Boggle

Fran said:

Take a look at this - and then can someone please tell me why on /earth/
a *lamppost* of all things would need anything as high tech as a GPS to
tell it when it's getting dark?

Because a lamppost would be an /idiot/ to venture onto the street
without a GPS. What if it got lost and someone had to risk their life
finding it?

Don't you know /anything/ ?

Judith

"Fran" <[email hidden]> schreef in bericht
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Take a look at this - and then can someone please tell me why on /earth/
a *lamppost* of all things would need anything as high tech as a GPS to
tell it when it's getting dark?

I don't think very highly of it. What happens when the sky is obscured at
noon by enormous thunderclouds ? In my province in Holland there are 3
points where the intensity of the light is measured and if that intensity
gets below a certain level the streetlights switch on automatically.

--
"Beannachd leibh"

Theo
www.theosphotos.fotopic.net

"Judith" <[email hidden]> schreef in bericht
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Fran said:

Take a look at this - and then can someone please tell me why on /earth/
a *lamppost* of all things would need anything as high tech as a GPS to
tell it when it's getting dark?

Because a lamppost would be an /idiot/ to venture onto the street
without a GPS. What if it got lost and someone had to risk their life
finding it?

It doesn't need a gps because /if/ it gets lost it can always give signals
with its headtorchs and be rescued by a MRT. I see you hardly get out these
days SA :-)

--
"Beannachd leibh"

Theo
www.theosphotos.fotopic.net

[email hidden] said...

Quoted message said:

"Fran" <[email hidden]> schreef in bericht
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Take a look at this - and then can someone please tell me why on /earth/
a *lamppost* of all things would need anything as high tech as a GPS to
tell it when it's getting dark?

I don't think very highly of it. What happens when the sky is obscured at
noon by enormous thunderclouds ? In my province in Holland there are 3
points where the intensity of the light is measured and if that intensity
gets below a certain level the streetlights switch on automatically.

Well quite. I'd have thought light sensors would be far more use and a
heck of a lot cheaper. Of course, such things have to be kept clean and
free of exhaust smoke, road grit, wrong kind of snow etc - but they seem
to work pretty well in those areas of the UK where they're used, which
is probably most of the country. Even a simple timer (remember them?)
wouldn't be too bad an idea, and I suppose if the powers that be
seriously wanted to introduce back-up technology they could always
include alternative time zones so the lampposts could know with absolute
certainty what their friends and relatives in far-flung climes were
doing at any particular moment... The world's gone mad. Well OK, we
knew that, but it seems to have taken a turn for the worse.

--
To reply see 'from' in headers; lose the domain, and insert dots and @
where common sense dictates.

[email hidden] said...

Quoted message said:

Fran said:

Take a look at this - and then can someone please tell me why on /earth/
a *lamppost* of all things would need anything as high tech as a GPS to
tell it when it's getting dark?

Because a lamppost would be an /idiot/ to venture onto the street
without a GPS. What if it got lost and someone had to risk their life
finding it?

Don't you know /anything/ ?

Ah sorry, of course, yes. I suppose they're not taught basic navigation
skills in these days when we no longer have the lamplighter going round.
It's a shame anyone ever thought of putting the map and compass behind
that little metal door so beloved of yoofs - they're so easily nicked...
hey! Wait! Will the sat-nav system be behind that same little metal
door? That can probably be opened with the key to my gas meter?

/me saunters innocently off, whistling...

--
To reply see 'from' in headers; lose the domain, and insert dots and @
where common sense dictates.

Fran said:

Take a look at this - and then can someone please tell me why on /earth/
a *lamppost* of all things would need anything as high tech as a GPS to
tell it when it's getting dark?

http://www.stwol.com/english/index.htm

Fantastic! We'll be able to see the street lights down the M4 turning
themselves on and off at about 630mph.
--
Let us have a moment of silence for all Americans who
are now stuck in traffic on their way to a health club
to ride a stationary bicycle. -
Congressman Earl Blumenauer (Oregon)

[email hidden] said...

Quoted message said:

Fran said:

Take a look at this - and then can someone please tell me why on /earth/
a *lamppost* of all things would need anything as high tech as a GPS to
tell it when it's getting dark?

http://www.stwol.com/english/index.htm

Fantastic! We'll be able to see the street lights down the M4 turning
themselves on and off at about 630mph.

A sort of Mexican Wave of street lights as the satellites pass overhead?
Ooh yes. And cheaper than fireworks - I wonder if we can persuade the
government to invest in seasonal colours to brighten the place up a bit?
All that orange gets a bit boring after a while... Of course, in order
to get the full effect you'd probably need to be standing a fair way
off, say on an orbiting GP satellite...
--
To reply see 'from' in headers; lose the domain, and insert dots and @
where common sense dictates.

