ahead, and plan your manoeuvres much more carefully. Which won't happen, and so drivers will go careering into stationary objects. Frequently.

There are a few places around where you can go and drive hovercraft. It's excellent fun - but you'll come away with an unshakeable belief that such vehicles are not fit for the public road...

Vic.

Re: spinny!

> I was expecting the seating bit to stay upright, while an engine rotated the outer shell*.

You're thinking of a monowheel.

Such vehicles are essentially unusable anywhere a collision is unacceptable. Just try putting the brakes on...

Vic.

Re: i.Link

> I found out that 1394 = Firewire = iLink

Yes, of course it is.

The point I was making is that Sony would not allow me to tell anyone that. We had to pretend that i.Link was some uber-proprietary interface that only Sony had.

And that is why Sony got nowhere with that strategy.

Vic.

Re: arrogance

> They insist on introducing proprietary formats

Actually, much of the time, the formats are not proprietary. It;s just the name...

Years ago, there was an article on ZDnet (IIRC). The author was making a fuss about Sony having introduced yet another compression format called i.Link.

i.Link wasn't a compressor. It was a data link. I was permitted by corprat to write a reply to the article explaining that - but I was *not* permitted, under penalty of $unspecified, even to hint at the fact that this magical i.Link was simply 1394...

Nobody bought i.Link because they were scared of being locked into a proprietary standard.

Vic.

Variable?

> My last camera was in the bad CCD period, but deck was playing up

I've got a camera in my workshop. A customer left it with me, as it was BERed by Sony.

It's a Mavica camera with quite a nice lens on it. It writes images to 3-in CDs.

Well, this camera had stopped writing to the CD. It kept failing, which was of no use to anyone. My customer took it to the local camera shop, who sent it back to Sony for testing.

Sony said that they tested it thoroughly, and the drive was knackered. A new drive was £600. I shit you not. The camera was written off, and a replacement (not a Sony) purchased.

I put a decent-quality CD in the drive, and it's yet to fail on anything...

Vic.

Re: why the hate?

> And those 2 things are really not that bad.

Yeah, they are...

> Sony make great products

Sony *used to* make great products. When I joined, the kudos was simply fantastic. I was proud to be associated with the Sony quality.

During my time there, the pennies were ever-more pinched. In the end, the kit we were shipping was at best just the same as everyone else's, but with a higher price tag. At worst, there were serious difficulties with what went to market.

Vic.

Re: Heard Lewis on BBC R4 this morning

> Nice interview Lewis ;-)

Which programme?

I'll go snaffle it from iplayer...

Vic.

Re: I have to wonder...

> in which Cabinet minster's skull is the Coalition brain cell residing today?

Bzzzt. Assumes facts[1] not in evidence.

Vic.

[1] And brain cells.

Re: No worries

> It'll be years before anything turns up and even then it won't work.

I'm still rather uneasy that our future liberty relies on the fact that all our governments are completely fucking useless...

Vic.

> SSL encrypted comms - which are widespread even for home users using POP3 / SMTP

Encrypted SMTP is currently quite weak - although a key exchange does occur, it is rarely verified against a root certificate. Thus a MITM attack could supply its own key to the sender, and the data is effectively in the clear for that attacker.

I expect to see much more TLS verification in the coming years.

Vic.

Re: strict safeguards to protect the public...

> that would never be extended would it....

Doesn't that depend on the seriousness of the crime of which you are found innocent[1] ?

Vic.

[1] (c) 2000something WacquiJacqui...

Re: "Oh... email..."

> anyone thinks that old Liz actually has a clue about anything

She's far more clued-up than you might imagine.

She was a driver/mechanic during the war, and she was introduced to email before most of the rest of us.

That she talks such utter bollocks in the "Queen's Speech" is down to it being written by the government, not by the monarch.

Vic.

Re: I've Already Installed Tor...

> it is completely readable when you have intercepted the entire communication

No it isn't.

Vic.