airheads with P.A. systems
Alan J Rosenthal
easily-bewildered announcer on my usual train announces that we are stopped.
When the train starts going again, she announces that we are going again.
But you know, we didn't actually need her to tell us, and we have already
all made the logical deduction that we're going to be late. Her lengthy,
halting announcements just increase the amount of time that I can't manage
to get any work and/or play done on my laptop. It's rare that she has any
information for us other than the blatantly obvious.
This evening a followup announcement said we're stopped indefinitely because
of engine troubles. So everyone pulls out their mobile phones and calls
someone and says "we're stopped".
A few minutes later, we start. The airhead announces: we are moving again.
Then everyone pulls out their mobile phones and calls someone and says "we're
moving again".
Mobile phones are, apparently, a smurf amplifier for unnecessary train
problem reports.
Gid Holyoake
Rosenthal generously decided to share with us..
Snippetry..
> Mobile phones are, apparently, a smurf amplifier for unnecessary train
> problem reports.
HELLO, I'M ON THE TRAIN..
--
Gid
Current Project: Bragdy'r Ddraenen Wen
(if it ever stops raining for long enough)
Steve VanDevender
> Mobile phones are, apparently, a smurf amplifier for unnecessary train
> problem reports.
Mobile phones are, in general, intelligence suppressors.
Mobile phones may not cause cancer, but I think there could be an
increase in the death rate of mobile phone users, especially when they
do stupid things in my presence.
--
Steve VanDevender "I ride the big iron" http://hexadecimal.uoregon.edu/
ste...@hexadecimal.uoregon.edu PGP keyprint 4AD7AF61F0B9DE87 522902969C0A7EE8
Little things break, circuitry burns / Time flies while my little world turns
Every day comes, every day goes / 100 years and nobody shows -- Happy Rhodes
TimC
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
> This evening a followup announcement said we're stopped indefinitely because
> of engine troubles. So everyone pulls out their mobile phones and calls
> someone and says "we're stopped".
>
> A few minutes later, we start. The airhead announces: we are moving again.
> Then everyone pulls out their mobile phones and calls someone and says "we're
> moving again".
>
> Mobile phones are, apparently, a smurf amplifier for unnecessary train
> problem reports.
I notice qrnyrkgerzr have a 5 band mobile jammer with ~10m range.
--
TimC
Beware of Programmers who carry screwdrivers.
TimC
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
>> On 2009-10-07, Alan J Rosenthal (aka Bruce)
>>> problem reports.
>>
>> I notice qrnyrkgerzr have a 5 band mobile jammer with ~10m range.
>
> sku.4355 works. Though not very long.
As in battery life, or as in transmitter lifetime?
I'd be highly amused if people use these things because they're
concerned about "excess radiation" that "might cause cancer" and so
want to shut down mobile phones around them.
(talking of scare quotes, today I found a butcher that sold '"chicken"
snitzel').
--
TimC
Brain fried (core dumped)
Paul Tomblin
>In article <2009Oct6.2...@jarvis.cs.toronto.edu>, Alan J
>Rosenthal generously decided to share with us..
>
>Snippetry..
>
>> Mobile phones are, apparently, a smurf amplifier for unnecessary train
>> problem reports.
>
>HELLO, I'M ON THE TRAIN..
IT'S CRAP. I'M GOING INTO A TUNNEL. CIAO!
--
Paul Tomblin <ptom...@xcski.com> http://blog.xcski.com/
"I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things."
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Paul Tomblin
>On 2009-10-07, Michel Buijsman (aka Bruce)
> was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
>> On Wed, 7 Oct 2009 18:06:04 +1100, TimC wrote:
>>> On 2009-10-07, Alan J Rosenthal (aka Bruce)
>>>> Mobile phones are, apparently, a smurf amplifier for unnecessary train
>>>> problem reports.
>>>
>>> I notice qrnyrkgerzr have a 5 band mobile jammer with ~10m range.
>>
>> Indeed. A monk of my acquaintance has confirmed that
>> sku.4355 works. Though not very long.
>
>As in battery life, or as in transmitter lifetime?
Or as in people discovering its presence, and stomping it and you to death
for depriving them of their precious, precious teat.
Gid Holyoake
Martin generously decided to share with us..
Snippetry..
> Blackthorn (sloe) or whitethorn (hawthorn, implied by your use of
> "gwyn/gwen")?
Hawthorn..
> In West Glam? (Check your whois.)
About a third of the way up the Black Mountain innit..
Brian Kantor
>Her lengthy, halting announcements
Aren't they also going announcements? Are they recorded or live?
The local Walmart often features announcers practicing their English
on the PA system; sometimes it's a strong rural southern US accent,
sometimes hispanic, and recently a few that sound distinctly asian
to me. I pay attention to the accent because I can't understand the
words.
Wish we had commuter trains. I'm getting tired of driving to the
same work every day for the past 35 years. It's frustrating.
I keep buying faster cars and the traffic keep getting slower.
- Brian
Brian Kantor
>>> sku.4355 works. Though not very long.
There are a few articles on duh interweb about building cell phone
jammers. One that I found interesting was using the back end of a
30-watt 800 MHz land-mobile radio (3 for $25 new in the box at the
local electrojunk store) and a swept VCO to create a jammer that would,
it was claimed, be effective for nearly a kilometer.
This is almost within my budget. Unfortunately, it doesn't cover the
1900 MHz band that is quite popular here in the US. Cool use of available
components, though.
- Brian
Just zis Guy, you know?
wrote:
<snippage>
Every month we have a test announcement on the building PA which tells
us that if we can't hear the message clearly we should phone the
facilities department on the following number...
Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/
mikea
> On 7 Oct 2009 00:22:33 GMT, fl...@dgp.toronto.edu (Alan J Rosenthal)
> wrote:
>
> <snippage>
>
> Every month we have a test announcement on the building PA which tells
> us that if we can't hear the message clearly we should phone the
> facilities department on the following number...
"Watch where I get off the subway, and get off one stop earlier."
--
"From empirical experience, your Exchange admin needs to put down the crack
pipe and open a window to disperse the fumes." -- Joe Thompson, ASR
Joe Zeff
> Wish we had commuter trains. I'm getting tired of driving to the same
> work every day for the past 35 years. It's frustrating. I keep buying
> faster cars and the traffic keep getting slower.
In that case, wouldn't it make sense to buy a slower car so that the
traffic would speed up?
--
Joe Zeff -- The Guy With The Sideburns:
http://www.zeff.us http://www.lasfs.info
Sendmail should be boycotted for not properly crediting Lovecraft
in the design of sendmail.cf.
