A Home Wiki (by alaric)
Since I've been getting our home network a bit better organised lately, the home server is now actually accessible from both the wired and wireless networks (and could be accessible from the outside, too, once I've sorted out suitable security measures), so it's high time I started making use of it.
The first thing I've done has been to set up a home Wiki. There's various bits of information that Sarah and I share, but that one or the other of us is 'in charge of' depending on whose computer it lives, so rather than putting a bunch of text files on the shared file server area, it seems logical to do it with a Wiki.
I'd been wanting to research the current state of the art in Wiki software anywhere; the only other Wiki I run, the ARMuC Wiki, runs on UseMod, which I've never grown to love properly.
Anyway, my researches led me to PmWiki, and I'm quite sold on it - it's written in PHP so doesn't require CGIs, and it has a software design philosophy that I agree with; a simple core with modular extensibility.
So we now have a Sutton's Mill Intranet for our domestic odds and ends. And with a little bit of simple plugin writing, the home page lists the status of important household sensors - currently just the incoming mains voltage and frequency (we get a lot of mains power problems out here!) and the battery backup system status, but hopefully soon to include external temperatures too.
We're using the Wiki to store our monthly budget, our goals for each month (chosen at the New Year), our template shopping list of things we need to check we have sufficient stocks of, and our list of favourite recipies (since we have a habit of forgetting them, then one day going "Blimey! I've not cooked that lovely Thai turmeric rice in months!"), and we'll shove more stuff in as we come up with it - basically, from now on, whenever one of us has to go and look something up for the other, we'll Wiki it for posterity.
Wed 14th Feb 2007 2:31 pm 
Subscribe
By Ben, Wed 14th Feb 2007 @ 5:09 pm
Jen and I had a wiki. It fell out of use quite quickly.
By Earle Martin, Fri 16th Feb 2007 @ 4:08 pm
We have that pattern. Our home wiki is invaluable for keeping track of the innumerable bits of loose information that would otherwise require lots of awkward paper-based storage - information tends to get stuck on the pinboard or in the in-tray before getting migrated to wiki. The best thing is that we can get to all the info anywhere. Hooray for the internets.