How (and why) to Ramble on your goat sideways
Boost Pope
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The PATH system is, in fact, astoundingly clean and nice. The rolling stock have all been completely replaced with Kawasaki PA5s (2008-2012), which are quiet and smooth-running.
(Yes, they actually DO look like that on the inside- they take good care of 'em.)
Similarly, the new WTC station is huge, airy, well-lit, and just altogether amazing.
And mind you, this is just the temporary station that they threw together in a hurry to replace the one that got flattened when a large, heavy thing fell on it. The permanent station is going to be a friggin' Colosseum.
And, actually, the 33rd st station and Hoboken terminal are also quite nice. In fact, all of the terminating stations on the PATH system are fabulous.
Which is ironic, as PATH is a very small system with only a dozen stations and four routes:
By comparison, the NYC Subway diagram is slightly larger:
That said, the NYC Subway has improved tremendously over the past 20 years. It doesn't look like those photos Brain posted anymore. Most (but not all) of the trains have been upgraded or replaced over the past decade or so, graffiti is extremely rare and always quickly removed, the trains are fairly clean, and while a lot of the stations themselves are kind of old and run-down, they hose out the urine on a pretty regular basis, and rat attacks are extremely rare.
Some of the Subway lines (like the E train, for instance) are every bit as nice as PATH.
When there were problems on the IRT's, I used to take PATH from WTC to Hoboken, then over to 33rd(Pavonia wasn't an option back then). It made me very jealous of the Jerseyites.
Those pictures in that article don't convey the sense of depressing hopelessness of the 80's subways. There used to be homeless families living in the Shuttle passageway under GTC, and the Times Square side was just squalid. And it all reeked of hygiene-challenged humanity.
As a plus, only about 10% of the IRT cars had working air conditioning.
Those pictures in that article don't convey the sense of depressing hopelessness of the 80's subways. There used to be homeless families living in the Shuttle passageway under GTC, and the Times Square side was just squalid. And it all reeked of hygiene-challenged humanity.
As a plus, only about 10% of the IRT cars had working air conditioning.
Ah PATH. Their substations may look nice but there telephones don't work.
Who would have guessed you need to install surge suppression on digital electronics in substations that switch millions of watts?
Who would have guessed you need to install surge suppression on digital electronics in substations that switch millions of watts?
Boost Pope
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Those pictures in that article don't convey the sense of depressing hopelessness of the 80's subways. There used to be homeless families living in the Shuttle passageway under GTC, and the Times Square side was just squalid. And it all reeked of hygiene-challenged humanity.
Ironically, I feel partly to blame.
I worked for Harris back when WTC went down, and in the aftermath, we got the contract to re-build part of the comms infrastructure that was lost, and in the process did a general upgrade on the system as a whole. Lots of multiplexed T1 stuff- nothing fancy, but the infrastructure itself seemed quite fragile... We didn't exactly half-*** anything, but some of the design could have been more fault-tolerant...
So much interesting transportation infrastructure here...
The NJT terminal at Penn on a bad day:
The NJT / Metro North switchyard at Hoboken Terminal:
"Stand Clear of the Closing Doors" (or, there's always room for one more.)
OK, small thread deflection-
Joe, since there is a female in the picture of late - have you taken her to the Campbell Apartment for after-work drinks yet? I understand it's still one of the best expensive drink spots in midtown. I'm planning on going Saturday after a lively Guggenheim romp - it's been many years.
Joe, since there is a female in the picture of late - have you taken her to the Campbell Apartment for after-work drinks yet? I understand it's still one of the best expensive drink spots in midtown. I'm planning on going Saturday after a lively Guggenheim romp - it's been many years.
Boost Pope
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May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpit.
That having been said, I happened across a crashed turnstile recently at the Hoboken terminal. I was honestly a bit surprised to see that they run on an apparently plain-vanilla x86 platform, based on the P3 architecture. (I'd have expected an ARM / RTOS sort of system)
I actually didn't even realize that this place existed, which is odd since I work on East 42nd, pass Grand Central every single day (my evening Citibike station is Pershing N, which is immediately outside the main GCT entrance), and go through it at least once every few weeks. The food market that they have on the Lexington Ave. side is pretty baller.
