Unlocking a Huawei E270 mobile broadband modem

May 27th, 2009

Mobile broadband is great, and I bought one of the early Vodafone USB modems, a Huawei E270, when I first moved to Cambridge. My contract on this has now expired, and I’ve moved over to 3, who seem to have better coverage than Vodafone even if the network is more congested. Anyway, I thought I’d try and get the old Vodafone modem unlocked, because I can think of various circumstances in which it might be useful to have access to other networks. Read the rest of this entry »


Sofa, so good

May 25th, 2009

A sofa has been on the to-do list since I first arrived in Cambridge. I’ve considered various options, but none of them were quite satisfactory. Most sofas are too big to get into a narrowboat, and those that come in sections were still sufficiently large that I was concerned that they would dominate the cabin. Also, I like to be able to clear the floor so that I can get six people round the dining table, or when I have a lot of people staying onboard and sleeping on the floor.

So, this weekend a plan finally came together involving a lot inexpert carpentry and an evolving design.
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Pumps ‘n’ pipes

May 23rd, 2009

When I was a little boy, my greenfingered Mum would drag me round the garden centre. I was always fascinated by the hoses, fittings, sprinklers and other such things – the plants were so boring! Anyway, I’ve constructed myself a rather Heath Robinson arrangement for watering the growbags on the boat’s roof with river water.
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