Commuting WTF Thread
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@blakeyrat I've heard that called "nerd view"--the unthinking use of technical terms on notices designed for non technical people. It's everywhere.
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@benjamin-hall Nothing to do with nerds. Hell, the military is AWFUL at it... try talking to your college buddy who spent 3 years in the army, he's talking an entirely different language.
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@blakeyrat that's just the label. The example I saw it with was traffic signs.
And many military folks are nerds, just in different areas.
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@benjamin-hall Well then it's a shitty label. Or you've completely removed all meaning from the term "nerd".
Anybody who spends a significant amount of time immersed in X, whatever X happens to be (highway design, military education courses, subway announcement programming) they're going to forget that the average man-on-the-street knows nothing about X.
This is why usability testing is so. fucking. important. (In programming, but also in highway design, subway announcements-- the military's pretty self-contained, so.) But naturally nobody does it.
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This whole thing about people using jargon that others can't understand, even more when it comes to developers, I find is only exhibitied in professionals who think they're somehow elitist because of their jobs. I know people who happen to be developers who consistently go "oh shit this feels weird, not user friendly at all" on the products they themselves code and often have a pretty good sense of empathy. The ones who think coding makes them special are the ones who usually use jargon when talking with the non technical members of the team knowing full well the latter is not familiar with technical jargon. Sad state of things and gives all developers a bad rep.
Don't know how it is in other professions.
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That effect exists in lots of professions, it's not nerd or status-specific at all.
There's a great skit about this, unfortunately it's in French (and since most people here don't speak this language, posting it would only serve as an example of that effect, ironically). It shows how doctors, car mechanics, lawyers, government employees, etc. "explain" things while using vocabulary that's completely alien to anyone not working in the same profession.
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@blakeyrat said in Commuting WTF Thread:
Well then it's a shitty label. Or you've completely removed all meaning from the term "nerd".
Anybody who spends a significant amount of time immersed in X, whatever X happens to be (highway design, military education courses, subway announcement programming) they're going to forget that the average man-on-the-street knows nothing about X.
A person who gets super immersed in a subject to the detriment of other aspects of life is a common definition of...
...a nerd.
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@boomzilla Fair enough; but the train guy working for the MTA didn't do that. He just has a job.
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@boomzilla: would you say that a government employee who tells people "Of course I can't give the FW980J permit without copies of your DQ412N, CM174B and JZ341K forms in triplicate. What kind of person doesn't know that? " is a nerd?
If so, we have very different definitions of that word.
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@blakeyrat said in Commuting WTF Thread:
the train guy working for the MTA
Maybe they should have the Kingston Trio sing the announcements.
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@zerosquare said in Commuting WTF Thread:
@boomzilla: would you say that a government employee who tells people "Of course I can't give the FW980J permit without copies of your DQ412N, CM174B and JZ341K forms in triplicate. What kind of person doesn't know that? " is a nerd?
If so, we have very different definitions of that word.
They're displaying nerd-like behaviors, which I know confuses the likes of blakey, since there are differences between the two.
tl;dr The label is OK.
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@boomzilla Yeah obviously I'm a stupid moron retard etc.
But I know a ton of shit about tax-deferred medical savings accounts. Why? Not because I'm a "medical savings account nerd" but because I had a job where I had to know that.
But since I'm a stupid idiot retard dumber than dirt etc. I'm sure I'm wrong about this as I'm wrong about everything ever because I'm so moronic.
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@blakeyrat said in Commuting WTF Thread:
Yeah obviously I'm a stupid moron retard etc.
Agreed.
@blakeyrat said in Commuting WTF Thread:
But I know a ton of shit about tax-deferred medical savings accounts. Why? Not because I'm a "medical savings account nerd" but because I had a job where I had to know that.
Cool. My most educational job was working as the surgical billing coder for a practice that did gynecological oncology and fertility. Get that woman a TAHBSO, stat!
@blakeyrat said in Commuting WTF Thread:
But since I'm a stupid idiot retard dumber than dirt etc. I'm sure I'm wrong about this as I'm wrong about everything ever because I'm so moronic.
No, you're just really good at catching all the metaphors as they go over your head.
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@blakeyrat said in Commuting WTF Thread:
But since I'm a stupid idiot retard dumber than dirt etc. I'm sure I'm wrong about this as I'm wrong about everything ever because I'm so moronic.
Not this shit again.
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@boomzilla said in Commuting WTF Thread:
Get that woman a TAHBSO, stat!
Doesn't that usually involve buying her dinner first?
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@e4tmyl33t said in Commuting WTF Thread:
@boomzilla said in Commuting WTF Thread:
Get that woman a TAHBSO, stat!
Doesn't that usually involve buying her dinner first?
It had better not or the surgical team might get a nasty surprise.
