Oh yeah, forgot to mention--the route from New York City to Boston makes the equivalent of thirteen complete circles owing to the multiple curves on the route.
---PCJ
The limiting factor south of NYC is the catenary (overhead wire). On most modern HST lines, the wires are counterweighted so that they remain tight regardless of expansion/contraction. On the Northeast corridor NYC-Washington, the wire is old Pennsylvania Railroad catenary with each stretch anchored at each end. Hence, in warm weather, the wire expands, sagging between its attatchment points and causing the pantographs to bounce (and arc excessivley) at speeds above 135MPH (217 km/h). I watched Acela trains passing through Princeton Jct, (New Jersey) during the Thanksgiving rush. You could see the catenary bouncing and jangling right after an Acela passed theough at 135MPH, where they barely jiggled when conventional trains doing 125MPH (201 km/h) passed. Acela "racing" a Metroliner Acela passing at 135MPH Another Acela passing through before the warning announcement can finish
The limitation above NYC is the tracks between New Rochelle, NY and New Haven, CT being owned by Connecticut Department of Transportation, which imposes a 90MPH (144 km/h) limit on all trains, partly because of antiquated catenary, partly because the ex-New Haven trackage is not spaced far apart to allow Acela trainsets to employ their tilting mechanisms (there would only be 11 inches of clearance between passing trains).
Oh, and Federal regulations here require passenger equipment operating on US railroads to have carbodies that can withstand 800,000 pounds of compression (buff load) without damage. The only European trainsets that might approach this are the Virgin Pendolinos, amply demonstrated in the recent UK derailment:
"The Pendolino performed brilliantly. We transport many millions of passengers and have spent a lot of money on Pendolinos. If you are going to have a massive accident, a Pendolino is the safest train to be in,"
"The train itself stood up remarkably well, it's built like a tank. If this had been an old train the injuries would have been horrendous. Pendolinos have solid crumple ("buff" in American parlance) zones and most managed to walk away,"
--Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Rail CEO
(http://www.nationalcorridors.org/df2/df02262007.s html#Virgin)
---PCJ
(you might have to copy/paste that last URL--/. keeps inserting a space in the "shtml")
bell bottom pants were in style during the Disco 70s, and they are back now...)
For women, yes, but they don't count 'cause they'll wear anything:) . A man, on the other hand would be laughed at for wearing them, and that has held true ever since the disco era died.
(curiously enough, baggy wide-leg pants aren't seen as being pretty much the same thing)
I've heard the speculation about using capacitors like batteries a few times. Are they being used in any electronics in production yet?
One application I've heard of is in "O" gauge 3-rail model trains. A certain manufactuer's locomotives were designed with digital sound/control systems that used NiCd batteries to run the electronics during power interruptions and to write updated settings to the unit's memory during shutdown. It was discovered that if the battery's ability to hold its charge faltered (on the first generation units) and its voltage under load dropped below a certain threshold during shutdown, the sound card would write back corrupted data to the memory, rendering the electronics package (and the locomotive) inoperative next time power was applied. Locomotives that had been in long-term storage were particularly vulnerable to this problem.
A third-party company developed a capacitor package that replaces the battery and insures sufficient power is available to the computer during shutdown so that writebacks are successful. All that's necessary is that the loco be allowed to sit in neutral for a minute when first powered up to charge the capacitor.
Just throwing this in anywhere...oddly enough Pioneer and Samsung had to suspend production of their Inno and Helix (repectivley) XM portable units for this reason (power levels on their respective fm modulators). They returned to the market with new firmware that prevents the FM modulator from working except when mounted into a hardwired vehicle dock. Anyone who upgrades the firmware in their Inno/Helix from version 1.05 will similarly find the feature locked out as these users found out. That's why I never upgraded the firmware in my device. However, NPR doesn't have a presence on 88.1 where I am, and I check for vacant frequencies whenever I use the feature, since the Inno/Helix can be set to transmit on any FM frequency--it only defaults to 88.1 out of the box.
