Kev Quirk

Admin of Fosstodon, along with [@mike](https://fosstodon.org/@mike ).

I work in InfoSec 🔐

Father of two 👨‍👦‍👦, husband of one 👰‍♀️🤵‍♂️

Keeper of dogs (x2) 🐶, cat 😻, fish (x100s) 🐠 and chickens (x12) 🐔

I'm also partial to collecting watches ⌚️ and riding motorbikes 🏍️

🌐 Website: https://kevquirk.com
ALT: https://social.lol/@kevquirk
🥰 Support Us: https://hub.fosstodon.org/support

Public Key

npub1080g52af0e0cqcvl0g9k0nf8smn8duqcjrplr0cdc02dxnx84enq6scr2f

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs8nh529w5huhuqvx0h5zm8e5ncdenk7qvfpsl3huxu84xnfnr6uesprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmntsdzcpt

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

Author Public Key

npub1080g52af0e0cqcvl0g9k0nf8smn8duqcjrplr0cdc02dxnx84enq6scr2f

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Last Notes

2026-07-23 10:30:01 UTC

Loren talks about the differences between Security and Privacy, but also how (and why) he prioritises one over the other.
https://kevquirk.com/security-versus-privacy

2026-07-19 12:30:01 UTC

I'm sick of pissing about with Codeberg. I've switched back to GitHub.
https://kevquirk.com/ive-moved-back-to-github

2026-07-16 10:47:25 UTC

A few of us were talking to one of the summer interns at work about age:
Someone: How old do you think Kev is?
Intern: [with all the confidence in the world] 50?
I turn 42 in August. FML. 🤣
https://kevquirk.com/2026-07-16-1147

2026-07-15 06:13:48 UTC

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I have been doing shorter runs. I'm running 5km 2-3 times per week. Plan was to up it to 6km last night, but I felt good at the 5km mark, so decided to add a bit more on. I just added too much on. 🤣

2026-07-14 22:24:28 UTC

I went for an 8km (5 mile) run this evening. I'm working my way up to 10km, but I think this was a little too much, too soon. We'll see how my middle-aged joints are in the morning...
https://kevquirk.com/2026-07-14-2324

2026-07-12 09:09:04 UTC

It's a beautiful morning here in North Wales. My wife has taken our youngest to his cricket match, and our oldest is upstairs playing with his Lego out of the heat.
Me? I'm sitting in the sunroom, listening to the goats and chickens, with a coffee and book.
Perfect Sunday morning.
https://kevquirk.com/2026-07-12-1008
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/116/906/219/444/069/015/original/52bcf9982846be26.webp
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/116/906/219/496/339/588/original/533c8c1fdb9c4464.webp

2026-07-10 13:10:02 UTC

I recently bought a new Peugeot and the experience of getting setup on their online platform has been painful to say the least.
https://kevquirk.com/a-rant-about-modern-cars

2026-07-08 05:54:26 UTC

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I personally run my VPS on Hetzner with HestiaCP on top of it. It gives the closest experience to something like cPanel where I can easily create and drop websites without having to SSH in and manually configure files.

2026-06-27 17:16:31 UTC

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haha poor choice of words on my part there, sorry!

2026-06-26 12:59:17 UTC

My first rather large #3DPrinting project. Can anyone work out what they are?
(No they're not abstract Starship Enterprises)
https://kevquirk.com/2026-06-26-1359
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/116/816/527/796/207/861/original/c7a6540940099667.webp

2026-06-22 21:01:26 UTC

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i stopped reading the news years ago, maybe that's why I don't need it haha. I'm blissfully unaware of what's going on in the world.

2026-06-22 08:05:01 UTC

I'm getting sick of LLMs being everywhere. Let me use you how I want to use you, then get out of my way!
https://kevquirk.com/no-i-dont-want-you-to-summarise-the-page

2026-06-21 17:42:31 UTC

It's handy when your riding buddy is a photographer. You end up with some nice photos.
https://kevquirk.com/2026-06-21-1842
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/116/789/329/936/715/314/original/ee4a37d817b3a8c2.webp

2026-06-21 08:35:34 UTC

Some goats, just goating around, watching me mow the field.
https://kevquirk.com/2026-06-21-0935
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/116/787/179/264/244/578/original/16493fa44b45a3bc.webp

2026-06-17 12:56:24 UTC

So you know how we have the incubator setup? Well, unbeknownst to me, my wife gave one of our broody hens a cluch of Guinea fowl eggs to sit on a month ago.
She just sent me this...
https://kevquirk.com/2026-06-17-1356
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/116/765/555/676/773/315/original/e9083a707a4c9173.mp4

