Demise of Web 1.5

by
Broken Glass

This month is turning out to be what Anil Dash calls the end of ‘Web 1.5′ – services which started before the ‘Web 2.0′ bandwagon started rolling, have not been popular for some time and are now closing.

I’ve already mentioned Bloglines, and to add to that there’s BlogRolling, which is “probably shutting […] down soon”. BlogRolling is another service that I used to use but haven’t for many years; it let you keep a list of blogs that you read (a ‘blogroll’) and allowed you to sort and categorise them easily. It made sense in the early days when people were using services like Blogger, but packages such as WordPress make this dead easy now. Its one stand-out feature was being able to show which blogs had recently updated, but this was before RSS/Atom feeds really took off and once I had switched to a feed reader I didn’t see the point of staying with the service.

Xmarks, which allows you to synchronise your bookmarks/favourites between multiple browsers on different machines, is also due to stop operating in around 9 months time. The blog post explains why in full, but essentially they were unable to build a viable business around a free service, and there’s increased competition now that Google Chrome has sync built-in, as will Firefox in its next major update (it’s already available as an add-on).

I’ve also already mentioned Vox, Six Apart’s community blogging service which also closes at the end of this month.

It’s perhaps a shame that these services are going under. Bloglines, BlogRolling and Vox have all stagnated for some time and it’s therefore no surprise that they’ll soon no longer be around. As for Xmarks, it’s a pity that they didn’t offer a ‘freemium’ service, or switch to a paid-for model; while the new sync services in Firefox and Chrome are good, Xmarks was one of the few ways of syncing bookmarks between different browsers.

I’m wondering who will close next.

Update: MSN/Windows Live Spaces is closing and its users are being moved to wordpress.com.

iBought an iPhone

by
Wonder if I can buy an iPhone from here

On Wednesday I finally got myself an iPhone. (No, I didn’t buy it from the shop pictured above)

I’ve been holding out on buying one for a while, partly because I didn’t have enough job security to justify a long contract, and partly because I couldn’t afford it. Those two issues no longer apply, however over the past few weeks I’ve been waiting for my current network, Tesco Mobile, to have any in stock. As well as it being less faff changing networks, Tesco also had probably the best deal; a 12 month contract only costing £20/month, but with a £349 upfront charge for the handset. Anyhow, Tesco haven’t had any iPhone 4s in stock for weeks at my local store, so I gave up and went with Three.

Three’s deal isn’t quite so good – £30/month for 24 months, but the upfront fee for the handset was only £99. Over two years, it only works out a little more expensive (after 12 months on Tesco I’d have probably gone on a £15/month rolling monthly contract). But it’s still not bad and cheaper than other networks. Plus, my local Three Store in Bradford had them in stock.

I’ve had some chance to play with it, and installed a few apps, but I’m still waiting for my mobile number to be transferred to my new contract which won’t happen until later today, so I have to use my present handset (a Samsung ‘dumbphone’, i.e. not a smartphone) as well until that happens.

Bloglines closing down

by
Bloglines is down!

Bloglines, a web site which allows you to subscribe to and read RSS/Atom feeds online, is closing on October 1st.

It’s a bit of a shame – I started using Bloglines almost exactly 6 years ago, and it was great to be able to read all of my feeds on one central web site. That being said, a couple of year later I moved to Google Reader and have stuck with it ever since, due to its better user experience. Bloglines never seemed to catch up and I only know a few people still using it now.

Even so, the number of people using feed readers is apparently falling, and according to paidContent Google Reader is also experiencing a fall in traffic. Whether this is because of feed features in desktop browsers like Firefox and later versions of Internet Explorer have become people’s preferred way of using feeds, or that people prefer Facebook or Twitter, I’m not sure, but it would seem that their popularity is waning.

Bingley Music Live 2010

by
Reef

Yesterday Christine and I went to our first proper music festival: Bingley Music Live. It’s certainly not one of the biggest festivals, with only 15,000 tickets available, and it doesn’t draw many big names. The main acts this year were mostly bands that were at the peak of popularity some years ago, namely The Buzzcocks, Public Image Ltd., Reef and James.