Using an MP3 player with FM tuner, I find that the Inno's signal doesn't leak significantly above or below the frequency it's set. Now if I could only find a solution to WFUV's signal (90.7) completely obliterating WFNY (92.3) when I'm within a 10-block radius of their new transmitter. I mean, their interference frequently comes through better (in stereo, no less) than the station that's supposed to be broadcasting two notches up the dial when that happens. It's made WFNY practically unlistenable where I live (and there are several buildings between my place and their transmitter).
For all the Slashbots caterwauling over this "misinformation", you'd think they wanted the recording companies to continue their public war on P2P.
"Don't Stop! We love being in your gigantic game of Whack-A-Mole(TM)! Waaah! Don't put the mallet away yet, you didn't even win, even though we think you never will, neenerneenereneener!"
Whoop-de-doo, they declared a "bogus" victory over the growth of piracy. Yawn.
Sure, the OS was a fancy DOS shell that sucked balls compared to any real OS if you were trying to develop software on it, but it made a damn good single-user home/gaming platform. If it weren't for the 137GB drive (not partition, drive) size limit and the 512MB RAM size limit, I'd run it today as my gaming rig.
An unofficial service pack for W98se addressed the 512MB limit (though to what extent I don't know). It was reported on/. way back when, and seemed to be pretty well recieved by most who installed it. But it was easier to Google its site itself than it was to find the old article.
Dunno about the 137GB drive limit. I'd imagine I'd have multiple drives if it became an issue.
---PCJ, who maintains a few 98SE boxes himself with minimal drama
Agreed on the Coleco Adam. I saw it in Chicago at the CES in '83. It looked to me like the demo boxes were fake at the show. I'm not sure if the "death of the early 80s video game" stories every take into account what Coleco's Adam did to the industry or not.
It had much of nothing to do with the industry's downfall. About the only effect of Coleco's announcement of the all-in one (CPU/keyboard/printer for MSRP $600) package was that a fair number of smaller companies aborted their entries into the home computer market (most of them were somewhat underpowered in relation to the Adam). In spite of the Colecovision's popularity, Coleco's fortunes rested firmly on the Cabbage Patch dolls. When their popularity faded, the company had little left to keep it afloat. Much of the videogame industry at the time wasn't doing much better, so even their game console would not have been much help.
What was not well-known was that only the first batch of Adam units were problematic. Coleco fixed the problems and the second shipment was rock-solid, but nobody ever publicized that fact, instead harping on the troublesome first batch as if they were the only ones ever made. I remember reading at least one financial columnist in the local paper, who had an annoying penchant for bashing the company, practically celebrating (headline: "DUMP ADAM") Coleco's decision to halt production of the platform, in a fashion only exceeded by Playstation fanboys on Usenet when Sega stopped producing the Dreamcast.
I myself had to return three units before I went to a different retailer (knowing that defect-free units were out there) and got a newer version (revision 80). That one was trouble-free well into the 486 era, expanded to 320K of RAM, six drives (twin tape, twin 5.25" and twin 3.5" floppy drives) and equipped with a serial-port modem and a parallel-port dot-matrix printer. The multitude of Adam owners I corresponded with via dialup bulliten-boards (remember those?) while the system was still supported (and even after) reported similar performance from their systems.
It would probably still work today (I even had an attatchment that allowed me to format cassettes for use with the tape drive) had I not broke a contact on the edge-card connector that joined the unit to a Colecovision unit, while futzing with the alignment of the two boxes. I could still solder in a jumper wire and resurrect the unit if only I had a suitable place to park the whole constellation of equipment.
I also have a parallel port Zip in perfect working order, and a SCSI Zip 100, SCSI Jaz 1GB and SCSI Jaz 2GB stacked up and daisy-chained to my old P2 laptop which now mainly sits and idles on a desk, waiting for Thunderbird to discover new messages in my Inbox.
