Kevin Gilmartin

Last time we spoke, dear reader, I said was staying off beer for a year.

One. Whole. Year.

Now, as I’ve gradually informed my friends about this over the last few weeks the reaction has gone from “ooft! A whole year?” to a more derisory howl of laughter coupled with “no chance!” That last lot clearly don’t know me as well as they think they do.

Anyway, I’m now a month in and no beer has passed my lips. It wasn’t as hard as I thought, but it hasn’t been a cake walk either.

I’ve been out a few times, the lads drinking Stella and me on Morgan’s & Coke or brandy (pub brandy is not so nice, I’ve discovered), and every time the smell of the beer has been a killer!

Work is currently stressing me out something chronic and, again, the temptation of a beer on Beer Friday (they buy us beers every Friday) to wind down is huge. I’m resisting though, and I just head home instead of hanging around. Another work related temptation was some outreach work I’ve been doing for a client that involved me contacting – wait for it, you’ll like this – BEER BLOGGERS!

Imagine you’d just turned vegetarian and then you were forced to make bacon rolls for hours every day. It’s a bit like that.

One good thing that happened this month, though, was a wee trip to the Scotch Malt Whisky Society with Alaster Phillips and Andrew Burnett.

Andrew is a member and signed us in, and we spent a good 3 or 4 hours gabbing away and sampling the malts. First up was a Glen Scotia, number 93.49, I think. It was good, too. Really smoky, which I like, and sort of meaty. Next we went for 93.50, another Glen Scotia. It wasn’t as smoky but was a bit cheesy, like cheese Quavers. It was also a little fishy. Alaster said it was a seaweed smell, like the smell of a beach just as the tide has gone out, but I reckon it was stronger than that, and sweeter; more like prawn cocktail.

The third one, Invergordon, wasn’t quite as nice, but was pleasant enough all the same. It was rougher than the first two, and I’d have had no problem knocking it back if I had to – the others I’d rather have savoured. There was also a rum, whose name I have forgotten, which was about 80% proof. It drew all the moisture out my mouth, but tasted lovely – sort of like chocolate and licorice with just a hint of strong coffee.

I don’t drink whisky enough to justify the membership fee to SMWS, but for folk like Andrew and Al who buy it a lot to both drink and invest in, it’s a sound investment.

So now, we’re 3 days in to month 2 and it’s another Beer Friday at work:

What with my beer embargo I’m currently enjoying a #deskcider. Well, I say “enjoying”, it still tastes like cat pee, I just want the alcohol

— Kevin Gilmartin (@KevinGilmartin) February 3, 2012

We’ll see what February brings and I’ll keep you informed.

This morning I had what can only be fairly described as a run-in with a ticket inspector at Waverley Station in Edinburgh. His name was Dennis – he wouldn’t furnish me with his surname or employee number, and believes he is the only Dennis working for Scotrail. So I’ll call him Dennis Scotrail. Here’s what happened…

I was running late this morning, my alarm having failed to wake me up, and when I got to Airdrie train station I had just moments to hop on to the train before it pulled away. I hadn’t renewed my monthly ticket yet but that was fine as I had my Maestro card and would just buy a return from the on-train ticket inspector. Or so I thought.

The inspector came round, I asked for a return from Airdrie to Waverley (now £16.50 peak, by the way!!) and got out my Maestro card.

The inspector’s ticket machine declined it immediately. “Odd,” I thought, “there’s definitely money in that account.” So I tried again – declined. The on-train ticket inspector, who is a lovely woman, I’ve seen her on that service a lot but I don’t know her name, said “Not to worry, these machines do that sometimes, just get one from the ticket office at the other end.” I was fine with that – I’m not a ticket dodger, I’ll pay my exorbitantly high fare like everyone else on the train.

50 minutes later I got off the train at Waverley. I think it was platform 8, can’t be sure – regardless, there was no ticket office, no ticket machine, and no barriers, just several Scotrail employees with ticket machines just like the one the conductor on the train had.