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@boomzilla said in Commuting WTF Thread:
@e4tmyl33t said in Commuting WTF Thread:
@boomzilla said in Commuting WTF Thread:
Get that woman a TAHBSO, stat!
Doesn't that usually involve buying her dinner first?
It had better not or the surgical team might get a nasty surprise.
I keep reading that as "Get that woman a TABASCO, stat!" and getting really confused.
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When I first got my job, I lived about 9 miles from the office, so I drove my own car which took about 25 minutes in either direction. Then I moved, but the commute was still about 25 minutes both ways (but the rent was a lot cheaper).
At the first place, I lived only a block from the train station, so I could have taken the train to the hub and then a bus to my office, with about a 5-minute walk from the bus stop, but due to the routes for both, it would have taken 2 - 2.5 hours one way. At the new place, I'm not near either a bus stop or a train station, so I'd have to drive to one, then take the vehicle to the aforementioned hub, then take a bus from there, and it would still be 2 - 2.5 hours.
But recently the company closed my office and switched me to be a work-from-home employee, so now my commute is about the 10 seconds it takes to go downstairs.
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@djls45 said in Commuting WTF Thread:
so now my commute is about the 10 seconds it takes to go downstairs.
I see room for optimization here.
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@dfdub said in Commuting WTF Thread:
(Bonus points for the people who correctly guess the border from the above description.)
(Bonus points for everyone who can guess the exact route now.)To go more than 800 km in only 2.5 hours, you have to be riding a high-speed train. That means East Asia, Europe, the USA, or Uzbekistan. But that speed leaves only Japan, China, and Europe. The only ones that cross international borders are in Europe. But most of western Europe uses the Euro, so currency problems seem to imply Switzerland.
I'm going to guess Le Mans-Zürich, but possibly Berlin-Zürich or Rome-Zürich, based on the distances. I have no actual idea where the high-speed rail lines in Europe are, and on figuring anything further. I had done a lot more investigation with other parts of the world before I realized what the speed had to be and what that implied.
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@Shoreline said in Commuting WTF Thread:
This story had everything except a thousand elephants and the prime minister's daughter. Or possibly the princess's daughter. I forget whose daughter it was.
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@stillwater said in Commuting WTF Thread:
I see room for optimization here.
Fire pole from second floor to first floor would be amazing.
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@heterodox said in Commuting WTF Thread:
@stillwater said in Commuting WTF Thread:
I see room for optimization here.
Fire pole from second floor to first floor would be amazing.
Too much over-engineering. I say bring the machine to the bed or vice versa.
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@stillwater said in Commuting WTF Thread:
Too much over-engineering. I say bring the machine to the bed or vice versa.
Too much over-engineering granted, but also cool. :D
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@heterodox Cool with the good ol' rubbing crotch against steel scenario.
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@djls45 said in Commuting WTF Thread:
But recently the company closed my office and switched me to be a work-from-home employee, so now my commute is about the 10 seconds it takes to go downstairs.
I've tried working from home. I don't really have the discipline for it. Although with my current job I do have the option to do some work at home if I'd feel like it. I also can do work during my commute if I want to be time efficient and have reason to leave work earlier, although a new laptop would be good for that as the one I got from work is a bit too big at 15".so it's uncomfortable to use on the bus.
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@atazhaia said in Commuting WTF Thread:
. I don't really have the discipline for it.
I don't understand. What part of play video games for three hours straight is difficult for you?
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@djls45 said in Commuting WTF Thread:
To go more than 800 km in only 2.5 hours, you have to be riding a high-speed train.
Ah, you misunderstood me. The whole distance the train travels is 800km long, not the part that I travel in 3hours (2.5 without the border stop).
Surprisingly, you still got the destination right: I work in Zürich. You're vastly overestimating the high-speed trains here, though. :D
Edit: BTW, the situation has improved a bit since I posted. They now finally accept the QR code train passes on both sides of the border and although cancellations still happen, they now always seem to have a replacement train ready that takes you to the border where you can then switch to the train you originally booked. Cancellations are only a minor inconvenience now.
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@dfdub said in Commuting WTF Thread:
Edit: BTW, the situation has improved a bit since I posted. They now finally accept the QR code train passes on both sides of the border and although cancellations still happen, they now always seem to have a replacement train ready that takes you to the border where you can then switch to the train you originally booked. Cancellations are only a minor inconvenience now.
If one train is carrying all the passengers from one station to another, and then they swap that out for another train that does the same thing, then what's actually cancelled?
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@djls45 said in Commuting WTF Thread:
If one train is carrying all the passengers from one station to another, and then they swap that out for another train that does the same thing, then what's actually cancelled?
Well, the original schedule of the original train. So you still get a scary notification saying that the stop was cancelled and have to look into the notes in the app to see that there's another train. (Or sometimes go to the station and get the information there because they didn't add the comment.)
