• (cs) in reply to IT Girl
    IT Girl:
    Okay fawning over a cartoon that's been off the air for longer than "over a year" is preferrential to being impressed that someone had the wit to grab that text hack and use it in the only way it can possibly be used, how?
    Fixed that for ya.
  • AndyL (unregistered) in reply to m0ffx
    m0ffx:
    American pedestrian crossings have COUNTDOWN TIMERS? Why? I have never in my life felt the need for that.
    Only in a few areas with very high foot traffic.

    I've mostly seen them at the cross walks that connect convention centers to the fast food joints across the street.

    I'm not 100% sure what they accomplish, but they're mildly convenient. The lights usually switch the moment the numbers hit zero. With no additional unspecified safety margin. So I appreciate the sign's attempt at honesty.

  • Xaroth (unregistered)

    When this random number generator reaches 0, you can cross the street.

  • (cs) in reply to DeLos
    DeLos:
    j4b:
    Knowing Boston roads and signs, I'm not sure the google maps one is wrong.

    Agreed.

    Somewhere in Boston, there is actually a one-way dead-end street. I think it's off either mass ave or cambridge street but can't remember. What I really wonder is... how are you supposed to leave?

  • (cs) in reply to IT Girl
    IT Girl:
    DaveyDaveDave:
    Rootbeer:
    L1th post

    Gah! When will people realise that 1 in Roman numerals is I, not 1. All the other characters are letters, is it really that hard?

    Sorry, I had this argument with my primary school teacher when I was 9, and haven't quite got over it yet.

    Look at the rotating sign. The letters aren't Roman numerals. L1 would be 71 if the seven wasn't rotated. h3110!

    Pretty sure he meant "17th" without the coolness of actual upside-down font.

  • IT Girl (unregistered) in reply to jobrahms
    jobrahms:
    IT Girl:
    DaveyDaveDave:
    Rootbeer:
    L1th post

    Gah! When will people realise that 1 in Roman numerals is I, not 1. All the other characters are letters, is it really that hard?

    Sorry, I had this argument with my primary school teacher when I was 9, and haven't quite got over it yet.

    Look at the rotating sign. The letters aren't Roman numerals. L1 would be 71 if the seven wasn't rotated. h3110!

    Pretty sure he meant "17th" without the coolness of actual upside-down font.

    You're probably right. Either way, the 1 isn't a mistake.

  • SLerman (unregistered) in reply to j4b
    j4b:
    Knowing Boston roads and signs, I'm not sure the google maps one is wrong.

    Nah, it has to be completely made up. Everyone knows that Boston doesn't believe in road signs.

  • (cs)

    Re: upside down traffic light clock

    There's a clock at the tracks of the station near where I work that seems to have been wired badly: the hand that counts the seconds moves really slow, the minutes hand moves at a rate of one full revolution every 15 seconds and the hours hand follows suit. It's been this way for a while now.

    No image, because I don't have any of those newfangled camera phones.

  • (cs) in reply to Rich
    Rich:
    American pedestrian crossings have COUNTDOWN TIMERS? Why? I have never in my life felt the need for that.
    Actually, i saw this first in Taiwan.

    1. it helps pedestrians on multilane streets. If i have to cross 3/4 lanes of traffic (like here in chicago, Michigan ave) with speeding cabbies and dickhead drivers, i want to know if i have a fresh or stale light.

    2. it helps the driver too, it gives some warning of a light change, reducing red-light running without those awful cameras. That said, by reducing red-light tickets, they'll probably be declared illegal soon.

    captcha:ILikedWhenTheseWereFunny

    It also tells the driver how long he can turn his attention to something else like his radio, the coin that fell under his seat or the hot girl on the sidewalk.

    And then he'll be alert when the red-light turns green, the other drivers won't have to "remind" him they want him to move, and driving becomes a slightly less stressful activity.

  • (cs) in reply to kastein
    kastein:
    Somewhere in Boston, there is actually a one-way dead-end street. I think it's off either mass ave or cambridge street but can't remember. What I really wonder is... how are you supposed to leave?
    We are programmed to receive. You can check out any time you like, But you can nev--

    Oh, wait, wrong location. Nevermind.

  • jmzrbnsn (unregistered) in reply to burntfuse
    burntfuse:
    DC must be the home of broken walk lights or something. Once when I was sitting around after a concert I watched one count down from 99, stop at 61, bounce between random numbers for a while, then go to 99 again.
    Pink Floyd concert ? ;)
  • anon (unregistered)

    TRWTF is that Caroline is worried about the possibility of breast cancer when terrorists have taken over the city!

  • (cs)

    Um, John, it says YOUR password policy. So YOU defined the stupid requirements. This is even worse than creating f'd up JavaScript alerts on purpose and mailing them to TDWTF.

  • Robert Synnott (unregistered) in reply to m0ffx
    m0ffx:
    American pedestrian crossings have COUNTDOWN TIMERS? Why? I have never in my life felt the need for that.

    We have them here (Ireland), too; the theory is that if people see they can cross the road in 'only' 45 seconds, they will wait. It rarely works out like that.

    Also, the real WTF is the placename 'braintree'. How on earth did that come about?

  • Eric J. (unregistered)

    Anyone know where in D.C. that light is? I live in the area, and I want to make go there and place a The Daily WTF sticker and take a picture.

  • Robert Synnott (unregistered) in reply to Robert Synnott
    Robert Synnott:
    m0ffx:
    American pedestrian crossings have COUNTDOWN TIMERS? Why? I have never in my life felt the need for that.