I wandered up to the nearest one, the aforementioned Dennis Scotrail, explained the situation – running late, just made the train, card didn’t work, conductor said to get it at Waverley – assuming that I’d be told where to find the ticket office. Instead, I was told “well, it’s your responsibility to have either a valid ticket or cash before travel”.

I took “cash” to mean “valid method of payment” and couldn’t quite believe what I was hearing, so I replied “I have a Maestro card mate, it’s a perfectly valid method of payment. People buy tickets with cards on the train all the time.” Dennis Scotrail’s reply? “We’re not obligated to accept every type of card. The Scotrail Passenger Charter sets out your responsibilities as a passenger, and you need to either have a valid ticket or cash before travel.” It seems Dennis Scotrail actually meant cold, hard cash.

Oh, before I go on, fair reader, I checked the Scotrail Passenger Charter – it outlines nothing of the sort. The terms “valid ticket”, “Maestro”, “cash”, or “method of payment” don’t appear at all, actually. But I digress.

Anyway, at this point I was starting to get angry. I was already late for work through my own fault, and this guy was holding me back even more.

Exasperated, but still quite controlled, I told him I didn’t need a lecture on the Scotrail Passenger Charter, I just wanted to buy a ticket so that I could get on with the rest of my journey to work as I still had a 15 minute bus ride ahead of me and I was already late. “Well,” says Dennis Scotrail,“I’ll escort you to the ticket machine this time, but the Scotrail Passenger Charter…”

Not best pleased at being escorted like some fare dodging wee YouTube walloper, I cut him off, “Look, I really don’t want to hear about the Scotrail Passenger Charter. I’ve been travelling by train for nearly 20 years, can we please just go so I can buy a ticket?” Again, he starts on about the ruddy Scotrail Passenger Charter, “I’m just trying to educate you as to where you went wrong, the Scotrail Passenger Charter says you need cash or a valid ticket before boarding the train. You can’t just breeze on to a train without either and expect us to accept your card.”

Educate me as to where I went wrong? That was it. I think I ruddy well can breeze onto a train and quite reasonably expect the country’s largest train operator to accept a Maestro card, thanks all the same Dennis Scotrail.

The rest of the conversation is something of a blur, but as you might have gathered, this guy was winding me up something fierce. During this time he said something that I took be an accusation of fare-dodging intent. I took out my monthly ticket, showed him the expired December one, and the stack of expired monthlies going all the back to June, and explained that I hadn’t had a chance to renew it yet.

I also decided I was reporting the guy.

“What’s your name?” I asked him, as we FINALLY headed up the stairs. He flashed a name badge that I couldn’t see because he wasn’t moving his high-vis jacket enough. “I can’t see that.” I said. So he told me his name was Dennis.

“Surname?” I asked. “You don’t need to know that,” he said. Ok, I’ll accept that without issue. When I worked in customer service I refused to give out my surname as well. “Ok, do you have an employee number then?” I asked Dennis Scotrail. He mumbled something at this point, and shook his head, so I’m assuming the answer was no.

“Right, so how many ‘Dennises’ work for Scotrail then?” I asked, fully intent on making a complaint about him and not wishing some other poor, innocent, non-douchey Dennis Scotrail to get in bother instead. His answer – keeping in mind the size of Scotrail as an organisation – was “I’m the only one as far as I know.” Right now, reader, you’re thinking, “hmmm, yeah, right…” I know this because that was my exact thought too.

We got to the ticket machine, I purchased my ticket using the Maestro card that started the whole debacle and…. IT WORKED JUST FINE! Of course it did. I knew it would – there’s hee haw wrong with it and there’s money in the account!

So, ticket in hand, I turn to Dennis Scotrail and ask him where the customer service office is. He, yet again, escorted me there.

Outside the office Dennis Scotrail produced a mobile phone, called his manager, and explained “I have a customer who wants to make a complaint, he’s disgruntled about having been escorted to a ticket machine.”

This didn’t wind me up, reader mine, it PISSED. ME. OFF.

