Bradley Howard's Blog

2011 favourites

Dec 27, 2011 at 2:29pm

Last year I wrote about my 2010 favourites and it was one of my most viewed posts of the year. So I thought I’d repeat it for 2011 too - and there's a clear theme running through these favourites!

Favourite new gadget

One of the things I’ve really got involved with in 2011 has been cycling. It started in February when I was out of breath going up a local (yet very long and steep) hill, then got to June where a group of friends rode the BHF London to Brighton. I then started riding into work (13 miles, from North West London to the City).

Three rear wheels later, thanks to the Holloway Road, I decided to go for a new bike. My £27 eBay investment (see below) had had its day after almost 1,800 miles between May and December.

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However my favourite gadget wasn’t the new bike, it was the base layer clothing. Base layers have been around for a few years and despite some literally freezing motorcycle journeys, I hadn’t used one until cycling this winter. They are fantastic and if you get cold easily, try wearing them under your clothes. There you go, a favourite gadget that doesn’t run out of batteries!

Favourite book

Without a doubt, it was Lance Armstrong’s autobiography. It’s a very easy read that is very emotional about someone’s battle with cancer, from denial through to winning the Tour de France afterwards. Thoroughly recommended.

In second place was Alan Sugar’s autobiography which was several times longer than Armstrong’s, but just as enjoyable.

Favourite iPhone app

I’ve started using Barclays Boris bikes to travel around the City if the meeting is only one or two tube stops from the office. So the BarclaysBikes app is really handy, showing how many bikes and spaces are at a specific location. The AR (Augmented Reality) view is genuinely useful to find the nearest bike.

A close second is the updated LinkedIn app. The previous version never seemed to work without wifi. The latest app is excellent for looking up contacts after a meeting or even in the middle of a meeting when we’re discussing a mutual ex-colleague.

For outside work, the Geocaching app is excellent. It shows the three nearest geocaches and makes a spare hour disappear quicker than you can say “Where on earth would someone have hidden it around here?”

Favourite award

Without a doubt, I was extremely proud of the team to receive to a Sitecore Site of the Year award this year for our work with Cadbury.

tags:

LinkedIn, London to Brighton bike ride, application review, awards, bicycles, book review, iPhone, mobile, motorcycles,

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A digital method to deal with illegal cyclists and motorists

Oct 4, 2011 at 9:28am

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Although the weather is extremely warm for autumn in London, it’s still getting dark earlier during the day and I’m now cycling home from work after the sun has set. I cannot believe how many cyclists don’t have lights on their bikes, and for some reason it really irritates me.

As a rough guess I thought about a quarter of all cyclists between the City of London and my home in North West London don’t have any lights. Tonight I counted them (there isn’t a lot more to do when cycling 13 miles):

9 cyclists without lights from a total of 21 bikes
That’s over 40% of the cyclists I saw this evening didn’t have lights on when it was dark.

Unrelated (well it will be related later on) Mrs H and I hardly watch any television (it goes part way to explain how we have four children…) yet one of our favourite programmes is Road Wars, which follows a team of police officers who drive top end sports cars around at high speed pulling over offenders. And one of the most common offences is no insurance.

One in fifteen cars in the UK are uninsured. £30 of every premium goes towards a central organisation called MIB to cover drivers who can’t claim from an uninsured third party.

Back to my bicycle.

I started thinking that the Police should team up with a cycle retailer and stand at pretty much any junction in the City of London pulling over any cyclists without lights. Instead of fining the cyclists, they should make them pay £30 for a set of lights. That’s got to be better than an on the spot fine, because the outcome is better for the Police (less accidents) and the cyclist (less accidents!).

I have a similar solution for drivers with no car insurance. The Police should carry a laptop or a tablet computer and when they pull over an insured driver, instead of the £5,000 fine, penalty points and seizing the vehicle, they should offer an option for the driver to buy the insurance on the spot. Just hand over the laptop with a comparison engine and watch the driver buy a policy.

