A Home Wiki (by alaric)

Since I've been getting our home network a bit better organised lately, the home server is now actually accessible from both the wired and wireless networks (and could be accessible from the outside, too, once I've sorted out suitable security measures), so it's high time I started making use of it.

The first thing I've done has been to set up a home Wiki. There's various bits of information that Sarah and I share, but that one or the other of us is 'in charge of' depending on whose computer it lives, so rather than putting a bunch of text files on the shared file server area, it seems logical to do it with a Wiki.

I'd been wanting to research the current state of the art in Wiki software anywhere; the only other Wiki I run, the ARMuC Wiki, runs on UseMod, which I've never grown to love properly.

Anyway, my researches led me to PmWiki, and I'm quite sold on it - it's written in PHP so doesn't require CGIs, and it has a software design philosophy that I agree with; a simple core with modular extensibility.

So we now have a Sutton's Mill Intranet for our domestic odds and ends. And with a little bit of simple plugin writing, the home page lists the status of important household sensors - currently just the incoming mains voltage and frequency (we get a lot of mains power problems out here!) and the battery backup system status, but hopefully soon to include external temperatures too.

We're using the Wiki to store our monthly budget, our goals for each month (chosen at the New Year), our template shopping list of things we need to check we have sufficient stocks of, and our list of favourite recipies (since we have a habit of forgetting them, then one day going "Blimey! I've not cooked that lovely Thai turmeric rice in months!"), and we'll shove more stuff in as we come up with it - basically, from now on, whenever one of us has to go and look something up for the other, we'll Wiki it for posterity.

Mum is in the clear (by sarah)

Mum had her mammogram and other tests on Friday and is in the clear - the lump is normal breast tissue - it appears to be a muscle that has cramped up and is just not coming out of the spasm for what ever reason.

The Journey to the Post Box (by sarah)

On Friday we had to go to the post box - we also thought we'd see if it was feasible to get the bus on Saturday for the Wedding.

We had to avoid the roads as they were just sheets of ice, I struggled to stay upright as it was!

I swear the post box was getting further and further away! And then it started snowing on us - something that Jean who had her face angled to the sky found most destressing. I ended up donating my Russian hat to her (you know the kind with the fury flaps) even though she was already wearing four hats! This was mainly as I had done a hood hat hood combo on her and then she decided that she had to waer the pink polly pocket hat her Uncle David had got her!

Still the church looked pretty.

We decided that it wasn't going to be good idea to get the bus especially as it would have to be the first bus so it wouldn't even be light. I was sad at the thought of missing another friends wedding (having missed three whilst in hospital!).

I don't think I ever been so happy to see snow melt and for it to rain! I would normally have been upset at this state of affairs but we made it to the reception of the wedding on Saturday after all 🙂

There is however still snow lurking in the more sheltered areas around here.

VLAN joys (by alaric)

Well, having eliminated the VLANs from my network problems, I've been busily taking advantage of them again, and working around the fact that daapd and samba don't seem to talk very well to iTunes and MacOS X's smbfs.

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Broken Vase (by sarah)

I'm sad becuase I broke the lovely vase we got as an engament presant :'( I had everything on the floor as I was washing and dusting everything and knocked it over.

It was the one with all the beads wrapped around it - I am going to use them to make other things so it wont be completely wasted :'(

Silly Sarah 🙁