Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A collection of Soviet control rooms (2017)

blog.presentandcorrect.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 122 posts

Re: A collection of Soviet control rooms (2017)

#101

Post by vladvasiliu »

cagenut wrote: post #77
sbaiddn wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By law a lot of motorcycle controls are standardized both to ensure sane controls (think suicide clutch) as well as standardization (1 down 4 up). Riding a motorcycle involves all four of your limbs having a dedicated control (left arm clutch; right arm throttle and front break; left leg shifter; right leg rear break). It is so satisfying having your body operate all of these controls without a conscious thought.

Do you happen to know if electric motorcycles are meaningfully diverging on these? Like how many EVs adopted single-pedal driving, are there e-motorcycle analogues?

I've never actually ridden any, but what I see is two directions.

Smaller ones (think 125cc equivalent or less) seem to have adopted the scooter layout, ie no pedal, only hand levers, possibly reversed (left front, right rear). I see a lot of those around Paris: https://vmotosoco.fr/gammes/tcwanderer

"Normal" ones, like Zero, seem to have stuck with the classic layout: front brake on the right-hand lever, rear brake on the right foot. https://www.zeromotorcycles.com/en-gb/model/zero-sr

I would absolutely hate to have those changes. As GP says, it's paramount to not have to think about the controls on a motorcycle. I usually ride a "normal" motorbike, but I was given a scooter once when I took mine in for service. The weird brake lever layout (left front, riht rear) was surprising. "Fortunately", the brakes had next to no bite, so nothing bad happened when I squeezed the clutch, figuring I should change gears...

Anecdotally, for a somewhat "half-way model", Honda has ICE DCT models, which are normal motorcycles, but with robotized and automatic gearbox and clutches. They're using the classic layout, but, like with the Zero, there's no lever on the left hand (sometimes there's a parking brake, but the lever is way out), and no pedal for the left foot.

Re: A collection of Soviet control rooms (2017)

#102

Post by vladvasiliu »

Acutulus wrote: post #51
neilv wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially if the interface was designed for high performance (unlike most UX today). One of my favorite was when I spent years starting to learn photojournalism on the side: the mechanics of using a camera is only a small part of it (it's mostly about understanding and conveying a story), but even at my student/amateur level, the muscle memory with pro DSLR and lenses was crazy-effective. I even got a shot that happ…

I'm in full agreement with you about the tactility benefits with a physical camera versus a smartphone. I'm in a phase of life where I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing or even what I'm very good at. But I do have a camera and I can write passable amounts of code, so I've been preparing a website to host my work while I strongarm friends and family into taking pictures with me. Most of them have a nice phone w…

> rapidly fiddling with controls and settings

I don't know about "professional", but what I've also found is that if you want someone to hold a pose, they're much less likely to tire and stop if you take ages to fiddle with your smartphone.

Re: A collection of Soviet control rooms (2017)

#103

Post by Steve44 »

wkat4242 wrote: post #12

I wonder why the operators are always wearing lab coats and butcher's hats. Are they afraid they'll get hair in the switches?

Slightly different environment, but my dad was a service engineer in the 1960-1980s mainly working on coin counting equipment. His workwear for customer sites was a white coat over his suit. That was fairly normal back then so probably kept to traditions in industry. I've nothing to add about the hat though.

I've not got a photo of him at work, but this is him wearing one of his old & dirty coats after he retired.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/stevecargill/52576937191/

Re: A collection of Soviet control rooms (2017)

#104

Post by grishka »

robofanatic wrote: post #42
yamtaddle wrote: post #16

Can you even imagine how relaxing it would be to have the same interface to your systems, every day, with all the parts in one physical location and never moving? Learn it once, then nothing changes for years and years, or if it does it's usually adding on, not replacing or re-arranging existing stuff? Man, that would be nice.

> not replacing or re-arranging existing stuff? Man, that would be nice. I've met some people who miss those phones with "bottom 40%", that is pre-iphone era phones with hard coded plastic buttons. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/want-new-iphone-blame-steve-j...

I've been using touchscreen phones since 2009. Typing text on one is still a frustrating experience for me.

Re: A collection of Soviet control rooms (2017)

#105

Post by elzbardico »

cat_plus_plus wrote: post #95
elzbardico wrote: post #18

The biggest problem with the Soviet Union was Brezhnev not being able to keep with his economic reforms after 1974. Seeing Russia nowadays it is sometimes hard to believe that once they were the second economy in the world, before being removed from this post by Japan. Had they enacted Chinese style reforms they could have avoided the whole disastrous 90s

The hallmark of central planning is that the more technology advances, the more your economy falls apart due to the impossibility of calculating every detail centrally. Good read on the subject: https://www.amazon.com/Red-Plenty-Francis-Spufford/dp/155597...

The whole point of Brezhnev reforms was decentralizing and using market signals instead of pure central planning.

Re: A collection of Soviet control rooms (2017)

#106

Post by elzbardico »

taxicabjesus wrote: post #85
LBJsPNS wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They tried. Gorbachev wanted to turn Russia into another Sweden. Bush the Elder convinced the World Bank not to loan to them unless they agreed to impose neoliberal economic policies. Which led to oligarchy. And then Putin.

What is "And then Putin" supposed to mean? Perhaps you mean that Mr. Putin is implementing Gorbachev's goal of "turning Russia into another Sweden", which was blocked by Bush the Elder and the collective west's looting of Russia in the post-Soviet period? My dad hates Mr. Putin because the television tells him Putin is a war criminal. Other sources say Mr. Putin is the moderate who keeps the extremists in the Kremlin…

People who believe Putin is a radical should pray every night he doesn't die and is replaced by Medvedev.

Re: A collection of Soviet control rooms (2017)

#107

Post by berniedurfee »

yamtaddle wrote: post #16

Can you even imagine how relaxing it would be to have the same interface to your systems, every day, with all the parts in one physical location and never moving? Learn it once, then nothing changes for years and years, or if it does it's usually adding on, not replacing or re-arranging existing stuff? Man, that would be nice.

I was just thinking the same thing! It seems so peaceful. Now it’s a bunch of flat panel screens with brash colors and a flood of information, animation and menu diving.

AWS should sell physical control panels. This knob is for memory, that one is for CPU. Hit that button to scale up… no not that one!!

Music synthesizers are an example. People still flock to hardware synths even though software is as good sonically and way more flexible. Limitations are good. Twisting knobs is satisfying.

Re: A collection of Soviet control rooms (2017)

#110

Post by taxicabjesus »

Jataman606 wrote: post #91
taxicabjesus wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is "And then Putin" supposed to mean? Perhaps you mean that Mr. Putin is implementing Gorbachev's goal of "turning Russia into another Sweden", which was blocked by Bush the Elder and the collective west's looting of Russia in the post-Soviet period? My dad hates Mr. Putin because the television tells him Putin is a war criminal. Other sources say Mr. Putin is the moderate who keeps the extremists in the Kremlin…

Your "source" is calling Zelensky "the Imperial Puppet" and "comedian"[0], which makes me think it's probably even more biased towards Russia than western media are towards Ukraine. [0] https://twitter.com/imetatronink/status/1605389284369784832

My understanding is Ukraine was ready to negotiate with Russia by April 2022. Boris Johnson, the former UK prime minister, went to visit [0] around April 9 2022. Thenceforth Zelensky seems to have understood that Ukraine was to fight to the last Ukrainian.

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/apr/09/boris-johns...

Post reply on HN