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  • How the light gets in festival
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Latest talks

• 
  Installing GNU/Linux25 April 2025
  In 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 )
• 
  Local Generative AI22 April 2025
  In this talk, we discuss some of the options and issues about running your own Generative AI at home.  As well as avoiding privacy issues with online Generative AI and reducing AI bills, it’s always fun to have a tinker to find out what’s possible.  Will include several demos. First presented at U3ACommunities Computing Forum,… Read more: Local Generative AI
• 
  IPv4 and IPv6 addresses26 March 2025
  This talk takes a look at what an IPv4 address is, the problem of running out of IPv4 addresses and current work-arounds. Finally, we take a look at IPv6 addresses. First presented at U3ACommunities Computing Forum, a free on-line platform. Sign up here for notification of future talks. The presentation is : This talk was… Read more: IPv4 and IPv6 addresses

Latest blog

• 
  Home electricity – 1 year update10 May 2025
  A 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 account20 February 2025
  Here 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’s18 December 2024
  This 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 11.5kWh, costing £0.80 + standing charge £0.44.

Yesterdays solar generation was 24.9kWh.

Yesterdays export was approx 29.6kWh earning £4.45.

Total electric £-3.20.

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