2026-06-17 07:40:40 UTC

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we have 3 broody hens at the moment, so we have them sitting on eggs too. We're not confident in their ability to brood though, so we're hedging our bets. 🤣

2026-06-17 06:05:00 UTC

We have the incubator setup incubating a dozen eggs, including the last 2 our hen that was caught by the fox layed.
Expect regular updates. 🐣
https://kevquirk.com/2026-06-17-0704
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/116/763/938/005/441/449/original/26732db0be43c702.webp

2026-06-16 11:32:54 UTC

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a cocker spaniel labrador mix. Apparently they're called cockerdors...unfortunate name.
It's basically be a small, slightly fluffy lab.

2026-06-16 06:55:21 UTC

Like we don't have enough animals already. This little black blob will be joining us on August.
https://kevquirk.com/2026-06-16-0755
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/116/758/473/638/360/391/original/db8f08c0187f2305.webp
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/116/758/473/690/704/402/original/1985f1b3b6852c84.webp

2026-06-12 08:16:26 UTC

You know what the absolute worst part of owning an EV is?
It's when you get in the car with the kids and there's 67% battery left.
⁶🤷⁷
https://kevquirk.com/2026-06-12-0916

2026-06-12 05:46:18 UTC

So a fox came into the field and took a chicken from right in front of us at dinner time last night.
Unfortunately we couldn't get to it in time. Our rooster tried, but he wasn't successful either.
We have her last egg, so we're gonna try and hatch it. 😟
https://kevquirk.com/2026-06-12-0646

2026-06-10 21:41:53 UTC

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what does that do?

2026-06-10 20:05:32 UTC

I'm quite liking #Vivaldi, especially now I have dark/light mode switching working in #Ubuntu.
If it sticks, I'll play with their email and RSS integration next.
https://kevquirk.com/2026-06-10-2105

2026-06-10 11:35:43 UTC

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no problem, I'll just keep using this version until the next stable release. Thanks.

2026-06-10 09:30:36 UTC

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ok, I couldn't wait. F**k yeah! When will this be in the main release? That's the only thing that was holding me back from switching full time.
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/116/725/109/773/791/914/original/1604930cfa5c5de7.mp4

2026-06-10 09:23:56 UTC

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happy to do so! Will install the snapshot today and I'll report back. 🙃

2026-06-09 12:24:45 UTC

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so far it actually had been enough for me, but I saw this on eBay for a steal - A1 with 5 spools of filament and the 4 filament AMS feeder thing, along with a few other bits, for ~$150. Now I can do bigger and multi-colour prints. Not sure where this leaves the Mini though! :-)

2026-06-08 18:10:02 UTC

All this post does is make The Document Foundation sound petty and butthurt.
https://kevquirk.com/an-open-letter-to-office-suite-users-just-before-the-euro-office-announcement

2026-06-08 17:50:02 UTC

Over 2 years now and @npub19rt…adh9 STILL haven't fixed this theming issue.
I thought you guys had the Linux community's back?
https://www.reddit.com/r/vivaldibrowser/comments/1bgaznp/ubuntu_2310_vivaldi_theming_issue/

2026-06-08 13:16:35 UTC

Sorry for all the spam, I was testing a new feature on my local dev site and totally forgot to turn off the Masto cross-posting hook. 🤦🏻‍♂️

2026-06-07 13:30:02 UTC

A little over a week ago I took delivery of my new Fitbit Air, so I thought I'd jot down some of my thoughts after using it every day to track my health.
https://kevquirk.com/first-impressions-of-the-fitbit-air

2026-06-03 22:46:19 UTC

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how the kit? I'm after some new jeans.

2026-06-03 13:02:00 UTC

Second times a charm. 👍🏻
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/116/686/305/145/386/253/original/c7cc2ee89874d42a.jpg

2026-06-03 06:36:29 UTC

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correct. I've just been researching it and apparently there's an option to add supports? 🤷🏼‍♂️

2026-06-03 06:12:17 UTC

Dammit, my second print somehow went wrong. I think it's because I dont have the printer on the steadiest of surfaces. Will move and try again.
https://kevquirk.com/2026-06-03-0710
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/116/684/694/241/090/525/original/4b3392fae0144887.webp

