Recovery from the news.
Omri Schwarz
Sometimes it is recovery to read the paper.
Especially if you're a Monk with a taste for trainspotting.
--
Omri Schwarz --- ocs...@mit.edu ('h' before war)
Timeless wisdom of biomedical engineering: "Noise is principally
due to the presence of the patient." -- R.F. Farr
Robert Sneddon
<ocs...@h-after-ocsc.mit.edu> writes
>
>Sometimes it is recovery to read the paper.
>
>http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/business/11511381872513
>70.xml?bxbiz&coll=2&thispage=1
>
>Especially if you're a Monk with a taste for trainspotting.
And if you're the sort of Monk who can't be bothered to fill in Yet
Another Stupid Webform[1] to get access to a newspaper's website, then
what do you do?
[1] The webform says "Uryc Hf Freir Lbh Orggre". I think my blood
pressure peaked into the four digits decimal when I saw it. Wild horses
wouldn't drag me to log in after reading that.
--
To reply, my gmail address is nojay1 Robert Sneddon
Omri Schwarz
Zip code 31337 (points to an office park in nc.us where
nobody lives). Birth year 2006. Choose a gender.
Proceed.
Stuart Lamble
> [1] The webform says "Uryc Hf Freir Lbh Orggre". I think my blood
> pressure peaked into the four digits decimal when I saw it. Wild horses
> wouldn't drag me to log in after reading that.
Reminiscent of the local stupormarket. Frozen seafood that has been
thawed. The sign?
"Thawed for your convenience."
Um. *No*.
--
My Usenet From: address now expires after two weeks. If you email me, and
the mail bounces, try changing the bit before the "@" to "usenet".
TimC
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
>
> Sometimes it is recovery to read the paper.
>
> http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/business/1151138187251370.xml?bxbiz&coll=2&thispage=1
Oh gawd, I thought I was joking the other week about public-private
partnerships. I see the disease has spread.
--
TimC
"You can't trust any bugger further than you can
throw him, and there's nothing you can do about it,
so let's have a drink." -- Terry Pratchett
TimC
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
>> [1] The webform says "Uryc Hf Freir Lbh Orggre". I think my blood
>> pressure peaked into the four digits decimal when I saw it. Wild horses
>> wouldn't drag me to log in after reading that.
I wonder how many octogenarian female readers they have?
> Reminiscent of the local stupormarket. Frozen seafood that has been
> thawed. The sign?
>
> "Thawed for your convenience."
>
> Um. *No*.
I make it habit of asking the deli attendants for frozen goods, then
when they can't produce, saying "that's not very convenient, is it?"
--
TimC
White dwarf seeks red giant star for binary relationship
Kevin
wrote:
I don't object to a quick demographic questionaire such as this one. Those
who do can be creative in their reply. If this simple little page puts you
in a snit, stay away from my hometown rag's registration:
uggc://vafvgr.tnmrggrrkgen.pbz/ertvfgre-ova/vagresnpr.cy.ptv?zbqr=ertvfgre
Kevin
TimC
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
> <fr...@nospam.demon.co.uk> said
>> [1] The webform says "Uryc Hf Freir Lbh Orggre". I think my blood
>>pressure peaked into the four digits decimal when I saw it. Wild horses
>>wouldn't drag me to log in after reading that.
>
> speaking paraplegic Afro-Caribbean resident of Taiwan with
> seriously-non-traditional sexual orientations and an annual
> income in excess of $7Million must do to the overall readership
> demographic of such sites.
I prefer to be a semi-plausible statistical outlier. Hence the female
octogenarian reader. No idea how plausible a "zip" code of 12345 is,
though.
Semi-plausible makes it harder to remove, but it still causes both
them and their advertisers grief if they get enough of a skew.
--
TimC
'It's amazing I won. I was running against peace, prosperity and incumbency.'
-- George W. Bush. June 14, 2001, to Swedish PM Goran Perrson,
unaware that a live television camera was still rolling.
mrob...@worldnet.att.net
>On Mon, 26 Jun 2006 22:46:29 +0100, Robert Sneddon wrote:
>> [1] The webform says "Uryc Hf Freir Lbh Orggre". I think my blood
>> pressure peaked into the four digits decimal when I saw it. Wild
>> horses wouldn't drag me to log in after reading that.
>
>going to be unacceptably nosey, it should expect to be lied to in
>return.
It liked female and 10101 (New York City), but it didn't like birth
years of 1800, 1850, or 1900. 1910 was OK. I didn't check further but
I would guess that the earliest date that would work would be either
1901 (1900+1) or sometime between 1902 and 1906 (the year they
implemented the form, minus 100).
I wonder what they'd do if somebody made 'age discrimination' noises at
them.
Matt Roberds
mrob...@worldnet.att.net
>No idea how plausible a "zip" code of 12345 is, though.
maps.google.com likes it just fine, although I don't have a known-bogus
ZIP code to test it with. As a _rough_ guide, the ZIP code for the
downtown of a large city is usually [0-9][1-9]101. A leading 0 is the
east coast and a leading 9 is the west coast. Before ZIP codes, many
larger cities had postal zones numbered 1-99, and these were retained
as the two LSDs of the ZIP code: "Kansas City 6, Missouri" became "Kansas
City MO 64106".
Matt Roberds
Howard S Shubs
<slrn-0.9.7.4-2271-9...@hexane.ssi.swin.edu.au>,
TimC <tcon...@no.spam.accepted.here-astro.swin.edu.au> wrote:
> I prefer to be a semi-plausible statistical outlier. Hence the female
> octogenarian reader. No idea how plausible a "zip" code of 12345 is,
> though.
female octogenarian reader in SCHENECTADY, NY. What's the problem?
--
Life is toxic. It leads to death and
too much of it at once can kill you.
David Gersic
> And if you're the sort of Monk who can't be bothered to fill in Yet
> Another Stupid Webform[1] to get access to a newspaper's website, then
> what do you do?
Fill it in with absolutely worthless crap. 60151 is a good zip code,
for example. If they're dumb enough to think I'll provide them with
real data, then they're welcome to whatever I choose to give them.
Logan Shaw
I find that 12345 is a good zip code. It corresponds to a real place,
Schenectady, NY, and as a bonus, it's a place that has a cool-sounding
name. And they can't claim that it's a bogus zip code, because people
really live there, including one person whose name I've forgotten but
who nevertheless is a (distant) relative of mine.
