Mark Roddis

Mar 15

Kicking And Screaming–They Killed Google Reader

Maybe it’s an age thing.

I am sat here questioning if I am turning into a dinosaur.

We used to joke about how you needed to get a child to help their parents program the VCR (remember them?) but I can’t help thinking I am heading in that direction myself.

This week I have been reminded that the online world that I have existed within since around 1995 is constantly changing and evolving as Google has announced the retirement of Google Reader.

For me this was my primary source of news and information online. With some 250 RSS feeds, I was able to sit down in a morning and rattle through hundreds of relevant (and not so relevant) news items in a matter of minutes from many different sources. The workflow was efficient and, in line with modern thinking, I could access this “river of news” from any device at any time. If I read an article on one device it was marked read on all other devices.

But now I am forced to change.

So it’s not as if I haven’t done a whole hearted shift in approach before. Not that long ago I went through the exercise of moving my online world online. Shutting down my own servers and using platforms such as Google Apps, WordPress and SmugMug to do the heaving lifting. Enabling me to concentrate on the content and not the platform.

So Google keep saying that the world of online content is getting more social.

Services such as Zite, Flipboard and others can take these news feeds and present them in an online magazine style with nice graphics, lots of social interaction and what have you.

These types of services have been described as “Lean Back” services. You sit back in your comfy chair and browse through your magazine. Which is fine if you want to read through a handful of articles but simply doesn’t work for hundreds of news items.

I don’t want fancy graphics and other readers opinions. I want the information delivered straight to me eyeball without distraction and without the ads preferably as I down a cup of strong coffee. See what this always on world of news has turned me into?

But it’s the ads that power the internet and it’s the advertisers that rely on the social element to target those ads accurately. One can’t help thinking that the real reason Google killed Reader is because it didn’t support their primary business. Advertising!

So I have to accept that just like the death of Usenet before it, the concept of raw RSS feeds is an old fashioned one and so I am dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

It doesn’t help that Google Reader was actually a service not a client. So it’s not just about finding a new application to read my news in (like Zite or Feed Demon etc) but a service that all my clients on all my devices can connect back into.

I am currently playing with Feedly and it shows promise. I think with time it could help wean me off my Google Reader addiction whilst still allowing me to stay in touch with all that is happening around me but the good news is that I am not alone.

Bloggers around the world are screaming about what Google has done so I am sure there will be plenty of opinions on which service is a worthy replacement and all of those opinions will continue to be delivered into my River Of News on a daily basis.

Dec 20

More connected but I still haven’t got my flying car

Well another year has passed and even though I am sure that the vision of the future included hover boards and flying cars, Santa isn’t bringing me any of these this year.

So what has changed in the last 12 months?

Often it hard to pick out those advances in technology that impact your day to day life because the don’t arrive with a big bang. The arrive bit by bit so that you think you have always done things in a certain way.

I mean 6 years ago, none of us were using Facebook or Twitter and now look.

But as I get to the end of 2012 I can’t help noticing that my life and my home is a lot more connected.

Take my living room as an example.

Suddenly that stack of AV kit in the corner of the room has an Ethernet switch connected to it. My Sky+ box has an internet connection, my Yamaha AV amplifier has an internet connection and of course there is an Apple TV in there which again is a connected device. We had none of these connections 12 months ago.

And of course all of that is controlled not by your common or garden remote control but by an app running on an iPad or an Android phone etc.

netv

But not only is everything connected to the web, but more importantly everything is connected to everything else plus because all of this is connected to the web, I can access a lot of things from outside of the home.

Want to set something to record on BBC1 tomorrow night but find yourself halfway around the world? Not a problem. A few clicks on your phone and the recording is scheduled.

And it’s not just in the home.

My car is a rolling WiFi hotspot. My phone can connect to it to access the internet. Plus the satnav has it’s own data connection which it uses to connect to Google Earth to they display that satellite imagery onto the screen on the dashboard

SONY DSC

Meanwhile my phone is talking to various back end servers and my PC on my desk and by iPad and loads of other things all at the same time.

I’m pretty sure that things were not this connected or as easy to get connected either this time 12 months ago. Add to that, a lot of things are going mobile.

You want to hope that the network carriers have got good plans in place to carry all this new mobile data.

Certainly we are moving towards a more connected world and a much more mobile world but so far, the world of the future still doesn’t have my flying car.

Oct 3

New Toy Time

You may have been following my other blog HERE and the long running build quality issues I have had with my Mercedes-Benz C350 that I bought last year.

So eventually somebody saw sense and the dealer did the right thing and the Mercedes was handed back. It was however all rather short notice in the end so I found myself car shopping with little or no research looking for something that would make a good family car, be fun to drive and own, would not rattle and was available pretty much from stock, all without costing me any more per month to own and run than I was previously paying.

So after far too much time spent sitting in car dealers last week, I have taken delivery of probably the least likely car I could have ever ended up with.

So it’s an Audi A7 Quattro which means it is rather large, very quick and might actually make it off the drive this winter if it snows.

It is also fully loaded with toys including top end multimedia with Bose speakers, head up display, full online services including Google Earth, fancy lights, powered everything and more menu options on the dashboard than even Captain Kirk had to deal with.

It’s also very quick and very quiet.

So here are a few more pictures and I will report back in a few weeks on how well it is doing.

Sep 11

Summer Holidays 2012–The Netherlands

For the last 4 years we have driven down into France for our summer holidays but this year we wanted something a little different, a bit closer to home and a bit cheaper.

I was put onto the uniquely Dutch concept of Bungalow Parks so after a bit of research we left home on a dull grey Friday morning at the end of August bound for the channel tunnel and beyond.

We arrived at our destination 12 hours later after driving through France, Belgium and most of The Netherlands. We were staying at the Landal Bungalow Park of Esonstad which is up on the North Sea Coast on the edge of Lauwersmeer which is a huge wetlands national park.

Our house was on the edge of the water and to be fair was exactly as it had been described in the brochure. Spacious, clean and will everything you could want facilities wise, this was our home for the week. Our house was on a small peninsular away from the main park of the park (but still only 5 minutes walk)

The Netherlands 2012

The View From Our Patio

This was certainly not going to be a beach holiday and the weather did not disappoint on that front but armed with a guide book (and diesel at 20p per litre cheaper than in the UK) we set out to explore.

Here are a selection of photos from our days out and of course all our photos can be found here in the album.

The Netherlands 2012