John F. Eldredge
Of course, you also need to keep in mind the results should the
authorities catch you with such a jammer. The penalties are fairly
severe, at least in the USA, from what I have heard.
--
John F. Eldredge -- jo...@jfeldredge.com
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria
TimC
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
> on the PA system; sometimes it's a strong rural southern US accent,
> sometimes hispanic, and recently a few that sound distinctly asian
> to me. I pay attention to the accent because I can't understand the
> words.
>
> Wish we had commuter trains. I'm getting tired of driving to the
> same work every day for the past 35 years. It's frustrating.
> I keep buying faster cars and the traffic keep getting slower.
That's OK. You're only missing out on the trains that are going the
same speed (and lower average speed) than what they were doing 100
years ago.
--
TimC
Error in operator: add beer
TimC
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
> wrote:
>
> <snippage>
>
> Every month we have a test announcement on the building PA which tells
> us that if we can't hear the message clearly we should phone the
> facilities department on the following number...
I've already alerted to them that I can't hear the announcments in the
machine room (the building services guy installed a new A/C last year
without consultation with the IT staff, and thus never found out that
we don't actually need 20kW of cooling for the vaxen anymore, only
2kW, and thus he doesn't need to replace the old liebert monster with
an even louder new liebert monster). His response was "oh, it can't
be adjusted on an individual basis".
I only just heard the false alarm (foggy day, main doors open, weather
patterns started moving indoors, and smoke detectors of the ionising
radiation kind; fsck it was cold and miserable outside in the
evacuation area) the other day when I was in there.
Quality. That's the way it is.
--
TimC
My other car is a cdr
Steve VanDevender
> On 2009-10-07, Michel Buijsman (aka Bruce)
> was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
>> On Wed, 7 Oct 2009 18:06:04 +1100, TimC wrote:
>>> On 2009-10-07, Alan J Rosenthal (aka Bruce)
>>>> Mobile phones are, apparently, a smurf amplifier for unnecessary train
>>>> problem reports.
>>>
>>> I notice qrnyrkgerzr have a 5 band mobile jammer with ~10m range.
>>
>> Indeed. A monk of my acquaintance has confirmed that
>> sku.4355 works. Though not very long.
>
> As in battery life, or as in transmitter lifetime?
>
> I'd be highly amused if people use these things because they're
> concerned about "excess radiation" that "might cause cancer" and so
> want to shut down mobile phones around them.
I don't want a jammer, I want an EMP/HERF gun.
My dream is to be able to fire it at a mobile phone luser with a hearty
cry of "CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW" and have the mobile phone blow sparks and
melt onto the luser's face.
I suppose that might really get people worked up about "excessive
radiation" though.
Peter H. Coffin
Some are. The US ones definately are. They have, however, lost the
concept of "express" from reduced usage. (Acela might still remember to
make fewer stops as well as run faster, but I'm not 100% sure of that.)
--
Yes, Java is so bulletproofed that to a C programmer it feels like being in a
straightjacket, but it's a really comfy and warm straightjacket, and the world
would be a safer place if everyone was straightjacketed most of the time.
-- Mark 'Kamikaze' Hughes
John F. Eldredge
> TimC <tcon...@no.spam.accepted.here-astro.swin.edu.au> writes:
>
>> On 2009-10-07, Michel Buijsman (aka Bruce)
>> was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
>>> On Wed, 7 Oct 2009 18:06:04 +1100, TimC wrote:
>>>> On 2009-10-07, Alan J Rosenthal (aka Bruce)
>>>>> Mobile phones are, apparently, a smurf amplifier for unnecessary
>>>>> train problem reports.
>>>>
>>>> I notice qrnyrkgerzr have a 5 band mobile jammer with ~10m range.
>>>
>>> Indeed. A monk of my acquaintance has confirmed that sku.4355 works.
>>> Though not very long.
>>
>> As in battery life, or as in transmitter lifetime?
>>
>> I'd be highly amused if people use these things because they're
>> concerned about "excess radiation" that "might cause cancer" and so
>> want to shut down mobile phones around them.
>
> I don't want a jammer, I want an EMP/HERF gun.
>
> My dream is to be able to fire it at a mobile phone luser with a hearty
> cry of "CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW" and have the mobile phone blow sparks and
> melt onto the luser's face.
>
> I suppose that might really get people worked up about "excessive
> radiation" though.
"Oops. I guess he had a pacemaker as well as a mobile phone..."
Maarten Wiltink
news:125497095...@hexane.ssi.swin.edu.au...
> On 2009-10-07, Brian Kantor (aka Bruce)
>> Wish we had commuter trains. I'm getting tired of driving to the
>> same work every day for the past 35 years. It's frustrating.
>> I keep buying faster cars and the traffic keep getting slower.
>
> That's OK. You're only missing out on the trains that are going the
> same speed (and lower average speed) than what they were doing 100
> years ago.
I've heard the same about airplanes. The original story named two
airfields on the US east coast that were farther from each other
(expressed in time) in the 1990s than in the 1920s. No security
theatre, no baggage handling counted, just time from liftoff to
touchdown.
There is some progress with trains. Last year we took a train through
Bavaria and had a nice view of the concrete tub the rails were in,
and of the onboard status screens that went up to 290 kph. (This year
we took a slow train on the other side of the border. Metz is still
lovely and I now know _several_ hat shops there, although I still do
not have a new hat.)
Tebrgwrf,
Maarten Wiltink
Mark Huizer
> In article <2009Oct6.2...@jarvis.cs.toronto.edu>,
>> problem reports.
>
> and years ago, and for well over a decade, talking on the phone while on
> the train is Not Allowed. At All. Anyone who starts talking on the
> phone will receive many Glares Of Death from the other riders.
>
> It's quite pleasant really.
>
I guess the main pleasantness comes from the fact that people are at all
impressed by the Glares of Death. I happen to know a country where such
Glares are just ignored because they stand in the way of You Doing What
You Like, which is more important than anything else.
mark
Peter Corlett
[...]
> I guess the main pleasantness comes from the fact that people are at all
> impressed by the Glares of Death. I happen to know a country where such
> Glares are just ignored because they stand in the way of You Doing What
> You Like, which is more important than anything else.
Ah, you mean London. Which is a different country to England, where the
Glare of Death will at least be noticed.
Mercifully, mobile phone coverage on the London Underground is fairly
spotty, leaving just chavs listening to alleged music[0] at top volume on
their iPods. In fact, I think children should pay full price and adults get
half fares.
