Västtrafikens nya kontokort är jobbiga. Problemet händer om man reser mellan zoner och måste checka ut vid avstigning.
Idag åkte jag från Korsvägen till Burö och bara glömde att checka ut. Mina tänker var på någonting helt annat. På väg tillbacka var det helt omölijligt att checka ut därför att spårvagnen var absolut fullsatt och en tjej stod framför maskinen och kramade den!
Västtrafik kommer att förlora mycket pengar pga det nya systemet, inte bara genom fusk men eftersom systemet är opraktisk.
Kanske finns det en enkel lösning. Jag haft hört att i Hong Kong används sensorer som kan läsa kort utan att man måste dra ut kort ur ens ficka. Sensorerna verkar likadana som används i affärar som skydd mot tjuvar.
fredag 18 september 2009
Windows 7 coming soon - advice to students.
Windows 7 is due out on Oct 22. It is pricey, with several versions to choose from, the cheapest being crippleware. There is a cut-price offer for students which Microsoft said was ideal for those students who couldn't afford to buy a new PC with Windows 7 pre-installed, but still wanted access to the latest cutting-edge tools and software.
Computer users upgrading from Vista to Windows 7 will have to pay £79.99 for the Home Premium edition, £189.99 for the Professional edition, or £199.99 for the Ultimate edition. Those still running earlier platforms, such as Windows XP, will have to perform a clean install, and will need a full retail copy of Windows 7, which will cost £149.99 for the Home edition, £219.99 for the Professional edition, and £229.99 for the Ultimate package. All copies are single-license, meaning they can only be installed on one computer.
Students - resist the temptation
This is a temptation students would be well-advised to resist. I have just done some Linux installs. One was on a 1.6 Celeron with 512 Meg RAM. SuSE 11.1 with KDE was a bit sluggish so we increased the RAM to 2GB and that works nicely now. The other was on a ten-year-old 500 Mg Pentium III with 384 Meg RAM, running Windows 98. Ubuntu 8.10 would not run from the live CD. Puppy Linux ran but there are limited disc partition options. Mepis run but looked a bit heavy. An install of Xubuntu was successful but the screen resolution is limited to 600 x 800 due to a bug, which will not be be sorted out until next time round. Also it did not have Open Office. Finally I installed SuSE 11.1 with Gnome from the live CD. The 3G broadband worked perfectly and instantly, possibly because I had installed the huawei E220 driver for which the rpm can be downloaded. But it is a bit sluggish and would run better with one of the lighter windows managers, however, the lighter windows managers do not appear to have easy access to the 3G network drivers. Still, it has resuscitated an old PC which would have been thrown out. I shall try to get some more memory which should help things - there is space for 768 Meg on the board.
Moral: Don't be tempted by the offer of cheap software. If you are a hard-up student, try and cadge an old computer - anything less than seven years old will do nicely, put in as much memory as it will take and install the Linux operating system with Open Source applications on it. You will also gain the benefit of an opportunity to find out how computers work. You will also avoid wasting time installing separate applications as they are all included on the one distribution disc, and you will also be spared the trouble registering and typing in all those 25-digit security codes.
If you are after leading-edge software, then you definitely need to follow the Linux-Open Source route in any case. Proprietary software is for those OAPs who are technologically illiterate.
Computer users upgrading from Vista to Windows 7 will have to pay £79.99 for the Home Premium edition, £189.99 for the Professional edition, or £199.99 for the Ultimate edition. Those still running earlier platforms, such as Windows XP, will have to perform a clean install, and will need a full retail copy of Windows 7, which will cost £149.99 for the Home edition, £219.99 for the Professional edition, and £229.99 for the Ultimate package. All copies are single-license, meaning they can only be installed on one computer.
Students - resist the temptation
This is a temptation students would be well-advised to resist. I have just done some Linux installs. One was on a 1.6 Celeron with 512 Meg RAM. SuSE 11.1 with KDE was a bit sluggish so we increased the RAM to 2GB and that works nicely now. The other was on a ten-year-old 500 Mg Pentium III with 384 Meg RAM, running Windows 98. Ubuntu 8.10 would not run from the live CD. Puppy Linux ran but there are limited disc partition options. Mepis run but looked a bit heavy. An install of Xubuntu was successful but the screen resolution is limited to 600 x 800 due to a bug, which will not be be sorted out until next time round. Also it did not have Open Office. Finally I installed SuSE 11.1 with Gnome from the live CD. The 3G broadband worked perfectly and instantly, possibly because I had installed the huawei E220 driver for which the rpm can be downloaded. But it is a bit sluggish and would run better with one of the lighter windows managers, however, the lighter windows managers do not appear to have easy access to the 3G network drivers. Still, it has resuscitated an old PC which would have been thrown out. I shall try to get some more memory which should help things - there is space for 768 Meg on the board.
Moral: Don't be tempted by the offer of cheap software. If you are a hard-up student, try and cadge an old computer - anything less than seven years old will do nicely, put in as much memory as it will take and install the Linux operating system with Open Source applications on it. You will also gain the benefit of an opportunity to find out how computers work. You will also avoid wasting time installing separate applications as they are all included on the one distribution disc, and you will also be spared the trouble registering and typing in all those 25-digit security codes.
