Yet another little corner of the web

Random thoughts and experience, committed to electrons

A Matter of Hue

For just over the last month my family and I have been living in a house where the owner has bought quite extensively into the Philips Hue ecosystem. Every room is fitted with one or more Hue bulbs or fitted light units, with LED strips and PIRs (motion detectors) used in a number of locations. I have been allowed to adapt the setup to meet our requirements and to have a bit of a play.

21 Mar 2021 #home automation

Modeling Parts for 3D Printing with Shortcuts

A while back the kerf plate on my chop saw got damaged. It’s not a well known make (at least, not to me, it’s a “Rexon M2500AE” that I got second hand), so sourcing a replacement wouldn’t be trivial. As time has gone on, it’s got more and more damaged, to the point that the saw is getting dangerous to use. So rather than use it in it’s increasingly dangerous state or replacing the saw, I decided to try and make a replacement on my 3D printer.

23 Feb 2019 #3D printing

Long Overdue Website Update Complete

I’ve had a couple of domains for quite a few years now and have been hosting websites on them of some description since I got them. Over time my requirements and importantly the time, energy and enthusiasm I have available to maintain them has changed. I haven’t been a care-free uni student for well over a decade now and other interests and responsibilities now demand time I’d once happily devote to them.

27 Dec 2018

Management Hacking

In an ideal world, everyone would implicitly understand that it just makes good business sense to upstream some of the modifications made when creating your Linux powered devices. However this is a long way from being common knowledge and is still something that a lot of managers that will need convincing that this infact in their best interests. Just so that we are clear, I’m not suggesting here that your next Linux powered device should be an entirely open design.

15 Nov 2018 #linux #open source

3 Years Passes

It appears today marks my 3 year anniversary at Collabora. It was quite a departure from my previous role in many ways, Collabora actively encourage it’s employees to work with and the Open Source community, contribute to open source projects, speak at and attend conferences. I work pretty much exclusively from home rather than from an office. It’s a genuine privilege to be able to help other businesses take advantage of open source software, whilst also guiding them on how to do this in a way that maximises the benefit to both them and the open source community.

21 Sep 2018 #open source

The Beauty of Open Source

It’s no secret that I’ve long advocated open source software. It’s something that I’ve been quite passionate about for something like 18 years now. So much so that I have literally made working with open source software and helping others benefit from using it my job, thanks to my employer Collabora. Like all software, open source software isn’t without it’s bugs and issues. If someone tells you that there are no bugs in their software, they are either clueless, lying or disingenuously talking about some very, very trivial application (and even then possibly still fall into one of the previous 2 categories).

10 Aug 2018 #open source

My Backup Solution

One of the things that has concerned me for a number of years is the fact that I am storing more and more important stuff on my PCs, electronic documents, source code and data files for home projects and a growing collection of videos and photos of my daughter (as well as those of my wife and I prior to her entering our lives). I need a good backup solution more now than ever.

28 Jul 2017 #linux #open source

5.1 Surrond Sound via VT1618 and Linux

The Via VT1618 audio codec is used in a number of Via chipsets, including the VT8237, as found on the Via EPIA EN15000G and EN12000EG motherboards. These motherboards provide 3 audio jacks as part of the back panel I/O, Line-out, Line-in and Mic-in, however the Line-in and Mic-in connectors can also be switched in software to act as outputs, providing Rear (left and right), Center and LFE (subwoofer) channels. This seems to be marketed by Via as “Smart 5.

28 Jul 2017 #Linux

My Experiences With a Cheap 3D Printer

I’ve been intrigued by 3D printing for quite a while now. Whilst I’ve liked the idea of playing with a 3D printer, I have not wanted to expend the time and effort required to individually source parts and, as I haven’t really had a good plan of what to do with one once I’ve got it, the cost of buying the more consumer focused, pre-assembled ones has been just not been financially viable.

2 Aug 2016 #3D printing #electronics