So, where to begin this? I've used the name Speedfox for many years on the Internet in any situation where I have not wanted my real name on display. A few years ago I bought the domain speedfox.co.uk to use in some side projects. So, when I came to want to start writing stuff on the Internet a few weeks ago it just made sense in terms of time and budget to just use the domain I already had to put this up.
What you'll find here, at least in the beginning, is a collection of articles on things I have built and modified for my own personal use. I'm in software development as a day job, but I've always had a side interest in electronics as well, and from time to time I will come up with something that I think should be shared. Taking an old BoomBox and adding Bluetooth to it, a raspberry pi based system for converting cassete tapes to MP3s and apps for interacting with data in the world around us are some of the kinds of projects I have in mind. In time this may expand to cover other things, but to begin that is what you are going to see here.
So why a private blog? Why not just the regular social media channels and places like instructables? I think it's that I'm just a bit of a control freak, and even though I don't want to make a job out of this I kind of want to keep control of the things I write. By building my own old fashioned website rather than relying on one of the big platforms I can make it exactly as I want. Also, I feel that there is too much power concentrated in the hands of the internet's big platforms, and although I may use Facebook and Twitter to promote what I put on here I think that there needs to be a diversity of ways that people get their message out. Rather than everyone tailoring their content to the platform they are on, there needs to be some people who will tailor their platform to the content they want to create.
Another reason I have avoided instructables in particular is I'm not looking for people to take the projects I have built and make their own copy (although a lot of the time there will be enough information to do that). For the most part you are not going to find detailed BOMs or detailed step-by-step instructions here. Instead, what I will try and give you is an insight into how I got from my idea to something real that works. Don't get me wrong: I will for the most part share code and schematics so people can make their own, but what I am really hoping people will do is take my ideas and look at the process I go through to hack or build something and then make something of their own.
Digital technology has been extended into every part of society in the first world, and increaingly the developing world. Yet to most people these technologies seem like magic, the inner workings of which are only accessible to an elite priesthood. Even among those proficient in one area of technology another area my seem totally opaque and incomprehensible. I think a large part of the spirit of this blog is to break this myth, to let people know that they can, to coin a phrase, "take back control" of the technology in their lives. If it breaks and you're told it's irrepairable, try and fix it yourself. If you want something and it doesn't exist, build it. The mass produced products of consumerism are not your only option. And if you see a label on something that says "No user serviceable parts inside", I want the first word through your head to be "BULLSHIT!".