Well it's been quite a few years since I blogged on the train. Of course, back then it wasn't called blogging; it was an online journal or diary. Things have come on leaps and bounds since then, and left me way behind. Back then venting to the Internet was a good way of helping me deal with my depression, maybe it still will be, hence the return.
So what's changed? I'm now running this site using Movable Type The original site was hand-crafted HTML (actually, to begin with it was managed in Frontpage, but I regained my senses and went back to vi after a while); the next step was blosxom, an excellent small open-source blogger. The version I was using wasn't very flexible though, and the code was a bugger to get running under mod_perl; mainly because it was written to be backwards compatible with Perl 4. I attempted a couple of times to make blosxom mod_perl compatible ; I even started a project to recode blosxom from scratch using HTML::Mason (I called the project flotsxam, but it never got very far). I never managed to finish any of these as it's hard to maintain enthusiasm for open source projects when the IP clauses in your employment contract mean that you can't share the benefits. So: I've made the switch to MT3.3. I had considered migrating to MT a number of times in the past; however I always felt put off by the limitations on the free personal use version (restricted number of blogs / authors). With 3.3 they've made it fully free to use without restrictions for personal bloggers; and now I'm willing to experiment with it.
So now I have a decent system backing up the site, XML-RPC support, and a mature plugin API; so look for some forthcoming integration with a few of the other sites I use. I am already pulling in some RSS feeds from last.fm and Hiveminder which are two of my current favourites. I have also set up a Technoriti account so I can see how un-influential my blog is ;).
Still unsure whether I should run multiple blogs or try and consolidate them down into one. I need to keep a seperate work blog (run on SocialText Open, so it's more of a Bliki) because there are some things I'm not going to release on a public blog (internal documentation updates, outage reports, etc), and I've gotta keep this one, it's the grand-pappy of them all. Do I keep a seperate blog for tech stuff? I probably should becuase there's a different tone in my pure tech posts and they're probably a lot more interesting to the outside world than my general meanderings posts (like this one). That sort of split can be handled by categories though...
Still leaves my non-self-run blogs. I'd prefer any music related blogs to go on my last.fm journal, because that'll help build my neighborhood; and I like the look of vox.com; seems like a cool way of building virtual communities, but it's yet another blog to maintain (I'm currently waiting for my invite, so I haven't tested vox personally yet).
There needs to be a higher level of blog synchronisation, kinda like RSS in reverse - one master site, and it pushes posts to subordinate blogs based on categories / tags. Does this exist? Have I just invented the next big thing? I doubt it - surely this must be available somewhere?
Somehow I've managed to avoid talking about the trains so far...
My current commute has three sections. The first section is run by First Capital Connect (was formerly run by Thameslink, but they lost the franchise). This section is no problem at all; trains usually on time, and rarely cancelled. At the far end South West Trains run a fairly tight ship on the Richmond to Egham line; main problem is that they bunch the trains up and run 2 every half hour, rather than running every 15 minutes; this means that if you miss one it's a long wait to the next, and given the reliability of the last contender that's not an infrequent occurence. Only reason I can think of for them doing this is that there are a number of level crossings on the line, and running the trains spread out would annoy motorists; and we all know that motorists are more important than those of us that try to reduce our emissions by sharing transport...
As I write this I am standing on the human cattle truck that is the Silverlink Metro line that runs between North Woolwich and Richmond; I have the singular honour to be a daily commuter between West Hampstead and Richmond. If you have a choice: use the underground. Seriously.
We're running late, as usual, this morning. Hopefully they won't cancel the train when we get to Gunnersbury. That happens frequently (I probably get hit by that particular cancellation at least 3 times a month, although it's been more than that this month). Current theory held by me and a few other commuters I've spoken to is that the train operators get fined less for cancelling the train than they do for the fines for the knock-on effect of running the service late. That might help the people travelling mid-morning; but the commuters that bring in the bulk of their ticket revenue are left standing on the platform at Gunnersbury.
And the announcement has just been made: This train will be terminating at Gunnersbury. So much for the announcements that we will be calling at all stations to Richmond that have been made at every previous station...