trefor.net - Page 28 of 92 - Insider comments from the world of internet communications

The Italian Internet Peering Landscape by Mauro Magrassi of MIX – the Milan Internet Exchange #peeringweek

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Thursday, 20 March, 2014
No Comments on The Italian Internet Peering Landscape by Mauro Magrassi of MIX – the Milan Internet Exchange #peeringweek

Forewords: The Italian Landscape

Basic facts about Italy and its Internet Landscape:

a. Italy has a strong incumbent, one of the strongest in Europe. It has been amongst the first in splitting domestic and global/foreign business into two separate branches, where the international one is Sparkle, one of the Renesys baker’s dozen, if not a Tier-1.

b. most of the business is concentrated around Milano as this city is the sixth european telecommunication services market according to Telegeography. Nearly all internet traffic is backhauled there in a ‘Docklands-like’ location known as Via Caldera, a business campus located on the west side of the city close to the highway ring.

c. following Telecom Italia approach, nearly all the big national players (carriers and ISPs) have been always trying to attack adjacent markets, like colo, system integration and so on. As a result of this carrier neutral co-locators have always found an extremely hostile environment there, and are almost unknown. Even in Milano there is just one of them. Basically anybody which has a national network have developed his own data centre.

d. Italy is not a language or cultural hub for the neighboring countries, but

Business xaas

Using Freeagent as the accounting software for startup trefor.net

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Wednesday, 19 March, 2014
No Comments on Using Freeagent as the accounting software for startup trefor.net

Things are fairly hectic here on the trefor.net startup front. We are trying to set the business up so that everything is automated. This hasn’t been a total walk in the park due to the time it seems to have taken to do some basic things such as set up a business bank account, get online banking, VAT number registration etc etc etc.

Customer accounts have now been set up on FreeAgent, invoices sent out and the first cash is in the bank – yay. We chose FreeAgent partly because it is being used by people in other offices near ours and party because in theory it has all the APIs we need to automate processes.

Also when you search online it is very difficult to see the wood from the trees when it comes to accounting packages. The big ones get the SEO rankings but products such as Sage come with the baggage of being early runners in the game.

FreeAgent really has been a piece of cake to set up. Importing contacts is easy, generating invoices a dream. We haven’t yet got to the reconciling bank balances bit yet as we are still waiting for internet banking to be set up but it won’t be long now.

Stay tuned…

Use this 10% off discount referral code for FreeAgent 43ls3wr5 – check it out via this link . We can both save cash

fun stuff peering

Tomo entertains in Leeds Town Hall #peeringweek

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Wednesday, 19 March, 2014
No Comments on Tomo entertains in Leeds Town Hall #peeringweek

Tomova Yoshida from JPNAP is a globe trotting musician cum IXP engineer. He entertained us all in Helsinki with impromptu Beatles renditions on the grand piano at the 23rd Euro-IX Forum social night. At the 24th Forum he stepped up a gear.

OK he accompanied the Euro-IX ~~drunks~~ choir on the piano. But he did a lot more than that. Leeds Town Hall, the venue for this week’s social, has one humongous organ. “It is the most magnificent organ I’ve ever seen” one attendee was heard to say. Well I have to agree with her.

The images below are of the choir in action around Tomo, sat at the piano, the view of the hall and dinner from a seat in front of the organ pipes, the view of the organ itself from the back of the hall and of me in my standard issue Yorkshire flat cap with John Souter of LINX and Melanie Kempf of DE-CIX.

Finally at the end of this post is a short video of Tomo playing the organ so that you can appreciate the sound. Magnificent it was 🙂

Other peering week posts you might like to read include:

UK internet history – The Early Days of LONAP by Raza Rizvi
INEX’s IXP Manager – Tools to help manage an Internet Exchange by Barry O’Donovan
Regional Peering in the UK by James Blessing
Co-operation makes internet exchanges future proof by Pauline Hartsuiker
Experience of launching an IXP in North America by Ben Hedges
The evolution of an IXP network engineer by Rob Lister
Why does Scotland need an Internet Exchange? by Charlie Boisseau

Engineer engineering peering

The evolution of the IXP Network Engineer… #peeringweek @lonap

Post author By Rob Lister
Post date Wednesday, 19 March, 2014
No Comments on The evolution of the IXP Network Engineer… #peeringweek @lonap

Tales from the rarely sighted and lesser spotted IXP Network Engineer…

From the beginning, the principle of an Internet Exchange Point (IXP) is simple. It’s just a layer 2 network, to which participating service providers connect.