I wasn’t just disgruntled at “having been escorted to a ticket machine” at all. I was disgruntled at “having been lectured about the Scotrail Passenger Charter after specifically saying I didn’t want to hear it and having been made to look like a fare dodger in front of other commuters by being escorted to a ticket machine after the on-train conductor had told me without any fuss just to get my ticket at Waverley“. Aaand breathe…

The manager – whose name I have now forgotten, but his initials were JD, couldn’t see me face-to-face as we was conducting an interview. He did, however, take a few minutes to speak to me, apologise and assure me that he would have a word with Dennis Scotrail after his shift. I have to wonder if he did.

I would just like to say that much as I may complain about Scotrail’s service, I have never before had even the smallest problem with any individual member of staff. But others have. Dennis Scotrail is a prime example of the kind of rude member of Scotrail staff that my old university colleague Rachael blogged about, just yesterday.

Oh, by the way, JD was also good enough to explain what happened with the Maestro card. Turns out that those little card machines the conductors have aren’t online – they can’t authorise a transaction immediately. In this age of 3G, Wi-Fi, and HSDPA I don’t think it’s unreasonable to find that fact surprising.

According to JD there are a small minority of Maestro cards that need immediate online authorisation of a transaction in order to be accepted, and the green Maestro cards from Clydesdale Bank would seem fall into that group. This is a rather more believable explanation than Dennis Scotrail’s clearly improvised one, which was “different software.” Yeah, I know…

So I asked JD, “so, are you saying that someone with a card that has no money in the account, or even someone with a stolen card, could use it to buy a ticket and it would work. But my genuine card with money in the account will be declined?” JD says this is indeed the case, but it’s more the bank’s fault than Scotrail’s.

Now, when all’s said and done, I think that’s actually a rather comforting little security feature of my debit card. More the bank’s fault is it? Allow me to retort:

The portable units used by Scotrail staff are just PDAs plugged into a card printer. PDAs are capable of at least a Wi-Fi connection, if not also a mobile connection. Stick a SIM card in there, Scotrail.

What? They’re wi-fi only? Ok, well how about enabling tethering on those Blackberry smartphones all your train staff seem to carry?

Not up for that either, eh? How about you wi-fi enable your trains and bring them chugging and screeching into the 21st century? Most of the train services south of the border have had wi-fi since 2004, why don’t you add it to your services now, and not wait until 2014 when your franchise is up for renewal and you’re a full decade behind the rest of the UK?

Expense and logistics, you say? No excuse, Scotrail. You can afford it. Your fares are exorbitant, and if you didn’t have a near-monopoly in Scotland there’s no way they would be as high as they are. As for logistics, I refer you to my previous comment about services south of the border; if they can do it then so can you. And if you want to verify that I suggest you check section 10.8 of the Rail 2014 Public Consultation report from Transport Scotland, it’s right here: http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/strategy-and-research/publications-and-consultations/j203179-12.htm

Basically, Scotrail, aside from causing conflict between passengers and the Dennis Scotrails of your company, what your utter lack of technological savvy is causing is discrimination against a group of your customers whose banks actually take customer security seriously. You can accept some Maestro cards but not others? Not good enough – sort it out, or don’t accept Maestro cards on-train at all.

UPDATE: I knew there was another part that I’d forgotten to mention, and it’s just come back to me now.

When I’d finished speaking to JD, I handed Dennis Scotrail his phone back, snippily thanked him for its use and turned to leave. He said something about how he was just trying to stick up for his organisation. His organisation wasn’t the problem, the on-train inspector had already spoken for her organisation when she said to get the ticket at Waverley. He was the problem.

By this point I was 20 minutes later for work than I would have been otherwise, so I said, “look, I don’t want to hear it; your manager has apologised for your behaviour and he explained the issue with the card. Thank you for your time.” And as I turned to leave Dennis Scotrail said “I think that’s self-evident, you need a card that works.”

I was enraged. I turned back, glared at him and said, “it does work, you just saw it work in the BLOODY TICKET MACHINE!”

Maybe he was purposefully trying to wind me up now, because what he said next was just ridiculous. “I was just trying to help you. The next step was to take your name and address, which I didn’t do and the next again step was to call the police, which I didn’t do.” Can you believe that? He was doing me a favour by not calling the police. Now to me that sounds like he was once again accusing me of intending to dodge my fare.