I've only screwed up one Jaz disk, and I think that was a consequence of doing something I shouldn't--i.e. attempting to play a MP3 off one of the involved drives while doing a mass copy between a Zip and Jaz. It probably was a once-in-a-blue moon hardware slipup, but I don't try to push the envelope anymore when working with them (which isn't often anymore, owing to the semi-retired nature of the machine they're married to). Other than that, I've had no problem with them (although I understand that recently-produced Zip disks aren't as long-lived as their first-gen counterparts, hardware failures excluded).
I would have to say ditto, for I had a laptop (Toshiba 2805-S503) that came with ME installed. I knew going in that ME was a dog, but I vowed to let it stay as long as it behaved itself. Deep in the annals of/. I described my experience with it, but I'll recount for those not wishing to dig for it (I certanly don't).
I used to do basic video editing with it, using a combination of Ulead VideoStudio and Pinnacle Studio 8. Pinnacle was a bona-fide buggy app, and I never really got into it because it would randomly get into fights with serious-sounding processes like KERNEL.EXE and crash. Curiously enough, VideoStudio and Windows Media player, which I had running at the same time, would keep running, completely unaffected. I also used this machine for gaming, as it had a GeForce 2Go 3D accelerator, subwoofer and FireWire, which were rather nifty features at the time, and perfectly adequate for the train simulators and racing games (like Midtown Madness) I ran at the time.
I lost the machine in a tragic walked-off-Amtrak-without-my-backpack incident in 2004, and the thing that bugged me the most aside from the loss,(it wasn't my primary machine, and thus had no critical or exploitable data on it) was that I had a stable ME machine, and no longer had proof of it.
Last year, I finally found an identical machine in good condition at a decent price on Ebay (with no competing bidders) and bought it, even though I had no pressing need for another laptop. Like a lot of stuff I've bought in the recent past, it'll probably sit around till I define a good function for it, then put it into service.
Heh. I know it sounds silly, but there's a reason those phones could do that. Not all phone lines could handle touch tone dialing. I lived in one of those places. You could plug a TT phone in, you could dial, but it'd never connect. Honestly, I don't understand what the specific problem was that caused this, but the fact that those phones had that switch meant that we could use a modern (at the time) phone.
I remember years ago having one of those phones on a rotary-dial line. We would use the tone/pulse switch whenever we had to call someone's pager, dialing with pulse dial, then switching to tone to enter the callback number. When Touch-Tone was extended to all customers, we weren't aware of the switch. One of my brother's friends used the switch to call a beeper, and forgot to switch it back. When I made the next call on the phone, it wasn't until the call connected in record time that I realized what had happened and I was like "Holy Cow! We can dial TONE now!"
Ironically, years later I landed a job with one of the Baby Bells, and even today as a central office tech, I still see occasional POTS wire records that specify rotary service in a seldom-used data field. But it's been years since I last had to switch my test set to pulse dial to check a dial tone.
In a similar vein, when my local switch was cut over to a digital one, I didn't realize the changeover had been made till I noticed that the by-then familiar "Ka-TINK?" sound that preceded the other phone's ringing was missing.
And by keeping an eye on Play-Asia, I managed to snag Zero Gunner 2, Trizeal, Radirgy, and Under Defeat. All appear to be conversions of Naomi (an arcade version of DC) titles, meaning there is potential for a few more DC titles to trickle out. (assuming you have a modchipped DC)
Not that I've gotten around to playing them yet...I still have shrinkwrapped Saturn titles I haven't gotten around to (including the legendary Radiant Silvergun)
(oh, yeah, and then there are the handful of Jaguar games I haven't unboxed yet.)
"At least biofouling shouldn't be an issue in the East River. I'm not sure anything can live in there."
One would think so, but...
From http://www.nycroads.com/roads/fdr/
"A TERMITE PROBLEM:
With the improvement of ecological conditions along the East River, a new menace has emerged. Millions of tiny marine borers, or "sea termites," are feeding on the wooden pilings that support parts of the FDR Drive, threatening its stability. The engineering firm Parsons Brinckeroff has been commissioned to determine the extent of the damage caused by the marine borers.