Most IXPs started small, and were managed by volunteer efforts, or by another organisation until they become large enough to become an independent organisation, and maybe employ network engineers.
So what do these engineers working at IXPs do?

In the beginning, we just installed the hardware, plugged in the cables, configured a few things and then went to the pub. Life was good! But those days in the pub weren’t to last!

broadband datacentre Engineer engineering internet Net peering

Why Does Scotland Need a Broadband Internet Exchange? #peeringweek

Post author By Charlie Boisseau
Post date Wednesday, 19 March, 2014
2 Comments on Why Does Scotland Need a Broadband Internet Exchange? #peeringweek

Almost a year ago exactly, an ambition I’ve had for a very long time came true. It’s not a personal ambition (not exactly on my bucket list), but it’s an ambition I wanted the local Scottish Internet and broadband community to achieve.

After years of failed attempts, talking amongst ourselves in the community and generally making very little progress, on the 27th of March 2013, LINX held a meeting in Edinburgh to discuss the possibility of having an Internet Exchange in Scotland. It was at that meeting that the community agreed to ask LINX to build what would become IXScotland.

One might wonder why Scotland needs an Internet Exchange of its own?

Business gadgets

I have the power….. (now anyway!)

Post author By Peter Farmer
Post date Tuesday, 18 March, 2014
1 Comment on I have the power….. (now anyway!)

I’m a professional nomad.

I neither work from home, nor from a specific office. I live from my rucksack – in fact, my Swiss Gear laptop job, thanks to the slimness of my laptop, is sufficient for me to travel for 4 days without anything else. OK, so the shirts get a little creased, but no more so than on the daily commute, and before anyone asks, there’s always daily clean underwear and shirts.

It’s not uncommon for me to go 12 hours in London between umpteen locations for meetings and never touch a desk. This poses a problem; modern electronic equipment, such as the branch of Dixons in my rucksack (two phones, iPad, laptop and a MiFi) seems to have gone full circle with battery life. The first Motorola mobile phones lasted for just a few minutes…… then Nokia in the late 90s appeared to have produced a hydrogen fuel cell by accident as the 6110 and its ilk would last for what seemed like years, even playing Snake constantly. And now, I am lucky to get 2-3 hours full use out of the Apple equipment and maybe 4 out of the laptop with the extended life battery.

If Shakespeare wrote Richard III today, I am sure the famous line would be “A socket, a socket, my Kingdom for a socket!”.

I know you can eek out more life by using more Wifi over 3G/4G, or disabling 3G/4G and relying on 2G/Edge and disabling push email/notifications and lowering screen brightness, clearing background apps and whatnot. That essentially, with each step, reduces the smartphone more and more back towards its Nokia 6110 ancestor and, for the professional nomad, makes life more and more difficult.

I’ve long known about portable battery backs, things to give a quick boost in charge to a phone; brilliant if you’re broken down at 3am on the side of the road, but an extra 20% wouldn’t cut it, not in the slightest. I then discovered there are packs out there that (in technical lingo 14000 miliamp Hours in capacity) can charge the devices that demands 10W/2A outlets, like the new iPads. Not only that, some can charge another device at the same time, albeit at the lower rated output used by older devices. In layman terms, 14,000 mAh is about 7 full iPhone 5 charges, or just short of one full iPad 4 charge.

This was a godsend of a revelation; not only could I do a full 12 hours out and about without a socket, I could do another day too. Best of all though, it gets over the fact that almost every Premier Inn in the country doesn’t have a socket by the bed, which is infuriating for the average smartphone user.

It also has an unintended side effect. Despite the model I chose being brickish and garish white, it attracts attention. On more than one occasion pretty ladies have inquired as to what it is at the bar; so it seems I have somehow lucked upon the modern day equivalent of a Gucci filofax!

