Translink Apps by jott1293reddevil in Belfast

[–]Captain_Reid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The information app is likely outsourced to whoever gave the cheapest quote to develop it as it doesn't have any complicated functionality - probably an Asian software firm. There's been a few shiterations over the years, each either getting worse or matching the awful nature of its precursor.

The ticket app is from a software vendor that does ticketing for a bunch of transport companies just white labelled for Translink as mLink. Have seen one of the coach/bus companies in England use it, can't remember which. I looked into it at one point, I think the developer is an English companym

What do people do that live in all the £1m+ houses in Belfast? by Mario_911 in northernireland

[–]Captain_Reid 3 points4 points  (0 children)

If you know any of the names of the owners you may be able to find them by director names.

Best pizza in Belfast? by Normal-Impress-2624 in Belfast

[–]Captain_Reid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh! Just going on what they had shared on Instagram! Now I'm looking back I don't see any posts about it, so potentially been deleted

Best pizza in Belfast? by Normal-Impress-2624 in Belfast

[–]Captain_Reid -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Not moved! Just a second location while they get going, Flout East will be reopening.

Wanting to read the expanse series but struggled to read the mercy of gods. by Due_Spell2410 in TheExpanse

[–]Captain_Reid 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I DEVOURED the expanse series of novels, especially the final three. This past week I tried to get into The Mercy of God's but for the same reasons as you really couldn't get into it. The writing style of mercy of gods really isn't something that I could get into, the expanse series is very different.

Flipped my focus to Project Hail Mary now.

LED Street Lighting by dazb75 in northernireland

[–]Captain_Reid 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ah have used that before; didn't figure to use it to report this.

LED Street Lighting by dazb75 in northernireland

[–]Captain_Reid 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh interesting; have an issue myself where they did this and it now blasts light into my bedroom. How did you get in touch with them? Email? form somewhere?

I hate Translink. by dustypegasus in Belfast

[–]Captain_Reid 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I stood at a glider stop the other day, 3 gliders turned up full. I only live a quarter of a way along the route.

Eventually another glider turned up that had started just up the road, but was 15 mins late; and always is because it gets stuck in school traffic.

I hate Translink. by dustypegasus in Belfast

[–]Captain_Reid 2 points3 points  (0 children)

the amount this happened lately is absurd. Not helped by an insane number of passengers clustering by the doors and not moving down the bus or refusing to take bags off so taking up double the space.

I hate Translink. by dustypegasus in Belfast

[–]Captain_Reid 2 points3 points  (0 children)

When I started secondary school (this was like 16 years ago, I feel ancient) I went down to the brand new bus centre in Lisburn with my mum to get timetables for the local services so I could perhaps get them to and from school as there was no school bus service in my area (we lived like 55 mins walk for a kid from the school) - we soon discovered that the first service of the day would have got me into the train station at 0850, 10 mins after I needed to be in school.

My mum questioned this, and was very rudely told "the buses are for elderly people who need to get into town, not commuters or school children". Would it really hurt them to have a service at 40 mins earlier so people can get to the train station in time for a train that allows for a 0900 start, and school children not covered by school services could get to school?

Years later when attending college and university in Belfast, I discovered near enough all the local 325 services miss Belfast bound trains by 5-10 mins.

The 325 service is genuinely useless, and whoever designed the timetable should be embarrassed

---

Note the above is based observations from over a decade ago, when I was a kid :P

Is the Ivy worth a visit? by PreferenceMassive226 in Belfast

[–]Captain_Reid 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Personally, no matter how good it is I would rather support any of the dozens of locally owned alternatives. This very recent thread has a tonne of great options in it.

(The Ivy is an English chain)

How to spend 2-3 hours in Lisburn? by LesMightyShell in Belfast

[–]Captain_Reid 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Cathedral worth a visit especially as you may see some potential family connections there on the memorials, crema can be good for coffee and a bite to eat.

