BaltACDGetting today's juveniles weaned off electronic devices and keeping those devices from impinging upon their 'personal space' is next to impossible.
I know. It's pathetic. It truly is.
I don't know if the inventors of "SmartPhone" technology planned it that way or if like Doctor Frankenstein they're asking themselves "What have we done?"
You know, there is a battle I fought, and lost, in the 1970s and then again, in a different context, in the 1990s. It remains a somewhat attractive option today... if the obvious issues can be addressed.
Back in the days of CONELRAD, there was discussion that as part of developing FM portable and car radios, there be circuitry installed that would turn them on, adjust volume and in some cases auto tune, and broadcast the appropriate tones for the EBS system. Some people regarded this in a sort of tinfoil-hat sense as the camel's nose for PRC-style pervasive propaganda broadcasting... and the idea didn't go far.
But it would be highly logical to use a similar system in cars to produce an alarm near an active railroad crossing, or if sensors detected imminent 'fouling' of a crossing to activate the general warning. This would turn your car radio on and transmit an appropriate warning... at one and the same time removing one of the likely distractions and noise sources masking bells or horns and providing immediate warning messages.
The 1990s extension would be to implement similar bridging to 'Walkman' devices (using a small FM tuner chip as appropriate) so that wearers of headphones within range of track, or more specifically locomotives on the track, would be alerted through the phones when a horn or other 'protection' was activated.
It would of course be trivial to put this in 'smartphones' whether they connect to handsfree equipment or not. And that would be more 'bang for the buck' than one-way FM radio broadcast...
... except that railroads do NOT like to have their traffic and train lengths recorded and analyzed, and the results used for purposes not rewarding the stockholders. Or for terrorism, robbery, and other things, some of which we've discussed comparatively recently. Speed or location, length, and frequency could be trivially extracted from 'connected' smartphones, including those perverted into the wireless-telephony equivalent of bot nets or Stuxnet-style exploits.
And of course it begs the question of whether warning of an oncoming train actually dissuades 'suicidal trespassers' rather than actually letting them know "opportunity is coming knocking".
Risk/reward evaluation. The device whether through car electronics or people's smartphones** should simply warn of train coming. No need for other data.
** Smartphones are just fine, the Luddite reactions by some elders notwithstanding.
charlie hebdo** Smartphones are just fine, the Luddite reactions by some elders notwithstanding.
I don't think it's so much a Luddite reaction from us geezers as much as the realization of one of life's great lessons, which most of us learn sooner or later:
"Too much of a good thing is bad!"
charlie hebdoRisk/reward evaluation. The device whether through car electronics or people's smartphones** should simply warn of train coming. No need for other data.
The problem is that the devices can track actuation. And this can tell people with 'access to the data' (like Apple, or companies allowed to use the information) where the front of the train is, where the back of the train is, and how fast the front end is moving at particular crossings... which will tell you enough about the type of train. Remember that the smartphones are already doing this by default for 'differential' GPS enhancement -- a necessary thing given the drift of many of the GPS chipsets as their phones heat up and cool down.
I really liked the idea of an app that could track grade-crossing occupancy in real-time, with dynamic GPS-navigation instructions avoiding trains, suggesting alternate routes, counting down time for crossings to clear, warning about trains on other tracks, etc. Nifty as hell... but it tells people where the trains are. Railroads don't generally like that.
Flintlock76 In particular I read a story about a police officer assigned to a "Special Victims" type task force. He started out sympathizing with women who had intimate pictures blasted across the Internet by ex-boyfriends (or girlfriends, let's not be bigoted) as "revenge porn" but grew to resent them as they were soaking up an inordinate amount of time better spent investgating physical abuse and assault. His attitude was, "What sort of idiot agrees to pose nude in front of a camera with no concern for whether the photos/videos will get out? You agreed to do it. Unless violence or threats of violence were involved, live with your mistakes, the way the rest of humanity has to."
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York1 John
BEAUSABREa police officer assigned to a "Special Victims" type task force. He started out sympathizing with women who had intimate pictures blasted across the Internet by ex-boyfriends
There it is. "Don't put anything out over the electromagnetic spectrum..."
I do shake my head over today's tech-savvy kids (of all people) making mistakes like this.
The only mitigating circumstance I can think of concerning this is it's becoming such a common practice that's getting to be unremarkable. Soon the attitude may very well change from "Oh WOW!" to "So what?"
Naomi Judd (C&W Singer) died today with the family listing her as having succumbed to Mental Illness at age 76.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/naomi-judd-dies-singer-mother-of-wynonna-ashley-judd-dead-age-76/
She didn't pick train as her preferred method. RIP the Peace you didn't find in life.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACDNaomi Judd (C&W Singer) died today with the family listing her as having succumbed to Mental Illness at age 76.
"Mental illness" can cover a lot of ground, but we don't need to know the particulars. Some things should stay private if the family wants it that way.
Rest in peace Naomi. Go sing with the angels now.
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