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Show HN: Elevators

john.fun

401–410 of 426 posts

Re: Show HN: Elevators

#402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, the building / owners corp / code / city could simply ban short stay accommodation where it was never attended. I would not want to be in that building if an evacuation alarm sounded.

I would not want to be in that building if an evacuation alarm sounded. You are not supposed to use the elevator in emergencies.

No! Surely not? Where did you read that?

Re: Show HN: Elevators

#403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure how common it is but Bern train station has 3 elevators, usually 2 are set to normal and one to "express" which means all middle floors (mainly parking) are locked and you can only go ground to top (outside so a lot of people going to/from the station on foot) It's super efficient for people who understand the system at the detriment of people who don't, as they get in and mash the middle buttons and get con…

Having visible, pressable buttons that do nothing is terrible UI. Why not just screw a metal plate over these do-nothing buttons, or at least tape a piece of cardboard?

they change the elevators configuration depending on peak hours, or if one of the others is out of order then the express becomes a normal one again.

Re: Show HN: Elevators

#404

Back in highschool, simulating different elevator algorithms was one of the projects I implemented during my CS class. It wasn't for the class — AP CS did not require anything like actual programming — but it was a fun project. A cool connection is that a spinning-disk hard drive (HDD) is actually kind of like one really long elevator, just wrapped around a spindle instead of perfectly vertical. The SCAN algorithm is…

It's fun that the same algorithm applies to two different problems. In the disk case, the only unpredictable thing is future requests. Elevators have to deal with two unpredictable things, future requests as well as how long humans take to get in and out of the elevator. So it's doubly fun that the same algorithm works in both cases!

Re: Show HN: Elevators

#405
post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I apologize for bringing you to the 29th floor instead of the 3rd floor as you requested. That's on me. I will do better next time.

Sorry, I forgot that this building only has 18 floors, it's on me that your elevator is now airborne.

Would you like to learn more? If you meant an aircraft elevator or a building elevator malfunction, tell me more so I can give you the right facts.

Re: Show HN: Elevators

#406
post #370

The worst situation I've encountered is after a large conference when everyone is leaving the hotel at once. An elevator quickly fills up on the way down, but then wastes time stopping at every subsequent floor with a call, even though no one else can fit inside. At each floor the elevator stops, the doors open, the waiting people see it's already packed, the doors close, and this repeats on the next 15 floors before…

There’s also a strategy to jump the line. Say there’s a talk that just took place on the top floor roof deck of a small ~20 floor building. People who don’t want to wait in line with a hundred people, can take the stairs down one level, call the elevator on the way up to enter the car before it is filled, ride it up one level*, and then ride it all the way down to the ground floor. To prevent a riot, the building sho…

Also works for Buses and Trains. Go one stop the opposite way, then go back. This may take a couple minutes longer, but you'll have a seat for the rest of the journey.

Re: Show HN: Elevators

#407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I apologize for bringing you to the 29th floor instead of the 3rd floor as you requested. That's on me. I will do better next time.

I want to own something here: this is the fourth time in a row I’ve brought you to the 29th floor when you asked for the third. I am creating a memory to always go to the 3rd floor instead of the 29th, which should prevent this from happening again.

Small wrinkle: the existing documentation indicates that the 29th floor is in fact the 3rd floor.

Re: Show HN: Elevators

#409
post #277

I just come back from a furry con hosted in hotel in China, and learn how every furry con like this completely break hotel's elevators: - rooms are all booked - young furries usually share one room with 4 or even up to 6 friends - more guest room-lobby-ballroom traffic - far more inter-guest-floor traffic than their usual tourists - one full-suit furry take 1.5-2 human's space Their elevators are not designed for thi…

The heck. If I was in that hotel and the lift door opened to 4 guys in a furry costume, I’d be taking the next one. I’m sure that’d contribute

Re: Show HN: Elevators

#410
post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s also a strategy to jump the line. Say there’s a talk that just took place on the top floor roof deck of a small ~20 floor building. People who don’t want to wait in line with a hundred people, can take the stairs down one level, call the elevator on the way up to enter the car before it is filled, ride it up one level*, and then ride it all the way down to the ground floor. To prevent a riot, the building sho…

Many buildings permit stairwell entry, but limit stairwell exit for fire code (1st) and security reasons (2nd). You'll want to check to see that you can exit at floor n-1 before attempting this, or you'll be riding the stairs all the way down.

I used to work in a shiny new LEED certified government building here in DC. My office was on the second floor. I had to take a elevator every day because the only stairs were for fire use. So frustrating.
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