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Photography Nature Technology Food
Movies Music Politics

and life in the Highlands.

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Thank you for dropping-by, I hope you enjoy your visit. The main content is to be found in the blog where I discuss everything and anything but topics including photography, nature, technology, food, movies, music and politics make regular appearances.

There is also a dedicated section on movies (or films if you prefer) where I will discuss and review in more depth. The scope covered will be mainly mainstream English language movies from the 1930s until the present day.

About me

My name is Iain MacDonald and I live in the Highlands of Scotland (although I have lived elsewhere in the past). I am a big fan of Free & Open Source Software which I use both professionally and at home.

Computing and technology tend to infuse themselves into my other interests, as once you learn some skills in one area it is convenient to use them to solve problems in other spheres.

When not tinkering with computers, I am likely to be found repairing things because living in the countryside you learn to be resourceful.

Of course, man doesn't live by SSH tunnels and kerosene vapour burners alone so food, as a subject, makes regular appearances too. Did I mention I used to work in hospitality?

Latest Life articles

My most recent ramblings.

  • Mastodon web client

    I have only been on Mastodon for about 10 days, but I have found the concepts easy to understand because I am familiar with Twitter. The familiarity is enhanced because the standard Mastodon web interface looks very much like TweetDeck. There were however some deficiencies in the web interface which were niggling me. [Read more...]

  • The Fediverse

    This is an account of my five-day mission to explore to the far extremeties of The Fediverse. Although I am a complete newbie to The Federation and The Fediverse I hope this very naivety has some value. If the free social network is to grow and prosper it needs to attract people who, like me, don't completely understand it. [Read more...]

  • Wood processing: the ideal set up - Part 1

    This is the first in a series of posts showing my ideal wood processing set up. We use a wood-burning stove for about three-quarters of the year, only leaving it idle during the summer months. To supply the stove requires spending a lot of my spare time processing wood. Processing wood includes all the jobs from cutting down trees to putting the logs in the stove. In recent winters we have had some severe storms ... [Read more...]

  • Delivery charges for the Highlands and Islands

    Delivery charges for goods purchased online to addresses in the Highlands and Islands has been a big problem for years. There are two issues which contribute to the problem. [Read more...]

  • The Class System

    Eighteen years into the 21st century and the class system is still alive and well, in the UK. The apex of that class system seems to be as popular as ever and we still have an unelected parliamentary second chamber where our "representatives" get called Baron or Baroness, except for the ones called Bishop. I've always liked to believe that the people in Scotland are more egalitarian, and indeed support for the monarchy is much ... [Read more...]

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