A couple of days off work has meant that I’ve been a bit short on things to post about recently.  It comes to something when your own mother phones you up and tells you that you are slacking because of the lack of new posts.

However this has meant that I’ve had some time to ‘fiddle around’ with various behind the scenes settings, and has allowed me some time to think about the redesign of this site.

Also I’ve been working on the Podcast.

I’d also like to take this chance to say a big ‘Thank you’ to the people at Blogware, who sorted out my spam problem incredibly quickly.  Oh and also a big congratulations to Joey and The Redhead who just got married.

I flew out to Canada to celebrate Joey’s birthday – both the craziest, and most expanding thing I have ever done.

I promise, I haven’t been playing World of Warcraft (Not since some rotten sod introduced me to EVE-Online anyway, and I can level up in that while doing other things, which is great for me).

I’m back to work tomorrow, so with a bit of luck I’ll have something interesting to write about rather than ‘Went to another abdominal pain that turned out to be constipation’.

Otherwise I may have to make something up.

I have a feeling that I’ll be busy over the weekend, as there is a huge amount of overtime shifts that aren’t being covered…

In the past 10 minutes I’ve had over 650 comment spam messages to this blog.

Comment spam that I am going to have to delete by hand tomorrow/later today.

Were I feeling on top form, I’d be wanting to kill things in a painful and noisy fashion.

So I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to turn off anonymous posting. 

But console yourself that it is really easy to get an account, and that it works on all Blogware blogs.

I think I’ll be throwing things around the room after I’ve had some sleep though…

Blog Assessment of Personality System.

 

‘BAPS’ for short…

 

I was driving aimlessly around, trying to find an interesting job, but actually thinking about the redesign of the Guardian.

 

Many of the blogs that I read regularly have been commenting about the redesign of the Guardian newspaper, and I was pondering what this meant about the blogs that I read, and what it says about my personality.

 

The first time I was in college, I used to supplement my meagre income with Tarot card readings and palm reading (palm reading I would often do for free at parties, it allowed me to retire to a dark corner and stroke the hands of attractive young women).  All of which is utter rubbish, but it was amusing at the time.

 

So I now offer a new service – The BAPS.

 

Send me a list of 10 or 12 blogs or sites that you read regularly (Not Boing Boing, as everyone reads that), leave a tip in the Donation site and I’ll send back my analysis of your reading habits, and what it says about your personality.

 

It will not be the same as everyone else, nor will it be a simple ‘cut n paste’ job.

 

Honest.

 

And this post isn’t just a chance to snaffle some Google juice for the word BAPS, which for the non-Brits is a slang term for a female chest.

I love reading peoples comments, not only are they often interesting, but they also serve to swell my ego.  This is a good thing.

This seems to be a popular blog, which is a good thing, but with that popularity comes a price.

Comment and Trackback spam.

I’ve been coming back from work and finding 20–30 bits of comment spam, and often half a dozen bits of Trackback spam.  After twelve hours of work, the last thing that I want to do is sit down and clear out the clutter.

As one of those people who hates registering for anything, especially reading/commenting on blogs I’ve always left open the possibility to comment anonymously without having to sign in.

Unfortunately I think that this is going to have to change.

So in the next couple of days, unless I receive another idea on how to stop the spam, I’ll be turning off anonymous commenting.  The problem is that I’m kind of tied to the Blogware commenting system, so switching to a slightly less spam-friendly is as far as I’m concerned out of the question.

Obviously I’d like everyone to register a commenting identity, as it makes it easier to follow what people are saying to me, but if you want to remain anonymous then you can use the following details.

Username: guest

Password: guest

Comments?

Right, I give up…

Moving house and then a week away from internet connectivity has meant that I have no chance of catching up on all the blogs I subscribe to on Bloglines.

I’ve just spent the past six and a half hours trying to make a dent in the unread articles.

So I just hit the “Mark all as read”.

Sorry.

I’ll try to do better in future.

To whoever it main concern,

The feeling on the 'shopfloor' of the LAS is that morale is suffering.

I think that part of the reason that morale is so low is because of the lack of communication within the service. While we do get bulletins every so often, I would suggest that this isn't enough.

When there isn't effective internal communication there is opportunity for rumours to breed. So for the past two years the whole Agenda for Change process has been subject to some astoundingly inaccurate speculation.

As a consequence of of this rumour-mongering people are unsure of the future, and this does not keep a workforce happy.

So I would like to suggest how the internal communication within the LAS could be improved in a way that would cost next to nothing.

We are all aware of the banned unofficial forum, yet it has become one of the ways in which news is spread quickly throughout the service. While some of the reports on the forum are true, it has also become a breeding ground for false information through incorrect interpretation of official bulletins, and via 'friend of a friend' information.

A recent example of this is the rumour, or truth, as there has been no official word, of cameras being fitted in the back of new ambulances in a bid to stop violence against crews.

My suggestion is that there should be one place on the service intranet where selected people (station and sector reps, team leaders, DSO's and a person from each meeting group) can publish exactly what is happening.

Perhaps it could even allow comments from people on station.

In essence, internal blogging.

I understand that we have the internal website "The Pulse", but there are sections on that which haven't been updated since 2003, and while there is some good information on it, the focus is too broad, and it reads as if it has been written by a committee more used to making press releases.

A blog is extremely cheap and easy to set up, even easier to maintain, and can have multiple authors.

You can set up a way to post to it via email, so minutes of meetings could be published as quickly as they are typed up.

Imagine a situation where a crew can come on station, click on the link to the internal blog and instantly find out what is happening in their area, in the service as a whole and what was decided at the vehicle steering group.

If the blog allows comments (perhaps moderated), then when Team Leader 'X' mentions that they are having the stations on that complex repainted, then roadcrews could make suggestions about the colour of the paint.

This internal blog would not replace the traditional bulletin system but, for a miniscule outlay would actually enhance it.

I am, of course available for consultancy.

The usual disclaimers apply

I’m mentioned in the Observer today, along with some other great blogs.

Others mentioned are Mental Nurse (Which I never knew of, but after reading the first post has gone onto my bloglines subscription)

Brian’s Brief encounters, a police blog that I mentioned last week.

Tales From The Chalk-face, from a teacher (I keep telling my brother, a teacher, to blog, but he is too worried about losing his job).

And my mate Suw Charman who is our home grown genius of blogging.¹

 Also mentioned is Joe Gordon who is probably the first UK person sacking for blogging about work.

 

So if you are coming over from the Observer, welcome,  and pleas enjoy browsing the archives.

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^1.Disclaimer: I only recently gave up trying to snog her.