Rob

Hills & paddlesport for fun.
Also dangerous with SIP, WebRTC, BGP, Javascript, ML & chainsaws.
Know too much about how the Interwebs work.

[Rob @RobinJPickering]

@ListerLawrence This post is nonsense. All that it requires is that the vehicle is unmodified. As long as you arent one of the antisocial twits who have modified it to deliberately increase its emissions by removing the cat or deleting the EGR, and have it properly maintained, you will be fine

[Rob @RobinJPickering]

I find it super interesting that email, even social media sites that have little impact on real life are all redundantly powered with at least N+1 long term generator cover, that is regularly live tested. They have 24x7 fuel resupply contracts, and geographic redundancy etc.
Our rail industry which can affect real lives puts critical operational infrastructure in a random office building in Birmingham with, as it turns out, no functioning power resilience, and no geographic resilience at all.
I shouldn't be surprised I suppose as it also seems to have no adequate resilience plans for signalling infrastructure either, not just control centres.
Would love to know why a system that we are told is so damned expensive to run is also this brittle.

[Rob @RobinJPickering]

Been working on something a bit new for the last couple of months. Beta opening up this week...

[Rob @RobinJPickering]

@DanielNikolla3 @RuthBennet77081 @Ryanair I guess as long as you folded the suit carrier under the seat in front of you once you got on, this should be OK.
If they don't reject second large bags, you get idiots filling the overhead bins with several bags so people who do follow the rules can't find space.

[Rob @RobinJPickering]

Absolutely this.

[Sam @SamCKx]

Burnham has been attacked relentlessly all day today because he dressed in an almost identical manner to the man he was meeting.

Political discourse in 2026 is totally pathetic and utterly destructive. We have reached a point where no leader will ever be given a chance to achieve anything.

Deliberately driving a country towards anarchy is the absolute opposite of patriotism, but it is how despots ultimately gain power.

Be careful what you wish for.

[Rob @RobinJPickering]

@marcgoldfinger_ @chris_mcsweeny Not clear what you mean by "outside of bus stops".
Behind the bus stop?
In front of the bus stop so buses cross the cycle lane?
Not have any bus stops on cycle super highways?
Only one of those seems even vaguely practical and safe. Which one are you proposing?

[Rob @RobinJPickering]

@ATJL1991 @jeffprestridge @CrossCountryUK @Heidi_Labour Localised power issues happen all the time, there is no guarantee of continuous power availability from a DNO. Any competent organisation operating important infrastructure that is even vaguely trying to deliver a reliable service makes adequate plans for when (not if).

[Rob @RobinJPickering]

@RichardWellings Better for who? certainly not the cyclists who will be killed under buses as a direct result.

[Rob @RobinJPickering]

@ATJL1991 @jeffprestridge @CrossCountryUK @Heidi_Labour So they were running critical national infrastructure, necessary to keep trains running out of a random office building with no backup arrangements. You don't think that was in any way, say, just grossly negligent?

[Rob @RobinJPickering]

@Typhoon_97 @jeffprestridge @CrossCountryUK In a serious country there would people carrying their belongings out in crates tomorrow.
Nothing like that will happen here. We've collectively given up, as have they. The customer is the DfT who just want it to be cheap to keep the Treasury happy and real customers don't matter

[Rob @RobinJPickering]

@Typhoon_97 @jeffprestridge @CrossCountryUK Tbh, sounds like power is the least of their issues. Running operationally critical servers out of one location with no geographic redundancy is negligent in its own right. What would have happened if their had been a terrorist attack or some other disaster at that one location.

[Rob @RobinJPickering]

@haymansafc Do you get upset about buses moving out of a bus lane, or maybe you feel that when you are driving, you should be fined for not using a motorway at all times, even if it doesn't go to where you want to go.

[Rob @RobinJPickering]

@haymansafc To fine someone, they need to be doing something wrong.
Cycle lanes are only for cyclists, bus lanes are only for buses, motorways are only for motor vehicles.
That is a lane for all vehicles.
The cyclist is entitled to be there, in fact told to use it in some circumstances.

[Rob @RobinJPickering]

@MrBrightside319 @Rob_McPhee_UK @SimonCalder It failed to deliver continuity of service so wasn't fit for purpose.
In any serious industry, there would be people looking for new careers tomorrow.
In our national embarrassment of a rail industry it is just another Sunday. Forgotten by Tuesday. Repeated within days.

[Rob @RobinJPickering]

@ChimeWhistle Operating a critical national control centre without backup power arrangements so that a grid power outage in one place takes out their entire network is "Not down to XC". Interesting take.

[Rob @RobinJPickering]

@Typhoon_97 @jeffprestridge @CrossCountryUK The fact that there are better arrangements in place to keep email flowing, or social media sites up, than train networks not shutting down and stranding people because of a power outage in one location should be acutely embarrassing for everyone concerned.

[Rob @RobinJPickering]

@Typhoon_97 @jeffprestridge @CrossCountryUK 100% somebody's fault. After the 6th August signalling centre outage, you would think everyone in the industry would have immediately checked their contingency plans. How many hours of fuel do we have, what does that power, can we put our hands on our 24x7 re-supply contract.

[Rob @RobinJPickering]

@andybfcfan @Rob_McPhee_UK @SimonCalder That is not how this stuff works.

[Rob @RobinJPickering]

@Rob_McPhee_UK @MrBrightside319 @SimonCalder No, the whole industry is being run on a shoestring, as directed by the DfT, and everybody from the TOC management, shareholders, contractors to the unions are trying to make sure they still get a nice big slice of the cake.
Nobody in that whole heap cares about passengers.

[Rob @RobinJPickering]

@TiceRichard How can a single person be so wrong about everything.
This will have nothing to do with a grid power outage and everything to do with running critical national infrastructure without properly functioning and regularly tested backup power srrangements.