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petergarner.net

 

About Us

Welcome to the latest version of our web site, petergarner.net. We've recently moved from our self-hosted Intel NUC box to a shiny new VPS located somewhere in the UK. The gopher server has been moved at the same time along with its 15Gb (and rising) of content files: you're able to view the latest files direct from the home page but to explore it properly you'll need a proper gopher client app; more on this later...

The site is primarily a technical site, but I do write about other things as well: if you like coffee, beer, home-baked bread, alternative beliefs, minimalist computing and walking you've come to the right place. And then there's the Green Man of course...

Blog Content

Our famed collection of technical and other ramblings is available in our blog. As is the norm here, there's an eclectic collection of articles that will inspire / amaze / offend / amuse you. Written by a human, AI-free.

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The Green Man, Paths and Beliefs

Quite some time ago, when I was neither young nor old, I experienced a life-changing event. Like many people who have been in that situation, I imagine, I decided to take a mental step back and re-evaluate my life. I figured that it was as good a time as any, and if it prepared me for the Road Ahead, then so much the better. I made a list of things to look at and maybe change if I needed to, and one of those things was what I actually believed in. Rather than fill this page, I've decided to write a blog entry, which you can read here.

Gopherspace

Why Gopher?

There are many reasons to use gopher: here's a summary:

Latest Uploads - Today

Gopher: Latest Files - Today Go Home
Type/
D/L
Description
File Size
Fuel sources for HX3 - historical, supplied by NG-ESO Region NPG Yorkshire, updated every 30 minutes
5.52Mb
Fuel sources for HX3 - last 8 hours, supplied by NG-ESO Region NPG Yorkshire, updated every 30 minutes
830b

Last updated: Mon Jan 19 14:00:02 2026

Latest Uploads - Yesterday

Gopher: Latest Files - Yesterday Go Home

Type/
D/L
Description
File Size
Fuel sources for HX3 - last 8 hours, supplied by NG-ESO Region NPG Yorkshire, updated every 30 minutes
840b

Last updated: Mon Jan 19 00:00:02 2026


Stats


As at Mon Jan 19 14:00:01 2026:
15,830
files, 16,245,968,934 (16G) bytes
in our gopherspace

Monitoring Our Carbon Footprint

The whole point of this project is to run a useful, responsive web server that uses as few resources as possible. I'm attempting a design which balances form and function, and the carbon footprint of loading/viewing this, and other pages is low. This is normally just 0.01g of CO2/view and you can verify this by visiting Website Carbon and The Green Web Foundation.

Lately, I'm taking more of an interest (and therefore an active approach) to where Skircoat's electric power comes from, and a few days of research has resulted in an up-to-date breakdown of the power sources that are used to generate the region's power. There's an update every 30 minutes via the API provided by the ESO/National Grid.

Suffice to say that the continued heavy reliance on fossil fuels is extremely worrying. Yes, 'biomass' as used in Yorkshire's Drax is still a fossil fuel, and the situation is made worse by the fact that it's "mainly imported from the Southern USA (by sea!) but also from Europe, Canada and Southern America". according to Drax. I smell greenwashing, but read this and decide for yourself. Oh, and there's a recent article in the Independent (alt link) that lays bare more of the unpleasant facts...

We run on Green Energy!

This website runs on green hosting - verified by thegreenwebfoundation.org

Skircoat Green Electricity Power Sources

See below for statistics, updated every 30 minutes.

Fuel sources for HX3, supplied by NG-ESO Region NPG Yorkshire

       
OK? Fuel Type Percentage Used
N Biomass32.5 %
N Gas51.4 %
Y Solar0.6 %
Y Wind15.5 %
Fuel sources not used (0%) are excluded: Coal, Imports, Nuclear, Other, Hydro

Sample period  2026-01-19 14:00 UTC to 2026-01-19 14:30 UTC

Usage VERY HIGH, CO2 forecast 241g CO2/kW-h

Carbon-zero Fuel Percentage 16.1% Fossil Fuel Percentage 83.9%

[Link to file]Download historical data from 2021-11-29 18:00 UTC to 2026-01-19 14:30 UTC.

[Link to file]Download last 8 hours data (X axis=types) to 2026-01-19 14:30 UTC.

[Link to file]Download last 8 hours data (Y axis=types) to 2026-01-19 14:30 UTC.

Data sourced from https://carbonintensity.org.uk E&OE


Local Weather Forecast, updated hourly

Weather for Halifax, GB

               overcast clouds
      .--.     7 (7) °C       
   .-(    ).   ← 4 km/h       
  (___.__)__)                 
               0.0 mm/h       

Updated  Mon, 19 Jan 2026 14:00:01 +0000

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System Info

System Statistics as at Mon Jan 19 14:00:01 2026
Uptime: up 1 week, 6 hours, 23 minutes since 2026-01-12 07:36:45
Disk usage: 22%
Network: TX packets 72325602 bytes 57388077855 (53.4 GiB)  RX packets 56990572 bytes 40314672695 (37.5 GiB)





This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

Further In-depth Research and Reading

email us go to messageboard newsletter archive home NEWSLETTER: "PEPTO-BISMOL ICE CREAM - YUMMY" next issue » « previous issue