According to state and city transportation officials, most pilings will likely require installation of a plastic shrink wrap to suffocate the pests. More seriously damaged pilings will require the construction of concrete sleeves to cover them. Nevertheless, officials believe that the FDR Drive is safe and not in imminent danger of collapse."
Who'da thunk it?
(Only reason I knew about marine borers is that I'm a member of a trolley museum located next to a salt marsh, that had to lay out a pile of $$$ to wrap the pilings on a couple of their trestles to stave off borer-induced deterioration)
Ok, adding an axle to carry more weight; axles are generally rated at 20,000 (including the weight of the axle), so for 110,000 you would need to add 2 axles. Most likely one to the tractor and one to the trailer. A third axle reduces maneuverability and increases tire scuff (wear)
As an aside, one of the first things I noticed on my first trip into Canada (I took Greyhound) was the axle count on trucks once across the border. Dump trucks everywhere sported four axles (two steering, two drive), and semis regularly appeared with trailers equipped with 3 and four axles. Makes one wonder how you turn a corner with all those axles. And not just van trailers, I saw bulk commodity trailers, tankers and dump trailers with 3 and 4 axles (as well as triple-axle 20-foot container trailers). I always chalked it up to lower axle load ratings on Canadian highways, but I never got a real answer as to why centipede-like trailers are so commonplace there.
Not that it means much, but I've noticed a growing number of 4-axle dump trucks/ cement mixers here in the US (mostly a retractable 4th axle which I'm told is for additional traction in mud or snow). And Shell seems to have adopted triple axles on its newest "V-Power" tanker trailers as well.
How about people just put their phones on vibrate and be polite and step outside if they're going to take the freakin' call?
If people would just learn some manners, this wouldn't be an issue. I know, I know - that's crazy talk.
(not singling you out or anything like that--this is what I get for reading all posts up to this point...)
Of course that's crazy talk--this is Slashdot after all. Just getting up and leaving the theater is considered an arrogant/inconsiderate/boorish/justifies-beating-y ou-up offense--especially if there's a cell phone involved. Didn't you know? Oh, the stories I could tell you of the contempt heaped upon those poor souls unlucky enough to need to take a whiz, of all things. Why, even glancing down at your lap at the text message or vibration that appeared on the phone on your belt is , in a perfect world, a faux pas liable to enrage someone sitting halfway across the row who caught a fleeting glimpse of a phone's LCD out the corner of his eye, justifying his coming over to smash your phone against the wall. Although I would think some random object unexpectedly exploding against a wall in a darkened theatre might be a tad more disruptive than someone looking down at some device on their belt or lap (gee, did we have these same discussions when digital watches, with their infernal backlights, first appeared?), but I guess that's excusable because it's somebody's righteous indignation on display huh? Best just sit perfectly still, eyes forward, lest you inspire someone else to punch you out for fidgeting or something like that:)
(/tongue-in-cheek)
What I was referring to actually, is the seeming abundance of people who drive as if their driving privileges could not be revoked by irresponsible handling of their vehicles (IOW, idiot drivers).
Yes, I'm well aware that in most places, driving is a necessity (I visited California once--almost felt "officially handicapped" not having a license at the time). I live in NYC (which is one of those places where one can get away with not driving), and out-of-towners still can't believe I've managed to go so long without finding it absolutely necessary to have a license, let alone a car of my own.
I think the whole attitude that 'driving is a priviledge' is half of our problem. If safe transportation was viewed as a requirement for modern life some of these decisions could be made more intelligently.
I would think that much of the problem stems from driving being seen as an entitlement. Something percieved as a privilege is usually treated more carefully (as it can be revoked through misuse) than something you believe you have a right to, irregardless of what you do with it, no?
The answer was to 'force' OEM's to accept a couple of other OSs' installed their computers. Maybe an easy to use Linux and a BSD distr. And also 'force' software makers to make their programs compatible with the other OSs'.
Let's not forget "force Joe Sixpack to buy systems with those other OSes installed".
