Last summer I started the development of {tidyods}, an R package for reading cells in ODS (OpenDocument Spreadsheet) files, and effectively a {tidyxl} equivalent for ODS files. After developing the first iteration of the package in June I left it alone, but I’ve recently revisited the package and refactored the code which has improved performance.

Back in November after the various developments with Twitter, I worked out how to get my Twitter bot to run on Mastodon. Since the Twitter takeover there have been various announcements from the new owner and official Twitter accounts about free access to the Twitter API being suspended, although these have usually come and gone without said suspension happening.

Yeah, ok, it’s late February, so a bit late for a “new year, new me” declaration, but I’ve been feeling like I should write a little something about… *waves hands in a generalised and unspecified fashion*. So this is a relatively short post about leaving the civil service last year, what I’ve done since and what I’m thinking about for the future.

Two years and one month ago to the day I blogged about setting up the narrowbotr, a Twitter bot that randomly posts locations on the inland waterways network in England & Wales managed by Canal & River Trust. What with everything going on with Twitter at the moment I’ve set myself up on Mastodon, where I’m @mattkerlogue@fosstodon.org, and so why not also migrate the narrowbotr. In this post: Setting up an account Chillin' out, maxin', rtootin' all cool Authenticating the bot Setting up an account There’s more than enough posts and whatnot out there about moving to Mastodon/the fediverse, Danielle Navarro’s blog is particularly good.

Energy costs in the UK, and globally, have been rising significantly as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Energy prices for domestic (i.e. residential/household) consumers in the UK have been subject to a “cap”1 calculated by the energy regulator, Ofgem. The price cap is usually quoted in terms of it’s annual value, which possibly isn’t the most useful approach, especially as we head into the winter months. So I tried to estimate what my energy costs might be… and then I turned that exercise into an interactive calculator that others can use.