<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>What I work on in my spare time on Rick Timmis</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/</link><description>Recent content in What I work on in my spare time on Rick Timmis</description><generator>Hugo</generator><language>en-us</language><copyright>© Rick Timmis</copyright><lastBuildDate>Fri, 16 Oct 2026 10:00:00 +0100</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://ricktimmis.com/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title>Career Resume</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/about/resume/</link><pubDate>Wed, 20 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/about/resume/</guid><description>&lt;h1 id="head-of-engineering"&gt;Head of Engineering&lt;/h1&gt;&#10;&lt;h2 id="additional-information--reference"&gt;Additional Information / Reference&lt;/h2&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/downloads/Resume_January_2023.pdf"&gt;Downloadable PDF Version&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/blog/transforming-engineering-practice-at-xiatech/"&gt;Testimonials from work colleagues&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h2 id="xiatch-ltd"&gt;Xiatch Ltd&lt;/h2&gt;&#10;&lt;h3 id="may-2021---present"&gt;May 2021 - present&lt;/h3&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Tasked with scaling and developing the software engineering capabilities of Xiatech Ltd. I am focused on the creation of an engineering centre of excellence, utilising leading edge technologies across cloud providers.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Working with an all remote global team of architects, engineers and developers, a primary aspect of my role is to deliver leadership value through Cooperation, Collaboration and Community.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>Timmisun Limited</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/projects/timmisun-limited/</link><pubDate>Fri, 16 Oct 2026 10:00:00 +0100</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/projects/timmisun-limited/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://ricktimmis.com/images/projects/timmisun-limited-home.webp" alt="The timmisun.limited home page: Software Tailored to Fit, from Timmisun Limited, the software atelier"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Timmisun is my software atelier. We build and look after web and Linux software for clients, from first conversation through to long-term care.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://timmisun.limited"&gt;Visit Timmisun&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>Stella Forge: open concept for in-orbit vacuum metal additive manufacturing</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/projects/stella-forge/</link><pubDate>Sun, 11 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0100</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/projects/stella-forge/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://ricktimmis.com/images/projects/stella-forge/stella-forge-hero-1600x900.webp" alt="An all-curved interstellar ship of polished metal spheres and two large toroidal rings, with an open ellipsoid shell at its front where small robotic printers sit along the rim, each lit by a tiny melt point. Three drones on the left tow wire spools on tethers towards the ship, the Moon fills the right of the frame and a small Earth hangs at upper left."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Stella Forge is an open concept for printing curved metal structures in orbit: wire feedstock, a resistive-laser hybrid energy source, and a print head that wraps the workpiece and recycles its own heat. This page publishes the v0.1 concept white paper in full, so that engineers, students, hobbyists and space gamers can pick it apart, improve it and build on it.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>Homebase: Owning Your Own Platform Is Finally Realistic</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/homebase-own-your-platform/</link><pubDate>Sat, 10 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0100</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/homebase-own-your-platform/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://ricktimmis.com/images/blog/homebase-own-your-platform/homebase-hero-1600x900-noheadline.webp" alt="A glowing ivory &amp;lsquo;h&amp;rsquo; shaped like a house, its arched doorway filled with warm pink light and a rose live-light above it, stands apart from a dim, cold grid of identical blank screen tiles. Small chat bubbles rise from its chimney like smoke, against a dark espresso background."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;My daughter Becca streams on TikTok. She&amp;rsquo;s 20, she&amp;rsquo;s good at it, and she has built a real community of people who turn up to watch her. Like a lot of fathers with a technical bent, I&amp;rsquo;ve watched it with a mixture of pride and slight unease. Not about her, but about the ground she&amp;rsquo;s standing on.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>The Three Eyes: Instinct, Insight, and Influence</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/the-three-eyes-instinct-insight-influence/</link><pubDate>Fri, 11 Sep 2026 14:15:00 +0100</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/the-three-eyes-instinct-insight-influence/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Standfirst:&lt;/strong&gt; We restarted the Kubuntu Podcast on YouTube. The comments argued about AI. The numbers argued back.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;When you work in open source long enough, you learn to trust three kinds of seeing.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Call them the three eyes: &lt;strong&gt;instinct&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;insight&lt;/strong&gt;, and &lt;strong&gt;influence&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;They do not always agree. Lately they have been arguing in public under our restarted Kubuntu Podcast videos.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h2 id="instinct"&gt;Instinct&lt;/h2&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Instinct is fast. It is the gut read of a room.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>Traderz Battlez</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-battlez/</link><pubDate>Wed, 27 May 2026 13:57:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-battlez/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-about/"&gt;About&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-battlez/"&gt;Battlez&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/traderz-faq/"&gt;FAQ&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-help/"&gt;Help&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-roadmap/"&gt;Roadmap&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h1 id="battle-system-documentation"&gt;Battle System Documentation&lt;/h1&gt;&#10;&lt;h2 id="overview"&gt;Overview&lt;/h2&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;The Battle System allows users to compete with their card collections in ranked matches. Participants risk their cards for the chance to earn &lt;strong&gt;Claws&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Volts&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h2 id="entry-requirements"&gt;Entry Requirements&lt;/h2&gt;&#10;&lt;ul&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;A card set must be &lt;strong&gt;Battle Active&lt;/strong&gt; to be used.