iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 01/10/2026

Not sure if Apple Support is supposed to be used like this when painting walls above stairs

Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 11/09/2026

This year has two website anniversaries. It's twenty years since the first post went up on my blog, and thirty years since I built Virtual Swanage, the community site for my home town www.briandorey.com/post/blog-is...

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 18/08/2026

Elgato Stream Deck, new software and new picker nozzles for our DIY Pick and Place machine www.briandorey.com/post/pick-pl... #robot #elgato #pickandplace

Screen shot of new software for a diy pick and place machine and elgato stream deck controller

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 16/07/2026

After several weeks of working hard, my OnlyFan's PSU has given up and gone to the electronics graveyard in the sky. After taking it apart it I found it needs 12 volt power, so after finding an old plug-in power supply and a connector, its going to be keeping us cool for the rest of the heatwave.

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 08/07/2026

Bit warm in our polytunnel today, need to go and water everything later

Home assistant screen shot of allotment sensors

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 24/05/2026

British people are not built for these temps, 32.3C in the shade, and before anyone says "air con", UK houses dont normally have that. @home-assistant.io is keeping track of everything. 43C in the allotment polytunnel this afternoon. #heatwave

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 13/05/2026

Got a pack of 15cm patch cables which has made everything a lot more tidy and got some 3D printed socket covers for the PDU to cover up unused sockets on our updated network, see the latest blog post for more www.briandorey.com/post/custom-...

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 30/04/2026

Thanks to @home-assistant.io our mains voltage monitor captured the time today just before midday when we had a 20 minute power outage and our UPS's all kept the computers running long enough to shut it all down safely.

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 18/04/2026

Nice sunny day for a ride out to Franks Tank in Rempstone Forest, used to be fully surrounded by trees but now open heathland #mountainbike #dorset #purbeck

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 10/04/2026

Working on the allotment today and had a friendly robin watching me and coming down to eat the bugs and worms from the soil #allotment #growyourown #ukwildlife

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 31/03/2026

First visit of the year to the Purbeck Dog Park to give Norman our rescued Italian Greyhound a run without seeing any other dogs as he is very reactive to them. Nice sunshine and he went on the different wooden ramps in the adventure zone field.

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 18/03/2026

Sometimes when riding on the smart trainer in Rouvy you get to go fast enough to go back in time #rouvy

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 10/03/2026

Compatibility testing with different Single-Board Computers (SBC) and our Raspberry Pi expansion boards which allow you to add IO, Analogue input and output, serial, rs485 and more. Spring sale with up to 20% off at www.abelectronics.co.uk/ #raspberrypi #sbc

Testing on Single board computers for Raspberry Pi hats

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 07/03/2026

Wet start to the weekend so on #rouvy for a couple of virtual rides this morning, tried a local one to me riders.rouvy.com/route/250963 between Bridport to Abbotsbury on the Dorset coast

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 01/03/2026

Another wet weekend so "out" for a nice sunny ride on #rouvy on the bike trainer this morning

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 26/02/2026

Updated the iphone today and it asks for your credit card for #ageverification to confirm you are over 18. As I've used apple products since the iphone 3 which came out in 2008, I would have thought they know I have been over 18 for a long time :(

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 25/02/2026

After a winter riding indoors on Rouvy, its nice to dust off the outdoor bike and take it out for our local loop around the Isle of Purbeck and try to avoid the potholes in the badly damaged roads.

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 16/02/2026

We built an adjustable 3D printed PCB assembly jig to hold circuit boards when soldering, new post and build files are on the blog www.briandorey.com/post/adjusta...

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 19/01/2026

Aurora borealis visible tonight over the Purbeck hills from Swanage, south coast of the UK #northernights #swanage #aurora #auroraborealis

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 16/01/2026

That sinking feeling when you get an email with this in the top #evri

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 14/01/2026

Been sorting out files and photos and found pic of my Orange UFO bike from the 90s, it was a limited to a run of 500 frames and cost over 2K back. Was my first full suspension mountain bike and I rode thousands of miles on it. Pace forks, XTR shifters and mechs, XT chainset and Hope wheels

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 22/12/2025

Intact cuttlefish washed up on the beach at Ocean Bay this afternoon in Swanage, very unusual to find a full cuttlefish on the beach as there are normally loads of the cuttlebones from them at the high tide mark. #nature #cuttlefish #swanage

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 22/12/2025

Spent a few days working on further optimisation on my project blog at www.briandorey.com/ Reduced the CSS by over 50% and page speeds are now much faster

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 18/12/2025

Yet another piece of vintage technology ruined by #evri with a pocket tv arriving smashed and cannot be repaired :( time to stop buying from anyone who ships using evri #evrifail

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 02/12/2025

Modded Shimano Di2 shifter working in Rouvy to change virtual gears #rouvy #indoorcycling #bikemods see the blog post for how to make your own bluetooth shifter www.briandorey.com/post/shimano...

