Yep, my home page. Just a collection of bits and pieces.
Links
Latest talks
- Home networkingIn this talk, we look at home networking. We’ll cover broadband, Wi-Fi, standards, speeds, firewalls, in-bound connections plus some additional options. The presentation is : The talk was previously recorded on U3AComminities :
- Real Time Bidding (how targeted ads work)In this talk we look at the Real Time Bidding (RTB) system – this is the mechanism that provides targeted ads to your web pages and devices. We’ll cover the basic mechanism, what data is held, how do they know it’s you, main companies involved, pros & cons and what can be done. The presentation… Read more: Real Time Bidding (how targeted ads work)
- Installing GNU/LinuxIn this talk we look at why you might want to migrate from Windows to Linux, a demo of actually doing the migration and finish with some special cases. The presentation is : ( use https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1w7C1EPCxPOL9T_AdQCl-IHhIII7GTqkhV_IPAoV9LT4/edit?usp=sharing to add comments )
Latest blog
- u3a.social updateOverview In February 2025, I started presented my talk Is it time to move to the Fediverse ? to on-line and local u3a groups. Whilst the main goal of the talk was to describe how the Fediverse worked from a technical point of view, I added the question … Should we, u3a worldwide, create a… Read more: u3a.social update
- Home electricity – 1 year updateA year or so ago I presented How to reduce your electricity bill to zero talk (initially over on u3acommunities.org computing group) – it’s now been running for a year, so time to check progress. General approach After getting my solar + house battery installed, I’ve tried to reduce my electricity (£ and carbon footprint)… Read more: Home electricity – 1 year update
- Getting RSS feeds into your Fediverse accountHere are some ideas to get RSS feeds into your Fediverse account. Sites that provide RSS Many sites already provide an RSS feed … look for the RSS symbol. Use your browsers Copy Link facility to get the link. Finally, in your Fediverse account, do a private mention of @birb with the link you’ve copied.… Read more: Getting RSS feeds into your Fediverse account
- ISP’sThis is my recent experience with ISP’s. VirginMedia over cable Link broadbands over CityFibre 4th Utility over CityFibre Toob Research For 900Mbit/sec to 1,000Mbit/sec. CityFibre require 2 weeks to switch. Name Link Price / month Public IP Comment Link Broadbands https://linkbroadbands.com/ £30, 1 month contract free Very slow in evening 4th Utility https://the4thutility.co.uk/ £25 (black… Read more: ISP’s
Daily power use

Yesterdays electricity grid consumption was 11.6kWh, costing £0.82 + standing charge £0.44.
Yesterdays solar generation was 15.6kWh.
Yesterdays export was approx 16.3kWh earning £2.45.
Total electric £-1.19.
Local air quality

Data is from a SEN5x module.
- PM 2.5 unhealthy above 35.5 μg/m3
- VOC and NOx index max in 500
Broadband speed


Recent fediverse posts
- Hi everyone! We’ve been working on a few big projects since our last status update, but we’ve also made progess […] Oct 1
- Just left #linkedin due to their new terms and conditions around #genai. Why did it take so long, I hear […] Sep 22
- So you're thinking about getting #ChatGPT to write something for you… (Adapted from https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tyulkanov_a-simple-algorithm-to-decide-whether-to-use-activity-7021766139605078016-x8Q9) Sep 18
- Planted some #sunflowers and getting close to harvesting the seeds, but found the pesky #squirrel liked them more ! Sep 18
- New #octopusenergy #freeelectricity annouced. It starts at 14:00 to 15:00 on 18/9 (note that I'm in the Southern region) Sep 17
- New #octopusenergy #freeelectricity annouced. It starts at 14:00 to 15:00 on 15/9 (note that I'm in the Southern region) Sep 14
- Today, we're launching a feature that a number of Bridgy Fed users have been asking for: notifications for unbridged interactions. […] Sep 10
- New #octopusenergy #freeelectricity annouced. It starts at 12:00 to 13:00 on 11/9 (note that I'm in the Southern region) Sep 10
- New #octopusenergy #savingsession annouced. It starts at 18:00 to 19:00 on 8/9 for £0.10/kWh (note that I'm in the Southern […] Sep 8
- Emails will be going out tomorrow for next weeks #u3acommunities talk/discussion on home networking. Use https://u3acommunities.org/subscribe-to-computing-forum/ to join. #u3a #networking […] Sep 8