June 15, 2021 Edgerouter Firewall Control with MQTT Use of an Edgerouter X router with MQTT (& mqcontrol) to block kids electronic devices from a network on commands from a home automation system. Categories Home Automation Comments: 0
April 8, 2019 Whole House Audio on the Cheap You can pay thousands for Bose multiroom audio systems, or buy a huge stereo and crank it up so you can hear it throughout the place. You can also get multiple digital distribution amplifiers that run over Wifi (eg Sonos), but again they come at a huge cost. What you really want though is cheap DIY multiroom background music system.... Categories DIY/Entertainment Comments: 0
June 24, 2018 How to Stop Your Caravan From Disappearing Caravan thefts in New Zealand have become a lot more common in the past few years, and every day or so you hear about another one going missing. Caravans are pretty easy to steal by themselves, as they are light weight, usually easily accessible on a driveway… and they sit home alone when people go to work. An often touted... Categories Projects/Retro Caravans/Technology Comments: 0
November 8, 2017 Set up a Cheap Home Surveillance System You can spend a lot on home security and surveillance. Obviously, better quality, higher resolution digital systems are great and can be set up for more money, but as digital systems have become more common, analogue systems have become dirt cheap. In my opinion, more lower resolution cameras is as good or better than just a few of high resolution,... Categories DIY/Security/Technology Comments: 0
April 27, 2016 9 Simple Tips for Smart Phone Photography I have some good camera gear, and many of my favourite photos are ones that I have taken on SLR, with carefully chosen aperture, speed and composition. But there are some that still really like that I have taken on my old pocket Casio 2 Megapixel camera, and still quite a number I’ve take on my phones over the years.... Categories Photography/Social Media/Technology Comments: 0
January 27, 2016 How I manage and share 1000s of digital photographs People often ask me for the best way to store their thousands of photos, and I’ve tried a bunch of ways in the past. I take masses of photos (SLRs, Action Cams, Pocket Cams and phones), and running my own commercial (colocated) server has allowed me to use applications such as Gallery, Piwigo and other server apps to store, manage and display... Categories DIY/Photography/Projects/Technology Comments: 0
February 26, 2014 Samsung Galaxy S5 Release, Impressive? I see the S5 has just been announced by Samsung finally at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona & and it will be available in NZ on April 11. I have been looking over some of the features after having an S4, Note 1 & 2, and various other Android phones. There are some incremental improvements and a few new... Categories Opinion/Technology Comments: 0
January 7, 2014 iPad and iPhone tips Just a repost from a technology site. I guess if you have an iPad these are useful things to know. I think they have hyped it up a bit… they aren’t exactly ‘mind-blowing’! Interesting and mostly helpful all the same. Categories Technology Comments: 0
November 20, 2013 Living with Windows 8 Mobile I’ve had the (dis)-pleasure of being forced into a new mobile for ‘real-job’, and after a bunch of to-ing and fro-ing with our IT management, Windows 8 has become the mobile operating system of choice. We are moving from a Blackberry environment, but I was fortunate enough to be able to run my own Android phone until recently. As a... Categories Technology Comments: 0
November 14, 2013 Zoomy taxi app is a game changer I don’t often have a need to get a taxi these days as I am less out and about than I used to be, but when I needed to drop my Holden in for a service, I jumped at the chance to call a taxi via the new Zoomy app taxi service. Categories Technology Comments: 0
