Colin Whittaker
@colinwh.bsky.social
Principal Network Plumber
@Amazon
@Amazon
Our street has a lovely tradition of folks putting simple sets of lights on the trunks of the trees along the road at Christmas. I have been doing the tree outside an elderly neighbours along with those in front of mine.
Today I discovered that someone has stolen that set. #grinch #coalforxmas
Today I discovered that someone has stolen that set. #grinch #coalforxmas
December 15, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Our street has a lovely tradition of folks putting simple sets of lights on the trunks of the trees along the road at Christmas. I have been doing the tree outside an elderly neighbours along with those in front of mine.
Today I discovered that someone has stolen that set. #grinch #coalforxmas
Today I discovered that someone has stolen that set. #grinch #coalforxmas
Wild lights was once more a great outing on a winters evening. Highly recommend for anyone vaguely near Dublin zoo.
December 10, 2025 at 8:39 PM
Wild lights was once more a great outing on a winters evening. Highly recommend for anyone vaguely near Dublin zoo.
I don't understand the point of the taxi drivers protest today. There are multiple other dispatch apps so don't use the one that you are having a pricing dispute with. More effective than annoying all your customers who likely would use which ever app has a critical mass of drivers.
November 27, 2025 at 9:20 PM
I don't understand the point of the taxi drivers protest today. There are multiple other dispatch apps so don't use the one that you are having a pricing dispute with. More effective than annoying all your customers who likely would use which ever app has a critical mass of drivers.
Kids in Halloween costumes making voting fun this morning
October 24, 2025 at 7:44 AM
Kids in Halloween costumes making voting fun this morning
Super frustrating update from anpost where they don't actually tell you that they are not going to bother attempting to deliver and instead you have to go collect from the depot.
October 21, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Super frustrating update from anpost where they don't actually tell you that they are not going to bother attempting to deliver and instead you have to go collect from the depot.
Since the president has zero actual power and is 99.99% ceremonial can we replace the debates/interviews with skill tests. Can they deliver a speech opening a civic centre in the rain?
Can they learn the names and faces of 50 visiting dignitaries in 10 minute, then recall them in a receiving line?
Can they learn the names and faces of 50 visiting dignitaries in 10 minute, then recall them in a receiving line?
October 14, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Since the president has zero actual power and is 99.99% ceremonial can we replace the debates/interviews with skill tests. Can they deliver a speech opening a civic centre in the rain?
Can they learn the names and faces of 50 visiting dignitaries in 10 minute, then recall them in a receiving line?
Can they learn the names and faces of 50 visiting dignitaries in 10 minute, then recall them in a receiving line?
Currently an hour into an ESB outage for scheduled work but the entire house is running off solar. Zero disruption. The future is pretty cool
October 6, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Currently an hour into an ESB outage for scheduled work but the entire house is running off solar. Zero disruption. The future is pretty cool
Attempting to enter politics at the presidential election would be like trying to learn hurling while playing in an all Ireland final. At this stage we have enough data to say it doesn't end well.
October 5, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Attempting to enter politics at the presidential election would be like trying to learn hurling while playing in an all Ireland final. At this stage we have enough data to say it doesn't end well.
Reposted by Colin Whittaker
A good point - everyone trying to run for president now had 7 years to try and get about 20 people to like them, and are still falling at this hurdle. Our elections are not a surprise.
I'm a loser with deep social anxiety and even I reckon I could get 20 people to like me over the course of 7 years
I'm a loser with deep social anxiety and even I reckon I could get 20 people to like me over the course of 7 years
Definite skills issue also underpinned by peeps had at least 7 years to prep
September 22, 2025 at 2:12 PM
A good point - everyone trying to run for president now had 7 years to try and get about 20 people to like them, and are still falling at this hurdle. Our elections are not a surprise.
I'm a loser with deep social anxiety and even I reckon I could get 20 people to like me over the course of 7 years
I'm a loser with deep social anxiety and even I reckon I could get 20 people to like me over the course of 7 years
Anyone here able to ID this industrious spider. They built a web several meters wide across our driveway overnight.
September 20, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Anyone here able to ID this industrious spider. They built a web several meters wide across our driveway overnight.
