Articles adding answers to accommodate automation activities. Help with the technologies you need, PHP, Raspberry Pi computers, Web sites, and the occasional cooking cheat.

• Who?
• When?
• Where?
• Why?
• Way?
• Worth?
• What?

Who?

Enthusiast may find the best answer to tricky questions not covered by support forums or posts splattered with a million conflicting recommendations. You are probably here as a result of a search. Searches return all sorts of weird results. I work towards specifying details up front to help you quickly decide if a page is the right page for you.

When?

All the content have the date of publication which is usually within a day of doing whatever is described in a page. If it is not recent or is not dated around the time frame of whatever you are working on, redo your search including the relevant year.

Where?

Most of the articles cover something free for use or adaptation around the world. Indicated costs and prices are Australian dollars at the time of writing. Sources may be in Australia or companies with reliable delivery to Australia at the time of writing.

Why?

Doing things yourself is fun, exercises your brain, and may say money. The main requirement is good information up front so you can decide if a project or task is the right choice for you.

Way?

Articles may describe more than one way to achieve something. I report my experience with each way that I test and explain why I choose to not use another way. There may be other ways I do not look at. Sometimes I choose to not test an alternative but provide links to articles about the alternatives.

Worth?

An example of the Do It Yourself worth. I replaced several routers because they could not accommodate one little extra function despite, in some cases, the product advertising suggesting those extra uses. The internal hardware did not have the power to do what is required and the software was not expandable. I switched to using a Raspberry Pi based router. The up front cost was slightly more. I burnt a few hours learning stuff. The end result is way better, more flexible, and easy to expand or upgrade any part without throwing the whole product away. Fun? Yes. Exercised my brain? Yes. Saved money? I will the next time I need to add or expand something, plus the time after that, plus many more times over the decade the Pi will last.

What?