eponymousarchon (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
eponymousarchon) wrote2005-05-09 03:54 pm
eponymousarchon) wrote2005-05-09 03:54 pm
Fun and Games on the train. (Catching up with the backlog)
So anyway, on friday I was taking a late train into work.
The train got to the last station before my final destination.
And stopped.
And waited.
And waited. And waited.
I'm sure you get the idea - this train was going nowhere.
Well, at least I had a paper to read. I was idly speculating whether the time the train would get into Guildford would bear any relationship to the time I was due into work when the conductor made an announcement over the tannoy:
Silence and darkness. Everything stopped. No lights, no racket from the air conditioning system, no LED display. Half a minute later everything came back to life in sequence: lights, LEDs and finally fan.
Yeah, you've got it, he did exactly what you'ld do if your Windows box hung, power it down, count to thirty and re-boot!
We'll make a system engineer of him yet.
(Incidentally: No, that didn't fix the problem. It took the full five minute reboot for that.)
The train got to the last station before my final destination.
And stopped.
And waited.
And waited. And waited.
I'm sure you get the idea - this train was going nowhere.
Well, at least I had a paper to read. I was idly speculating whether the time the train would get into Guildford would bear any relationship to the time I was due into work when the conductor made an announcement over the tannoy:
"We regret to announce that we are delayed due to a problem with the brakes. We will fix this fault before moving on.""Good Call", I thought and turned the page. And then?
Silence and darkness. Everything stopped. No lights, no racket from the air conditioning system, no LED display. Half a minute later everything came back to life in sequence: lights, LEDs and finally fan.
Yeah, you've got it, he did exactly what you'ld do if your Windows box hung, power it down, count to thirty and re-boot!
We'll make a system engineer of him yet.
(Incidentally: No, that didn't fix the problem. It took the full five minute reboot for that.)
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Almost as good as the time I heard Aldershot station re-boot.
All the display screens had hung, so someone had obviously hit the reset switch. The computer system reboots into Windows and the startup sound chimes through the tannoy system...
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Welcome to Microsoft Domination. MS have training programs to ensure people are brain washed to use their software in the same manner their programmers program the software to be used. People flock where the jobs are, and where there is 'free' training given with the clincher of 'no experienced required'. Ok I'm cynical I know!
As for Virgin trains.
Did you know that a faulty hot water boiler in the 'on-board shop' triggers the automatic breaking system on the train. I actually heared it said over the tannoy on the train.
They may be able to fix the hot water boiler but the poor train goes into deep trauma mode when the hot water boiler slams on the brakes to ensure the engineer is aware of a fault. Anyone would think they couldn't wire in a fault warning light, but no they activate the brakes in stead.
The last three Virgin trains I've been on have broken down - each time they have had their 'on-the-train' engineer pacing up and down the train at the regulatory 4.2 m.p.h.
Such is Virgin's confidence of their new rolling stock, they assign each train an engineer as well as a driver.
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They announce they're doing a "reset of the filangey doodad" (or whatever it is) and many will say it's basically like rebooting your computer at work. ;o)