I have to wonder, if it had been Dennis Scotrail on the train instead of the nice reasonable lady, would he have kicked me off the train? Forced me to get a ticket at the next manned station and wait for the next service? Called in The Big Man?

With staff like that representing them is it any wonder that the scotfail.co.uk site exists?

So in the spirit of new year I’ve set myself a challenge: no beer for 12 months.

I’m not giving up booze entirely. Goodness no, I’m not INSANE. Just beer.

This won’t be as easy for me as you might think.

There’s nothing I enjoy more than going out to the pub with my mate Cha and playing some pool in Airdrie’s West End Bar, losing a few quid on the Imperial Bar’s quiz machine (we sometimes win), knocking back some Stella and gabbing about Warhammer 40k books or where we are in Oblivion (laterally Skyrim). Yeah…we’re a couple of big kids and proud – 32 years old and still playing games.

Similarly, once the kids are in bed I love sitting with a nice cold Innis & Gunn and watching Frasier or Star Trek repeats. It’s a simple pleasure, I guess.

So the challenge is to go from January 1st to December 31st 2012 without a beer. It’ll be Morgan’s & diet coke, brandy, whiskey or even just a soft drink for me.

But I guess I should explain why, eh? Well it’s a mix of reasons. Primarily, I want to shift some weight next year and I’m one of those guys who gets beer-gut. Beer makes me a Fatty McFatterson. While I had that kidney stone I could hardly move for 3 months, and I put on over a stone in weight. It’s still on me, and its lease is up.

Secondly, I think I should discover more of what the world of alcohol has to offer.

My friend Alaster took a rare moment out from making mum jokes the other night and made a comment about me broadening my horizons because I had a brandy and a liqueur one evening. Both of which I’d had before – no conscious horizon broadening was intended – but it got me thinking that maybe I should. So I am.

Third, and finally, I just want to see if I can do it. Not in an “I want to make sure I’m not an alcoholic” kind of way, I wouldn’t presume to offend alcoholics like that. I just want to see if I can beat the challenge.

The temptation to have a Stella with the boys will be huge. Frasier without I&G will be weird, although it seems appropriate to develop a taste for sherry for that. I have a few 30th birthdays to attend in 2012, so that might be tough. It WILL be tough. I’ve always been a beer drinker, since I was sixt… eighteen (honest, officer). I’m looking forward to the challenge.

Okay. Tonight I’m going to see out 2011 with a couple of Innis & Gunns; my last for a whole year. As of 9am on January 1st I’m aff the beer. Cheers!

So, let me start by saying that the reason I don’t post so much here anymore is that I mostly post for work and there’s a great deal of crossover in the stuff I post there and here. In fact, this very post is basically just about to point you in the direction of a post I did today on one of the work blogs.

TweetDeck, beloved of power-tweeters the world over, has been unceremoniously nerfed by Twitter. It used to be slick, with just about every function performed without leaving the client. No more, dear friends, no more…

I mean, we use TweetDeck because the web interface isn’t suitable for our needs, right? Twitter have taken TweetDeck and just turned it into a desktop version of the website, with some columns. It’s as if they’ve assumed that people who used TweetDeck only did so for the multi-account support and the columns, because those are the only features left over. Did it not occur to Twitter that it wasn’t just what the client did, but also the way in which it did it that attracted people to the software?

I bet Iain Dodsworth is looking at the changes this morning going “WTF have you done to my program?!?!”

Honestly, it’s so bad I’m now on the hunt for a new desktop Twitter client. Have a look at my post and see what I mean. The best advice I can give you is DO NOT UPGRADE to the new client – you WILL regret it.

New TweetDeck – first impressions – by Kevin on Nerd Insider

What do you think about the new TweetDeck? Can you recommend an alternative desktop client for me? Let me know.

So it seems Facebook has gone and made a bunch of changes. Again. And for some reason they’re mightily unpopular and there’s been an instant and almost universal backlash. Again.

