Tekkie Ramblings

I have created a new organisation  on Github today as a place to add automation scripts and the first one I will add is a gateway for Discord. This core of this script was originally created when I needed to send crash alerts from an application I had written to my phone so that could act upon them quickly. This proved useful and I added it to additional scripts and applications, but found that it was a bit limited if I wanted the alert to be logged elsewhere so I updated my apps and scripts to send to MQTT. Once my alerts were in MQTT I could pick them up from NodeRed and perform various actions; but I missed having them arrive in Discord, so last night I created an MQTT-2-DISCORD module that includes  support for multiple discord channels. Installation is fairly simple and I have documented the process in the README.md file associated with the repository. After installation, visit Discord and obtain a webhook for the channel you want to recieve messages into. You can name t...

I've not posted in a while.  I guess I'm not really used to telling the world about my life... must get better at that! Since my last post,  I have upgraded the disk and RAM on my laptop and installed Linux Mint 19.3 and found it handles my external monitor much better than the previous release.  While restoring my data and having a clear out I stumbled on a couple of unfinished projects that I really should complete, but more about that later.

This morning my replacement hard drive arrived so I set about getting it installed. First I downloaded Linux Mint 19.3 and burnt it to DVD, booted on it and checked I could browse the internet etc... Ok. That works. I carefully replaced the physical drive, restarted my laptop and booted on the DVD again. Selected to install it and left it alone for a while.  After install and reboot, I connected it to the internet and let it install updates before taking an initial Timeshift backup. After my backup completed, I removed Libre office and Thunderbird, installed "atop", "kate", "Chromium", "Android Studio" and "Dropbox" then left it downloading my Dropbox whilst I dug around in the cupboard for my SATA USB adapter. Lastly, I copied my data from the old disk to my new one using my USB adapter.  I think it's time for a cup of tea...