Google+ Peter Farmer

To the glory of the internet #peeringweek

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Tuesday, 18 March, 2014
No Comments on To the glory of the internet #peeringweek

May your networks be stable and free from DDOS attacks. Always wear a white hat and be nice to others. 24th Euro-IX Forum, Salem church, AQL, Leeds.

Other Peering Week posts on trefor.net include:
UK internet history – The Early Days of LONAP by Raza Rizvi
INEX’s IXP Manager – Tools to help manage an Internet Exchange by Barry O’Donovan
Regional Peering in the UK by James Blessing
Co-operation makes internet exchanges future proof by Pauline Hartsuiker
Experience of launching an IXP in North America by Ben Hedges

Business peering

The @asda Golden Cone #peeringweek

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Tuesday, 18 March, 2014
No Comments on The @asda Golden Cone #peeringweek

The Golden Cone. Sometimes you come across something quite by accident that lights up your life. It’s similar to finding a ten pound note in a pair of trousers you haven’t worn since last summer, but different.

This morning we were on our way to the 24th Euro-IX Forum in Leeds and Rob Lister decided we would take a different route to the one we had been using. This took us past the ASDA offices which was where we discovered pure treasure. Traffic cones of bright gold lined the parking spaces nearest to the front door. Position A.

The second photo shows you why they were there. Rewards for good behaviour/good attendance/top performance/name drawn in a raffle¹. One wonders whether there is the obverse incentive at the point at the end of the car park farthest away from the door. Or maybe naughty employees aren’t actually allowed to park and are made to get the bus in to work (nothing wrong with taking the bus – I don’t know what they were thinking!).

Of course this HR morale booster could also work the other way. Staff might actively seek not to win to avoid approbation by jealous peers. Still, it was a good idea, I suppose…

¹ delete as you see fit – I don’t actually know the answer.

Engineer peering

St Patrick’s Day celebration at 24th Euro-IX Forum #peeringweek #Guinness

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Tuesday, 18 March, 2014
No Comments on St Patrick’s Day celebration at 24th Euro-IX Forum #peeringweek #Guinness

What a beautiful sight. Dozens of Guinness’ arranged tidily ready for consumption at the 24th Euro-IX Forum. Elsewhere in the world there is trouble. Planes get hijacked, countries annexed, revolution plotted but in Leeds all is well.

Guinness – not just a drink, an art form.

broadband dns Engineer engineering internet ipv6 media Net peering

Experiences of Launching a Broadband IXP in North America #peeringweek @LINX_Network

Post author By Jeremy Orbell
Post date Tuesday, 18 March, 2014
No Comments on Experiences of Launching a Broadband IXP in North America #peeringweek @LINX_Network

LINX Head of Marketing and Business Development Ben Hedges shares his experiences launching a broadband IXP in a Peering Week guest post.

The opportunity to co-host the 24th Euro-IX forum in the UK has come along at what is a very exciting time for LINX. It’s our 20th year and this event comes shortly after us opening two brand new IXPs; IXScotland in Edinburgh and LINX NoVA in North Virginia, USA.

With LINX NoVA being our first overseas exchange there has been a lot of attention worldwide for what we’ve been building in the States. In this blog I will look to explain the background as to why we’re doing what we’re doing and why we believe this is an important development for LINX and its members plus the peering industry as a whole.

Tags LINX, LINX NoVA, London Internet Exchange

Engineer peering

Cooperation Makes Internet Exchanges Future-proof #peeringweek

Post author By Pauline Hartsuiker
Post date Tuesday, 18 March, 2014
No Comments on Cooperation Makes Internet Exchanges Future-proof #peeringweek

Internet exchanges have come a long way since the early nineties, when most of these platforms were formed. In the previous twenty years the niche industry of IP interconnection through public peering has seen a number of evolutions. How can Internet exchanges remain successful in the years to come? Especially those with an international focus?

Let me first start with the factors that are key for keeping Internet exchanges healthy and their business sustainable:

Tags co-operation, data centre, e-infrastructure, internet, IXP

End User fun stuff peering

The bald patch #peeringweek

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Monday, 17 March, 2014
2 Comments on The bald patch #peeringweek

Satellite image of a bald patch. This is an anonymous bald patch photographed by a passing spy satellite en route to a help search for flight MH370 missing in the Indian Ocean. GPS coordinates suggest the person in the photo was in the Leeds area at the time although no information is available about his identity.