Unfortunately, I read somewhere not too long ago that the USPS is
phasing out or has phased out use of that zip code for some odd reason,
which strikes me as a shame. If it ever becomes a completely invalid
zip code, I shall have to fall back to 90210. (Beverly Hills, that's
where I want to be...)
On the subject of nutso people thinking they're going to get valid
data back without giving anything in return, I bought a brand spankin'
new car (for the first time ever, incidentally) a few months ago, and
now I'm getting ALL these stupid surveys in the mail. Disregarding for
a moment the question of how these people got my contact information
and seem to know exactly what type of car I bought, the interesting
thing about them is that they all seem to want me to spend 10 or 15
minutes of my time filling out a survey so that they can compile the
results and sell the information. I did the J.D. Powers & Associates
one because they were nice enough to include a crisp, new $1 bill in
the envelope. But the others have generally offered nothing. This
is really not that great a value proposition to me: I provide the
product that they make money off of, and in return I get what?
The one I got today took it a step further, though. They had a blank
at the top of the form where I could choose the charity I wanted them
to make a donation to. So I went looking for the amount of money
they'd donate if I returned the form, and that was conspicuously
absent. Instead, I found a statement that said that the total amount
of money they'd be donating to all charities is $30,000. That's nice,
but the bottom line is that if I fill out the survey, they donate
$30,000, and if I don't, they still donate $30,000, so whether I fill
it doesn't make a hell of a lot of difference, does it? So what, again,
should I spent my time? I suppose one possible motivation is if I have
a favorite charity and would like to play a zero-sum game where I fill
out a survey so that my charity can compete with the others, then maybe
I should fill it out, but I don't see why I would want to do that.
- Logan
SteveD
wrote:
>Disregarding for
>a moment the question of how these people got my contact information
>and seem to know exactly what type of car I bought, the interesting
>thing about them is that they all seem to want me to spend 10 or 15
>minutes of my time filling out a survey so that they can compile the
>results and sell the information. I did the J.D. Powers & Associates
>one because they were nice enough to include a crisp, new $1 bill in
>the envelope. But the others have generally offered nothing. This
>is really not that great a value proposition to me: I provide the
>product that they make money off of, and in return I get what?
Yep. It's also fun to try on telemarketers. They tend to get quite miffed
when every second answer is "I'm sorry, I can't give you that valuable
demographic information without an upfront payment."
-SteveD
Christer Mort Boräng
> In message <oct64in...@no-knife.mit.edu>, Omri Schwarz
> <ocs...@h-after-ocsc.mit.edu> writes
>>Sometimes it is recovery to read the paper.
>>http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/business/11511381872513
>>70.xml?bxbiz&coll=2&thispage=1
>>Especially if you're a Monk with a taste for trainspotting.
> And if you're the sort of Monk who can't be bothered to fill in Yet
> Another Stupid Webform[1] to get access to a newspaper's website, then
> what do you do?
Press "Outside The US? Click Here" link and go directly to the
article.
> [1] The webform says "Uryc Hf Freir Lbh Orggre". I think my blood
> pressure peaked into the four digits decimal when I saw it. Wild horses
> wouldn't drag me to log in after reading that.
If that kind of shit peaked my blood pressure like that, I'd die
several times a day.
//Christer
--
| Hagåkersgatan 18C | Phone: Home +46 (0)31 43 52 03 CTH: +46 (0)31 772 5431 |
| S-431 41 Mölndal | Mail: mo...@medic.chalmers.se Cell: +46 (0)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
Maarten Wiltink
news:ejxbz6...@cfl.rr.com...
[...]
> Plus WTF is up with the irritating gratuitous spaces in "trains
> rum bling through" and "Norfolk South ern line"?
OCR? Spellcheckers? I've often spotted errors like 'rn' where it
should read 'm' - more often than I expect OCR to be used, in fact.
Or perhaps there _are_ more fax machines in the average magazine's
production process than I think.
Tebrgwrf,
Maarten Wiltink
Alan J. Flavell
> Choose a gender.
Sex is a matter of public record, and one doesn't get to choose it
oneself.
"gender", if it means anything, would be none of their damned
business.
Not a matter of any real concern to me, but, as a supporter of the
English language, I really do feel I have to protest on principle.
TimC
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
theage.com.au has a typical letters to the editor section. They
accept letters by email.
I've had a letter published, and the editing was terrible.
Spontaneous line breaks, typos, and a bunch of other errors
introduced. And I started noting it on other people's letters too, so
it wasn't a once off editing mistake. They regularly get the letter
headings and html incorrect too.
I have no idea whether the printed version is any better.
--
TimC
"Eddies in the space time continuum"
"Oh. Is he?" -- Douglas Adams
Random Data
> If it ever becomes a completely invalid zip code, I shall have to fall
> back to 90210. (Beverly Hills, that's where I want to be...)
It took me but a few moments to determine that 60601 basically matched
1060 West Addison. I think I may have even used the name Elwood on a form
or two.
--
Dave Hughes | da...@hired-goons.net
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate
-Steven Wright
Garrett Wollman
Logan Shaw <lshaw-...@austin.rr.com> wrote:
>Unfortunately, I read somewhere not too long ago that the USPS is
>which strikes me as a shame. If it ever becomes a completely invalid
>zip code, I shall have to fall back to 90210. (Beverly Hills, that's
>where I want to be...)
I'd generally go for 20515.
-GAWollman
--
Garrett A. Wollman | As the Constitution endures, persons in every
wol...@csail.mit.edu | generation can invoke its principles in their own
Opinions not those | search for greater freedom.
of MIT or CSAIL. | - A. Kennedy, Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003)
David Taylor
> Robert Sneddon <fr...@nospam.demon.co.uk> writes:
>> In message <oct64in...@no-knife.mit.edu>, Omri Schwarz
>> <ocs...@h-after-ocsc.mit.edu> writes
>>>Sometimes it is recovery to read the paper.
>>>http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/business/11511381872513
>>>70.xml?bxbiz&coll=2&thispage=1
>>>Especially if you're a Monk with a taste for trainspotting.
>> And if you're the sort of Monk who can't be bothered to fill in Yet
>> Another Stupid Webform[1] to get access to a newspaper's website, then
>> what do you do?
>
> Press "Outside The US? Click Here" link and go directly to the
> article.