Let me just say to all you folk on Twitter and Facebook who are bemoaning the latter’s latest set of changes to the newsfeed, “Bored now!”

If that’s my opinion, you can bet Facebook got there three updates ago.

Oh, you go ahead and re-share that image to voice your displeasure…on Facebook. You’ve done your part for the cause there, and no mistake! The Facebook decision makers will see all of those duplicate images, see the solidarity of the disgruntled user and…

…do sweet Ffff-anny Adams about it. Just like they did when you all HATED the Newsfeed, and when you all HATED the adverts, and when you all HATED the changes to FB Group pages.

Can you imagine Facebook without those things now? No, because you keep using the service and Facebook leaves the changes in place, you get used to it, and eventually you forget why you hated it.

Facebook isn’t a consumer product. It’s an ad-supported service, free at the point of use and as such they care about the advertising dollar, not Joe User’s.

You can reshare that image, complain to your friends and “like” the plethora of New Facebook Sucks pages all you want – you’re still using the service and creating ad impressions for Zuckerberg’s bean counters.

This is just speculation on my part, but I’m willing to bet that Facebook usage actually increases during the period when people are whining about changes, because they do it ON FACEBOOK while going about all their usual business of commenting and posting updates.

Want to send a message to Facebook? Close your account.

You don’t have to delete it, just put it to sleep. Then go sign up to Google+ and send Zuckerberg a message (he has an account) telling him why you’re there.

Nothing will grab Facebook’s attention like a sudden massive spike in inactive accounts. Why? Because it’ll go hand-in-hand with a drop in ad views and click-through rates.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not gonna put the Big Blue out of business, but it might grab their attention long enough to make the user heard.

Facebook aren’t stupid, they “get” social. Hell, they pretty much “are” social. They can see your complaints, and they don’t give a damn.

Mark Zuckerberg is the Borg Queen and you, reader mine, are a drone. But are you going to be Designation 462894 of 750M, or break away from the collective and be a sexy Seven of Nine?

Do it. I double dare ya, +1.

Is this one change too many to Facebook? Will you be closing your account, or are you happy for Facebook to mess you around forever?

Wandering around Tesco yesterday I was struck by the amount of QR codes available to scan on various products and pieces of POS display.

They had one next to the iPad display – “Scan to learn more about iPad2″ – and various codes on game and DVD displays that you could scan to watch the trailers.

Trouble is, my Tesco has no in-store wifi and rubbish reception, never mind 3G.

Even if it did have 3G, data allowance is limited and expensive once the allowance runs out – I’m not gonna use it to stream a video trailer or a commercial for an iPad.

So I have to say, “good effort, Tesco” and give them points for trying. Clubcard points.

QR codes work great for that kind of thing in magazines, when you can scan and watch over wifi, or in a full 3G area should data allowance not be a concern, but in a cavernous, dead zone warehouse of a supermarket they’re just not suited.

What do you think of QR codes in retail? How could they be used better?

After resisting the use of location based social networks for a long time, I finally joined up to foursquare last week. My reason was a mix of curiosity after speaking to people who use it regularly, and unashamed narcissism in wanting to get my Klout score up.

I have to admit – and I hate having to admit stuff – it’s actually pretty good fun. But I do have one problem with it, and that’s that GPS tracking can sometimes be pretty innacurate and leaves the game open to cheating.

A few times, earlier in the week, I checked in whilst standing in the place and foursquare didn’t give me any points, saying “your phone thinks you’re a little too far away from this place to check in” – yup, it basically called me a big Cheaty McCheaterson.

This happened at Airdrie train station while I was on the platform, Waverley Station, again while I was on the platform, and Sainsbury’s across from my work while I was standing outside.

I know why this happened. It was because the weather was awful and it was so overcast that my phone couldn’t get a GPS fix. It still thought I was at home when I tried to check in at Airdrie station, and it thought I was in Blackridge (must’ve gotten a brief fix on en route) when I was actually in Edinburgh for the other two.

So I got to thinking, how could you stop that from happening? If GPS is having an off day, how could you make sure foursquare doesn’t penalise you for checking in to places?

