Articles and advice on cycling, technology, home efficiency and more

Looking for family photos? Our family pages have moved

These pages are written and managed by John & Julii Swindells, and we take every effort to ensure their accuracy, relevance and engagement. If you don't think this is the case at any point, please contact us and explain where you think that we're going wrong. Otherwise, happy browsing!

Custom-built Greenhouse

Gardening 09 Jun 2010

This greenhouse uses up an otherwise-unusable space next to the house, in the front garden. It consists of 2.4m lengths of twinwall polycarbonate ...

Honey Bees Mating

Animals 09 Jun 2010

These honey bees were at it for several minutes, buzzing loudly whilst mating on top of a water butt in our front garden.

Sitemaps in robots.txt File

Web Programming 08 Jun 2010

Give your carefully created sitemap a mention in your robots.txt file. You simply use this format: Sitemap: http://www.mysite.com/sitemap ...

GIMP: Removing Background From Photo

Web Programming 06 Jun 2010

You can use the GIMP image manipulation program (with some dexterity and a lot of staring) to remove the background from a photo. The best guide ...

Factor 001 Bike

London Science Museum 01 Jun 2010

This bike claims to have inspiration from the world of Formula 1

Ancient Tractor

London Science Museum 01 Jun 2010

Here's an ancient tractor at the Science Museum.

All Sorts of Engines

London Science Museum 01 Jun 2010

There are all sorts of engines in the Science Museum, including Steam and Jet engines. The computing section also features the difference engine ...

The Main Area

London Science Museum 01 Jun 2010

There is a massive space, from ground floor to the top floor of the Science Museum. A rocket is suspended in this open space.

Computing

London Science Museum 01 Jun 2010

Calculating and Computing Machines

Aircraft Section

London Science Museum 01 Jun 2010

The Aircraft section features airships, jet engines, all sorts of aeroplanes, and a cross-section of a 747 passenger jet.

Run is Complete

Run For Natalie 01 Jun 2010

The Fun Run is over, and the team of ladies and girls completed the distance in very downcast (and chilly) conditions. Thanks to everyone ...

H.R.5252: Renewable Energy Tax Incentives Extension Act

Solar PV Electricity 28 May 2010

The bill H.R.5252 is sponsored by John Spratt and has been referred to House Energy and Commerce (May 6). Its purpose is to amend the American ...

Delivery of Logs

Solid Fuel Stoves and Central Heating 23 May 2010

From a different local supplier, from M.J. Tree Supplies. Trailer-load, equating to 24 barrow loads, for £120. Sizes varied enormously, with ...

Dell Inspiron Views

Laptops 23 May 2010

Bought for my Mum, a Dell Inspiron laptop with a 15" screen and 3 years onsite warranty, for £400.

Windows 7: Adding a context menu item for image resizing

Computer Programming 23 May 2010

Install imagemagick Create a destination directory for the images Create a batch file (eg, C:\webimage.bat) with this line in it: convert ...