Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

jhopgood wrote:

jhopgood wrote: Both magazines get on the CHOBA web site eventually.

Unofficially the Blue might be on the CHOBA web site by the end of the month.

P'raps I'd better wait until it's on there OFFICIALLY.

The Blue and its most recent back copies will be online very soon. We are launching a new site called theblue.org.uk. It will host the Blue in a format that allows you to turn the pages and zoom in/print pages etc. The future of publishing IMHO! You can also view it on a portable device like a Blackberry or IPod Touch. We also expect to host all the music CDs and post photos of school event within hours of them happening. Limited text - so not a replacement for the Blue - but a hybrid 'tabloid' version. Most importantly open to ALL OLD BLUES free of charge.

Considering the MASSIVE savings in terms of printing and postage this would make I would think it will be something for the Old Blue Editorial team to consider too.

I will let you know when it launches next week.

Will still plan to offer a printed version to parents and those keen to get one. They tend to like a magazine with the children in it to show to family and friends. This is less important to the casual Old Blue reader without children at the school.

onewestguncopse wrote:The Blue and its most recent back copies will be online very soon. We are launching a new site called theblue.org.uk. It will host the Blue in a format that allows you to turn the pages and zoom in/print pages etc. The future of publishing IMHO! You can also view it on a portable device like a Blackberry or IPod Touch. We also expect to host all the music CDs and post photos of school event within hours of them happening. Limited text - so not a replacement for the Blue - but a hybrid 'tabloid' version. Most importantly open to ALL OLD BLUES free of charge.

Would this "tabloid" Blue be the standard format, or would it be a internet-ified version, with the current format sent out as hard copy? I like the idea of putting them all online as you say, but surely it would be possible and/or simpler merely to upload the Blue files as pdf, much like the ones currently online? AFAIK one can still turn, print and zoom etc. (certainly the latter two), but this would mean actual articles, such as the chapel notes, house notes and headmaster's sermon etc. would still be able to remain and be read. Speaking as a YOB I find these the most interesting things reading from a post-CH perspective.

Wait and see! This new format is far superior to a standard PDF. It will replace the printed mag as soon as everyone is used to this new form of technology. Probably not for a few years.

In the future the idea of buying a magazine at WHSmith will seem quaint - according to the designer who is working on a number of well known high street magazines now.

Eruresto wrote:

onewestguncopse wrote:The Blue and its most recent back copies will be online very soon. We are launching a new site called theblue.org.uk. It will host the Blue in a format that allows you to turn the pages and zoom in/print pages etc. The future of publishing IMHO! You can also view it on a portable device like a Blackberry or IPod Touch. We also expect to host all the music CDs and post photos of school event within hours of them happening. Limited text - so not a replacement for the Blue - but a hybrid 'tabloid' version. Most importantly open to ALL OLD BLUES free of charge.

Would this "tabloid" Blue be the standard format, or would it be a internet-ified version, with the current format sent out as hard copy? I like the idea of putting them all online as you say, but surely it would be possible and/or simpler merely to upload the Blue files as pdf, much like the ones currently online? AFAIK one can still turn, print and zoom etc. (certainly the latter two), but this would mean actual articles, such as the chapel notes, house notes and headmaster's sermon etc. would still be able to remain and be read. Speaking as a YOB I find these the most interesting things reading from a post-CH perspective.

In answer to the above point - the website will host the FULL magazine PLUS a selection of current photos and short text articles that will, in time, evolve into longer ones in the full edition of the Blue.

onewestguncopse wrote:Wait and see! This new format is far superior to a standard PDF. It will replace the printed mag as soon as everyone is used to this new form of technology. Probably not for a few years.

In the future the idea of buying a magazine at WHSmith will seem quaint - according to the designer who is working on a number of well known high street magazines now.

What is a Blackberry ???

"Probably not for a few years"--- NTN will be a fast-fading memory --- !!

On the note of the current Blue, I noticed at least one article from this academic year (the community charter). Why is this not being saved for the 2009-10 issue?

I am enjoying my copy of the The Blue but there are some inaccuracies.. maybe not the fault of the Editor. Inter alia these include :-

a) Elizabeth Coxon Taylor, as eminent and formidable as she was in later life, was never Head Girl at Hertford. A simple check of the boards outside the Court Room at Horsham could have confirmed that.

b) Emily Langdon-Smith has progressed this year from CH to the University of Chichester (where we are delighted to have her as a student). She did not progress to 'University College Chichester', which no longer exists.

PS, Neill.. don't tell me seriously that you don't know what 'a Blackberry' is, especially after all the Barack Obama hype last year? Millions of people (me included) now have one. It's indispensable (and only challenged by the iPhone). Mine provides me with a mobile phone, e mail, internet access, text messages, calendar/diary, satellite positioning - as well as a host of other features such as a camera, calculator, word processing, data base, music downloads, etc. etc. etc.
I have had my Blackberry for less than a year, but couldn't live without it now - even though I probably use it to less than half of its potential.

PS... when I tried to click on Ian's link to The Blue online, I too got a big broad green band across the screen. And I could not 'backspace', but had to close down and boot up again to get my computer up and running again. OOOh dear.

No, Kerren - neither the Blackberry nor the iPhone is indispensible. I possess neither, and do not wish to, and I seem to survive reasonably without them. I have a sneaking feeling that Neill might just agree with me? I do own a mobile phone, but only switch it on when I am out of the house and therefore not accessible by the landline. My mobile phone doesn't even have a camera and I do not know how to send a text message, other than to hit Reply and respond to an incoming text. Nevertheless I do not consider myself deprived. Does that make me a Luddite, I wonder? I do however own a laptop computer, which I find heavy and inconvenient to carry around and not nearly as useful as I thought it would be. I originally intended it for storing family history details, photos etc, so that I could take them with me when meeting distant relations whom I had only previously met online. The first time I actually used it for that purpose it didn't work because at the time I was staying with a friend who had no wireless access! I also find the keyboard difficult to use because it is a smaller size than my PC and I therefore cannot touch type. A couple of years ago I was reasonably competent at using a PC but now I seem to be constantly asking the girls for help; is this because the computer has got more complicated features than it used to has, or is it because my brain is aging fast, I wonder?

Kerrensimmonds------

Yes, of course I know what a "Blackberry" is --------Irony m'dear, irony ! ( Is M'dear sexist ?)

I have not got one, because I don't need all the wonderful varieties of use which it offers (At a price !)

It is surprising what one relly needs, in one's 80s --- and what can be done without !

More irony ----- I put it in an apple pie -- but it don't taste too good !

PS----- Fjgrogan got there before me -- My Mobile sits in the car for emergencys -- and I have no laptop !

I should have said "What's a laptop --- a Girl ?" (More sexism !)

I thought I was the last person in the world without Blackberry/iphone/cameraphone etc. We do have a cellphone, about the size of a small brick, kept in the car for emergency use and I certainly would not like to carry it around in my handbag! We do enjoy long chats on the steam-powered phone, and even write letters! I'm so glad to meet a felow refusenik on the forum.

OOH dear! I am afraid that my Blackberry is indispensible to me both professionally and personally.
I am not a Luddite, but in one little box, which fits neatly into one hand, I can do all the things I want to do. And I do not have the laptop problems to which Frances relates!

I bought my first mobile phone 17-18 years ago, when my Dad was poorly and was worried about me driving around the countryside at night. It was the size and weight of a brick. At the time I discussed my potential purchase with Miss West (yes... her....) and her sisters, and they all thought that it was right that I should get one. Even DRW thought that maybe she should get one, too... though I think she never did.

My mobile phone number now (all those years, and changes of technology later) is still the same!