What I would like to see would be the use of QR codes. I had been watching a video of a guy getting a QR code tattooed on him to produce an animated tattoo, and I thought “wouldn’t it be cool if each venue had a unique QR code on a foursquare branded sticker or poster, and the mobile app had a QR scanner? You could scan the code to check in, and eliminate the need for GPS.”

It seemed so obvious, I figured others must have thought of it before, and I was right. Turns out this idea has been kicking around for quite a while, and a lot of 3rd party developers have actually implemented it; the trouble is that it doesn’t have the uptake from businesses that it needs to be a success, and it requires a 3rd party app to do the scanning.

Not every venue will want to generate and print off a QR code, but places like Domino’s Pizza and Wetherspoon’s, who do special deals for Mayors, should give some serious thought to doing it.

As it stands there’s nothing to stop me from standing within a few meters of Domino’s Pizza, checking in, and wandering off without so much as even looking at the menu. I could become the Mayor of my local Domino’s Pizza without ever spending a penny in the place. But, if I was only able to check in via a QR scan and the code was kept behind the counter, only available on request, I would have to buy something before I could check in.

As I said, it’s not entirely practical. Each location would need their own QR code, the mobile app would need a scanner built in and foursquare would have to allow venues to opt out of check-in via GPS, but I think it would be worth the effort. Mayorships and check-ins to places doing Specials would be a truer reflection of the business’s foursquare using customer base, which would in turn give them a more accurate measure of how well their foursquare offers are performing for them.

I’m no businessman, but I reckon I’d want to know if I was giving discounts or free stuff to people who claim to be loyal, regular customers but actually aren’t.

So, this is a call to foursquare to implement QR check-ins in the mobile app and sell the concept to your corporate clients. Your users want it – if you sell it right, I bet businesses will want it too.

Do you use foursquare? Have you ever had trouble like I did? Would you like to see a QR check-in made available? Leave a comment and let me know. KG.

Over on Empire Avenue I got involved in a discussion thread in the Gadgets & Technology community.

The OP asked if stuff like iPads and Kindles had made any of us paperless. Some people said yes, they got their news, magazines, books and bills all digitally now. Others said no, not at all, they still bought newspapers and magazines and still others said they were part way there with some things remaining in print and others going digital.

I was part of the latter. I very rarely buy a newspaper now, most of my bills are viewed and paid online and if I did own an iPad I would quite happily switch my Wired subscription to their iPad version. Where I’m strictly a print kinda guy, though, is with books.

I like holding a book, and turning the pages and the weight of it in my hands. I like going to Waterstones and, in years gone by, Borders, and spending an hour or so browsing and reading samples before deciding on my purchase. It’s part of the experience.

Another commenter in the Empire Avenue thread used the example of cookery magazines. She likes to rip out pages of the magazines with her favourite recipes on them and keep them for future reference before, presumably, discarding the rest of the magazine (I’m sure she recycles).

I asked her “can’t you just bookmark the pages electronically?” and she replied that she can, but that just doesn’t “scratch the itch.” And that phrase got me thinking.

The key to taking an activity to the digital space, and getting participants to make the switch, is scratching the itch.

If I buy an iPad or Kindle tomorrow, what will Apple and Amazon add to the reading and shopping experience to make it as satisfying as going to the shop, browsing a while, and feeling the book in my hand as I read?

Apple iPad is part-way there, I think. It has the bookcase with the covers and spines displayed, giving the feeling of having a collection. It has the page turning animations during reading – I wouldn’t be surprised if there was even a page turn sound – that helps to simulate the experience of reading a real book. All of this helps take you part of the way there, but I still feel like there’s something missing from the experience.

I don’t know enough about Kindle to comment, but I imagine it’s very much the same. It’s this lack of tactility that makes me think that electronic books will never replace printed ones.

Can the same be said for my fellow commenter with the cooking magazines? Possibly. That’s a little different though.

The tactility of ripping out a magazine page could be replaced with some other experience. I’ve seen the BBC use QR codes in their cookery shows, where they show you a fully prepared meal and you scan the code to get the recipie and cooking directions. That has potential.