[0] I haven't turned into an old fart. 90% of music was crap and people had
no taste when I was young too. Perhaps I was born an old fart and am
just waiting for my body to catch up.
Nomen Publicus
> [0] I haven't turned into an old fart. 90% of music was crap and people had
> no taste when I was young too. Perhaps I was born an old fart and am
> just waiting for my body to catch up.
I used to think that the Hisss, Hissss, Thusp, Hisss, Hissss coming from
todays youf was due to the lousy headphones... It turns out that it's the
actual music. At some time during the 2000s bass became very unfashionable.
My current in-ear phones can be painfully loud yet have almost zero external
leakage. I wish Apple would spend the extra couple of dollars and use
similar better quality ear phones - they might even get a nomination for the
Nobel Peace Prize.
--
The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant
character in all fiction. -- Richard Dawkins
Just zis Guy, you know?
<zza...@buffy.sighup.org.uk> wrote:
>I used to think that the Hisss, Hissss, Thusp, Hisss, Hissss coming from
>todays youf was due to the lousy headphones... It turns out that it's the
>actual music. At some time during the 2000s bass became very unfashionable.
You've not been to Romford on a Friday night lately then. Drum'n'bass
at volumes that threaten to shake their Novas apart at the seams.
Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/
Chloe
<guy.c...@spamcop.net> wrote:
> You've not been to Romford on a Friday night lately then. Drum'n'bass
> at volumes that threaten to shake their Novas apart at the seams.
>
They still use Nova's in Romford?
I thought they had all changed to Saxo's due to the number of Novas dropping
due to rust/being wrapped around a tree/police crushing them...
Chloe
David Cameron Staples
scripsit:
> I wonder what they'd make of my iPod full of Schubert, Mendelssohn and
> Bach?
Random play on my personal noise-maker is just as likely to go:
Kate Bush
Bach
Porcupine Tree
Tool
Bach
Purcell
Tori Amos
Vivaldi
Pink Floyd
Clannad
Beatles
more Tool
Peter Gabriel
did I mention I've got some Bach on here?
...
...
--
David Cameron Staples | staples AT unimelb DOT edu DOT au
Melbourne University | School of Engineering | IT Support
<hybridy2k> how do i give ppl ops with a certain level
<@netwerk> rephrase your question in english before i find an axe and
murder your parents -- bash.org/?10646
Peter Corlett
[...]
> I wonder what they'd make of my iPod full of Schubert, Mendelssohn and
> Bach?
"Oh look, the shuffle mode makes even more of a hash of it than it does with
pop" ...?
mikea
> On Thu, 8 Oct 2009 21:59:03 +0000 (UTC), Satya
> <sat...@satyaonline.cjb.net> wrote:
>
>>> I used to think that the Hisss, Hissss, Thusp, Hisss, Hissss coming from
>>> todays youf was due to the lousy headphones... It turns out that it's the
>>> actual music. At some time during the 2000s bass became very unfashionable.
>>
>>that. It's damn annoying and is only heard by my bones, not my ears. Well, my
>>other bones.
>
> I wonder what they'd make of my iPod full of Schubert, Mendelssohn and
> Bach?
All those old dead men? And mine full of classical guitar and
Renaissance lute stuff?
--
"Men are from Mars, women are from Venus,
pop psychology is from Uranus." -- B...@lspace.org
John F. Eldredge
> On Thu, 8 Oct 2009 20:35:57 -0000, Nomen Publicus wrote:
>> I used to think that the Hisss, Hissss, Thusp, Hisss, Hissss coming
>> from todays youf was due to the lousy headphones... It turns out that
>> it's the actual music. At some time during the 2000s bass became very
>> unfashionable.
>
> All I ever hear is thunnnndERRRRR... thunnnndERRRRR.... or something
> like that. It's damn annoying and is only heard by my bones, not my
> ears. Well, my other bones.
In the USA, at least, you still have the occasional car with a sound
system that is apparently tuned to broadcast only the subsonic portion of
the sound track to the rest of the world. You can't tell what the rest
of the music sounds like; you can only hear THUD, THUD, pause, THUD.
Then again, given what sounds such cars tend to emit if the windows are
rolled down, you are probably better off _NOT_ hearing the music.
Zebee Johnstone
Chloe <Ch...@asteroid.igloo.snowfields.net> wrote:
ahem.
>
> They still use Nova's in Romford?
^
BLAM
> I thought they had all changed to Saxo's due to the number of Novas dropping
^
BLAM
> due to rust/being wrapped around a tree/police crushing them...
>
Give 'em back to the grocer already.
Zebee
Steve VanDevender
> I guess the main pleasantness comes from the fact that people are at all
> impressed by the Glares of Death. I happen to know a country where such
> Glares are just ignored because they stand in the way of You Doing What
> You Like, which is more important than anything else.
This is why you need to have Yama's Glare of Death, which actually kills
people.
Just zis Guy, you know?
wrote:
>In the USA, at least, you still have the occasional car with a sound
>system that is apparently tuned to broadcast only the subsonic portion of
>the sound track to the rest of the world. You can't tell what the rest
>of the music sounds like; you can only hear THUD, THUD, pause, THUD.
>Then again, given what sounds such cars tend to emit if the windows are
>rolled down, you are probably better off _NOT_ hearing the music.
Why is the C silent in rap music?
Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/
Joe Zeff
> I wonder what they'd make of my iPod full of Schubert, Mendelssohn and
> Bach?
Or mine: Raymond Scott, Spike Jones and bagpipes for the most part.
--
Joe Zeff -- The Guy With The Sideburns:
http://www.zeff.us http://www.lasfs.info
But I don't mind, as it's the sort of thing that,
if it's percieved as insulting, probably ought to be.
Maarten Wiltink
news:m8c2q6-...@mikea.ath.cx...[...]
>> I wonder what they'd make of my iPod full of Schubert, Mendelssohn
>> and Bach?
>
> All those old dead men? And mine full of classical guitar and
> Renaissance lute stuff?
I feel it's time to chip in with my usual note of "and *I* don't _own_
an iPod."
Although at work I do have an SSH tunnel to the file server at home,
and a set of desktop speakers. My roomie already started complained at
Patrick Bruel. Perhaps I _should_ try the Stooges on him.
Tebrgwrf,
Maarten Wiltink
Richard Gadsden
> You know what surprises me most? The ones ignoring polite requests, or
> actually reacting aggressively are all nice middle-class white
> people. The few times I had to ask a stereotypically 'dangerous' person
> (i.e. either coloured or burly lower-class white) for quiet, I was met
> with an apology, and mostly compliance.