Bingley Music Live is in its fourth year and is organised by Bradford Council with no corporate sponsorship. Despite this, tickets are only £30 for the full weekend, and the Friday event has free entry as well. The small size of the festival means there’s only one stage, and there’s no campsite, but then I think most people who go live locally.

I’ll be going back today for the Sunday bands, although this time I’ll be bringing more of my own drinks. £2 for a small bottle of cola is frankly scandalous.

National Railway Museum

by
Swag

I’ve been sent a package by the PA to the National Railway Museum’s Director of Fun, Sam Pointon. While it may not seem odd for a museum which is popular with families to have a director of fun, Sam is only 7 years old, and he’s been there for a year now.

Sam, or rather his PA, has asked me to write about my experiences with the museum and tell you about some of the events that are being held this summer, so here goes.

Like Sam, when I was his age, I was also very keen on trains – having a father who worked for British Rail helped as it meant lots of free rail journeys. I also grew up in York, home of the National Railway Museum and was a regular visitor. At one time, my mum took me almost every Sunday, even when there wasn’t free entry like there is now. My earliest memories were of its ‘Great Rail Exhibition’ in the former York Goods Station, as at the time the main hall was receiving a new roof. Now both the main hall and goods station are used for the museum and open to the public. Further expansions have added a workshop where you can see classic trains being overhauled and restored, as well as access to some of the museum’s archives.

Mallard

Moving out of York in 2002 has meant that my visits have been sadly less frequent. My most recent visit was in 2007 which included a trip on The Yorkshire Wheel, a London Eye-style big wheel which was unfortunately only a temporary attraction and is now elsewhere. As well as seeing classic trains from both the UK and overseas (there’s a driving car from Japan’s Bullet Train, for example), there’s plenty of information about the history of Britain’s railways, and various interesting artefacts.

This summer, a sand sculpture is being built from 20 tonnes of sand by the same people who created a sand sculpture of Charles Darwin in Centenary Square in Bradford last summer. There’s also a major 1930s exhibition, linked in to the recently restored streamlined steam engine the Duchess of Hamilton, which you can see in the photo at the top of the page.

The National Railway Museum is a really great museum and you can easily spend a day there. There’s plenty to do, whether you’re a young child or a grown-up child like me. Best of all, it’s free, and only a few minutes walk from York station. You should go and visit it sometime.

Vest Pocket Kodak

by
Vest Pocket Kodak

This is a camera made by the Eastman Kodak company in 1917, as part of their ‘Vest Pocket Kodak’ range. It was given to me by Christine’s grandparents. I haven’t tried taking any pictures with it yet, as it didn’t have any film in it. Apparently, the film is still available to buy from specialist retailers though.

I gather that it gets its name from the fact it could fit in one’s vest pocket, as folded up it’s quite small – about the same size as a modern compact digital camera. One such Vest Pocket Kodak model has been up Mount Everest before.

I’m not sure quite what to do with it. I will probably ask the National Media Museum if they are interested in it, since they’re in Bradford and have a large photography gallery; however, several hundred thousand of these cameras were made and so it’s possible that they aren’t interested in it; nor will it make a lot of money second hand (examples in better condition are available for about £50 on eBay from specialist camera sellers). Still, I’ve taken a few pictures of it and may be willing to give it a worthy home if approached.

Back home

by
Ferry

I’m back from the Isle of Man and both Christine and I had a wonderful time – it’s a lovely island and well worth a visit. I’m slowly uploading photos of the trip to Flickr – I took over 300 so it’s taken a while to sort them all…

If I get chance I’ll write more about the trip; unfortunately I’m rather busy catching up from being off work for a week. No rest for the wicked.

Miscellany

by

It’s July, which means that we’re now more than half way through 2010. Still feels like April for some reason, despite the very summery weather we’ve had lately.

I haven’t had chance to blog much so this is a summarised version of things that I would have devoted posts to had I had the time.