People aren't affraid, anymore, to own one of each. Sure, there are penny pinchers, but in general most of the gamer market will get teh 360 now and ps3 later. Who does't have both? (I have dreamcast & xbox).
Casual gamers, otherwise known as the biggest segment of the console market?
I haven't used OGG (yet), but I do have a use for an FM tuner (and I even record from FM on occasion, so no Ipod for me, ever).
I went and tried out the Samsung Yepp YP-T7 largely for it's FM recording functions in a Flash-based player, and it's 65K color LCD ain't half bad either.
(I would really have liked to have retro-recording capability like my Archos Jukebox HDD based unit--it has a 30-sec recording memory so you can still get the beginning of the song if you're slow on the REC button-- but even Archos doesn't seem to be plugging that feature anymore).
It does OGG, as well as MP3, WAV, WMA, and audio ASF. Records FM (user-selectable bitrates), voice and line-in, displays text and JPEG images, functions as a mass-storage device, and recharges through it's USB connector.
I don't typically bother with playlists, so I can't comment on those. It'd be nice to be able to adjust listening volume while recording FM, but that's the only quibble I can think of.
Last time I examined their website (from the US), Nochex appeared to be open only to UK residents. At very least it requires use of a credit card from a UK bank.
...which means you have to call the phone company to change phones.
Dunno about other CDMA carriers, but under Verizon, I was able to change accounts online, at 4 in the morning, just before I was to go on a trip. It involved supplying some information about each phone (probably ESN info--it's been awhile since I did it).
Essentially, a couple of minutes of mouse-clicking, and the new phone was activated. Of course, it might've helped that I got it shipped direct from Verizon Wireless, (renewal and upgrade over the phone), so maybe they had info expecting the changeover, but it was remarkably painless (and like I said, worked flawlessly in the middle of the night)
Midtown Madness and it's sequel contain a "cruise" mode where you do essentially that--just drive around the city, interacting with normal traffic with no specific goal in mind (except that if you act the fool, the cops will come after you). If I'm not mistaken, this mode is also available in the multiplayer mode as well.
NXSYS is more like a dispatching/signal simulator, apparently with a recent add-on that lets you move through the junctions at a driver's eye view.
You could also dispense with the formalities of fiddling with interlockings and simply run a train from end-to-end by D/L-ing a copy of BVE and some add-ons simulating London Underground and New York City subway lines. Plenty of dark to go around.
(not all of them are in the dark, tho...some of 'em actually have some rather nice scenery--as long as you stick with the UK/Euro routes, as the NYC ones are rather blah by comparison)
Slashdot Mirror
Oh yeah, forgot to mention--the route from New York City to Boston makes the equivalent of thirteen complete circles owing to the multiple curves on the route.
---PCJ
Acela "racing" a Metroliner
Acela passing at 135MPH
Another Acela passing through before the warning announcement can finish
The limitation above NYC is the tracks between New Rochelle, NY and New Haven, CT being owned by Connecticut Department of Transportation, which imposes a 90MPH (144 km/h) limit on all trains, partly because of antiquated catenary, partly because the ex-New Haven trackage is not spaced far apart to allow Acela trainsets to employ their tilting mechanisms (there would only be 11 inches of clearance between passing trains). Oh, and Federal regulations here require passenger equipment operating on US railroads to have carbodies that can withstand 800,000 pounds of compression (buff load) without damage. The only European trainsets that might approach this are the Virgin Pendolinos, amply demonstrated in the recent UK derailment:
--Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Rail CEO(http://www.nationalcorridors.org/df2/df02262007.
---PCJ
(you might have to copy/paste that last URL--
For women, yes, but they don't count 'cause they'll wear anything :) . A man, on the other hand would be laughed at for wearing them, and that has held true ever since the disco era died.