ITYM, Press "Outside The US? Click Here" link and be redirected back
to the form, forever more.
--
David Taylor
Mike Andrews
"Thank you for calling Andrews Evaluations. Our fee for evaluating
telemarketing scripts and survey questionnaires is US$2000, payable
beforehand. Please send US$2000 to <f...@paypal.com> _now_, then let
me know when you have done so, and I'll accept the cash and begin
the evaluation process."
The result so far has been a <click!> every time.
--
Comparing Knuth with O'Reilly books is like comparing
Unix with Windows.
-- Abigail, in the Monastery
Peter Corlett
[...]
> Yep. It's also fun to try on telemarketers. They tend to get quite miffed
> when every second answer is "I'm sorry, I can't give you that valuable
> demographic information without an upfront payment."
Once I've unpacked enough of my stuff[0] to be able to set the whole thing
up, I'll be having Nfgrevfx and a FCN-3000 inviting them to press one if
they are double-glazing, two if they want to make false claims they can save
me money on phone calls[1], three if...
[0] Mainly demonstrating that the contents of a large three-bed house *will*
fit in a pokey London flat, provided you don't want to find anything or
see the walls. Then again, I could never find anything beforehand, and I
don't like the decor anyway.
[1] For about 95% of my calls, that would involve them paying me money. For
the other 5%, BT's bog standard "bend over and take it" plan is in fact
cheaper than pretty much everybody else.
Robert Uhl
>
> No idea how plausible a "zip" code of 12345 is, though.
Well, my zip code growing up was 23456 (really!), and no one _ever_
believed it back then. But given that it exists, of course a computer
would accept it.
--
If you stand on your head, you will get footprints in your hair.
Maarten Wiltink
news:e7reca$704$1...@mooli.org.uk...
[...]
> the contents of a large three-bed house *will*
> fit in a pokey London flat, ...
You've moved? To _London_? I smell a story. Let's have it.
Tebrgwrf,
Maarten Wiltink
Brian Kantor
>Fill it in with absolutely worthless crap. 60151 is a good zip code,
Shirley that is in the vicinity of West Addision?
- Brian
Brian Kantor
This seems a prime opportunity to use a little more of the fluorescent
red stamp pad ink in marking "BULLSHIT" all over the form. Then put it in
the nice postage-will-be-paid-by-a**h*les envelope and send it back,
thus costing them another part of a dollar.
- Brian
david parsons
TimC <tcon...@no.spam.accepted.here-astro.swin.edu.au> wrote:
>On 2006-06-26, Omri Schwarz (aka Bruce)
> was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
>>
>>
>>
>http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/business/1151138187251370.xml?bxbiz&coll=2&thispage=1
>
>partnerships. I see the disease has spread.
Oh, no, these are railroads in the United States. They've _always_
had their little piggy noses rammed as deeply into the public trough
as they can get them. The boardroom of a class 1 railroad in the
USA pretty much defines the word "self-entitlement"; sure, they can
make money the boring old way by doing work, but grovelling for
government handouts doesn't get their bespoke suits all sweaty.
____
david parsons \bi/ It's PHBs as far as the eye can see.
\/
Omri Schwarz
Compared to any company that relies on transportation by road,
the rails are a model of civic service.
Instead of getting their roads handed to them on a silver
platter, the rails pay taxes on them.
--
Omri Schwarz --- ocs...@mit.edu ('h' before war)
Timeless wisdom of biomedical engineering: "Noise is principally
due to the presence of the patient." -- R.F. Farr
Mike Andrews
While that's true, they didn't do very well against the road-transport
lobby, and as a result have been cutting back services and pulling (or
inactivating) trackage all over the country, concentrating on the high
revenue freight services and screwing the pax service, for years.
--
You haven't lived until you've seen the households Great Hunter
Panther^wtomcat cowering in terror under a bush after being
caught in an instant thunderstorm on a sunny day.
-- Lionel, about his owner, in the Monastery
Chris Suslowicz
David Taylor <david...@yadt.co.uk> wrote:
Maybe it only works if your IP address _is_ outside the US?
Chris. (Worked for me.)
--
This is Michael Howard. This is Jack Straw. Now, can you see the difference?
You can't? Congratulations, you could be the next leader of the Labour Party.
Howard S Shubs
"Mike Andrews" <mi...@mikea.ath.cx> wrote:
> While that's true, they didn't do very well against the road-transport
> lobby, and as a result have been cutting back services and pulling (or
> inactivating) trackage all over the country, concentrating on the high
> revenue freight services and screwing the pax service, for years.
Which is now biting them in the ass in a big way.
David Taylor
> In article <slrnea2cgp.26...@outcold.yadt.co.uk>,
> David Taylor <david...@yadt.co.uk> wrote:
>>On 2006-06-27, Christer "Mort" Boräng <mort+...@dtek.chalmers.se> wrote:
>>>
>>> Press "Outside The US? Click Here" link and go directly to the
>>> article.
>>
>>ITYM, Press "Outside The US? Click Here" link and be redirected back
>>to the form, forever more.
>
> Maybe it only works if your IP address _is_ outside the US?
Mine is. It turned out to be a problem with pbbxvrf.
--
David Taylor
Mike Andrews
> In article <e7s0ue$imi$4...@puck.litech.org>,
> "Mike Andrews" <mi...@mikea.ath.cx> wrote:
>> While that's true, they didn't do very well against the road-transport
>> lobby, and as a result have been cutting back services and pulling (or
>> inactivating) trackage all over the country, concentrating on the high
>> revenue freight services and screwing the pax service, for years.
> Which is now biting them in the ass in a big way.
Yeppers, in spades. Turns out it's _LOTS_ pricier to re-establish
trackage than it would have been to just godsdamnit maintain it.
--
The issue needs to be about doing the right thing, not about having
the contractual right to do a questionable thing.
-- A. Murphy, in nanae
Stuart Lamble
> On 2006-06-27, Chris Suslowicz <chris...@suslowicz.org> wrote:
>> Maybe it only works if your IP address _is_ outside the US?
>
> Mine is. It turned out to be a problem with pbbxvrf.
Indeed.
On the subject of web craziness, I dare you to go to
uggc://githvqr.avarzfa.pbz.nh/thvqr/27062006_73.nfc?punaary=serr&qnl=30/6/2006
and view the source. (Warning: I would strongly suggest that you use a
browser, such as Sversbk, that will terminate scripts that take a "long"
time to run. Or turn off Wninfpevcg entirely.)
