What’s your backup plan?
This week at work we have been working on a video to promote backing up data. The tagline is “what’s your backup plan?” – which has made me think about how I back up my data, and how well what I...
View ArticleNew additions to my back up plan
I’ve been using Dropbox, Carbon Copy Cloner, iCloud, iTunes Match, Time Machine, Google Drive and Crashplan as part of my back up plan for a while. Recently I also added OneDrive and Copy, because they...
View ArticleSocial media notifications
I thought it might be useful to mention that I turned off all email notifications on social media sites a few months ago. I do still get banner notifications on my phone, but I found myself ignoring...
View ArticleThe future and how we get there
I’ve spent a fair bit of this weekend reading through my notes from the conference I’ve just been at, and picking out some key concepts and quotes for a presentation I appear to be writing called “The...
View ArticleA few words about IT literacy
When I’m recruiting new IT staff one of the things I always look for is how computer literate they are. It’s a hard thing to work out, as it’s usually a mixture of what they know and what they have...
View ArticleAutomate everything (updated)
This is an updated version of something I posted a few months ago, but as some of my automation methods have changed I thought it was worth a rewrite. I’m a big fan of automating anything that can be...
View ArticleHackathon
I’ve been involved in running a Hackathon over the last week or so. I’ve never done anything like it before, but it was a really positive experience that allowed University students to learn new...
View ArticleConverting documents using Pandoc
I’ve recently found myself needing to do a lot of document conversion, and maintaining documentation that needs to be available in a variety of formats (HTML, Word documents, Markdown and PDF). My tool...
View ArticleA short account of a three-day break
I’ve been off work for three days this week. I had some leave from last year that I needed to use, and this was the first opportunity to take it. I didn’t have much of a plan apart from to listen to...
View ArticleCreating static websites with Pancake
I’m always looking for new ways to make web content available easily, and Pancake is one of the best (and easiest) I’ve found. The basic concept is that the application creates a directory in Dropbox,...
View ArticleSoftware I use
Software I use that I feel is somewhat noteworthy includes: Evernote – I use this on every device I own, mostly to take notes in meetings and training sessions, and then to revise/reflect later. A lot...
View ArticleBuilding a media centre with a Raspberry Pi and OpenELEC
My project for the Easter vacation has been to build a media player using a Raspberry Pi and Open ELEC. Setup was fairly straightforward, but I thought it was worth writing up anyway – especially as...
View ArticleWordPress troubleshooting
I’ve done a fair bit of WordPress troubleshooting over the last few weeks, including moving sites from one server to another and upgrading server operating systems. While a lot of this isn’t probably...
View ArticleWhat I did on my holidays
I’m quite pleased with what I’ve achieved over the last two weeks. This holiday was supposed to be a chance to recharge prior to a very busy period at work, but I think I’ve actually been about as...
View ArticleSetting up WordPress
The following instructions describe how I install WordPress on Ubuntu. The instructions may differ slightly for other server environments, but the basic principles should be the same. This requires...
View ArticleAn updated guide to using Pandoc for document conversion
I wrote about Pandoc last year, but I’m using it more and more and I’ve found myself editing the original post a fair few times. This is the updated 2016 version that gathers together useful commands...
View ArticleMaking professional presentations
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been writing a presentation that I have to give as part of my ILM5 qualification. I give presentations fairly regularly (in fact I’ve given two since I started...
View ArticleSimple CCTV setup using a Raspberry Pi
This weekend I’ve been setting up my latest Raspberry Pi (a version III, in a blue lego case, running Ubuntu) to display a video stream of what’s going on outside my house so I can watch out for...
View ArticleBuilding the Debian Handbook
What follows is instructions for creating a local HTML copy of the Debian Administrator’s Handbook (which is a very useful source of information for anyone working with any Debian derivative including...
View ArticleHow I use social media
I started this as a bit of an FAQ for strangers who try and get me to connect with them on Linkedin, or who want to post guest content on my blog, but I thought it was actually worth putting together...
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