(curiously enough, baggy wide-leg pants aren't seen as being pretty much the same thing)
---PCJ
One application I've heard of is in "O" gauge 3-rail model trains. A certain manufactuer's locomotives were designed with digital sound/control systems that used NiCd batteries to run the electronics during power interruptions and to write updated settings to the unit's memory during shutdown. It was discovered that if the battery's ability to hold its charge faltered (on the first generation units) and its voltage under load dropped below a certain threshold during shutdown, the sound card would write back corrupted data to the memory, rendering the electronics package (and the locomotive) inoperative next time power was applied. Locomotives that had been in long-term storage were particularly vulnerable to this problem.
A third-party company developed a capacitor package that replaces the battery and insures sufficient power is available to the computer during shutdown so that writebacks are successful. All that's necessary is that the loco be allowed to sit in neutral for a minute when first powered up to charge the capacitor.
---PCJ
Using an MP3 player with FM tuner, I find that the Inno's signal doesn't leak significantly above or below the frequency it's set. Now if I could only find a solution to WFUV's signal (90.7) completely obliterating WFNY (92.3) when I'm within a 10-block radius of their new transmitter. I mean, their interference frequently comes through better (in stereo, no less) than the station that's supposed to be broadcasting two notches up the dial when that happens. It's made WFNY practically unlistenable where I live (and there are several buildings between my place and their transmitter).
---PCJ
"Don't Stop! We love being in your gigantic game of Whack-A-Mole(TM)! Waaah! Don't put the mallet away yet, you didn't even win, even though we think you never will, neenerneenereneener!"
Whoop-de-doo, they declared a "bogus" victory over the growth of piracy. Yawn.
---PCJ
An unofficial service pack for W98se addressed the 512MB limit (though to what extent I don't know). It was reported on
Dunno about the 137GB drive limit. I'd imagine I'd have multiple drives if it became an issue.
---PCJ, who maintains a few 98SE boxes himself with minimal drama
It had much of nothing to do with the industry's downfall. About the only effect of Coleco's announcement of the all-in one (CPU/keyboard/printer for MSRP $600) package was that a fair number of smaller companies aborted their entries into the home computer market (most of them were somewhat underpowered in relation to the Adam). In spite of the Colecovision's popularity, Coleco's fortunes rested firmly on the Cabbage Patch dolls. When their popularity faded, the company had little left to keep it afloat. Much of the videogame industry at the time wasn't doing much better, so even their game console would not have been much help.
What was not well-known was that only the first batch of Adam units were problematic. Coleco fixed the problems and the second shipment was rock-solid, but nobody ever publicized that fact, instead harping on the troublesome first batch as if they were the only ones ever made. I remember reading at least one financial columnist in the local paper, who had an annoying penchant for bashing the company, practically celebrating (headline: "DUMP ADAM") Coleco's decision to halt production of the platform, in a fashion only exceeded by Playstation fanboys on Usenet when Sega stopped producing the Dreamcast.
I myself had to return three units before I went to a different retailer (knowing that defect-free units were out there) and got a newer version (revision 80). That one was trouble-free well into the 486 era, expanded to 320K of RAM, six drives (twin tape, twin 5.25" and twin 3.5" floppy drives) and equipped with a serial-port modem and a parallel-port dot-matrix printer. The multitude of Adam owners I corresponded with via dialup bulliten-boards (remember those?) while the system was still supported (and even after) reported similar performance from their systems.
It would probably still work today (I even had an attatchment that allowed me to format cassettes for use with the tape drive) had I not broke a contact on the edge-card connector that joined the unit to a Colecovision unit, while futzing with the alignment of the two boxes. I could still solder in a jumper wire and resurrect the unit if only I had a suitable place to park the whole constellation of equipment.
---PCJ
I've only screwed up one Jaz disk, and I think that was a consequence of doing something I shouldn't--i.e. attempting to play a MP3 off one of the involved drives while doing a mass copy between a Zip and Jaz. It probably was a once-in-a-blue moon hardware slipup, but I don't try to push the envelope anymore when working with them (which isn't often anymore, owing to the semi-retired nature of the machine they're married to). Other than that, I've had no problem with them (although I understand that recently-produced Zip disks aren't as long-lived as their first-gen counterparts, hardware failures excluded).
