Hacker Remix

SF MUNI approves $212M technology from Hitachi to replace floppy disks by 2028

30 points by thoughtpeddler 4 days ago | 41 comments

suhastech 2 days ago

This isn't really about the floppy disks; it's about the installation of a new signalling system but it does make a good headline.

aguaviva 1 day ago

It's helpful for people to know just how "sticky" antiquated interfaces can be in a complex, mission-critical system - and how expensive they can be to replace (even though it's just one part of the overall upgrade of course).

So in that sense I find the reference to be useful, and not clickbait.

DerekL 2 days ago

A previous news story claimed that the system used 5.25-inch disks, instead of 3.5-inch, which would have been strange for a system that was purchased in 1998. It turns out that it actually was 3.5-inch disks.

The correction is in this article: https://sfist.com/2024/08/07/muni-to-update-train-control-sy....

DerekL 2 days ago

The title is misspelled. It should be “Muni”, like the article's title, not in all caps.

tdeck 2 days ago

I was about to comment that the proper spelling is MUNI but the I looked here [1] and they're spelling it Muni now? I can't seem to find anything written about the change, while I find plenty of older documents with the all caps spelling. I wonder if some branding agency got paid for this brilliant idea.

https://www.sfmta.com/muni-transit

DerekL 2 days ago

Also, the logo is all-caps.

“Muni” isn't an acronym, it's short for “Municipal Railway”.

musicale 1 day ago

I thought it stood for Marginally Usable Network Infrastructure.

ww520 2 days ago

A lot of subways have accepted the use of contactless credit cards or debit cards by touching the readers at the gates to pay for the fares. BART and MUNI still use Clipper card only.

I’ve asked someone work inside and he said the suppliers of the readers won’t upgrade them. Not sure what the deal is.

rsynnott 2 days ago

Given that you can, fairly easily, get a virtual stored value card on your phone, arguably little reason to change. As a visitor to SF, I was able to set up a virtual Clipper card and top it up in a few seconds, and it's presumably a lot cheaper and less complex for the operator (doesn't require talking to card networks).

Though, I still have ~$8 Clipper credit on my phone that I may or may not ever use...

ww520 2 days ago

I had $20 on the old magnetic strip card that was never used and got obsoleted. I had Clipper cards laying around with various remaining balances. I suspect the loose changes gained by the operators gave them less incentives to move forward.

acchow 2 days ago

> BART and MUNI still use Clipper card only.

They also support Apple’s Transit card (Clipper card in your Apple Wallet) so it works by tapping your phone, without unlocking it. It should also work with your iPhone turned off (newer models I think iPhone 14+ only)

mind_heist 2 days ago

how does the transit card work if the phone is turned off?

numpad0 1 day ago

Something is always on to handle power button, tender battery, as well as USB. NFC payment has to be compartmentalized for security, as a tangential.

At that point you might as well fuse those features into one companion computer and let it handle NFC payments under certain conditions, so people can take a safe ride home with a dead phone.

acchow 1 day ago

The iPhone continues to run various functions while turned off (including find-my-iPhone with BLE via the global, mesh network of iDevices)

ThePowerOfFuet 2 days ago

Because not all of it is turned off.

danudey 2 days ago

> he said the suppliers of the readers won’t upgrade them. Not sure what the deal is.

It's not worth the money to the suppliers to go through the trouble of managing the upgrade of that one system alone; likely there's an opportunity cost where they have limited resources and they want to focus on the bigger projects making bigger impacts and bigger sales.

The last building I lived in, the sliding balcony doors were all starting to wear out. Building management called the company that made the doors to ask them about repairs or replacement and were told that the cost of replacing the doors for people isn't worth their time; basically, why would they come fix our old balcony doors for $x when they could spend their time on building and installing new balcony doors on a new build for $xx?

Tostino 2 days ago

Too bad word gets around too slowly to actually make a difference in those new install numbers. Ideally, a company like that would lose sales to someone who offered better service to existing customers (who want to spend more money with you).

MichaelZuo 2 days ago

Aren’t there higher end manufacturers of balcony doors, who do offer premium service?

numpad0 1 day ago

IMO, prepaid/stored value is fine. Not everything has to be rolled into the legacy monolithic global realtime-but-batched-too post-pay credit card infrastructure.