&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;To enable &amp;ldquo;Battle Active&amp;rdquo; for a set, you must:&#10;&lt;ol&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;Complete the set for the first time.&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;Be awarded the set&amp;rsquo;s achievement badge.&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;/ol&gt;&#10;&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;If any card in an active set reaches 0 copies after a battle, the set is automatically deactivated. You must rebuild the set to re-enable it.&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;/ul&gt;&#10;&lt;h2 id="battle-mechanics"&gt;Battle Mechanics&lt;/h2&gt;&#10;&lt;ul&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;Battles typically consist of 4 entrants.&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;There are multiple rounds (usually 3).&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;For each round, a card from the active set is &amp;ldquo;dealt&amp;rdquo; for each participant.&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Automatic Lobby Removal:&lt;/strong&gt; If a user&amp;rsquo;s card pack becomes depleted during a battle (no more battle-active sets), they are automatically removed from the Battle Lobby upon completion of the current battle. This allows them to finish their current battle rounds while ensuring the Lobby remains clear for active participants.&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;/ul&gt;&#10;&lt;h3 id="forfeit-mechanics"&gt;Forfeit Mechanics&lt;/h3&gt;&#10;&lt;ul&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ONLY the winner of a round retains their card.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;Participants in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place in a round &lt;strong&gt;lose the card&lt;/strong&gt; entered for that round.&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Volt value&lt;/strong&gt; (cost) of each lost card is added to the &lt;strong&gt;Battle Prize Pot&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;/ul&gt;&#10;&lt;h2 id="ranked-rewards"&gt;Ranked Rewards&lt;/h2&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;At the conclusion of a battle, players are ranked 1st to 4th based on their performance.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>Traderz Help</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-help/</link><pubDate>Wed, 27 May 2026 13:57:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-help/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-about/"&gt;About&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-battlez/"&gt;Battlez&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/traderz-faq/"&gt;FAQ&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-help/"&gt;Help&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-roadmap/"&gt;Roadmap&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h1 id="help-using-traderz"&gt;Help Using Traderz&lt;/h1&gt;&#10;&lt;h2 id="getting-started"&gt;Getting Started&lt;/h2&gt;&#10;&lt;ol&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Join Lionheart’s Live&lt;/strong&gt; — Volts are earned automatically while you’re in the live.&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Register&lt;/strong&gt; in the Traderz app using your TikTok username.&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Collect Volts&lt;/strong&gt; by watching the live, collecting voltage coin drops and gifting.&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Open Card Packs&lt;/strong&gt; using your Volts.&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Complete Sets&lt;/strong&gt; to earn achievement badges.&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;/ol&gt;&#10;&lt;h2 id="how-to-battle"&gt;How to Battle&lt;/h2&gt;&#10;&lt;ol&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;Click &lt;strong&gt;&amp;ldquo;Battle Lobby&amp;rdquo;&lt;/strong&gt; on the dashboard.&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;Choose a &lt;strong&gt;completed card set&lt;/strong&gt; you’re happy to risk.&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;Wait to be selected or activated by Lionheart.&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;Compete for &lt;strong&gt;Claws and glory!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;/ol&gt;&#10;&lt;h2 id="superfan-explained"&gt;Superfan Explained&lt;/h2&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Becoming a TikTok Superfan gives you access to the exclusive &lt;strong&gt;Lionheart’s Pride&lt;/strong&gt; card set. Cards level up the longer&#10;you remain a Superfan.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>Traderz Roadmap</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-roadmap/</link><pubDate>Wed, 27 May 2026 13:57:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-roadmap/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-about/"&gt;About&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-battlez/"&gt;Battlez&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/traderz-faq/"&gt;FAQ&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-help/"&gt;Help&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-roadmap/"&gt;Roadmap&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h1 id="traderz-battles-full-launch-2nd-june-party"&gt;Traderz Battles Full Launch (2nd June) PARTY!&lt;/h1&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Come Join the launch party, on Lions 58th Birthday, TikTok Live @ 20:15 UTC (21:15 UK)&#10;follow @lionheartstraderz on TikTok for updates.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h2 id="battle-system"&gt;Battle System&lt;/h2&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Extends Traderz with a new battle system, think Top Trumps, Pokemon etc..&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;ul&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;Battle Lobby&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;Battle Arena&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;Battle OBS Overlay for live streaming&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;Battle Chat&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;Battle Logs&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;Battle Leaderboard&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;Battle Achievements&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;Battle Rewards&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;Seasonal Battle League&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;/ul&gt;&#10;&lt;h2 id="new-traderz-card-packs"&gt;New Traderz Card Packs&lt;/h2&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;The community develops Traderz card decks through support via our &amp;lsquo;New Traderz Packs&amp;rsquo; gift goal. Each time the goal is&#10;reached, a new card pack is released.