Posts by TRT

Re: Not a hope in hell

Or laser-wielding horny Swedes in pig masks...

Re: Insurance premiums

Any insurance company worth its salt will be making sure it covers potential outlay from driverless collision incidents. With barely any data, I expect they will take a far more cautionary approach unless it is mandated otherwise. e.g. based on the engine capacity etc of an equivalent vehicle. That's just collision damage, of course. Then you've got loss through theft and fire and other means (e.g. the idiot box drives through a swollen river calculating that it's just a ford). Or the manufacturers will be forced to underwrite the vehicle, which kind of makes sense; they should put their money where their mouth is.

Re: Similar story on Ars...

Will that support mass production, though? More about the business than the tech.

Re: Is there no icon on El Reg...

The fitting of seat-belt mounting points became mandatory in 1968, and cars built between 1965 and 1968 had to have them retrofitted. It was 1983 before it became mandatory to wear them in the front, and 1989 before back seat passengers had to join in. Despite the vast amount of data collected worldwide in the 50s and 60s, it still took the best part of two decades and God knows how many attempts to pass the legislation before it happened. And that's for a basic safety device, rather than anything game changing like steering-wheel-less vehicles with all the liability and insurance issues. So I don't think that any mass-market is going to open up for them within 5 years purely because of the speed with which legislature moves. Possibly there's a market for self-driving taxis in a controlled environment in some progressive car-free towns or business parks, but by 2021 I can guarantee there's not going to be the kind of volume of sales that matches their announcement. I can see a main production model with advanced guidance technology as an optional package, perhaps that's what they mean, and if they'd have said "we will be making this technology available as an option on some of our main production models, operating in all modes as high as local legislation permits" I'd not be laughing, I'd be nodding and saying, yes, I can see that happening.

Re: More predictions...

Humans. Where we're going, we don't need humans.

Re: Pigs with frikkin' lasers...

Pigs.... In.... SPAAAAAAAACE!

Re: Why doesn't Win10 support multiple drives better

"Mute" as in "shut up, keep quiet, don't make another sound"?

Re: Why doesn't Win10 support multiple drives better

I had a couple of boxen from Dell which, due to various purchasing agreements and cockups, came with Windows 8 on SSD instead of Windows 7. Could I roll it back? Not without a week's solid work and fitting spinning rust - not only did the disk controller need a driver not on the standard install iso, but the actual Samsung SSD itself did (no fallback mode to a default driver), and so did the USB sockets, all of them. No floppy, no CD drive. I tried baking my own custom Win 7 install DVD, which I hadn't done before - fail. I've never had so much pain getting an OS onto a PC before. I'm wondering if this double driver issue is screwing with Windows 10 as well.

Re: most MS licencing schemes allow you to install the software on a home device as well

A trouble shared...

Re: Wow.

Time went bust in 2005, didn't it?

Re: If only...

Hm. A useful upgrade to windows.

Re: Erm...

How else do you wipe windows?

Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

I find that if I want to leave a forum comment, but have to have a Facebook login to leave one, then what I wanted to say was probably 1) not worth saying 2) to the wrong audience.

Re: ironic heart attack

Funnily enough, the washing machine in the flat I moved into post-divorce has taken a terrible toll on my clothes. Either that or I'm shit at laundry. Because all the shirts I have are shrinking rapidly. The nice short sleeved one I only bring out for special occasions (i.e. very hot days) that I've had for years? It's now so tight I look like a throttled earwig. And the long sleeved white one with the special collar for bow-ties... I've had that for years too, and it used to fit brilliantly, but now the sleeves and cuffs are so tight... the right cuff I can't do up at all for some reason. And you're right. Shop stocking has definitely changed. I can't find any 32xs trousers, so I'm forced to wear 34s with belt and turn ups. I always thought it was because there were so many short-legged men around that they sold out of xs before I got there. And now with BHS gone titsup, I've no chance.

Re: Really?

The last 20 feet of the platform are heavily soundproofed. The blood pours down these chutes and the mangled flesh slurps into these...

Re: RE: Anonymous Custard

OK, I've had some replies about the Arnos Grove thing.

There's a higher than typical number of speed-control signals in the area, which can be tricky, and there's a gradient up to Oakwood (so the SB trains may be picking up speed from that).

There's a lot of conflicting movements possible in the area, so signals may remain set to danger for longer than anticipated.

Crew may be distracted by preparing for crew-relief at Arnos Grove.

PJ320 is a 10mph draw-up signal halfway along a platform which may not clear as anticipated due to e.g. a reversing service on the adjacent (converging) track.

And the inner home signals for eastbound and middle platforms have a dual role as semi-automatics or draw-up signals depending on the route that has been set.

NB Speed control and draw-up signals are peculiar to LU and were introduced to shorten the gaps between trains, particularly at platforms, by allowing a slow moving following train to approach closer (to the rear of a stopped in platform or just pulling away train) by means of a cascade of time-delayed signals - if you get to the next red before the timer runs out, you're going too fast and the tripcock will apply the emergency brake.

I've always thought it's one of those obvious but smart things when they have to do a removal of something from the track at a station, and they stop a train at the tunnel mouth with just the driver's door on the platform - the driver gets out, locks the train & hands the key to the person going onto the track; so there is no way that train is moving until the person is off the track. So obvious, yet so elegant.

