Philosophy

I only care whether I could, not whether I should. It's a joke, mostly, but it's close to how I work. The question I get asked most about the things I build is "why?", as in why bother, or why do that when you could just do this instead, and my answer has always been "why not?" Wanting to try something is reason enough, and finding out whether it can be done is the fun part.

Shed inventors

I'm proud of Britain's tradition of people inventing things in garages, workshops and sheds, and I'd like to help keep it going. One person working on an idea in their spare time can find something useful, and what they learn from a small experiment has a way of ending up in other projects, sometimes even in professional engineering. Years ago I read a personal blog by someone who'd installed a small hydro generator to power things in their garden and home, and another by someone who'd built a little server that ran on solar power and showed its own battery level as it served the site. I love that kind of thing, and in both cases what stayed with me wasn't the power but the engineering: one person working through a real problem, trying things and writing down what happened. That's the internet I value, where people follow their interests, document what they find and leave behind the kind of knowledge you only get by actually trying something.

My little corner

My workshop, my office and this blog are my little corner, where I follow my interests and make things. I've loved electronics, mechanics and 3D printing for a long time, and interests like that need time or they stay on the list of things I'll get round to one day, so I make the time. AI means I can take on bigger projects than I could before, but that doesn't mean everything has to happen fast, and I'm happy to build slowly and enjoy it. I write it all down here without chasing an audience. If one like-minded person finds a project and enjoys it or learns something from it, that's plenty, because in the end I'd rather spend my time making things than only watching other people make them.

Starting fresh

My old blogs were mostly about programming, with posts going back to 2010, but I've let them go because they just aren't relevant any more, and I'm starting fresh here in October 2026. This blog won't cover everything I work on, but it's where my engineering projects will live, written up as I build them.