Fran said:

Well quite. I'd have thought light sensors would be far more use and a
heck of a lot cheaper. Of course, such things have to be kept clean and

Maybe it's a General Photon Sensor and you have been inadvertently
mislead by the ad!
--
Rudi Winter, Aberystwyth, Wales

On Mon, 6 Feb 2006 20:25:04 -0000, Fran <[email hidden]>
wrote:

|Take a look at this - and then can someone please tell me why on /earth/
|a *lamppost* of all things would need anything as high tech as a GPS to
|tell it when it's getting dark?
|
|http://www.stwol.com/english/index.htm

But it does *not* detect when it is raining and dark. The present ones
work on ambient light intensity and have done for 30 years to my certain
knowledge.
--
Dave Fawthrop <dave hyphenologist co uk> Please quote, with quote
character, previous post sniped to only the bit you are replying to.
Threads often contain 100s of posts dozens layers deep. Other people
use different newsreaders, they do not see or do what you see and do.

Dave Fawthrop said:

On Mon, 6 Feb 2006 20:25:04 -0000, Fran <[email hidden]>
wrote:

Quoted message said:

|Take a look at this - and then can someone please tell me why on /earth/
|a *lamppost* of all things would need anything as high tech as a GPS to
|tell it when it's getting dark?
|
|http://www.stwol.com/english/index.htm

Quoted message said:

But it does *not* detect when it is raining and dark. The present ones
work on ambient light intensity and have done for 30 years to my certain
knowledge.

It's an interesting example of what happens when you specify a problem
incorrectly to an engineer. Someone asked an engineer to design
something that would turn lights on and off at the appropriate time
shifts from sunrise and sunset. So this thing finds out where it is,
calculates local sunrise and sunset times, and is never wrong and
never needs adjusting.

But the whole "half hour before sunset" thing is an attempt to frame a
law which catches the otherwise rather nebulous "when the light starts
going", the most frequent cause of which is the sun going down. But of
course it's also wise and useful to light up during heavily overcast
days, eclipses, and so on. Which can all be solved be a simple cheap
light sensor.

It's the same kind of idiocy as that which specifies legally allowable
lights for bikes, cars, etc. in terms of the wattage of the bulb. Not
to mention the lunacy of specifying car racing classes in terms of
engine capacity, which has led to our modern highly inefficient and
expensive high-revving engines which try to squeeze the most power out
of a given capacity. If the idiots who did that had instead specified
racing classes in terms of the size of petrol tank, we'd now have a
lot more oil left and lot less polluted an environment.

--
Chris Malcolm [email hidden] +44 (0)131 651 3445 DoD #205
IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK
[http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]

Following up to Fran

Quoted message said:

Take a look at this - and then can someone please tell me why on /earth/
a *lamppost* of all things would need anything as high tech as a GPS to
tell it when it's getting dark?

lampposts come on at lighting up time.
lamppost wants to know when that is.
GPS can tell them.
Map and compass, light sensors or timers cant? Is this answer too
boring?
--
Mike Reid
Walk-eat-photos UK "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" <-- you can email us@ this site
Walk-eat-photos Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" <-- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap

"Fran" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Take a look at this - and then can someone please tell me why on /earth/
a *lamppost* of all things would need anything as high tech as a GPS to
tell it when it's getting dark?

http://www.stwol.com/english/index.htm
--

You obviously missed this bit:

"Plan Mode
You can set week plan, holiday plan and vacation plan per each time zone".

It's so the lampposts know when to have a week off.

Roy.

On Tue, 7 Feb 2006 09:48:56 +0000 (UTC), Chris Malcolm
<[email hidden]> wrote:

|Dave Fawthrop <[email hidden]> wrote:
|> On Mon, 6 Feb 2006 20:25:04 -0000, Fran <[email hidden]>
|> wrote:
|
|> |Take a look at this - and then can someone please tell me why on /earth/
|> |a *lamppost* of all things would need anything as high tech as a GPS to
|> |tell it when it's getting dark?
|> |
|> |http://www.stwol.com/english/index.htm
|
|> But it does *not* detect when it is raining and dark. The present ones
|> work on ambient light intensity and have done for 30 years to my certain
|> knowledge.
|
|It's an interesting example of what happens when you specify a problem
|incorrectly to an engineer.

A *good* engineer will think about the *real* problem and say "That
specification is a load of rubbish because ......"
--
Dave Fawthrop <dave hyphenologist co uk> Please quote, with quote
character, previous post sniped to only the bit you are replying to.
Threads often contain 100s of posts dozens layers deep. Other people
use different newsreaders, they do not see or do what you see and do.

On Tue, 07 Feb 2006 09:49:24 +0000, The Reid <[email hidden]>
wrote:

|Following up to Fran
|
|>Take a look at this - and then can someone please tell me why on /earth/
|>a *lamppost* of all things would need anything as high tech as a GPS to
|>tell it when it's getting dark?
|
|lampposts come on at lighting up time.

Those with a little plastic pyramid on top come on when it gets too dark.
--
Dave Fawthrop <dave hyphenologist co uk> Please quote, with quote
character, previous post sniped to only the bit you are replying to.
Threads often contain 100s of posts dozens layers deep. Other people
use different newsreaders, they do not see or do what you see and do.

