I’ve heard stories about high end recording studios, with shrink wrapped boxes of expensive audio software, that used cracked versions on their workstations because they don’t want to deal with the inevitable iLok hassles…
On very busy urban systems, one major advantage of CBTC is that the signalling blocks (the section of line that only one train can be in at a time) can be smaller, since the possibility of a driver failing to notice a red signal can be discounted. This increases the number of trains that can be run on the same line.
Does Paris runs or just the CBTC capable of running? You need more than CBTC to run at 85 second headway. Loading/unloading time became huge problem at that interval.
I just checked Line 14 schedule and the most I can find is 34 train per hour, which is approx 105 second headway.
I am not saying that CBTC isn't capable of running higher interval than regular ATS and wayside signal (which is actually a very old technology), but in most case it doesn't matter. Even without moving block of CBTC, a very short static block (say, 100m) and in-cap signally should theoretically have the came capacity as CBTC.
For local trains you need your loading and unloading time to be as fast as possible anyway. People have places to be, waiting around on your trains and platforms is not on the list of things they want to do. It is even worse when they are waiting around not moving at stations they don't want to get off at. 60 seconds is the absolute longest any train door should be open for, and 45 is reasonable. (it can be pushed to 30 or even 15, but that starts to be impossible for the disabled and so not worth it)
I recently migrated from 1Password using Dropbox for sync, to KeePassXC (Windows, Linux & Mac) and Strongbox (iPhone & iPad) still using Dropbox.
Migration was a simple matter of exporting a CSV and then just correctly selecting the column order for KeePass import.
For those who don't want to trust a third party, even with their encrypted data, I believe that home NAS sync-when-available is possible - I personally haven't tested the implications of syncing changes from multiple devices at the same time in that scenario.
For a lot of us Brits Sir Clive's machines were our first glimpse of the future. If that doesn’t sound like you, then just stand aside while we mourn our hero.
I respect that. Atari computers for me and Commodores for some were a first glimpse of the future as well. I didn't expect downvotes for honestly asking how would having Sinclair differ from my experience.
It's an interesting part of corporate culture. Large companies hate the process of firing employees for a number of reasons: staff moral, public perception, potential legal liability, etc. This applies whether it's individuals for performance reasons, or entire teams for economic reasons. To avoid this, there is often a lot of (bureaucratic and difficult) process to justify the hiring of a new FTE.
The corollary to this is that it's often a lot easier for a manager to hire a contractor or use an out-sourcing vendor, even if they don't see the requirements of the role being any different than that of a "permie" and even if it costs the company more money.
With regard to its popularity with publicly traded companies, aside from the cost and liability issues that are being discussed here, I have been told that Revenue per Employee is an investment metric that senior management try to optimise by the use of vendor and agency staff.
Source: I have worked for large corporates both as a contractor and as a full time employee in mixed teams.
This is an excellent point. If you are a hands on techie by inclination, then you should be aware that blindly chasing promotion in an organisation that doesn’t have a track for “individual contributors” is simply going to lead to more time in meetings and less time doing what you are good at and enjoy.
Most of the corporate world is built around the idea that promotion will entail more and more (formal) leadership responsibilities.
My personal experience is that people who wish to specialise in developing their own technical work to a higher level, without taking on management responsibilities, need to be more proactive about seeking the next role that will be right for them and very often that means looking externally.
Of course there are a number of organisations that explicitly provide a specialist seniority track outside management (Sun Microsystems was the first that I encountered), but you probably already know if you work somewhere like that.
The fact that he went into hospital and came back out to a functioning farm suggests that he has a good relationship with his neighbouring farmers. My guess would be that he's planned for exactly what will happen to his livestock and farm when he passes.
I dived the Blue Hole in Belize and was shocked by the slack attitude of most of the other divers on the boat. I'd just completed my Advanced Open Water (with a deep dive) so was very conscious of the regular air checks, however despite a detailed dive briefing with emphasis on the pressure cut offs at each depth, about half the party ended up having to be given supplemental air at the final safety stop.
Although I'm sure that there are many irresponsible dive operators out there, there are clearly also divers (many of whom were at least experienced enough to bring their own equipment) who don't take responsibility for their own safety.
I don't know if that's a training issue, or just a human stupidity issue.