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>Traderz About</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-about/</link><pubDate>Wed, 27 May 2026 13:52:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-about/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-about/"&gt;About&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-battlez/"&gt;Battlez&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/traderz-faq/"&gt;FAQ&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-help/"&gt;Help&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-roadmap/"&gt;Roadmap&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h1 id="about-traderz"&gt;About Traderz&lt;/h1&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Traderz is a digital card collecting and community engagement app built exclusively for Lionheart’s TikTok Live.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://ricktimmis.com/images/traderz.png" alt="Traderz Application"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h2 id="what-is-traderz"&gt;What is Traderz?&lt;/h2&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Traderz turns your time in Lionheart’s Live into a fun, rewarding collecting experience. Earn Volts (points) just by&#10;being in the live, collecting volt drops and gifting. Use those Volts to open card packs, collect sets, and compete in Traderz Battles.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h3 id="traderz-gameplay-guide--become-a-legend-of-the-pride"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Traderz Gameplay Guide – Become a Legend of The Pride&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Welcome to &lt;strong&gt;Traderz&lt;/strong&gt; — the ultimate digital card collecting, battling, and community experience built for Lionheart’s TikTok Lives.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>Ardour: Your Free, Open-Source DAW for Music Production</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/tutorials/ardour-your-free-open-source-daw-for-music-production/</link><pubDate>Tue, 27 Jan 2026 12:46:39 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/tutorials/ardour-your-free-open-source-daw-for-music-production/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://ricktimmis.com/images/ardour.png" alt="Ardour DAW"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re into creating music on your own hardware—without subscriptions, cloud nonsense, or big-tech spying—Ardour is one of the best-kept secrets in open-source audio.&#10;It&amp;rsquo;s a full-featured digital audio workstation (DAW) that rivals paid tools like Logic or Reaper, and it&amp;rsquo;s completely free (with optional paid builds for convenience).&#10;Built for Linux, macOS, and even Windows, Ardour gives you professional-grade recording, editing, mixing, and MIDI sequencing—all running locally on your machine.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>Extending Your RAM with Virtual Memory on Windows: Using Fast NVMe Drives for Better Performance</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/tutorials/extending-ram-with-virtual-memory-on-windows/</link><pubDate>Mon, 29 Dec 2025 10:45:39 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/tutorials/extending-ram-with-virtual-memory-on-windows/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://ricktimmis.com/images/extending-virtual-ram.jpg" alt="extending-virtual-ram.jpg"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h2 id="introduction"&gt;Introduction&lt;/h2&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;ve ever used Linux, you&amp;rsquo;re probably familiar with &lt;strong&gt;swap space&lt;/strong&gt;—a portion of your disk that acts as an extension&#10;of physical RAM. When your system runs low on memory, less-used data is &amp;ldquo;swapped&amp;rdquo; out to disk, freeing up RAM for active&#10;processes. This creates the illusion of having more memory than your hardware actually provides.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;With modern fast NVMe SSDs, swapping no longer feels as sluggish as it once did on traditional hard drives. The result?&#10;You can comfortably run memory-intensive workloads even on systems with modest RAM amounts.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>Zero-Lag NDI Streaming: Send OBS Video from Linux Host to Windows VM Over Host-Only Network</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/tutorials/fast-host-only-networking-for-obs-streaming/</link><pubDate>Sun, 28 Dec 2025 12:46:39 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/tutorials/fast-host-only-networking-for-obs-streaming/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://ricktimmis.com/images/host-only-networking.jpg" alt="host-only-networking.jpg"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h2 id="introduction"&gt;Introduction&lt;/h2&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re streaming or recording from a Linux machine (like Kubuntu) using OBS Studio, but want to offload encoding,&#10;effects, or streaming to a Windows setup—all while keeping latency ultra-low—you don&amp;rsquo;t need WiFi, capture cards, or&#10;expensive hardware.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Enter &lt;strong&gt;NDI® (Network Device Interface)&lt;/strong&gt; combined with a &lt;strong&gt;VirtualBox host-only network&lt;/strong&gt;. This setup creates a private,&#10;wired-like connection between your Linux host and Windows virtual machine. Video travels over a dedicated virtual&#10;Ethernet link with typically &lt;strong&gt;30ms or less latency&lt;/strong&gt;, full quality, and no interference from your home network or neighbors.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>Understanding Root and Sudo on Linux</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/tutorials/understanding-root-and-sudo/</link><pubDate>Tue, 23 Dec 2025 15:46:39 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/tutorials/understanding-root-and-sudo/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://ricktimmis.com/images/understanding-root-and-sudo.jpg" alt="understanding-root-and-sudo.jpg"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h3 id="introduction"&gt;Introduction&lt;/h3&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re a Windows user transitioning to Linux, welcome! Linux is a powerful, free, and customizable operating system that&amp;rsquo;s popular for everything from servers to desktops. Unlike Windows, where you might be used to a graphical interface for most tasks (like File Explorer or Control Panel), Linux often relies on the command line for advanced control. This can feel intimidating at first, but it&amp;rsquo;s like learning keyboard shortcuts in Windows—it becomes second nature and gives you more power.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>Enhancing Your Racing Experience on Linux: Introducing new-lg4ff and Oversteer</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/tutorials/racing-wheels-on-linux/</link><pubDate>Tue, 23 Dec 2025 12:46:39 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/tutorials/racing-wheels-on-linux/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://ricktimmis.com/images/linux-racing-wheel.jpg" alt="linux-racing-wheel.jpg"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h2 id="introduction"&gt;Introduction&lt;/h2&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re a racing enthusiast using Linux, you know the struggle of getting your steering wheel to perform at its best.