daves-adventures

#NoFun

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 15:25:29 +0000

Not one to find cheap hobbies

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 13:41:19 +0000

On a train, in a car about to go under the sea - next stop 🇫🇷

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 09:26:11 +0000

Hottest day of the year …

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Mon, 25 May 2026 20:42:05 +0000

Ready for the bank holiday, and it looks like the weather is going to be good

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sat, 23 May 2026 19:31:51 +0000

The most expensive shoes I own

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Fri, 22 May 2026 12:44:53 +0000

If only there was clip handy to help keep the bread fresh

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sat, 02 May 2026 08:43:22 +0000

It’s good to walk

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 16:14:03 +0000

Saturday chore, cleaning the cars ✅

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 18:36:18 +0000

The start (hopefully) of the recovery

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 13:21:33 +0000

Testing the draft functionality on the website app. And posting a draft

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 08:51:16 +0000

France 🇫🇷

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 18:45:02 +0000

#fire

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 17:15:21 +0000

Next stop, France 🇫🇷

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 17:49:14 +0000

#cat leap

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 11:18:29 +0000

Because who doesn’t ❤️ a scrolling display #DREM #AWSDeepRacer

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 07:19:28 +0000

When #3DPrinting goes wrong

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 14:27:39 +0000

Unexpected start to a Wednesday morning #Appendicitis

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 07:57:42 +0000

Tinkering #code

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 18:02:25 +0000

View from a car window

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 17:01:11 +0000

Well the bits for the server rack are coming along nicely #3D-Printing

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 09:50:53 +0000

Spring morning walk - headspace break

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 10:40:53 +0000

It’s been a while #AWSDeepRacer

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 19:09:08 +0000

Suits you sir!

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 21:01:27 +0000

Turning a photo upload tool into a mobile CMS

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Playing with Hugo (for poops and lols)

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Close to the kerb

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 16:58:12 +0000

#moon

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 21:35:59 +0000

Removing the #ugly phone mount from new TinyCar

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 21:18:27 +0000

Cat stretch

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 20:54:03 +0000

Building the World

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Just 2560 more studs to place

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sun, 02 Feb 2025 18:54:37 +0000

Making progress 256 studs at a time

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sat, 01 Feb 2025 16:47:54 +0000

A few more 16x16 squares completed

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 20:22:21 +0000

And that’s another row done

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 18:47:48 +0000

Next row completed one 16x16 panel at a time (5 to a row)

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Tue, 28 Jan 2025 14:51:35 +0000

Progress - 1 row completed

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 20:52:52 +0000

Time to build the World Map - 11695 pieces ;-)

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 17:49:41 +0000

Not sure about the message here….

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 16:17:51 +0000

Happy dry January - cheers ;-)

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Wed, 01 Jan 2025 21:01:31 +0000

Last photos from my US trip, heading home later today (finally)

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sun, 08 Dec 2024 23:36:36 +0000

Small road trip

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sun, 08 Dec 2024 03:00:20 +0000

Las Vegas

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Wed, 04 Dec 2024 19:47:15 +0000

Apple Park visitor centre

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Thu, 28 Nov 2024 12:25:31 +0000

San Francisco

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 18:27:26 +0000

Photos — 17 10 2024

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 17:06:04 +0000

I’m sure the chimneys used to be bigger ;-)

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 18:10:58 +0000

Photos — 18 09 2024

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 18:30:04 +0000

Photos — 13 09 2024

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 19:54:41 +0000

Building your own DeepRacer

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Mon, 09 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

New desk and a temporary place for the Lego garage

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 19:32:59 +0000

London summers evening

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 09:22:56 +0000

New York walking

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sat, 13 Jul 2024 11:06:46 +0000

New York, New York (so good they named it twice)

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 22:05:49 +0000

All set up and ready to stream in New York

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 22:42:11 +0000

Good morning New York

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 10:29:28 +0000

Pete Tong. Ibiza classics at Silverstone

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sun, 07 Jul 2024 05:28:39 +0000

So here we are....

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

About to go racing

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sun, 26 May 2024 20:31:05 +0000

3 down, 1 to build….

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sun, 07 Apr 2024 20:15:44 +0000

Chilling at my second favourite @virginatlantic Clubhouse whilst waiting for the the VS20 to fly me home - I’ve always liked this lounge at SFO but it can’t quite beat the LHR Clubhouse

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Fri, 15 Mar 2024 01:12:56 +0000

Having a terrible time in the Virgin Atlantic lounge in LHR … the Clubhouse at T3 could be one of my favourite places to kill time

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sun, 10 Mar 2024 11:28:51 +0000

When #AWSDeepRacer royalty @_dbro meets physics royalty @profbriancox

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 18:37:51 +0000

Got wood

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Mon, 01 Jan 2024 21:28:17 +0000

Quick visit to France

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Fri, 29 Dec 2023 17:36:05 +0000

Vegas baby…..