Not Fail Safe is, IIRC, called Fail Dangerous.

As opposed to electronic door locks, which are classed as Fail Safe and Fail Secure, presumably failing safe for a door lock means the door can still be opened. For some reason an idiot thought it would be good to have the only door into our server room fail secure, so that infrastructure was protected in the event of supply loss. As I was delivering a whole pile of switches to there, I noticed the peculiar arrangement of lock, pointed it out to the building super who insisted it was fine until I got his lackey to trip the circuit breaker for the door's power and locked him inside the room. As there was no manual release on the inside, they couldn't really use the room properly for 4 months whilst they arranged to have a different lock (with a break-glass release) fitted. Managed to fit the switches, but it meant we had to have at least two people present at any one time and the door was very firmly wedged open with a breeze block. No they didn't bother replacing the glass after the first time it was needed, the power failed so often.

Re: Really?

"most other train services [...] don't have a guard on the train"

Really? Strange definition of "most". Look at Section 3.29 of this 2014 consultation document which says "For example, trains across the region are currently operated with both a driver and guard. However, on almost a third of train services in Great Britain, including many recently electrified routes, everything is controlled by the driver in what is known as 'driver only operation' (DOO), with no need for a conductor or guard to operate the doors, or for train despatch. This means any other staff on-board the train are able to focus on customer service and revenue protection."

This means that 2/3 of the services are not operated solely by the driver. Having just one person responsible for the train is ridiculous. Just resetting a passenger emergency alarm (aka a passcom) can take five minutes of walking down the train - if the driver is doing that instead of driving the train... and then there's the communications equipment to the line controller which is located in the cab - so when the driver is away from that, there's no communication with the controller (they can take a portable radio, but most trains do NOT have an onboard radio system, so messages sent by the line controller can't be guaranteed to be relayed along the whole length of the train)

Re: Wrong conclusion

But 1 failure of a central system knocks out over 100 trains that are out on the line. On the Central Line, full-ATO tends to not work in wet weather.

The ATO systems... if they get turned on and off again, they lose the positions of the trains, and it takes AGES to find them all again.

Re: Really?

On the tube, or are you just pissed with the RMT over the Southern thing? Because the way I see it

(1) effective management doesn't antagonise the staff to the point of dispute

(2) driver only operation is not as safe as two-person operation (where both of the roles carry a safety responsibility)

(3) drivers operated doors are not as safe during train dispatch as guard operated doors are (and the RAIB agree - "[...] trains operated by Southern [...] are equipped with external CCTV cameras which cover the area along the sides of the train, and provide images which are displayed in the cab. These images are suppressed once the train has begun to move. It is important that the driver is not distracted from observing signals and the line ahead during departure from stations." The images for most of these systems are not recorded and many have a lag of 0.5-1.5 seconds - presumably due to compression required to send them over the air to the monitors in the cab. Some images are displayed on screens on the platform, which can be affected by dirt and sunlight and which pass out of the driver's line of sight within moments.)

(4) anyone who says "well, the tube has been DOO for years" has missed the fact that stations are categorised as A or B type depending on the amount of curvature / amount of platform that can be seen from the cab, and class 'B' stations require a member of staff on the platform to assist with train dispatch - though the ultimate responsibility for starting the train is that of the driver. Even class 'A' stations have SATS (Station Assistant, Train Services) - they hold the baton up to signal that they think it's safe to depart. In the end, the tube is quite a controlled environment compared to the mainline.

Re: The key advantage of ATO wasn't covered

ATO doesn't achieve that. TBTC does.

It has historical notes, shows accurately the position of pointwork, sidings, stations, closed stations and where lines cross each other vertically. OK, maybe not "handy" as in small, but "handy" as in it it has more detail. There's also a nice scrolly, zoomy version on the same website. And I believe the guy's done the same for other Metro systems.

Re: Some of these choices are strange

The London Richmond? For the sausages? LOL. Well, I suppose it's made of ham.

Re: Scotland and London vs. England and Wales

Did they?! I'm surprised.

I'm going to go home via the London Underground and then on a Virgin Trains service to have a plate of either home-made Cathedral City cheese and onion pie & chips with HP sauce or Richmond Sausages and mash with Bisto gravy and a mug of tea (not PG Tips though, Clipper Organic from Waitrose) whilst watching the BBC news and Robot Wars on iPlayer.

As for the referendum, I couldn't make up my mind.

Re: Now why would I want that?

Now stand in the middle of the town square and shout the following...

All you bankers! I'm after the best banker. So who banks the highest?

With your fingers in the corners of your mouth, pulling.

Re: API

The BBC report on it had me crying into my iPhone. They worded it like it was something new, almost unique to the banking industry and designed for price comparison websites.

Re: I'm all for online banking...

I have limited experience, but my UK bank account stood head and shoulders above my Canadian one. Apart from the Canadian cheque book, that was very pretty indeed. So artistic I didn't want to write any cheques, in fact, as I'd then not have the full set of bird paintings worthy of an 18th century naturalist.

Re: Competition and Markets Authority

Promotes customer choice. But not if you want to choose a bank that doesn't have all the online crap.