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  New blog post: Merlin Bird ID If you’re out and about in nature a lot, then I can recommend the Merlin Bird ID app. It’s a project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, part of Cornell University in New York State in the US. Its aim is to help you identify birds. What sets Merlin Bird ID apart from other bird-identifying … Read more https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/05/05/merlin-bird-id/

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  New blog post: Nunnington Hall On Easter Monday, we took advantage of the nice weather on Easter Monday to visit Nunnington Hall. Yes, I am aware it has taken me a month to get this published. I’ve been to Nunnington Hall before, but it was many, many years ago. Such that I don’t really remember it, and certainly didn’t have … Read more https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/05/03/nunnington-hall/

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  New blog post: Changing EV charger speed terminology Zapmap recently published updated guidance about EV charger speeds, and the names that we give the different types of chargers. The same guidance has been supported by the Department for Transport, and now categorises electric vehicle chargers into these four categories: I’ve put their infographic as the featured image above, and here’s how each category … https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/04/09/changing-ev-charger-speed-terminology/

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  New blog post: Plug-in solar is coming to the UK On Sunday, the government announced the go-ahead for shops and supermarkets to sell ‘plug in solar’ kits. These are solar panels which don’t require a professional installation, and can be simply plugged in to a regular plug socket to power your home. Until now, plug-in solar panels haven’t been legal in the UK. If you … Rea https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/03/17/plug-in-solar-is-coming-to-the-uk/

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  New blog post: Heaton Park Somewhere that we go to regularly, but I have hitherto not blogged about, is Heaton Park in Manchester. It’s the largest public park in the north west of England, and, being in the north-east corner of Manchester, it’s only about half an hour’s drive from us. To give you some idea of how big Heaton … Read more https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/03/07/heaton-park/

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  @jtonline@mastodon.me.uk I don't think that's available for my car, unfortunately.

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  New blog post: Allowing IP ranges for a reverse proxy I run a few services on my Raspberry Pi, such as Mealie and Calibre-Web, which I want to be able to access when I’m away from home. I therefore use Nginx Proxy Manager to act as a reverse proxy, to make them available outside of my home network. However, in doing so, I’m also exposing … Read more https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/03/03/allowing-ip-ranges-for-a-reverse-proxy/

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  New blog post: Marching onwards into March Whilst it’s been a wet start to 2026 for some, it’s definitely starting to feel more like spring now. As it happens, the photo above of some crocuses was taken 20 years ago, on a little Samsung point and shoot camera that I used to own. Apparently I don’t take many photos of crocuses, or … Read more https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/03/01/marching-onwards-into-march/

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  New blog post: Moving my email to Fastmail I’m now using Fastmail (referral link) for my email. My email address remains the same, but all email sent to it will go to Fastmail’s servers. Fastmail isn’t a new company; as per Wikipedia, it’s been around since 1999. That makes it older than Gmail, which was founded in April 2004. Moving away from Gmail … Read more https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/02/23/moving-my-email-to-fastmail/

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  New blog post: Just the Browser Do you sometimes feel like AI features are now just foisted upon us, whether we want them or not? It feels like almost every app now has some kind of AI feature added – even Notepad on Windows 11 isn’t immune, with Microsoft adding its Copilot to it. Most web browsers have some AI features … Read more https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/02/21/just-the-browser/

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  New blog post: Pancake day Today is Shrove Tuesday, which in Christian cultures falls the day before Ash Wednesday and the start of the 40 days of Lent. We’re not Christians in our household, but we do like an excuse to have pancakes, and so Shrove Tuesday is known as pancake day in our household (and I’m sure many others). … Read more https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/02/17/pancake-day/

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  New blog post: Ponhog laptop backpack review I was in need of a new backpack that can carry a laptop, and so I bought this Ponhog laptop backpack (sponsored link) a few weeks ago. Here’s my review of it, but firstly a bit of background. I’m a hybrid worker, and when I go into the office I tend to commute by train. … Read more https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/02/15/ponhog-laptop-backpack-review/

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  Happy discount heart shaped chocolate day!

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  New blog post: Friday 13th Today is Friday 13th, and because it’s February and not a leap year, this is the first of three Friday 13ths that we’ll experience this year. The next one will be in March, and then again in November. It’s the first time since 2015 that we’ve experienced three Friday 13ths in one year. Indeed, last … Read more https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/02/13/friday-13th/

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  oh noooo https://www.polygon.com/epstein-files-pokemon-go-stop-little-saint-james-sundial-where-is/

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  New blog post: Olsen & Smith 1800W Smart Ceramic Heater Review My latest new smart home device is this little 1800W ceramic heater from Olsen & Smith (sponsored link). It’s only around 20 centimetres tall, but is able to output a decent amount of heat quite quickly. We bought it because our ten-year-old’s room is consistently colder than the rest of the house. I suspect it’s … https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/02/11/olsen-smith-1800w-smart-ceramic-heater-review/

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  New blog post: How to: multiply two entities in Home Assistant Suppose you have two entities in Home Assistant, and you want to multiply them together to produce a third entity that always shows the product of these two entities. Here’s how I went about it. One of Home Assistant’s built-in integrations is Template. These Template entities derive their status from other entities in Home Assistant, … https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/02/09/how-to-multiply-two-entities-in-home-assistant/

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  New blog post: GeekMagic SmallTV Pro & Home Assistant I recently bought a GeekMagic SmallTV Pro (sponsored link), which is a small, always-on desktop screen that runs on USB power. Out of the box, it can display the weather, a small range of photos, share prices and cryptocurrency prices. However, I’ve connected it up to Home Assistant to display a dashboard. There are two … https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/02/03/geekmagic-smalltv-pro-home-assistant/

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  New blog post: Flung into February Back in February 2024, my wife Christine described the preceding January as ‘the Januariest January that ever Januaried’. And whilst January 2025 was also something of a slog, for us at least, this January hasn’t been so bad. I think it’s helped that I had a few days off work at the start, and so … Read more https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/02/01/flung-into-february/

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  New blog post: Unblogged January I didn’t do one of these in December, although I think anything that I would have written about went into the 2025 review. Instead, here’s what I got up to in January that didn’t merit a full blog post. The Wolf Moon That photo of the moon at the top isn’t a stock photo – … Read more https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/01/30/unblogged-january/