Tag: computing

July 11, 2020
For over 2 years (closer to 5, probably) I have been planning to update my board game group’s online forum and game session planner. But dealing with importing and transforming data from several years of game sessions, that were still being added to as I wrote the code, cause me some problems.

July 4, 2020
June 27, 2020
June 23, 2020
March 29, 2020
I’ve kept a personal blog for a long time, although I haven’t been posting to it much recently. That’s my bad.

The problem is Social Media sites like Facebook, and how they seem to have become the universal way to connect with friends. I’ve been through the same cycle myself several times; where I post about stuff I want to keep on my blog – almost like a diary, I guess – while trivial stuff I post to Facebook, along with occasional links on Facebook to something I have written here. But because the Facebook posts get far more reaction from people than my posts here – even the Facebook posts pointing back to here – I get sucked in and gradually start posting everything over there.

February 4, 2020
So, I was moving some bits of tech around on Sunday, tidying up leads and replugging network cables in preparation for – some time soon – the passing of control for DNS and everything from my old router to my new Mesh Network controllers.

Only one thing didn’t go as planned, I accidentally pulled out the power lead going into my NAS.

August 14, 2019
To my surprise, in Windows 10, there is no control for the scroll bar width (at least not that I can find). In Windows 7, it was directly controlled by one of the Advanced screens in the control panel. I would have thought it would be a prime contender for an entry in Windows 10’s Ease of Access controls, but no.

August 27, 2018
I’ve been using a number of web integration tools to do various tasks, ranging from cross posting from one social network to another, through to on-line automation. I think many people may be familiar with IFTTT (If This Then That), but the two relative newcomers, Zapier and Integromat are less well known. I thought I would do a quick comparison.

A web integration tool can be used to link two totally different systems. An easy example would be “Whenever I tweet, post it to Facebook”, or “Whenever someone posts to this page, send me an email”. But it can get a lot more sophisticated – I currently have automations set up that watch for specific YouTube videos and copy them to my Plex account, so they appear automatically on my home TV system; I have recently come up with a system that lets me log my medications via Alexa, and record them in Google Sheets.

March 23, 2018
But one of the things I will be using the time for is working on the update on my board game forum site, Posh Games.

This is long overdue. Official support for the version I am on ended in 2009, although I’ve managed to keep it going and secure. I have made 2 attempts, over the years, to upgrade, both vexed by the new version lacking features that are central to my website – mainly a fully integrated calendar/scheduler, allowing you to attach dates to specific topics (so people can schedule a game session, then discuss who is coming and what games to bring).

July 20, 2017
It was while I was looking for potential better DNLA clients that I came across Plex. Plex is a server you set up yourself – either on a spare computer, or perhaps a Raspberry Pi, or even (with a paid subscription) on the cloud. From it, you can stream your music and video, with clients available for most platforms. My android phone has a client, my Windows 10 desktop has a client, both my Blu-Ray player and my Amazon Fire Stick will run it.

July 20, 2017
September 11, 2016
I am beginning to really love Pocket. I installed it as a FireFox addon some time ago, then didn’t use it too much, but then I started to use it to bookmark cooking stuff, and more recently to bookmark just about anything I came across that looked interesting but was too long for me to read at the time.

This last usage has been the revelation for me, in a way that I could only grasp by trying it. Because my Kobo ebook reader is also connected to Pocket, it means all of these “I wish I had time to read” articles are immediately available in a nicely reformatted version for my reader. Allowing me to catch up on stuff in bed, or out and about, rather than at my computer screen.