That being said, we spend relatively little time together in the city. Our main hangout is up in Catskill, an environment much more convivial to... well... you know.
That having been said, I happened across a crashed turnstile recently at the Hoboken terminal. I was honestly a bit surprised to see that they run on an apparently plain-vanilla x86 platform, based on the P3 architecture. (I'd have expected an ARM / RTOS sort of system)
Joe, since there is a female in the picture of late - have you taken her to the Campbell Apartment for after-work drinks yet? I understand it's still one of the best expensive drink spots in midtown. I'm planning on going Saturday after a lively Guggenheim romp - it's been many years.
That being said, we spend relatively little time together in the city. Our main hangout is up in Catskill, an environment much more convivial to... well... you know.
I worked for Harris back when WTC went down, and in the aftermath, we got the contract to re-build part of the comms infrastructure that was lost, and in the process did a general upgrade on the system as a whole. Lots of multiplexed T1 stuff- nothing fancy, but the infrastructure itself seemed quite fragile... We didn't exactly half-*** anything, but some of the design could have been more fault-tolerant...
The design failure was twofold: Whoever designed it spec'd a system that was designed to distribute phone calls in a large office building, and not building to building. Then whoever wired the surge suppression system took a look at the "good grounding practices" manual and did the exact opposite.
Boost Pope
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Do I have you to thank then for all my POTS experience? I worked for a consulting firm that was hired to do analysis on their phone system. Every time there was a thunder storm or a switching event 1/2 of their POTS cards would blow up. I believe the Hoboken terminal was the one we visited for our on site analysis.
The design failure was twofold: Whoever designed it spec'd a system that was designed to distribute phone calls in a large office building, and not building to building. Then whoever wired the surge suppression system took a look at the "good grounding practices" manual and did the exact opposite.
The design failure was twofold: Whoever designed it spec'd a system that was designed to distribute phone calls in a large office building, and not building to building. Then whoever wired the surge suppression system took a look at the "good grounding practices" manual and did the exact opposite.
But I totally get what you mean. People make the mistake of thinking that ground is ground. Same **** that causes problems with analog sensors in the automotive environment, just scaled up by many orders of magnitude.
No, we didn't do any POTS work- our stuff was all trunking, multiplexing, etc. If you see any black, 3RU boxes that say "Intraplex" on the front, those are ours.
I honestly have no idea why we got that contract. We specialized in studios and remote production trucks, not railroad infrastructure.
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speaking of POTS...
what is the current great, cheap small business phone system? we currently use a dying TalkSwitch and it sucks. It emails WAV files for voicemail...
Boss is considering moving up to the direct replacement (now Fortinet) but it has basically the same features (WAV for voicemail...)
There are 5 incoming lines and about 10 people/phones using it. We are ok using analog or digital lines. We use both now.
Anyone have any recent experience?
what is the current great, cheap small business phone system? we currently use a dying TalkSwitch and it sucks. It emails WAV files for voicemail...
Boss is considering moving up to the direct replacement (now Fortinet) but it has basically the same features (WAV for voicemail...)
There are 5 incoming lines and about 10 people/phones using it. We are ok using analog or digital lines. We use both now.
Anyone have any recent experience?
Boost Pope
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Does anybody even still manufacture POTS-based PBXes? I ask seriously.
Just out of curiosity, when you say "We are ok using analog or digital lines. We use both now," do you have an incoming PRI, or are you using multiple BRIs, or...?
Just out of curiosity, when you say "We are ok using analog or digital lines. We use both now," do you have an incoming PRI, or are you using multiple BRIs, or...?
Does anybody even still manufacture POTS-based PBXes? I ask seriously.
If you twist their arm enough, you can still get the phone company, like Verizon to install a POTS line for you. I believe that scada circuits (from substations to control center) are a 4 wire duplex variant of the POTS system as well.
But I totally get what you mean. People make the mistake of thinking that ground is ground. Same **** that causes problems with analog sensors in the automotive environment, just scaled up by many orders of magnitude.
No, we didn't do any POTS work- our stuff was all trunking, multiplexing, etc. If you see any black, 3RU boxes that say "Intraplex" on the front, those are ours.
