Technology


Just to be clear about this, we are not geeks or nerds. We are just normal people who appreciate the benefits that technology can bring. And because we are avid users but not 'techies' we think it is all, quite literally, magic.

We love the pin-sharp picture on our 4K SmartTV.
We love Googling and answering questions in seconds that used to take days or weeks in a reference library.
We love using abebooks.co.uk to gain instant access to the stock of thousands of book shops - more than we could ever hope to visit in an entire lifetime.
We love our music streamers which give us a virtual jukebox in every room.
We love our iPads which make surfing the web as natural as reading a book.
We love our Kindles which makes reading a book as natural as reading a book.

Home Network

But having said all that, if you like technology there are bound to be complexities as it all has to be connected properly so that it works reliably. In the end I had to learn a bit about computer networking and draw a schematic to help me remember how everything is connected.

Home Automation

OK, so this is a bit geeky. For years I was fascinated by 'Home Automation' - the idea that lights, heaters etc around the home could be intelligently controlled by a central computer. I read about something called X10 in the Maplin catalogue as long ago as 1996 but in those days it all seemed a bit far fetched.

In September 2006 I thought I'd give it a go and since then it's evolved into quite a sophisticated system.
Here's a post about it.