The RANT thread (often contains fruity language)

[Vince]

It is for the sending of tickets and yes I could use a UK address and get them forwarded.

HOWEVER. The Stena 'offer' gives me exactly the same price as other on-line ticket retailers, so no price benefit of the 'rail/sail' option.

[Andrij]

Pedestrians, a 'bike box' (ASL area) is NOT an extension of a pedestrian crossing.  Therefore, please refrain from:
1) using the bike bike as a crossing, especially is there are bicycles in said box; and
2) giving dirty looks to and/or complaining about said cyclists being 'in your way'.

 

[GothonaBrompton]

Pedestrians, a 'bike box' (ASL area) is NOT an extension of a pedestrian crossing.  Therefore, please refrain from:
1) using the bike bike as a crossing, especially is there are bicycles in said box; and
2) giving dirty looks to and/or complaining about said cyclists being 'in your way'.

 

One of my bugbears about cycling in Central London - and unfortunately I work in and commute through a very touristy area indeed.

[Mr Larrington]

I'd have to check but I'm pretty sure I've got a cable with a SCART connector on one end and RCA-stylee plugs on t'other, helpfully labelled "Video" & "Audio", and not even by me.  If such a thing does indeed lurk in the depths of the Big Bag of Anbaric String then I'm sure I have no idea where it came from or if I've ever used it but it's worth a try if the DVD is happy to use something other than SCART.

DVD happy with not-SCART
TV not happy with SCART to RCA cable

Short of ripping the back off and diving in with a non-existent soldering iron I fear I am this: stuffed

[Kim]

Of course, the SCART connector has different pins for audio and video in and out, so there's a good chance that any likely looking SCART-to-three-RCAs cable untangled from the box of anbaric string will be the wrong kind. (It's like BT to RJ11 cables in that respect.)

[Mr Larrington]

This one has its male RCA leads helpfully labelled "Video out", "Audio out L" and "Audio out R". As well as two unlabelled female RCA leads and a separate black RCA lead attached to the main one with cable ties.  It was like that when it came from the factory.

[Kim]

Yup, you're stuffed.

*passes the imaginary soldering iron*

[Oaky]

Twice (so far - and let's hope that's it for today) through airport security and transit to the terminal (same airport/security/terminal - I had to pop back out when my flight was canned to recheck for a different one), but that's not teh rantz.

This is teh rantz:  WHY ARE MY "FELLOW" TRAVELLERS SUCH A SHOWER OF GORMLESS, PEA-BRAINED, MOUTH-BREATHING FUCKNUGGETS WITH A COLLECTIVE IQ LOWER THAN MY SEAT NUMBER?

That is all.

[Mr Larrington]

Airports have that effect on some people.  Flight delayed by a Several of hours?  Crowd of people sat moping around by the gate?  Why not waltz up to the desk waving your passport and boarding card in case BA have found an extra 747 just for you, like a self-entitled bastard made of piss?

Or you could read the screens, which say "Please wait".

[Vince]

Fucking van rental companies. I expect you to check you have a van available before you take my money. Two of you fuckers have now taken money for non-existant vans and sending me an email at 6pm on the day before the rental is not going to give me a lot of opportunity to sort out alternatives.

Bastards

[jsabine]

The staff at the Hertz branch we use a bit tell me that the online booking system checks whether or not there are vehicles at the branch. If so, you can book one.

It doesn't, however, feel any need to concern itself with whether or not any bookings have already been taken for said vehicles.

[mrcharly-YHT]

GOOGLE!

Pastel shades? Really?

ffs

[Pickled Onion]

Pedestrians, a 'bike box' (ASL area) is NOT an extension of a pedestrian crossing.  Therefore, please refrain from:
1) using the bike bike as a crossing, especially is there are bicycles in said box; and
2) giving dirty looks to and/or complaining about said cyclists being 'in your way'.

 

It's getting worse with the proliferation of staggered crossings. Have the planners ever *watched* how pedestrians cross the road? They don't want to walk to the island, turn 90 degrees, bump into all the other pedestrians to walk a few metres sideways, then turn 90 degrees again. They just want to walk in a straight line, even if that's over a picture of a bike painted on the tarmac.

[David Martin]

It's designed to keep pedestrians safely out of the way of the motorist. And it is then not the councils fault if pedestrians ignore the crossing and do their own thing.

[Diver300]

Pedestrians, a 'bike box' (ASL area) is NOT an extension of a pedestrian crossing.  Therefore, please refrain from:
1) using the bike bike as a crossing, especially is there are bicycles in said box; and
2) giving dirty looks to and/or complaining about said cyclists being 'in your way'.

