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Roller Coaster Data Center
stienman writes "The Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point Amusement Park may have more technology than your data center. From the article: "The parameters within which the Dragster has to operate are so finely tuned that variable load weights from people, wind speed and out-side temperature affect its performance. ... After every third launch, the data are averaged and compared with historic launch data in an effort to create that perfect ride - the roller coaster must go fast enough to clear the top of the tower, but slow to between 7 and 15 mph in order to give riders the maximum lift effect at the top."
It looks like those guys use specialized equipment to be able to provide high security. Not really using the top of the line computers.
Thanks, dude, you have totally ruined my workday :) I'll be fired within a week and it will all be your fault!
Explains why TTD always closes at the WORST possible times ;-)
FWIW, I actually know someone for whom the Dragster didn't launch QUITE quickly enough - it only hit 112MPH...
When I rode it the one time, it was DAMN smooth, DAMN fast, and that was one DAMN steep descent. However, it was over WAY too quickly, and WAS actually boring. Besides, I'm not going to wait 1.5 to 3 hours in line for something that boring. I'd rather have a 2 minute wait (the time it takes to get from the exit to onboard a coaster) for something like Gemini - more fun, BECAUSE it's less smooth, and runs for plenty of time.
I wonder how well shielded this system is against lightning strikes, and other storm-related problems that often knock out the systems of conventional roller coasters. What kind of downtime could a sophisticated system like this have if such a problem arises?
Ah... but the ultimate question remains, does proprietary software run on Linux?
+1 Funny, -1 Redundant
"The more pity, that fools may not speak wisely what wise men do foolishly" - Touchstone,Shakespeare's "As You Like It"
Six Flags Great Adventure in NJ has the same ride...looks like a copy cat
.. was developed? I mean, this is the sort of software that cannot fail. This is not where you use C. Even Ada might not be up to the task. People could very well die, if not become severely maimed, if this software were to fail. And the financial cost of failure to the park would be astronomical. Has each and every line of the software source code been mathematically verified, as is done with the software systems controlling and monitoring nuclear power plants?
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
Now that is a thrill ride!
I thought they were talking about The Planet.
Does it run 24/7 with automatic backups and rollbacks if the system is overloaded by users?
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
It broke down _very_ often when I tried to go, where they had several hours at a time that it wasn't running. I really don't intend to go to that amusement park again though.
I was at Cedar Point with my wife and kids maybe two weeks ago or so and it didn't make it. People were pointing and talking about it. It launches fast and is supposed to make it over the top at a very slow speed. It was quite an odd view to see that thing come back down. Of course it's something that's anticipated by the designers so it's not like it was a breathtaking failure with the crowd gasping, but it was unexpected nonetheless.
I have yet to actually get to ride the top thrill dragster. I always go on the Millenium Force instead.
How am I supposed to enjoy a roller coaster if I know that sophisticated computers are monitoring the experience and ensuring my safety? That's just being fed stimulus. Now, the Cyclone in Coney Island... that's a roller coaster! You experience a genuine fear of death, not because the ride is particularly scary, but because the roller coaster is about a hundred years old and feels like it is going to collapse at any moment! Woo!
As a recent visitor to the park for the first time, I have to say it's *THE* most thrilling ride I've ever gone on. I don't think anything less of skydiving will give me a rush like I experienced on this ride. Fantastic.
As a side note, while my buddies and I were waiting in line, we saw a sign to the effect "This ride doesn't always make it over the hill the first time.". If it hadn't, I'm not sure I could have gotten on it again LOL.
I prefer the old wooden roller coasters. The artificial elation that accompanies the new ones just can't compete with the real fear that one of the old wooden ones will fall apart while I am riding it.
RTFA again for the best results.
I've been there 4 times since the ride has opened, and each time the ride is closed for most of the day due to computer glitches. It's interesting to note they have to tighten the bolts every few weeks as well. On a side note, you have the be very skinny to ride this ride. I don't know why they don't make it a little bigger. I had to take off my belt and suck in my stomack to get the chest bar down.
Free stuff without getting the referrals? http://referralaccelerated.com
Ok, so this is a home "datacenter" but at least its mine... :-)
For a moment I thought it was an article about my career.
"Kittens give Morbo gas!"
"which can achieve higher speeds than linear induction motors (superconducting magnets)"
Yeah, we've all seen those "super conducting" rollercoasters. Nice fact checking for the article, guys.
-psy
This 'rollercoaster' only has two trains and pretty much just goes straight up and straight back down.
