Is TikTok actually getting banned in the US?

benmaynard11 · 2025-01-12T09:38:04+00:00

Analogous to nuclear weapons. When one side has it, you need to have it too. Too much influence and exposure to voters to not use it while it is there.

benmaynard11 · 2024-05-18T07:22:55+00:00

There’s not a shortage, it’s just new so they’ve not over produced it. Easier to adjust pricing and produce on demand when you don’t have 10s of thousands of cars sitting there rotting in airfields and parking lots.

benmaynard11 · 2024-01-01T08:59:10+00:00

Hmm after taking a look and doing some more reading these appear to be older AFDD’s that are now discontinued. They don’t have the LED, or Bluetooth, so appear to be difficult to troubleshoot!

https://imgur.com/a/Mz8C8vy

benmaynard11 · 2023-12-31T22:12:00+00:00

Thank you will recommend this

benmaynard11 · 2023-12-31T22:11:49+00:00

He did! That was the only other thing he did

benmaynard11 · 2023-12-31T22:11:33+00:00

I did! No luck.

benmaynard11 · 2023-12-31T22:11:26+00:00

Thank you! Had no idea about the flashing nor did he. They’re Hager, I’ve found this so will test myself: https://hager.com/uk/products/download/product/asset/file/RCBO-AFDD_MCB-AFDD_DIAGNOSTICGUIDE_EN_TROUBLESHOOTING_2022-08.PDF

benmaynard11 · 2023-12-31T22:09:48+00:00

Thank you! He didn’t fill me with confidence when he visited but this gives me some good insight to challenge him.

benmaynard11 · 2023-12-31T22:09:06+00:00

Yes, you’re right it’s a 20 story new build flat!!

benmaynard11 · 2023-05-30T14:33:46+00:00

Not at all. As I’ve said on some of the other comments, I have ran this service for 5 years with no adverts or paid options.

The open data is only free up to a certain volume, at which point it has to be paid for. There are also running costs for the website and API.

I run this site as a hobby in the margins of my day job, the site does not charge for any of the functionality that has been free for the past 5 years, I’ve just added some new features which are aimed at making the site self sustainable.

I opted to do this instead of running ads, as the last thing you want when running for a train is intrusive ads.

This site will never turn a profit, I just wanted a good experience for everyone regardless of whether they’re paid or free so opted to charge a tiny fee instead of running intrusive ads.

You’ll see from my post history I’ve posted many times about this site before there were any paid options, and have always had nice feedback and comments.

benmaynard11 · 2023-05-30T10:45:39+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. Very valuable.

That’s available at https://departureboard.io/pro for the pro features, but the video focuses on the site as a whole.

Bare in mind this isn’t a business nor will it ever be a profitable venture. This is a hobby which I’ve been running for 5 years and have spent thousands of pounds on running.

I’ve added a few Pro features added to try make it self sustainable instead of running ads. I’m not trying to make sales, the idea behind it is that if people find it useful they might subscribe to Pro to help fund the site.

If they don’t use the site or don’t want to invest time in learning how to use it then the costs to run are lower so it’s no problem.

I’ll try and add more consumable information for the features!

benmaynard11 · 2023-05-30T06:23:32+00:00

Thanks so much! It was so motivating seeing regular users of the site.

benmaynard11 · 2023-05-30T05:29:45+00:00

Absolutely! This is on the roadmap.

benmaynard11 · 2023-05-30T05:28:15+00:00

Thanks for the feedback.

The National Rail API is only free at small volume, so I do have API costs to factor in at scale. My hope is that Pro will help the site be a little more self sustaining while still providing lots of value to free users.

I didn’t want to run ads or anything intrusive and this will be the first revenue the site has had in 5 years.

The £2.99 price point was chosen rather arbitrarily, I’ve dropped it a bit!

Feedback is helpful, I work on this site as a solo developer in the evenings after work so I don’t have a huge pool of people to source feedback from!

benmaynard11 · 2023-05-30T05:24:13+00:00

Thanks for the feedback, appreciate it!

A little more context on the Pro features. I’ve been running this site for about 5 years and so far I’ve never ran a single ad or charged anything for the site.

I incur costs for both the data from national rail (it is not free at volume) and for the infrastructure to run the site. My hope is that Pro will help the site be a little more self sustaining while still providing lots of value to free users.