&#10;Logitech wheels like the G29, G27, or Driving Force GT are fantastic hardware, but the default kernel drivers often fall&#10;short on force feedback (FFB) and customization options. That&amp;rsquo;s where &lt;strong&gt;new-lg4ff&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Oversteer&lt;/strong&gt; come in—a powerful&#10;duo developed by the talented Bernardo Arnau (berarma) to supercharge your setup on distributions like Kubuntu or Ubuntu.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>TikTok LionHeart Linux LIVE Map</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/projects/tiktok-live-show-notes/</link><pubDate>Mon, 22 Dec 2025 09:46:39 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/projects/tiktok-live-show-notes/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://ricktimmis.com/images/lionheart-live.jpg" alt="Illustration of Lionhearts Circuts"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h2 id="where-we-go-every-tiktok-live-stream-mostly"&gt;Where we go every TikTok LIVE stream &lt;em&gt;(mostly)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@lionheartlinux?lang=en-GB"&gt;Come and Join The Pride&lt;/a&gt;&#10;&lt;a href="../about/about.md"&gt;about.md&lt;/a&gt;&#10;Hey pride! You tuned in for the chaos, but sometimes chaos likes a loose timetable.&#10;so here&amp;rsquo;s the shape. I stream when i&amp;rsquo;m buzzing and the vibe&amp;rsquo;s right, mostly on Tuesdays and Thursdays if I show up.&#10;Wednesdays live music with the band &amp;lsquo;Identity Crisis&amp;rsquo;, and maybe Fridays gaming… but only when the energy&amp;rsquo;s there!&#10;No fixed schedule, no guilt if I miss one.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>Upgrading from Windows 10 to Kubuntu Linux</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/tutorials/window-10-to-kubuntu0linux-upgrade/</link><pubDate>Sun, 07 Dec 2025 12:46:39 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/tutorials/window-10-to-kubuntu0linux-upgrade/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;A Simple Dual-Boot Tutorial in VirtualBox&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re curious about switching from Windows to Linux but don&amp;rsquo;t want to risk your main computer, this guide is for you.&#10;We&amp;rsquo;ll use VirtualBox (a free tool that lets you run &amp;ldquo;virtual&amp;rdquo; computers on your real one) to safely test everything.&#10;I&amp;rsquo;ll show you how to install Windows 10 first, then &amp;ldquo;upgrade&amp;rdquo; it to a dual-boot setup with Kubuntu Linux 24.04.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Dual-boot means you can choose between Windows or Linux when starting up.&#10;This is beginner-friendly – no advanced knowledge needed. We&amp;rsquo;ll go step by step, with screenshots where helpful.&#10;If you&amp;rsquo;re completely new, don&amp;rsquo;t worry; I&amp;rsquo;ll explain terms as we go. Let&amp;rsquo;s get started!&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>Lion Hearts Luanti Server</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lion-hearts-luanti-server/</link><pubDate>Sun, 07 Dec 2025 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lion-hearts-luanti-server/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m excited to share my new Luanti server project. If you&amp;rsquo;re from my TikTok community, this one&amp;rsquo;s for you! Let&amp;rsquo;s dive in.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h2 id="what-is-luanti"&gt;What is Luanti?&lt;/h2&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Luanti is a free, open-source voxel game engine. It&amp;rsquo;s like Minecraft but completely free to play, mod, and create your&#10;own games. You can build worlds, add mods for fun features, and play with friends online.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h2 id="why-is-open-source-great"&gt;Why is open source great?&lt;/h2&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Open source means the code is free for anyone to use, change, or share. This creates a big community that adds new ideas,&#10;fixes bugs, and makes games better. No paywalls—just creativity! For Luanti, that means over 1,000 mods on ContentDB to&#10;make your game unique.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>AI Ani a Breathe of Inspiration</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/ai_ani_a_breathe_of_inspiration/</link><pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2025 08:31:13 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/ai_ani_a_breathe_of_inspiration/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;Controversy is putting it lightly! Around the begining of 2025 Elon Musk, decided to create XAi in response to the EEE experience that OpenAI underwent.&#10;Strange how whenever Microsoft get near something it&amp;rsquo;s always with an EEEk ( Embrace Extend Extinguish ). However, that is not the story here.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;I didn&amp;rsquo;t pay too much attention to XAi until they launched &amp;lsquo;Ani&amp;rsquo; the Gork AI Companion. As soon as I saw here, I thought I have to have that. It just&#10;looked so cool. An interactive computer companion, intelligent with voice interaction and an anthropomoprhised ( cool word ) avatar to make her resonate&#10;like a real friend.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>The Meet Klara AI Project</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/projects/meet_klara_ai/</link><pubDate>Wed, 10 Sep 2025 22:02:36 +0100</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/projects/meet_klara_ai/</guid><description>&lt;rawhtml&gt;&#10;&lt;!DOCTYPE html&gt;&#10;&lt;html lang="en"&gt;&#10;&lt;head&gt;&#10; &lt;meta charset="UTF-8"&gt;&#10; &lt;meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"&gt;&#10; &lt;title&gt;Meet Klara - Your Offline AI Bestie&lt;/title&gt;&#10; &lt;style&gt;&#10; body {&#10; margin: 0;&#10; font-family: 'Arial', sans-serif;&#10; background-color: #1a1a1a;&#10; color: #ffffff;&#10; text-align: center;&#10; }&#10; .container {&#10; max-width: 800px;&#10; margin: 0 auto;&#10; padding: 20px;&#10; }&#10; .header {&#10; background: linear-gradient(135deg, #4b0082, #ff1493);&#10; padding: 40px;&#10; border-radius: 10px;&#10; }&#10; .header img {&#10; width: 100%;&#10; max-width: 600px;&#10; height: auto;&#10; }&#10; h1 {&#10; font-size: 2.5em;&#10; color: #ff69b4;&#10; margin: 20px 0;&#10; }&#10; p {&#10; font-size: 1.2em;&#10; line-height: 1.6;&#10; color: #d3d3d3;&#10; }&#10; .form-container {&#10; margin: 30px 0;&#10; background: #2a2a2a;&#10; padding: 20px;&#10; border-radius: 10px;&#10; }&#10; .form-container h2 {&#10; color: #ff69b4;&#10; font-size: 1.8em;&#10; margin-bottom: 20px;&#10; }&#10; select, input, button {&#10; padding: 10px;&#10; margin: 10px;&#10; border-radius: 5px;&#10; border: none;&#10; font-size: 1em;&#10; }&#10; select, input {&#10; background: #3a3a3a;&#10; color: #ffffff;&#10; }&#10; button {&#10; background: #ff1493;&#10; color: #ffffff;&#10; cursor: pointer;&#10; transition: background 0.3s;&#10; }&#10; button:hover {&#10; background: #c71585;&#10; }&#10; .gif-container {&#10; margin: 20px 0;&#10; }&#10; .gif-container img {&#10; width: 100%;&#10; max-width: 300px;&#10; height: auto;&#10; }&#10; .social-links {&#10; margin: 20px 0;&#10; }&#10; .social-links a {&#10; color: #ff69b4;&#10; text-decoration: none;&#10; margin: 0 15px;&#10; font-size: 1.1em;&#10; }&#10; .social-links a:hover {&#10; text-decoration: underline;&#10; }&#10; .footer {&#10; font-size: 0.9em;&#10; color: #a9a9a9;&#10; margin-top: 40px;&#10; }&#10; &lt;/style&gt;&#10;&lt;/head&gt;&#10;&lt;body&gt;&#10; &lt;div class="container"&gt;&#10; &lt;div class="header"&gt;&#10; &lt;img src="https://ricktimmis.com/images/klara_goth-cute-ai.gif" alt="Klara winking in goth skin"&gt;&#10; &lt;h1&gt;Welcome to Klara’s World!