• Heartstart Thatcham

    Heartstart Thatcham

    I heard on Moday 13th May 2013 that the Heartstart scheme that I have been trying to get established has been officially accepted for affiliation to the British Heart Foundation (BHF).  What this means is that the scheme is independent from the BHF but has an affiliation.  The BHF supply...

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  • Adventures with an Arduino

    Arduino UNO

    I got an Arduino to play with Christmas 2011, but barely played with it. During 2012 I have become more interested in medical research, well health generally, especially after watching some of the research shown at TEDMED. So I decided last summer to put the two together, buy a Pulse Sensor and do...

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  • Thatcham Then and Now Launch

    Thatcham Then and Now

    Many people now know about my book, “Thatcham Then and Now.” It is set to launch later this week at an event on 26th July 2012, 7pm at Frank Hutchings Community Hall in Thatcham. I am giving a short talk at the launch, presenting a few of the books to certain people and then Thatcham Family...

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  • Family Tree Charts (part 1)

    The Mount's of Thatcham

    Family history is, and has been, a growing hobby for a long time for a great many people. For the Peter Allen Memorial Lectures this year, 2012, we decided to focus one talk on Family History, although almost every talk notes various well known locals. As such I thought rather than producing the...

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  • Nick's guide to photography

    Mark and Laura's Wedding, Cornwall, 2011. Photograph by Nick Young

    This is the first of what I hope to be an ongoing series on photography. The aim is to provide a series targeted to all, beginners and the advanced based on what I have learnt and the techneques I use. Before we start, let me give you a short background about myself. Ignoring photography for a...

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  • Honoured with a Gold Civic Award

    Photograph by Paul Young

    In February/March 2011 I got a letter from Thatcham Town Council saying I was to be awarded a Gold Civic Award for my work in promoting the town. To say this came as a suprise would be an understatement. There are few things like this that I get that I feel I deserve. Anyway, it is something I am...

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Useful: Victoria County Histories

So I have been a little lax this year on updates to the site. That is now changing. I am aiming to get the useful blogs going again every other week. This week I am introducing the "Victoria County Histories" website over at - www.british-history.ac.uk. A fantastic resource for any British...

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Jun 20, 2010

Useful: Recaptcha

Most websites use captchas somewhere. A captcha, for those who do not know, is a system used to confirm the form is being submitted by a human and not an automated computer program. There are various types of captch such as math and graphical. For the math you have to solve a simple math such as "3...

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Apr 1, 2010

Useful: Drupal

Not sure why I have not noted before, the open source Drupal Content Management System (CMS). This is a full CMS that allows you to add and customise all elements. Themes can easily be created as well as add-ins, known as modules. It can be difficult to get used to, however it is getting better...

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Mar 5, 2010

Useful: BuySellAds

Most of us would welcome generating a little extra cash from our websites, especially if it involved little work. That is where the online advertising comes in. Most of us have heard of Google Adsense, which generates money on a pay-per-click system. One that I am trying out is BuySellAds.com,...

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Jan 28, 2010

Review of 2009

A few days late but here is my review of 2009 and preview of 2010. Let us start of by looking at the website itself...This website, nickbits.co.uk, has seen a record number of visitors reaching 31,262 between 1st January 2009 and 31st December 2009. The previous yearly high was achieved in 2008...

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Jan 5, 2010

What If: Guy Fawkes

Guy Fawkes, born on 13th April 1570 in Yorkshire, is a name almost everyone in the UK will know. After his father’s death in 1579, his mother remarried and it is known the family were then against, and resisting, the authority of the Church of England. Guy Fawkes finally converted to Catholicism...

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Nov 3, 2009