---PCJ
I used to do basic video editing with it, using a combination of Ulead VideoStudio and Pinnacle Studio 8. Pinnacle was a bona-fide buggy app, and I never really got into it because it would randomly get into fights with serious-sounding processes like KERNEL.EXE and crash. Curiously enough, VideoStudio and Windows Media player, which I had running at the same time, would keep running, completely unaffected. I also used this machine for gaming, as it had a GeForce 2Go 3D accelerator, subwoofer and FireWire, which were rather nifty features at the time, and perfectly adequate for the train simulators and racing games (like Midtown Madness) I ran at the time.
I lost the machine in a tragic walked-off-Amtrak-without-my-backpack incident in 2004, and the thing that bugged me the most aside from the loss,(it wasn't my primary machine, and thus had no critical or exploitable data on it) was that I had a stable ME machine, and no longer had proof of it.
Last year, I finally found an identical machine in good condition at a decent price on Ebay (with no competing bidders) and bought it, even though I had no pressing need for another laptop. Like a lot of stuff I've bought in the recent past, it'll probably sit around till I define a good function for it, then put it into service.
---PCJ
I remember years ago having one of those phones on a rotary-dial line. We would use the tone/pulse switch whenever we had to call someone's pager, dialing with pulse dial, then switching to tone to enter the callback number. When Touch-Tone was extended to all customers, we weren't aware of the switch. One of my brother's friends used the switch to call a beeper, and forgot to switch it back. When I made the next call on the phone, it wasn't until the call connected in record time that I realized what had happened and I was like "Holy Cow! We can dial TONE now!"
Ironically, years later I landed a job with one of the Baby Bells, and even today as a central office tech, I still see occasional POTS wire records that specify rotary service in a seldom-used data field. But it's been years since I last had to switch my test set to pulse dial to check a dial tone.
In a similar vein, when my local switch was cut over to a digital one, I didn't realize the changeover had been made till I noticed that the by-then familiar "Ka-TINK?" sound that preceded the other phone's ringing was missing.
---PCJ
Not that I've gotten around to playing them yet...I still have shrinkwrapped Saturn titles I haven't gotten around to (including the legendary Radiant Silvergun)
(oh, yeah, and then there are the handful of Jaguar games I haven't unboxed yet.)
---PCJ
One would think so, but...
From http://www.nycroads.com/roads/fdr/
"A TERMITE PROBLEM:
With the improvement of ecological conditions along the East River, a new menace has emerged. Millions of tiny marine borers, or "sea termites," are feeding on the wooden pilings that support parts of the FDR Drive, threatening its stability. The engineering firm Parsons Brinckeroff has been commissioned to determine the extent of the damage caused by the marine borers. According to state and city transportation officials, most pilings will likely require installation of a plastic shrink wrap to suffocate the pests. More seriously damaged pilings will require the construction of concrete sleeves to cover them. Nevertheless, officials believe that the FDR Drive is safe and not in imminent danger of collapse."
Who'da thunk it?
(Only reason I knew about marine borers is that I'm a member of a trolley museum located next to a salt marsh, that had to lay out a pile of $$$ to wrap the pilings on a couple of their trestles to stave off borer-induced deterioration)
---PCJ
As an aside, one of the first things I noticed on my first trip into Canada (I took Greyhound) was the axle count on trucks once across the border. Dump trucks everywhere sported four axles (two steering, two drive), and semis regularly appeared with trailers equipped with 3 and four axles. Makes one wonder how you turn a corner with all those axles. And not just van trailers, I saw bulk commodity trailers, tankers and dump trailers with 3 and 4 axles (as well as triple-axle 20-foot container trailers). I always chalked it up to lower axle load ratings on Canadian highways, but I never got a real answer as to why centipede-like trailers are so commonplace there.
