Greg Harvey 🌍

European, #foss fan, #linux lover, business owner, #infosec nerd. Toots on #tech, #France, #wine and #music. #VoteGreen

#fedi22

Also bassist for Troquet d'Poche: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7agfAsFf294 🤘🎸 (full concert)

About.me: https://about.me/greg_harvey
Work: https://www.codeenigma.com/team/greg
Drupal: https://www.drupal.org/u/gregharvey
Pixelfed: https://pixelfed.social/i/web/profile/2906

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npub16kmpc68kz29tjum6huxu3l6rldhcjxnj68gdycf8mr4au0e8udwqmluut5

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greg_harvey_at_tooting.ch@momostr.pink

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nprofile1qqsdtdsudrmp9z4ewdat7rwglaplkmufrfedr5xjvyna36778un7xhqpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsvq7nn3

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Last Notes

2026-10-08 11:34:40 UTC

Jesus. From a LinkedIn post. I'm pretty sure it's AI generated, was posted as a joke and is not a real child's drawing. I really *hope* it's not a real child's drawing. Either way, I just can't even...
https://tooting.ch/system/media_attachments/files/117/405/064/179/500/814/original/bcaeb6f8d741df2f.png

2026-10-06 22:43:44 UTC

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99 now! 😁

2026-09-18 15:57:24 UTC

So this is a fun one. #Element *refuses* to use #Jitsi for one-on-one calling, you can only do it via a #TURN server with Element Call. Luckily we had one of those, my colleague Nick set up a coturn server for Nextcloud Talk. So one-on-one is Element Call + TURN, as soon as there are three people in a call it cuts over to the Jitsi widget. I'd like it to always use Jitsi, but I haven't found a way.

2026-09-16 21:19:30 UTC

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If you tap 'smug twat' into your search engine of choice you should find an answer. 😉

2026-09-10 20:38:35 UTC

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Oh, final thought, we haven't looked at any of the VW Group B-segment stuff on purpose. It'll all be €40k once you've gone big battery and a couple of options you just get everywhere else, and I'd rather the Kia at that point. A second hand ID.3 would be very interesting, but my wife has decided she wants us to stay firmly in B-segment land, so it's too big. And the Stellantis stuff is all a bit crap, not purpose built and poor range. #ev

2026-09-10 20:28:37 UTC

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The only downside to the Inster is the finish feels a bit cheap. Which is a pity, I'm sure they could've made it a bit less clangy and scratchy and kept a sensible price point. But it's still a winner for us. #ev

2026-09-10 20:27:09 UTC

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I like the Kia EV2 a lot, but it's €12,000 more than the Inster. That's a lot of wonga! And while it's smallish, it's still a lot bigger. It has 100 km more range of course, it would properly replace our MG4. But then so would another MG4 and that would also be €12,000 cheaper than the EV2. And "small as possible with decent range" is our principle requirement, realistically the Inster offers good enough range, enough space, a tiny footprint, a low price, bags of character and some clever ideas.

2026-09-10 20:23:10 UTC

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And so the Hyundai Inster is the small #ev pack leader. Surprisingly comfortable for four adults (I sat behind myself with ease), marginally less range than the Renault 5 but enough, some super clever space saving features and a totally flat (like you can properly sleep in it) seat folding solution, fronts included, acceptable boot. (Ironically I first saw this seat layout in the previous Renault Twingo, but Renault seem to have forgotten about it).
The Kia EV2..... ?

2026-09-10 20:16:47 UTC

More #ev adventures today, Renault and Hyundai. Went to Renault first, expected to love the Renault 4 and 5 but didn't really like either! The 4 is, well, a bit boring in the flesh. The 5 looks great, from the driver's seat everything is awesome, but the back? OMG how did they even manage to make so little legroom. I am genuinely shocked, it's basically a two-seater unless you have small children. I noped out of trying to sit behind my own driving position, couldn't even get my feet in!

2026-09-08 22:11:03 UTC

They *do* have a bed each. 🙄
https://tooting.ch/system/media_attachments/files/117/237/704/890/794/428/original/673b07c3256840e0.jpg

2026-07-31 07:41:41 UTC

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Yup, it's something you have to get your head around when you go electric. Stop/start in an ICE car is energy wasting, but in an EV it's recuperation heaven. So it turns the metrics on their head. 😅

2026-07-31 07:18:32 UTC

It's funny how much modern #EV predicted ranges fluctuate. Obviously depending on software, but our ID.Buzz bases future range on recent past driving, I think a lot of EV brains do. It tends to do a lot of motorway and fast roads in #France and the max range prediction hovers around 320/330 kilometres. Here in #Italy it's the only car with us for a month and it's doing all the ducking about, so now the prediction is close to 400 kilometres. EVs much prefer shopping trips to motorway runs. 😅

2026-07-11 09:21:43 UTC

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I think you can go up to 750kg without brakes? And there's basically no rules. 🤣

2026-07-11 09:06:06 UTC

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Trailers are silly money here, but I finally found one for a sensible price about 30 miles away. Was looking for a couple of months though. My mate reckons it was probably nicked at some point, because the serial number is scratched out, but I doubt it was the last owner who nicked it. It's a really old trailer, would only have been worth nicking 20+ years ago!

2026-07-11 09:01:21 UTC

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Ha, it's great to have a trailer. My old 940 never had a tow hitch and it was like €500 to add one, so I never got round to it. But now I have a factory-fitted tow hitch and a little box trailer I found online I use it all the time! 😍

2026-07-11 08:47:45 UTC

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Nice. Smaller than my 940 was, apparently, but only just! I believe they crossed over? Nice to see it still going strong. Looks smart, too!