Speculation abounds concerning whether the bald patch was at the 24th Euro-IX Forum at AQLs Salem datacentre though there is no hard evidence to support this. We shall probably never find out who’s bald patch this is.

Amazing what technology can do now innit?

Photo courtesy of Edward Snowden.

Other Peering Week posts on trefor.net include:

UK internet history – The Early Days of LONAP by Raza Rizvi
INEX’s IXP Manager – Tools to help manage an Internet Exchange by Barry O’Donovan
Regional Peering in the UK by James Blessing

Engineer fun stuff peering

A load of Crapper #peeringweek #peeingweek

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Monday, 17 March, 2014
No Comments on A load of Crapper #peeringweek #peeingweek

You can tell when it’s time for a coffee break at a conference. My attention starts to wander and to wake meself up I take to posting unusual or unexpected things.

Because it is ~~Peeing~~ Peering Week on trefor.net I thought it highly appropriate to put up this picture of a very fine cistern in the gents toilet. If you click on the photo you also get to see some excellent copper pipework that delivers the contents of the cistern to the urinals below.

For the avoidance of doubt there was nobody else around in the toilet at the time. That would have been a little on the dodgy side.

The second pic is simply the plaque outside the AQL datacentre. It is self explanatory. And finally there is one of me in front of a green screen. No idea why the green screen was there. I could have gone to the effort of putting up an electronic backdrop but the only one I could find was of Leeds and I could have just gone outside and taken that photo.

Other Peering Week posts on trefor.net include:

UK internet history – The Early Days of LONAP by Raza Rizvi
INEX’s IXP Manager – Tools to help manage an Internet Exchange by Barry O’Donovan
Regional Peering in the UK by James Blessing

@jodam talks 400GbE at 24th Euro-IX Forum in Leeds via Skype from China #peeringweek

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Monday, 17 March, 2014
No Comments on @jodam talks 400GbE at 24th Euro-IX Forum in Leeds via Skype from China #peeringweek

Interesting talk on 400GbE at 24th Euro-IX Forum in Leeds by Dell’s Chief Ethernet Evangelist John D’Ambrosia – 400GbE is currently up for discussion at IEEE meeting in China.

John was actually speaking from China using Skype. It was remarkable quality video – no synch problems and showed up perfectly clearly on a large screen.

這是所有鄉親

Flashback to Christmas Eve 2010, Skype outage and Talk Talk traffic surge forecast on Xmas Day

Skype Sold

Net neutrality, Skype and Commissioner Reding

End User gadgets

Google Chromecast available in the UK this week.

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Monday, 17 March, 2014
No Comments on Google Chromecast available in the UK this week.

Noticed a piece on the Guardian talking about Google Chromecast becoming available in the UK from Wednesday. Interestingly this review of Chromecast has had 12,578 views since it was written in October last year. Also did a second review a short while later.

I occasionally use the Chromecast to watch stuff on YouTube when there is nothing I fancy watching on “normal” TV.

Engineer peering

dearly beloved bretheren – Salem church Leeds #peeringweek cc @aqldotcom

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Monday, 17 March, 2014
No Comments on dearly beloved bretheren – Salem church Leeds #peeringweek cc @aqldotcom

Here at AQL’s Salem church for the 24th Euro-IX Forum and Peering Week on trefor.net. AQL have very impressively converted the church into a datacentre. Upstairs and looking down through a toughened glass floor at the racks is a conference centre. It’s a great facility.

I thought I’d put up the header photo because it shows the mix of Apple / non Apple users. Simple really. You can click on the pic to enlarge it. In case you’re wondering there were a lot more people sat on my side of the church – it was where the door was. 110 people have signed up for the Forum which continues to grow.

More as it happens…

Other Peering Week posts on trefor.net include:

UK internet history – The Early Days of LONAP by Raza Rizvi
INEX’s IXP Manager – Tools to help manage an Internet Exchange by Barry O’Donovan
Regional Peering in the UK by James Blessing

Engineer peering

The very early days of LONAP – The London Neutral Access Point #peeringweek

Post author By Raza Rizvi
Post date Monday, 17 March, 2014
3 Comments on The very early days of LONAP – The London Neutral Access Point #peeringweek

Raza Rizvi is an early pioneer of the internet in the UK. He spent ten years on the board of LINX and was one of the founding signatories of LONAP. In this very interesting post he discusses the early years of internet peering in the UK and how the founding of LONAP came about:

Back in the middle of the second-half of the 1990s if you were a UK ISP that wanted to show you were serious about providing quality Internet access to your customers, you had to be seen to be connecting, or peering, with other ISPs.

