Recent Posts

Just got my car a shiny, new MOT certificate as an early Christmas present. The MOT certificate is a pre-requisite for renewing the tax disc which expires at the end of the month.

The format of the MOT test certificate has changed and all MOT's will be recorded on a computer system at the Vehicle and Operator Agency (VOSA).

This means that you can now apply for your road tax online as VOSA can also verify that the vehicle is insured using another computer system.

Good news for me. One less trip into the Post Office.

Bad news for car criminals.

I subscribe to an RSS feed from the BBC about Manchester United.

This feed contains match reports, previews and general news about Manchester United.

However, the BBC has an infuriating habit of throwing in content from the Message Boards which are a forum for 'fans'. Think 5 Live's 606 radio phone-in but worse.

Worse, this article appears in the feed as a new article on 15 December. This is a thread from the '606 message boards - Liverpool'. Newsgator displays the title as 'If Liverpool don't give Chelsea a run for their money this season, then we certainly will soon - DG' and the Web page thread is named 'well played today' referring to Liverpool versus Chelsea.

Why ? What possible relevance does this content have to MUFC ?

Not many things make me laugh out loud.

Pete Mitchell and Geoff Lloyd on the Virgin Radio breakfast show were very funny.

Now they are leaving. Time to burn a few more CD's for the tedious journey into work.

Once upon a time, I flew back from Lausanne in Switzerland to London. Although the skies were clear, there had been heavy thunderstorms earlier in the day so the plane was forced to hold above Heathrow. We flew around and around in circles for so long that we eventually had to divert to Bournemouth to refuel.

This impromptu diversion confused the trio of Swiss people sitting behind me who thought London was 'quite small' and 'very green' and why 'is no-one getting off' after we had landed and sat around for 15 minutes on the runway at this small, provincial airport.

This confusion was because British Airways were too incompetent to put a French speaker on the crew on a flight from Switzerland. In fact, when he realised he wasn't actually in London, one of the Swiss passengers then politely asked a stewardess why no announcements had been made in French.

Events then descended into farce when the stewardess then made an announcement for 'any French speaking passengers to make themselves known to the cabin staff'. The same Swiss passenger duly volunteered and he then made an announcement over the loudspeaker system directed primarily at his two fellow Swiss passengers who were sitting right there, next to him.

So, after a complimentary drink to placate the Brits and prevent rioting, we finally arrived 2 hours 30 mins late at London Heathrow. The final straw was that it took British Airways a further 45 minutes to get a set of steps and buses over to the remote stand at Terminal 4 so we could actually leave the plane.

As I finally left the plane at 21.45 on a Friday night, I was tired, fed up and just desperate to get home. The pilot was stood at the exit door, smiling and saying 'Good night' to all passengers.

I paused and told him that, while I understood that the diversion due to the weather was unavoidable, it was an absolute joke that the British Airways could not arrange for ground staff to meet a plane that was over 2 hours late. The only consequence for me was that my tea was cold. However, plenty of other passengers on that flight were desperately trying to make connections to America and Asia. If the steps had been in place, they might just have had a slim chance of making their onward connection. With this additional delay, there was absolutely no chance.

The pilot just smiled again (which was quite irritating in itself) and replied 'Yes I know Sir. It is embarrassing and bloody unacceptable and I can assure you that I have made my views known in no uncertain terms.'

More recently, as I have started to scan more blogs and newsfeeds, I wanted a quicker, more efficient way of scanning through my growing list of RSS sources so I investigated a few alternative RSS readers or aggregators.

It was quite interesting to see how your own blog looks displayed in a variety of different formats. All that self inflicted torture over the templates, the CSS stylesheets, the sidebars, the fonts, the bulleted lists is potentially meaningless when your reader might be reading a simple text feed with more control over the presentation than you, dear author.

The main things I need from an RSS reader are:

• Newspaper reading (for a group of blogs in chronological order)
• Easy to manage related feeds into a collection of groups
• Able to scan all (or a subset of) feeds for new articles
• OPML import must preserve folder structure and merge feeds correctly
• To be able to read comments in the reader
• To be able to configure feeds on an individual and group basis
• Mark feeds as updated when someone comments on an article
• Personalised feed discovery/recommendation engine when you have read everything in the blogosphere
• Clippings for interesting articles
• Able to synchronise state of feeds (articles read/unread) from PC with Web based service
• Integration with Web browser to quickly add new blogs and feeds
• Support for newsgroups (and potentially email)
• Free (or cheap)

Originally, I was using Thunderbird which was fine for a handful of blogs but is not able to read a group of blogs in newspaper fashion. This is quite important as in the Oracle community, people are often posting or reacting to earlier posts by others in the same closely knit community.

I also tried Sage but that had the same problem (no newspaper support) although I really liked the auto-discovery feature where you can tell Sage to scan for feeds on the current Web page and subscribe with a single click.

