One of my winter tasks is to find a new place for u3acommunities.org. Just completed a first pass :

• Use a #vps on #ovhcloud
• Installed (beta) #yunohost (yunohost.org)
• Added #wordpress and some admin apps
• Got #goaccess working for stats (forum.yunohost.org/t/goaccess-…)
• Got #anubis working for web protection (forum.yunohost.org/t/installin…)
• Figured out wordpress groups (forum.yunohost.org/t/how-to-ma…)
• Added backups with #restic (forum.yunohost.org/t/restic-re…)

Phew ... I am starting to like yunohost. I can see that once the intial effort has been put in to get the basics done, then additioanl apps are easy.

Thanks for @Elena Rossini 🌈 for the inspiration!

@U3ACommunities Computing

Finally completed project to convert my Dad's old imac into a 5k monitor. Seems a shame to waste such a good display.

The one USB-C powers my notebook & feed video to the screen. Also added a microphone and camera so I can do video conferencing what notebook lid is closed.

Pretty common thing to do ! forums.macrumors.com/threads/d…

@U3ACommunities Computing #imac #5k #monitor

@Vivaldi Browser this is an example of what I see (hopefully the animated gif gets through).

First click on a link used open up the page. Now the first click opens a blank page and a second click is needed.

thanks for your response. Yes, that was the first thing I tried 😀

Other browsers, firefox/chrome/safari, work okay to stackoverflow.com

Anyone else seeing access denied to stack overflow from vivaldi browser ?

I'm wondering if they are trying to deter AI agents ...

@Vivaldi Browser #vivaldibrowser

And so it begins ... feels like an annual pilgrimage.

#glastonbury2027 #glastonbury #ukfestivals

Just got one of these ... plugs onto tool batteries for USB charging. Good use of tool batteries i thought.

@U3ACommunities Computing

So ... #glastonbury festival 2027 tickets are on sale on oct 4th. Weirdly, I quite enjoy the mad scramble to secure tickets !

Over £400 this year tho ... although you get an awful lot for that, its expensive. Wondering if I should go for volunteering next year instead with #mycauseuk.

#festivals #ukfestivals

Dress code on the beaches here on #formentera seems to be whatever.

I suppose #naturists are a bit fitter since they tend to walk a little way from the car parks 😀

Overall it feels "natural" to me.

@Will in Bristol (Dine Naked)

Last weekend I saw Phill Fox do a talk at the #shambala festival about how technology, esp AI, have impacts on jobs … festivals can often have great talks!

He has agreed to to a similar talk for us on the u3acommunities computer group (u3acommunities.org/interest-gr…) on 20th Oct 3pm.

The meeting won’t go up for a bit yet, but if you want to get an email when it does, you can join the email list here u3acommunities.org/subscribe-t… (each email sent has a unsubscribe/manage link so easy to remove yourself from the group after the meeting).

#u3a @U3ACommunities Computing #retired

Why do folks still use meta products (#facebook #whatsapp #threads #Instagram ) when there are so many more ethical choices (such as #fediverse #friendica #signal etc)

@U3ACommunities Computing @Elena Rossini 🌈 #u3a

Just about recovered from volunteering at #boomtown festival ... was a challenge in the heat, dust and so much walking !

Still, next week off to #shambala festival with #mycauseuk ... one of my favourites. I expect it will be writstbanding again (when everyone is happy to see you!). Hopefully not too much rain !

Hard work, but Its great to give back a little.

#shambala2026 #boomtownfair

From by Daughter (not sure where the pic came from) ... feels about right though.

@U3ACommunities Computing #AI

Its been a tough year ... 3 parental funerals/probates to work through (my father + both my wifes parents) so not able to do as much festival volunteering as I would have liked.

But, next week its volunteering at boomtown ! (then, soon after, shambala)

Sometimes I think festivals are a bit like wizard of oz ... day-to-day life is black and white and when you get to a festival its all in colour 😀. Oddly, I'm not into music that much but I do really appreciate the art, performances and the general madness!

Will be busy, lots and lots of walking, but if nothing else, something different.

Are there any fediverse groups for UK festivals ? I did create festivals@u3a.social (which re-posts news found via RSS) but it feels a bit of a hack. Somewhat surprised that ethical festivals stick to non-ethical social media.

#Festivals #Boomtown #Boomtownfair #Mycauseuk #Shambala #Fediverse

Later than normal ... so much going on at the moment.

May was a sunny month, although I'm now on new Octopus tariffs so export is now only 12p/kWh and overnight import 3.99p/kWh. Still, over 12months I'm still earning a little (after powering house, hot water and car charging).

#solar #u3a #u3a.social #myenergi #OctopusEnergy

In April, we easily exported more than we consumed ... long may it continue ! Now averaging £-1.88 / month for electricity (house + hot water + car charging).

Overnight electricity now at 3.9p/kWh fixed for 1 year (a bit of luck, got that just before the US/Iran war) ... new customers get 8p/kWh now.

!U3ACommunities Computing #solar #myenergi #homeassisant

Lots of sun this month so getting close to switching between paying for electricty and earning. Overall, on average, earning £1.82 per month (so free electricty, hotwater, car charging and still make a little profit).