What about other rollercoasters with vastly more interesting circuits - like 'Dueling Dragons' at Islands of Adventure for instance. It has two inverted rollercoasters racing against each other at the same time.
How can I get the company to pay for my summer vacation to Cedar Point?
One of my friends took two pictures of a roller coaster ride that had a loop. The first picture showed someone throwing up (actually down) from the top of the loop. The second picture showed someone being hit by the vomit at the bottom of the loop. We could never figured out if it was the same person who hurled was on the receiving end. This why I stay on the water rides.
Actually, there were several times when I was at Cedar Point where it did not clear the hill and (though they claim in such an event it will return slowly to the station) it rocketed back down the hill as fast as it went up, not slowing until it reached the magnetic brakes along the acceleration section. Those were only test launches though, it was temporarily closed.
We were lucky and managed to get at the queue entrance right as it opened again so the line was fairly short, most people having left the line. It closed again, even more people leaving, but only for 10 minutes. Total waiting time, 45 min. In the back of my mind I knew it was perfectly safe (if only to protect from lawsuits) but the wait in line (which goes right under the acceleration section) is very nervewracking. I'm not usually a nervous person when it comes to rides but I was really starting to get freaked out. The ride was incredible and not at all scary-it was all the suspense in line that was. 0-127 mph in 4 seconds, pause just long enough at the top to enjoy the view then zip back down to earth.
I look like a retard on the pictures.
The Jack Rabbit at Kennywood Park in Pittsburgh is quite rickety itself, jumping off the track and slamming back down, shaking all the supports very visibly. Now that gets your adrenaline running.
Am I the only one that doesnt see anything to special? Sure, they have about 300 sensors to record misc data, and some spiffy software, but IMO that doesnt even come close to whats in a modern day data center.
I look like a retard on the pictures.
:)
Don't worry. Everybody looks like a retard in rollercoaster pictures...
Nothing to see here
Those are all run by software too and I would think that they have higher failure standards than a rollercoaster.
I was trying to figure out wtf the ride is, and found this:
e _ttd_InOperation1_320_high_videofile.mov
http://70.85.70.32/cp_website_media/ttd/cp_websit
Though I'm not sure what that means in the big scheme of things either.
>> Do you want to run off the rails?
NO NO NO NO NO NO
>> Do you want to turn before you run off the rails?
NO NO NO NO NO
almost as much fun as Clippy at the nuke plant....
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
That's nice and all, but that's nothing compared to the Jaws ride at Universal Orlando. The queue video and all island sound effects are on laser disc, all of the effects and boats were programmed in 1990, and the control tower screens have almost 4 colors! Check it out: http://www.amityboattours.com/
In Soviet Russia, Roller Coaster rides YOU!
Why, is it a trojan?
Given this ride's reliability, that would mean that the system log has a total of 3 entries.
i live about 45 min. away from cedar point in northern ohio (lorain county) and was actually there yesterday.
pretty crazy ride. don't think i'll ever have a chance to get launched up to 120 mph in that short of a time anywhere else. several times ive seen it not quite clear the top and the people come down backwards to relaunch. one of the only rides there to dry out your lips in less than 20 seconds
the millenium force is pretty sweet to
We seldom regret saying too little but often regret saying too much.
The imperfections can help make a ride great. The Revolution at Great America in San Jose, a spinning boat ride that goes over the top, sometimes goes over forwards, and sometimes goes over backwards. You really don't know when it will, or why. Compare that to Superman, the Escape at Magic Mountain, which does exactly the same thing every time, and Superman just seems less interesting.
I must admit, my favorite rides skew to the less predictable. At the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk, there is (was) a ferris wheel which consisted of little egg-shaped cages. The rider was given a bar they could pull on to lock the cages in relationship to the wheel, so that they would very slowly spin over the top. No seat belt, mind you, or safety bar or anything, just a little egg-shaped cage with a small bench and a rider flipping around inside, holding their head off the metal with a well-placed, frequently panicked arm. Drop Zone at Great America has a random timer, to ensure that nobody will know when it is about to fall. It's surprisingly good at catching you when you're not expecting it, no matter how many times you ride it. Even The Pirates of the Carribean at Disneyland has people concurrently going through lengthy looped scenes, so that certain boats see the beginning of the loop, others see the middle, and others the end. The rides at California Adventure seemed too controlled and soulless to be a lot of fun, even if they did do so with a bit of showmanship. The best ride there is the white water raft, because it combines the freeform risk of most raft rides with a lot of little technical controlling tricks (like artificially spinning you up).