The simplest mechanism to do this was to join a peering point.

Engineer peering

INEX’s IXP Manager – tools to help manage an Internet Exchange & invitation to Dublin #peeringweek

Post author By Barry O'Donovan
Post date Monday, 17 March, 2014
No Comments on INEX’s IXP Manager – tools to help manage an Internet Exchange & invitation to Dublin #peeringweek

IXP Manager has grown organically within INEX over the last decade from a CRUD interface on database tables to a fully fledged management system with an ever increasing toolkit of provisioning, configuration and management scripts built around it. If you’re an IXP starting up (or an IXP looking to grow and offer more value to your members), the question isn’t why should you use IXP Manager but rather why the hell aren’t you?

Every individual and business battles the philosophy of not invented here on a regular basis. And with good reason – it’s often more rewarding and interesting to build stuff yourself, just the way you want it. Building a management system for your IXP seems like a lot of fun. And it is – we did it after all! But, after six years of building, tweaking and improving IXP Manager, it can become a bit of a chore to crank out new features every couple of months.

Now, I want you to think about this –

Business fun stuff

Editorial job vacancy at trefor.net cc @techjpr

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Sunday, 16 March, 2014
No Comments on Editorial job vacancy at trefor.net cc @techjpr

We at trefor.net are looking for our first member of editorial staff.

trefor.net has been going since May 2008 as a personal blog with opinion pieces covering emerging technologies and platforms. The site is now widely read by people working in the internet technology related industries both in the UK and overseas.

At the beginning of 2014 trefor.net became an independent business and we already have our first developer on board. The ambitions of the company are to grow to become the premier site for comment and information on tech matters in the UK and to extend its reach in other regions.

The site, whilst covering a range of tech areas such as Cloud, Unified Communications, Mobile and Networks also has threads that are of specific interest to Engineers, Business and End Users. The type of content we are looking to provide ranges from deep diving technology subjects, largely expected to come from expert guest authors to coverage of peoples experiences in using these technologies.

We are now looking for a journo to become our first editorial member of staff. You should have a minimum of two years experience of writing for the tech sector and will ideally be based in the London travel to work area although we will also consider candidates wishing to work out of the Lincoln office. The flexibility to write on any tech subject is important as is an understanding of how web publishing works and the general principles of SEO. This is not a 9 – 5 job and although as the business grows there will be deadlines related to specific “focus weeks” this is an ongoing online business. You have something to write? jfdi.

Initial salary on offer is £20k – £25k depending on experience plus an uncapped year end bonus related to company profitability. There is also a budget to cover the acquisition of additional content where it can help to boost visitor numbers for specific keywords.

Drop us a line with your pitch and links to your published work. The right candidate can start as soon as possible. trefor.net is a business that has attitude. The bland need not apply.

End User fun stuff

Not wearing socks, wearing shorts – the bbq season is nearly upon us

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Sunday, 16 March, 2014
No Comments on Not wearing socks, wearing shorts – the bbq season is nearly upon us

It’s traditional for me to start wearing shorts as soon as the clocks go forward in the spring. The British summer is not very long and you have to cram in as many summery activities as you can in a short space of time. The clocks don’t go back until next weekend but today is such a nice sunny one that I have donned said shorts.

I have a regular routine when I put a pair of shorts on for the first time in the year and that is the “now where did I put the shorts away for winter” routine. There’s also the “hmm do I actually have any shorts left from last year” thought that goes through my head. Summer does inflict wear and tear on a pair of shorts, especially when tightening waistbands are involved. The consequence of a barbeque culture.