Why does that surprise you? Nice middle-class white people know that
those rules are so *other people* are quiet when they want some peace,
not so they have to be quiet when doing something *important.*
--
Richard Gadsden ric...@gadsden.name
"I disagree with what you say but I will defend to
the death your right to say it" - Attributed to Voltaire
Mark Huizer
>
> In this case, given the reaction I get, it is more that they treat a
> polite request as an authoritarian command, and I am not an authority
> figure, merely Just Another Guy ("Who are you to tell me what to
> do?[2]").
Hmm... so one of the issues is that they see NOBODY as an authority
figure, except maybe for the wife or mother. The stories about bus
drivers, medical personnel and police officers being ignored or
insulted or threatened are clear enough. Too bad the one guy/party who
claims to deal with it in a hard way, is also the guy who would set a
perfect example for your "rules are for other people" statement. The
question remaining... is it worth a paragraph in our history books to
give him the chance to prove that he won't solve it either?
Mark
Christer Mort Boräng
> Dan Birchall wrote:
>>Skipping through 10 bands in shuffle
>>mode, I get the Japanese version of an Avri1 Lavigne song, Ooklah the Moc,
>>Heart, Marillion, House of Pain, Faith No More, Spike Jones, Styx, Star
>>People, and Stratovarius.
> Francoise Hardy, Divinefire, Flanders & Swann, Ofra Haza, Warren Zevon,
> Zabranjeno Pusenje, Queen, Art of Noise, Deep Purple, Nightwish.
Hmm...
Poeta Magica, Devo, Risky Men feat. Asuka-M, Tom Lehrer, Alien#Six13,
Q'HEY, Erasure, Laibach, Depeche Mode, J�vlaranamma.
But I don't play classical music on the ipod due to the too big
dynamics, since I only use it for commuting.
//Christer
--
| Hag�kersgatan 18C | Phone: Home +46 31 43 52 03 CTH: +46 31 772 5431 |
| S-431 41 M�lndal | Mail: mo...@chalmers.se Cell: +46 707 53 57 57 |
| Sweden | WWW: http://www.cd.chalmers.se/~mort/ |
"An NT server can be run by an idiot, and usually is." -- Tom Holub, a.h.b-o-i
Kenneth Brody
> On Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:43:47 +0100, Just zis Guy, you know? wrote:
>
>> I wonder what they'd make of my iPod full of Schubert, Mendelssohn and
>> Bach?
>
> Or mine: Raymond Scott, Spike Jones and bagpipes for the most part.
"Hello Muddah" on the bagpipes? Now _that_ would drive anyone crazy. :-)
--
Kenneth Brody
Brian Kantor
>authorities catch you with such a jammer. The penalties are fairly
>severe, at least in the USA, from what I have heard.
Really?
Thanks!
- Brian
Brian Kantor
>I don't want a jammer, I want an EMP/HERF gun.
>
>My dream is to be able to fire it at a mobile phone luser with a hearty
>cry of "CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW" and have the mobile phone blow sparks and
>melt onto the luser's face.
ISTR a _Man From U.N.C.L.E._ episode where a telephone was modified to
fire a shock wave (or was it some kind of projectile?) into the user's
ear that would result in mulching his brain. WANT!
- Brian
Brian Kantor
>> In article <2009Oct6.2...@jarvis.cs.toronto.edu>,
>> Fortunately Japan Rail seems to have gotten tired of this problem years
>> and years ago, and for well over a decade, talking on the phone while on
>> the train is Not Allowed. At All. Anyone who starts talking on the
>> phone will receive many Glares Of Death from the other riders.
There is an episode of _Top Gear_ in which our intrepid drivers are
riding on a JR train and one makes a cellphone call. A fellow passenger
goes over to tell him (despite language difficulties) in polite but
stern terms to get off the phone.
Enroute from Tokyo to Hiroshima I attempted to call to book a hotel room, and
came to the conclusion that it is not only forbidden but nearly impossible to
make a voice call on the train; the connection dropped nearly a half-dozen times
in the space of a few minutes. To avoid annoying the passengers I was standing
in the vestibule so only folks visiting the toilets got to listen to me swearing
at the phone.
- Brian
Joe Zeff
> I feel it's time to chip in with my usual note of "and *I* don't _own_
> an iPod."
Strictly speaking, neither do I. I do, however, have an MP3 player, but
only to help the time pass quicker at the gym.
--
Joe Zeff -- The Guy With The Sideburns:
http://www.zeff.us http://www.lasfs.info
If life is a journey, are we there yet?
Joe Zeff
No Alan Sherman, although I do have some PDQ Bach at home that I might
add. I also have exactly one Elvis: "The Laughing Elvis."
--
Joe Zeff -- The Guy With The Sideburns:
http://www.zeff.us http://www.lasfs.info
Sendmail should be boycotted for not properly crediting Lovecraft
in the design of sendmail.cf.
mikea
> On Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:10:02 -0400, Kenneth Brody wrote:
>
>> Joe Zeff wrote:
>>> On Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:43:47 +0100, Just zis Guy, you know? wrote:
>>>
>>>> I wonder what they'd make of my iPod full of Schubert, Mendelssohn and
>>>> Bach?
>>>
>>> Or mine: Raymond Scott, Spike Jones and bagpipes for the most part.
>>
>> "Hello Muddah" on the bagpipes? Now _that_ would drive anyone crazy.
>> :-)
>
> No Alan Sherman, although I do have some PDQ Bach at home that I might
> add. I also have exactly one Elvis: "The Laughing Elvis."
Does anyone else have "The Baroque Beatles Album"? My favorite on that,
by a small margin, is the orchestra-plus-vocal version of "Help Me". How
about yours?
--
Insofar as the police deter by their presence, they are very,
very good. Criminals take great pains not to commit a crime in
front of them.
-- Jeffrey Snyder
Steve VanDevender
> On 2009-10-09, John F. Eldredge <jo...@jfeldredge.com> wrote:
>> On Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:59:03 +0000, Satya wrote:
>>> All I ever hear is thunnnndERRRRR... thunnnndERRRRR.... or something
>>> like that. It's damn annoying and is only heard by my bones, not my
>>> ears. Well, my other bones.
>>
>> In the USA, at least, you still have the occasional car with a sound
>> system that is apparently tuned to broadcast only the subsonic portion of
>> the sound track to the rest of the world. You can't tell what the rest
>> of the music sounds like; you can only hear THUD, THUD, pause, THUD.
