So I was in Detroit on my way to Windsor for a talk with the last of the OS/2 mavens when I was awestruck by the Detroit Airport. With it’s indoor elevated train it looked like a scene from some science fiction film. Good work.
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some science fiction film
Detroit is where ROBOCOP was set.
J/P=?
What’s an OS/2?
Don’t you get any “looks” walking around in the airport shooting pix and or videos? I would think that in this day, some Barney Fife would come up to you and hassle you over that.
Mike T
I have to admit, the first time I saw it my first thought was, “Wow, this place is way to cool for Michigan!”
Physically, it’s cool, driven by a big cable IIRC.
That train is fine if you need to get to one of the far ends of the terminal, and you happen to be in the middle or on the other end….but it’s worthless otherwise, which is about 90% of the time.
-John O
#2 – What’s an OS/2?
The prototype for MS Windows.
I live in the area and thought it was just ok. I guess I haven’t seen enough airports to be impressed.
You ought to have seen the great boondoggle overpass on I-94 they built for the superbowl It’s got football shapes built into the design.
FOOTBALL SHAPES!
AWESOME.
i still say we beat Oakland.
Pretty good vid quality, if this was from the camera he touts.
And the train is Red Wing red. Or close.
I’d be more impressed, though, if it were a real train, connecting with the national rail network.
Is OS/2 still the main OS of ATMs?
#12 – Is OS/2 still the main OS of ATMs?
Don’t think so.
>Is OS/2 still the main OS of ATMs?
I’m not sure what they use these days, but many were MS-DOS based. I know because I once owned a company that wrote system software for ATMs – we sold it to various major manufacturers and banks in Europe and North America. I sold the company nearly 20 years ago so I don’t know what they use today; I remember a couple of hardware vendors trying to get me to port our system to Unix but their computers always failed my first test – I used to pull the plug on them (literally) to see if they could recover gracefully from a power cut. None of them could.
No doubt you were flying Northwest, because all the other airlines fly out of the outdated 1950’s Smith terminal at DTW. But the train is a godsend for when you flight leaves from one of the gates on the ends
And to John #6
You enter in the center of the terminal. There are 3 stops both ends and the middle
The train was broken when I was there. I had to spend 10 minutes on the moving walkways (while running) to catch a flight. The terminal is pretty, but seemed too long and spread out. I prefer airports with spider like arm terminals, where you go to a central hub and simply move onto the next arm.
12,
The big five banks in Canada switch from OS/2 to Windows NT / 2000 some years ago. Then, when the SQL Slammer worm came out, out money was unavailable…
Detroit needs an airport that is good at moving people. It will help with moving automobile mfg. jobs overseas.
Win 2K seems OK in the task. Not like 1985 when a buddy of mine found $200 missing from his account via an ATM transaction, and the bank wouldn’t show him the security tape….
So I wonder what Europe uses? At RBC, you can set a 6-digit PIN, but what they sometimes don’t tell you is that Euro machines generally won’t accept it. Luckily, I had a rarely-used interac-type card from one of those banks with no branches and it worked fine everywhere. Plus the foreign ATM charge was lower than RBC’s anyway.
Jägermeister : what does it say at the bottom of that screen …
Regurgitating dump of abnormal memory
? Grin.
jbellies… I wish you worked for MS and wrote their error messages… 😀
Jägermeister – I wish that MS worked for me and its other clients, more than for its corporate agenda. But that’s the way the world turns, eh? It’s only in a dreamworld that you turn on the tap, and out comes Jägermeister. The liqueur, I mean.
#21
There are so many issues with MS that I just don’t give a darn about their new products. Yes, I’m running Windows 2000, but I’m right now learning Linux so that I can cross the chasm.
As for Jägermeister… I borrowed that name from one of my brother’s favorite liqueurs. He would be delighted if he had a pipeline to his apartment. 😉
ATM’s over here run Win2K. I’m sure cos’ I see it a lot: the gabage on screen after a crash is W2k 4sure…
Nice train though…
Oh, I’m in the westernest country of the EU. (NO, not Ireland…)
#23
Denmark?
Nothing against the Wings, but that’s Northwest red.
I was in that airport a couple of years ago and the one thing that I really liked was the underground tunnel connecting the terminals, it was very nice to look at, though the whole airport is well designed for ease of travel from one end to the other.
That palce also has the fastes McDonalds I have ever been too, I think I was in there a minute from ordering to leaving with my meal. All I know is that I had food and was missing some money….
Go Northwest!
#16 is right. The train is wonderful, as long as it’s working. Otherwise, pray you don’t have to be at another terminal at the other end for a transfer right away, because it’s a long way to hoof it quickly. The other terminal, Smith, is horrible, confusing, and everything you would envision Detroit airport to be.
#9- That overpass is the biggest waste of money I’ve seen since I’ve moved up here from Virginia. It’s a giant blue monstrosity on this standard overpass that is supposed to make it look like some sort of football gateway or something. The giant tire is way more cool on the way in on 94.
Hailing from Ann Arbor.
I have driven by Detroit Airport several times and was amazed at the physical size. That terminal is huge and to hear some posters talk of it,… .
I got smart and no longer drive through Detroit going to Canada. I will go out of my way and go north through Port Huron / Sarnia to bypass the whole mess. It is faster and more pleasant even if slightly longer.
Ahh, you guys are talking about the I-94 overpass across Telegraph Rd, right? It doesn’t make any sense until you drive Telegraph, where there are no obstacles. It was probably cheaper than the alternatives, and it sure as hell looks better. For you Detroit guys who don’t get around much…there are lots of bridges like this all over the country.
Can anybody help me sent above video file about Detroit Airport Indoor Train to my email bombino_corleone@yahoo.com, thanks in advance 🙂
It was very short time between I arrived to the airport and my flight departure to Singapore so I dont even have time to take a picture of that red train 🙁
Bobby