Could facebook finally be making some progress on implementing the things that us bloggers have been requesting for ages? I’m talking of course about the recent addition to the site of e-mail notifications that actually contain the text of what they are notifying you about.

Until recently you would get an e-mail saying you had a message, but not the message content. My attitude? Ignore the message. Clearly the individual messaging me hadn’t bothered to look at my profile and observe the text written there which says I prefer e-mail. Problem is this is a little harsh as the person had done nothing wrong as thats how they preferred to communicate. It was facebook’s fault for not realising that bridging the gap between message content and e-mail content could make such a difference, connecting those who wished to communicate through e-mail and those who wished to communicate through facebook.

Perhaps such people might be in for a reprieve now however, because when I get a new message notification from facebook, the text of the message and who sent it arrives in my inbox. This means that I can hit reply on my e-mail client, select the sender from my address book and place them in the to line, compose my reply and send it. Job done. I don’t have to login to facebook. Obviously it’s not quite perfect as now they get the reply to their e-mail and no longer can use facebook, their preferred communication medium. Maybe this will be fixed soon too.

Facebook seem to finally be recognising that not everyone is or indeed wants to be chained to their web browser. Bravo.

So I’m back on the blog again, coinciding with my return to Leeds after spending Christmas with my family. It was a pleasant break which was very relaxing given how busy the tail end of last term had been. I did get some work covered but I kept it light so I could rest up for the exams and tumultuous term that lie ahead. It was fun to see everyone and I still can’t believe how much food I got through over the festive period. I still feel full from Christmas dinner!

For those looking for the photos I took of all the various family gatherings, you can view them in my gallery

As I was browsing my news feeds this morning I stumbled accross a blog post that someone had linked to. Its a rather amusing article about which programming language gets you the most sex. If you’re a programmer I’m sure this will make you chuckle.

After the end of term I had a short break from work as things had been a little hectic with all the coursework. As of today though I’m back to the grindstone and I’ll be working right up to my first exam in January with a large revision timetable. I have five exams in the new year and while this isn’t the most I’ve ever had at this time of year, its certainly not the smallest batch I’ve ever sat in one go.

My final year project project won’t be neglected though and I’ll be working on this throughout the festive period. I’ve setup remote working so I can access Matlab from home so hopefully I’ll have some interesting results to talk about by the new year.

If I can find time I hope to bring a few sites up to date, release a new version of Calendar, and hopefully open my new business site. The Jazz and Blues Leeds website may also get a look in although all of that is already a tall order for the festive period

It escaped my attention until today when I purchased my return ticket for after Christmas from Stevenage to Leeds that the London-Leeds service is no longer operated by GNER. This certainly hadn’t been a very well publicised change and I guess there was no reason for it to be.

It must be said though that personally I felt GNER ran a very good service. Their trains were comfortable, they operated service on board in a very traditional manor and were one of the first UK operators to enable Wi-Fi on board all of their trains, a boon for technical people like myself. I know GNER weren’t without their critics (including those who claimed they were consistently late running, although I never personally found this), but I will miss them.

The service is now operated by National Express East Coast