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Being a Beginner: Running your first Half Marathon

In March 2023 I ran the Cambridge Half Marathon. It was my first half marathon. I wanted to do something worthwhile and that was bigger than myself. I raised almost £1000 for Mind in the process, and also improved my mental health by having a non-work goal to strive for. I’m still firmly middle-to-back of…

Smart under-cupboard kitchen lighting

Our kitchen is almost 10 years old now. When we first had it designed and installed, I totally underestimated how important good task lighting was, but thankfully the designer knew better and included a set of under-cabinet lights to illuminate the work surfaces. The lamps in these faded, were replaced and the replacements starting failing,…

Everything you need to know about integrating Google Sign-in with your Web App

Investigating Google Sign-In led me down a rabbit hole of trying to understand authentication with Google, how it fits with standards such as OpenID Connect (OIDC) and OAuth 2.0, and how best to integrate it into a web app that has a JavaScript frontend and backend API.  This article is the result of that research.…

Heating season 2019 is here!

Having just got back from a holiday in Switzerland (which was awesome) we got home to a slightly chilly house, and so turned the heating back on.  Although I’ve not posted here for a while, work has continued over on the Github repository for Boiler.io and there are a few new features that I’ve added…

Getting Started with Z-Wave

Having recently acquired a couple of Aeotec MultiSensor 6 devices, I decided to investigate how to make them easy to use via MQTT so I could use them from BoilerIO (my IoT heating control) and EmonCMS (the energy/home monitoring system from OpenEnergyMonitor.org). In this article I present the beginnings of a Z-Wave to MQTT bridge as…

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About Me

Hi, I’m Andy,, a builder of things both digital and that bring the digital and physical together. I enjoy hacking things at home to make life easier. Professionally I have experience of building software and engineering teams at a variety of scales.

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