The Code Train » introduction http://thecodetrain.co.uk Where Neil Crosby talks about coding on the train... Sun, 03 Apr 2011 18:15:12 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 The Inaugural Post http://thecodetrain.co.uk/2008/09/the-inaugural-post/ http://thecodetrain.co.uk/2008/09/the-inaugural-post/#comments Tue, 23 Sep 2008 19:17:04 +0000 Neil Crosby http://thecodetrain.co.uk/?p=3 For the last year, I’ve been living in Bedford, but working about 60 miles away in London. Before Becca and I moved out from London, people called us mad, saying that the commute would be hell and that we’d never spend any time together.

As I write, I’m on the 18:00 East Midlands Trains service from London St. Pancras to Bedford. I’m in a lovely air-conditioned carriage, sat at a table with one other person. I have a power supply to charge my laptop from. The only thing missing is wifi, but if I really need the internet then my iPhone is sitting next to me ready to deliver whatever I want. I’ll arrive in Bedford at 18:38 and then have a ten minute stroll home. So, the commute isn’t bad at all.

As for spending time together, that’s improved since we moved out of London too. I now use the commute home to write code, and then when I get home I get to spend the entire evening with Becca. Previously I would have come in, started coding in the bedroom and then have gone to bed when I was done. Spending time with Becca is much nicer than spending time with code.

That said, I do enjoy coding. So, I use my commute now to code. No distractions, just me and a laptop for forty minutes every day. It might not sound like long, but it’s enough time to solve a problem. In the last few months I’ve put together Is Neil Annoyed By, learnt how to slurp data out of Wikipedia and integrated that into The Ten Word Review, written a presentation about SearchMonkey, created a vCard parsing system that allows friends, acquaintances and everyone else to see different amounts of data about me, and probably a whole load of other things as well. Travelling by train allows me to be quite productive.

That’s why I’ve started to blog here. Up until now I’ve been blogging on Working With Me, but server issues and a general ennui with the domain name have led me to start again. Sure, I’m going to lose the google-juice that was being pumped into Working With Me, but that will come again. It’s time for a brand new start, and I’m starting here.

Over the next few weeks I’ve got several posts lined up. As well as fully formed posts I’m going to be dumping half finished work onto here. The reason for this is that previously I’ve tended to wait to blog about something until it was complete and able to be picked up and immediately used by someone. There’s a place for that, but it was causing me to not release at all. From now on I want to release early and release often. I’m going to post experimental things, I’m going to post unfinished things. Most importantly I’m going to post. Oh yes, I’m going to post.

All aboard The Code Train. Choo choo!

Neil Crosby also blogs at about t-shirts at I Wear Cotton, writes Ten Word Reviews, and uploads photos to flickr. You can follow a combined feed of posts at NeilCrosby.com.
]]> For the last year, I’ve been living in Bedford, but working about 60 miles away in London. Before Becca and I moved out from London, people called us mad, saying that the commute would be hell and that we’d never spend any time together.

As I write, I’m on the 18:00 East Midlands Trains service from London St. Pancras to Bedford. I’m in a lovely air-conditioned carriage, sat at a table with one other person. I have a power supply to charge my laptop from. The only thing missing is wifi, but if I really need the internet then my iPhone is sitting next to me ready to deliver whatever I want. I’ll arrive in Bedford at 18:38 and then have a ten minute stroll home. So, the commute isn’t bad at all.

As for spending time together, that’s improved since we moved out of London too. I now use the commute home to write code, and then when I get home I get to spend the entire evening with Becca. Previously I would have come in, started coding in the bedroom and then have gone to bed when I was done. Spending time with Becca is much nicer than spending time with code.

That said, I do enjoy coding. So, I use my commute now to code. No distractions, just me and a laptop for forty minutes every day. It might not sound like long, but it’s enough time to solve a problem. In the last few months I’ve put together Is Neil Annoyed By, learnt how to slurp data out of Wikipedia and integrated that into The Ten Word Review, written a presentation about SearchMonkey, created a vCard parsing system that allows friends, acquaintances and everyone else to see different amounts of data about me, and probably a whole load of other things as well. Travelling by train allows me to be quite productive.

That’s why I’ve started to blog here. Up until now I’ve been blogging on Working With Me, but server issues and a general ennui with the domain name have led me to start again. Sure, I’m going to lose the google-juice that was being pumped into Working With Me, but that will come again. It’s time for a brand new start, and I’m starting here.

Over the next few weeks I’ve got several posts lined up. As well as fully formed posts I’m going to be dumping half finished work onto here. The reason for this is that previously I’ve tended to wait to blog about something until it was complete and able to be picked up and immediately used by someone. There’s a place for that, but it was causing me to not release at all. From now on I want to release early and release often. I’m going to post experimental things, I’m going to post unfinished things. Most importantly I’m going to post. Oh yes, I’m going to post.

All aboard The Code Train. Choo choo!

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