One word springs to mind: WHY? Then again, I suspect that my sanity will
thank me if I don't pursue that particular question. (Or whatever
tattered shreds of my sanity happen to remain, anyway.)
--
My Usenet From: address now expires after two weeks. If you email me, and
the mail bounces, try changing the bit before the "@" to "usenet".
William R. Walsh
> although I don't have a known-bogus
>ZIP code to test it with.
12345 is a valid zip code, ends up somewhere in NY I think. 54321
doesn't seem to be.
But for a real laugh, try looking up or using Kumler, Illinois. It
is--quite truthfully--nothing at all. Until recent times it was still
to be found in some maps.
William
William R. Walsh
> But for a real laugh, try looking up or using Kumler,
> Illinois.
And now, to reply to myself.
I knew there had to be a picture around somewhere:
uggc://pjee.pbz/Bqqvgl/bqq-04-2000_07_2005.wct
William
Garrett Wollman
Andrew Dalgleish <andrew...@ajd.net.au> wrote:
>commercial centres is still a single line. How hard can it be to run
>a 2nd track on land you already own?
Think for a moment. What's that track made of? Now which industrial
commodity is in very tight supply right now, besides oil?
It's not hard, it's just expensive.
-GAWollman
--
Garrett A. Wollman | As the Constitution endures, persons in every
wol...@csail.mit.edu | generation can invoke its principles in their own
Opinions not those | search for greater freedom.
of MIT or CSAIL. | - A. Kennedy, Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003)
Stuart Lamble
[an Australian TV guide of some sort.]
> 648KiB? WTF?
>
>::views source, which $browser is re-downloading::
>
> WTF is that?
A method for expanding the size taken up by text by an order of
magnitude. Out of sheer boredom, I took the page and saved it. I then
ran it through a python script (converted from the JavaShite). Surprise,
surprise: over 570 kB of numbers became a bit under 64 kB of HTML.
I *knew* there was a reason I disliked avarzfa.
Kevin
wrote:
>SteveD <use...@vo.id.au> wrote:
>[...]
>> Yep. It's also fun to try on telemarketers. They tend to get quite miffed
>> when every second answer is "I'm sorry, I can't give you that valuable
>> demographic information without an upfront payment."
>
>Once I've unpacked enough of my stuff to be able to set the whole thing
>up, I'll be having Nfgrevfx and a FCN-3000 inviting them to press one if
>they are double-glazing, two if they want to make false claims they can save
>me money on phone calls, three if...
I hate to brag, but I can do that with my $29.95 answering machine...
*invite* them to press one, press two, etc., that is. Set-up time? As long
as it takes to record the message. Functionality is the caller's problem,
not mine.
Kevin
Kevin
<7d6-...@carousel.its.monash.edu.au> wrote:
>On 2006-06-27, David Taylor <david...@yadt.co.uk> wrote:
>> On 2006-06-27, Chris Suslowicz <chris...@suslowicz.org> wrote:
>>> Maybe it only works if your IP address _is_ outside the US?
>>
>> Mine is. It turned out to be a problem with pbbxvrf.
>
>Indeed.
>
>On the subject of web craziness, I dare you to go to
>uggc://githvqr.avarzfa.pbz.nh/thvqr/27062006_73.nfc?punaary=serr&qnl=30/6/2006
>and view the source. (Warning: I would strongly suggest that you use a
>browser, such as Sversbk, that will terminate scripts that take a "long"
>time to run. Or turn off Wninfpevcg entirely.)
Hmmm... I use an American version:
uggc://bayvar.githvqr.pbz/yvfgvatf/?AEZBQR=Choyvfurq&AEBEVTVANYHEY=%2syvfgvatf%2s
&AEABQRTHVQ=%7o723R490R-2074-4312-ON4Q-RN15OO2SS788%7q&AEPNPURUVAG=Thrfg
(you're on your own pasting that one in yout browser).
I had to fill out a form to get local listings, unfortunately I've long
since misplaced the login for Hugh Jazz to retreive the bounty of e-mail it
undoubtedly generated.
My browser, Zbmvyyn, reports 17 cookies are set for it, compared to 5
cookies for yours, so once again, America wins the dickhead... er, um, dick
size war.
Kevin
Kevin
<mi...@mikea.ath.cx> wrote:
>Howard S Shubs <how...@shubs.net> wrote:
>> In article <e7s0ue$imi$4...@puck.litech.org>,
>> "Mike Andrews" <mi...@mikea.ath.cx> wrote:
>
>>> While that's true, they didn't do very well against the road-transport
>>> lobby, and as a result have been cutting back services and pulling (or
>>> inactivating) trackage all over the country, concentrating on the high
>>> revenue freight services and screwing the pax service, for years.
>
>> Which is now biting them in the ass in a big way.
>
>Yeppers, in spades. Turns out it's _LOTS_ pricier to re-establish
>trackage than it would have been to just godsdamnit maintain it.
<irony> Good thing </irony> that my country [...in her "intercourse with her
own citizens may she always be right, but my country, right or wrong (c)U.S.
Congress] is working on the use of eminent domain to benefit private
enterprise. I imagine it won't be long before some money changes hands in
the hallowed halls of grubbermint and people start losing their homes and
small businesses to Reading Railroad.
Kevin
Garrett Wollman
Kevin <kevin@at@kevingoebel.dot.com> wrote:
>Congress] is working on the use of eminent domain to benefit private
>enterprise. I imagine it won't be long before some money changes hands in
>the hallowed halls of grubbermint and people start losing their homes and
>small businesses to Reading Railroad.
You need to read up on your railroad history. This happened 150 years
ago. In my state at least, any state-chartered railroad had the power
to take a right of way across your property simply by filing a plan in
the town clerk's office and certifying that it was necessary. The
right of way is only extinguished when it is no longer used for
transportation. (There was a court case a few years back over a
rail-to-trail conversion which hinged on the question of whether
"transportation" can be construed to include recreational paths. The
conclusion as I recall was that it could not, and the result was that
the agency building the trail had to re-take the ROW which it thought
it had already purchased from the railroad.)