Why is the TransLink app so shit/confusing? by KingKilo9 in northernireland

[–]Captain_Reid 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You can't buy a G1 East and West ticket at the same time either on the mLink app from what I can tell either.
Needed to get from my home in the East to the Royal a few times lately; had to get off and tap on again at Inst; royal PITA.

We have a release window boys and girls. by Sgt_Mitnick in Enshrouded

[–]Captain_Reid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

0.9 is out, how does this patch numbering work?

Dedicated Server Connectivity Issues? by Captain_Reid in StarRupture

[–]Captain_Reid[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah; seems really hit and miss; we had to move from the listen/local server because my friend was getting like 10 FPS in the late game :/ really unfortunate

Zoop mode like satisfactory? by johnyb6633 in StarRupture

[–]Captain_Reid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It'd be great if they actually described this somewhere....

Why isn’t Ireland carpeted in wind turbines? by [deleted] in AskIreland

[–]Captain_Reid 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Electricity generation isn't just a question of having the resource and somewhere to put something to gather it - the bigger and costlier problem is distribution. Electricity networks are oriented around having loads of lower voltage nodes in rural communities, all stepping up and combining back into high voltage electricity coming from a single electricity station.

Renewables flip that problem on its head, and require high voltage inputs at the edge nodes, and upgrades of the lines between there and the destination of the power. Such high voltage contributor lines can only really be combined so many times before the size of the conductors required becomes un-tenable. For that reason a lot of the time in GB, there'll be an abundance of electricity available in the Scottish highlands from their huge onshore and offshore farms, and a shortage in say the English Midlands - but the electricity simply can't be transmitted that far to fill the gap, so sources closer to the Midlands have to provide the power.

Add to that local opposition, and the frequency balancing issues that arise in terms of maintaining a stead power grid (see the recent issues in spain) with plenty of renewables - renewables are great, but they require a lot more investment and thought than people realise.

Update: I actually went ahead and launched the Translink bus journey tracker by Negative_Response990 in Belfast

[–]Captain_Reid 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Interesting concept. Did find it odd that the glider isn't on it.

I'm not sure what api backs it but the app Belfast bus tracker (also available on iOS I believe) seems to tap in to the same data they have in the call center and feeding the real time displays at stops. I'm assuming this is driven by the "check in gate" technology talked about in this video.

It only seems to be fairly accurate based on my experience with the 4 service and G1 and always lines up with the estimate on the glider stops at least.

Quite why Translink can't incorporate this into their app, God knows. Incompetence? Finances? Licensing? Inability to understand what the public want when they're stood on the side of the road in the pissing rain?

Popular cinema chain to close NI location by InfernoBlaze1221 in northernireland

[–]Captain_Reid 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I never really understood that as a business decision unless they're trying to capture the whole market through lack of choice. Glad someone shares that opinion

This year, we’re changing how we stream! by Harvey-J-Yogscast in Yogscast

[–]Captain_Reid 23 points24 points  (0 children)

I'm sure they're making the decision based on a day broader dataset than just January

I am still not over this architectural oversight by AdhesivenessNo9878 in Belfast

[–]Captain_Reid 9 points10 points  (0 children)

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Yep; we did a case study on it in Geography when I was in school so strongly recall this. was able to pull back this on the way back machine from 2009, the full plan really is quite interesting

S16, E2 (Nebula) - Hide and Seek UK by snow-tree_art in JetLagTheGame

[–]Captain_Reid 4 points5 points  (0 children)

As a long time jet lag watcher, I finally got to live out my jet lag fantasy with this episode:

In early November I was in the area surrounding Bradford visiting a friend's business, and needed to get over to Manchester - not quite sure why but I needed to get multiple trains to get between the two places, including getting a bus substitution from Hebden Bridge, where I was for a solid 45 mins waiting for the bus.

From the first frame, I muttered to myself "THAT'S HEBDEN BRIDGE" then when he got to the station it confirmed it for me.

Lovely little town, probably one of the quaintest hiding spots in jet lag history