The travel guide

Many years ago, maybe the late 1980s, my students doing GCSE IT had to write a program that did something.

One had a great idea: write a program that would provide a user guide for the London Underground. The idea was that it could be on a standalone cabinet or booth at stations and people, tourists, could use it to plan journeys.

Remember, this was a time before mobile Internet, apps, GPS, 5G, anything. As far as we knew at the time, there was nothing similar available. Nowadays, apps that do this and a good deal more are very common.

My student actually visited Oxford Circus station to talk to the staff about the idea.

The program would show a central London plan of the tube. It is more complicated now, but basically the same. The central zones were chosen for simplicity, because of the sizes of screens at the time, and because that’s mostly where visitors go.

You would click on a station, click on another and the guide would tell you how to get from the first to the second, with changes if necessary.

Posted in London, Public transport | Leave a comment

Guest book

Did you know that we have a guest book and you are most welcome to say hi,

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Happy 70th birthday

It’s Eurovisoon Song Contest time again, the 70th anniversary of the first. Here in the UK, the BBC put yesterday’s first semi-final on BBC1 (it is popular, but presumably it’s also an easy option).

As ever, there were some duff songs and some good ones. Israel was included and progressed to the final. Some countries have withdrawn because they are included, and we could hear some chants in the audience. So sad that people have to spoil an otherwise jolly event.

The BBC commentators, you know, those who talk through the songs, said that we can only vote on-line. I’m not sure if that is true for other countries, but the impression I got was that they could use phones. You would ring a specific number for a song and register a vote. It cost 15p or something, though I don’t know why. Anyway, it would be added to your phone bill. Easy peasy.

Now you go on-line. You need a credit card. I have not tried this, nor will I. Presumably you give them all your personal details, card details including security code then goodness what happens after that. It’s not even clear who “them” are, or if it’s in any way secure. Maybe you have to agree to marketing and advertising and crap.

It sounds like the kind of things scammers do, especially on porn sites. Give us your details, thanks, we’re selling it to goodness-knows-who. No thanks.

Another nice thing spoilt.

Posted in Music, Television | Leave a comment