Blogger Bugs

I've been wishing I could report bugs to/about blogger.com. Maybe if I post on it someone might hear me.

1) Search

Search on blogger is worse than news.bbc.co.uk. Kind of ironic as google owns (and runs?) it.
i) It does not do partial matches, for example, my post entitled Mixing It Up does not get returned on a search for mix.
ii) Text searches do not match on labels, for example, the post mentioned above is labeled cycling but a search for cycling does not return that post.
iii) Text within the post not matched, eg, the above post contains the word "mixer" in the text, but is still not returned on a search for mixer.
iv) No search on Neil's Meandering Mind blog returns any results. At the moment the fist story is entitled Twitter Vs Facebook, a search for Twitter returns no results. Google hasn't indexed Neil's blog, maybe that's why..?

UPDATE: They seem to have fixed iii). Or at least that particular example works now.

UPDATE:

v) While editing your blog, if you click Edit Posts, and then do a free text search, the label links on the left do not work. You have to empty the search box and click search and then the label links will work again.

2) Formatting

Formating seems to get lost if I use the Pencil logoed "Edit Post" link on a post rather than going blogger.com -> Edit Posts -> Edit post

UPDATE: I think this is because blogger.com takes me to draft.blogger.com while the post link takes me to www.blogger.com.

3) No WWW

For a while blogger.com did not work for me, I had to use www. This seems to have been fixed now. (See no-www and extra www.)

UPDATE:

4) Comment spam detection does not work.

I don't get many comments on my blog, but roughly half of the comments that I do get are spam. As far as I can see no comment has ever automatically been marked as spam. As with search, google does spam detection so well for gmail, why can't they do it for blogger?

Simply Cycle To Work

This post is dedicated to my friend Kai, who loves stuff which isn't nearly as simple as it could and should be.

I have been considering buying a new bike recently and the fact that my new company subscribes to the Ride 2 Work* scheme, coupled with the recent failure of my front brake cable** and the stars aligning meant that the auspicious time of bicycle purchase was upon me. The government's cycle to work scheme is advantageous as an employee pays for cycle equipment out of their gross pay over the course of a year, not only saving whatever income tax*** they would pay (ie, roughly 30%) but also by staggering the payment over a year. So I visited HR to ask how one could go about joining the scheme. I was told that the paper work wasn't ready but that as I was so in need I could run it past my big boss. He was busy but I went to a cycle shop after work to have a look at bikes, assuming that I could buy a bike and basically just pass the receipt on to my employer. After chatting with the assistant**** in the shop about the scheme I was again reminded of the rule that nothing is simple that can be made complicated by bureaucracy. Here's how the scheme actually works: You find out which shop your company has joined up with. You chose a bike from that shop. You record how much that bike costs. You fill in the following forms: Employee Registration, Employee Salary Sacrifice Agreement and Purchase Order. Finance (hopefully) approves your request. Your work informs the shop's head office. They send back a voucher. You collect bike. This, according to the first sentence in section 1.2 of the bumf I now have "couldn't be simpler". I beg to differ.

* As I have discovered this name is important, as it indicates which company you can buy your cycling equipment from, Ride2Work is the Evens Cycles scheme, other cycle to work schemes are available.

UPDATE I don't think this is true, in theory the scheme just allows your employer to give you an interest and tax free loan to buy a bike, however in practice companies such as Evans manage to lock companies in to their own schemes by making it simpler for them.

** Yes I am still using it. I came across the bridge of death this morning to find firemen trying to free another cyclist from beneath another lorry.

*** Actually it's better than I thought, you not only get income tax and national insurance off, but VAT too bringing the saving up to about 40% in my case.

**** When I said to the assistant that I would save whatever tax I pay, say 30%, he replied, well, it could be 50%. That's right, I am in the top tax bracket. Not.

Addison Lee on Cyclists

I wasn't that surprised to hear recently of Addison Lee head John Griffin's opinions on cyclists, after I had my own run in with one of their drivers in August 2010. At the time I wrote the following complaint, I heard nothing in reply.

Sir/Madam,

I was cycling home on Friday night/Saturday morning and encountered one of your drivers just before 1:30am at the junction of Abbeville Road and Trouville Road. He slowly cut across my path and seemed to stop in the junction. I wasn't particularly bothered and cycled around him onto Trouville Road and then turned into my house. As I was unlocking my front door the same minicab drew up and the driver shouted "Next time I'm going to beat you motherfucker!"

After driving down the street the minicab turned round and I walked out into the street to see what he wanted. He continued to shout at me for not having stopped for him. I explained that it was my right of way but he said that "that doesn't matter". He then drove off and I took a picture of the back of his cab using my mobile phone.

Considering that I was at my front door, ie, he knows where I live, I take his threat very seriously and would like your assurance that he will not come back and "beat me". I would also like to know what measures you are going to take to make sure that he does not threaten someone else who may be less able to defend him/herself than a 30 year old 6 foot male. I do not know how seriously the police will take a single threat of this nature, but considering all the information I have it surely would not take much to trace the driver.

I would describe the driver as 40ish, with lank greasy hair, tanned completion and a fairly thick, possibly Spanish accent.

Looking forward to your reply, Jamie Kitson

Point Taken

As a cyclist I have lights which I habitually run and lights that I don't. As I was cycling home the other day I spotted a nice set of greens beyond the reds in front of me. A quick glance round and I spotted a police motorcyclist just as I crossed the line. Having stopped he drew up alongside me and pointed menacingly explaining that the council spends thousands of pounds on the green cycle boxes, so I should use them. I didn't make the point that usually it's difficult for cyclists to use them, filled as they often are with scooters, motorcycles and cars.