/dev/null/kevin

Chuism: Wisdom passed down from my father.

Chuism #2: The Law of Pre-Fallen Objects

This law is subtitled, "You can't fall off the floor."  I added that last part, making this a multi-generational Chuism.  In short, it means something can't fall if it's already "fallen."  i.e. Just assume something is going to fall and put it, gently, on the ground before gravity does it for you (and less gently).

This law originated with packing stuff into the car.  When moving or shopping my mom would load things into the car and put them in precarious places.  My dad would take one look at everything and reposition it all so that the bouncy car ride home wouldn't destroy half of what we'd bought.

The law really applies to putting things on the seats of your car.  It just takes one emergency stop to send it all crashing to the floor.  Items especially susceptible to this were:

• Flowers in vases or other wedding center pieces
  
• Fish in bowls (yes, this happened)
• That tuna casserole for a potluck
• Me and my sister (pre-seatbelt era)
  

These days you could probably add laptops to the list.

I learned the "you can't fall off the floor" part again from my college drinking days.  Better to pass out on the floor than a bunk bed.  Just saying.

If you live the in San Francisco bay area then you know that BART is the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, a.k.a. an electric rail system.  Today BART began an experiment with Smart Cards to replace the old paper ticket system.  To listen to the news and to BART's own press releases you would think that this is something new and innovative.

*Sigh*

This is pretty much old news to many other places in the world.  I'll just give one example, which is Hong Kong.  Hong Kong has its Octopus system which has been aroud since the 1990s.  Almost all rail and bus systems use it these days and it's popularity as a form of cashless payment has increased to the point where you can use it almost anywhere.

The Octopus cards uses a proximity sensor so you don't even have to take it out of your wallet.  If you go to the train station, you will see most people just dragging their entire wallet or purse across the sensor.  I believe the new BART cards will still require you to swipe them like a old credit card (new credit cards also have "touchless" interaction now.

Hell, my Sun ID badge is also a Java Smart Card and works the proximity door locks.  The door sensors are a little to high for me to just swipe my butt against it to open the door, sadly.

Tags: BART, transportation, smart card

Elevator too slow?  Escalator too crowded?  Take the slide from the 5th floor to the bottom at speeds up to 30 MPH.

Well-named Turbine Hall in London contains several of these stainless steel slides for public use so now you can know what it feels like to travel in one of those vacuum tube systems.  This is just a few steps away from the cheesy 1950's view of the future where people travel in tubes.

More pictures here.

And, yes, I know the subway in London is called the "tube."  Coincidence?  Yes! 

Tags: topic[slides], transportation