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 21:41:40 +0000

re:Play

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 21:29:47 +0000

Photos — 20 12 2023

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 15:14:14 +0000

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sat, 16 Dec 2023 22:02:18 +0000

Photos — 10 12 2023

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sun, 10 Dec 2023 19:41:51 +0000

AWS SSM Agent on an RPi 4

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Goodbye to all that

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Over the years

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Pi + Bluetooth = Is the track boss going to have a heart attack

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Been a while....

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Tue, 24 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Lego Bugatti Chiron Build

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sun, 16 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Lego Bugatti Chiron

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

So the fitness thing...

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Fri, 29 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Headless wifi setup on a Raspberry Pi Zero W

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Thu, 28 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Getting your (Pi) dev on

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Wed, 27 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Debugging headless Raspberry Pi Zero W

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Tue, 26 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Time passes

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Tue, 20 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Lego Porsche 911 GT3 RS

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

BT Update

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Tue, 03 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

So in fairness to BT my letters to Gavin (letter 1 and letter 2)haven’t gone without a response and my numerous complaints have been handed over to the “Executive Level Complaints: BT Consumer” team and they have been pretty good with updating me with no news or positive updates when they say they will.

However there is now news:

GREAT NEWS

Letter to Gavin

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sat, 09 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

My previous letter can be found here.

So still waiting on a decent internet connection, still being fobbed off, still burning through my 4G data allowance to live life in a modern web based world.

So I’ve sent another letter to Gavin Patterson. As I mention in the email I’ve been updated of the situation, but the update has been “no you can’t have a usable internet connection even though the planning permission for the estate was granted in 2010 and we’ve had nearly six years to upgrade our systems”

Letter to Gavin

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Jenkins and SCM Sync

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

So if you plan on scaling out Jenkins with slaves and the like you’ll probably want to ensure your configuration is kept someone secure, handily there’s a plugin for that.

Jenkins SCM Sync - which to be fair I have a bit of a love hate relationship with and since building up a new Jenkins server last week hasn’t got any better, the config loaded in fine, but then would error on every save / change.

AWS and a bit of Slack

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Fri, 18 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Amazon Web Services (Jenkins)

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Right so we have our handy services Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) with access via OpenVPN (and the awesome Viscosity OSX VPN Client) now we need to start adding useful things into it.

(See this blog post for info)

For me the next step was looking at how we could automate deployments using our own tool chain, part of the reason we are looking at AWS is to get a bit more flexibility and also the benefits of greater automation. We’ve already had success using BitBucket -> Codeship -> Heroku as a work flow to make our code visible and available in readily shareable environment, and it took < 5 minutes to get it up and running ;-)

Auto Start / Stop servers FTW

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

HMRC quarterly tax submission petition response

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Tue, 05 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

So I signed the petition “Scrap plans forcing self employed & small business to do 4 tax returns a yearly” and due to the number of signaturies a response from the government was required.

Amazon Web Services (VPC + NAT + OpenVPN)

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Fri, 11 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

So in the process of setting up a few bits and pieces on AWS and the first area (well second after a couple of quick deploys using Elastic Beanstalk) is to get a Jenkins server up and running.

So I’m looking to deploy the Jenkins box within a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) to block off access to Jenkins and also any test slaves it will eventually spin up. To ensure smooth access into the VPC I’m using OpenVPN. First step is use the VPC wizard to create the basics, I went with the “VPC with Public and Private Subnets” as this handily creates the NAT Gateway box to allow servers inside the VPC to access the interwebs.

Quadtastic

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Wiring

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sat, 26 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

France 2015

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Writers block

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Lego

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sun, 08 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Bio

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Achievement unlocked

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sun, 18 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

2014 by the (lack of) training numbers.

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Aldwych

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sat, 31 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Marlow Santa Fun Run

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Mud, Sweat and Beer

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Fri, 22 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Marlow Half Marathon (Again)

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Wed, 06 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Code School

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Starting to wonder...

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000

My bad

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Tue, 13 Aug 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Next stop 40....

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Day something or other

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

AWSUGUK #3

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Day 26

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Support Local?

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Day 19

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Day 18

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Day 17

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Day 15

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Day 14

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

SQL Query perfomance v Stored Procedure issues

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Day 12

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Day 11

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Day 10

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Day 9

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

A stand up of 1 doesn't work

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Day 7

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Day 6

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Day 5

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Day 4

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

You never have quite enough money for the house you want to buy

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Tools (an update)

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Day 3

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Day 2

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Handing over

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000

All change (Tools that is) ?

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Escape from Alcatraz

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

OSX, Fedora 17

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Thu, 31 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

OSX, Fedora 16, a bit of spice and OpenShift Origin

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sat, 05 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Need to know about The Cloud ?

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Thu, 03 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

PyroCMS on Rackspace Cloud Sites

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Changing the way I work

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000

2500 and 1

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000

OSX Lion Dashboard and Dock

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

RVM, Lion and XCode 4.2

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Adding an SSL cert to an Amazon ELB

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Adobe Air

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Zimbra Upgrade (Take Two)

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

VMWare Server Build

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000

OSX Migration

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Zimbra upgrade

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

VMWare-tastic

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Fitness Charts

dave@dave-smith.co.uk (David Smith) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000