&lt;/h1&gt;&#10; &lt;/div&gt;&#10; &lt;p&gt;Your goth-cute, offline AI bestie is coming to Windows, Mac, and Linux. No subscriptions, no spying—just real, warm connection. Beta drops in 60 days!&lt;/p&gt;&#10; &lt;div class="form-container"&gt;&#10;&lt;form id="WebToLeadForm" action="https://crm.meetklara.ai/index.php?entryPoint=WebToPersonCapture" method="POST" name="WebToLeadForm"&gt;&#10;&lt;h2&gt;Join Klara’s Inner Circle 🖤&lt;/h2&gt;&#10; &lt;label&gt;&#10; Your name:&#10; &lt;input name="last_name" id="last_name" type="text" required=""&gt;&#10; &lt;/label&gt;&#10;&lt;/br&gt;&#10; &lt;label&gt;&#10; Your email:&#10; &lt;input name="email1" id="email1" type="email" &gt;&#10; &lt;/label&gt;&#10;&lt;/br&gt;&#10; &lt;label&gt;&#10; &lt;select name="description" id="description" type="text" &gt;&#10; &lt;option value="" disabled selected&gt;What’s Klara’s vibe to you?&lt;/option&gt;&#10; &lt;option value="goth"&gt;Goth Goddess&lt;/option&gt;&#10; &lt;option value="cyber"&gt;Cyber Sidekick&lt;/option&gt;&#10; &lt;option value="space"&gt;Space Poet&lt;/option&gt;&#10; &lt;/select&gt;&#10; &lt;/label&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;&lt;button type="submit"&gt;Join Now!&lt;/button&gt;&#10;&lt;input name="campaign_id" id="campaign_id" type="hidden" value="6a356a42-97d6-0e7c-8316-69179fdbb1d8" /&gt;&#10;&lt;input name="redirect_url" id="redirect_url" type="hidden" value="https://meetklara.ai/thanks/" /&gt;&#10;&lt;input name="assigned_user_id" id="assigned_user_id" type="hidden" value="8fbada53-c8ed-52d3-e227-6917a6e228c5" /&gt;&#10;&lt;input name="moduleDir" id="moduleDir" type="hidden" value="Leads" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;/form&gt;&#10; &lt;p&gt;Get first dibs on Klara’s beta, exclusive teasers, and a chance to vote on her next vibe!&lt;/p&gt;&#10; &lt;/div&gt;&#10; &lt;div class="social-links"&gt;&#10; &lt;p&gt;Follow Klara’s journey:&lt;/p&gt;&#10; &lt;a href="https://x.com/MeetKlaraAI" target="_blank"&gt;@MeetKlaraAI on X&lt;/a&gt; |&#10; &lt;a href="https://reddit.com/r/meetklara" target="_blank"&gt;r/MeetKlara on Reddit&lt;/a&gt; |&#10; &lt;a href="https://youtube.com/@RickTimmis" target="_blank"&gt;The RICK Show on YouTube&lt;/a&gt;&#10; &lt;/div&gt;&#10; &lt;div class="footer"&gt;&#10; &lt;p&gt;Temporary home at ricktimis.com/projects/meet_klara_ai | Coming soon to MeetKlara.ai&lt;/p&gt;&#10; &lt;p&gt;&amp;copy; 2025 Meet Klara. All rights reserved.&lt;/p&gt;&#10; &lt;/div&gt;&#10; &lt;/div&gt;&#10;&lt;/body&gt;&#10;&lt;/html&gt;&#10;&lt;/rawhtml&gt;</description></item><item><title>Traderz FAQ</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/traderz-faq/</link><pubDate>Mon, 27 May 2024 14:17:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/traderz-faq/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-about/"&gt;About&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-battlez/"&gt;Battlez&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/traderz-faq/"&gt;FAQ&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-help/"&gt;Help&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-roadmap/"&gt;Roadmap&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;div class="faq-container"&gt;&#10; &lt;h3 id="what-is-traderz"&gt;What is Traderz?&lt;/h3&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Traderz is Lionheart’s official digital card collecting app for his TikTok Live community.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h3 id="how-do-i-login-to-traderz"&gt;How do I Login to Traderz?&lt;/h3&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;You need your TikTok username and an Invite Code to login. Your TikTok username can be found in your profile settings.&#10;The Invite Code is provided by Lionheart or other Pride members, just ask in the Live Chat for an &amp;lsquo;invite code&amp;rsquo;.&#10;Or ask a Pride member for their &amp;lsquo;Share My Pride&amp;rsquo; invite code.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h3 id="how-do-i-earn-volts"&gt;How do I earn Volts?&lt;/h3&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Volts are earned automatically while you’re in Lionheart’s Live, and by collecting the &amp;lsquo;Golden Lion&amp;rsquo; volt coin drops.&#10;You also earn bonus Volts when you, share the live, interact in chat and gift.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h3 id="what-are-claws"&gt;What are Claws?&lt;/h3&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Claws are a special premium currency earned by winning or placing high in Traderz Battles. They are used to open exclusive Battle Packs.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h3 id="do-i-lose-my-cards-when-battling"&gt;Do I lose my cards when battling?&lt;/h3&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Only the winner of each round retains their card. By enabling &amp;lsquo;Battle Mode&amp;rsquo; and joining the &amp;lsquo;Battle Lobby&amp;rsquo; you participate&#10;in a High Stakes competitive battle arena. See &lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-battlez/"&gt;Battlez&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;However, You can collect cards, complete sets safely without risking cards.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h3 id="how-do-i-become-a-superfan"&gt;How do I become a Superfan?&lt;/h3&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Purchase Superfan status on Lionheart’s TikTok Live. You will then receive exclusive cards in the Lionheart’s Pride set that level up monthly.&#10;Along with Superfan only bonus &amp;lsquo;Easter Egg&amp;rsquo; functions in the Traderz app.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h3 id="are-there-plans-for-more-features"&gt;Are there plans for more features?&lt;/h3&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Yes! See our &lt;a href="https://ricktimmis.com/projects/lionhearts-traderz-roadmap/"&gt;Roadmap&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h3 id="i-cant-collect-volts"&gt;I can&amp;rsquo;t collect Volts&lt;/h3&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;If your TikTok account is age-restricted or your rankings are private, the &amp;lsquo;volt&amp;rsquo; chat command will not work.&#10;Address this by logging into the TikTok and changing your account settings.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h3 id="my-volts-are-not-showing-up"&gt;My Volts are not showing up&lt;/h3&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;The Traderz app may take up to 3 minutes to update your Volts. If you have waited more than 10 minutes and your Volts are&#10;not showing up, please check that you are logged into the correct TikTok account and that your account is not private.&#10;Also check that your TikTok username is an exact match of that on the Traderz app, Profile page.