TalkAudio – Advice, Discussion and Passion

This week started horribly early for me. As those of you who watch BBC news as you get up may know, I sometimes get called to go and participate in live stuff on the fabled Beeb Sofa. Today it was about the Transport for London speed thingy. A digital map of London’s speed limits has been produced and along with a sucker-cup-carbuncle nav type device, the system can be set to control your accelerator. Voluntary and merely experimental at present, you get a display with the same Smile or Sad face as the roadside radar-controlled speed ‘advisory’ signs.
If you exceed the speed limit, it kills your gas pedal. So anyone behind without the system following anyone who is happily progressing and has momentarily forgotten they are using the system, will suddenly find the vehicle in front slowing down – but WITH NO BRAKE LIGHTS! So I reckoned it was paternalistic and that TfL have been sold a technological pup! I pointed this out on air to the poor man who I had been quite nice to in the green room. He was horrified and shocked and said so.
My point is that if you ARE being vigilant, then it’s irrelevant and I also managed in the brief time we got, to point out that I had two systems in my car that tell you the limit at any location nationwide and also asked deeply pointy questions about how their database could be accurate – citing the road works with the varying speed limits over the bridge just near the Beeb on the A40. I’d have chewed even harder on the poor gentleman’s face had I been given the chance in slots at 7:20 and 8:20 but the nature of the BBC’s rolling news coverage is instant topical response and so the horrendous further news about how the nation’s MP’s have been happily claiming for baby mattresses and gosh knows what else bumped us out. (Well me anyway, the suit from TfL was due to do more stuff on the Today programme.)
But it got me up nice and early and made me feel like I wanted to go early morning Perch fishing before breakfast as it was dawn well before I got up at 4:45. (Ooh my poor head buzzing with BBC coffee!)
Meanwhile back at the coalface in the real world, it’s going to be an Alpine week, as I have some kit here to try, including a set of SPG series component speakers. I am going to have Atsu from Alpine pop in on the morrow to give me some background on their development, so that’ll be nice. It’s not every day you receive aristocracy!
A bit smashed from being up so early, I’ll go unpack them….
Adam Rayner – Online Editor
This week’s strap line by lotech