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 29/11/2025

New blog post 🚲🔧 I turned a Shimano Di2 shifter into a Bluetooth keyboard, now you can shift gears in virtual cycling apps like Rouvy and MyWhoosh using your bike shifter. Check out the full build (with wiring, soldering & code) www.briandorey.com/post/shimano... #cycling #DIY #bikehack

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 25/11/2025

Legs are going to be sore tomorrow after a 31.6km (19.6 mile) online ride with 1065m (3494 feet) of climbing up the Alpe Du Zwift route on www.zwift.com/uk/news/5753... The climb section is 12.44 km (7.73 mile) ascent with an average gradient of 8.5%

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 15/11/2025

Just finished a new mod: converting Shimano Di2 shifters into Zwift gear shifters using Zwift Click v2 controllers. Much easier changing gear from the hoods or drops now. Full post on: www.briandorey.com/post/shimano... #Zwift #Di2 #CyclingTech #indoorcycling

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 04/11/2025

Productive morning on the allotment digging in a lot of weeds and compost into the main growing areas with the rotavator and clearing other areas of weeds #growyourown #allotment #ukplants

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 03/11/2025

Soon be buying ram from people like this in dark alleys?

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 25/10/2025

Clearing the old runner bean plants from the allotment today and had a helper come down next to me to pick up some worms and bugs in the soil. #allotment #growyourown #organicfood

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 23/10/2025

Now the owner of a working 5 ¼ inch floppy drive to go with the BBC micro, just need to install the chips in the BBC to add the support. Using the greaseweazle and desktop computer we have been able to read some of the BBC floppy disks. New post soon on andrewdorey.com/

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 22/10/2025

Facebook now wants me to pay to continue to use it without ads or continue as long as they can mine my info to target the ads. #meta

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 20/10/2025

AWS down, Reddit Down, Signal not logging in, great start to the week

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 18/10/2025

Indoor ride today on Zwift and did a London route which included rain, just like real life rides in the UK. Need to work on short spints for the 5 seconds watts power. #cycling #zwift

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 09/10/2025

Working on a new blog post featuring some vintage Commodore calculators from the 1970s, coming soon on my brothers vintage tech blog at andrewdorey.com #vintage #classiccomputer

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 30/09/2025

Caught a starlink satellites pass on the edge of our webcam early this morning over Swanage bay

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 25/09/2025

New blog post, building a DIY bike rocker plate to use with a smart bike trainer to try to keep fit over the winter months when cycling indoors on #zwift and #mywhoosh and #rouvy www.briandorey.com/post/diy-bike-tr…

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 21/09/2025

Vintage tech time again with a parallel port Iomega Zip drive connected to a 20 year old thin client #vintagecomputer #iomega #zipdrive

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 20/09/2025

Legs are going to be sore tomorrow #zwift

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 11/09/2025

Just installed the new Zwift Cog & Click v2 with my Tacx Neo 2T to add virtual shifting. Had Bluetooth issues with Zwift, the buttons and the trainer. See the blog for more www.briandorey.com/post/zwift-click… #cycling #training #zwift

Zwift Cog & Click v2 on my Tacx Neo 2T smart trainer

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 06/09/2025

Time to dust off the DaVinci Resolve Speed Editor for a little project with over 50 clips to sort out and get into a timeline today for a local event highlight video #blackmagicdesign #davinciresolve #swanage #video

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 06/09/2025

A bit of internet history from 2000, a Bush Internet TV set top box and infrared keyboard designed to allow people to browse the internet using their TV. Its a RISC OS computer and has a 33.6K modem.

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 27/08/2025

Gained another pet today when walking the dogs on the heath near Scotland Farm in Dorset, the little piggy didnt want to leave us along and followed us for nearly half a mile. #dorset #nature #pig #purbeck

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 25/08/2025

Out today on a hot morning, peaked at 28C, for an off road ride around the Isle of Purbeck from Swanage. I am planning to film the routes on my site www.virtual-swanage.co.uk/things-to… so need to get my fitness back again #cycling #mountainbiking #purbeck

Mountain bike rider on off road trail, Castle in distance

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 23/08/2025

Trying our prototype PCB soldering stand which can hold up to 300mm wide PCBs in its spring loaded jaws

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 21/08/2025

Hilly ride this afternoon around the Isle of Purbeck, cut the ride short as it got very hot. 16.2 miles (26km) with 1460 feet, 445 meters of climbing. Far too much traffic with all the visitors to the area, cant wait until winter and its a lot quieter.

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 15/08/2025

Todays crop from the allotment, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Blackberries, Raspberries, runner beans, pears and apples #growyourown #ukallotment #allotment #plants

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Brian Dorey @briandorey.com · 13/08/2025

Norman the Iggy looking down on everyone at the dog park today on top of the big ramp #iggy #greyhound #italiangreyhound #dogpark

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