Have a relative visiting this weekend who is a passionate GAA supporter so a lot of time has been spent watching live streams of various club games on clubber. It's a great use of the internet but my main takeaway is that GAA clubs need a broadband service optimised for broadcast
July 27, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Have a relative visiting this weekend who is a passionate GAA supporter so a lot of time has been spent watching live streams of various club games on clubber. It's a great use of the internet but my main takeaway is that GAA clubs need a broadband service optimised for broadcast
Digital stamps are a neat way to avoid needing to go buy stamps but then comes the struggle of finding an actual postbox.
July 23, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Digital stamps are a neat way to avoid needing to go buy stamps but then comes the struggle of finding an actual postbox.
Reposted by Colin Whittaker
It is all the more frustrating because the nation had flashes of brilliance. The folks who built Ardnacrusha would be amazed at the resources available today and appalled at our inability to get anything done.
June 27, 2025 at 7:44 PM
It is all the more frustrating because the nation had flashes of brilliance. The folks who built Ardnacrusha would be amazed at the resources available today and appalled at our inability to get anything done.
Got an email today from the franchise section of @dublincitycouncil.bsky.social because they found a duplicate entry for me in the electoral register. In one of my moves over the years a delete got missed leaving an orphaned record behind.
I only ever checked that I was registered at a new address.
I only ever checked that I was registered at a new address.
May 26, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Got an email today from the franchise section of @dublincitycouncil.bsky.social because they found a duplicate entry for me in the electoral register. In one of my moves over the years a delete got missed leaving an orphaned record behind.
I only ever checked that I was registered at a new address.
I only ever checked that I was registered at a new address.
Reposted by Colin Whittaker
Please take a minute to sign this today
#SpeirGorm
#SpeirGorm
The EU petition to ban horrible LGBT+ conversion practice needs a bit over 70k signatures to hit one million (the threshold where the EU Commission is obliged to respond)
In reality it usually need about 10% more because the signatures have to be verified and a chunk get lost or are doubles
Sign!
In reality it usually need about 10% more because the signatures have to be verified and a chunk get lost or are doubles
Sign!
European Citizens' Initiative
Give your support !
eci.ec.europa.eu
May 16, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Please take a minute to sign this today
#SpeirGorm
#SpeirGorm
Nice to see @dublincitycouncil.bsky.social putting accessible playground equipment in parks. This swing was a lot of fun
May 10, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Nice to see @dublincitycouncil.bsky.social putting accessible playground equipment in parks. This swing was a lot of fun
At what point will we switch to treating all these entities as criminal enterprises and send in CAB to cease all the assets.
May 6, 2025 at 6:37 PM
At what point will we switch to treating all these entities as criminal enterprises and send in CAB to cease all the assets.
Solar Statistics time, we had a string of really good days but the month ended with 42.72kWh of generation the 30th.
YTD solar has produced 77% of our consumption, not yet netzero but the summer awaits.
However the 29th was when export income for the year overtook all costs.
YTD solar has produced 77% of our consumption, not yet netzero but the summer awaits.
However the 29th was when export income for the year overtook all costs.
May 1, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Solar Statistics time, we had a string of really good days but the month ended with 42.72kWh of generation the 30th.
YTD solar has produced 77% of our consumption, not yet netzero but the summer awaits.
However the 29th was when export income for the year overtook all costs.
YTD solar has produced 77% of our consumption, not yet netzero but the summer awaits.
However the 29th was when export income for the year overtook all costs.
www.rte.ie/news/ireland... the ESB Networks website provides a way to download your smart meter data and sites like energypal.ie can use it to do tarrif comparisons. It worries me that noone involved in writing the report or the media covering it even bothered to check if they were correct.
Delays over smart meter data access 'disappointing'
The Climate Change Advisory Council is calling on the Government to make the legal and regulatory changes needed so customers can easily access their smart meter data to help lower electricity bills a...
www.rte.ie
April 30, 2025 at 6:40 AM
www.rte.ie/news/ireland... the ESB Networks website provides a way to download your smart meter data and sites like energypal.ie can use it to do tarrif comparisons. It worries me that noone involved in writing the report or the media covering it even bothered to check if they were correct.
We exported ~80% of our generation yesterday so effectively removed 4 of our neighbours from the grid. When microgeneration adoption gets into the double digit percentages this graph is going to look even better.
Rooftop solar is having more impact on the Irish grid (lower grid demand grid during the day).
Zooming in on a recent sunny day - March 24th, when solar farms reached records - we have to go all the way back to 2021 to find another March day with lower mid-day load (Mon-Fri, excl. holidays).
