{"id":4789,"date":"2013-03-15T10:27:58","date_gmt":"2013-03-15T10:27:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?p=4789"},"modified":"2013-03-15T10:30:18","modified_gmt":"2013-03-15T10:30:18","slug":"lego-the-best-value-toy-that-money-can-buy-and-tracking-down-replacement-parts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2013\/03\/lego-the-best-value-toy-that-money-can-buy-and-tracking-down-replacement-parts.htm","title":{"rendered":"Lego: the best value toy that money can buy (and tracking down replacement parts)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thirty years ago, I was a ten-year old boy who spent a huge amount of time building Lego models, usually to be destroyed by my younger brother*. Today, my sons are playing with that same Lego, supplemented by a\u00a0growing\u00a0number of sets of their own (slowly taking over our house in spite of my efforts to contain it to the living room and their bedrooms).<\/p>\n<h3>Imitation sets are just not as good<\/h3>\n<p>There have been a few sets gifted from others that are not &#8220;real&#8221; Lego. \u00a0It may sound ungrateful but these mostly have been passed on to charity shops as either:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They had black and white instructions that were difficult to follow.<\/li>\n<li>They needed us to download and print the instructions ourselves (surprisingly expensive and impractical).<\/li>\n<li>They just didn&#8217;t fit together as well as real Lego (the models are too fragile).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Whether it&#8217;s Knex, MegaBlox or one of the plethora of wannabees, it seems that imitation Lego is really just a false economy.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-size: 1.17em;\">Sourcing replacements for broken parts<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>One of the properties of Lego bricks is that they are incredibly strong. Anyone who&#8217;s every stood on one whilst walking bare-foot can tell you that! But, ever so occasionally, a practically\u00a0indestructible\u00a0Lego part gets broken and, faced with an inconsolable eight-year-old who wanted to use a 2&#215;2 plate with ball connector that had snapped off (&#8220;it&#8217;s really rare and we&#8217;ve only got about 2 of them Dad&#8221;), I set about locating replacements (super glue had done a better job of sticking my fingers together than it did two pieces of Lego&#8230;).<\/p>\n<p>There are various Lego parts databases online, as well as sites specialising in selling second-hand Lego parts (although parts availability can be patchy). I found\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/brickset.com\">the BrickSet Lego Brick Guide<\/a>\u00a0to be comprehensive, accurate and easy to work with (it ought to be &#8211; I&#8217;ve just noticed it&#8217;s an official Lego site!) and I searched for the part I needed, using a set number that I knew it appeared in.<\/p>\n<p>Lego&#8217;s parts replacement service is not available in all countries and I couldn&#8217;t find it via the UK website but a friend who used to work at Lego said they often sent out parts to replace broken\/missing pieces. So,\u00a0after locating\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/brickset.com\/parts\/?part=4239654\">the exact part<\/a>, I went to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/service.lego.com\/en-us\/replacementparts\/\">Lego&#8217;s replacement parts system<\/a>\u00a0and requested a new piece.<\/p>\n<p>This is where Lego excelled. Not only did they replace that part but I also asked for replacements for some others that had become broken over the years and Lego shipped them, free of charge. I would have paid for them, if I could find them but Lego&#8217;s customer service is so good and their confidence in the quality of the product so strong that they will replace the broken pieces.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-size: 1.17em;\">The real value of Lego<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>I can&#8217;t think of any other toy that&#8217;s provided as much play value as Lego and it was interesting to read <a href=\"http:\/\/therealityprose.wordpress.com\/2013\/01\/17\/what_happened_with_lego\/\">an article about how Lego&#8217;s price has changed over the years<\/a> (it&#8217;s not as expensive as it first seems). \u00a0Then, last weekend, my sons spent their pocket money on some more. \u00a0My 6 year-old plumped for some Lego Star Wars sets (no surprises there) but my 8 year-old bought a battery pack, motor, lights, switch and gears.<\/p>\n<p>Over the next few days, he built a vehicle that drives itself, worked out how best to arrange the gears and motor, how to make it stronger, how to tweak the electrics so that the lights came on separately to the motor. Each iterative change brought improvements, and taught him a little more about making things work.\u00a0In short, Lego taught him about physics, engineering, electronics (arguably innovation too&#8230;) &#8211; all with very little input from me. \u00a0Whilst my wife is looking for ways to feed his interest (and apparent aptitude) for STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics. I think we might get quite a long way just by buying lots of Lego Technics and Mindstorms!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>* On one notable\u00a0occasion\u00a0I &#8220;left home&#8221;, aged 7, walking out after my brother broke up a Lego model I&#8217;d created&#8230; I came home a few hours later in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/27204054@N07\/3166157833\/\">a panda car<\/a>&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thirty years ago, I was a ten-year old boy who spent a huge amount of time building Lego models, usually to be destroyed by my younger brother*. Today, my sons are playing with that same Lego, supplemented by a\u00a0growing\u00a0number of sets of their own (slowly taking over our house in spite of my efforts to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2013\/03\/lego-the-best-value-toy-that-money-can-buy-and-tracking-down-replacement-parts.htm\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Lego: the best value toy that money can buy (and tracking down replacement parts)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[389,470],"class_list":["post-4789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inane-waffle","tag-education","tag-lego"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lego: the best value toy that money can buy (and tracking down replacement parts) - markwilson.it<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2013\/03\/lego-the-best-value-toy-that-money-can-buy-and-tracking-down-replacement-parts.