Not that it means much, but I've noticed a growing number of 4-axle dump trucks/ cement mixers here in the US (mostly a retractable 4th axle which I'm told is for additional traction in mud or snow). And Shell seems to have adopted triple axles on its newest "V-Power" tanker trailers as well.
---PCJ
If people would just learn some manners, this wouldn't be an issue. I know, I know - that's crazy talk.
(not singling you out or anything like that--this is what I get for reading all posts up to this point...)
Of course that's crazy talk--this is Slashdot after all. Just getting up and leaving the theater is considered an arrogant/inconsiderate/boorish/justifies-beating-y ou-up offense--especially if there's a cell phone involved. Didn't you know? Oh, the stories I could tell you of the contempt heaped upon those poor souls unlucky enough to need to take a whiz, of all things. Why, even glancing down at your lap at the text message or vibration that appeared on the phone on your belt is , in a perfect world, a faux pas liable to enrage someone sitting halfway across the row who caught a fleeting glimpse of a phone's LCD out the corner of his eye, justifying his coming over to smash your phone against the wall. Although I would think some random object unexpectedly exploding against a wall in a darkened theatre might be a tad more disruptive than someone looking down at some device on their belt or lap (gee, did we have these same discussions when digital watches, with their infernal backlights, first appeared?), but I guess that's excusable because it's somebody's righteous indignation on display huh? Best just sit perfectly still, eyes forward, lest you inspire someone else to punch you out for fidgeting or something like that :)
(/tongue-in-cheek)
--PCJ
Yes, I'm well aware that in most places, driving is a necessity (I visited California once--almost felt "officially handicapped" not having a license at the time). I live in NYC (which is one of those places where one can get away with not driving), and out-of-towners still can't believe I've managed to go so long without finding it absolutely necessary to have a license, let alone a car of my own.
---PCJ
I would think that much of the problem stems from driving being seen as an entitlement. Something percieved as a privilege is usually treated more carefully (as it can be revoked through misuse) than something you believe you have a right to, irregardless of what you do with it, no?
---PCJ
Let's not forget "force Joe Sixpack to buy systems with those other OSes installed".
(tongue-in-cheek-mode off)
---PCJ
HypnoToad Cereal
Bzannnzozazaanoaanzonnaanzzononaano!
(slogan: "You Will Want It")
---PCJ
Casual gamers, otherwise known as the biggest segment of the console market?
---PCJ
I went and tried out the Samsung Yepp YP-T7 largely for it's FM recording functions in a Flash-based player, and it's 65K color LCD ain't half bad either.
(I would really have liked to have retro-recording capability like my Archos Jukebox HDD based unit--it has a 30-sec recording memory so you can still get the beginning of the song if you're slow on the REC button-- but even Archos doesn't seem to be plugging that feature anymore).
It does OGG, as well as MP3, WAV, WMA, and audio ASF. Records FM (user-selectable bitrates), voice and line-in, displays text and JPEG images, functions as a mass-storage device, and recharges through it's USB connector.
I don't typically bother with playlists, so I can't comment on those. It'd be nice to be able to adjust listening volume while recording FM, but that's the only quibble I can think of.
---PCJ
---PCJ
Dunno about other CDMA carriers, but under Verizon, I was able to change accounts online, at 4 in the morning, just before I was to go on a trip. It involved supplying some information about each phone (probably ESN info--it's been awhile since I did it).
Essentially, a couple of minutes of mouse-clicking, and the new phone was activated. Of course, it might've helped that I got it shipped direct from Verizon Wireless, (renewal and upgrade over the phone), so maybe they had info expecting the changeover, but it was remarkably painless (and like I said, worked flawlessly in the middle of the night)
---PCJ
---PCJ
You could also dispense with the formalities of fiddling with interlockings and simply run a train from end-to-end by D/L-ing a copy of BVE and some add-ons simulating London Underground and New York City subway lines. Plenty of dark to go around.
(not all of them are in the dark, tho...some of 'em actually have some rather nice scenery--as long as you stick with the UK/Euro routes, as the NYC ones are rather blah by comparison)
---PCJ