>
> My pet theory is that THUD soundwave is simply too long to fit
> inside the car, you can only hear it outside.
Since that would apply for audio frequencies less than (very
approximately) 100 Hz, that actually kind of makes sense.
--
Steve VanDevender "I ride the big iron" http://hexadecimal.uoregon.edu/
ste...@hexadecimal.uoregon.edu PGP keyprint 4AD7AF61F0B9DE87 522902969C0A7EE8
"bash awk grep perl sed df du, du-du du-du,
vi troff su fsck rm * halt LART LART LART!" -- the Swedish BOFH
Garrett Wollman
Christer "Mort" Bor�n g <mort+...@dtek.chalmers.se> wrote:
>But I don't play classical music on the ipod due to the too big
>dynamics, since I only use it for commuting.
I don't have an iPod. My equivalent device is used almost exclusively
for long plane trips, and I haven't bothered to update the music on it
in some years. I'm not even sure exactly what's on it.
I suspect my tastes aren't as broad as many here, since I really don't
have any tolerance for distorted screeches, square waves, and other
guitar-generated noises masquerading as "music". Nor do I have much
tolerance for alleged singers who can't. (But on the other hand,
non-vocal music generally bores me to sleep. I find it nearly
impossible to take more than a momentary interest in such things.)
Now that I'm no longer young,[1] I'm starting to have more of an
appreciation for the music my parents grew up with. Sturgeon's Law
still applies, but some that remaining 10% is as good as anything made
today. I can't say I'm liking much of what I hear today.
-GAWollman
[1] Which is no to say that I'm *old*, mind you! I have a long way to
go before I earn that distinction.
--
Garrett A. Wollman | What intellectual phenomenon can be older, or more oft
wol...@bimajority.org| repeated, than the story of a large research program
Opinions not shared by| that impaled itself upon a false central assumption
my employers. | accepted by all practitioners? - S.J. Gould, 1993
Maarten Wiltink
[...]
> Does anyone else have "The Baroque Beatles Album"?
No, I don't care much for baroque (in any medium). But I do have
the Beatles tribute album by a bunch of Salsa artists, and some of
it is *good*.
Tebrgwrf,
Maarten Wiltink
Maarten Wiltink
Why am I left with the mental image of a lightbulb going on over
Brian's head, and him suddenly running out to 'find' cell phone
jammers in other people's pockets?
Tebrgwrf,
Maarten Wiltink
mrob...@worldnet.att.net
> (But on the other hand, non-vocal music generally bores me to sleep.
> I find it nearly impossible to take more than a momentary interest
> in such things.)
TIPS FOR PERFORMERS: [...] Singing is a trick to get people to listen to
music for longer than they would ordinarily.
Matt Roberds
mikea
Depends strongly on the quality of the singing. If it's bad, I tend to tune
out, regardless of the instrumental stuff behind it. I grant I'm a (pretty
good, if I do say so myself; other people say it to me, too) singer who
enjoys good singing, but I doubt I'm any pickier than anyone else in this
regard.
Of course, I'm a (pretty good, if I do say so myself; other people say it
to me, too) guitarist and lutenist, and I tend to tune bad instrumental
music out very quickly, too.
--
Clerk in store, in response to query:
"You're the third person I've had to say this to already
today: WE DON'T STOCK IT, BECAUSE THERE'S NO CALL FOR IT".
-- Alan J. Flavell, in the monastery
Shmuel Metz
at 01:04 PM, Gallian <gal...@linuxmail.org> said:
>In this case, given the reaction I get, it is more that they treat a
>polite request as an authoritarian command, and I am not an authority
>figure, merely Just Another Guy ("Who are you to tell me what to
>do?[2]").
"A human being. Who are you?"
--
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz <http://patriot.net/~shmuel> ISO position
Reply to domain Patriot dot net user shmuel+bspfh to contact me.
We don't care. We don't have to care, we're Congress.
(S877: The Shut up and Eat Your spam act of 2003)
Gene Sullivan
> Roger Burton West <roger+a...@nospam.firedrake.org> writes:
> > Dan Birchall wrote:
> >>Skipping through 10 bands in shuffle
> >>mode, I get the Japanese version of an Avri1 Lavigne song, Ooklah the
> >>Moc, Heart, Marillion, House of Pain, Faith No More, Spike Jones, Styx,
> >>Star People, and Stratovarius.
> > Francoise Hardy, Divinefire, Flanders & Swann, Ofra Haza, Warren Zevon,
> > Zabranjeno Pusenje, Queen, Art of Noise, Deep Purple, Nightwish.
> Hmm...
> Poeta Magica, Devo, Risky Men feat. Asuka-M, Tom Lehrer, Alien#Six13,
> Q'HEY, Erasure, Laibach, Depeche Mode, J�vlaranamma.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Beatles, King Crimson, They Might Be Giants,
Nine Inch Nails, Portishead, Brahms, Phish, Velvet Underground, Muse.
Wow. Good mix today, but I look downright mundane compared to the rest
of you. Good thing I don't care.
> But I don't play classical music on the ipod due to the too big
> dynamics, since I only use it for commuting.
I don't generally listen to classical in the car, but it's on the
iPod in case the kids are in the car with me. They both love Bach
and Mozart, as all children seem to, and I've found that the boy
seems to enjoy Mahler, and girl really seems to like Scriabin.
--
Gene Sullivan :: curio...@gmail.com :: http://curiousgene.com
Compassion is what *you're* good at. I'm better at complex
searches through organized data structures.
-Jane, "Speaker For The Dead"
Zebee Johnstone
Garrett Wollman <wol...@bimajority.org> wrote:
>
> I don't have an iPod. My equivalent device is used almost exclusively
> for long plane trips, and I haven't bothered to update the music on it
> in some years. I'm not even sure exactly what's on it.
>
For long plane trips I do words not music. Comedy, drama, documentary
from the BBC and Radio National.
For long motorcycle trips I do words and music depending on how I'm
feeling. Adaptations of Christie in 5 half hour episodes from BBC7
are good highway trip fodder for example, whereas half hour podcasts
aren't but are good for the work commute.
> Now that I'm no longer young,[1] I'm starting to have more of an
> appreciation for the music my parents grew up with. Sturgeon's Law
> still applies, but some that remaining 10% is as good as anything made
> today. I can't say I'm liking much of what I hear today.
I'm an unrepentant folkie. THe motorcycle trip music is things I
can sing along to, so lots of old fashioned folk and folklike such
as The Weavers and sea shanties and Odetta and Eric Bogle and
Steeleye Span and Battlefield Band and Redgum, plus slightly more
modern but still singable like Eurythmics or Kinks or Creedence.