 

It's getting worse with the proliferation of staggered crossings. Have the planners ever *watched* how pedestrians cross the road? They don't want to walk to the island, turn 90 degrees, bump into all the other pedestrians to walk a few metres sideways, then turn 90 degrees again. They just want to walk in a straight line, even if that's over a picture of a bike painted on the tarmac.

I thought that the SOP is to press the button, and cross while the lights are deciding to stop the cars. The cars then have to stop for nothing at all.

Is the time that the lights take to stop the cars so that mythical kids can't stop for fun? Waiting for two of those times at a staggered crossing will add over a minute to a journey.

[Kim]

Is the time that the lights take to stop the cars so that mythical kids can't stop for fun? Waiting for two of those times at a staggered crossing will add over a minute to a journey.

I thought it was just to train pedestrians into not expecting to cross in a reasonable time, so that placebo buttons on timing-sensitive (optimised for motor traffic flow) junctions still have the desired effect.

As a one-time small child, I can testify that pressing the buttons on pelican crossings and randomly stopping traffic is no less fun with a delay.


(Recalls giving barkata an Ardunio 101 task of simulating a pelican crossing with the usual assortment of LEDs push-switches and buzzer:  "That's good, but you've forgotten the annoying pointless wait for the pedestrians.  Have a look at delay() and random() in the documentation")

[Jaded]

It is all about putting pedestrians in their place.

They are way lesser than car drivers, so should have to wait until countless car drivers have passed.

Sorry if that offends the poor put-upon motorist.

[Kim]

There are some toucan crossings on the local cycle route that will change instantly at least some of the time.  Presumably there's a back-off algorithm based on time since they were last triggered or the flow of cars or something.

Sadly they haven't gone as far as to trigger them with induction loops on the cyclepath (and provide clear sightlines), but it's not a bad effort by the standard of such things.

[Jaded]

Kim has it.

There is an algorithm.

Never press the button when there are cars in sight of its radar. If there is sporadic traffic it is often quicker to wait until there is a gap in traffic and press the button, than to press it when you arrive. If you press the button (on ours) when one car is approaching you wait an interminable length of time. If you wait until the car has passed the lights change immediately.

I did once look up the parameters for a Toucan crossing. Absolutely skewed in favour of the motorist. Good old British queuing, first come first served? Piss off - you are a useless pedestrian.

[orienteer]

Not how it works on our local, town centre crossing. It will change immediately on pressing the button, provided a minimum time has passed since the last change. Used to be 40 sec, now it's 20 sec, presumably due to the increased pedestrian traffic.

[Bledlow]

There are some toucan crossings on the local cycle route that will change instantly at least some of the time.  Presumably there's a back-off algorithm based on time since they were last triggered or the flow of cars or something.

Sadly they haven't gone as far as to trigger them with induction loops on the cyclepath (and provide clear sightlines), but it's not a bad effort by the standard of such things.

There's one here in Reading that used to work like that, but either it no longer does, or something's been done to the timing. It used to be fairly easy to cycle up to it at a (modest) speed which would change the lights in time for it not to be necessary to stop, but no more.

[tiermat]

ebay users, if I list something with a BIN of £60, don't automatically assume I am going accept £60 cash.

Also, if I say it is not possible to collect on a particular day, saying you work shifts isn't going to, suddenly, make it possible!

GAH! The bottom half of the internet does truly live on eBay

[T42]

I did once look up the parameters for a Toucan crossing. Absolutely skewed in favour of the motorist. Good old British queuing, first come first served? Piss off - you are a useless pedestrian.

There's a breed of traffic light coming into vogue in the villages here that turns red when a vehicle is approaching.  Traffic in this area is relatively sparse, so cars tend to hurtle through otherwise.  Unlike induction loop lights, these things also trigger for cyclists. Running into one on a stiff climb is wonderful.

[Kim]

There's a breed of traffic light coming into vogue in the villages here that turns red when a vehicle is approaching.  Traffic in this area is relatively sparse, so cars tend to hurtle through otherwise.  Unlike induction loop lights, these things also trigger for cyclists. Running into one on a stiff climb is wonderful.

Similarly, the completely gratuitous traffic light control of the junction of Lickey Road and Lowhill Lane at Longbridge.  The timings are heavily biased in favour of traffic on the side-road (the car factory isn't what it used to be, so there really isn't that much).  I finally realised that this wasn't a mistake, but a cunning way to reduce speeding on the main road (which seems to be something of a collision blackspot) by ensuring that there's nearly always a short queue of traffic on the way into the tree-covered section - drivers being more inclined to obey traffic lights than speed limits.

[T42]

Yeah. There's one annoying one near here that uses radar on the main road and induction loop for the side road.  Since the main road defaults to green when there are no cars in range and the induction loop is insensitive, if you ride up on the side road you can wait until hell freezes over.