Chicago: Why I just grin like a dork... It's my kind of Bork
- Reference: 1590140769
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/22/bork/
- Source link:
Today's entry comes from Reg reader Anthony Remmers and concerns the displays atop Chicago's bus shelters. Things, it appears, do not seem to be going well at all for the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA).
The display itself seems more or less OK; the CTA has opted to stick with the reassuring soft glow of an amber matrix rather than a migraine-inducing flatscreen. However, whatever is driving it is clearly having a bad day with a message that looks dreadfully familiar.
Certainly, we've seen a SQLSTATE[HY000][1040] Too many connections error vomited up by MySQL in the dim and distant past owing to what was, frankly, a shonky bit of programming on our part and an equally shonky bit of server configuration by an administrator who should have known better.
If it is the error we think it is, then it gets thrown when all available connections are in use. "This error," said Anthony, "seems to be systemwide, as I saw it at all of my transfers." So not just caused by switching on one bus-stop too many then.
Alternatively, it might have a more straightforward meaning. When using the UK's public transport booking tools, we've often found ourselves remarking "too many connections" when the system spews up a recipe for travel so complex that even wizard of gastronomy Heston Blumenthal might say "steady on…"
Indeed, those who have attempted multi-connection journeys will have frequently scoffed at connection times that bear no resemblance to when trains actually arrive (yes, [1]Govia , we're looking at you.)
We're sure Chicago is not similarly afflicted. However, having seen the jumped-up quiche that the city insists on calling "deep-pan pizza", we're not too sure about its competency in other areas, such as IT.
So, we'll put this one down to a good, old fashioned signage bork caused by a sickly server, whiffy code, or a simple mistype in the max_connections system variable.
Unless you know better? ®
[1] https://www.govia.info/
Re: My Kinda Town!
When I was going to College in Chicago, I had a job next to the CTA bus garage at Foster and Kedzie, on the North Side, in the River North neighborhood . After the Morning Rush Hour, many buses would go back to the garage to wait for the Afternoon Rush Hour, and would put up (it was a paper roll, not an electronic sign) Foster and Kedzie on the destination sign on the front of the bus. But they would not stop and pickup passengers on the trip in. I would wave and shout "I want to goto Foster and Kedzie". No luck.
LED matrices
"The display itself seems more or less OK; the CTA has opted to stick with the reassuring soft glow of an amber matrix rather than a migraine-inducing flatscreen."
AMEN!
I prefer an amber LED "egg-crate" or medium-res matrix over non-high-enough-density full-color any day. Heck, any single color "eggcrate" matrix is better than those too-bright or usually-broken color panels. (Personal preferences: amber, tricolor*, red -- usually too dim, green -- usually too bright.)
* Tricolor had red, yellow, and green in the same pixel that could be mixed into an orange (red/yellow) or chartreuse (yellow/green). Lots of fun transitions/hold animations with those, but I never got to play with one myself.
I'm always on warpath about display tech because I used to run (design/program if you will) a giant roadside two-sided monochrome incandescent display, 80 x 16, for my high school during my senior year; the software ran on DOS. After that, I ran a small single-face red LED matrix, single line, dedicated plug-in keypad controller, for the college student government freshman year until the president graduated and took it with him (rightly so; it was his own).
What I learned was that it's not so much about the tech as it is the design/programming. Most businesses/schools/churches don't pay attention to if the content is actually READABLE -- not just "viewable" -- and understandable while going at full traffic speeds when you only have a few seconds of a good view. You have to think like a newspaper headline writer: KISS, five W's, and leave them wanting more so they'll look into it / call later. And never let flashy transitions/animation get in the way of the real message.
Sadly, when my own church wanted to go digital and retire the old moveable-plastic-letters sign, they didn't listen to me and went full color/full video anyway. The designs are okay, but there was a period of time when it had its own BORK -- not a good/helpful message to the community, sadly.
My Kinda Town!
When I was a student there, CTA = Chicago Transit Apathy. Lots of times the last run of the bus didn't run! (it used to be the Sheridan 151), forcing me to walk 15 Chicago blocks to catch an alternate bus to my hood!