If it doesn't make we want to sing along, it's not on there. So
Gilbert and Sullivan make it, polyphony doesn't. (although if I had
decent renditions of choral standards like Come Again or Laudate I
might have those so I can do the alto part).
This makes my iPod quite different from most people I know.
I have a lot of jazz and classical and renaissance on the mini at
home, but no point having that on the iPod.
Zebee
Zebee Johnstone
mikea <mi...@mikea.ath.cx> wrote:
> mrob...@worldnet.att.net wrote in <hanv5s$477$1...@news.eternal-september.org>:
>> Garrett Wollman <wol...@bimajority.org> wrote:
>>> (But on the other hand, non-vocal music generally bores me to sleep.
>>> I find it nearly impossible to take more than a momentary interest
>>> in such things.)
>>
>> TIPS FOR PERFORMERS: [...] Singing is a trick to get people to listen to
>> music for longer than they would ordinarily.
>
> Depends strongly on the quality of the singing. If it's bad, I tend to tune
> out, regardless of the instrumental stuff behind it. I grant I'm a (pretty
> good, if I do say so myself; other people say it to me, too) singer who
> enjoys good singing, but I doubt I'm any pickier than anyone else in this
> regard.
I saw a recommendation for a singer/songwriter going by the name
of Aqualung, so hunted some of his stuff on youtube. The recommendation
said it was good words and moving songs... but the execution was a
light nasal voice with bugger all expression so the words might
have been good but the effect was irritating in the extreme.
Performance counts. Leslie Fish has a nasal voice and it's not
musical really, but she has energy and good songs (although some
of the credit for that has to go to Mr Kipling...) and as I'm
bellowing in my helmet along with her, I can cope.
Zebee
mikea
> I'm an unrepentant folkie. THe motorcycle trip music is things I
> can sing along to, so lots of old fashioned folk and folklike such
> as The Weavers and sea shanties and Odetta and Eric Bogle and
> Steeleye Span and Battlefield Band and Redgum, plus slightly more
> modern but still singable like Eurythmics or Kinks or Creedence.
>
> If it doesn't make we want to sing along, it's not on there. So
> Gilbert and Sullivan make it, polyphony doesn't. (although if I had
> decent renditions of choral standards like Come Again or Laudate I
> might have those so I can do the alto part).
>
> This makes my iPod quite different from most people I know.
>
> I have a lot of jazz and classical and renaissance on the mini at
> home, but no point having that on the iPod.
I keep some Chad Mitchell Trio albums on my iPhone for listening to while
in physical therapy. Two weeks ago things were getting *VERY* painful just
as "Ain't no more cane on the Brazos" started playing, and I sang along
with it -- apparently at the top of my lungs, as I got a round of applause
from everyone -- about 25 people -- at the end of the last verse.
I *choose* to think that they were applauding not because I stopped, but
because they liked it.
I also have some Morse Code recordings that are good for concentrating on,
when I need to concentrate on something other than The Pain THE PAIN!!!!
--
"But I *love* kids, it's just that I can never eat a whole one."
-- Lionel, possibly quoting someone else,
in the Monastery
Garrett Wollman
Gene Sullivan <curio...@gmail.com> wrote:
>Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Beatles, King Crimson, They Might Be Giants,
>Nine Inch Nails, Portishead, Brahms, Phish, Velvet Underground, Muse.
>
>Wow. Good mix today, but I look downright mundane compared to the rest
>of you. Good thing I don't care.
I can't bring myself to post the list of 177 "artist"-slot-entries in
myserver:/media/audio. Just under %r/^The\s/ I have:
The Big Wu, The Church, The Corrs, The Cranberries, The Cure, The
Damnwells, The Dream Academy, The Jayhawks, The Outfield, The Police,
The sundays, The Vanity Project, The Wailin' Jennys, The Wallflowers,
and The Waterboys
Not that I listen to any of these particularly frequently. The most
popular initial letter appears to be 'T'; in addition to all those
"The" bands there's Talk Talk, Talking Heads, Tears for Fears,
Thompson Twins, Tom Cochrane, Tori Amos, Travis, and Trey Anastasio.
(Next is 'S', with Sarah Harmer, Semisonic, Shawn Colvin, Shawn
Mullins, Sheryl Crow, Simple Minds, Sinead Lohan, Snow Patrol, Spandau
Ballet, Sting, Susan Aglukark, and Suzanne Vega.)
-GAWollman
Just zis Guy, you know?
(Garrett Wollman) wrote:
>I can't bring myself to post the list of 177 "artist"-slot-entries in
>myserver:/media/audio. Just under %r/^The\s/ I have:
Only 177? I have a very large number of artists, but the composers
list is somewhat shorter. My latest discovery was Marin Marais.
Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/
Graham Reed
> "Oh look, the shuffle mode makes even more of a hash of it than it does with
> pop" ...?
Select by genre, Command-A, Command-I, Skip When Shuffling, sync sync
sync reboot.
Not that I ever use shuffle anyway... but if I ever did, the metadata
is there! Bwahahahahaha.
--
"I was raised agnostic, but I became an atheist."
-- Graham Reed
mikea
> On Fri, 9 Oct 2009 21:21:42 +0000 (UTC), wol...@bimajority.org
> (Garrett Wollman) wrote:
>
>>I can't bring myself to post the list of 177 "artist"-slot-entries in
>>myserver:/media/audio. Just under %r/^The\s/ I have:
>
> Only 177? I have a very large number of artists, but the composers
> list is somewhat shorter. My latest discovery was Marin Marais.
OhYeah! Also, for violoncello (plus orchestra), Luigi Boccherini.
--
ISPs sell connectivity to the world. They provide connectivity to their
own facilities. The "product" they sell depends upon the forebearance
of millions of other systems whose cooperation is REQUIRED for them to
not be fraudulently selling something they cannot provide.
Joe Zeff
> Performance counts. Leslie Fish has a nasal voice and it's not musical
> really, but she has energy and good songs (although some of the credit
> for that has to go to Mr Kipling...) and as I'm bellowing in my helmet
> along with her, I can cope.
I was about to offer to check if she's going to be at this year's LosCon
so that you could meet her, but I remembered in the nick o' thyme where
you live and that it probably wouldn't be feasible for you. Next year's
WesterCon will also be in the LARea; would that be easier?
--
Joe Zeff -- The Guy With The Sideburns:
http://www.zeff.us http://www.lasfs.info
Unix doesn't prevent you from doing something stupid because
that would prevent me from doing something clever.