On Tue, 7 Feb 2006 11:53:53 -0000, Fran <[email hidden]>
wrote:

[email hidden] said...
|> On Mon, 6 Feb 2006 20:25:04 -0000, Fran <[email hidden]>
|> wrote:
|>
|> |Take a look at this - and then can someone please tell me why on /earth/
|> |a *lamppost* of all things would need anything as high tech as a GPS to
|> |tell it when it's getting dark?
|> |
|> |http://www.stwol.com/english/index.htm
|>
|> But it does *not* detect when it is raining and dark. The present ones
|> work on ambient light intensity and have done for 30 years to my certain
|> knowledge.
|>
|That was the whole point of my original post. I'm glad some people
|could see the funny side of it - I've got rather a warped sense of
|humour and howled with laughter when I read the description.

It would work fine in the Mojave desert.
--
Dave Fawthrop <dave hyphenologist co uk> Please quote, with quote
character, previous post sniped to only the bit you are replying to.
Threads often contain 100s of posts dozens layers deep. Other people
use different newsreaders, they do not see or do what you see and do.

[email hidden] said...

Quoted message said:

On Mon, 6 Feb 2006 20:25:04 -0000, Fran <[email hidden]>
wrote:

|Take a look at this - and then can someone please tell me why on /earth/
|a *lamppost* of all things would need anything as high tech as a GPS to
|tell it when it's getting dark?
|
|http://www.stwol.com/english/index.htm

But it does *not* detect when it is raining and dark. The present ones
work on ambient light intensity and have done for 30 years to my certain
knowledge.

That was the whole point of my original post. I'm glad some people
could see the funny side of it - I've got rather a warped sense of
humour and howled with laughter when I read the description.
--
To reply see 'from' in headers; lose the domain, and insert dots and @
where common sense dictates.

[email hidden] said...

Quoted message said:

Following up to Fran

Quoted message said:

Take a look at this - and then can someone please tell me why on /earth/
a *lamppost* of all things would need anything as high tech as a GPS to
tell it when it's getting dark?

lampposts come on at lighting up time.

Well yes...

Quoted message said:

lamppost wants to know when that is.

Well yes...

Quoted message said:

GPS can tell them.

er...

Quoted message said:

Map and compass, light sensors or timers cant?

Map and compass was being facetious; light sensors and timers can and do
do the job perfectly well already.

Quoted message said:

Is this answer too boring?

Yes.

Does the GPS know when weather conditions below the satellites have made
lighting up seem like a good idea? No.

Does the GPS recognise a patch of overcastness that plunges the local
area into unexpected darkness that can be helped with a few
streetlights? No.

Is the GPS an incredibly expensive way to solve a problem we don't
actually have, on account of the problem having been already solved
years and years ago? Yes...

--
To reply see 'from' in headers; lose the domain, and insert dots and @
where common sense dictates.

Following up to Fran

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Map and compass, light sensors or timers cant?

Map and compass was being facetious;

well, yes, you've smoked me out there.

Quoted message said:

light sensors and timers can and do
do the job perfectly well already.

Quoted message said:

Is this answer too boring?

Yes.

thought it might be. I'll try harder.

Quoted message said:

Does the GPS know when weather conditions below the satellites have made
lighting up seem like a good idea? No.

The lights round here appear to be on timers? I haven't noticed
them coming on in poor light, but then I've not been paying
attention. What's the general position? I don't remember the
lights coming on at the total eclipse, but then I was on a
headland in Cornwall.

Quoted message said:

Is the GPS an incredibly expensive way to solve a problem we don't
actually have, on account of the problem having been already solved
years and years ago? Yes...

I wonder how much these GPS devices cost? I'm assuming they are
not fully fledged guidance units? I've yet to hear "LEFT, I SAID
LEFT" "GATSO ahead" or even "Land Ahoy" from the top of the
lampposts in my street!
--
Mike Reid
Walk-eat-photos UK "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" <-- you can email us@ this site
Walk-eat-photos Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" <-- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap

"The Reid" <[email hidden]> schreef in bericht
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Following up to Fran

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Map and compass, light sensors or timers cant?

Map and compass was being facetious;

well, yes, you've smoked me out there.

Quoted message said:

light sensors and timers can and do
do the job perfectly well already.

Quoted message said:

Is this answer too boring?

Yes.

thought it might be. I'll try harder.

Quoted message said:

Does the GPS know when weather conditions below the satellites have made
lighting up seem like a good idea? No.

The lights round here appear to be on timers? I haven't noticed
them coming on in poor light, but then I've not been paying
attention. What's the general position? I don't remember the
lights coming on at the total eclipse, but then I was on a
headland in Cornwall.

During the total eclipse it wasn't dark enough. A heavy thunderstorm can be
much darker.

--
"Beannachd leibh"

Theo
www.theosphotos.fotopic.net