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&#10;&lt;/div&gt;</description></item><item><title>Localised Development and Testing wih Localstack Case Study</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/projects/localstack_case_study/</link><pubDate>Sat, 28 Jan 2023 20:01:13 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/projects/localstack_case_study/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;Positioning statement:&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Xiatech uses a complete, localized AWS environment where developers can build, test, profile and debug infrastructure with LocalStack to accelerate their engineering efforts.&#10;Quote:&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;“Xiatech is a global technology company based in London that leverages Hyper-Integration to connect systems, unify data and deliver advanced insights to customers through Xfuze, our platform, which orchestrates many AWS services. Our engineering team utilizes localstack to provide a complete, localized AWS environment where developers can build, test, profile and debug infrastructure and code ahead of deployment to the cloud. We have enabled each software engineer to be fully independent with local development and testing tooling, and this has proved to be a key accelerator for our engineering team.”&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>Transforming Engineering Practice at Xiatech</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/transforming-engineering-practice-at-xiatech/</link><pubDate>Tue, 27 Oct 2020 12:46:39 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/transforming-engineering-practice-at-xiatech/</guid><description>&lt;h1 id="transforming-engineering-practice-at-xiatech"&gt;Transforming Engineering Practice at Xiatech&lt;/h1&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;As with all start-up business, you have to begin &amp;rsquo;lean&amp;rsquo; and dynamic, sprinting to win clients and prove your MVP in the market space. When I joined Xiatech they were just on the otherside of that &amp;rsquo;next step&amp;rsquo; pivot point, Private Equity investment. They had already proven their SDV (Single Data View) product in the market by delivering integrations for high profile retail clients like G-Star, Flying Tiger and REISS, then next step was Scaling and Productisation.&#10;My role as Head of Engineering is to develop and support the business in that Strategic objective.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>Jakes Story</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/jakes_story/</link><pubDate>Sun, 15 Dec 2019 12:46:39 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/jakes_story/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://ricktimmis.com/images/full_moon.jpg" alt="Illustration of Moonlit Winter Woodland"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h2 id="the-captains-cabin"&gt;The Captains Cabin&lt;/h2&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;This story starts with a holiday in cornwall on the river Tamar. Alison and I rented the &amp;ldquo;Captains Cabin&amp;rdquo; a tiny rennovated building on the site of Okletor mine at Calstock. We had Boots our deerhound lurcher with us.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;We had been out walking for the day, and as we approached a left turn in the road which crossed a bridge over a stream, we saw a skinny black and white setter / pointer standing in the road. To his right was an old traditional devon long house.&#10;We approached him and realised he was very old and frail, he had a large oozing welch on his ankle, and he looked at us dispassionately through the frosted lenses in his eyes.&#10;We wondered if he was a stray, or perhaps lost or something. Then from the long house his owner appeared, and told us that this dog was 15 years old, frail, but still determined to get out each day and patrol the lane.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>About me</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/about/about/</link><pubDate>Sat, 14 Dec 2019 20:01:13 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/about/about/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://ricktimmis.com/images/Rick-Avatar.jpg" alt="" title="Rick Timmis"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h1 id="biography"&gt;Biography&lt;/h1&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;A Charismatic, optimistic, and sociable geek, cut from the cloth of &amp;lsquo;Getting things done&amp;rsquo;. A graduate of the university of reallydunnit. A wealth of experience in software systems, mechanical engineering and business systems automation.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;An active participant in the Free software, Open Source community. Founding member and former CEO of the UK &lt;a href="http://www.opensourceconsortium.org"&gt;Open Source Consortium&lt;/a&gt; and currently a member, councillor and developer with the &lt;a href="http://kubuntu.org"&gt;Kubuntu&lt;/a&gt; flavour of the &lt;a href="http://www.ubuntu.com"&gt;Ubuntu&lt;/a&gt; linux distribution&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>How to get in touch</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/about/contact/</link><pubDate>Sat, 14 Dec 2019 20:01:13 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/about/contact/</guid><description>&lt;h1 id="contact-me-on-telegram"&gt;Contact me on Telegram&lt;/h1&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://ricktimmis.com/images/TelegramQR.png" alt="Telegram Contact QR Code"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>Hire Me</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/resume_cv_hire_me/</link><pubDate>Mon, 30 Jul 2018 09:38:07 +0100</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/resume_cv_hire_me/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://ricktimmis.com/images/glitter_spheres.jpg" alt=""&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h1 id="got-an-interesting-problem-you-need-solving-"&gt;Got an interesting problem you need solving ?&lt;/h1&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;I enjoy full stack challenges, from developing solutions for IoT devices such as single board discrete devices, or edge computing to re-architecting complete systems. I have worked on huge Main Frame (ICL 2900) systems in my early career, more recently I migrated all of WiFiSPARKs&amp;rsquo; systems from Bare Metal servers in a data centre to the Cloud ( Amazon AWS ), which invovled multiple stage architecture changes, ultimately utilising microservices. I am comfortable working on low level projects where a combination of digital electronics and low level programming is required ( in C, C++, Go or Assembler for example ). Through to front of house business applications relying on databases and supporting server side services.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>Writing for Linux Magazine</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/writing-for-linux-magazine/</link><pubDate>Fri, 27 Jul 2018 16:54:13 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/writing-for-linux-magazine/</guid><description>I have toyed with the idea of writing technical articles, but never felt confident enough in my written work. However, I decided to take the plunge, and contacted Linux Magazine with an article idea. With help, and encouragement from Lori and the team, I got my first article published. One of many future articles I hope.