🏠☀️🔍
Zooming in on a recent sunny day - March 24th, when solar farms reached records - we have to go all the way back to 2021 to find another March day with lower mid-day load (Mon-Fri, excl. holidays).
🏠☀️🔍
April 25, 2025 at 1:50 PM
We exported ~80% of our generation yesterday so effectively removed 4 of our neighbours from the grid. When microgeneration adoption gets into the double digit percentages this graph is going to look even better.
Reposted by Colin Whittaker
New Gist: Trans rights are Data rights
An unusually long Gist on the data protection implications of the UK Supreme Court's decision to define what is the meaning of the word 'woman' in a single UK Act.
(Also: the CJEU, colonialism, Joyce's Ulysses and Sinn Féin)
www.thegist.ie/the-gist-tra...
An unusually long Gist on the data protection implications of the UK Supreme Court's decision to define what is the meaning of the word 'woman' in a single UK Act.
(Also: the CJEU, colonialism, Joyce's Ulysses and Sinn Féin)
www.thegist.ie/the-gist-tra...
The Gist: Trans rights are Data rights
A UK court has made a decision defining genders which has put it at odds with a less noticed, more important, decision from the CJEU. This is the Gist.
www.thegist.ie
April 21, 2025 at 10:12 AM
New Gist: Trans rights are Data rights
An unusually long Gist on the data protection implications of the UK Supreme Court's decision to define what is the meaning of the word 'woman' in a single UK Act.
(Also: the CJEU, colonialism, Joyce's Ulysses and Sinn Féin)
www.thegist.ie/the-gist-tra...
An unusually long Gist on the data protection implications of the UK Supreme Court's decision to define what is the meaning of the word 'woman' in a single UK Act.
(Also: the CJEU, colonialism, Joyce's Ulysses and Sinn Féin)
www.thegist.ie/the-gist-tra...
Solar stats for Jan-Mar 2025.
56.44% of our energy over that period came from solar.
worst day was Jan 5th with 1.01kWh (3.8% of usage)
best day was Mar 30th with 32.8kWh (223% of usage)
Peak usage was 33.58kWh on Jan 6th, average was 21.2kWh
You can see the last week in Feb when solar ramps up.
56.44% of our energy over that period came from solar.
worst day was Jan 5th with 1.01kWh (3.8% of usage)
best day was Mar 30th with 32.8kWh (223% of usage)
Peak usage was 33.58kWh on Jan 6th, average was 21.2kWh
You can see the last week in Feb when solar ramps up.
April 5, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Solar stats for Jan-Mar 2025.
56.44% of our energy over that period came from solar.
worst day was Jan 5th with 1.01kWh (3.8% of usage)
best day was Mar 30th with 32.8kWh (223% of usage)
Peak usage was 33.58kWh on Jan 6th, average was 21.2kWh
You can see the last week in Feb when solar ramps up.
56.44% of our energy over that period came from solar.
worst day was Jan 5th with 1.01kWh (3.8% of usage)
best day was Mar 30th with 32.8kWh (223% of usage)
Peak usage was 33.58kWh on Jan 6th, average was 21.2kWh
You can see the last week in Feb when solar ramps up.
The perils of using scheduled posts and forgetting to fill in the details in the template.
April 4, 2025 at 7:55 AM
The perils of using scheduled posts and forgetting to fill in the details in the template.
one of the reasons to have a property tax is to act a counter pressure to increasing property prices. That doesn't work if every time prices go up we just change the thresholds.
www.rte.ie/news/politic...
www.rte.ie/news/politic...
Some homeowners facing property tax increases
Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe will outline to Cabinet changes to the Local Property Valuations which could see up to 3% of homeowners pay substantially more tax as their home moves to a new tax...
www.rte.ie
April 1, 2025 at 1:10 PM
one of the reasons to have a property tax is to act a counter pressure to increasing property prices. That doesn't work if every time prices go up we just change the thresholds.
www.rte.ie/news/politic...
www.rte.ie/news/politic...
While waiting for a parade to start I spotted this great example of roofs with not enough solar. The marginal cost of covering the rest of these roofs with solar would have been minimal.
March 17, 2025 at 1:14 PM
While waiting for a parade to start I spotted this great example of roofs with not enough solar. The marginal cost of covering the rest of these roofs with solar would have been minimal.