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lego: the best value toy that money can buy (and tracking down replacement parts) - markwilson.it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thirty years ago, I was a ten-year old boy who spent a huge amount of time building Lego models, usually to be destroyed by my younger brother*. Today, my sons are playing with that same Lego, supplemented by a\u00a0growing\u00a0number of sets of their own (slowly taking over our house in spite of my efforts to &hellip; Continue reading Lego: the best value toy that money can buy (and tracking down replacement parts)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2013\/03\/lego-the-best-value-toy-that-money-can-buy-and-tracking-down-replacement-parts.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"markwilson.it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-03-15T10:27:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-03-15T10:30:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Wilson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@markwilsonit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@markwilsonit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Wilson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/03\\\/lego-the-best-value-toy-that-money-can-buy-and-tracking-down-replacement-parts.htm#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/03\\\/lego-the-best-value-toy-that-money-can-buy-and-tracking-down-replacement-parts.htm\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mark Wilson\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\"},\"headline\":\"Lego: the best value toy that money can buy (and tracking down replacement parts)\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-03-15T10:27:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-03-15T10:30:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/03\\\/lego-the-best-value-toy-that-money-can-buy-and-tracking-down-replacement-parts.htm\"},\"wordCount\":720,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\"},\"keywords\":[\"Education\",\"Lego\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Waffle and randomness\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/03\\\/lego-the-best-value-toy-that-money-can-buy-and-tracking-down-replacement-parts.htm#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/03\\\/lego-the-best-value-toy-that-money-can-buy-and-tracking-down-replacement-parts.htm\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/03\\\/lego-the-best-value-toy-that-money-can-buy-and-tracking-down-replacement-parts.htm\",\"name\":\"Lego: the best value toy that money can buy (and tracking down replacement parts) - markwilson.it\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-03-15T10:27:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-03-15T10:30:18+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/03\\\/lego-the-best-value-toy-that-money-can-buy-and-tracking-down-replacement-parts.htm#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/03\\\/lego-the-best-value-toy-that-money-can-buy-and-tracking-down-replacement-parts.htm\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/03\\\/lego-the-best-value-toy-that-money-can-buy-and-tracking-down-replacement-parts.htm#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Lego: the best value toy that money can buy (and tracking down replacement parts)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"markwilson.it\",\"description\":\"get-info -class technology | write-output &gt; \\\/dev\\\/web\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\",\"name\":\"Mark Wilson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\",\"width\":800,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"Mark Wilson\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\"},\"description\":\"A Chartered IT Professional, with recent experience in technology leadership, IT strategy and practice management roles, Mark Wilson is an Enterprise Architect in the Advisory and Management Group at risual. During a career spanning more than two decades, Mark has gained widespread recognition as an expert in his field including both industry and national press exposure. In addition to certifications from Microsoft, VMware, Red Hat, The Open Group and Axelos, Mark held a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for three years and is now part of the MVP Reconnect programme. Mark is also well-known on social media and maintains an award-winning blog.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/markwilsonuk\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/in\\\/markawilson\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/markwilsonit\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/channel\\\/UCWHlZCoHRTocdvtrOJ2IL4A\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/mark-wilson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lego: the best value toy that money can buy (and tracking down replacement parts) - markwilson.it","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2013\/03\/lego-the-best-value-toy-that-money-can-buy-and-tracking-down-replacement-parts.htm","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Lego: the best value toy that money can buy (and tracking down replacement parts) - markwilson.it","og_description":"Thirty years ago, I was a ten-year old boy who spent a huge amount of time building Lego models, usually to be destroyed by my younger brother*. Today, my sons are playing with that same Lego, supplemented by a\u00a0growing\u00a0number of sets of their own (slowly taking over our house in spite of my efforts to &hellip; Continue reading Lego: the best value toy that money can buy (and tracking down replacement parts)","og_url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2013\/03\/lego-the-best-value-toy-that-money-can-buy-and-tracking-down-replacement-parts.htm","og_site_name":"markwilson.it","article_published_time":"2013-03-15T10:27:58+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-03-15T10:30:18+00:00","author":"Mark Wilson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@markwilsonit","twitter_site":"@markwilsonit","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mark Wilson","Estimated reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2013\/03\/lego-the-best-value-toy-that-money-can-buy-and-tracking-down-replacement-parts.htm#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2013\/03\/lego-the-best-value-toy-that-money-can-buy-and-tracking-down-replacement-parts.htm"},"author":{"name":"Mark Wilson","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468"},"headline":"Lego: the best value toy that money can buy (and tracking down replacement parts)","datePublished":"2013-03-15T10:27:58+00:00","dateModified":"2013-03-15T10:30:18+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2013\/03\/lego-the-best-value-toy-that-money-can-buy-and-tracking-down-replacement-parts.htm"},"wordCount":720,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468"},"keywords":["Education","Lego"],"articleSection":["Waffle and