Electronic signboards fail to display Shinkansen line information

[bill937ca]

Confusion during Golden Week when a computer malfunction caused all electronic signboards for Shinkansen trains to shutdown.

 

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/05/05/national/holiday-travelers-inconvenienced-electronic-signboards-fail-display-shinkansen-line-information/

 

"JR East said the system failure was caused because the amount of information to be displayed on the system surpassed its capacity.

The display system was designed to handle information pertaining to 1,600 shinkansen train departures over two days.

On Wednesday, however, the information totaled 1,606 shinkansen lines because additional trains were added for the holiday rush and two new shinkansen lines — the Hokuriku and Hokkaido lines — opened during the past year, it said.

The problem was fixed after it updated software, JR East said."

 

Edited May 5, 2016 by bill937ca

[railsquid]

Made the national news, it did. As did the fact that a Shinkansen conductor was noticed smoking an e-cigarette when getting off the train at Tokyo Station.

[katoftw]

Thing have got to fail to find what need to be improved.  It is an interesting system that relies solely on a specific number and crashes once over.  As the signboards only display the next 6-20 trains depending on the location, I'm surprised a simple solid line of database crashed it.

[miyakoji]

a Shinkansen conductor was noticed smoking an e-cigarette when getting off the train at Tokyo Station.

 

He's gonna catch hell.  On the lighter side of things, the depots around Tokyo will be free of litter and weeds by early November

[railsquid]

That reminds me, I was poking around the depot by Nakano Station a while back and saw a couple of young-ish uniformed staff doing some weeding there. I'm not an expert on uniforms but definitely train or platform staff. They seemed to be having a relaxed time in the mid-afternoon sun, I got the impression they were filling in time before a shift start.

[bill937ca]

Thing have got to fail to find what need to be improved.  It is an interesting system that relies solely on a specific number and crashes once over.  As the signboards only display the next 6-20 trains depending on the location, I'm surprised a simple solid line of database crashed it.

 

I have encountered the same issue with an invoicing system for a TV station.  It was set up for six digits (xxxxxx)  of spot numbers and when they reached seven digits the system malfunctioned and crashed.

[stevenh]

Telephone numbers, Vehicle Registration Plates, etc etc...

 

Dates are the worst... 2 digits for a year was never the smartest.

 

1600 would've been an excessive value back in the day... when it was just the Tokaido? I wonder how old the system was and how many active lines where were when they implemented the value of '1600'.

[kvp]

Probaby it was initially 100, then 200, 400, 800 and then 1600 and now 3200...

[cteno4]

Probaby it was initially 100, then 200, 400, 800 and then 1600 and now 3200...

Makes sense!

 

Jeff