NewtonNet - HOME

What's this site all about then? Good question - and as soon as I can put my finger on it you'll be the first to know!

The site started as a cursory attempt at broadening my knowledge of web hosting, running a server, networking etc. It soon became apparent though that without any real content to publish the motivation would soon wane so I decided to document our ongoing house renovation (we've moved on now but kept the pages up for posterity, and an eternal warning for when you buy a house thinking it only needs a lick of paint!). Things developed from there to include subjects such as boiler diaphragm repair, info and resources about the Hyundai Coupe and, more recently (and seemingly most-importantly judging by the access logs!), an Internet-Enabled Cat Feeder! The interest in the feeder took me by surprise when it started receiving thousands of visitors a day - talk of it spread throughout a whole host of 'tech' sites, across the blogosphere and even tweeted about on Twitter. As if things hadn't gone far enough, coming second in Mac|Life magazine's Top Ten Wonders of the Home Automation World really took the (cat) biscuit...

So, all-in-all, there's no real common thread so it's probably best just to give you an overview of what lurks in my forgotten corner of the Internet:

		Every website needs a homepage and this is it...
		My homemade Internet-Enabled Cat Feeder... and the world's first IPv6-enabled one at that! Amazingly, the feeder hit the news and almost brought my site down with over 3,000 visitors per day! Later on, it was ranked #2 in Mac\|Life magazine's Top Ten Wonders of the Home Automation World!
		Ranking right up there with fixing your boiler in the midst of winter, or repressurising your heating system having added some radiators and finding no leaks, but then you'd expect that as they do say it's the happiest day of your life. Here are the photos from our special day (the wedding, not the boiler repair - they're further down below...)
		Bored with just a homepage, I created a housepage to chart the progress (or otherwise!) of our house renovation project. It started in 2002 when we moved in, and I had every intention of stopping at some point however as my Dad always kept telling me; it's a never-ending task and will never actually be 'finished'! He was so right... [Edit Aug 2010: Actually, we did eventually 'finish' and have now moved on! ;-)]
		If the diverter/diaphragm in your Worcester Bosch 24CDi combi boiler (or similar) is on the blink then this page is possibly for you - judging by the visitor count and number of e-mails I receive it seems there are quite a few of you! Whilst never intended as a 'HowTo' guide it seems the photos of the various stages gives some people the confidence to give it a go themselves... and others to not go near it so either way it seems to be useful!
		Details of my F2 Evo, including online electrical and mechanical service manuals. I have also written a Brakes 'HowTo' that provides a step-by-step guide for changing brake disks and pads (which is likely to be equally applicable to most modern cars).
		IPv6 - The so-called next generation Internet Protocol. As the pool of remaining IPv4 addresses diminishes something has to come in to fill the gap... For better of for worse it looks like IPv6 is the only viable candidate to choose from. This part of the site details my experiences of it, or at least how I have brought it into use in my otherwise IPv4-only corner of the Internet.
		Whilst I can see from the logs that the site gets quite a few hits I don't know who from (and why!) so it's great to know who is visiting and to hear any comments you might have! Don't be shy - tell me what you think!
		Any questions, suggestions etc? You can contact me directly via this page.
		Server Access Logs... Okay, so they're somewhat dull but it can be interesting (for me at least) to see what is being viewed and where from....
		NewtonNet Secure - An intro page to the SSL-protected part of NewtonNet, behind which sits the restricted access areas.