All posts by Tony Blews

Birmingham New Street for Dummies

I used to like Birmingham New Street Station for it’s simplicity. It had a big, wide corridor with excalators to platform level on one side and stairs on the other, and it wasn’t confusing at all.

Then came the Grand Central development, which involved spending millions to turn from a station with a shopping center above it, into a, and work with me on this, a station with a shopping center above it.

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PMR446 and Schools

A lot of schools use the cheap PMR446 radios that are available. They use them to control traffic on-site, control student flow about the buildings, and to announce when students are being let out.

It is all against Safeguarding Guidelines, and this is why:

From my experience, Schools do not know how radios work.

On PMR446 there are “Channels” and  “Privacy Codes”.

So you can set your radio to channel 7, Privacy Code 4 (or whatever), and think that nobody else can hear you.

Well, it doesn’t work like that.

Anyone who spent about a fiver on a crap radio can hear what you are discussing.

Everything you say, about every pupil, is being broadcast.

 

Wales, 20mph and the most stupid statement ever.

Ok Wales, has dropped the speed limit to 20mph in built up areas. Deal with it. It is probably a good idea. I live in a 20mph zone, and I don’t moan about it. I moan about the pricks the belt down it too fast, park across my driveway waiting for their precious kids from the school 400yds away, but not the speed limit. Anyway…

My issue is with comment by Mark Drakeford, First Minister of Wales, and a man who has clearly no concept of speed, time, distance, or arithmetic .

He said:

“It’s going to take you a minute longer to make your journey, and we will save 10 people’s lives in Wales every year as a result of that one minute contribution – it doesn’t seem an unfair bargain,” said Mark Drakeford.

The bit I’m interested in is:

“It’s going to take you a minute longer to make your journey” said Mark Drakeford.

No, Mark, it isn’t. It is going to be one minute per mile. Get your numbers right.

OpenTTD Isle of Man Scenario

It is the 21st Century. I’m still playing a game that was released in 1994, Transport Tycoon. Well, almost, but not exactly. Really I’m playing OpenTTD, which was first released in 2004. So, either I’m playing a 30 year old game, or a 20 year old game.

And finally, after 20, maybe 30 years, I’m releasing a scenario for it.

So it had better be good, hadn’t it?

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