Western railroads, IIRC, were given alternating sections adjoining the
line they were chartered to construct.
stevo
> On Tue, 27 Jun 2006 07:12:09 GMT, Logan Shaw <lshaw-...@austin.rr.com>
> wrote:
>
>>Disregarding for
>>a moment the question of how these people got my contact information
>>and seem to know exactly what type of car I bought, the interesting
>>thing about them is that they all seem to want me to spend 10 or 15
>>minutes of my time filling out a survey so that they can compile the
>>results and sell the information. I did the J.D. Powers & Associates
>>one because they were nice enough to include a crisp, new $1 bill in
>>the envelope. But the others have generally offered nothing. This
>>is really not that great a value proposition to me: I provide the
>>product that they make money off of, and in return I get what?
>
> Yep. It's also fun to try on telemarketers. They tend to get quite miffed
> when every second answer is "I'm sorry, I can't give you that valuable
> demographic information without an upfront payment."
>
"I'm sorry I can not divulge that information as it may endanger our
agents in the field."
That always confuses them.
--
Stevo st...@madcelt.org
Chromosomes and Genes, spawn these faithful scenes
Evolution can be mean. There's no dumb-ass vaccine
Jimmy Buffet - Permanent Reminder of a Temporary Feeling
stevo
>
> I *knew* there was a reason I disliked avarzfa.
>
Howard S Shubs
William R. Walsh <newsg...@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com>
wrote:
> uggc://pjee.pbz/Bqqvgl/bqq-04-2000_07_2005.wct
GOODFIELD, IL
Maarten Wiltink
news:e7sbg5$3au$2...@puck.litech.org...
> Howard S Shubs <how...@shubs.net> wrote:
>> In article <e7s0ue$imi$4...@puck.litech.org>,
>> "Mike Andrews" <mi...@mikea.ath.cx> wrote:
>>> [US railroad companies] have been cutting back services and pulling
>>> (or inactivating) trackage all over the country, concentrating on the
>>> high revenue freight services and screwing the pax service, for years.
>
>> Which is now biting them in the ass in a big way.
>
> Yeppers, in spades. Turns out it's _LOTS_ pricier to re-establish
> trackage than it would have been to just godsdamnit maintain it.
Spending money on that would have required foresight. Or actually,
clairvoyance. You'd need to be _right_ in your foresight. Otherwise,
at the very least the cost of all those things being maintained that
_won't_ pan out must be added in.
There's also the issues of inflation and loss of interest, but if it's
really LOTS then that's probably covered.
Tebrgwrf,
Maarten Wiltink
Peter Corlett
[...]
> Our pollies have been yabbering on about building a 'very fast train' link
> for the last N*10 years, but the link between the two largest commercial
> centres is still a single line. How hard can it be to run a 2nd track on
> land you already own?
While you're there, ask Central Trains about the Birmingham cross-city line,
possibly one of the the busiest services outside of London.
Peter Corlett
[...]
> Muji. I love it. Storage ideas from people who buy stuff like Americans do
> but insist on living in boxes in the sky in Tokyo.
I don't need Muji to sort the stuff out, I need Biffa.
For example, *why* did I bring a full-height 9GB SCSI disk in a Sun case?
(Nafjre: orpnhfr vg srryf yvxr na bctenqr ba fbzr bs gur whax V unir gb jbex
jvgu va $QNLWBO.)
SteveD
<newsg...@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com> wrote:
>But for a real laugh, try looking up or using Kumler, Illinois. It
>is--quite truthfully--nothing at all. Until recent times it was still
>to be found in some maps.
It's Bellflower now, isn't it? Or is that just the closest populated town?
(And by 'town' I mean 'intersection and gas station'.
-SteveD
Zebee Johnstone
William R Walsh <newsg...@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com> wrote:
>
> But for a real laugh, try looking up or using Kumler, Illinois. It
> is--quite truthfully--nothing at all. Until recent times it was still
> to be found in some maps.
Sounds like Mallabelling which was where we used to have 100 acres
under wheat.
As far as I could tell, Mallabelling was a pile of mudbricks in the
corner of our neighbour's property.
By comparison Wandi was a thriving metropolis: a disused hall and
a broken phonebox.
Hines Hill is a railway station (request stop only), a pub, and a set
of town blocks surveyed in 1922 and never taken up. Not the smallest
one pub town I've seen (that would have to be Anna Creek which doesn't
have the railway station or the town blocks, just the pub) but it is
close.
Zebee
Peter Corlett
[...]
> But Central Trains will cease to exist in 2006^WApril 2007^W^WSeptember
> 2007, and everything will be shiny and happy. A chicken in every garage
> and a car in every pot, or something.
It's Fist Group that get it next time, isn't it? They're doing *so* well
running Red Itch's buses, I'm really rather curious to find out what sort of
a dog's breakfast they make of the train service now I don't need to go
anywhere near it.
I note that Central Trains is part of Notional Express, which certainly
explains why their "train" service seemed to be knackered old coaches for
most of 2004.
One thing they seem to have omitted to consider though: The train service is
made up of bits of class 323 stock, the usual configuration carrying
approximately 250 people, and running every 30 minutes. A 50 seat coach
running every hour might be considered by some to be an inadequate
replacement.
Brian Kantor
>corner of our neighbour's property.
Bad naming: mal labelling.
- Brian
Peter Corlett
[...]
> Bad naming: mal labelling.
Hmm, that's not in *my* copy of the Uxbridge English Dictionary.
TimC
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
> On 2006-06-27, David Taylor <david...@yadt.co.uk> wrote:
>> On 2006-06-27, Chris Suslowicz <chris...@suslowicz.org> wrote:
>>> Maybe it only works if your IP address _is_ outside the US?
>>
>> Mine is. It turned out to be a problem with pbbxvrf.
>
> Indeed.
>
> On the subject of web craziness, I dare you to go to
> uggc://githvqr.avarzfa.pbz.nh/thvqr/27062006_73.nfc?punaary=serr&qnl=30/6/2006
> and view the source. (Warning: I would strongly suggest that you use a
> browser, such as Sversbk, that will terminate scripts that take a "long"
> time to run. Or turn off Wninfpevcg entirely.)
>
> One word springs to mind: WHY? Then again, I suspect that my sanity will
> thank me if I don't pursue that particular question. (Or whatever
> tattered shreds of my sanity happen to remain, anyway.)
To make it "impossible" to decode so you can't rip off their material.
Where by "impossible", I mean "trivial".