I then tried bloglines as I already had an account, it appears to have been around the longest and because lots of people seem to use it and like it. However, for reading a group of blogs, bloglines lists the articles blog by blog and not in chronological order. Also, when importing OPML, bloglines creates duplicate categories instead of intelligently merging them. I thought the bloglines interface was generally confusing, new articles were not immediately visible, reading was generally slow and organising feeds into folders was tortuous in the extreme. Bloglines supports OPML import but with this caveat - 'Imported sites may take up to two hours to update'.

I then tried another Web based RSS aggregator, Newsgator which intelligently merged my feeds and preserved the existing folder hierarchy. Some other RSS readers just loaded the OPML into a long, flat list. Newsgator had a clean, intuitive interface, supported groups of feeds and was quick. Also, it was server based so the feeds and articles are portable across any computer. I liked the clean, simple interface with the emphasis on the text of the article. Newsgator also supports Clippings for articles of interest.

Omea from Jetbrains- a polished professional .NET application. Excellent drag'n'drop interface for quickly organising feeds into categories. Fast performance, easy to understand, rich functionality. Probably my favourite desktop RSS reader. Omea was the only reader to display comments in the reader. In the Oracle blogging community, the comments are important. The Omea Firefox plugin is not supported for Firefox 1.5 but will be by the end of 2005 (prompt response to feedback). The only slight moan is the startup and closedown time is long enough to merit a progress bar.

Pluck is another Web based server which looks nice (Desktop, Web) with synchronisation but crucially missing reading feeds in a single group. Lots of advertising from their sponsors consuming valuable screen estate.

RSSOwl - OpenSource. Clean interface. Import of my OPML file ran so blindingly fast I missed it. Really fast navigation and sensible interface design. Uses AmphetaRate for personalised recommendations and feed discovery. Instant startup and shutdown.

Feedreader- free, simple, lightweight RSS reader but refuses to delete a folder unless you delete all 99 feeds therein.

Rojo is another server based aggregator with a lot of emphasis on Web 2.0 (tags, contacts) and minimalist, modern design but the article content seems almost secondary.

Google Reader - pleasant enough with familiar Google style look and feel but the interface and functionality seems a little too simplistic once you have used other desktop RSS readers.

I also briefly looked at RSSBandit(which seemed to be unique in that it supported synchronistation using FTP/WebDAV) and SharpReader but by this time I was suffering from RSS fatigue although Wikipedia had a tempting list of even more candidates.

For desktop readers, I really liked Omea (apart from the silly icon) and RSSOwl (very nice icon) but after a few days, I realised that a unified source of my feeds and the status of articles was more important than the wealth of features available in a desktop RSS client so I decided to stick with NewsGator which was the most impressive Web based service and met most of my requirements.

PS. Oh no. I forgot the most obvious tool for all my mail/news/RSS needs - Gnus.

A couple of years ago, I was staying at a posh hotel in Oslo. I returned to my room after a hard days work, looking forward to a very expensive glass of beer.

I swiped my card and entered room 216. To my surprise, I found a strange man in there. He was emerging from the bathroom but thankfully, he was fully clothed and alone.

My immediate reaction was to rapidly withdraw, apologising profusely. 'Oh I am awfully sorry. I appear to have the wrong room'. As the layout and decor of the hotel was identical on each floor, I just assumed that I had mistakenly entered room 316 (instead of 216).

I checked my key (room 216) and I checked the little wallet holder (room 216). I then stared blankly at the number on the door of the room I had just entered - 216 - when the door opened and the gentleman appeared again. I managed a quick peek into the room and saw my book on the desk and my alarm clock by the bed.

The American stranger smiled and said: 'Hey, you know. I think it might be me who has the wrong room' and we agreed to go downstairs to reception.

American: 'There is a problem. I appear to have been given this gentleman's room.'

Receptionist: 'Room number, please ?'

American: 'Room 216.'

Receptionist: 'Name ?'

American: 'Costner'

Receptionist: 'There is no problem. You are in room 216 and have the key for room 216.'

American: 'But this gentleman is already staying in room 216' (gestures towards me).

I step forward to the desk amazed at what I have heard thus far.

Receptionist: 'Name ?'

Me: 'Brightside'

Receptionist: 'Room number ?'

Me: '216.'

Receptionist: 'Mr Brightside. You checked out of room 216 at 08.45 this morning.'

Me: 'No I didn't. I am booked to stay here until tomorrow morning.'

Receptionist: 'No. Mr Brightside. You checked out of room 216 at 08.45 this morning and paid in full with a credit card.'

Me: 'No I didn't.'

Receptionist: 'Yes you did.'

[ To avoid an English pantomime exchange developing and as I was getting increasingly annoyed...]

Me: 'OK then. If I checked out of room 216 this morning, you must have a copy of my bill and the the credit card slip with my signature on it ?'

Receptionist: 'Yes, Sir. We do.'

Me: 'Please can I see it then.'

Receptionist: 'Yes.'

[ Walks off into office, obviously disgruntled ]

Receptionist: 'I'm awfully sorry, Mr Brightside. There has been a terrible mistake.'