Men who've been * Crushed by marbles * Stuck in a typewriter * Covered in melted cheese * Stuck to frozen peas * Burnt on a plasma screen * Squeezed with pliers

People who've got themselves impaled on * Mr T * An HB pencil * A BMX bike * Nelson's Column * A lubed-up cork. (in a vain attempt to cure flatulence) >> This Week's Question << We'd like your restaurant and bar stories. Tell us what they really do with our food and drinks here: http://wibble.com/questions/restaurantskitchensbars/ ------------------------------------------------- : SITES IN BRIEF Stuff we like that wasn't made by our mates >> Lovely treehouses << Nothing much to add on this subject, other than these are cool as fuck and an idyllic place to sit smoking and bingeing on home-made wine after a row with the missus. http://www.treehouse-company.com/ >> Angry Rolf Harris << Surprisingly powerful stuff from wobble board-playing national treasure, despite a dated trance backing track. Strange for something to be both so stupid and emotionally moving at the same time. Just when you want to smirk you can't. http://www.wibble.com/links/Seal_protest >> Bucket fanny on Wikipedia << The old Wikipedia may not be 100% reliable, but it is exhaustive. They don't seem to think they have enough info on 'bucket fanny'. You could help Wikipedia by expanding it. (With a big speculum covered in KY jelly.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucket_Fanny >> Proof that breasts are popular << So we put them in the headline... Look at the picture and click on it anywhere. The next page shows you the points where all the previous visitors have clicked. http://blog.outer-court.com/click/ >> 'Stupid' tattoo << We can't really imagine the mindset of someone who, like this character, gets a tattoo on their forehead that clearly reads "STUPID". Aside, perhaps, from guessing that they don't feature working in a bank as one of their ambitions. http://snipurl.com/stupidtattoo >> Good bad ideas << Always nice to see the underdog win a little. Here's a list of ten, frankly, idiotic internet business plans. All of them have done extremely well for the people who thought them up. We await that magical day when wibble makes us multimillionaires... http://snipurl.com/tg3w ------------------------------------------------- : THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO AAHH Sleepy serval Servals are medium-sized African cats that look like little leopards with tiny tiny heads. Here's a baby one, asleep in somebody's arms. http://www.kostich.com/baby_serval.htm ------------------------------------------------- : VIDEO SCHMIDEO VHS these and post them to your mates >> The dangers of unwary napping << There's an unwritten rule that you must never fall asleep when the majority of your mates are awake. So it's no surprise to see this drowsy fellow's erstwhile chums attaching fireworks to his legs and scaring the living crap out of him. He had it coming, you see. http://video.google.com/videoplay >> Musical rollerblading << Ad directors - rip this off now! It's kind of like all those marbles bouncing down San Francisco, but with a bloke on rollerblades that ping bottles at the side of the track to make classical music. Not something you see every day. http://snipurl.com/musicalrollerblading >> YouTube first lawsuit << "So what is up with YouTube?" we hear you ask. "Loads of good stuff's been removed due to 'terms of use violation'." Yep, it looks like YouTube is now not just big enough to be good, but big enough for the lawyers to start in. Bah. http://snipurl.com/yousued >> Love song for a bot << This musically-talented European chap thought it would be super-cool to make a trance record about an excellent IRC chat-bot. Was he right about that? Erm... http://basshunter.m0o.eu/anna/index_en.php >> Unpleasant crisps ad << Fresh from the "is it really real?" file (don't write in, there are no prizes) comes this short ad where UK snackmeisters Smiths compare the smell of their products to a lady's private bits. http://www.youtube.com/watch >> WACaday racist shock << If you look at the very start of the intro to this Eighties kids' TV show, the letters appear to spell out the word 'WOG'. Ooh. Naughties. Just as an aside, can that really be how the Eighties looked? Surely no. http://www.youtube.com/watch >> Fascinating toy collection << It would seem that an array of mechanical gizmos could be a little dry, but as you go through the video links, the Frasier Crane-alike professor demonstrates just how excellent each one is so you end up wanting one yourself and revering him as a genius. We particularly liked the Levitron. http://www.grand-illusions.com/toycollection/ >> Upside down room << It's an old, old prank but still incredibly good when people put as much work into it as this. Chappy goes away for a few days, his friends get busy with the galvanised screws... When he gets back his bed is on the ceiling. Excellent photos. Perfect. http://www.lightsideup.com/ ------------------------------------------------- : FUNNY NAME CORNER Pushing thumbs in your eyeballs until they burst >> Simple baby << "A campaign like this is giving babies a kick in their self-esteem from the off" writes Pixelmixer. It's the big gormless baby at the top left that does it for us. http://www.simple.co.uk/simplebaby >> Munters << "Whilst waiting for my girlfriend outside the local Woolworths a van drove past with this on the side of it," informs purplebananaskins, "and it made me chuckle." http://www.munters.co.uk/ ------------------------------------------------- : wibble IMAGE CHALLENGE Results from the Emo Challenge Last week we wanted you to imagine life a world dominated by Emo, youth movement of the terminally depressed. And so you did... Your favourites included: