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Admin
It looks like the screen at the end is upside down. Does that mean that the actual display, which would be right-side-up, was programmed upside down? WHYY?
Admin
The Ijsselstein thingy seems to be quite normal. In the yellow bar, the target station "Ijsselstein via Nieuwegein" is shown ("naar" meaning "to").
Admin
Dutch "naar" means (in this case) "To", as in "destination of this tram"
FYI Google maps says the distance between Hooghe Waerd and Clinckhoeff is 350 meters, usually 1 minute by public transport
Admin
Oh, I see. "naar IJsselstein via Nieuwegein" is the name of the route, not a specific place. Context helps!
Admin
Guess: Someone fitted the monitor USD. Complaints. 1 level IT support: I know, I will just rotate the screen in the drivers settings app.
Yes, I have worked with 'people'.
Admin
Possible also that it was design, with some historical floo-flah that dates back to the era of CRT screens.
Addendum 2024-07-05 08:58: ugh, "by design"
Admin
Perhaps the monitor's plugs are all near the bottom of the screen? Having them near the ceiling instead means cables aren't exposed and mischievous people can't mess with it.
Admin
Sorry about the slack estimation. I don't do precision maths before 7am.
Admin
that is what is wonderful about tech. One man's stroke of genius is another man's WTF. I like your answer the connections on the back of the displays are probably oriented toward the bottom the of display or located near there or something. So to avoid an ugly 180 cable bend to route up into the suspended ceiling someone cleverly realized the digital signage solution could rotate the content or the OS could rotate the display after it took overrunning it from the ROM code. So you just mount the displays upside down, and bang nice an tidy - clever. Right up until someone has to do a little hardware troubleshooting and then its all: WTF why is the monitor upside-down...
Admin
I would eager that this is a secondary monitor and that is a main control monitor where the actual PC is.
This looks like early to mid 2000s Pentium 4 era PC, going by hardware info listing both USB 1.0/1.1 and 2.0, and in most multi monitor set ups from that time (and still today) the POST / pre-OS-boot screens tend to display on all connected video card outputs, so in all likelihood no one would have to troubleshoot what looks like a bad HDD/cable/controller from the ceiling.
Addendum 2024-07-05 10:21: s/eager/eager/
Addendum 2024-07-05 10:22: s/eager/wager/
Thanks, autoconnect...
Admin
It is possible that the frame the screen is mounted into has a hinge on one side - the right-hand side, given the apparent position of the monitor in the photo - to allow the frame to be opened and the rear of the screen accessed for maintenance purposes. As such, you'd want the cables to be run on the same side of the frame as the hinge.
Elsewhere in the train there may well be screens mounted on the left-hand side of the train carriage, with their hinges (and thus cables) to the left-hand of the frame.
Instead of the train maintenance workshop having to maintain a stock of two different models of monitor, completely identical except for which side of the screen cables connect to, they can instead use the same model of monitor for both sides - mounting those on the right-hand side of the carriage upside down to permit for cable running - and the train info-display software knows which ones it needs to rotate to compensate.
Admin
[Almost on topic] Doesn't anyone remember the "cocktail" arcade games?
Admin
Nothing wrong with the LNER reservations, though — the window seat (seat 88) is booked Edinburgh – Kings X, and the aisle seat (seat 87) is booked from Newcastle…
Admin
…oh. The email says seat 87, though facepalms
Admin
It is a specific place though, or rather two. IJsselstein is the final destination, and the tram passes through Nieuwegein as well.
Admin
Amtrak has worse problems, at least in the one trip I took about 15 years ago. There's no digital signage at all in the stations, and very little fixed signage. Changing trains in Chicago, you have to find a railroad employee to lead you to your train, because there is no other way to navigate, nor to find arrival and departure information for the trains. This is a huge station with probably a dozen different passenger sidings and trains continually leaving and arriving, and they try to manage it solely by making announcements over the PA system, but these announcements are unintelligible.
It's a 19th century building, built before amplifiers. To make it physically possible for the human voice to be heard at all, they designed it as a giant echo chamber. I presume clerks and conductors learned to pitch their voice so that the echoes would reinforce their words. But now they don't, and their amplified voices reverberate for seconds, with everything after the very start of the word drowned out by multiple echoes. Sticking sound-absorbing material to the ceiling and walls would make the PA system work, and airport-style monitors and number signs over the exits to the sidings would make most of the announcements superfluous - and cost much less than the many employees who are needed to get people to their train and help those that missed a connection. But Amtrak had not made any such investment - it comes from a different part of the budget...
Admin
I call it autocorrupt
Admin
SW Trains running on time 40 minutes late is about right. I was so glad when I moved a few miles and could use a different train operating company (Southern).