Anyway, how the heck did you discover this? Go somewhere semi decent
(ie, not ninemsn==aol==microsoft) like:
uggc://nh.gi.lnubb.pbz/erfhygf.ugzy?ia=&et=94&qg=abj&gf=18&k=33&l=13
[1]
I've encoded a bogus datetime in that URL so that it still goes to
Melbourne (it defaults to Sydney, and doesn't bother settings cookies,
even though you sjl are adverse to cookies). But by being bogus, it
defaults to a sensible time of "tonight". If you remove any of the
fields in the URL, including the time, then it simply goes back to the
default Sydney. Thanks guys!
Notice how they put their own channel at the top though, despite the
fact that most of us think in terms of channel 7 going *after* channel
2? Fscked up my VCR programming more than once.
[1] I got a reply to a feature request for firefox today:
uggc://xo.zbmvyynmvar.bet/Ertvfgre_cebgbpby
And now I have a script called uggc-handler that gets called by
network.protocol-handler.app.uggc
--
TimC
}> Is "wrongest" an actual word?
} It's a perfectly cromulent word.
Which, when used, embiggens us all.
-- Jeff Ramsey, Steed and D. Joseph Creighton in ASR
Mike Andrews
> In article <e7sbg5$3au$2...@puck.litech.org>,
> Mike Andrews wrote:
>> Howard S Shubs <how...@shubs.net> wrote:
>>> In article <e7s0ue$imi$4...@puck.litech.org>,
>>> "Mike Andrews" <mi...@mikea.ath.cx> wrote:
>>
>>>> inactivating) trackage all over the country, concentrating on the high
>>>> revenue freight services and screwing the pax service, for years.
>>
>>> Which is now biting them in the ass in a big way.
>>
>> Yeppers, in spades. Turns out it's _LOTS_ pricier to re-establish
>> trackage than it would have been to just godsdamnit maintain it.
> Our pollies have been yabbering on about building a 'very fast train'
> link for the last N*10 years, but the link between the two largest
> commercial centres is still a single line. How hard can it be to run
> a 2nd track on land you already own?
Extremely. The right-of-way may not be wide enough to accommodate two
sets of tracks, with the required dead space between them, and the new
track will require at least the following:
o alteration of all crossings
o addition of track status signals
o modification of all bridges, overpasses, underpasses, and similar
structures
o modification of all switches where the new track has to be integrated
into the switching network
o modification of all track status displays
o probable acquisition of additional right of way for the new track,
which involves:
x utility relocation
x structure relocation
x possible road relocation, which itself involves acquisition of
additional right of way, utility relocation, structure relocation
and construction of new bridges, tunnels, overpasses, underpasses
&c.
and I'm sure I've left out a _bunch_ of stuff. I could go upstairs and
ask the railroad folks (working for a Department of Transportation can
be _very nice). In short, You Can't Do Just One Thing, and the problem
space grows very, very rapidly indeed as the size of the initial work
increases.
It gets to be _real_ fun if you have to go through an existing airport
or government reservation and there realy isn't an alternative route
because the alternative route involves the destruction of wetlands or
changing the habitat of an endangered species or going through lands
known to be an Indian (or Native American or First Nations or ...)
burial ground or going through lands nkown to have archaeological
significance or ... .
--
If there was a country that didn't suck, it would quickly develop a
population problem, much like a hard vacuum causes spontaneous
generation of elementary particles.
-- Brad Ackerman
TimC
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
> uggc://bayvar.githvqr.pbz/yvfgvatf/?AEZBQR=Choyvfurq&AEBEVTVANYHEY=%2syvfgvatf%2s
> &AEABQRTHVQ=%7o723R490R-2074-4312-ON4Q-RN15OO2SS788%7q&AEPNPURUVAG=Thrfg
> (you're on your own pasting that one in yout browser).
D'oh! I have a cat2linesurl script (which does more than cat 2 lines
together and launch a browser. Surprisingly, it's up to CVS version
1.8; yegods), and I have a uggc-handler script, but alas, I don't have
a cat2linesurluggc-handler script.
--
TimC
"I give up," said Pierre de Fermat's friend. "How DO you keep a
mathematician busy for 350 years?"
Mike Andrews
> In article <2bu3a21ho1u1acqjd...@4ax.com>,
> Kevin <kevin@at@kevingoebel.dot.com> wrote:
>>Congress] is working on the use of eminent domain to benefit private
>>enterprise. I imagine it won't be long before some money changes hands in
>>the hallowed halls of grubbermint and people start losing their homes and
>>small businesses to Reading Railroad.
> You need to read up on your railroad history. This happened 150 years
> ago. In my state at least, any state-chartered railroad had the power
> to take a right of way across your property simply by filing a plan in
> the town clerk's office and certifying that it was necessary. The
> right of way is only extinguished when it is no longer used for
> transportation. (There was a court case a few years back over a
> rail-to-trail conversion which hinged on the question of whether
> "transportation" can be construed to include recreational paths. The
> conclusion as I recall was that it could not, and the result was that
> the agency building the trail had to re-take the ROW which it thought
> it had already purchased from the railroad.)
> Western railroads, IIRC, were given alternating sections adjoining the
> line they were chartered to construct.
That's the case as I remember it: a checkerboard along the tracks. The
gummint awarded the non-railroad sections along the trackage to the
state, and in some cases they wound up being owned by cities and
towns. That, and the presence of oil and/or gas under those sections,
was how so many school districts in Texas wound up richer'n Croesus.
The Alvin (TX) Intependent School District was one such, as the area
is _very_ heavily drilled, and lotsandlots of the wells were on land
belonging to the City of Alvin, with royalties earmarked for the
school district.
--
LART your local spam-friendly ISP every week - even if you don't know why,
they do.
-- Alun, in nanae
Niklas Karlsson
> On 2006-06-28, Kevin (aka Bruce)
> was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
>> Hmmm... I use an American version:
>> uggc://bayvar.githvqr.pbz/yvfgvatf/?AEZBQR=Choyvfurq&AEBEVTVANYHEY=%2syvfgvatf%2s
>> &AEABQRTHVQ=%7o723R490R-2074-4312-ON4Q-RN15OO2SS788%7q&AEPNPURUVAG=Thrfg
>> (you're on your own pasting that one in yout browser).
> I have a uggc-handler script
[more snippage]
For some time I've felt the need for a uggc handler extension for
Sversbk - it would, of course, display the page contents in ebg13.
