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

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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!

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 ...

The Google Wonder Wheel

Computing 22 May 2010

Google is really playing around with different interfaces to help you fine-tune your search results. For a pretty broad phrase like 'cycling ...

Pet Mice

Animals 04 May 2010

Here are some pet mice belonging to our eight-year-old, Isabel.

See Twitter Anywhere

Twitter 02 May 2010

To implement this on your own website, sign into Twitter and register your Twitter App at dev.twitter.com/apps. pre.code{width:600px;border ...

Stupidbot

Showcase 😀 22 Apr 2010

One Smart Fellow

Fun Stuff 16 Apr 2010

One smart fellow, he felt smart. Two smart fellows, they both felt smart. Three smart fellows, they all felt smart.

CTC Review of the Chariot Cougar 2

Child Trailers 05 Apr 2010

CTC members Ali and Darrell High sent in a review of the Chariot Cougar 2 to the CTC's Cycle magazine, and were very positive about it: Our ...

A Great Deal from Sainsbury's? Don't Drink to THAT!

House and Home 05 Apr 2010

Here's an offer from Sainsbury's you can possibly refuse - bottles of cider, usually £1.54, or THREE FOR £5! Wait a moment, doesn ...

Chris Roach Polycarbonate Supplies

House and Home 02 Apr 2010

Chris Roach Trade & Retail Plastics in Magdalen Road, Norwich, have an online price list: Polycarbonate Sheet Prices The listed prices ...

Feed-In Tariffs Are Now Live!

Solar PV Electricity 01 Apr 2010

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has announced that Feed-in Tariffs (FiTs) are now live: The introduction today of two carbon ...

Windsave Turbine Getting Blown Over

Wind Turbines 14 Mar 2010

We have some unfortunate news to report: our wind turbine, installed 2.5 years ago by The Mark Group (for Windsave), is on the tilt. It's crooked ...

Feed-in Tariffs (FITs) for existing installations

Wind Turbines 07 Mar 2010

Early adopters of electricity micro-generation are set to be kicked in the teeth, will miss out on decent new tariffs. If you feel that this ...