This week @ Omega Cottage

Two tentative enquiries this week for new web sites. Looks like I won't get bored in the coming weeks and months.


Neil has returned from Hong Kong and is full of ideas about what to add to his new site. That was helped when I found that PowerPoint presentations could be saved as web pages. They are rather large files so only run slowly if they are full of images but this week end I am going to investigate making the images smaller so cutting down the file size.

I have added a new gadget to my network. It is a Synology USB Station. It links via my network to a USB external HDD which can then be configured as an FTP server that can be accessed across the Internet as long as you have a fixed IP address which I do. It is also a print server which allows anyone on my network to use the printer attached to it. I have configured it so that anyone I am building a website for can access their own personal folder on the server where they can upload material for me to use in building their site. I think that this is going to be a very useful bit of kit.

I have also upgraded the hub of my network to a Netgear 24 Port Gigabyte Switch. It replaces several small switches that were slowing down cross network file transfers. It is a bit noisy as it has several small cooling fans inside it so maybe the next move will have to be a data enclosure - that leads on to thinking about a new file server. Is a network ever just as you would want it to be?

The downstairs loo I have needed for a long time is now built and working. All that is needed to finish is the tiling which will happen this weekend. It will make my life a lot easier as I don't have to struggle up the stairs to use the loo and I suspect visitors will find it useful too.


My wife Jackie won a holiday in an Internet competition this week. That makes three years in a row she has done that. It isn't as grand as our trip to Los Angeles last year but a week in a large hotel in Blackpool with all food and accommodation paid for is well worth winning. It is 20 years since we went to Blackpool so it will be very interesting to see what changes have taken place since our last visit.