Zebee Johnstone
mikea <mi...@mikea.ath.cx> wrote:
>
> I keep some Chad Mitchell Trio albums on my iPhone for listening to while
> in physical therapy. Two weeks ago things were getting *VERY* painful just
> as "Ain't no more cane on the Brazos" started playing, and I sang along
> with it -- apparently at the top of my lungs, as I got a round of applause
> from everyone -- about 25 people -- at the end of the last verse.
I've used work songs to well.. work to. For washing bikes or sweeping
floors.
HAven't used them for weights work but that's because I couldn't get
into it over the crap they play on the loudspeakers at the gym, and
can't sing properly with earplugs....
Zebee
Zebee Johnstone
Joe Zeff <the.guy.with....@lasfs.info> wrote:
> On Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:21:04 +0000, Zebee Johnstone wrote:
>
>> Performance counts. Leslie Fish has a nasal voice and it's not musical
>> really, but she has energy and good songs (although some of the credit
>> for that has to go to Mr Kipling...) and as I'm bellowing in my helmet
>> along with her, I can cope.
>
> I was about to offer to check if she's going to be at this year's LosCon
> so that you could meet her, but I remembered in the nick o' thyme where
> you live and that it probably wouldn't be feasible for you. Next year's
> WesterCon will also be in the LARea; would that be easier?
It wouldn't be enough to get me to the US. After the reports of the
Western Martial Arts do in Michigan this year I will be in the US for
the next one in 2011.
Zebee
Garrett Wollman
Just zis Guy, you know? <guy.c...@spamcop.net> wrote:
>On Fri, 9 Oct 2009 21:21:42 +0000 (UTC), wol...@bimajority.org
>(Garrett Wollman) wrote:
>
>>I can't bring myself to post the list of 177 "artist"-slot-entries in
>>myserver:/media/audio. Just under %r/^The\s/ I have:
>
>Only 177? I have a very large number of artists, but the composers
>list is somewhat shorter. My latest discovery was Marin Marais.
I did say that I didn't think my tastes were as broad as some people
here. (And I also refuse to steal music, so everthing I have is (a)
paid for and (b) purchased in units of one album or more. There are
many calls on my finances, and I don't spend more than a few hundred
dollars a year on recorded music these days -- and most of that
recently has been filling in good older stuff that I didn't buy when
it was new.)
mrob...@worldnet.att.net
> mrob...@worldnet.att.net wrote in <hanv5s$477$1...@news.eternal-september.org>:
>> Garrett Wollman <wol...@bimajority.org> wrote:
>>> (But on the other hand, non-vocal music generally bores me to sleep.
>>> I find it nearly impossible to take more than a momentary interest
>>> in such things.)
>>
>> TIPS FOR PERFORMERS: [...] Singing is a trick to get people to listen to
>> music for longer than they would ordinarily.
>
> Depends strongly on the quality of the singing.
The Space People think factories are musical instruments. They sing
along with them. Each song lasts from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. No music on
weekends.
The Space People will contact us when they can make money by doing so.
Matt Roberds
Jim
> I'm an unrepentant folkie. THe motorcycle trip music is things I
> can sing along to, so lots of old fashioned folk and folklike such
> as The Weavers and sea shanties and Odetta and Eric Bogle and
> Steeleye Span and Battlefield Band and Redgum, plus slightly more
> modern but still singable like Eurythmics or Kinks or Creedence.
Are you aware of the Renaissance Festival Podcast and the Irish and
Celtic Music Podcast? Both done by Marc Gunn (ex Brobdingnagian Bards)
and both might have stuff you'd like.
Jim
--
"Microsoft admitted its Vista operating system was a 'less good
product' in what IT experts have described as the most ambitious
understatement since the captain of the Titanic reported some
slightly damp tablecloths." http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/
Kevin Goebel
<guy.c...@spamcop.net> wrote:
>On 7 Oct 2009 00:22:33 GMT, fl...@dgp.toronto.edu (Alan J Rosenthal)
>wrote:
><snippage>
>Every month we have a test announcement on the building PA which tells
>us that if we can't hear the message clearly we should phone the
>facilities department on the following number...
"May I please have your attention? There is a mumble-colored, mumbled-make,
car in the parking lot with its lights on. License number Mumble, Mumble,
Mumble, pause, Mumble, Mumble, Mumble." Repeated once for effect.
Kevin Goebel
Just zis Guy, you know?
>OhYeah! Also, for violoncello (plus orchestra), Luigi Boccherini.
A man who owned not one but two Stradivari. I am very fond of
Boccherini.
Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/
Just zis Guy, you know?
(Garrett Wollman) wrote:
>I did say that I didn't think my tastes were as broad as some people
>here. (And I also refuse to steal music, so everthing I have is (a)
>paid for and (b) purchased in units of one album or more. There are
>many calls on my finances, and I don't spend more than a few hundred
>dollars a year on recorded music these days -- and most of that
>recently has been filling in good older stuff that I didn't buy when
>it was new.)
I don't think my tastes are broad, almost all my collection is
classical but I have a fair amount of prog rock and some other
taste-questionable popular beat combos. Mine's all paid for too. In
the days of Napster I listened to vast amounts of music - I bought the
ones I liked and deleted the rest.
Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/
Kevin Goebel
<roger+a...@nospam.firedrake.org> wrote:
>Nomen Publicus wrote:
>
>>I used to think that the Hisss, Hissss, Thusp, Hisss, Hissss coming from
>>todays youf was due to the lousy headphones... It turns out that it's the
>>actual music. At some time during the 2000s bass became very unfashionable.
>
>Possibly because after twenty years of the Walkman people had got out of
>the habit of hearing it?
>>My current in-ear phones can be painfully loud yet have almost zero external
>>leakage. I wish Apple would spend the extra couple of dollars and use
>>similar better quality ear phones - they might even get a nomination for the
>>Nobel Peace Prize.
>But the idiots who make up most of their customer base can't tell the
>difference.
>Sooner or later someone will notice that having a white headphone lead
>while walking through a dark place is a fairly obvious signal of "I have
>an expensive and fenceable Apple product about my person" to potential
>muggers.
<blink>
I'M SORRY, DID YOU SAY THAT HAVING A WHITE HEADPHONE LEAD WHILE WALKING
THROUGH A DARK PLACE IS A FAIRLY OBVIOUS SIGNAL OF "I HAVE AN EXPENSIVE AND
FENCEABLE APPLE PRODUCT ABOUT MY PERSON" TO POTENTIAL MUGGERS?
