Have had a Sonos sytem for about 10 years now. I love it (apart from not being able to mix and match Gen 1 and Gen 2 speakers). There have been moments when I’ve wanted to be able to control it remotely and have done but only through Remote Desktop which is fine but just a bit fiddly. So, Sonos Online. Used Claude to produce this which now runs on my system and is accessible (for me) at https://sonos.spratt.co .

There is a limitation whereby Sonos favourites that use streaming services (Spotify, BBC Sounds, Apple Music etc.) or music library playlists require Sonos account tokens that are only maintained by the official Sonos app. You can start them playing in the official app first and then use Sonos Online for volume, grouping and transport control. So switching off a speaker when you’re not in house from the web app works fine.

Help yourself at Github (GPL3) – and if you can work a way around Sonos’s limitation then I’d be very happy to see the result.

Started working towards this on and off since @orbific and I talked about it after he had workshopped a quick scribble of his own Gantt chart type timeline some years ago.

Timeline

Wanted to draw some maps myself but needed something to go off so came up with this little tool. Making use of the Google Maps API and AI Studio to create a ‘hand-drawn’ version of any place you like.

Enter your place name, click locate and it’ll come up with some major landmarks in that area (if you want). Choose your drawing aesthetic and paper size go to Draw Map and hey presto.

Hand-drawn Maps

A movie recommendation web app: Unwatched Gems

Takes a little longer than I’d like but the recommendations seem to be a good fit.

Tried a few AIs for this but best results for now for me seem to be through AIStudio even though it can be a bit wild and disobedient. Feedback welcomed. Share if you see fit.

On a lovely August bank holiday weekend in Llanwrtyd Wells, mid Wales.

A great Sunday out preceded by some wild camping in a woods not far away.

An unintentional epic. Bought some inflatable kayaks recently, and planned to use them this Saturday just gone for a leisurely trip along the Thames. Leaving a bit after 1pm, Bourne End to to Runnymede. Expected maybe a 3 hour jaunt. All good until we got to the bit where they closed the river to fix a bridge over the M4. Headed inland to work around the issue then couldn’t find where to get back on so we find ourselves walking cross country with these kayaks on our shoulders. Ended up joining the Jubilee River instead with a view to then join back up with the Thames further downstream. Then with a whole series of weirs and locks taking us off the river again, we ended up walking through Eton to rejoin the river via one of the college boat houses. Now time was getting on a bit but didn’t get back to the car (which we’d preparked up at the destination) until dark o’clock – and the car park was locked up. Uberred back to the other car at the start (where the house keys were in) and got home about 11pm something. Sheesh.

[The 5 hours that Strava states below is 5 hours paddling. this doesn’t count the c.4hours overland].

I drew something last week.

And credit to Owen Delaney who I follow on Twitter. His amazing personalised race maps made me do it.

Bombed down the Wales Friday night just gone, stayed in Merthyr. Wow, now that is a very special place. Really friendly people though, bloke in a bar (we took the weekend off Dry Jan) called VNU insisted he bought us a drink. Then he got ejected for fighting. And everyone hates the English, all good bants, mainly about the rugby but what with the area being the heartlands of their old mining industry, even Thatcher got a mention.

Drove up the road to the Storey Arms at the foot of the hills and made out ascent. About a 2.5hr round trip taking in Corn Du and Pen-y-Fan (we were later corrected that it’s pronounced Penivan). Excellent to get amongst it once again.

Then over to Aberdare for a Bowie tribute band that evening where we were well looked after by the locals there too.

Love love love that part of the world. Love Wales. Love the Welsh. Boyo.

End of November we headed back down towards the Black Sea for a long weekend in Moldova, Transnistria and Ukraine. Landed, drove straight out of Chisinau (pronounced Kiss-shin-yav), along the R2 via a drink pitstop, through the town of Bender (!) and into…Transnistria border control. “Border control?” I hear you say, “but it’s not a country!” Except it is. From there we went into Tiraspol centre, stayed one night, excellent, mahusive oysters. Picked up the train down to Odessa (not easy when cards aren’t accepted and you don’t have the cash to pay). Did the border control on the train into Ukraine, ate cake, did a lot of moseying around town including the Potemkin Stairs and found a good bar showing this Fatboy Slim video from my home town. Stayed a night there before taxiing back to Tiraspol the next day, picked up the hire car to drive back to Chisinau which to be honest was nothing to write home/ a blog post about.

Getting back to Transnistria though (over the Dnister River)… Not officially ‘recognised’ by the UN but is in a club of about 5 other breakaway states who recognise each other. What makes a country? Sovereignty seems to be defined as:

• A defined territory
• Permanent population
• Passport
• Currency
• Its own government
• The ability to enter into relations with other nations

It’s this final one which seems to be the most important or the blocker to births of new nations but from my experience travelling through it; passport control, customs, different number plates, different currency (Moldovan not accepted) plus also a different language, a different alphabet but moreover: The ‘feel’ changed.

Transnistria is without a doubt its own country.