Personally, I would want to go on the ride when it fell back. That sounds like a lot more fun than just going forwards for 20 seconds. That sounds really, really thrilling. I wouldn't be at all surprised if that was left in on purpose, and I'm sure it helps the ride's reputation.
The ______ Agenda
i mean, this is far more hardcore than the space shuttle. it is. at least when coding software for the space shuttle you have a massive budget with no profit objective and the people involved are all aware of the risks and willing to die and all (astronauts, at least)... and, worst case, hell, its rocket science, its supposed to be hard.
but coding for the roller coaster? an improper pointer reference at the wrong time and you just killed people only looking for a good laugh.
talk about stress. ha.
Did you scan them?
The Dueling Dragons ride is designed to have three "near misses" where two trains that leave the station at the same time pass within six feet of each other. Perhaps the best "near miss" is two outside loops opposite each other - there's nothing more fun than looking down and seeing the feet of the people on the OTHER train whizzing by.
The trains are supposedly weighed upon departure so that the three misses are timed perfectly. As with the other rides, a failure doesn't kill the ride, just diminishes the effect.
bun-fhuinneog agam!
For those of you wondering how it doesn't crash, it is all pretty much logic control. Also, in the event of any kind of failure (on any roller coaster), all the brakes default to the on position (stopping the ride as fast as possible). The best part about TTD would be a rollback (I've never gotten one, in 30+ rides), or the ultimate (when a train got stuck at the top for 20 mins loaded). For more info check www.pointbuzz.com
One of my favorites was Mister Twister at Elitch Gardens in Denver. It was a wooden coaster, so it had this "give" as it rounded the tracks, and it was VERY bumpy, such that you could swear it would bounce off the tracks any moment. As if this wasn't enough, you'd plunge into a few seconds of complete darkness just before the end of the ride. It was quite fun.
The newest record holder, Kingda-Ka in New Jersey (128 mph, 450+ ft tall), was shut down just weeks after it opened with little explanation. We visited there last week and it is expected to be down weeks still. Maybe we should have gone to Cedar Point!
...and raise you two libraries of congress.
- Jason A. -
I don't know anything about this coaster, but most ride control in the US is done with PLCs and programmed in ladder logic. Here's a picture of an Allen Bradley PLC from some wastewater treatment page.
In Europe, most ride control is done with relays. This actually makes sense - you only need about one relay per block zone. A relay control system has less room for bugs and hidden effects. Remember, people get injured or killed on coasters, and engineers will have to testify in court as to the system design and whether the system still adhered to the design when the accident occurred.
A PLC typically simulates relay logic via "ladder logic" programming. This means that a mechanical engineer with no programming knowledge can view the ladder logic and understand all failure modes.
PLCs are an excellent fit for their problem space, which is primarily machine control.
Now it doesn't seem quite so surprising that Six Flags should be having so many problems with their me-too attempt.
-- Louis
How's that supposd to even begin to compare with a datacenter? Why, back in the day, our datacenters would go up and down several times at high speed, with a couple loops and corkscrews thrown in for good measure!
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
Funniest thing I have read all day!
-- Please insert another quarter
300 Proximity sensors/switches?, Thats nothing.
Ive killed 5 times more data points than that in one PLC communication issue.
-Michael
Manufacturing Plant
OMG I love dragster!! I rode it on saturday!! I love when it takes off!! It*s sooooooooooooooooo fun!! We rode it lyk 3 times even tho the wait was over an hour. I don*t get y people keep putting their arms up when it keeps saying ARMS DOWN ARMS DOWN HEAD BACK lol they*re just making it take longer b4 they will let it go.
~Angelic Carrie~
Obviously they design the roller coaster so that people don't die if the software malfunctions or stops working.
These things do malfunction, but it's no big deal when they do. Sometimes the software DOES come up with the wrong solution, and the cars do fail to make it over the hill. They simply roll back down the hill.
The magnets in those rollercoaster aren't made of superconducting material, either.
Let's just hope they don't run IIS!
There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments. --Bene Gesserit Axiom
Impressive...But even better (for me) is that I'll be there next week to ride the thing :-)!
My lame blog.
http://www.xtremecoastin.com/videos/misc_videos_wm v/ttdstuck_2005.htm
/.ed in 5 secoinds. LOL)
A video showing TTD stuck on top with people on it, and an engineer pushing it down.
(This will probably get
"I first became aware of this, about 10 years ago. The summer my oldest boy Bill Jr. died. You know that carnival that comes to town every year? Well that year it came with a ride called the Mixer. The man said, keep your head and arms inside the mixer at all times. But Bill Jr., he was a daredevil. Just like his old man. He was leaning out saying, "Hey everybody, look at me, look at me". Bang! he was decapitated. They found his head over by the snowcone consession."
