Real Time

Ambling my way through Edinburgh's near deserted Cameron Toll Shopping Centre at 8.40 this morning, contemplating another fun-filled day at the office, I looked up at the rather impressive electronic board above the exit. This technological wizardry listed all the Lothian buses serving the shopping centre, where to get them and how long they would be (I can hear the smart-arses among you saying 'about twelve feet')

Impressed though I was with this information, there was one service which has a little asterisk next to it with the disclaimer 'this is not a real time bus'.

I contemplated that statement for a moment. What did they mean by that, I wondered? Had Edinburgh been taken over by aliens overnight and we were now travelling back in time? As we commemorate the 70th year since the outbreak of World War Two, were we heading back to the times of the blitz? Or further back to a period when Hibernian last won the Scottish Cup? Or even further back to when Adullamite was a child? Was this bus a figment of imagination? Would it ever appear in real life? Then it struck me (the answer, not the bus)

Edinburgh's Lothian Buses operate a bus tracker system where you can see an electronic display at many bus stops in the city centre which advises how long the next service will be. The bus that 'wasn't a real time bus' must have been an older vehicle that did not have the technology fitted. Therefore, one would have to resort to old fashioned methods and consult the timetable. I should point out that only Lothian Buses use this technology as they appear to put the needs of their passengers above all else. Worst Group (Rants passim) don't bother with such ethos although it's rumoured they are replacing their timetables with a calendar...

However, it got me thinking about the proposed high speed rail link between Edinburgh/Glasgow and London which was announced last week. With trains travelling at 200 miles per hour it's envisaged the journey times between Scotland and the old smoke will be cut to little over two and a half hours - by the year 2030...

I harbour suspicions that - particularly if Worst Group are given the franchise - will never be a real time train...

The Latest in a Long Line...

On my way to work this morning, I walked through Cameron Toll Shopping Centre as I have started doing recently. Usually I'm wandering through there about 8.00am and it's quite eerie to see the majority of shops still closed (Sainsbury's excepted) and the footsteps of a handful of people passing through echoing around the hall. But as I passed through today the Centre was busier than usual. There was a large queue of people outside the O2 shop. The reason became apparant as I read the BBC News website at lunch time - today saw the launch of the latest IPhone.

Apparently this latest update which is cheaper, faster and has something called 3G is only available on the O2 network. Whatever its attraction it was enough to have people queuing all over the country to be among the first to have it. Now, this is perhaps a symbol of me being middle-aged but I find myself asking - why? Not why buy the new IPhone which I don't doubt is a wonderful gadget. But why queue overnight as some people did? Why did one fella in London feel the need to buy his place at the front of the queue at the O2 shop in London's Regent Street off ebay?

Is today the only day the new IPhone is on sale? Is that it? If you didn't get one today was that your one and only chance? Or are the new phones, as I suspect, on sale again tomorrow? I've always found the idea of people queuing outside shops waiting for the sales to begin mildly amusing. But there's a logic behind this. Once the sale stock has gone, that's it - shops can revert to ripping people off again. And the big sales are usually the day after Christmas when many of us would do anything to get out the house. But I'm a bit baffled by the urge of some people to be among the first to get a new gadget that will probably be commonplace in a a few months (January sales anyone?)

Despite what my two daughters think, I'm not totally out of touch with technology. I have a laptop, a mobile and even an IPod Touch which I was given as a present last Christmas (I've even downloaded tracks on to it - hark at me) But I was totally unaware of this new IPhone which apparently is a phone, web broswer, music player, instant messenger, makes you a cup of tea in the morning, irons your shirts, drives you to work and does your work for you once you're in the office.

Okay, I may have made much of that last bit up. Or if it's true I'm away to look out my sleeping bag and make a midnight trip to Cameron Toll...