I'm back, sorry...!

[ChristopherP]

Evening...

Apologies for the 7 year sabbatical (have been busy growing up, doing uni, getting married, baby, house etc - no excuse!) just thought i'd pop in and say Hi - not sure how many of the same faces knock around these parts as 10 years ago (seem to be a few names I remember!) but hope everyone is keeping well!

I'm not the PC geek I used to be at home any more - I've got a Mac Mini and one of these new ultra thin MacBooks (Booo i hear you all shouting), but I'm working on some pretty geeky techy stuff at work which keeps me entertained, and hopefully restores the equilibrium!

What tech stuff have I done recently... Bought myself a NAS, of the Synology variety. Seems to work well. Really pleased with the integration with IP cameras. Retired my old Windows based Media Centre PC as my Smart TV does everything I need it to. Always tinkering with IOT things with the IFTTT service that's always good fun. Got myself some software testing qualifications too. Learned how to make my own network cables and wired up my mother in law's new place (new build) with a few bits and bobs - IP camera, Ubiquiti AP, sockets etc which was a small personal achievement as it wasn't anything i've done before - so i'm still very much into tech, but i'm not building computers for people and all those sorts of things as I was in the good old days, some 13 years ago when I joined this forum!

Good to see the forum/site is still active - and looking good (nice job Ian!)

 

[bootneck02]

Hi christopherpos welcome back to PCR It sounds like you have a bit on the busy side over the last few years so not surprised you haven't been on the site for some time so welcome back once again and do join in.

 

[Taffycat]

Hey there Chris! It's jolly good to see you.

Congrats on your marriage and the arrival of your little one - yeah, I think all of that, plus your career ventures, are pretty good reasons for the long absense. Welcome back to the fold!

 

[TriplexDread]

Hey Pal nice to see you are ok

 

[Becky]

Great to see you back on the forum @christopherpostill! Congratulations on the wedding, baby, house etc!

7 years eh? You've got a lot to catch up on - better get reading

 

[muckshifter]

 

[V_R]

Hey welcome back Chris, good to see you again.

Maybe don't leave it quite so long until your next visit eh?

 

[Ian]

Hey Chris, great to see you again! Sounds like you've been a busy guy in the past 7 years - congratulations on marriage, kid and house .

Funnily enough, I've been dabbling with a Synology NAS and IP cameras this week too. The SS 8.0 app is really good (at least the desktop standalone version).

 

[nivrip]

Hi there CP. Nice to see you again after all these years.

You won't remember this but when I put my first ever post on PCR way back in March 2007 you were the first reply that I got. I'm still here so you can't have been too scary.

 

[ChristopherP]

View attachment 10589

 

[ChristopherP]

Thanks everyone! Good to be back. Glad to see the same old faces - and i'm sure some new ones too.

@nivrip - crikey, that was almost 10 years ago!

@Ian - Ha, how funny. Yeah the surveillance station software seems really good. I have the app on the iPhone that works well too. What cameras are you using? I've got a 2k Foscam external POE camera, and an Amcrest 1080p external POE camera. I was lucky enough to be sent both for free from Amazon as i'm in the list of top 150 reviewers. Both work flawlessly and the Synology records everything seamlessly too - really impressed. Is it the 216j you have?

 

[Ian]

@Ian - Ha, how funny. Yeah the surveillance station software seems really good. I have the app on the iPhone that works well too. What cameras are you using? I've got a 2k Foscam external POE camera, and an Amcrest 1080p external POE camera.

It's the Synology DS916, alongside some D-Link external cameras. I bought it a couple of weeks back and I'll have an article up on it shortly . It's primarily used as a backup box (RSync'd from a QNAP), although I've also used Docker quite a bit.

 

[Abarbarian]

Hi Chris, nice to see you around again! You've been a busy guy in the past 7 years - congratulations on marriage, kid and house

Shame about the Mac's

 

[Becky]

I was lucky enough to be sent both for free from Amazon as i'm in the list of top 150 reviewers.

Wow, what awesome freebies! Good work

 

[Becky]

We'd love to take a look at some of your reviews - are you permitted to share them in the user-reviews section or does Amazon not allow that?

Did you ever join the police? I seem to remember you were keen on that at one point.

 

[Abarbarian]

Wow, what awesome freebies! Good work

Ditto .

No wonder he has not been posting here. A PC Review mug is no competition for a Mac laptop

 

[Urmas]

A PC Review mug is no competition for a Mac laptop

This is Houston. Say again, please.

 

[Abarbarian]

This is Houston. Say again, please.

Ah right it was cameras he got from Amazon not the Mac. Same sentiment applies a mug is no competition.

 

[ChristopherP]

We'd love to take a look at some of your reviews - are you permitted to share them in the user-reviews section or does Amazon not allow that?

Did you ever join the police? I seem to remember you were keen on that at one point.

I'm sure I could? I'm just off out but will send you a link later on - they aren't particularly in depth (I tried to keep them concise and helpful to the general public rather than particularly tech)

To the latter part, I'll PM you

 

[ChristopherP]

@floppybootstomp @muckshifter @Taffycat @Abarbarian @Urmas @nivrip @V_R @TriplexDread @bootneck02 + others - Just to let you guys know that i've had a little change of username - i'm a little more internet security aware now than I was 13 years ago when I joined here!