Imagine the iPad edition of your favourite cookery magazine has a video of the chef preparing the meal. You watch it at your own pace, following along and you prepare the meal. You decide you want to do it again but would rather have a static reference. Advances in Near Field Communications mean that interfacing these devices with televisions, printers and other devices is becoming easier, so:

At the end of the video why not put a QR code on there that you scan with your smartphone? It gives a little beep and a little buzz as it vibrates and it downloads a printer friendly, nicely formatted PDF to your phone and sends it to your printer using NFC.

Of course, you could just have a link that downloads directly to the iPad, but it’s not always about ease and convenience. Doing it with the smartphone and the printer, having the beep and the vibration, adds feeling to the process as you switch devices for a moment, fire up your QR scanner, feel the buzz in your hand and retrieve the print out.

Too much emphasis is placed on achieving the end result as effortlessly as possible. Sometimes it’s about the experience, and the feeling of satisfaction at having actually done something that you leave with the user.

Leave her feeling like she’s scratched the itch and not just like she’s pushed a couple of buttons.

…why do you put up with pig ignorant fellow travelers who skip the queue?

This morning I was first in line at the stop, and there was about 6 other people behind me. Some guy wandered up and stood next to me, and when the bus arrived sauntered on ahead of everyone, quite the thing.

Getting on behind him – he plonked himself down in the seat reserved for mums with buggies – I challenged him on this, “Excuse me,” I said, “do you realise you just skipped a queue of 7 people?”

His reply was a shoulder shrug and he turned to look out of the window. He actually looked quite pleased with himself. I shook my head, called him an ignorant bastard, and took my seat.

This isn’t the first time it has happened, and I’ve previously held my tongue. But why does Edinburgh stand for that? If you tried skipping the bus queue in Glasgow you’d soon have your folly pointed out to you, in no uncertain terms.

So to the people of Edinburgh, a challenge: grow some balls. Man up.

The next time somebody jumps in front of you in line challenge them, loudly and front of other people. Shame these ignorant buggers into learning some manners.

I find myself quite unexpectedly fighting the corner of someone I never knew, never met and have never been a fan of.

I’m quite disgusted by some of the sentiments expressed by people over Amy Winehouse. Dismissing someone as a junkie and therefore being undeserving of sympathy is just cruel. I have personally known junkies, and I have known alcoholics, all of whom wonderful people with some extraordinary problems.

Addiction is an illness, physical and psychological; it isn’t something you can throw money at to make it all go away.

It doesn’t matter if Winehouse had access to “better” support and treatment than your average guy on the street. It’s not like a mole that you can pay some surgeon to cut out and graft over.

One commenter said Winehouse knew what she was getting in to when she started drinking. Ok, that’s probably true. But does that mean her death should be met with a storm of barbs and apathy? I have no problem with genuine indifference; there are many people to whom she meant nothing. It’s the “one more dead junkie” comments that have annoyed me, and some of those have come from people I thought were above that.

Maybe she was a junkie, I don’t know the specifics of her problems. I know she struggled with drink and took some other drugs, but I don’t know what they were.

No matter what she was, she was still someone’s friend, and someone’s daughter. Her parents were in the paper today, openly weeping and grieveing the loss of their baby girl. I feel for her father, Mitch Winehouse. I have a daughter – I cannot fathom losing her under any circumstances; I’m not about to cruelly dismiss somebody else’s loss.

The death of anyone, by any means, at the age of 27 is always a tragedy. When it happens so publicly it seems more so.

Despite what you may be inferring from this post I wasn’t a huge fan of Amy Winehouse – I’m a metal and grunge kinda guy.  In fact some of her songs I thought were downright rubbish. But I saw her on TV singing acapella once; it may have been Jools Holland, or possibly Jonathan Ross, I can’t remember and I can’t find the clip, but when I saw it I got goosebumps.

This video is the closest I could find; she’s accompanied by an acoustic guitar, but it’s so subtle. She really did have an amazing voice. Such a waste of a talent.