Fortunately over the last couple of years I’ve been able to pull in 4 notches on the belt so I’m working my way back through some older pairs of shorts. Not quite at the lissome “take a look at my sixpack” stage yet which will be the point at which I treat myself to some new and cool gear. Don’t expect anything soon:)

If this weather continues into next week I’m also thinking of bringing the bbq out of deep hibernation. It’s a Weber 3 jet gas job. There are some purists who won’t touch gas but in my experience it’s far more reliable and the food tastes the same. Less likely to be burnt if anything. By havign a gas bbq we also have more meals cooked outside. Anne likes to know when the kids are going to be fed and the process of lighting a charcoal bbq is very hit and miss where timing is concerned.

Ciao Amigo!

Read a post with a picture of a fire pit in it here.

End User fun stuff

Ideas at the weekend #1 – wear odd socks

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Saturday, 15 March, 2014
5 Comments on Ideas at the weekend #1 – wear odd socks

All week you’ve been sat in that office in your grey suit, stripy tie dangling from your white collar bound neck, shackled to your desk by the oppressive chains of conformity. Bowler hats may no longer be the mode but routine still binds. The 7.25 to Waterloo is still the 7.25 to Waterloo. There are leaves on the line and signal failures at Clapham Junction remain a blight on your ever lengthening commuter day.

The weekend is here. The suit now hangs safely out of sight in the wardrobe and the pair of jeans has made it out of the drawer for its weekly outing. It is spring in the Kingdom of Elizabeth II. The cherry blossom is out and it is time to add some colour to your drab and uneventful life¹.

The time has come to break free.

End User fun stuff

Lincoln 10K – Habits

I once had an idea for a radio program based on Top 10 Lists. I shared this idea with a very talented and occasionally furious radio producer, who informed me that “Lists are what people produce when they run out of ideas”.

So with that in mind here’s a list of my bad running habits.

Tags 10k, Lincoln, lincoln 10k, running

Engineer peering

Next week is Peering Week on trefor.net #IXP #euroix #internet

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Friday, 14 March, 2014
No Comments on Next week is Peering Week on trefor.net #IXP #euroix #internet

To coincide with the 24th Euro-IX Forum being held on Monday and Tuesday in Leeds (England) we are having a peering week on trefor.net.

Last month James Blessing provided us with a primer on how ISPs provide internet access using Peering and Internet Transit. Every day next week we are going to be featuring guest posts by experts from amongst the top Internet Exchange Providers (IXPs) in Europe.

Look out for posts from all the UK players – that’s IX Manchester, Leeds, Scotland, LINX and LONAP together with contributions from various European centres of excellence including Holland, Ireland, Italy, Germany.

Stay tuned. You won’t want to miss a single word 🙂

Other peering posts – The LONAP AGM and my first Banksy.

End User social networking

A Twitter death

I woke up in the middle of the night, took a spin round my phone and noticed that someone I followed on twitter had died.

I had never met this guy but at one time he had been a fairly frequent tweeter and you got his whole life story. He was out of work with a broken marriage. It looked as if he had been prone to aggression and had an alcohol problem. Then he kicked the habit and seemed to be pulling himself together.

At some point he disappeared off my timeline. I didn’t really notice. I follow 1,772 people at the time of writing. A lot of them come and go and many of them hardly tweet at all. Also it doesn’t take much of a change in your personal habits to not be looking when they are tweeting. I don’t try to read all the tweets in my timeline.

So last night when I saw someone mention that he had died it came as a surprise. I took a look at his timeline and he seemed to have gone quiet on social media platforms from around the middle of last summer and he died in the autumn. There was a reference somewhere to intensive care.

I have no idea what the story is. I’m not really interested and it is really none of our businesses. What is interesting is the fact that his life was in some small measure played out online. I have over the past few years been researching my family tree (hence the mention of me buying the History of the Welsh Baptists in a previous post). I’m at a point where there isn’t much to go on. It’s all hard slog in records offices in West Wales.

However any descendant of my twitter friend, indeed your descendants and mine, are likely to have a wealth of information about our day to day lives like never before. In some respects we are planting trees that will only be enjoyed by people that come after us. Much of what I post is private and shared only with the family, which could be an issue downstream. The family is a specific named set of individuals so my details could be closed to 4G grandchildren (for example). This might require some thought re sharing rules but the principle is there and in any case my Twitter timeline is open for anyone to read.

We are also here relying on the continued existence of today’s social media platforms and their data bases far into the future which is by no means a racing certainty.