Boost Pope
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Back in San Diego, the meters all have built-in telemetry, and they send the data back to the utility in realtime (or, at least, every hour or so) over the power company's own hardware. This is for everyone, including apartment-dwellers.
In Santa Clara, CA, the power company even went one step further. They have so much surplus bandwidth that they started integrating wifi transceivers into people's meters, and have blanketed the entire city with totally free wifi. Literally, the entire city of Santa Clara is one giant hotspot.
Santa Clara Free Wi-Fi | Powerd by SVP MeterConnect℠
Santa Clara 1st U.S. City To Use Utility Meters For Free Wi-Fi Network « CBS San Francisco
If you twist their arm enough, you can still get the phone company, like Verizon to install a POTS line for you. I believe that scada circuits (from substations to control center) are a 4 wire duplex variant of the POTS system as well.
I can forgive gearheads for not understanding grounding, or non-electrical people in general. But an EE should know better. A electrician should definitely know better, as it can put them in danger since they are the ones who must work on it.
Hell, even here at WPIX there are a couple of racks in one particular room that shock you when you touch them. (eg: the racks are floating, and there's a current leak somewhere that's raising them well above ground.)
I seem to remember that T1 multiplexers was involved, but it was a while ago and I don't remember any equipment manufacturers specifically. Allegedly it was the same equipment that was in the world trade center. The equipment worked fine in there, because there was no exposure.
We also had a wireless, bidirectional spread-spectrum radio system that you could use to shoot a T1/E1 from building to building up to 50km (given adequate elevation and good line-of-sight), at either 2.4 or 5.8 Ghz. That was pretty bitchin' stuff back in the late 90s.
I was just surprised that my particular division got chosen to do that project. We had other groups within Harris that specialized in **** like the FAA (Harris ties all of north America's air-traffic-control system together), military comms, utilities (including safety-rated systems for nuke plants), spacecraft comms, the actual Red Telephone that connects the White House directly to the Kremlin, etc., and they'd have been better suited to do a railroad project than us broadcast dopes.
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We don't care what happens to them once they get into the office as long as any of a dozen phones can make up to 4-5 simultaneous calls and each phone has its own extension. Also voicemail is nice.
When I say digital phones, I guess they are IP PBX? I've done about 20 minutes of research on phones that aren't for my house so bear with me.
The replacement the boss is looking at is (I think) the FVC-70 here:
VoIP PBX phone systems, telephones and accessories for small and medium size business by FortiVoice
The meters you are referring to are generally known as "smart meters." They are considerably more advanced than the meters I am talking about, but could be considered the next evolutionary step. Smart meters are only deployed in mass in very population dense areas. The only I am aware of off the top of my head are Baltimore, California and Detroit (I am sure more exist, but those are the only I am cognizant of). PA law requires 100% smart meter use by 2020 or so.
Most of the rest of the country uses "interval" meters for their larger commercial/industrial customers. The meter has a dial reading, which is just a rolling register of KWH that was recorded, and also stores consumption in 15 or 30 minute "intervals". The intervals are used for more advanced billing practices. you can calculate the customers peak demand and charge them accordingly, or use the data for a Time of Use billing. A meter can typically store 30 days of data, and a modem is used to interrogate the meter and retrieve this information. Generally speaking, the newer the meter, the worse it communicates via modem.
To make a rough analogy, the difference is similar to comparing a MS1 to a MS3x. The interval meter works, but is a bit crude. The smart meter blows it away with functionality.
Sorry if I put you to sleep with that history lesson.
Most of the rest of the country uses "interval" meters for their larger commercial/industrial customers. The meter has a dial reading, which is just a rolling register of KWH that was recorded, and also stores consumption in 15 or 30 minute "intervals". The intervals are used for more advanced billing practices. you can calculate the customers peak demand and charge them accordingly, or use the data for a Time of Use billing. A meter can typically store 30 days of data, and a modem is used to interrogate the meter and retrieve this information. Generally speaking, the newer the meter, the worse it communicates via modem.
To make a rough analogy, the difference is similar to comparing a MS1 to a MS3x. The interval meter works, but is a bit crude. The smart meter blows it away with functionality.
Sorry if I put you to sleep with that history lesson.