It’s time for change
What’s happening? As of the beginning of April I will no longer be employed by Hack Oldham to manage the space, it will revert back to being member run. I recommended this change to the membership and they have agreed. Why? Hack Oldham was always intended to be community run, after all it’s owned by the community and operates for the sake of the community. My role was always to help pull things together, to keep things moving forward ...
The next step?
For the last few years I have focused on Hack Oldham, a non profit co-working and maker space in Oldham, what started out as a tiny little group grew into something much larger with the the move into the former Wahoo building on Yorkshire Street. As you have probably seen we have been beset with delays eventually opening 6 months late and then spending the first 6 months troubleshooting the building which to this date still has issues. I ...
10 years since I bought the “Bus”
Facebook just reminded me that it's 10 years since I bought the "Bus", probably my favourite vehicle I've ever owned and also the biggest money pit. Obviously I don't have it any more as I needed to keep a roof over my head, but it was fun while it lasted.
Oldham Libraries Magazines
I've noticed recently an advert on the TV for a subscription based app that allow you to download magazines for free to either Android or IOS tablets, a bit like Netfix for magazines. It's priced around £7 per month which means its around the price of two magazines a month so not too expensive if you tend to read a few each month. Anyway it just so happened @oldhamlibraries (not to be confused with @oldhamlibrary) tweeted the following. ...
Availability to work
I thought it was about time I gave people an update as I’m getting asked questions left right and centre, and at times feel as though I’m letting people down because I’ve not been able to give straight answers. I started Hack Oldham almost 2 years ago, and when it started it was just an interesting side project, to create a space that my friends and I, along with our families could get together to share resources and skills. Like ...
Virgin Media junk mail-o-meter
So last year I had a bit of a rant at @virginmedia, the reason for this was the ridiculous amount of junk mail that Virgin were sending us, so I decided I was going to keep all the mail they sent me for the next 12 months. Here we are 12 months later and I have a draw full of Virgin Media Junk Mail. [supsystic-tables id='1'] So thats 89.165g or 15 items of junk mail trying to get us to buy Virgin Media, when as you may have notices, ...
Blurred lines
Wow its been a long time since I've blogged, I really should sort that out. Anyway, I need your advice, As you know I'm a web developer, I'm also the founder of the local hackspace, and organiser of the WordPress user group, so basically I'm a man of many hats. But here is the problem, people keep asking the hackspace social media accounts for web site advice, some are random people, some are actually clients of ours, but Im really not ...
My blog… an update… its been a while.
So its been a while to say the least since I last updated my blog, I'm rubbish I know, but I'll try harder. For now an general update ready for a fresh start. Home We're still here in Oldham, in a mad house full of kids and pets, The eldest thing has just started college the youngest thing finally cut all his hair off and the middle thing is still missing from our lives, but thats just the way things are. Mr's P has finally got back in to ...
I accidentally a Hack Space
Back in October 2014 I game a talk at Barcamp Manchester about how I had accidentally made a hack space, it was a little tongue in cheek at it wasn't so much a physical space as a group of people who wanted a space to happen. This year there will be a follow up. It turns out if enough people want something you can make it happen, with a little help from Oldham Council we have just opened the doors at Hack Oldham, at the moment its a ...
If encryption was a key
Since the Charlie Hebdo attack in paris you may have seen stories in the press like this and this about David Cameron's plan to ban encryption, which it seems President Obama now supports, specifically Cameron said: “[I]n our country, do we want to allow a means of communication between people which we cannot read?” From what we understand about this, it isn't that they want to ban encryption outright, what they want is a backdoor to be ...