I have heard of such practice, but have not personally encountered it in my work. As long as it is done in situations where the pedestrian signal displays come up automatically for each crossing direction on every signal cycle then I suppose there is no harm in leaving the disconnected buttons on the poles.

The statement means exactly what it says ... pedestrian push buttons serve a specific purpose, and are essential in certain circumstances.

In locations where numbers of pedestrians are not high, the timing of the traffic signals is usually optimized for the vehicular movements, with a separate set of parameters established for those signal cycles when a pedestrian needs to cross. Pushing the button sends a "call" to the signal controller which then ensures that the pedestrian "walk" symbol is displayed at the next available opportunity. It may (or may not, depending on how it is programmed) shorten the green time for other signal phases in order to get the "walk" symbol displayed sooner, but rarely are things set such that pushing the button immediately gives the pedestrian complete priority. The lack of an instantaneous display of the pedestrian "walk" is what frustrates people and makes them think that the button is useless ... though buttons do fail and need replacement sometimes. The common practice of standing there banging the button continuously really serves no purpose other than "venting" I suppose. Even worse is hitting every pedestrian button at a signal that has buttons for different directions of pedestrian movement ... that could end up with there being more delay in you getting the "walk" symbol you are waiting for.

They do serve a perfectly good purpose when used properly. Sorry, couldn't help myself, had to jump in and say that (I'm a traffic engineer).

Good one Jerry ... I wonder if they have others lined up ready to go, in case they need to go for the spare?

Pretty accurate list! A few exceptions though:

- Not sure why one would bother slowing to 90 for the 60 cm (2 ft) of snow.

- Never have had A/C ... usually only one or two times a year when I think I might use it.

- Is that -2 Fahrenheit or Celsius? I'll assume Fahrenheit, as -2 C (28 F) is a perfectly good day for a round of golf. Personally I am quite happy with -2 F (-19 C) ... don't even need to bother zipping up my jacket :)

May long weekend is almost here and luckily (fingers crossed) no apparent signs of snow ... just lots of rain and temp just above zero so you never know what could happen. Driving to work this morning I noticed there were still some remnants of 2 late April snowstorms in the ditch.

Thanks for my morning chuckle

I vaguely recall a professor giving us a "welcome to civil engineering" talk on day one of classes (way back in 1980 ... gee, now I suddenly feel really old ) and noting two key principles to always remember:

1. Water (and other stuff) flows downhill (unless there is a pump involved)
2. You can't push a rope

I ended up in traffic engineering so neither of these principles has been of much use in my 35 years in the business!

Line appears to be straight across ... i.e., pretty darn close to perfectly horizontal on my screen. To illustrate I added a thin white horizontal line just below it, best seen in download. Several references here to a possible scratch from sensor cleaning, but it seems to me that the odds of wiping any kind of swab across a sensor in a perfectly straight line are pretty slim.

I have no explanation but hopefully the fact that it is a straight line might help others figure it out? I assume that the light receptors/pixels on the sensor are arranged in a uniform X by Y array and that each of them needs to transmit information about the light received. Perhaps it is the transmission of information from that one row of receptors that is being scrambled?

Sorry if that makes no sense at all ... just the random ramblings of someone who got to work early and doesn't want to start doing my job!

(Download)

While I have not tried photographing any of my old photos destined for preservation/restoration, I suspect that there could be significant challenges, depending on the condition of the photos, the equipment you have (lighting in particular), and your knowledge/ability with respect to setting your white balance to match the lighting. Photo would need to be sitting flat, with camera properly aligned and focused, and lighting arranged so that the photo is evenly lit with no shadows. A "copy stand" meant for just this purpose would be ideal ... sample below. But they probably are not cheap, at least not if you want a sturdy one with good quality lighting. I suppose you could rig up something yourself if you have a tripod and light source.

On the other hand, I suspect that many of the "multipurpose" printers that are in use in homes (and businesses, but then we shouldn't be using office equipment for personal stuff, right :) ) have the ability to scan photos, at a decent resolution, without a whole lot of "learning curve" required. They hold the photo flat (assuming there is a flat glass bed and lid/cover) and provide the light source.