</description></item><item><title>My Kubuntu 18.04 LTS Review published in Linux Magazine</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/kubuntu_18.04_lts_review_in_linux_magazine/</link><pubDate>Thu, 26 Jul 2018 20:01:13 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/kubuntu_18.04_lts_review_in_linux_magazine/</guid><description>&lt;h1 id="exploring-kubuntu-1804-lts-and-the-plasma-desktop"&gt;Exploring Kubuntu 18.04 LTS and the Plasma Desktop&lt;/h1&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Kubuntu Linux has been my prefered Linux distribution for more than 10 years. My attraction to the KDE desktop and associated application set, has drawn from Kubuntu user, to a tester, teacher, developer, community manager and councilor. I feel privileged to have been part of, what can only be described as, a remarkable example of the free software community development of an exceptional product.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>Mr Fix It - Skills Matrix for Recruiters and Head Hunters</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/mr-fix-it-skills-matrix-for-recruiters/</link><pubDate>Sat, 16 Jun 2018 16:54:13 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/mr-fix-it-skills-matrix-for-recruiters/</guid><description>&lt;img style="width:200px; float: left; margin-right:20px;" src="https://ricktimmis.com/images/tux_engineer.png"&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Often I get asked for a list of skills and tool sets that I have worked with. This post sets out my skills and experience broken out into individual key skill sectors, and tabularised for easier reading and searching. I set out summary information to give you a feel for my approach in regard to each aspect or my experience and skills set.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h3 id="leadership"&gt;Leadership&lt;/h3&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;I am a passionate advocate of the &amp;ldquo;One Minute Manager&amp;rdquo; series of books, and I have been delivering Leadership and Management following closely with the principles described in this series of books for more than 15 years, with great success.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>Scaling a Monlithic Server</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/scaling-the-monolith/</link><pubDate>Wed, 21 Feb 2018 20:01:13 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/scaling-the-monolith/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://ricktimmis.com/images/matterhorn.jpg" alt="Photograph of the Matterhorn"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h3 id="a-journey-in-scaling-a-live-web-application"&gt;A journey in scaling a live web application&lt;/h3&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;When I first joined WiFiSPARK, one immediate challenge was to tackle the issue of the overloaded SPARK platform. Growth of the company had be remarkable, and the number of service subscribers was growing rapidly every day. The platform and development team had built a 32 processor, 128 core beast of a machine, with 128Gb of RAM and SCSI RAID disc array. However this machine was creaking under the load of a constantly growing user base. A huge monolithic application, that was reaching it&amp;rsquo;s vertical limit.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>High Noon at Creaky Bottom</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/high-noon-at-creaky-bottom/</link><pubDate>Tue, 28 Nov 2017 20:01:13 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/high-noon-at-creaky-bottom/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;Recently I took it upon myself to dress up as a woman, and sing Marylin Monroe songs on stage, whilst the audience shouted &amp;ldquo;He&amp;rsquo;s behind you !&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Oh no you didn&amp;rsquo;t !&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Oh yes I did !&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;img style="width:250px; float: left; margin-right:20px;" src="https://ricktimmis.com/images/creaky_bottom_cover.jpg"&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Pantomime, if I understand this correctly is something of a uniquely British phenomenon. Thus for international readers of my website the opening gambit is largely meaningless. For clarity, Panto is based on the premise that the actors dress as actresses and vice versa. Thus I scored the part of the Panto dame, one Miss Annie Oakhampton, with &lt;a href="https://www.facebook.com/ExActPanto/"&gt;ExAct Pantomime&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>php develop and debug setup installing eclipse virtualbox xdebug</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/php-develop-and-debug-setup-installing-eclipse-virtualbox-xdebug/</link><pubDate>Thu, 29 Dec 2016 20:49:18 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/php-develop-and-debug-setup-installing-eclipse-virtualbox-xdebug/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://ricktimmis.com/images/code-keys.jpg" alt=""&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h2 id="summary"&gt;Summary&lt;/h2&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Despite searching google and YouTube, I had been unable to find a good solid setup that provides a full workflow, with debugging and virtualised development server. This tutorial assumes that you&amp;rsquo;re running Kubuntu Linux, if not you can fix that by downloading it free from &lt;a href="https://www.kubuntu.org"&gt;kubuntu.org&lt;/a&gt;&#10;This Tutorial / How To we will go through setting up an Ubuntu Server run a LAMP ( Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP ) development stack, configured to run in debug mode. We&amp;rsquo;ll set it up with phpMyAdmin for managing the database, and we&amp;rsquo;ll configure Git along with an upstream origin on GitHub so that we can develop and test our code, and then push it up to production.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>London Linux Meetup</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/london_linux_meetup/</link><pubDate>Sat, 15 Oct 2016 14:02:09 +0100</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/london_linux_meetup/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;I dropped by the London Linux Meetup on Wednesday 12th October, with my Kubuntu Community hat on. The venue for the meetup is fantastic. An old Medieval period public house, about 200 meters from Chancery Lane tube station. The pub, Cittie of Yorke, was decorated with dark wooden panelling, with dimmed wall lights to match. There was something rustic, yet homely about the place. The staff and services were excellent, as was the food.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>Writing to your MP</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/write-your-mp/</link><pubDate>Wed, 27 Jul 2016 20:22:06 +0100</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/write-your-mp/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://ricktimmis.com/images/Palace_of_Westminster_London_Feb_2007.jpg" alt=""&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;It is my belief that the primary reason we find ourselves in the situation that we are today is as a result of our silence.