2026-06-02 17:05:17 UTC

So my first #3DPrint seems to be going ok. Bit of a faff loading the filament, but relatively painless all in all.
I went for a Bambu A1 Mini - won't need to print anything large.
https://kevquirk.com/2026-06-02-1804
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/116/681/599/603/132/360/original/ac820bad5505fbc6.webp

2026-05-31 08:25:45 UTC

I've been thinking about getting a #3DPrinter recently. Never used one before but I think it would be useful/interesting.
I have no experience with them, and don't want to spend a tonne of money. Ease of use and quality would be my highest priorities I think.
Any recommendations? Remember, I'm in the UK. 🇬🇧
https://kevquirk.com/2026-05-31-0925

2026-05-31 08:20:21 UTC

It always makes me sad when bloggers have no way of easily contacting them on their site.
I'd love to talk to you about your last post, but there's no way to email or comment. Posting your Twitter handle aint gonna cut it.
Is it so hard to add an "email me" link at the bottom of the post? 😏
https://kevquirk.com/2026-05-31-0920

2026-05-30 07:18:56 UTC

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what app is that? I like how it shows the splits per km.
Is love to get back to the stage where I'm running 10km again regularly.

2026-05-25 14:40:12 UTC

Ironically, since moving to @npub1fh7…ee83 I've had nothing but problems. I keep getting time outs and refused connections when pushing, and now the Pure Blog updater is broken because it can't pull from Codeberg.
No issues reported on their end, but it's definitely not a Pure Blog issue as I updated a number of sites yesterday.
I'm seriously considering a switch back to #GitHub.

2026-05-24 08:43:37 UTC

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that's what I use 95% of the time.

2026-05-23 14:33:58 UTC

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maybe...

2026-05-23 13:45:02 UTC

I've been getting into fountain pens over the last 6 months or so. They're lovely to write with, it not awkward for a lefty like me.
https://kevquirk.com/using-fountain-pens-for-note-writing

2026-05-23 12:35:27 UTC

I want to love #Vivaldi, I really do, and the new design for v8 looks great. But the lack of ability to automatically switch to dark mode in Gnome is a deal-breaker for me (I think it's a bug). Here's a demo video of Vivaldi (right) and Firefox (left).
https://kevquirk.com/2026-05-23-1331

2026-05-22 12:24:59 UTC

Anyone else having problems pushing toe @npub1fh7…ee83?
Don't see anything on @npub1z0a…dh9p.

2026-05-16 12:42:39 UTC

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I have zero interest in self-hosting something like that. I learned a long time ago that I don't want to self-host something that's critical.

2026-05-16 12:10:01 UTC

I really hope this isn't true as I'm not sure what I'd replace Bitwarden with.
https://kevquirk.com/is-bitwarden-preparing-for-a-sale

2026-05-16 07:58:18 UTC

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well that's concerning considering LogMeIn's acquisition of #LastPass back in the day is exactly why I moved to #Bitwarden in the first place.

2026-05-12 18:20:02 UTC

I recently upgraded my home internet to full fiber. Was it worth the money?
https://kevquirk.com/upgrading-my-home-internet-to-full-fibre

2026-05-11 10:29:50 UTC

TIL (thanks to @npub19c6…ttya) that it costs ~£475 per year to publish and sign an app in the Apple store. No wonder every app in the app store costs a few $/month.
It's almost developer hostile. Let the devs keep the money they have earned, you money grabbing bastards.
https://kevquirk.com/2026-05-11-1128

2026-05-09 06:59:42 UTC

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I'm sorry this happened - this is an interesting one as auto-save should have kicked in after 10 seconds of not typing. The only time that wouldn't happen is if you hadn't saved the new post at all, thus writing a file and slug to the filesystem.
Is that what happened here? If you did at least 1 save, there should be an autosave from ~10 seconds before the session expired.
I'll add this to the list though, as I'm sure there more elegant solution to stop this from occurring.

2026-05-08 18:16:23 UTC

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yeah, they were doing some admin work - was only down a few mins. Just so happened it was when I looked haha.

2026-05-08 16:30:54 UTC

Brilliant. I look at migrating #PureBlog over the #Codeberg only to find the site is down. 😠
I just hope it's maintenance or something...

2026-05-06 08:51:57 UTC

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ah right. Yeah, you get 15 per mailbox with Thunderbird Pro. Seems like an arbitrary limitation to me.

2026-05-06 06:23:57 UTC

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a catch-all? I'm not sure. I seem to remember seeing something about it on the documentation though.

2026-05-05 20:45:08 UTC

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it's the former.

