Technology for its own sake?
 

James Christie wrote:

The Russians have their own system called GLASNOSS


You have to be joking.

Technology for its own sake?
 

"Ian Johnston" wrote in message news:cCUlhtvFIYkV-pn2-9bQzpFIyRbud@localhost...
On Thu, 23 Sep 2004 13:05:59 UTC, "Jack Taylor"
wrote:

:
: "Ian Johnston" wrote in message
: news:cCUlhtvFIYkV-pn2-01opgFJcdpZb@localhost...
:
: Or having the stupidity to be blind or partially sighted, eh?
:
: Most visually impaired people are intelligent enough to make enquiries
: before they join trains and join them at the appropriate place to disembark

Well, what's so wrong with arranging things so they don't have to?

Ian

The alternative is to stand at doors that aren't going to open, so how
would it help? Or do you mean rebuilding the stations?

Technology for its own sake?
 

In message , at 21:37:05 on Thu, 23 Sep
2004, Solar Penguin remarked:
No doubt they would also say "glad to be of service" when they open.

And the buffet serves something that's almost, but not quite, entirely
unlike tea. (Oh, wait. That already happens...)

And I met a real life telephone sanitiser a couple of months ago.
--
"It used to be that what a writer did was type a bit and the stare out of the
window a bit, type a bit, stare out of the window a bit. Networked computers
make these two activities converge, because now the thing you type on and the
window you stare out of are the same thing" - Douglas Adams 28/1/99.

Technology for its own sake?
 

ANDREW ROBERT BREEN wrote:

In article ,
ANDREW ROBERT BREEN wrote:

/GPS-replacement/

Galileo, not GPS. A much better system (it'll have to be if it's to do a
fraction of what they're wanting it to do). The programme is being pushed
ahead hard and should be delivering in the next 3-5 years (depends how

Should have added - first satellite is up, more coming. Not checked in the
last few months on the launch schedule for the rest of it, and the best
accuracy will depend on other stuff in the pipeline - but that's for
things like landing airliners under Galileo control..

I though Surrey Satellite Technology and, IIRC, Astrium had only recently
got contracts to build some development satellites. As it is, they've only
just agreed the frequencies they're going to use as the USAians were
complaining that the main signal would sit right on their military band and
they wouldn't be able to locally degrade Galileo without doing the same to
their own military.

Matthew
--
Matthew Wild Tel.: +44 (0)1235 445173
URL http://www.wdc.rl.ac.uk/
World Data Centre - Solar-Terrestrial Physics, Chilton
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, Oxon, OX11 0QX

Technology for its own sake?
 

In article ,
TP wrote:
James Christie wrote:

The Russians have their own system called GLASNOSS

You have to be joking.


GLONASS. Can't recall off-hand how many satellites are in the
constellation at the moment, but they've been keeping it topped up.
In general GPS is better for accuracy at low latitudes, GLONASS
better at high latitudes. A high proportion of "GPS" receivers
are actually dual GPS/GLONASS.

--
Andy Breen ~ Interplanetary Scintillation Research Group
http://users.aber.ac.uk/azb/
"Time has stopped, says the Black Lion clock
and eternity has begun" (Dylan Thomas)

Technology for its own sake?
 

"James Christie" wrote in message
...

********, its GLONASS, I ALWAYS get that the wrong way round......

Your gonads are inverted???!!! :-)

--
MatSav

Technology for its own sake?
 

"Boltar" wrote in message
om...

I read apparently that Southern had been having problems with its train
doors
not opening on stations north of the Thames because these hadn't been
programmed into the database that uses GPS to know where it is!

Perhaps not just north of the river.

A friend recently had a very delayed journey from E. Croydon to Three
Bridges because the doors wouldn't open easily at any of the stations the
train stopped at.

Maybe just an individual glitch, but maybe not.

Technology for its own sake?
 

In article ,
Matthew Wild wrote:
ANDREW ROBERT BREEN wrote:
Galileo, not GPS. A much better system (it'll have to be if it's to do a
fraction of what they're wanting it to do). The programme is being pushed
ahead hard and should be delivering in the next 3-5 years (depends how

Should have added - first satellite is up, more coming. Not checked in the
last few months on the launch schedule for the rest of it, and the best

I though Surrey Satellite Technology and, IIRC, Astrium had only recently
got contracts to build some development satellites. As it is, they've only
just agreed the frequencies they're going to use as the USAians were
complaining that the main signal would sit right on their military band and
they wouldn't be able to locally degrade Galileo without doing the same to
their own military.

You've got the better information there - I must have mixed up something
else with a Galileo launch.

Aha! Got it. First structual model of the Galileo satellite rolled out,
first launches planned for next year:

http://www.esa.int/esaNA/SEMVDX0XDYD_index_0.html

Have to say that fits in better with where I thought they were up to than
launched-already, which did puzzle me.

--
Andy Breen ~ Interplanetary Scintillation Research Group
http://users.aber.ac.uk/azb/
"Time has stopped, says the Black Lion clock
and eternity has begun" (Dylan Thomas)

Technology for its own sake?
 

On Thu, 23 Sep 2004 16:21:19 +0100, Annabel Smyth wrote in
, seen in uk.railway:
John Rowland wrote to uk.transport.london on Thu, 23 Sep 2004:
"John Rowland" wrote in message
...
"Boltar" wrote in message
om...

What next , GPS controlled toilets that won't
flush on certain parts of the network

Actually, that's a truly great idea!

Rowland, you fool, that's a terrible idea! Retention tanks are a truly great
idea.

Except that IME trains that use them invariably have their loos locked
out of service, so you are crossing your legs for the entire journey....
why can't modern trains have loos that work?

Crap design, if you'll pardon the pun.

The toilets fitted to class 170 units (or at least those used by
Central Trains) apparently have tanks only large enough to provide 45
flushes. Given that our units can be in service for anything up to 18
hours a day, often pretty much continuously, and those services
include long distance runs such as Norwich - Liverpool & Nottingham -
Cardiff, 45 flushes is an extremely small figure.

And to further complicate matters, retention tanks require that the
contents be emptied, which means that they need somewhere with a
suitable cleaning pan and that in turn means that it's unlikely that
tanks can be cleared at every poxy little stabling point at which
trains get left overnight. In the case of the 170, the toilets will
lock themselves out once the retention tanks are full.


--
Ross

From & reply-to addresses will bounce. Reply to the group.

Technology for its own sake?
 

"Peter Masson" wrote in message ...
There is a perceived risk with relying on the
driver's or guard's memory, though signs on short platforms on the
Salisbury - Exeter line seem to me to be an adequate aid to memory.

Southeastern - like Southern, also running Electrostars - seems
perfectly happy with such signs rather than satellite technology;
they're marked '375 SDO' and to be found at Chartham and Chilham,
amongst other places.

David E. Belcher