El Capitan

The time has come..it would seem. Is it easy? It all depends. It wasn’t seamless but we are working again, sort of. Also it seems Apple consider /var to be a system directory and not for use by user installed code but I have only found one program (written by me) impacted, which I initially…

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Streaming TV at home (ROKU)

I bought a ROKU stick, it’s pretty easy to start and make to work. It’s not clear from the web site, but you must open an account on their web site, agree their terms and conditions and lodge payment details with them; for buying extra I assume.  The BBC, ITV, All 4 and Demand 5…

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Raspberry Pi (Deprecated)

I bought a Raspberry Pi to act as a Media Server in the home. I bought a PI, case, SD card and power source. As ever here are my notes. Currently, getting started (or 1st boot), 1st customisations, and early days with the media browsers and XBMC/Kodi. I have BBC, ITV and YouTube working, Channel…

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OMG Excel Arrays (a UNIQ filter)

Right. I needed to write a UNIQ filter in an excel spreadsheet and this needed to be implemented using functions i.e. not VB for two reasons; I can’t and the customer doesn’t want me to.

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Hotpoint Fridge Freezer HMB312AAI

Our fridge freezer is a Hotpoint HMB 312I or maybe an HMB312AAI. I need some spare parts. I no longer own this fridge and some of the links have gone away; I have replaced them with web archive copies. I hope this is useful to someone!

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Linux Power Management

Been trying to get my latest Linux Laptop to behave nicely while on battery. It’s an Elementary Luna build. I came to the conclusion that there’s not much that can be done; it’s one of those things we leave to the OS authors, in this case Canonical.

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Download Error -505

I am trying to install natter on my Galaxy S5 and get an install error 505. Here are my notes. I have now fixed issue, see the final paragraph.

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Moving Contacts from a Tocco to Galaxy 6

I now have a Samsung Galaxy 6 and need to move forward from a Samsung Tocco. Fortunately, I have only the phone contacts to move forward, I used Kies to get them off to my laptop, make .vcf copies, then copy the .vcf files to a folder in the ./Downloads folder on the Galaxy device,…

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Return to Chamonix

This was originally written in 2015, when my works trip returned to Chamonix. Yup, we’re going back to Chamonix, probably staying here., obviously going up in the world; it’s next door to the one we used in 2011. In 2025, I had a look to go under my own steam, to see the snow and…

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