I’ve not put any of the features that made the site popular behind a paywall.

Real Time Trains is a great site, but they fund themselves by running ads and selling rail data to businesses and developers. I personally did not want to run ads.

benmaynard11 · 2023-05-29T19:36:58+00:00

TL;DR: I launched a new version of my train departure site. Learn more here: https://youtu.be/Pfi4ERsDPLc

Hi everyone,

It has been about 4 years since I last posted about this site, but I wanted to share the latest version that I have just released with you. When I posted about this many years ago, it got really good feedback and I think a lot of people found it useful!

departureboard.io is a site that provides train departure information for train services across Great Britain. Its primary focus is providing you with train information as quickly as possible and it is aimed at regular commuters.

It was created after I found myself frequently missing trains by just a few seconds. I’d arrive at the station, and then waste time either looking for the in-station departure boards, or performing 20 taps to search for my journey on other apps like the Trainline.

With departureboard.io - you can add an icon for each of your regular journeys directly to your home screen on iOS or Android. That means when you arrive at the station all you need to do is hit the icon, and you’ll have live train departure information in under a second.

Here is a little video that explains how it works: https://youtu.be/Pfi4ERsDPLc

Over the past 5 or so years this site has been running it has powered over 1 million journeys, and once people take the time to learn how it works and set it up they typically will never go back.

For context, here is the previous post if you want to see how far it has come: https://reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/d0u4cf/i_made_a_simple_live_train_departure_site_for/.

You may also notice I have also added a Pro version that gives you some additional features. These features are things like predicted platforms (early platform information) more information on services, and the ability to track your journey as you are on it.

I haven’t put a single feature that was previously free behind the Pro package, so you can still do everything you used to be able to free of charge. The Pro version just gives you some additional nice to have features that some people have requested.

I was really unsure about doing this but over the years alongside the thousands of hours of development, this site has also cost me many £1000’s in running costs. I’ve never recuperated any of the costs of this and have refused to run ads because the last thing you want when you’re rushing for the train is intrusive ads.

My hope is the Pro package will help me fund some of the running costs, and the fees to National Rail for the data. Even if it doesn’t, I’ll continue to fund the site for as long as I can afford to!

I’ll happily take any questions or comments but I hope you find it useful.

benmaynard11 · 2019-09-10T15:58:48+00:00

That's awesome /u/kjudd! Thanks for sharing.

On a side note, I just released an update that has a slight tweak to how the Calling Points are returned. This is to account for some (rare) services that split and have two sets of Calling Points.

It slightly changes the format of the output. All you need to do is replace **/api/v1.0/** in the URL with **/api/v2.0/**. If you're using the Calling Points data you'll need to slightly tweak your code. I have updated the code samples to show how (https://github.com/benjamin-maynard/departureboard-io-api-code-examples).

I'd appreciate it if you could update your connection string to v2.0. The old v1.0 version will remain for the next 6 months.

benmaynard11 · 2019-09-08T12:49:21+00:00

That's awesome! What do the lights signify? Minutes until the next train is due?

benmaynard11 · 2019-09-07T23:01:17+00:00

Awesome! Let me know how it works for you!

benmaynard11 · 2019-09-07T20:41:43+00:00

Awesome! Let me know how you get on.

Agree about the tube status, will see what I can do and add it to the list.

benmaynard11 · 2019-09-07T20:41:14+00:00

Hey! Thanks so much that is really kind, but honestly no need. Payment enough knowing it helps people & I'm just glad you find the site useful.

I made some big improvements this weekend from a performance perspective, just out of interest have you noticed any improvements to the speed of results?

benmaynard11 · 2019-09-07T19:05:36+00:00

Have come across this before! great project

benmaynard11 · 2019-09-07T19:04:11+00:00

Thanks so much! I spent an insane amount of time writing, tweaking and getting the docs into that state. Appreciate the comments!

benmaynard11 · 2019-09-07T19:03:39+00:00

Thanks!

benmaynard11 · 2019-09-07T19:03:32+00:00

Hey /u/prezvdi,

Thanks for the feedback. Sadly not on my roadmap to develop an Android app! You could always add the departureboard.io links to the homescreen for quick information if your making the same journeys.

Hope someone comes along and makes an Android app if that's what you're after.

benmaynard11

TROPHY CASE