Films:

  • About a year ago I wrote about films which I own but haven’t watched. I finally watched Robots last night and it was actually better than I had expected. The computer animation is wonderfully detailed and it’s a lot of fun. I’m starting to wish I’d watched it sooner.
  • On a related note, I have copies of Eragon, Ghostbusters II and the first Twilight film which I own but haven’t seen. All in good time, I suppose.
  • I saw the trailer for The Last Airbender a couple of months ago and it looked good, but the reviews of it suggest it’s totally rubbish, so I’ll give it a miss.

Your Freedom:

  • I was intending to write something about the government’s Your Freedom site, which asks the public for ideas about laws that need changing or repealing. It’s a good idea but badly executed, and Chris Applegate sums it up much better than I can, so read his blog post.
  • But, for the record, I’d like to see the Digital Economy Act repealed.

The Internets:

  • Some time in late April our ADSL modem at home started acting up, and ever since it’s been happily dropping packets left, right and centre. It’s a Netgear DG834GT, which isn’t a bad model but it’s several years old and has been rather over-used. The wireless has gone as well, so I’m using my spare Netgear WGR614 as an access point. Anyhow, we’re finally getting a new modem from Sky and so I’ll actually be able to do things like play World of Warcraft without lagging and download files without them timing out.

Holiday:

  • Things will be quiet around here again as Christine and I are off to the Isle of Man for a week, starting tomorrow. We don’t have a solid itinerary but are planning a trip to see the Laxey Wheel and a train ride up Snae Fell.

Buying rail tickets

by
Pendolino

Buying rail tickets for train travel in the UK is complicated. Despite some simplification introduced last year, it’s still possible to buy a range of rail tickets at different prices that will get you on the same seat on the same train.

The fantastic Money Saving Expert has a very thorough guide and it’s well worth a read, but here’s my summarised advice:

  • Buy your rail tickets in advance, and as early as possible – you can get them up to 3 months ahead.
  • Rail tickets bought on the day (so-called ‘walk on fares’) offer lots of flexibility but are also usually the most expensive – you can book as little as 48 hours in advance and save a lot of money.
  • Avoid thetrainline.com – it charges extra fees.
  • You can usually book any ticket from any train company, even if your journey doesn’t use their trains. So you could book with CrossCountry to travel on a First Transpennine Express (FTPE) train and get the same price as you would booking direct with FTPE.
  • Rail Easy displays fares in a different way which can make it easier to find cheaper tickets. I also found that they are more likely to send tickets by first class post for free, rather than charge £6 for next-day delivery. They do charge a booking fee though.
  • If you spend more than £76 per year (or £6 per month) on rail tickets, get a railcard. If you are between the ages of 16 and 25 you can get a 16-25 railcard. You can order a new one right up until the day before your 26th birthday too. Family railcards and senior railcards are also available. They give you 34% off the price of almost all train tickets, including those booked in advance.
  • Sometimes two single rail tickets are cheaper than a return – always check both. This is especially true if you book in advance.
  • Megatrain is worth a look as its fares start from £1 (plus 50p booking fee). Trains run from Sheffield, Derby and Portsmouth into London, but there are connecting coaches from cities like York and Bradford (I travelled from York to London for a total of £3.50 last year). There’s also additional discounts for NUS Extra card holders.

There are many more tips out there, which shows how confusing the system is. Ultimately, the best way to get the cheapest fare is to book as far in advance as possible, use a railcard and shop around a bit.

Bradford Mela 2010

by
Avenue

Yesterday I visited the Bradford Mela, an annual festival celebrating Asian culture. It’s held in Peel Park, which is close to where I’m currently living, and having missed it in previous years I decided to pop along.

Peel Park is quite large and the Bradford Mela takes over most of it. As well as a stage, ‘village green’ area and a central avenue, there are several rows of stalls from local and national businesses. You would need at least an hour to just walk around everything.

Despite having an Asian focus, the Mela has become a truly multicultural event and this is reflected both in the organisations present at the event but also the people there – it gave an almost perfect cross-section of Bradford’s population. No one race or background was under or over-represented.

We spent a few hours there and really enjoyed it. It’s on again today until 8pm – otherwise you’ll have to wait until next year.