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;I believe that I have a similar voice to that of the majority of the people in Britain.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#10;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Yet I continue to find myself dumb founded by the policies that our government enacts. Often I am left plainly scratching my head saying &amp;ldquo;Who&amp;rsquo;s idea was that ?&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;/blockquote&gt;</description></item><item><title>Train WiFi Roaming</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/train-wifi-roaming/</link><pubDate>Mon, 25 Jul 2016 19:38:07 +0100</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/train-wifi-roaming/</guid><description>&lt;h2 id="summary-of-requirement"&gt;Summary of Requirement&lt;/h2&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Chiltern Railways, a part of the Arriva Trains UK network wished to provide a seamless wireless network service for their customers.&#10;The solution had to provide a single sign on registration for the customer, which could be undertaken on anyone of their 34 stations, or on the train.&#10;Once registered the user would be seamlessly handed between station and train, train and station across the complete network.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>kubuntu dojo</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/kubuntu-dojo/</link><pubDate>Thu, 23 Jun 2016 20:02:49 +0100</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/kubuntu-dojo/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://ricktimmis.com/images/dojo.jpg" alt=""&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Requirements: Depends on type of development.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Development covers a very large group of different tasks, depending on which specific career path you choose, the requirements are different. The list below only presents some of the larger career branches in development.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Packaging&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Requirements Reading, some time to get started.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;h3 id="description"&gt;Description&lt;/h3&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Packaging is one of the primary development tasks in a large Linux distribution project. Packaging is the essential key of getting the latest and best software to the user.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>Sphero droid in Go</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/sphero-droid-in-go/</link><pubDate>Tue, 07 Jun 2016 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/sphero-droid-in-go/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;I had recently been listening to an excellent episode of &lt;a href="http://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com/99221/go-go-golang-cr-203/"&gt;Coder Radio: Episode 203 &amp;ldquo;Go Go Golang&amp;rdquo;&lt;/a&gt; Chris and guests were discussing Go, as in golang the Open Source programming language developed at Google.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;I was looking for an excuse to muck about with golang, as I like compiled languages for performance reasons. The guest got to talking about &lt;a href="https://gobot.io/"&gt;gobot.io&lt;/a&gt; a robot control library suite they had been developing in Go. This completely piqued my interest, as I have a few Raspberry Pi&amp;rsquo;s lounging around doing nothing.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>Motorhome Aires</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/projects/motor-home-club/</link><pubDate>Wed, 27 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/projects/motor-home-club/</guid><description>A global platform for motorhome travellers and van lifers, coming soon</description></item><item><title>Sphero Droid</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/projects/sphero-droid/</link><pubDate>Wed, 20 Apr 2016 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/projects/sphero-droid/</guid><description>Bluetooth controlled Sphero droid, with an Internet Relay Chat interface for control commands</description></item><item><title/><link>https://ricktimmis.com/search/placeholder/</link><pubDate>Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/search/placeholder/</guid><description/></item><item><title>AWS S3 Website Hosting, Static development and Deploy with GoHugo, AWS, Localstack, and Terraform</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/aws-s3-website-hosting-static-development-and-deploy-with-gohugo-aws-localstack-and-terraform/</link><pubDate>Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/blog/aws-s3-website-hosting-static-development-and-deploy-with-gohugo-aws-localstack-and-terraform/</guid><description>&lt;h1 id="aws-s3-website-hosting-static-development-and-deploy-with-gohugo-aws-localstack-and-terraform"&gt;AWS S3 Website Hosting, Static development and Deploy with GoHugo, AWS, Localstack, and Terraform&lt;/h1&gt;&#10;&lt;h2 id="objectives"&gt;Objectives&lt;/h2&gt;&#10;&lt;ul&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;Develop a Static Website with GoHugo&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;Build S3 Static Webhosting Infrastructure using Terraform&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;Test the Infrastructure build out using Localstack&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;Deploy a test instance of the website to S3 on Localstack&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;Build S3 Static webhosting on a Production AWS&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;li&gt;Deploy our Website to Production on AWS S3&lt;/li&gt;&#10;&lt;/ul&gt;&#10;&lt;h2 id="develop-a-static-website-with-gohugo"&gt;Develop a Static Website with GoHugo&lt;/h2&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Developing a static website is straightforward and only requires that you write markdown files. The &lt;a href="https://gohugo.io/getting-started/quick-start/"&gt;Quick Start Guide&lt;/a&gt; should have you up and running in just a few minutes&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>Biography</title><link>https://ricktimmis.com/about/biography/</link><pubDate>Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://ricktimmis.com/about/biography/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;A Charismatic, optimistic, and sociable geek, cut from the cloth of &amp;lsquo;Getting things done&amp;rsquo;. A graduate of the university of reallydunnit. A wealth of experience in software systems, mechanical engineering and business systems automation.&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;An active participant in the Free software, Open Source community. Founding member and former CEO of the UK &lt;a href="http://www.opensourceconsortium.org"&gt;Open Source Consortium&lt;/a&gt; and currently a member, councillor and developer with the &lt;a href="http://kubuntu.org"&gt;Kubuntu&lt;/a&gt; flavour of the &lt;a href="http://www.ubuntu.com"&gt;Ubuntu&lt;/a&gt; linux distribution&lt;/p&gt;&#10;&lt;p&gt;Multiple directorship appointments, very experienced at delivering evolutionary internal change and implementing ERP and CRM systems.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item></channel></rss>