randomness"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2013\/03\/lego-the-best-value-toy-that-money-can-buy-and-tracking-down-replacement-parts.htm#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2013\/03\/lego-the-best-value-toy-that-money-can-buy-and-tracking-down-replacement-parts.htm","url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2013\/03\/lego-the-best-value-toy-that-money-can-buy-and-tracking-down-replacement-parts.htm","name":"Lego: the best value toy that money can buy (and tracking down replacement parts) - markwilson.it","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-03-15T10:27:58+00:00","dateModified":"2013-03-15T10:30:18+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2013\/03\/lego-the-best-value-toy-that-money-can-buy-and-tracking-down-replacement-parts.htm#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2013\/03\/lego-the-best-value-toy-that-money-can-buy-and-tracking-down-replacement-parts.htm"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2013\/03\/lego-the-best-value-toy-that-money-can-buy-and-tracking-down-replacement-parts.htm#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lego: the best value toy that money can buy (and tracking down replacement parts)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/","name":"markwilson.it","description":"get-info -class technology | write-output &gt; \/dev\/web","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468","name":"Mark Wilson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1","width":800,"height":800,"caption":"Mark Wilson"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1"},"description":"A Chartered IT Professional, with recent experience in technology leadership, IT strategy and practice management roles, Mark Wilson is an Enterprise Architect in the Advisory and Management Group at risual. During a career spanning more than two decades, Mark has gained widespread recognition as an expert in his field including both industry and national press exposure. In addition to certifications from Microsoft, VMware, Red Hat, The Open Group and Axelos, Mark held a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for three years and is now part of the MVP Reconnect programme. Mark is also well-known on social media and maintains an award-winning blog.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/markwilsonuk\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/markawilson\/","https:\/\/x.com\/markwilsonit","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCWHlZCoHRTocdvtrOJ2IL4A"],"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/author\/mark-wilson"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4261,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/08\/raspberry-punnets.htm","url_meta":{"origin":4789,"position":0},"title":"Raspberry punnets","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Tuesday 21 August 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Much as I like the rawness (is that a word?) of the naked Raspberry Pi, it does feel like it would be very easy for me to break and, with huge waiting lists to get a replacement as demand massively outstrips supply, I really don't want to break mine.\u00a0Consequently, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/images\/raspi-bizcard-box.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1067,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2008\/05\/a-few-iphone-bits-and-bobs.htm","url_meta":{"origin":4789,"position":1},"title":"A few iPhone bits and bobs","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Friday 9 May 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday, I found some notes I made when I was preparing my one month with the iPhone post last year - including a bunch of iPhone tips (parts 1, 2, 3 and 4). If you're based in the UK, and you're looking for free Wi-Fi courtesy of Apple's agreement with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Apple iPhone\"","block_context":{"text":"Apple iPhone","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/tag\/iphone"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1381,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/03\/useful-links-march-2009.htm","url_meta":{"origin":4789,"position":2},"title":"Useful Links: March 2009","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Tuesday 31 March 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"A list of items I've come across recently that I found potentially useful, interesting, or just plain funny: Setting up OpenDNS can protect your network. - Worried about Conficker on April 1? Setting up OpenDNS can protect your network. Show Hidden Files in Mac OS X - Application, preference pane\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Useful Websites\"","block_context":{"text":"Useful Websites","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/tag\/useful-websites"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1505,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/08\/vista-squad-has-rebranded.htm","url_meta":{"origin":4789,"position":3},"title":"Vista Squad has rebranded","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Wednesday 19 August 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Vista Squad was a popular UK user group for the Windows client and related topics. Of course, now that Windows 7 is here, Vista is old hat and so they have rebranded to the curiously named \"Edge\" user group. Existing requests to the old website should redirect to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Microsoft Windows 7\"","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft Windows 7","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/tag\/windows-7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5281,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2014\/07\/geeking-out-at-microsoft-research.htm","url_meta":{"origin":4789,"position":4},"title":"Geeking out at Microsoft Research","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Wednesday 16 July 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to join the Microsoft Technical Community Council (MTCC), which is described as \"a\u00a0group of external IT professionals influential in the IT Pro world, who are engaged and interested in sharing their opinions and meet once a month via a Lync call\". \u00a0Basically,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1746,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2010\/04\/after-hours-at-uk-techdays.htm","url_meta":{"origin":4789,"position":5},"title":"After hours at UK TechDays","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Wednesday 14 April 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the last few years, I've attended (and blogged in detail about) a couple of \"after hours\" events at Microsoft - looking at some of the consumer-related items that we might do with out computers outside of work (first in May 2007 and then in\u00a0November 2008). Tonight I was at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4789"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4825,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4789\/revisions\/4825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}