2026-05-05 19:07:13 UTC

I've been invited to #Thunderbird Pro but the pricing is confusing. Is that 15 email address with one mailbox, or is the storage split across up to 15 mailboxes? I assume the former. If so, I'll probably go with #Fastmail.
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/116/523/528/714/294/262/original/46f9ee9be3197d40.jpg

2026-05-05 10:34:42 UTC

Had fibre to the premises (FTTP) installed this morning - big upgrade in speed, both up and down, and my provider kept my static IP in place. Very happy.
Just need to see how quick it gets to over the next few days now.
https://kevquirk.com/2026-05-05-1134

2026-05-03 08:33:30 UTC

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jeez, you'll need some big batteries for all that solar out there in the desert! 🤣
Yeah, but we own her car, so it's another expense if we buy her an EV. I need to do some maths to see if it's financially viable to upgrade.

2026-05-02 16:03:14 UTC

Filled up my wife's car with diesel just now. £107 for 56 litres!! It's usually around £65-70 to fill up.
By comparison, my EV costs around £12 to "fill up" with electricity. I think we need to consider getting my wife an EV too!
(Sorry, Americans, I can't be bothered converting to freedom units)
https://kevquirk.com/2026-05-02-1702
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/116/505/824/090/938/849/original/f1a5342238f499e4.webp

2026-05-01 16:05:02 UTC

I've been thinking about leaving GitHub, and here's my plan.
https://kevquirk.com/thoughts-on-leaving-github

2026-04-29 15:55:31 UTC

Seriously considering a switch from #GitHub to #Codeberg after reading the post below, but I'm not sure I have the energy for it.
https://dbushell.com/2026/04/29/github-is-sinking/
https://kevquirk.com/2026-04-29-1655

2026-04-28 20:17:02 UTC

Just finished reading #ProjectHailMary and it was absolutely superb!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
https://kevquirk.com/books#project-hail-mary

2026-04-28 10:52:40 UTC

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you're absolutely right, which is why I'm working on it. There's just A LOT of moving parts to integrate into the IndieWeb.
The irony is that the IndieWeb is very complicated to actually integrate with, which makes it far more difficult to adopt.

2026-04-28 06:03:41 UTC

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I've been working on activitypub integration, but it's a lot of work so will take some time. I'm still not sure if I have the motivation to do it.

2026-04-27 18:56:39 UTC

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I'm not familiar with Yunohost but the Pure Blog CMS has an updater built into settings. All it does is a diff and replace under the hood, nothing special. So I'd assume it would work. 🤷🏼‍♂️

2026-04-27 16:56:10 UTC

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you lunatic!!! You just got it working! 🤣

2026-04-27 13:45:02 UTC

OK, the Framework saga is finally over...kinda.
https://kevquirk.com/update-2-on-the-framework-saga

2026-04-26 14:34:26 UTC

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I've actually been thinking about trying it again, but I'd need to develop a front-end site to manage subscriptions. I may do it again in the future.

2026-04-26 08:36:45 UTC

I just realised I'm not financially supporting #Fosstodon I thought I was! Fixed that.
Support your instance, folks - it's a tonne of work (and money), trust me, I know first hand.
https://hub.fosstodon.org/support/

2026-04-24 06:23:50 UTC

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ah man that's rough. Only one thing for it - time to buy a Framework! 🙃

2026-04-23 17:20:57 UTC

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26.04 is released today I think. Worth a shot?

2026-04-23 13:27:15 UTC

Ah gutted. I bought a #Framework Ryzen 7 AI 350 series a few days ago for £699, only for them to now be discounted to £599. Great timing, Kev! 🤦🏼‍♂️️
https://frame.work/gb/en/products/mainboard-amd-ai300
https://kevquirk.com/2026-04-23-1427

2026-04-22 19:36:34 UTC

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yeah, it was. I was very unlucky I think. The coffee spilled next to my laptop then the puddle spread under it while running. So I think the fan sucked it all up perfectly and spread it all over the board for me.
Ironically, had it fell **on** the laptop, I don't think it would have been as bad.

2026-04-22 13:52:59 UTC

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it is. Board is completely blown, but I have a new one on order. This will go to my wife when I'm back up and running.

2026-04-22 13:49:24 UTC

Hello from my new #Thinkpad T480! migrating (shrinking) my drive from the 2TB in my #Framework to this 1TB was painful, but I now have my full #Ubuntu system back and no bloody MacOS to battle with. 🎉
https://kevquirk.com/2026-04-22-1449

2026-04-21 18:12:43 UTC

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you tempted to get off that System76?

