Terence Eden. He has a beard and is smiling.

Terence Eden’s Blog

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Nurses should spend less time helping patients and more time ordering bandages

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Crop of an oil painting. The Agnew Clinic (or The Clinic of Dr. Agnew) an 1889 oil painting by American artist Thomas Eakins. It shows three male doctors operating on a patient. A female nurse looks on.

I was speaking to the absolute epitome of a pub bore. Flapping his jaws about how the problem with the NHS was too many admin staff doing absolutely nothing. "Quite right!" I said, feverishly agreeing with his red-faced ranting, "Nurses should spend less time helping patients and more time ordering bandages!" He paused, slightly, as the gears in his brain started grinding. "Well, no, not like…

Solar Battery Statistics - Day One

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A complex graph with multiple overlapping coloured lines.

We recently upgraded our home solar storage to 4.8kWh. The battery has sensors to detect how much solar power we're generating, and how much electricity we're buying from (or selling to) the grid. That means... GRAPHS AND STATISTICS! Our battery was commissioned just after midday. This graph shows: 1630 - it was fully charged. 2000 - the sun had set and the battery started discharging into…

Review: Moixa 4.8kWh Solar Battery

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Large box attached to the wall. A white metal case with blue polka dots covers it. There is a small black and white screen in the middle.

I have upgradeitis. If something newer and shinier comes out, my stupid monkey-brain compels me to buy it. Seven years ago, we installed a solar battery. It was part of an experimental project which looked at creating a community power-grid, so it came at a subsidised price. As I explained to BBC Click, the 2kWh capacity was reasonable - but I expected the future would bring higher capacity,…

Importing IntenseDebate Comment XML into Commentics

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The Logo for WordPress.

This is ridiculously niche. If this is of help to anyone other than to me... please shout! The IntenseDebate comment system is slowly dying. It hasn't received any updates from Automattic for years. Recently it stopped being able to let users submit new comments. So I've switched to Commentics which is a self-hosted PHP / MySQL comment system. It's lightweight, pretty good at respecting users'…

Book Review: The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Eight

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Book cover showing a space station.

I'm a little behind on my reading - I've been busy, OK! This is a collection of tales from 2014. Which means it isn't in the shadow of a damned pandemic, lunatic president, or any of the other modern horrors which have caused shockwaves to authors' psyches. I love short stories. There's absolutely no commitment. I'm not going to be tricked into buying endless sequels of declining quality. …

Gadget Review: Mokin USB-C Docking Station (+ Linux information)

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USB Hub with a bright LED on the front.

I've been looking for this rare beast for ages - a hub which has multiple USB-C outputs! You see it is a truth, universally acknowledged, that computers don't have enough ports on them. And laptops? Pah! A couple of USB-C if you're lucky, and one of them has to be used for power. What a world! This is the MOKiN USB-C Triple-Display Docking Station - MODK1402. It's a bit over £100 depending on …

I don't think you need to be civil to puppy-smashers

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AI generated image of a small industrial machine crushing a cute puppy.

My good friend Jess wrote this a little while ago: Jessica Rose@jesslynnroseThe function of a system is its output.If you have dog grooming machine that sometimes smashes puppies and you keep running it, you're in the dog smashing business.If you work for a mass surveillance company that keeps enabling genocide and undermining democracy...❤️ 2,323💬 23🔁 013:19 - Thu 07 January 2021 The whole thre…