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Strategies & Market Trends : Roger's 1998 Short Picks -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mama Bear who wrote (10116)	6/16/1998 5:47:00 PM
From: Ken Salaets	Respond to of 18691

>> BTW, I've got my hands full with the kind folks who pointed me in research directions. I don't really need any more help now. Please forgive me, but it's in my nature to try to help little old ladies cross the street when I see them stumbling. gggg. Now that's merely an analogy, not a reference to your age, whatever it might be. RE your comment about just starting to do research, then I will assume your comments re the embedded issue being -- I believe "far fetched" were your words? -- I will wait with genuine anticipation when you are prepared to issue your verdict. Ken

To: Mama Bear who wrote (10116)	6/16/1998 6:59:00 PM
From: BelowTheCrowd	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 18691

Barbara, In the linked message, you asked why an elevator would care about the date. I'll try to explain for the benefit of the thread: Most elevator systems today don't just move the cars up and down. They are much more sophisticated systems, which are designed to optimize the use of the elvator cars to move the most people in the least time at the lowest expense (movement requires electricity). For example, the system in an office building would need to recognize that between 7 and 10am, most of the traffic is upwards from ground level, so it could appropriately position the cars downstairs as quickly as possible, maybe leaving only a single car to make stops on the way down for occasional people going "against the stream". At lunchtime a different pattern would develop, with people leaving work floors and heading to ground level, or maybe some intermediate floor where the cafeteria was located, then returning to their work floors. In the evening, traffic is mostly downward. During the rest of the day traffic might be random, and elevators might be routinely "moved around" to provide good coverage of the whole building. The exact hours might also vary by day of the workweek. People may leave early on Friday. Obviously, the pattern would be very different on weekends. To optimize all this, the elevator has got to have a clock and calendar. So, if the elevator gets the date wrong it could easily lead to a logistical mess. More important is the question of what happens as the date flips to 01/01/00. Does the whole system freeze up? If so what do the cars do? Stop? Go? It's unlikely they would drop out of control since there are mechanical systems to prevent that, but you could spend the bulk of New Year's day stuck in between floors with the lights out, waiting for a rescue. As you can imagine, factory floors have similar logistical problems. A single lost day at the factory is a BIG deal. In many industries it means the difference between a profitable quarter and not. In looking at a system, ask yourself: "Is there any reason that this system should care what time or day is is?" If the answer is "yes" then there is a liklihood that somebody else thinks so too, and built in date functionality. mg