Articles

You would have though it was a thing people would use all the time, but apparently not so after too much researching I cobbled together this: echo 'Field dumpData dump'; for each ($array as $key => $value) { echo '' . $key . '' . $value . ''; } echo ''; jobs a good   more »

Recently been researching USB WiFi adaptors a for my Pi3 given I just installed a PCIe Intel 8290 on my Lenovo Thinkstation M93a and I'm getting a whopping 780Mb/s connection through my WiFi broadband router. I'm also running out of ethernet ports on the router and my preference is to use one for my printer instead of it's onboard WiFi as it   more »

Whenever you read on the internet of how to connect to other devices on your home network using a hostname instead of an IP address when they the machine doesn't broadcast it, you generally get the following two answers: add an entry to your hosts file manually yourself configure your router to send out the name. There's a couple of issues   more »

I don't know if this is related to the other issue I was having with my mailbox not being found which I fixed in the other blog post, but after installing postfix: sudo apt install postfix and correctly configuring the SMTP relay, I could send email using the sendmail function: sendmail youremail@gmail.com Subject: testing does it work! . but   more »

Just installed and configured postfix and mutt on a fresh copy of Raspberry Pi OS Lite, sending of mail was fine but I was having issues with mutt. Don't know whether it was related to my other issue here, but mutt opens but I get the error: Cannot open mailbox /var/mail/pi: No such file or directory Very annoying, its never happened to me   more »

This project has been on the boil for a while now, but I've finally got round to finishing it off to my satisfaction. I always wanted to see the elevation plot of my routes and rides but never really found somewhere I could get it from so after finding some code to parse the gpx log I've spent a long time fettling the output. Here's what you   more »

After jumping on the obligatory cheap PC / Linux server bandwagon, I was looking into the obligatory WiFi install. I was initially concerned I was going to have to pay through the tooth for an OEM version of the of the card. There seems to be a lot of chat on the interwebs of there being some BIOS locking involved restricting use to a few cards.   more »

Following on from my post of how to log the data from your ThermoPro 350S, I noted that the app also calculates the Heat Index - quite a handy metric as it measures the 'feels like' temperature taking into account the humidity. I'd been interested in the phenomenon after my travels last year through Spain as despite the scorching hot   more »

Back in the day I had to make my own data logger out of an ESP8266-12E wired to a temp and humidity sensor with custom firmware to log into my home WiFi and ping the results to a some custom PHP code to log! It's all pretty easy now days, IoT has come on so much we just call devices smart and give them an app. Whilst the hardware and app are   more »

Following on from my post of how to batch convert Garmin Fit files to GPX using Babel GPS in Windows, thought I'd follow it up with the equivalent Linux command. Obvs you need gpsbabel installed but run this command in the directory you are storing the files and you are away find . -maxdepth 1 -iname "*.fit" -exec gpsbabel -rt -i garmin_fit   more »

This is one which has been bugging me for a while - the post editor page on my site will readily underline incorrectly spelled words but when i right-click to get the spelling corrected in the context menu it doesn't want to show me correct spellings. It's probably a case of read the manual but I finally got round to working it out, and it's as   more »

Whilst working on a project to output the elevation chart of a GPX track I came across some code to produce your own heatmap from a bunch of gps tracks. I thought that'd be pretty cool to visualized my own as I've been using Strava's global heatmap since it was released in 2017 to plot mountain bike routes. I was pretty bummed that when they   more »

The automated filing of your photo's into day, month and/or year folders is great for speeding up your workflow, but I just couldn't get it working under windows. There's plenty of information about it all over the internet but for me instead of putting it into the requisite YYMMDD folders it would just move everything into a folder called   more »

Use this every time I'm on my way back from France on the ferry. Only 2 mins form the terminal Stopover details Directions: Turn right at the end of Rue Margolle in Calais Google Maps link Park4Night link Cost:   more »

I don't know about your but I've always had trouble aligning my stem perfectly parallel to my front wheel. It's even more infuriating when out on the road or tail sensing even the tiniest misalignment which niggles you for weeks or even months. The trouble is that it's really hard to quantify if it is actually out of kilter or just in your head!   more »

This is probably the bain of a lot of cyclist's lives, well the ones that keep their bikes indoors anyhow, despite how careful you are it is just a matter of time before you inadvertantly catch a tyre on the wall as you wheel your bike around. No probs you would think, bit of Cif and the mark'd come right off. No such luck here, for some reason   more »