Stuart, The Dead Milkemen
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
For more armchair vicarious thrills, go to CoasterGallery.com for a pretty good collection of current (and recent past) coasters.
...and that's fucking fun. You end up falling back alllllll the way to the starting point and get to relaunch (free ride!) ;)
Um, but yeah, regardless of how much technology exists in the ride, the fact is, TTD still breaks down every few hrs... and it's been TWO YEARS since it was made.
In fact, it's the best time to get in line when it breaks down. People don't KNOW that it breaks down so often, so the 3 hour line filters out with people grumbling. Little do they know, it'll open 30-45 minutes later (only to break down again in another hour or so). Result: you bypass all the unnecessary waiting.
Have all the technology you want, but if you can't get it to work right, it's kinda pointless.
We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!
that would be cool if they gave you a data printout on a dot-matrix paper with the run's numbers. then you could analyze and determine if you had fun or not
You missed the Wicked Twister, which has a problem with high winds.
~~~
Click here, you know you wanna!
awwwwwww OMG that*s sooo sad :( :( i*m even scared to put my arms up on millenium force and the magnum when it goes thru tunnels cuz i think im gonna hit my hands even tho my hands probly lyk don*t even come close lol
~ Angelic Carrie ~
They're "teardrop" shaped in order to minimize G-loading on the way in and out of the loop, not to provide maximum weightlessness time.
The first looping coasters were circular, but the problem is you enter and exit the loop with the most speed, and also have 1G pulling down, thus creating much more Gs than at the top.
The reason they reach a minimum of speed at the top is because that's how the conversion of kinetic to potential to kinetic energy works. When something goes up, and it has no additional force being added (no energy is added except by the lift chains in a roller coaster), then it slows down. So it is slowest at the highest points, just like in the non-inverted sections of the track.
Finally, it is my belief that these teardrop loops always keep the riders under positive Gs in their frame of reference. That means the car is accelerating downward faster than gravity pulls. As such, if you barfed at the top, it would merely fall to your feet, just like normal. Now, if the coaster had a double corkscrew after the loop like many early loopers did, the barf would I believe come off the floor there, because I think those are negative G.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
I was just up at Cedar Point yesterday (didn't ride the TTD, the line was WAY too long); we were watching them shoot it up when, with a full load of riders, it stalled out at the top. Didn't make it over, didn't start to roll back. Stayed there, perched 420 feet in the air, for about ten seconds, then slowly rolled back and came rocketing down. I'd have shit my pants.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. - Aldous Huxley
It doesn't always work. When my vocational school went, I remember that coaster getting almost to the top... then coming down backwards. It's not supposed to do that.
Show this to your friends and family that don't know what a real hacker is
I loved the Comet at Lake George, rickety, clanky thing that runs at 60mph. It has superb jerk and jounce, it's thrilling ride that doesn't need any sparkly new technology.
Sigs. We don't need no steenking sigs.
It is a ballistic barf trajectory. But that trajectory is toward the floor of the car.
You think since the car is being driven by gravity it can't pull over faster than gravity (9.8m/s^2)? That's incorrect. The extra speed it is created by the speed the car is carrying, and the turn in the track.
Let me put it this way. If the car were going 5,000m/s on an inverted straight track (a flat section, only the car is upside down), and the track turned downward (upward in track reference), the car would be accelerating downward a lot faster than 9.8m/s^2. Let's say the corner is tight enough that negotiating the turn takes 1s. So, entering the turn, the car has a 0 m/s downward vector. After the turn, it has a 5,000m/s downward vector (assuming no energy lost). It gained that 5,000m/s in the time it took to turn, 1 second. So it accelerated downward at 5,000m/s^2.
Now, that's an extreme case, and the track would fly apart before you could do it, but it shows that your assumption that you cannot go down faster than gravity with power assist is false.
And if you accelerate downward at 5,000m/s^2, and gravity only accelerates the vomit (which is not attached to the track, it is in free-fall) at 9.8m/s^2, then the car out-accelerates the vomit and the vomit would fall to the floor and stay there throughout the turn.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
...and you have to ask the carnie apes for your glasses that fell off and fell to the ground. They keep all the change that falls out of pockets, though. I think working ithe Zipper is highly sought after for just that reason.
Oh. And Anthony runs off to puke in a garbage can. Don't let Anthony ride the Zipper with you. I wasn't sure he'd last the ride.
One of the most evil rides ever. I love it. Closest thing to having a motorcycle wreck I've done without actually having one (I've had a few.)