Developing skills in teamwork, security, and project management. (image by author, background photo by Reuben Hustler)
This was the last year of my degree at the University of Southampton. I wish I'd had this blog active from the start of my studies, so that I could both publish my notes freely, and comment on my thoughts on modules for many future cohorts.
It's a shame that it's taken me this long to figure out that these sorts of things might be handy and provide some good content for the blog for those that want to know about what I've been studying without necessarily looking at my notes for each of the modules, but here we are.
During the year, I took the following modules:
ELEC6200: Group Design Project (Semester 1, worth 3 modules)
COMP6204: Software Project Management and Secure Development (Semester 1)
Use Home Assistant and keep your smart devices local!
I like to think that I'm quite tech conscious, and that IoT can be a force for good, if installed properly and made easy enough to use. The most important thing, in my opinion, is that the 'smart' devices are just that, and will work reliably not just now, but a few years down the line. They shouldn't be a pain to maintain, or cause problems if the internet dies, or there's a power cut.
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalise a purchase. Learn more.
Making sure that failures like these don't cause total data loss (AI generated image)
You've likely heard of the 3-2-1 rule for backups. If not, it's really simple:
You want 3 copies of your data,
of these copies, 2 on different mediums (e.g., HDD/tape),
and finally there should be 1 offsite copy.
When forming your backup plan, you should consider each of these requirements, and formulate a plan for how you'll fulfill them. You also want to consider the type of data you'll be storing, how frequently it'll be accessed, and whether the data is truly irreplaceable, or something that can be re-downloaded or imported from another medium.
In this article, I'll be explaining my 3-2-1 backup solution, including the architecture, costs, and overall performance.
This is just a quick post to highlight the possible boot modes on the Raspberry Pis, how these can be used in conjunction with network booting, and the key differences between the Pi 3 and 4B. I found this to all be quite confusing when I first looked at it, so hopefully this post will help it make a bit more sense.
Some of these principles can be applied to other computers, especially PXE boot. This post is, however, more geared towards the specifics encountered with the Raspberry Pi family of single-board computers.
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalise a purchase. Learn more.
How long until your storage dies? (AI generated image)
I've been auditing the SD cards I have in use on various devices, including the data on them, and whether they are still reliable. I've recently freed up some of these SD cards for use in other projects, as I move to network booting my Raspberry Pis. Some of these SD cards are completely dead, I think because they have had lots of small writes, for things such as databases, which cause lots of stress on the underlying flash, and eventually cause it to fail. One example I can think of is a previous Pi running my Home Assistant, which randomly died one day and had lots of database activity.
This is the second and final instalment for the Wales 2022 trip. In this one, we go to Llyn Padarn, one of the largest lakes for swimming in Snowdon, climb Mt. Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa as the Welsh like to call it) on the Ranger Path, then go caving underground at Zip World in LLechwedd, whilst Jack goes off and looks at a castle somewhere.
This video series comes from my January trip with Dad to Cornwall to smash out yet another bit of the coast path. I didn't post the earlier ones here, mainly because I didn't yet have a functional blog, but they are available on the YouTube playlist.
Here's the latest one, where we walk from Watergate Bay to Porthcothan:
We picked this bit of the coast path to do based on Dad's research as to the more flat bits, as at the time, he was having issues with his foot and wanted to take it easy.
In terms of the overall trip, we covered from just East of Newquay at Watergate Bay all the way round to Pentireglaze Mines, which is Northeast of Polzeath. As with most of our trips, we hop around from day to day, covering different sections in different directions. For this stretch, we did the following in chronological order:
31st January: Watergate Bay to Porthcothan (video)
1st February: Rock to Pentireglaze Mines (video not yet available)
Instead of parking in Padstow and taking the ferry across to Rock, we started and ended the walk on either side of the ferry crossing. This makes sense, especially with one vehicle, as it saves getting the ferry back across or going the long way round at the end of the day, and is what we try to do whenever possible.
For the first night, we wild camped on the side of the road, nearish Newquay Airport. We arrived late and left early, and as per usual, left no trace.
On the second and third nights, we stayed at Tregella Place Caravan and Camping, which is one of the sites that has a licence to operate year-round. Whilst the site wasn't 'open' in the true sense of the word, for a tenner a night for a hot shower and actual bathroom on some hard standing, we couldn't really go wrong.
During the first day, there's a couple of Cafés on the way, but no shops and nothing properly built up. At Harlyn Bay, there's a good place to get some chips and either a hot or alcoholic drink. Camping wise, there's not too much closer to Padstow, and we found that Tregella Place was a reasonable distance from all points from Newquay to Padstow.
If doing further than Pentireglaze Mines though, it probably makes sense to camp to the East of the river Camel from that point on. Both Newquay and Padstow have good shops and a variety of places to eat. There's both Rick Stein's Deli and The Seafood Restaurant, which are pricey but very, very good.
There's a wonderful pasty to be had at the Malcom Barnecutt Bakery in Rock, and both The Fish Bar Newquay and the Towan Blystra in Newquay if you're looking for a good fish restaurant or a cheap and cheerful spoons. Finally, there's also The Pig - at Harlyn Bay, which we didn't try as it's very expensive, but have heard very good things about.
Parking on day one was in the Porthcothan Bay Car Park, which is free in the off-season, and otherwise quite pricey. Day two was at Harlyn Bay Car Park. Day 3 we parked at the Premier Inn in Newquay and took the bus to the start and back from the end. On the last day, we parked on the side of the road in Rock, but I believe this is restricted in peak season. There's a car park at the harbour at the bottom of the road during peak season, but why pay to park in the off-season when we can park for free?
Public transport was abysmal for two of the three days we used it, having to walk back from Harlyn Bay to Porthcothan on day 1, and having to get off the bus at the top of the road on day 2. Besides that it wasn't too bad, and cost £2 for a single each time.
If you have similar bus issues, you can contact the bus company, who will probably tell you what you need to know. Taxis aren't brilliant around this area, so book in advance and make sure a Taxi can get to you if you want to use one.
We didn't fancy walking every day of the trip, so we went to St. Ives to the Tate gallery there, and a wonder round. Bear in mind St. Ives is about an hours' drive each way, however.
You're also not too far from the Eden Project, but that can be quite expensive to get into.
Almost 2 years after the trip, I've finally finished editing the first episode! In this one, we drive up from Salisbury to Wales, stopping off in the Beacons on the way. On the second day, we climb Moel Hebog, which is the mountain overlooking the campsite.