I'm usually rubbish at amusing inventive word-play - ask me to come up with a pub quiz name and I'm utterly stumped. This one was easy for me, though I wasn't asked to think of one, the thought just randomly came up in my   more »

I've been eagerly awaiting the fourth version of the RaspberryPi for a while, but when it passed the point where I had expected it to be released I googled it only to find that the next incarnation may be a while. Darn it, I have to get anothe RaspberryPi3. So the time has come to commission it and I find the lastest version of Raspian called   more »

My first encounters with Camelbak Podium bidons were not great, I borrowed a bottle from Ali for use on quick ride but but I was soon struggling with it! What I hadn't experienced before in my two decades of cycling was an increase in nozzle length, every time I wen't for a sip I ended up punching myself in the face - I'd have to relearn how to   more »

So you want to rig up your Raspberry Pi OSMC to be controlled by your favourite remote control, easy peasy - it is just a matter of plugging the IR receiver diode in and swith GPIO on in the settings. Dont like the standard pins 17 or 18, no problem - you can change them at teh same time, just follow these instructions. Go to 'My OSMC, Select 'Pi   more »

One of the major annoyances for me working with very large datasets you get from someone else is that you often don't know the format the file is coming in, not a problem really just take a peak in Notepad++ or Excel and you are away. But quite often these files are millions of rows in length and it is just not possible to work it out. So I've   more »

Well I suppose it was inevitable, when you suddenly realise you are getting older by the things you catch yourself doing/saying thinking getting more frequent. The latest thing I've noticed is that my propensity to fart in public has increased exponentially! It used to be the case that I'd internalise the pain of holding in a ripper for hours on   more »

This is one of those little quirks in excel that's annoyed me for a while, there must be some method in their madness but I've yet to come across anybody that thinks it is logically the way forward; so I've written one for you to use. The way the in-built function works is that it reports back the answer as how many months apart are the two dates   more »

If you've ever plugged a Raspberry Pi into a tv you've probably come across this issue - the displayed image either doesn't fill the screen or over-runs it. The usual bit of googling reveals that all you have to do is tweak a couple of overscan settings and you are good to go. It sounds easy but three Raspberry Pis in and I've only just found the   more »

My new adage of "You only know what you know how to google" - Martin Childs, 2016 stood true for this little puzzler, the answer wasn't apparent from simply googling it! All I wanted was to do something to a range input in a custom Excel function, easy you'd think - not in this case. I toiled for a bit of time before conceding that I'd just have   more »

First up I'm sorry about bathering on about this SSH thing but I to be honest I'm padding out the blog posts a little bit as there's one article I've written that I'm just not sure I want to publish, It's nothing bad, just not in keeping with the tone of this site so I've racked it up at the end of the post ready to go and keep adding posts in   more »

I came across my old shortcut on my windows machine to vnc onto the Pi which prompted me to have a go connecting to my new RaspberryPi3. I duly fired it up only to receive an error message along the lines of 'No configured security type is supported'. After a bit of research it turns out that RealVNC has upped their security protocols and TightVNC   more »

One of reasons why I originally held back on buying a SSL certificate for my website was that I wasn't sure that it'd work using a dynamic IP routing service - cos I didn't want to waste $15! Well you don't need to fret about it because I can confirm it works after I eventually got round to setting up a free LetsEncrypt.org one on my   more »

Here's a blast from excel past, it was actually one of the more interesting projects I worked on. We were designing food waste recycling plants for the food manufacture and retail industries. The task was to calculate the most efficient solution ofhow many recycling plants to build and where to build them based on the waste arising of each shop   more »

I love an analogy, there's nothing better than pushing your explanation across the line with an unequivocal corresponding example in everyday life. I think I've crossed the line this time though, I'd been asked to rate the presentation I'd just been given on a subject outside of my specific skill set; I responded that it was tricking given how   more »

For me being SSL secured has always been the benchmark as having a bonafide website. That little green padlock next to your websites URL doesn't really mean much for a blog, but I always wanted one. At the start of last year I started thing about trying to get one. Ever being a skinflint I wanted to pay nothing for it, but logic overcame   more »

My dream RaspberryPi project that I am slowly chipping away at is to create the ultimate alarm clock. It is a slow burner though as at it's inception I had none of the skills I needed to pull it off. I've now amassed all of the technical skills to pull it off and I'm just left with finalising the design and finding the time and the parts (not a   more »