It doesn’t really matter anyway. I’ve waxed on long enough.

RIP my twitter friend.

Take care now…

End User travel

Poignant moment on train

On the way from Lincoln to Manchester yesterday for the Convergence Summit I changed trains at Sheffield. A man got on and sat opposite me.

The bloke looked a bit stressed. He was dark haired with a little beard and wore a shawl around his shoulders that gave away the fact that he was from somewhere in the Middle East.

He was continuously on the phone and regularly frowned at his iPhone when the signal kept disappearing. We are on a train I thought to myself! The signal is going to be crap!

The person at the other end kept ringing him back but then seemed to give up. We were through tunnels and out into the Pennines.

Turns out he wasn’t carrying a ticket. The conductor came along and charged him £25 to get to Manchester Airport. The return was about £34. He considered it but decided only to go for the single. Seemed like a good saving to me. He was clearly planning on coming back otherwise he wouldn’t have asked how much the return would be. Nowt as queer as folk.

As we approached Manchester his phone started to work again and I began to pick up snippets as he occasionally lapsed from Arabic into English. The conversation went like this:

“if …….. my life is finished. I will call you. I will call you. I will try and cross the border. Turkey… Syria.”

Wow. No wonder this guy looked stressed. He was on his way to Turkey and then trying to cross the border into Syria. There’s a big untold story behind those few words. Something we only ever see on the news played out in front of me on the train.

The train arrived at Manchester Piccadilly and I got off. I wish him luck…

London Book Fair 2014 – unsubscribe SPAM

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Tuesday, 11 March, 2014
No Comments on London Book Fair 2014 – unsubscribe SPAM

Yesterday I took delivery of a book: “History of the Welsh Baptists from the year 63 to 1770”. I had to refer to this post for the exact dates – I’m on my way to Manchester, the book is at home and the acknowledgement email cuts the title off at the number 6.

I’m happy enough with the book although the paper has a distinctive odour. Much of it is fictitious rubbish sourced from medieval tracts. It serves a purpose as I am interested in Welsh Baptists in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries¹, particularly from the area between Caerfyrddin and Castell Newydd Emlyn 🙂

The book is a photocopy of an abbreviated English translation of an early Welsh text but it has done the job for me. It’s a print on demand job from India. The service was good.

This morning I woke up to an email from someone called

End User fun stuff mobile apps

The hazards of walking to and from work #runkeeper

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Tuesday, 11 March, 2014
No Comments on The hazards of walking to and from work #runkeeper

Took me an hour and a half to walk to work yesterday whereas it normally takes around 30 mins. Only kidding. Forgot to switch off Runkeeper:) The app seems to be intelligent enough to realise that I’d arrived and was just making a cup of tea, writing blog posts etc.

The other by product of walking to and from work, apart from inducing amnesia, is that it makes your glasses steam up when you get home. Last night I walked in to a warm kitchen and was blinded by the heat. See the header photo. It must be so.

I’m used to it. When I’m in the pool of a morning I usually have to ask an attendant what time it is despite there being a big clock on the wall. There is no point asking any of the other swimmers. After 8am they are all of an age and suffer from the same problem.

That’s all. See you later.

Other good reads
Working Time
Internet routing pedestrian style

Tags runkeeper

End User fun stuff mobile apps

The spare plinth – where Facebook used to tread

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Tuesday, 11 March, 2014
5 Comments on The spare plinth – where Facebook used to tread

Trafalgar Square has a spare plinth. So has my phone, since I ditched the Facebook app.

They let different people exhibit on the spare plinth in Trafalgar Square.

I’m proposing to do the same. Of course not as many people will see whatever is exhibited in my spare spot, perhaps.

You will note that there is no email icon on the front screen. Dont bother suggesting it. Email is relegated to the second division as a means of communication. It’s on the next screen along.

I don’t regularly use all of the apps on the front screen. Mostly Chrome, Camera, Twitter, Phone, Calendar and LinkedIn.

The others are pretty much ad hoc. I only occasionally need the alarm clock. The idea for this post came to me in bed so I drafted a post, title only, using the WordPress app. Oh and I use Runkeeper every day I am in the office.

So there you go. I wonder which app I should display on my spare plinth!?

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