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@stillwater said in Commuting WTF Thread:
@djls45 said in Commuting WTF Thread:
so now my commute is about the 10 seconds it takes to go downstairs.
I see room for optimization here.
Well, he doesn't need to dress, so there's one...
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@blakeyrat There's a matching announcement in the station, if you are around to hear it, listen to it, and can understand it (not all stations have functioning speakers and it does compete against the trains' own PA systems) which says that 7000-series trains have a different between-car barrier technology than other trains, and for blind or visually-impaired people to make sure that before boarding the train you can feel the floor. The per-train announcement is designed as part of that context. Yes, it would make much more sense to have the train announcement be Tony Jay or Don LaFontaine rumbling "FEEL THE FLOOR", but we don't have that.
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@twelvebaud said in Commuting WTF Thread:
a different between-car barrier technology
That's still not plain-talking.
SAY THERE IS A GAP BETWEEN THE PLATFORM AND TRAIN!
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@blakeyrat said in Commuting WTF Thread:
That's still not plain-talking.
SAY THERE IS A GAP BETWEEN
THE PLATFORM ANDTRAIN CARS!You're not wrong, but DC has a really high number of law-degree-wielding idiots. Metrorail foolishly thinks this is the magic incantation that will save them from lawsuits from people who know there's a gap between train cars but don't know that some train cars have different gaps than others. They're wrong. But they run the trains; I don't.
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@twelvebaud said in Commuting WTF Thread:
people who [...] don't know that some train cars have different gaps than others
Don't know, or pretend not to know for
comiclegal effect?
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@pleegwat said in Commuting WTF Thread:
@twelvebaud said in Commuting WTF Thread:
people who [...] don't know that some train cars have different gaps than others
Don't know, or pretend not to know for
comiclegal effect?I wouldn't know the difference between a series XXXX train and a series YYYY train, and I'm a person who is specifically interested in trains. 99.9% of the general public isn't going to know what that means, much less why they should care.
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@hardwaregeek said in Commuting WTF Thread:
99.9% of the general public isn't going to know what that means, much less why they should care.
Bu do the people who need to know he difference actually know the difference?
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@dkf said in Commuting WTF Thread:
@hardwaregeek said in Commuting WTF Thread:
99.9% of the general public isn't going to know what that means, much less why they should care.
Bu do the people who need to know he difference actually know the difference?
A blind woman using a cane did just that in May at the Van Ness-UDC station when she stepped off the platform thinking she was getting on a train.
Apparently not.
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@boomzilla And with the amount of rain the East Coast has gotten, everyone's driving around like they've suddenly lost a chromosome for some fucking reason. So commuting is going to be just shitty on every front for a while.
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@heterodox That happens every winter around here when the first snow flake hits the ground and all Americans who never heard of winter tires run their cars onto the shoulder. Well, maybe not all of them, probably just those from the south and their first year in Germany. Still lots.
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There's almost nothing as frustrating as watching the bus or train you need to get get ready to leave the station, knowing you'd still have more than enough time to catch it if you could just walk at a slightly faster speed, but you can't because the crowd of people in front of you won't fucking make way.
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@topspin said in Commuting WTF Thread:
That happens every winter around here when the first snow flake hits the ground and all Americans who never heard of winter tires run their cars onto the shoulder.
The same thing happens in Canada, where despite an intimate familiarity with snow and winter tires, the first snow of the season may as well be the first time any of the drivers have ever heard of snow.
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@hungrier said in Commuting WTF Thread:
@topspin said in Commuting WTF Thread:
That happens every winter around here when the first snow flake hits the ground and all Americans who never heard of winter tires run their cars onto the shoulder.
The same thing happens in Canada, where despite an intimate familiarity with snow and winter tires, the first snow of the season may as well be the first time any of the drivers have ever heard of snow.
Or in Florida (FYI--that "sunshine state" thing? It's advertising BS) when it rains. Like it's doing now. Torrentially.
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@hungrier said in Commuting WTF Thread:
intimate familiarity with snow and winter tires
I really don't want to know about that aspect of your private lives, TYVM.
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@HardwareGeek Gotta keep warm somehow
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@hungrier said in Commuting WTF Thread:
intimate familiarity with snow
@hungrier said in Commuting WTF Thread:
Gotta keep warm
The action would appear to be unlikely to achieve that goal.
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@anonymous234 said in Commuting WTF Thread:
you can't because the crowd of people in front of you won't fucking make way
I think there's some people about who simply can't grasp the concept that trying to get onto a train while there there is a crowd of people getting off it, that that is a bad idea and makes things slower for everyone. Fuckwitted jerks. Also, one of the stations I go through on the way home is very inclined to exactly the effect you describe.
Does anyone have a spare electric cattle prod?