2026-05-17 13:46:25 UTC

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Jesus. Hope you get home ok.

2026-05-16 10:12:57 UTC

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You're not very far from where I live. 🙂 Bonnes vacances ! 🌞

2026-04-29 20:37:19 UTC

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Or *a* super farm in our case:
https://strawsons.com/history/
Ironically, Tony and his wife lived in our village, but moved out before the company bought most of the land. His son runs the show now. They present a family face, but it's a massive industrialised operation.

2026-04-29 20:18:15 UTC

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That's part of the story, but I think it's more a consequence than a cause. I think economic pressure from supermarkets, changes in buying habits, increased government requirements, loss of funding support, essentially made farming difficult to make a living out of. Most of the farms closed because the next generation didn't see any future in farming, because of all of the above. And super farms bought up the land.

2026-04-29 19:24:12 UTC

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And to put that into context, the population was only a bit over 100 souls, so everyone in the village was working in agriculture in some way or another. It's tragic really, smallholdings in England were systematically dismantled in the 1980s. I'm not even very sure how it happened exactly, but in our village alone a dozen small farms used to adequately support twenty-odd households. Now it's only rich people in swanky barn conversions surrounded by industrial arable farming.

2026-04-29 19:13:32 UTC

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Where I grew up every farmhouse had one. But then every farmer could cut down a few trees a year to fuel it without really impacting the woodland on their land. Obviously that only works where population density is low and people know how to manage the land. It's all gone now, there were a dozen farming families in the village when I was small, now there are literally none. 😢

2026-04-29 17:48:30 UTC

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This is where the old AGAs were great. Sure, meant burning wood, but they were multi use so they never went out. And because they were on anyway, heating your water and your kitchen, there was no "extra" cost to simmering a few pots on top... /me sighs nostalgically. Used to do a lot of one-pot meals like that.

2026-02-12 21:01:59 UTC

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Fair enough. People have already mentioned Hetzner, Exoscale in Switzerland seem pretty good, and there's IONOS (German) too. Hope that helps.

2026-02-12 17:41:06 UTC

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Maybe try Scaleway? Datacentres in Paris, Amsterdam and Warsaw. French datacentres are 100% renewable energy powered: https://www.scaleway.com

2026-02-12 16:24:20 UTC

Just tried @npub1rk6…hv4q Talk. OMG, it just works. I'm seriously impressed. Nice feature to keep your calls in the context of group chats as well.

2025-12-04 16:56:54 UTC

This is really interesting. The prevalent thinking is you put #solar panels on set-aside land not being used for anything else (or rooftops, of course). But actually creating a partial canopy of solar panels over crops can *improve* yields without losing farmland, the same sort of win win situation as you have with covering car parks:
https://theconversation.com/the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving-how-solar-panels-on-farms-can-help-increase-crop-yields-269264
#energytransition #climatecrisis

2025-10-29 16:45:28 UTC

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I'd like to think THEY'LL all be dead be then. If you're wondering what to do as a career in the post-AI era, may I suggest honing skills as a guillotine operator? 😉

2025-10-29 16:40:38 UTC

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The ECHR is the new EU. Politicians claiming it's the problem when they're the problem. Sooner or later they will run out of scapegoats and have to face their own incompetence.

2025-09-17 22:16:54 UTC

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We use @npub1ajf…rx6k ... I *think* it's cross platform?

2025-09-12 11:53:24 UTC

Whoever did this, I salute you. 🫡
https://tooting.ch/system/media_attachments/files/115/191/175/382/504/160/original/bb2d8df2d1368c0c.png

2025-06-17 21:36:14 UTC

Couldn't resist this photo this evening, I got out of the car and had to take it. Little & Large. #EV
https://tooting.ch/system/media_attachments/files/114/700/849/741/426/057/original/1385dadb602086cd.jpeg

2025-06-02 11:51:27 UTC

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Love it. Do you have a pro forma request? 😃

2025-02-12 07:54:46 UTC

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Hmm, I use the TuneIn Radio app on my phone to listen to British radio in the car sometimes. I guess that'll be the end of that for things like Radio 1 and Radio 2. ☹️

2025-01-08 09:49:05 UTC

Decided to do my latest #EV FUD debunk in a Gist instead of a thread, easier to write and edit!
This one is on resale and depreciation:
https://gist.github.com/gregharvey/0a6c60f63c334afced019c6f176dc617

2024-09-23 10:40:34 UTC

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Plus of course you realise how much stuff you just get "for free" in a Drupal theme!! Having to hook up all the plumbing...

2024-09-23 10:39:18 UTC

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It was a bit of a fashion in Drupal land. Some people still do it, *sometimes* it makes sense (consistent front-end across multiple back ends) but I had a candid chat with the CTO of a client who confessed when they did, all they achieved was an utterly unnecessary layer of complexity, ergo cost. Could've told him that before he started. 🙄

2024-08-23 10:05:34 UTC

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EV charging still feels very regional. It's pretty bloody good in France now, but pass into Spain and there's almost nothing! Italy better, but bad enough that we try not to rely on it... 😬 Not really experienced the UK, rented a Polestar but mostly charged at my dad's house, and of course there's a ton of chargers right next to Stansted Airport because it's in their commercial interest to put them there. Everyone returning a rented EV will use them!