Family History Database Searches

May 1, 2025 | Comment

Amongst all my many hobbies is researching my family history, which I have been doing on and off (well, more off actually) for the last 30 years. Over that time, how you research has changed enormously with so many records now being available online. Also, when I first started, the only way to record your information was on paper, but now there are numerous software packages that have largely replaced the need for paper.

Data Mining

The main issue with recording your family history information in a software package is that you are beholden to the developer’s choice of what … Read the rest

Adding your own resources to Scratch

April 16, 2025 | Comment

Scratch comes with a built-in library of resources that you can use in projects but they only go so far. Fortunately, it is possible to add your own backgrounds, sprites and sounds to your projects.

In this short guide we are going to be looking at how to search for and find resources such as images and sounds you or your child can use in your Scratch projects. 

You can do this with Google but we are going to be using DuckDuckGo.

What is DuckDuckGo?

DuckDuckGo is a simple and private search engine that helps you find information on … Read the rest

COLMi Smart Ring – an Update

April 9, 2025 | Comment

Not so long ago, last January in fact, I wrote about the COLMi Smart Ring, the smart ring that you can pick up on Aliexpress for about fifteen pounds. In my conclusion I wrote that “I like the design of the ring, but the quality of the finish shows where cost savings have been made to keep the price down.” Now, less than three months later, I am back as that has proved to be highly accurate.

The picture above shows my R06 smart ring after three months of use, and below it an unworn one. As you … Read the rest

Evernote Rules

April 1, 2025 | Comment

I have been an avid user of Evernote since July 2008 and have amassed over 53,000 notes. Over those 16 years, I have seen many changes to both Evernote the company and the client itself. The recent purchase by Bending Spoons had the potential to make or break the company but has, in my opinion, been overwhelmingly positive for Evernote (despite what the naysayers on Reddit say!).

Introducing Evernote Rules

One feature I have wanted Evernote to have is some form of automation that manipulates notes based on rules – very similar to the rules available in Outlook. After … Read the rest

Moving a WordPress Install to a New Domain

March 26, 2025 | Comment

Over the years in both my professional and personal lives I have had to move WordPress sites to new homes that required changing the domains. This has led me to develop a set of instructions that I use successfully every time I migrate.

The first warning I should give is that what follows is not the only things you have to do but it is a decent starting point.

Updating the Database

The second warning is that here be dragons. The following requires making direct changes to the WordPress database which could lead to your site no longer working. … Read the rest

Cardpod

March 21, 2025 | Comment

Over the years, I have backed a number of Kickstarter projects with a varying amount of success. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I have found that I am more likely to support someone that I backed before and like what I have received – or even just received it as that’s not always a guarantee. So when a company called CARD who I’d previously backed announced a new project I was interested. Their previous project, the Kablecard, is excellent and I still use it today.

Kablecard – The Swiss Army Utility Card for Charging on the go!

Enter the CardPOD

The CardPOD… Read the rest

What Should I Watch Next?

March 1, 2025 | 1 comment

Back last December I wrote about a project that I had written called What Should I Play Next? where it would randomly choose something from my record collection to play. This month’s project, part of my 👨‍💻12 Apps in 12 Months challenge, is the visual equivalent.

The Plex API

When I want to watch a film I am sometimes constrained by the amount of time I have and usually have some feeling of the genre I want so I wanted something that catered for that plus could also exclude things that I had watched before.

While I do subscribe to … Read the rest

Using php2Bluesky without Composer post v2.0.14

February 23, 2025 | Comment

In January I wrote about Using php2Bluesky without Composer for those that wanted to take this approach. Since then I have updated the code so that it conforms to PSR-4 for loading with Composer. This in turn has a knock-on effect for those loading manually. The rest of this article explains how loading now needs to take place.

Multiple Files

Prior to v2.0.14 all the code was contained within a single file called functions.php. The naming reflected the history of the library which was originally developed to be included as part of a larger project. When I spun it out … Read the rest

RWOL from Alexa

February 10, 2025 | Comment

At the end of 2023, I wrote about how I had used a Raspberry Pi Zero to act as a machine to remotely turn on and off a media server that I had in my house. The idea being that it was unnecessary to have it on 24/7, consuming electricity when I was asleep for much of that time.

While I had a nice little web app from which I could trigger the start up and shut down I always wanted to be able to do it using voice commands via Alexa. Today I finally got round to doing that … Read the rest

Simple WordPress Post Stats

February 1, 2025 | 2 comments

Every year, over on my personal blog, I write a round-up post covering what I have done during the year. This includes books read, films watched steps taken etc. What it has never covered are my creative endeavours which would be my developments over at Github and my blog posts.

Where are the WordPress Stats?

I sort of assumed that there would be stacks of stats in the WordPress dashboard but no if you want that you have to install Jetpack and get the nagging messages asking you to upgrade. These stats are very similar to what you … Read the rest