As you can imagine we have a keen interest in helping people reduce their carbon emissions. And as web developers we have a professional interest in any new nationally targeted website and particularly one that also advises on energy reduction and lifestyle changes that help reduce CO2.
So when a news article pops up on my screen announcing the opening of a new government website, which allows you to calculate your CO2 emissions – you can probably guess where I went. ACT ON CO2 and guess what? It didn’t work! “OK, it’s just gone live so it’s probably busy I’ll come back later” I thoughy. I went back later that day on three occasions and eventually managed to load the first page – it locked up my machine! So I gave up. At 11pm the following evening, I tried again and it told me the site was experiencing a lot of demand, so try again later. I give it another 30 minutes thinking most sane people will have gone to bed by now. Yes, they must have; the first page loads again with moving trains and cars and a pretty street scene, then it stops: obviously my 8mb connection is not up to it! Must be time to try the good old-fashioned HTML version – it works, albeit very, very slowly! 40 minutes later I’m finished. I’ve got a nice report telling me to do things I’ve already done.
Was it worth it? Yes… lots of good sound advice. Will people have the patience? I don’t think so. And how much has this cost to be developed? I dread to think! Looks nice though.
