Recent Posts

When my beeper goes off

As regular readers will know, I run a co-located server with a few friends. I'm also responsible for things like the WiFi network at church. Inevitably, thes...

Windows and SSDs

So, having had such good results with the SSD I put in my ageing desktop, I decided to get one for my ageing laptop too. I did the copying a bit differently ...

Solid State Disks

For my less geeky readers, a Solid State Disk (SSD) is similar to the mechanical "hard disk" which has traditionally been the storage in most PCs and laptops...

Hive active heating

I had the horrible old boiler in my flat replaced recently, with British Gas doing the work. As part of it, they installed a Hive smart thermostat. This has ...

Thunderbird Autoconfiguration

If you're a diehard like me who still runs their own e-mail server - perhaps for a few friends and family as well as yourself - you might find Thunderbird's ...

Raspberry Pi network boot server

I've been erasing and reinstalling a few machines lately - some for sale on eBay, some to set them up for friends. And I've finally reached the point where I...

Linux Capabilities and rdiff-backup

Hazel Smith gave an excellent talk at FLOSS UK's Unconference in London last weekend about Linux Capabilities and using them to run a backup system with mini...

FLOSS Unconference 2015

I had a good time at this in London yesterday - some interesting talks in the morning including one about Linux Capabilities which I'll definitely be lifting...

Sometimes it’s just too easy

My church, being a modern and forward-looking organisation, keeps its rotas in a spreadsheet on Google Docs. Last week, I was asked if it was possible to sen...