2026-04-21 18:10:22 UTC

I hope that those cool black chassis and coloured keyboards will be available for the OG #framework 13 - I'll 100% swap them out!

2026-04-21 17:51:14 UTC

Ooooooo I really want a #Framework 13 Pro!
I *just* ordered a new mainboard for my OG 13 though. 🙂

2026-04-18 07:37:47 UTC

Update on the #Framework - it's dead, Jim.
FW support have confirmed that the LED pattern I'm seeing are signalling a HW communication failure. So the board is shot.
Opened a claim with my insurance, so we'll see. In the meantime I'm seriously considering buying a T480. I can't bear this Mac.
https://kevquirk.com/2026-04-18-0837

2026-04-16 19:45:01 UTC

I managed to spill a hole cup of coffee on my Framework 13 today. Let's hope I can fix it!
https://kevquirk.com/i-may-have-killed-my-framework-13

2026-04-16 15:59:43 UTC

Urgh. Since dropping coffee all over my #Framework laptop, I'm back to using my M1 Mac. Jesus Christ MacOS is annoying, and Tahoe is fugly.
https://kevquirk.com/2026-04-16-1659

2026-04-16 11:45:58 UTC

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Stripped it down, sprayed it with contact cleaner and blew it out with compressed air. Nada.
I'm gonna strip it further when I have time and just let it sit and dry out. We'll see.

2026-04-16 09:48:40 UTC

Just dropped an entire coffee over my #Framework in the office. Absolutely fucking fuming! 😡
Going home strip it down and hope it survives.

2026-04-15 17:20:36 UTC

I take back pretty much everything I said in this post. I've bought a #SnowskyEcho just to see, loaded my old music on it, and it's pure joy! Discovering so much music that I haven't played for years.
https://kevquirk.com/2026-04-15-1820

2026-04-15 13:55:01 UTC

We lost my Dad in 2008 to cancer. I wish I could talk with him one last time.
https://kevquirk.com/i-wish-i-could-talk-to-my-dad

2026-04-15 07:12:52 UTC

Been using #Tuba on #Gnome for a day or so now, after a few people recommended it to me. It's *excellent*. Really, really impressed with it.
Thanks for the recommendations, folks.

2026-04-14 21:50:23 UTC

And this is why the plugin ecosystem for #WordPress is simultaneously it's strongest power, and biggest security concern.
https://anchor.host/someone-bought-30-wordpress-plugins-and-planted-a-backdoor-in-all-of-them/

2026-04-12 12:10:02 UTC

Finding a new blog to read is one of my favourite things to do; it genuinely brings me joy. Here's how I do it.
https://kevquirk.com/how-i-discover-new-blogs

2026-04-10 15:35:01 UTC

I just realised that I've completed the 100 Days to Offload challenge for a second time.
https://kevquirk.com/ive-completed-100-days-to-offload-again

2026-04-07 21:45:01 UTC

I read a great post about email obfuscation and decided to implement it on this site. Here's how I did it.
https://kevquirk.com/obfuscating-my-contact-email

2026-04-07 13:35:01 UTC

I'm seeing people move from music streaming, to a physical device. But I don't understand why they need a separate device for that?
https://kevquirk.com/why-have-a-dedicated-music-device

2026-04-06 19:03:43 UTC

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how am I only just discovering this series! Such a fantastic idea!

2026-04-06 16:30:01 UTC

Yesterday I recieved our insurance renewal and (shock horror) it had increased again!
https://kevquirk.com/i-hate-insurance

2026-04-01 14:12:13 UTC

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before reaching out to me to give me shit, please check GH issues first. Also, this isn't the place for support requests. GitHub is.
https://github.com/kevquirk/pureblog/issues/48

2026-03-31 09:19:36 UTC

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that seagull movement is bulletproof too. I have it in one of my watches - it's beautiful and great.

2026-03-31 08:03:43 UTC

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I do that regularly, especially when I'm walking the dogs at first light. The dawn chorus is far better than any podcast. 🙃

2026-03-29 22:02:22 UTC

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nice choice. I'm very happy on Ubuntu 24.04.

2026-03-29 12:25:29 UTC

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I would be too! That's a corker!

2026-03-29 11:30:02 UTC

I think I've been scammed selling a watch on eBay and it turns out I have absolutely no recourse.
https://kevquirk.com/i-think-ive-been-scammed-on-ebay