Posts by Stoneshop

Re: Hacking?

I'd like to think that train systems are impossible to hack but there's always somebody on the team who won't take security seriously.

The trackside signalling is a much softer target, although you have to do so by physical access to the datacom used so just creating a mess from behind your desk in Outer Elbonia won't work without local help.

Re: "Which hasn't struck me as particularly advanced either"

as it would be impractical to monitor the amounts paid for these imported services to charge duty on them.

Would it? Shipping agents, and with them ports authorities, tend to know the amount, and most likely the value too, of freight unloaded at port X, the amount loaded at said port, the amount unloaded at port Y, etcetera for all ports called. And just like train cargo is charged by the ton, you charge interport cargo by weight and tack that on to the berthing fees or something.

Re: "Which hasn't struck me as particularly advanced either"

Can you elaborate?

In the Netherlands train distances and frequency[0] usually don't allow treating every train like the one with the longest braking distance. Apart from that those signalling rules are more about trying to keep a constant speed for freight trains[1], those not entering a tunnel if it's not clear up to at least one section past, passenger trains not entering a tunnel if there's a freight train on the opposite track, oversize or dangerous loads, etcetera

[0] we have one of the busiest railway networks in Europe, if not the busiest. And we're trying to cram some more in still. With, for the moment, signalling hardware we received through the Marshall plan, but with all kinds of computer systems tacked on to make the best of it. It has been announced that ERTMS will be coming into wider use.

[1] train drivers currently have an app for that, allowing them to not only see signals further ahead than would be visually possible, but also what kind of train is ahead of them at what speed, whether it's going to turn out or not, so that they can smoothly adjust speed if necessary, and save energy.

Re: "Which hasn't struck me as particularly advanced either"

Large cargo ships are simply more efficient for long routes

When not taking transit time into account, that is; if the stuff already has to go via ocean shipping anyway (no railway line from China to the US that I know of) transit time is either irrelevant or taken into account in delivery schedules. If start and end point are connected/connectable by rail that does become a viable option, depending on (expected) volume and time saved.

Re: "Which hasn't struck me as particularly advanced either"

Correct, but a buckled track is usually fixed within days. Low water levels tend to stay that way for weeks or even months.

Re: "Which hasn't struck me as particularly advanced either"

and rail doesn't suffer from drought

Addendum: indirectly it does, as it doesn't have the capacity to take on all of the excess that river/canal shipping can't handle in such a situation.

Re: "Which hasn't struck me as particularly advanced either"

You won't see it in Europe because ships are better.

Citation needed. There are more industrial areas connected by rail than by river+canal, and rail doesn't suffer from drought, which has been quite the problem in Europe over the past few years.

but they did that thirty years ago

More than double that: EMD built the first multi-unit locos in 1939, and multi-loco traction is basically the same as cab-plus-booster(s), technologically.

Re: "Which hasn't struck me as particularly advanced either"

US train makers have a long experience in such kind of transport, you won't see it for example in Europe where routes are shorter and most of it electrified, for example.

Multi-loc traction is nothing new in Europe either, with multi-current and multiple signalling standards on top of that. There are now even locomotives that are primarily electric, augmented with diesel for the last few km (industrial spurs are only rarely electrified, or just partially).

And mixing passenger and goods traffic on the same lines is much more common. Which makes for a lot of specific rules in the signalling logic if you don't want to treat every train as the slowest heaviest goods train that line might carry.

Re: Both sets of wings?

Just one plus two stumps?

Next question

Yeah. Really sounds like a professional outfit.

Did Polequaptewat set those cloud services up, or did he 'inherit' them from an attempt by one of the executives to get some automation going?

Machines should work for us, not think for us.

Although I know some people (using the term loosely here) who would definitely benefit from having a ZX81 installed. And that's with the ubiquitous wobbly RAM extension.

Re: "Includes free Compact Disc album!"

In the days when CD's were new a guy where I worked set up a "CD lending library" where fellow workers could register their CD's and borrow each others.

I was volunteering at a record[0] library when the CD was launched, and we decided to spend a bit of spare cash on a few of those discs. IIRC we started with 80; after the first week there were about ten left on the shelf and we rather rapidly ordered another hundred or so.

[0] the black vinyl sort.

Re: "airborne splinters of razor-sharp shards of metal"

Angle grinder. And if you cut through the lid at right angles to the platter and near the platter axis, the moment the grinder disc hits the platter it will start spinning well in excess of its designed rotational parameters.

Re: Or possibly

I had occasion to expose a hard drive (Seagate 600MB, one of those models with a cast metal lid as well as the body, painted black) to one of the hydraulic levelling feet of a scissor lift once. It was surprisingly hard to get it to show any damage; only after putting it on edge vertically did it manage to buckle the lid a bit. BOTE calc says there was about 3 tons pressing down on the drive.

Re: "airborne splinters of razor-sharp shards of metal"

it grinds my gears that no matter how enthusiastic you are with a hammer - you still end up paying some twat with a WEE(?) certificate , because he's "qualified".

At work a couple of years ago there was a pile of defective 42" display screens. Their contracted disposal company refused to take them because there was no storage inside[0][1], so they kept sitting in a corner of a storage room until that room had to be emptied because of a move. Suggesting that I could deal with the correct disposal was greeted with enthousiasm, and after disposing of a bunch of failed capacitors, replacing them with fresh ones, the need for further disposal was entirely nulled.

[0] the contract stated that they were to appropriately dispose of data processing gear containing storage.

[1] without even opening them up I could have told them there would be at least one EEPROM inside.