Mark Embling

Last night I did a talk at DevEvening giving an overview of some of the new and fun things in HTML5 (and associated specs). It was a little on the short side, but as promised I have uploaded the slides and all the links (which the projector rendered pretty much unreadable) here.

In parts 1, 2 and 2a, I set up my Current Cost device and built a small app for logging all the data into a MongoDB database. It is now time to delve into displaying the data by exploring the Rails-based web front-end I have been (and continue to be) working on.

In part 2, I discussed logging the data from my Current Cost device into a MongoDB database using a small app running on my home server. It turns out I have made a glaring schoolboy error, which thankfully I have caught before it causes an actual problem. Having had some time to collect data and start analysing it, I've also found a couple of other problems as well. I thought it would be worthwhile to revisit these issues.

Following on from part 1, I am looking to reduce my energy usage through a Current Cost Envi device which allows me to capture data on my energy usage. Now that I've received my Envi and data cable, it's time to start capturing that data!

Recently I've been thinking about ways in which I can take control and save money. A good candidate for this in my view is energy consumption. It's commonly acknowledged these days that having a large carbon footprint makes you single-handedly responsible for the deaths of all polar bears and who knows what else, so it also has a nice "eco" twist as well. Extra karma points...?

Having seen a fair few people using their own custom domain for posting links on Twitter and so on (Rob Hawkes with rawk.es, Scott Hanselman with hnsl.mn and various others including tech blogs and news companies with short and sweet names), I thought it was time I grabbed one of my own. I have set it up with bit.ly Pro and thought it might be useful to share my thoughts and experiences.