I use an old Brother B&W laser printer, and scan directly into Corel PaintShop Pro 2018 with the click of a button ... colour or B&W photos, resolution up to 9600x9600 dpi. Worth checking into what capability you might already have sitting on your desk.

If all else fails, there are many places around that provide scanning services ... price depends on quantity of scans and the resolution you want. I checked with a couple of local sources and found they were very particular about what they would accept ... they only wanted photos that are all the same size and in pretty good condition, while I was sitting on a couple of shoeboxes of old, cracked/torn B&W prints of all different sizes.

My neck hurts just trying to imagine what kind of strap you would need to carry it around

OOPS, I should not have said that ... now there will be a debate about whether or not this camera can safely be suspended via a connector screwed into its tripod mount!

Athabasca Falls indeed ... one of my favourite spots to go in the dead of winter for a frosty waterfall picture :)

Very nice capture

Nasty stuff that. We have had several bad hail storms here, typically in the heat of summer ... not fun sitting in your house feeling helpless while it trashes your shingles, siding, etc. Record levels of insurance claims, and booming business for roofing and siding companies though :)

I also got caught in a bad storm while driving. When first hailstone hit my first thought was some kids were throwing snowballs as it just splatted on the windshield ... then a split second later, after my brain recalled that it was mid summer, the sky opened up and it just pummeled the poor car. I pulled over under the canopy of a huge tree (no overpasses in the area to duck under), hoping it might limit the damage (there was no lightning, otherwise tree = bad idea for cover!) and also because there was so much hail and rain coming down it was hard to see ahead. The hail shredded the leaves and small branches, so I got covered in that stuff, and the hail still had enough "oomph" (sorry, kinetic energy?) to do major damage to the car. When it was over I could not even drive away without backing up and getting a bit of a run at the pile of hailstones that had built up on the road right in front of the car.

Stop by the Parks Canada visitor information centre in Banff (a lovely old stone building on the east side of Banff Avenue (main drag through town) just south of Wolf Street ... parking behind/beside it, accessed from a rear alley/lane) ... they can point you in the direction of some "hiking" paths that are almost flat, and paved to boot ... in case your sister can handle those sorts of conditions. A number of places in the Town of Banff where you can park and see some amazing scenery without straying more than 100 ft. from your car.

I'd be happy to mark up a map of the town with a few suggestions if you want ... not that I would have anything that they couldn't tell you at the visitor centre :)

I find myself wishing that my wife would take up an expensive hobby ... then my wishes to spend money on photo gear (or woodworking equipment, or stuff for the motorcycle, or ...) would not be met with raised eyebrows. Unfortunately, no signs of anything happening in this regard :(

I have never been on bus tours out there as I can drive there (only an hour and a half +/- to Banff from my place east of Calgary) any time I want ... but I suspect that the bus tours may be limiting depending on what type of scenery you want to see. No matter how much time you have, you will not get to see everything that everyone will recommend, and people's recommendations will be biased by what type of scenery they like. If you are into certain specific types of photo opps (e.g., I like waterfalls, esp. in winter conditions), then you might be able to hit many of the highlight areas for that particular type of attraction. If you are into flower gardens and such, you would want to plan out a tour that focuses on entirely different destinations within the national parks than would be of interest to someone in search of viewing and photo opps for mountain or glacier scenery like posted above by OllieFCR.

June should be nice out there ... warm days but nights will still be chilly. Hopefully all of the snow will be gone by then!

Do pay attention to the speed limits, as noted by a few people ... a ticket is not the nicest of ways to get to meet the RCMP. Only 90 km/h (55 mph) on the TransCanada Highway through Banff National Park and often very low posted speed limits (30 km/h, or just under 20 mph) on the local streets in some of the towns.

I have been using PSP for many years but do not have the new (2018) version. I do not always jump on the bandwagon when they bring out a new version ... they usually announce what the major changes are and if it looks like they are things I would benefit from then I dive in, otherwise I wait for the next next version. If I recall correctly, the "Ultimate" version should be no different than the base version other than they provide a bunch of extra stuff to go with it. Have also been using AfterShot for years, as my first choice for RAW conversion ... after which a simple Ctrl-E opens the converted file in PSP ready for editing :)