One of the tactics that uninsured drivers use is to buy insurance and cancel the policy or direct debit after the first month, so one of the terms of this on-the-spot-insurance-cover should be to pay for a full year.

For any other complex social problems, send me an email just before I get on the bike in the evening!

tags:

bicycles, legal,

2 Comments

Tour de France on ITV Player

Jul 28, 2011 at 12:59pm

A huge congratulations to Mark Cavendish on winning the Tour de France's green jersey. That's the colour worn by the leader in the Tour's points competition, which is the race's most consistent high-finisher.

I watched more coverage of the Tour de France this year than ever before. It might be because I've been cycling more (myself) this year, but it's probably got more to do with ITV's superb coverage on TV and online.

The online coverage had a quick user registration process - literally just the email address. The benefit of the registration was twofold:

Users could watch the coverage(!)
Users received an email when coverage started the next day

The second advantage was very refreshing - literally receiving an email when "the Tour" started each day, and then I received notification when the entire Tour highlights was on TV and the Internet.

Websites that require registration for no apparent reason other than untargeted 'spam' email could learn a lot from ITV. The only piece of feedback to ITV for their online coverage is to increase the quality by increasing the video bitrate. I don't mind the adverts because I understand they are paying for the content in the first place.

tags:

ITV, bicycles, email, quality, sport, video,

3 Comments

London to Brighton

Jun 20, 2011 at 12:43pm

Yesterday I cycled from London to Brighton for the British Heart Foundation's annual ride. It's really well organised (one of those rare events where you can't think of any improvements) and until you've taken part yourself, you can't describe what it's like to be in a mass participation sport with the public cheering you on.

Some of the highlights:

Realising Ditchling Beacon isn't as difficult as Highgate Hill (on my twice-a-week commute)
The ice cream at the top of Ditchling Beacon
The general banter amongst which started at 5am and finished at 5pm
The finishing straight in Brighton with everyone cheering
43mph on the downhill after Ditchling Beacon
Overtaking cyclists on £2,000 machines on my £27 bike from eBay!

We are still taking sponsorship for the British Heart Foundation thanks to some of the guys in our group of twelve (see below) who set it up.

tags:

London to Brighton bike ride, bicycles, sponsorship,

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Commuting on two wheels

Apr 12, 2011 at 9:30am

Over the last couple of weeks I've been cycling into work a couple of times a week. There are many reasons for cycling - fitness, the waistline and generally 'just doing something different'.

I have never understood how other commuters can do the same journey, every single day, the same way. I've been lucky for the last few years because I generally go into work by motorbike. Motorcycling is a great way to commute - you spend time riding thinking about the riding, which clears your mind for an hour or so.

On average I typically spend one night a week out with colleagues or clients, and on those days I go into work by Tube. I've been doing this for a couple of years now, and it helps 'break the week up' - i.e. doesn't let the commute becomne monotonous.

I'll be riding the London to Brighton again this year, so I've been cycling with a few friends [very, very] early on Sunday mornings since the start of the year, and decided to try cycling into work a couple of weeks ago. I really enjoyed it, to the point that I now cycle in twice a week, motorcycle twice, and Tube once.

The timings and costs are interesting:

The Tube - around 1 hour and 15 minutes door to door. Around £8 return.
Motorcycle - around 45 minutes door to door. £4 (just petrol).
Cycling - 1 hour door to door. Hard to quantify the cost.

I've been trying to work out why so many people in the creative and IT sector prefer two wheels - whether motorbike or bicycle - over the Tube. Maybe it's the emptying-thoughts-whilst-commuting that I discussed above. Maybe it's just a retro statement. Let me know if you have any thoughts.

tags:

London to Brighton bike ride, bicycles, motorcycles,

2 Comments

Tags

2011 favourites

A digital method to deal with illegal cyclists and motorists

Tour de France on ITV Player

London to Brighton

Commuting on two wheels

Bradley Howard

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