On Wed, 7 Jul 2004, Fustanella wrote:

Except it wouldn't, because then you run into licensing and patent
issues...Which is why most people are switching away from GIFs to JPEGs
and PNGs...Apart from anything else, PDFs tend to scale and print a lot

There's no such issue with GIF any longer. The LZW patent (one of the
compression technologies found in GIF) expired within the last year or so.

Actually, as was reported today on Slashdot
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/06/1717243, GIFs are still
encumbered by patents for at least two years. Since IBM is claiming the
violation of this patent in a lawsuit right now, it's hard to argue that
you are home-free to use GIFs without licensing the patent from IBM.

There's plenty of discussion about the patent and technical issues
at the address above.
--
Michael Hoffman

Tom Anderson wrote:
On Wed, 7 Jul 2004, Sam Holloway wrote:


Any mooted plans to extend Victoria or Bakerloo lines south must be
pretty dormant.


I've heard mention of such plans, but no details (at least not for the
Victoria). What exactly has been proposed (seriously or not)?

tom

Nothing is being considered seriously at the moment - I think TfL have a
full plate of projects at the moment and are having difficulty
extracting cash for any one of them, let alone new ones. However...
there was a plan for the Victoria Line to be extended in a loop from
Brixton to Herne Hill and back. Thus trains would run S/B - Brixton -
Herne Hill - Brixton - N/B without terminating - much like the Heathrow
loop. This has been mooted as a way of increasing frequency which is
currently limited by the scissors crossover just north of Brixton station.

There have been plans to extend the Bakerloo southwards for decades -
and planning permission was obtained at one point but construction never
started. I believe the plan was to run to Bricklayers Arms and then
underneath the Old Kent Road to New Cross, Lewisham and then take over
the overground rail services from there to Hayes (Kent).

I don't think either plan is on the table at the moment.

--
Dave Arquati
Imperial College, SW7
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London

In message , Dave Arquati
writes

TfL have unveiled a "future of transport" map which shows how the
Underground map (or rather "TfL map") would look in 2016 if they get
funding for the projects they want to build.

Some particular National Rail lines are included on the map as well as
Crossrail 1, Thameslink 2000, the ELLX, Cross River Transit, DLR
extensions, East London Transit, Greenwich Waterfront Transit, the West
London Tram, the Croydon Tramlink extensions, the Croxley Link,
Terminal 5 and Stratford International.

It's very interesting!

It is ... although for me the most interesting part is that even by 2016
the mayor does not expect his maps to acknowledge the existence of most
of the surface rail network that serves me and many millions of others
living close to the centre of which he is mayor.

Integrated transport? Come on Ken ...
--
Paul Terry

On Wed, 7 Jul 2004 11:25:49 -0400, "Fustanella"
wrote:

Except it wouldn't, because then you run into licensing and patent
issues...Which is why most people are switching away from GIFs to JPEGs
and PNGs...Apart from anything else, PDFs tend to scale and print a lot

There's no such issue with GIF any longer. The LZW patent (one of the
compression technologies found in GIF) expired within the last year or so.

This posted just today:

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/06/1717243&mode=thread&tid=136&tid=152&tid=155&tid=18 5&tid=187&tid=99

GIF Slips Away From Unisys; Your Move, IBM

Twenty years ago, Terry Welch's improvement on Lempel-Ziv compression
appeared in IEEE Computer magazine. The authors of unix 'compress' and
the GIF standard incorporated that algorithm without realizing it was
patent-pending. When the submarine patent surfaced ten years later,
its new owner Unisys intimidated developers and web authors into
moving away from GIFs, inspiring the creation of a better standard,
though sadly still a less popular one. Today, July 7, 2004, Unisys's
last LZW patent (in Canada) expires, leaving GIF once again free...
almost. See, there's the small matter of IBM's patent, granted on the
same algorithm, which is valid for another two years. That still has a
chilling effect on GIF development, though the consensus seems to be
that IBM would lose any court action it tried to bring. So how about
it, IBM? You've got nothing to lose! Want to make a lot of geeks happy
and release that final patent into the public domain?

On Tue, 06 Jul 2004 18:36:01 +0100, John Hearns
wrote:

On Tue, 06 Jul 2004 17:37:55 +0100, Dave Arquati wrote:

TfL have unveiled a "future of transport" map which shows how the
Underground map (or rather "TfL map") would look in 2016 if they get
funding for the projects they want to build.

Anyone know the exact location for the
"Stratford International for the Olympics" station?
I was in that area this weekend, having a look round.

Isn't it the Eurostar station being built north of Stratford station?
the ctrl website has details. http://www.ctrl.co.uk/
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!

On Wed, 7 Jul 2004 at 18:33:05, Dave Arquati wrote:


Nothing is being considered seriously at the moment - I think TfL have a
full plate of projects at the moment and are having difficulty extracting
cash for any one of them, let alone new ones. However... there was a
plan for the Victoria Line to be extended in a loop from Brixton to Herne
Hill and back. Thus trains would run S/B - Brixton - Herne Hill - Brixton
- N/B without terminating - much like the Heathrow loop. This has been
mooted as a way of increasing frequency which is currently limited by
the scissors crossover just north of Brixton station.

How much more frequent do they want trains? They already run every 2
minutes throughout most of the day, as it is!

Me, I wish they'd extend the line southwards to Streatham, but I doubt
that will happen, partly because of the underground River Effra.
--
Annabel Smyth
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/index.html
Website updated 6 June 2004

"Sam Holloway" wrote in message
...

few changes to the UndergrounD lines in general

Isn't the Metropolitan line supposed to be extended via Whitechapel by 2015?

* No apostrophes in Earls Court, Regents Park,
Kings Cross, etc! Is this one of the plans for 2016? :-)

Quite possibly! Apostrophe abuse is so common now that
getting rid of them altogether could be the way forward. :-)

Aposatrophy?

--
John Rowland - Spamtrapped
Transport Plans for the London Area, updated 2001
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acro...69/tpftla.html
A man's vehicle is a symbol of his manhood.
That's why my vehicle's the Piccadilly Line -
It's the size of a county and it comes every two and a half minutes

On Wed, 7 Jul 2004, John Rowland wrote:

"Sam Holloway" wrote in message
...
* No apostrophes in Earls Court, Regents Park,
Kings Cross, etc! Is this one of the plans for 2016? :-)

Quite possibly! Apostrophe abuse is so common now that
getting rid of them altogether could be the way forward. :-)

Aposatrophy?

More like apostrophe apostasy.
--
Michael Hoffman

Paul Terry wrote:
It is ... although for me the most interesting part is that even by 2016
the mayor does not expect his maps to acknowledge the existence of most
of the surface rail network that serves me and many millions of others
living close to the centre of which he is mayor.

Integrated transport? Come on Ken ...

It would be a bit crowded!

Remember, this is a TfL map and TfL don't, at the moment at least, have
authority over those lines. The National Rail lines that are included
are those that appear on the tube map at the moment (Silverlink,
Thameslink etc)

Dave Arquati wrote:

Some particular National Rail lines are included on the map as well as
Crossrail 1, Thameslink 2000, the ELLX, Cross River Transit, DLR
extensions, East London Transit, Greenwich Waterfront Transit, the West
London Tram, the Croydon Tramlink extensions, the Croxley Link, Terminal
5 and Stratford International.

What's with the Thameslink line that goes from St Pancras through
Finsbury Park and then up north somewhere?