Next month overnight rates drop to 3.5p/kWh but the tariff expires so I'll be moving to the new octopus intelligent go plan.

#OctopusEnergy #solar #myenergi @U3ACommunities Computing #u3a #retired

I very rarely allow AI searches, but this morning I thought why not

• Barclays link takes you to Barclays
• Royal bank of Scotland link takes you to Hargreaves Lansdown
• Santander link takes you to Tandem

Feels like fraud

#Google #ai

I've had my #Hyundai #Kona #ElectricCar now for nearly 8 years ... the local #Edens service center still don't know the difference between state of charge and state of health. They reguarly report the SOC as battery health.

Unbelievable ... especially as the high voltage battery is getting close to end of warrenty.

I've measured #SOH myself, of course, both with an app and by keeping track of charges. Still at 100%. But I really want #Hyundai to be regularly measuring these things.

But good news, the service report still reports that my (non existant) exhaust is fine !

In todays toalk there was a question about Microsoft Outlook not displaying mailpoet emails from U3ACommunities.

I just installed it on my mac ... seems to work.

Mind you, plenty of reports about it not working (kb.mailpoet.com/article/186-kn…) ... seems some versions of Outlook use word to render the page.

I guess if you see issue, consider upgrading your client or click on the view in a browser button.

!U3ACommunities Computing

My home electricty use continues to be negative cost (average -£3.06 per month). As spring rolls on, we are importing less with more solar.

Outlook is variable ... whilst standing charges look to come down in April, octopus intelligent go night rate is increasing (7p to 7.5p) and import reducing (15p to 12p). Also, it seems Trump has started a war ...

#OctopusEnergy #solar #myenergi @U3ACommunities Computing

Greens win the by election !

#Green Party/Comhaontas Glas #politics

Just got my Jan 2026 electricity numbers in ... the last 12 months I'm paying an average
of -£3.24/month (includes hot water + car charging at home). Still, its weird in the winter months to get an electricity bill !

However, gas usage is high.

Looking forward to sunnier days !

@U3ACommunities Computing #myenergi @Octopus Energy #solar #homeassistant

The software (PHP code) was easy - just a new tree and copy over the old config file.

I chose to also move away from containers, also straight forward (restore the last backup on a fresh natively running mariadb).

But there is a post backgound task still going on, looks like its re-syncing contacts. Friendica has a "workerqueue" to process work - I'm told it can take several days to complete and settle back down to normal levels.

Yes! #immich finally gets a simple non-destructive editor 😀

@U3ACommunities Computing

My tee-shirts just arrived 😀 (the other is bright orange!)

#Fediverse #u3asocial

@Elena Rossini ⁂ @U3ACommunities Computing

Good question 😀. I'm (trying) to track numbers in homeassistant.

We had about 60 prior to the last meeting and now 87. I didn't note down how many attended the last meeting, but a bit of a jump.

!Friendica Admins I'm currently running friendica 2024.12 on a small linux server with both the app and mariadb database running in docker. I'm currently exploring the upgrade options to the next GA.

One option is to move the database from docker to natively running.

I've noticed some sluggish performances with the currently deployment, so I've enabled the slow_query_log and am seeing a few database queries lasting several seconds.

I've taken some of these SELECT queries and re-run them on both the docker database and a new natively running database (populated from the last backup). Query times roughly halve on the native database compared with the docker database.

Also, of course, there should be improvements with the new channel cache.

I suppose there might be possible docker tuning to be done, but native database looks to be a better option.

(query times measured with SHOW PROFILES)

I do like to see #octopus intelligent go tariff in operation.

You can see here that I've plugged in my #electriccar and octopus has selected times of the day where the grid is cheaper/greener and they've send charging messages to my car. I use #homeassisant to monitor this and to make use of these times slots for the house as well.

In this example pretty much all of the days consumtion is charged at the lower rate.

My birthday present (to myself), inspired by @Elena Rossini ⁂

#Fediverse

I pull RSS feeds into friendica ... seems to do a pretty good job.

Willow "Wolveric" Catkin

2026-01-07 12:32:59

Mobile first... (I'm not aware of any reputable RSS readers for mobile, as I suspect most people aren't, and I'd be quite interested in recommendations tbh... )

So true.

Mind you, many websites do have an RSS feed but don't publicise it (mostly, I suspect, due to ignorance).

I use addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firef… to find "hidden" RSS feeds to follow (on my frendica instance).

Screenshot from my next talk -

#u3a #u3a.social @U3ACommunities Computing

I now have my electricity numbers for 2025 ... average cost per month now at -£4.16. I earn durning the summer months and have to pay during the winter months, but on average, I earn a little.

Hopefully this will improve after next April when the energy costs are due to come down a little, but I suspect more importantly, some of the "tax" is being removed from the standard charge (where electricity consumers pay for capital projects like sizewell C). Still, this probabally gets lost again when pay-per-mile charges come in, sigh.

#u3a @U3ACommunities Computing #u3acommunities #OctopusEnergy #solar #myenergi