    We have them here (Ireland), too; the theory is that if people see they can cross the road in 'only' 45 seconds, they will wait. It rarely works out like that.

    Oh, also, we place them less rationally. So, for instance, there are none on the main route which buses take out of the city, adjacent to major shopping streets and so forth. However, there IS one connecting a train station to, erm, well, an immigration services office, some web cafes, and the aviation authority. Which you might expect to be less heavily trafficked, but there you go.

  • Robert Synnott (unregistered) in reply to anon
    anon:
    TRWTF is that Caroline is worried about the possibility of breast cancer when terrorists have taken over the city!

    No, no, a power blackout leads to fear of terrorist activity. Which means that substation burned out somewhere and really paranoid people start going on about terrorists.

    "DO NOT USE, DO NOT USE" sounds like a terrible show.

  • quintopia (unregistered)

    That was a good episode. That's the one right after Ellen Page's clone b/f dies, right?

  • (cs) in reply to NSCoder
    NSCoder:
    danqs:
    traffic light seen from a rear mirror, lol!
    Since when did rear mirrors rotate images?
    When the mirror is installed upside-down.
  • danqs (unregistered) in reply to Rich
    Rich:
    American pedestrian crossings have COUNTDOWN TIMERS? Why? I have never in my life felt the need for that.
    Actually, i saw this first in Taiwan.

    1. it helps pedestrians on multilane streets. If i have to cross 3/4 lanes of traffic (like here in chicago, Michigan ave) with speeding cabbies and dickhead drivers, i want to know if i have a fresh or stale light.

    2. it helps the driver too, it gives some warning of a light change, reducing red-light running without those awful cameras. That said, by reducing red-light tickets, they'll probably be declared illegal soon.

    captcha:ILikedWhenTheseWereFunny

    so you won't try to cross the road with 1 second left =)

  • yossi (unregistered)

    The Boston one isn't like that anymore :(

  • Shabaz (unregistered) in reply to Eric J.
    Eric J.:
    Anyone know where in D.C. that light is? I live in the area, and I want to make go there and place a The Daily WTF sticker and take a picture.
    Looks like it's near the US Engraving & Printing Bureau 300 14th St SW
  • Worf (unregistered)

    What? So many posts and no one makes the Futurama one?

    Geez.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Big_Piece_of_Garbage

  • (cs) in reply to Worf
    Worf:
    What? So many posts and no one makes the Futurama one?

    Geez.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Big_Piece_of_Garbage

    You really should pay more attention.

  • (cs) in reply to m0ffx
    m0ffx:
    American pedestrian crossings have COUNTDOWN TIMERS? Why? I have never in my life felt the need for that.

    Exactly, what they really need is a little dial next to the button so you can request more than the default 25 seconds to sprint diagonally across two streets with 5 lanes each. One such intersection that separates my house from about 40% of the nearby retail locations is virtually impassable by foot or bicycle any time around rush hour.

    "OK, the bomb is armed. We have 25 minutes to get out of here... now we have 15 minutes... 5 minutes... 6h minutes??"

  • (cs)

    On the forums I posted about Cox and their DO NOT USE thing some time back:

    http://forums.thedailywtf.com/forums/p/10346/183772.aspx#183772

    I see it about once a month.

  • (cs) in reply to kastein
    kastein:
    DeLos:
    j4b:
    Knowing Boston roads and signs, I'm not sure the google maps one is wrong.

    Agreed.

    Somewhere in Boston, there is actually a one-way dead-end street. I think it's off either mass ave or cambridge street but can't remember. What I really wonder is... how are you supposed to leave?

    I've seen two of those in the three years I've lived in this area. Both of them have been fixed.

    That having been said, I once saw a four way intersection in downtown Boston of one way streets - all four streets were one-way into the intersection. (This has also been fixed.)

    Boston area streets are not only worse than I imagine - they're worse than I could imagine before I came here. I suspect, somewhere in this town, there's a street that's still worse than I can imagine. This fear is what keeps me from exploring more.

  • (cs) in reply to AndyL
    AndyL:
    m0ffx:
    American pedestrian crossings have COUNTDOWN TIMERS? Why? I have never in my life felt the need for that.
    <snip>

    I'm not 100% sure what they accomplish, but they're mildly convenient. The lights usually switch the moment the numbers hit zero. With no additional unspecified safety margin. So I appreciate the sign's attempt at honesty.

    I've seen quite a few around the Boston, Mass area which are not honest.

    One of them even finishes the count down about 30 seconds before the light turns - and it's a single lane crosswalk. No, it's not by a hospital or old folks home; it's by MIT. Also, there aren't many people with walking difficulties which try to cross there, as the Charles River runs along the opposite side of the road from MIT - if you can't cross a single lane in 30 seconds, you're almost certainly not going to try crossing a 200-300 foot bridge on foot.

  • (cs) in reply to Robert Synnott
    Robert Synnott:
    Also, the real WTF is the placename 'braintree'. How on earth did that come about?

    It's named after Braintree, England. That apparently, came about long enough ago that nobody really knows how it came about.

  • TheSabre (unregistered)

    The walk signal at 11th and Pennsylvania in NW DC occasionally counts down 18... 17... 16... 15... 14... 6... 5...

    Penn Ave is 6 lanes and when that happens and you're only across two lanes... you move your ass.

  • Gleno (unregistered)

    Holy crap, that's right down the street from my house. My baby's pediatrician is on Wood Rd.

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