Niklas
--
It wasn't blood in general he couldn't stand the sight of, it was just his blood
in particular that was so upsetting.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Sourcery)
J.D. Baldwin
In the previous article, Kevin <kevin@at@kevingoebel.dot.com> wrote:
> <irony> Good thing </irony> that my country [...in her "intercourse
> with her own citizens may she always be right, but my country, right
> or wrong (c)U.S. Congress] is working on the use of eminent domain
> to benefit private enterprise.
Exercise of eminent domain for transportation infrastructure has been
practiced by every nation in human history, probably going back to the
days of Ugg and Thogg pulling bits of mammoth carcass around on sleds.
Even I, who think it might be just about time to start talking openly
about public lynchings for judges who vote to support crap like the
Kelo decision, have no real problem with this -- the United States
gives a fairer shake to the eminent-domain-ized than 99% of those
other governmental and quasi-g'mental entities ever have. (Not that I
wouldn't like to see it adjusted a bit more in favor of the citizenry,
you understand.)
--
_+_ From the catapult of |If anyone disagrees with any statement I make, I
_|70|___:)=}- J.D. Baldwin |am quite prepared not only to retract it, but also
\ / bal...@panix.com|to deny under oath that I ever made it. -T. Lehrer
***~~~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------
David Gersic
>>Fill it in with absolutely worthless crap. 60151 is a good zip code,
>
> Shirley that is in the vicinity of West Addision?
Yes, a surprising number of people seem to live at 1060 W. Addison. Must
be a big building or something.
David Gersic
> Spending money on that would have required foresight.
And would have cut in to quarterly profits. It's impossible to plan
for the distant future if you can only work in 3 month windows.
J.D. Baldwin
In the previous article, Alan J. Flavell <fla...@physics.gla.ac.uk>
wrote:
> > Choose a gender.
>
> Sex is a matter of public record, and one doesn't get to choose it
> oneself.
Oh, my, I hope this is in error!
> Not a matter of any real concern to me, but, as a supporter of the
> English language, I really do feel I have to protest on principle.
Last night, I was reading a book I heartly recommend to all monks,
"STET! Damnit!" It is a collection of around ten years' worth of
Florence King's "National Review" columns. What brought it to mind is
that she quotes another writer (whose name escapes me) therein in
support of her own personal credo: "I pledge allegiance to the English
language."
J.D. Baldwin
In the previous article, Logan Shaw <lshaw-...@austin.rr.com>
wrote, quoting David Gersic:
> > Fill it in with absolutely worthless crap. 60151 is a good zip code,
> > real data, then they're welcome to whatever I choose to give them.
>
> I find that 12345 is a good zip code.
Thanks to my wasted youth in front of TV game shows, "Spiegel,
Chicago, 60609" is burned permanently into my brain, so that's what I
use.
Brian Kantor
>be a big building or something.
Hmm. Up to 41,118, according to the .htm.
- Brian
David P. Murphy
> TimC <tcon...@no.spam.accepted.here-astro.swin.edu.au> wrote:
>>No idea how plausible a "zip" code of 12345 is, though.
Schenectady, NY, as has already been mentioned.
> maps.google.com likes it just fine, although I don't have a
> known-bogus ZIP code to test it with.
http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/citytown_zip.jsp is your friend for this task,
not some second-hand app. Use the authority.
ok
dpm
--
David P. Murphy
systems programmer
http://www.myths.com/~dpm/
mailto:dpm_u...@myths.com
David P. Murphy
> I've always preferred the Calvin and Hobbes response:
> "I'm sorry I can not divulge that information as it may endanger our
> agents in the field."
>
> That always confuses them.
That's a challenge?
I long ago grew tired of deriving amusement from those calls,
and now I simply hang up without saying anything. It's just
not worth my time to spend even the few seconds on a joke that
is going to ricochet off of the impenetrable skull.
David P. Murphy
> It's impossible to plan for the distant future
> if you can only work in 3 month windows.
response #1: Three months _is_ the distant future!
response #2: What do you mean, "if"??
Joe Bednorz
>
>Last night, I was reading a book I heartly recommend to all monks,
>"STET! Damnit!" It is a collection of around ten years' worth of
>Florence King's "National Review" columns. What brought it to mind is
>that she quotes another writer (whose name escapes me) therein in
>support of her own personal credo: "I pledge allegiance to the English
>language."
Thanks for the recommendation. What I've found on the web is
excellent.
Some of her columns are available here:
<http://www.nationalreview.com/mc/misanthrope_archive.html>
No, not all the links work. If you like the articles that are
available, buy the book.
--
A luser will return a perfectly good hammer to the hardware store
saying "There's something wrong with it. It keeps hitting my thumb."
All the best,
Joe Bednorz
Chris Suslowicz
ab...@cabal.org.uk (Peter Corlett) wrote:
>Roger Burton West <ro...@nospam.firedrake.org> wrote:
>[...]
>> But Central Trains will cease to exist in 2006^WApril 2007^W^WSeptember
>> 2007, and everything will be shiny and happy. A chicken in every garage
>> and a car in every pot, or something.
>
>It's Fist Group that get it next time, isn't it? They're doing *so* well
>running Red Itch's buses, I'm really rather curious to find out what sort of
>a dog's breakfast they make of the train service now I don't need to go
>anywhere near it.
>
>I note that Central Trains is part of Notional Express, which certainly
>explains why their "train" service seemed to be knackered old coaches for
>most of 2004.
And the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company begat Midland Red,
The Gummint amalgamated various council run bus disservices into West
Midlands Travel (not including Midland Red, which was cloven in twain
that the coach disservice became part of Notional Excess and the bus
part was joined with the council run stuff). Then the Thatcher and her
Evil Minions came to power and declared all nationalised things bad,
proceeding to sell the public their own property. WMPTE was abolished
^Wrenamed to Centro, West Midlands Travel renamed itself to Travel
West Midlands (pronounced Try Walking Mate), and bought up Notional
Excess.... and thus the current shambles in the West Midlands began.
>One thing they seem to have omitted to consider though: The train service is
>made up of bits of class 323 stock, the usual configuration carrying
>approximately 250 people, and running every 30 minutes. A 50 seat coach
>running every hour might be considered by some to be an inadequate
>replacement.
Quite.
Chris (seriously considering walking to work tomorrow, after yesterdays
bus failed to arrive, and all of todays were late enough to force a 20
minute walk from the station to Ork.) Furrfu!
