We're going underground, and this time it's not an inebriated banker crapping themselves, but Transport for London
(2020/05/15)
- Reference: 1589533325
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/15/bork/
- Source link:
Bork!Bork!Bork! Welcome to a tube-sized edition of The Register 's column of reader-spotted signage silage, with a Transport for London (TfL) screen displaying its undergarments for all to see.
Today's entry takes us back a few short months, when the UK branch of Vulture Central could still be found lurking in the city.
Spotted by Register reader David Thai at London's Liverpool Street Station, the screen, which would normally be flashing the usual slightly misleading train time information at commuters, appeared to have taken a turn for the worse.
That said, a part of us quite misses the daily game of TfL endurance.
After two months locked alone in a room, what with one thing and another, even being squashed on a horror tube between an inebriated city worker and someone attempting to move a suitcase bigger than the average London apartment has acquired a certain appeal.
We'd even accept one or the other suffering from a personal odour issue. But not both; we aren't savages. Yet.
[1]
Click to enlarge
This screen, which features XML and what we suspect is the result of a pigeon with a poorly tummy, seems it might also be running Internet Explorer (judging by the pop-up at the base) – enough to inspire the squits from the sternest of constitutions.
The operating system needs a little more sleuthing, however. The squared-off buttons look to us like Windows 7 running in a classic theme, but we're sure the always knowledgeable Register readership will be quick to point us in the right direction. Unlike, of course, this sign, the content of which is really only for the more technical of commuters.
The information itself is present and correct for those able to parse XML (surely the moment the allegedly human-readable format has been waiting for), along with the words "Developer information regarding the current state of the feed. Not to be displayed." Oops.
"It happens now and then," remarked David.
If only one could speed up one's journey as easily as IE seems to think one could speed up one's browsing. The "add-ons" in that case would be all those people who insist on striding against the tide of station passenger traffic.
Swines. ®
[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2020/05/14/bork_5_2.jpg
Today's entry takes us back a few short months, when the UK branch of Vulture Central could still be found lurking in the city.
Spotted by Register reader David Thai at London's Liverpool Street Station, the screen, which would normally be flashing the usual slightly misleading train time information at commuters, appeared to have taken a turn for the worse.
That said, a part of us quite misses the daily game of TfL endurance.
After two months locked alone in a room, what with one thing and another, even being squashed on a horror tube between an inebriated city worker and someone attempting to move a suitcase bigger than the average London apartment has acquired a certain appeal.
We'd even accept one or the other suffering from a personal odour issue. But not both; we aren't savages. Yet.
[1]
Click to enlarge
This screen, which features XML and what we suspect is the result of a pigeon with a poorly tummy, seems it might also be running Internet Explorer (judging by the pop-up at the base) – enough to inspire the squits from the sternest of constitutions.
The operating system needs a little more sleuthing, however. The squared-off buttons look to us like Windows 7 running in a classic theme, but we're sure the always knowledgeable Register readership will be quick to point us in the right direction. Unlike, of course, this sign, the content of which is really only for the more technical of commuters.
The information itself is present and correct for those able to parse XML (surely the moment the allegedly human-readable format has been waiting for), along with the words "Developer information regarding the current state of the feed. Not to be displayed." Oops.
"It happens now and then," remarked David.
If only one could speed up one's journey as easily as IE seems to think one could speed up one's browsing. The "add-ons" in that case would be all those people who insist on striding against the tide of station passenger traffic.
Swines. ®
[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2020/05/14/bork_5_2.jpg
Oops
Loyal Commenter
Looks like one of the web monkeys has accidentally directed the browser to the data API, rather than consuming it in their script.
That API is public
I consume a lot of those API's from TfL, National Rail & Network Rail & it's quite normal for those feeds to contain data not for public consumption, even though the feeds are freely available.
Normally that information isn't to be presented to the public mainly to stop confusion - i.e. for NRE you can get a platform number for a train but it's suppressed so you shouldn't show it - mainly to stop people crowding on a platform before it's known the train will actually go there - e.g. late platform change. Busy stations can also suppress them again for crowd control.
The TfL one you can get from https://api.tfl.gov.uk/