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Raspberry Pi Sonos replacement
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Sonos alternative

We’re busy replacing a customer’s ageing Sonos distributed sound system with a Linux Media Server (c/w SAMBA for remaining Sonos kit) c/w these tiny Linux-powered SBCs (single board commuters) as replacements. Granted, this is merely a prototype. This unit us based upon a Raspberry pi 4B c/w 8GiB RAM, a capacitative touchscreen and an external…

Brass monkey weather
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Brass monkey weather

Here on the central south coast of England, it is rare for temperatures to drop much below freezing. This cold snap we recorded -4.5 °C at night and barely rising above 0°C during the day. And thanks to economies we’re making due to the ridiculously high price of natural gas, the house itself seldom rose…

BR-9C combined Geiger counter and EMF meter – initial impressions
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BR-9C combined Geiger counter and EMF meter – initial impressions

I just bought a Geiger counter from a seller on AliExpress. Well it’s actually a Geiger counter and EMF (electromagnetic field) meter, all combined into a single device. I have no idea who actually makes these things. There is no branding other than a model number “BR-9C”. Though I did discover that the enclosures used…

Rishi Sunak – yet another unelected pro-Brexit British prime minister
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Rishi Sunak – yet another unelected pro-Brexit British prime minister

So it seems we have yet another unelected Tory prime minister. In addition to being Britain’s first British-Asian and Hindu PM, and the youngest PM in over two centuries, Rishi Sunak also has the distinction of being our third PM in seven weeks! This time there wasn’t even ballot for Tory Party members. He just…

Queen Elizabeth II dies.

Queen Elizabeth II dies.

Today we say a final goodbye to our long reigning Queen. Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, 1926-04-21 ~ 2022-09-08) was Queen of the United Kingdom and fourteen other Commonwealth realms from 1952-02-06 until her death 2022-09-08 16:30 UTC. Her reign of 70 years and 214 days was the longest of any British monarch and the…

Dim Lizzy for PM

Dim Lizzy for PM

Just when we thought the Tories couldn’t possibly inflict anyone worse than Bore Arse upon us, along comes Dim Lizzy. Worst past the post, Liz Truss really is dim. She also changes what she likes to describe as her “mind” as often as some people change their underpants. We’ve seen some piss-poor Tory leaders over…

Synthetic stupidity – or one man and his cabbage…
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Synthetic stupidity – or one man and his cabbage…

Like quite a few photographers, I have been flirting with AI (artificial intelligence) digital imaging. Regular readers may even have spotted my Synthetic Stupidity gallery dedicated to the fact that at the moment, publicly available AI graphics tools really aren’t particularly good – even though they are quite good fun to play with. In fact…

Brexiteers’ irrational aversion to the Metric System
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Brexiteers’ irrational aversion to the Metric System

Puzzles me why Brexiteers still conflate use of International System of Units (SI) with the EU? Or why these people still think that the metric system is some how “not British” and kid themselves that they are being “patriotic” by refusing to use it?  British Engineers and scientists have been pleading with various British governments…

All your base
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All your base

Today we take a little trip back in time to one of the internet’s oldest and most famous memes: “All Your Base”. AKA “All your base are belong to us“, this internet meme was based on a badly translated phrase from the opening scene of a video game called  “Zero Wing“. The phrase first appeared…

What about WEBP?
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What about WEBP?

JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) format for images has served us well for nearly three decades. But is is essentially a 1990’s format. Today we have better ways of compressing images. The most popular currently is Google’s WEBP (Web Picture) Format. Many modern websites use WebP as its default format for uploaded images that it…

craiyon.com 2022-07-08 17:54:15 Boris Johnson spaffing up the wall photorealistic
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Bye Bye Boris

I have been a tad distracted by some rather serious political events that have taken place here in Old Blighty during the last few days. Basically our Prime Minister has decided to “do a Trump” and stay in power even though over fifty members of his government have now resigned in protest over his various…

Stainless steel router rack
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A fully loaded miniature stainless steel router rack

A few folks have asked me what I use to keep our various networking and internet connectivity kit neat and tidy, yet reasonably service friendly. Well, I have to admit that it was rather a muddle for a many years. That was until I decided to make a simple multistorey stainless steel router rack. Moreover,…

Virtual light meter
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Light meter

These days almost all digital cameras offer excellent light metering, The old fashioned “light meter” has become a “thing of the past” to a large extent. Nevertheless they do still have their uses. For those still wishing to flirt with light meters but who don’t want to fork-out to the £100 or so that a…