--
"I love the smell of burning components in the morning.
Smells like victory." (The Bastard Operator From Hell)
Chris Suslowicz
ab...@cabal.org.uk (Peter Corlett) wrote:
That's 'cause it's Australian: you need the Strine supplement.
HTH
Chris.
Chris Suslowicz
"Mike Andrews" <mi...@mikea.ath.cx> wrote:
>Howard S Shubs <how...@shubs.net> wrote:
>> In article <e7s0ue$imi$4...@puck.litech.org>,
>> "Mike Andrews" <mi...@mikea.ath.cx> wrote:
>
>>> While that's true, they didn't do very well against the road-transport
>>> lobby, and as a result have been cutting back services and pulling (or
>>> inactivating) trackage all over the country, concentrating on the high
>>> revenue freight services and screwing the pax service, for years.
>
>> Which is now biting them in the ass in a big way.
>
>Yeppers, in spades.
Doubled _and_ redoubled.
> Turns out it's _LOTS_ pricier to re-establish
>trackage than it would have been to just godsdamnit maintain it.
As Brutish Snail^W^WRailtrack^WNotwork Rail discovered when they
decided to re-double-track a section of single tracked line that
had been single-tracked to reduce the maintenance costs some
years earlier. Progressive maintenance had shifted the single
track into the centre of the embankment/tunnels/bridges etc.,
and they had to close the stretch of line for several months
while they lifted all the track and relaid it according to
the _original_ plan.
Idiots.
Of course, they're still selling off old sidings, depots and
what remains of the freight marshalling yards and workshops
for cash to run the notwork....
Chris Suslowicz
Zebee Johnstone <zeb...@gmail.com> wrote:
Why do I think that Mal-labelling is one of those "Gotcha!"s put in
to foil map copyright thieves?
Chris Suslowicz
Andrew Dalgleish <andrew...@ajd.net.au> wrote:
>In article <e7sbg5$3au$2...@puck.litech.org>,
>Mike Andrews wrote:
>> Howard S Shubs <how...@shubs.net> wrote:
>>> In article <e7s0ue$imi$4...@puck.litech.org>,
>>> "Mike Andrews" <mi...@mikea.ath.cx> wrote:
>>
>>>> While that's true, they didn't do very well against the road-transport
>>>> lobby, and as a result have been cutting back services and pulling (or
>>>> inactivating) trackage all over the country, concentrating on the high
>>>> revenue freight services and screwing the pax service, for years.
>>
>>> Which is now biting them in the ass in a big way.
>>
>> Yeppers, in spades. Turns out it's _LOTS_ pricier to re-establish
>> trackage than it would have been to just godsdamnit maintain it.
>
>Our pollies have been yabbering on about building a 'very fast train'
>link for the last N*10 years, but the link between the two largest
>commercial centres is still a single line. How hard can it be to run
>a 2nd track on land you already own?
So hard you could use it for armo(u)r-piercing ammunition. The embankments,
cuttings, tunnels and bridges will not be wide enough, new points and
signalling will need to be installed, they will probably need more
land if they cut corners on the original acquisition, plus rail is
*heavy* and time consuming to plan and lay.
Chris
david parsons
Mike Andrews <mi...@mikea.ath.cx> wrote:
>It gets to be _real_ fun if you have to go through an existing airport
>or government reservation and there realy isn't an alternative route
>because the alternative route involves the destruction of wetlands
Oh, there's already a solution to that problem. In Little Beirut,
there was a plan to run a trolley line alongside a wetland, and
Parsons-Brinkerhoff (no relation; the stinking-rich Parsons split
off from the millworker and farmer Parsons about 250 years back)
proposed to build the trolley line on a trestle, for about 2 miles,
to avoid any environmental issues.
This helped push the cost per mile up to something over US$100
million, so you can imagine what happened when the plan was presented
to the voters.
____
david parsons \bi/ And on the other side of the proposed right of way?
\/ The Southern Pacific mainline and the south switching
lead for Brooklyn Yard. Amazingly enough, salmon
are still spawning in the stream that goes through
this wetland.
Stuart Lamble
A friend pointed me at it. I have no idea how he found it.
> Go somewhere semi decent
> (ie, not ninemsn==aol==microsoft) like:
No point. Nothing gets displayed on my TV, unless it's on those funny
little circular discs, about 12cm (IIRC) in diameter.
--
My Usenet From: address now expires after two weeks. If you email me, and
the mail bounces, try changing the bit before the "@" to "usenet".
Soruk
>
>[1] For about 95% of my calls, that would involve them paying me money. For
> the other 5%, BT's bog standard "bend over and take it" plan is in fact
> cheaper than pretty much everybody else.
Done that, -0.75p/min weekday evenings.
--
-- Michael "Soruk" McConnell
MailStripper - http://www.MailStripper.eu/ - SMTP spam filter
Mail Me Anywhere - http://www.MailMeAnywhere.com/ - Mobile email
Blatant Haruhiist - http://www.haruhiism.org.uk/
TimC
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
> Mike Andrews wrote:
>> Yeppers, in spades. Turns out it's _LOTS_ pricier to re-establish
>> trackage than it would have been to just godsdamnit maintain it.
>
> Our pollies have been yabbering on about building a 'very fast train'
> link for the last N*10 years, but the link between the two largest
> commercial centres is still a single line. How hard can it be to run
> a 2nd track on land you already own?
On the plus side, we now have a slightly fast train for the regional
network of .vic.au.
Gets up to 160km/h... for a few seconds before it falls off the
tracks. Actually, I'm being unreasonable, that's Qld trains. No, our
drivers are capable of slowing down, and they need to, because the
sections of track that the trains can actually do 160km/h are few and
far between.
You can take 2 bikes on the entire train. And you can't book a place
for your bike. Makes touring with a group interesting. Hell, it
makes travel at all interesting, not knowing whether you have to leave
your bike on the platform prior to departing, or not.
They actually sold the project entirely wrong. It was intended as a
way to upgrade all the track within the network, to a standard that
basically any future government for the next couple of decades won't
simply be able to say "the track sucks, better mothball it all". The
unfortunate sideeffect is that we are left with the public thinking it
was a large expense for a few rather poor performing trains, and so
they'll vote against any rail projects in the future.
--
TimC
"It was eleven more than neccessary."
-- Jacques Anquetil, after winning a cycling race by twelve seconds