If you are after leading-edge software, then you definitely need to follow the Linux-Open Source route in any case. Proprietary software is for those OAPs who are technologically illiterate.
torsdag 10 september 2009
I'll never understand economics...
I often hear this from my fellow Catholics. It is just not good enough. If you look at the encyclical Caritas in Veritatis, it is evident that the Catholic laity have a clear duty to attempt to understand the truth about economics.
Economics as taught in academic institutions is mostly a load of baloney and if you have reasonably normal thinking capacities you should not expect to be able to understand it.
The entire subject of economics has been surrounded by a fog of confusion for the past 100 years. If you are a conspiracy theorist you should be able to find good reasons why it is in some people's interest to ensure that confusion prevails amongst the populace. And that is the underlying reason for the present mess. Economic theory as presented by the so-called experts, including most politicians and journalists, is a crock of shit.
Anyhow, there is no reason why any person of average intelligence should not be able to understand economics and there is no excuse. There is material out there which explains quite clearly how the system works.
A good place to start is Progress and Poverty by Henry George which can be downloaded from the internet. A more recent though slightly technical exposition is A New Model of the Economy by Brian Hodgkinson. There are also courses run by the School of Economic Science at various centres round the country, including London, Croydon and Brighton.
In my experience, Christians in general and Catholics in particular seem content to feed the hungry and never bother to ask why there are hungry people when there is plenty of food around, or dismiss it as "a consequence of sin". If one does not bother to look beyond that glib answer then one is part of the sin.
Economics as taught in academic institutions is mostly a load of baloney and if you have reasonably normal thinking capacities you should not expect to be able to understand it.
The entire subject of economics has been surrounded by a fog of confusion for the past 100 years. If you are a conspiracy theorist you should be able to find good reasons why it is in some people's interest to ensure that confusion prevails amongst the populace. And that is the underlying reason for the present mess. Economic theory as presented by the so-called experts, including most politicians and journalists, is a crock of shit.
Anyhow, there is no reason why any person of average intelligence should not be able to understand economics and there is no excuse. There is material out there which explains quite clearly how the system works.
A good place to start is Progress and Poverty by Henry George which can be downloaded from the internet. A more recent though slightly technical exposition is A New Model of the Economy by Brian Hodgkinson. There are also courses run by the School of Economic Science at various centres round the country, including London, Croydon and Brighton.
In my experience, Christians in general and Catholics in particular seem content to feed the hungry and never bother to ask why there are hungry people when there is plenty of food around, or dismiss it as "a consequence of sin". If one does not bother to look beyond that glib answer then one is part of the sin.
torsdag 3 september 2009
Bekväma och obekväma tåg
Som britannisk, log jag när jag läste artikeln i Tåg (juli 2009) ”Dags för nya personvagnar” och kommentaren ”komforten når sin smärtgräns”. I Storbritannien kan personvagnarnas korgbredd inte vara mer än 2.82 meter och då måste vagnens längd vara som mest 20 meter. Om vagnarnas längd är till exempel 23 meter, då måste korgbredd vara minskad till 2.74 meter. 20 meter långa personvagnar används för pendeltåg och brukar ha fem platser i bredd, men på pendeltåg får man sitta till och med 2 timmar. Samtidigt i nya fjärrtågsvagnar som Pendolino och Voyager, samt ombyggda mark 3 är stolavståndet mindre än 90 cm. Sådana tåg når verkligen smärtgränsen!
I jämförelse är SJs vagnar som B7, B4 och B2 (ovan), även Regina, mycket lyxiga. Korrugerade ytor spelar ingen roll när man sitter inne i tåget. Dessutom ser dessa mer funktionella ut och vagnarna bli starkare för likadan vikt. Enligt min åsikt finns det bara två klagomål: brist av rum för stora väskor bredvid, eller under, sittplatserna, och att så kallade fönsterplatser som inte får ett fönster bredvid. Då kan man inte titta på landskapet men istället får man se bara plast. En fönsterplats bör betyda just det.
Artikeln handlade om stigande kostnader per sittplats. Det är ett internationellt fenomen. Nya personvagnar innehåller osynliga högtekniska utrustningar som är nödvändiga för säkerheten och nuvarande tågs högre hastighet.
Hur kan kostnaden minskas? 70-tals personvagnar som mark 3 är fortfarande välbevarade och det verkar som om de kan rulla minst 30 år till. Antagligen kan man säga likadant om SJs vagnar som byggdes samtidigt. Sådana vagnar kan renoveras för ett relativt billigt pris – typiskt mellan 25% och 35% i jämförelse med nya vagnar, beroende på specificering. Arbetet kan bestå bara av ny inredning eller någonting mer ambitiöst: ny luftkonditionering, nya boggier, stolar, osv. Då kan vagnarna ser nya ut och bli minst lika bekväma som nya vagnar därför att det inte är nödvändigt att packa i så många resenärer som möjligt. Dessa vagnar kan förstås aldrig bli handikappvänliga och nya vagnar behövs också. Men resurserna är begränsade och bör inte slösas genom att skrota personvagnar som kan gå i många år till.
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