Just bought 30 second class stamps and sent a parcel recorded delivery in the Post Office. The stamps cost £6.30 and the recorded delivery costs £2.25.

That will be £8.55, please Sir.

I hand over a 20 pound note. The lady gives me £8.55 in change, asks me to put the parcel in Santa's overflowing grey sack and prepares for the next customer.

'Sorry but I thought you said it was £8.55'

'Yes. That's correct.'

'But you only gave me £8.55 change'

'Yes. That's right'

'But it should be, err, 11 pounds, err, 45 pence'

'No. It is 8.55'

'How much are the stamps and the recorded delivery ?'

'8.55'

[People are now starting to sigh loudly in the queue]

'How much did I give you ?

'Twenty pounds'

'What is 20? minus? 8.55 ?'

'Oh I see. I am awfully sorry, Sir.'

Two things that are not immediately obvious about digital radio.

1. Not all DAB stations are national. You may be able to listen to Capital Radio in Brisbane over the Internet but you cant listen to Capital Radio on a digital radio in Inverness. This is because 'local' radio stations are still subject to UK broadcasting regulations which means they must remain local, even with DAB. Consequently, the range of radio stations available on DAB isn't (quite) as wide ranging as you might expect.
2. The sound quality of FM radio is better than DAB. Tune the same radio station in on FM and DAB, turn up the volume and toggle between the two. The difference is quite marked. I used to think my ears? wouldn't be able to distinguish between an expensive Bang & Oulfsen system costing 2,000 GBP and an Alba record player. I was wrong.

A few months ago, I was shocked and amazed to receive an email from Friends Reunited entitled Janet Oldsgate has sent you a private message.

God, I was so excited, I could hardly contain myself. The adrenaline started flowing, I broke out in a hot sweat and clicked through like I had never clicked through before.

Oh no. What is my darned password for Friends Reunited ? I looked it up on the Palm - nothing. I looked in Thunderbird under 'Infrequently used Web sites' - nothing. I tried a couple of the usual suspects but no joy. Then I remembered the password was in fact, 'JOldsgate73!'. This password was a deliberate and incredibly secure choice to prevent a repeat of the unfortunate incident when my wife hacked my Friends Reunited account and modified my 'Profile' in an oh so amusing and hilarious fashion. My, how we laughed.

Now I was logged in and the sense of anticipation grew. I summoned up the courage and clicked on the inviting 'Your Messages' icon. Nothing. Shurely shome mishtake. Refresh. Nothing. I frantically read the online help and used 'Advanced Search' to locate all private messages from 'Janet Oldsgate' sent directly to me, ever. Absolutely nothing.

Then it slowly dawned on me. There was no private, personal message from my long lost and first love, Janet Oldsgate. I shouldn't have got my hopes up. I should have known better. I was gullible. I was foolish.

The clues were there all along. Firstly, I went to an all boys grammar school. Secondly, I do not and have never known anyone called Janet Oldsgate.

This email was merely an elaborate, cruel hoax (known as phishing) that ruins peoples' lives, causing untold distress and angst to its innocent victims and breaking up happy marriages. And all of this purely in the name of a CRM marketing campaign to drive more traffic to the Friends Reunited web site.

And now on the back of the increased traffic, advertising revenue and click through rates generated by this slightly questionable and underhand campaign, the founders of Friends Reunited have sold up to ITV for a cool 120 million GBP.

I am worried about those developers at WordPress. They have to eat food, drink coffee and wear clothes but how are they ever going to make any money ? There isnt even a Donate button anywhere on the site.

WordPress.com provide me with a hosted blogging platform which I think it is very good; better than Blogger, better than Bloglines, better than Yahoo 360', better than most of the competition.

The service provided by WordPress costs me absolutely nothing so represents excellent value for money and I would recommend the service to any of my blogging friends (if I had any).

WordPress have to provide servers, manage those machines, implement resilience, scalability and high availability, develop code, do boring things like backups, testing, fix bugs, worry about the business plan, buy laptops, S & M (sales & marketing, not the other one) and what do I give them in return ? A load of feedback (mainly negative) about minor, trivial things that don't work and waste their time whenever I have made an idiotic mistake (quite frequently).

Now, WordPress are planning to add extra features and functionality (customised CSS and templates, more themes and plug-ins, hosting on your server, statistics) which will cost money but they have also pledged that the current functionality will remain free. The sad fact is I am very unlikely to pay them anything for additional add-on features, ever.

This main reason is because I am quite happy with the existing product. Secondly, any additional contribution would have to be minimal as I could pay my ISP an extra 4 GBP per month to add PHP and then would be able to run WordPress.org with total control over everything. This would be more work for me but would probably be fun and an interesting experiment anyway.

Maybe I am not typical, maybe there are hundreds of frustrated WordPress bloggers out there with cheque books poised waiting for the two tier service to be announced. For the sake of the freeloaders like me, let's jolly well hope so.