Linux Hits the Road

An anonymous reader writes "Vicroads does regular surveys of the roads in Victoria, Australia, to determine where they need to be patched or otherwise repaired. It used to be done in a vehicle travelling at 20 kph: slow, tedious, and hazardous to the traffic around it. Now, thanks to Linux, it's being done at speeds of 80 to 100 kph. The Melbourne Age has the details. Short version: the cost has fallen from $1.2 million Australian to $850,000. Not bad..."

Comments

Map makin'?

[serial frame]

Let's map them potholes. 'nuff said.

Not to take the metaphor too far but,

[veldmon]

Linux is the road. It is the road connecting to an intersection, a "T" intersection. Linux either stops its' phenomenal growth all at once, putters out after lawsuits, or grows to 25% of the world market share.

I tend to view Linux's future in binary terms. It is either 0 (a failure) or 1 (a success). I think the failure will come if Linus ever adopts ReiserFS code in the kernel. The success will most likely come if the FSF updates the GPL to include a section where corporations can patent GPL'ed software. Patenting is what sparks innovation. We have a lot in OSS right now, but we'll have more if companies like Red Hat can patent large portions of their distribution.

It's the *English* language dammit

[Tsugumi]

It's the English language, which automatically makes the English right. The rest of you are just borrowing. So if the english say it's "colour" then that's the way it's spelt in English.
Hell, if they said you spelt it "zxhjshfdikd" then they'd still be right.

Re:car video guidance

[hazem]

I love bicycling but...

It does not stress your joints so even if you're overweight you can start cycling straight away.

But if you're overweight, I can guarantee you that it WILL stress your ass in a bad way.

breathing the fumes and sweating your ass off.
No, it's better to be stuck behind a diesel powered car (no emissions checks in the US) in 100 degree weather. You'll be worse than sweating your ass off as you breath those fumes!

When I used to work in a warehouse, it was just fine to ride my bike to work, since I would be hot and sweaty all day long.

But, now, I have to dress in nice clothes, and preferably not stink all day. Most places I have worked do not have showers and changing rooms. For places like that, it's just not practical to ride my bike to work.

And that's not counting how much rain we get here. So I'm either wet from sweat, or wet from rain. Either way, it would only work if I could change clothes after getting to work.

Plus, here in Portland, while we're rated as one of the best cities to bike in, I have to disagree. We might have the most miles of bike lanes, but they are not well done. One minute your in a bike lane, and the next, you're on a busy 4 lane road with no shoulder, or you've been forced to cut across traffic. Or if you want to go any long distance, you have to cut back and forth between main streets, nearly doubling your trip. If we're the bike-friendliest, I'd hate to see un-friendly!

It really takes a change in culture - to include things like better bike lanes, showers and changing rooms, more places to lock up a bike, etc, before we'll see any mass migrations to bike commuting here.

Re:car video guidance

[Eric Ass Raymond]

It really takes a change in culture - to include things like better bike lanes, showers and changing rooms, more places to lock up a bike, etc, before we'll see any mass migrations to bike commuting here.

I agree.

I guess the Netherlands and Denmark are the only truly bike-friendly countries in Europe. Amsterdam, in fact, is the only city where I got the impression that cars are actually at a disadvantage.