</blink>
Kevin Goebel
Kevin Goebel
wrote:
>Joe Zeff wrote:
>> On Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:43:47 +0100, Just zis Guy, you know? wrote:
>>> I wonder what they'd make of my iPod full of Schubert, Mendelssohn and
>>> Bach?
>> Or mine: Raymond Scott, Spike Jones and bagpipes for the most part.
>"Hello Muddah" on the bagpipes? Now _that_ would drive anyone crazy. :-)
"In the Mood" by The Henhouse Five.
Kevin Goebel
John F. Eldredge
> In article <kr984...@ucsd.edu>,
> Brian Kantor wrote:
>
>> ISTR a _Man From U.N.C.L.E._ episode where a telephone was modified to
>> fire a shock wave (or was it some kind of projectile?) into the user's
>> ear that would result in mulching his brain. WANT!
>
> UN delegate, through headphones, and wasn't it one of the Bond films?
I remember reading somewhere that this assassination technique has been
used a few times in real life. An explosive charge is placed in a
telephone handset, then is later remotely detonated when the correct
person answers the phone, and thus has the handset held up to their head.
--
John F. Eldredge -- jo...@jfeldredge.com
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria
Robert Sneddon
>>>> Indeed. A monk of my acquaintance has confirmed that
>>>> sku.4355 works. Though not very long.
>
>There are a few articles on duh interweb about building cell phone
>jammers. One that I found interesting was using the back end of a
>30-watt 800 MHz land-mobile radio (3 for $25 new in the box at the
>local electrojunk store) and a swept VCO to create a jammer that would,
>it was claimed, be effective for nearly a kilometer.
What has piqued my interest in the past is the knowledge that a
microwave oven's magnetron produces 700W-plus at 2.4GHz, remarkably
close to the 802.11 b/g/n channel spectrum allocation. Retuning a
magnetron from a Freecycled microwave is not something I've actually
tried, you understand, but I believe that wearing latex gloves is a good
idea to prevent depositing skin oils on metallic surfaces; the ripply
patterns could cause degradation of the magnetron's operation. Or so I
have been led to believe.
>This is almost within my budget. Unfortunately, it doesn't cover the
>1900 MHz band
It is entirely possible a microwave magnetron's tuning could be slewed
sufficiently to whack such radio traffic but it's likely the SWR would
be significantly affected. You could see as little as 100W or maybe less
at the output horn in such circumstances.
--
To reply, my gmail address is nojay1 Robert Sneddon
Robert Sneddon
writes
>Fortunately Japan Rail seems to have gotten tired of this problem years
>and years ago, and for well over a decade, talking on the phone while on
>the train is Not Allowed. At All. Anyone who starts talking on the
>phone will receive many Glares Of Death from the other riders.
That's why I called you on your phone that time, since I knew you'd be
on the train. Being a gaijin usually averts the Glare of Death though.
My comment on the Japanese train thing was that you're not allowed to
talk on the phone but you must send and receive texts continuously. If
you don't actually have a phone to text with the station staff will give
you one.
mikea
> In article <kr984...@ucsd.edu>,
> Brian Kantor wrote:
>
>> ISTR a _Man From U.N.C.L.E._ episode where a telephone was modified to
>> fire a shock wave (or was it some kind of projectile?) into the user's
>> ear that would result in mulching his brain. WANT!
>
> UN delegate, through headphones, and wasn't it one of the Bond films?
How about making shaped charges out of someone's earbuds. Talk about a
MITM attack!
--
[The governor of Texas] It's a job that could be done by, well, George
Bush, actually. It's a job where you stick the guy who you don't want
messing with anything important. -- Jeremy Nixon
Marc Haber
>easily-bewildered announcer on my usual train announces that we are stopped.
>When the train starts going again, she announces that we are going again.
>But you know, we didn't actually need her to tell us, and we have already
>all made the logical deduction that we're going to be late. Her lengthy,
>halting announcements just increase the amount of time that I can't manage
>to get any work and/or play done on my laptop. It's rare that she has any
>information for us other than the blatantly obvious.
The german railroad company has, a few years ago, noticed that their
customers are generally dissatisfied with customer information in
cases of irregularities. They therefore ordered their personnel (and
programmed their robo-announcers) to give information of usually
dubious value to the passengers in quite short intervals, including a
robo-announcement like "the track in front of us is still occupied by
another train. We will continue our voyage in due time".
They, of course, didn't change the way their personnel is informed
about _what_'s going on, so the announcements usually have no
measurable information value ("Ladies and gentlemen, we have come to a
halt while not being in a station. I will inform you as soon as I get
informed.").
Greetings
Marc
--
-------------------------------------- !! No courtesy copies, please !! -----
Marc Haber | " Questions are the | Mailadresse im Header
Mannheim, Germany | Beginning of Wisdom " | http://www.zugschlus.de/
Nordisch by Nature | Lt. Worf, TNG "Rightful Heir" | Fon: *49 621 72739834
Marc Haber
>HELLO, I'M ON THE TRAIN..
I'm taking an excuse for that wording on the phone, since everybody
who calls me immediately asks where I am. Or, I am calling the
individual who may be waiting for me and is thus interested in where I
am. Additionally, I usually add where the train currently is ("Hello,
I am on the train stopped between Mettenheim and Worms and will
probably be ten minutes late").
Marc Haber
>Fortunately Japan Rail seems to have gotten tired of this problem years
>and years ago, and for well over a decade, talking on the phone while on
>the train is Not Allowed. At All. Anyone who starts talking on the
>phone will receive many Glares Of Death from the other riders.
>
This can only be done with captive riders. Others will ride in their
car, which is NOT a good thing. Over here, we have silence coaches and
GSM-covered coaches. If now the reservation system wouldn't book
families with small kids into the silence coach, things would be fine.
I'll take the GSM coach to be allowed to do some productive work while
taking twice the time to the destination as it would take with the
car.
Mark Huizer
>
> They, of course, didn't change the way their personnel is informed
> about _what_'s going on, so the announcements usually have no
> measurable information value ("Ladies and gentlemen, we have come to a
> halt while not being in a station. I will inform you as soon as I get
> informed.").
>
Or stuff like
Passenger: "Hello, this is the trein to Eindhoven, right?"
Passenger2(from inside the train): "Huh? I thought it was the train to
Nijmegen, right?"
Personnel: "Interesting question, gimme a minute and I'll figure it out
for you"
(In her defence: it was one of the first trains to depart after cleaning
up the mess of someone trying to stop a train by hand)
Mark