Technology Archives - A Simple Life of Luxury https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/tag/technology/ Tales from a down-shifted family - Making the most of modest means in West Wales Thu, 19 Feb 2026 14:27:37 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/cropped-favicon-160x160.jpg Technology Archives - A Simple Life of Luxury https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/tag/technology/ 32 32 2696646 Improving My Solax WordPress Plugin — Adapting to a More Dynamic Charging Schedule https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2026/02/improving-my-solax-wordpress-plugin-adapting-to-a-more-dynamic-charging-schedule/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2026/02/improving-my-solax-wordpress-plugin-adapting-to-a-more-dynamic-charging-schedule/#respond Thu, 19 Feb 2026 19:59:00 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=47911 Back in November 2021, I wrote a post about how I built my own Solax WordPress plugin to display data from our inverter in real-time. It worked extremely well for years, and for our setup at the time it gave an accurate picture of our solar production. However, towards the end of 2025 we added an additional battery...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2026/02/improving-my-solax-wordpress-plugin-adapting-to-a-more-dynamic-charging-schedule/feed/ 0 47911 A New Hyundai – Kona Electric vs Ioniq 5 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2025/08/a-new-hyundai-kona-electric-vs-ioniq-5/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2025/08/a-new-hyundai-kona-electric-vs-ioniq-5/#comments Sun, 10 Aug 2025 10:03:24 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=46389 The lease on our Hyundai Kona Electric is due to end soon, so it was time to start looking for a replacement. There isn’t a huge amount of choice in Aberystwyth, and since we’ve loved the Kona, it made sense to stick with what we knew. We did research a few other options, but nothing...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2025/08/a-new-hyundai-kona-electric-vs-ioniq-5/feed/ 3 46389 The Geeky Charm of Custom Keyboards: A Beginner’s Journey https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2024/12/the-geeky-charm-of-custom-keyboards-a-beginners-journey/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2024/12/the-geeky-charm-of-custom-keyboards-a-beginners-journey/#comments Sun, 15 Dec 2024 08:16:39 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=44236 Let’s talk about a rabbit hole I’ve just tumbled down: custom keyboards. If you’ve never explored this world before, prepare yourself—it’s part art gallery, part engineering lab, and 100% Geek!! As a designer and developer who spends an ungodly number of hours at a keyboard, I never thought much about the device itself beyond, “Does it...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2024/12/the-geeky-charm-of-custom-keyboards-a-beginners-journey/feed/ 1 44236 ChatGPT – Am I Redundant? https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/03/chatgpt-am-i-redundant/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/03/chatgpt-am-i-redundant/#comments Fri, 03 Mar 2023 08:33:05 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=38870 I’ve been experimenting with ChatGPT. If you haven’t heard about it then it’s a text-based Artificial Intelligence (AI) and it’s surprisingly clever! You can ask it questions, ask it to generate text for you and even ask it to write blog posts and essays (which is proving a bit of an issue for those in...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/03/chatgpt-am-i-redundant/feed/ 1 38870 Action Cams for Windsurfing. GoPro vs Insta 360 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/03/action-cams-for-windsurfing-gopro-vs-insta-360/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/03/action-cams-for-windsurfing-gopro-vs-insta-360/#comments Thu, 02 Mar 2023 16:50:16 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=38567 Capturing the thrill and excitement of windsurfing can be challenging, but with the rise of action cameras, it has become easier than ever to record your sessions on the water. I’ve had a GoPro for many years. I got my first one back in 2010 when they released the first HD version of the camera....

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/03/action-cams-for-windsurfing-gopro-vs-insta-360/feed/ 1 38567 Home Info Panel https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2022/04/home-info-panel/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2022/04/home-info-panel/#comments Fri, 15 Apr 2022 08:42:00 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=37409 I’ve recently updated the solar monitoring app that I built. It started out as a monitoring app for the solar panels and can be seen on this website from the link at the top of the page. The app/plugin currently consists of a couple of pages: The Solar and Battery Overview – which shows the...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2022/04/home-info-panel/feed/ 3 37409 Solar Monitoring https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2021/12/solar-monitoring/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2021/12/solar-monitoring/#comments Thu, 30 Dec 2021 09:50:00 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=37008 I added to my solar monitoring systems over the Christmas break. I’ve already built a Solax WordPress Plug-in. The plugin corrects the data from our inverter and displays that info and lots of other data on our website. I wanted to see this data on a constantly active screen in the kitchen too. So, I...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2021/12/solar-monitoring/feed/ 2 37008 Garmin Fenix 6X Setup https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2021/04/garmin-fenix-6x-setup/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2021/04/garmin-fenix-6x-setup/#comments Fri, 30 Apr 2021 10:54:00 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=36148 My hand was forced last weekend when my trusty Garmin Fenix 3 finally stopped working. One of the buttons fell off and soon after it failed to start up. So, I had no choice but to upgrade to the Garmin Fenix 6X. I had been hoping to hang on for the release of the Garmin...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2021/04/garmin-fenix-6x-setup/feed/ 2 36148 Automating Wave Accounting, Mail and Calendar https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2019/06/automating-wave-accounting-mail-and-calendar/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2019/06/automating-wave-accounting-mail-and-calendar/#respond Mon, 24 Jun 2019 14:19:41 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=30253 Time for a bit of a technology related, geeky post about how I’ve recently automated part of my workflow thanks to Mail Rules, Folder Actions, Automator and AppleScript. As you might know from a previous post, I’m in the process of transferring to a new accounting solution called Wave. As part of the transition I...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2019/06/automating-wave-accounting-mail-and-calendar/feed/ 0 30253 New Phone, new accessories https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2017/10/new-phone-new-accessories/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2017/10/new-phone-new-accessories/#comments Wed, 18 Oct 2017 05:56:50 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=25353 I’ve needed a new phone for a while. I did have a nice iPhone 5C that did the job well enough but very kindly swapped with Morgan for my even older iPhone 4 so that he could Pokémon while that was all the craze. Needless to say he hasn’t been that inclined to swap back...

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