When people ask me which QR generator to use, I usually suggest Google Charts. However, recently I've become dissatisfied with its limitations, so I've decided to write and release my own QR encoder. I'm still looking for a catchy name for it (suggestions welcomed) - so for now it's called "QR Generator PHP". It's available on GitHub or you can use it directly. So, how does it compare to…
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This is a quick tutorial to show you how to rip DVDs on a headless server. That is; one which only has command line access. The documentation for MakeMKV is available. It's a bit sparse. It also doesn't have many of the features of the GUI. For example, the GUI allows you to select which video, audio, and subtitles, you want to copy. So if you only want the original German director's…
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Dave Winer is totally off base when he says "Hackathons are how marketing guys wish software were made." Perhaps it's different in his part of the world, but over here, hackdays are fun! All the hackathon / hackdays I've been to are, essentially, Scrapheap Challenge* for software people. *Note to Americans, Junkyard Wars is the US remake of Scrapheap Challenge. The last hackday I went to was…
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As Twitter now have a UK office, I thought I would see what data they hold about me. Thanks to the UK's Data Protection act, it's really simple to request the information. I wasn't expecting a whole CD's worth of information - like Facebook provides users - but what I did get surprised me. Twitter UK has no control or responsibility over the user information in the Twitter service and cannot…
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I'm watching all of Woody Allen's films in chronological order. After his previous films, it's hard to see why anyone would let Woody Allen make another comedy. I'm glad they did! "Bananas" is the first truly funny Woody Allen film. Right from the start it contains gags which - amazingly - make you laugh. A departure from his earlier films! The jokes come at an even pace, a good mix of…
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I'm watching all of Woody Allen's films in chronological order. Take The Money And Run has a promising start. A faux documentary with some excellent gags. But it leaps around the story with no real regard for the viewer. It's possibly the first "mockumentary" and, as such, is a trail-blazing piece. But as with his earlier films the gags are few and far between. Once the jokes hit, they're…
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The lovely people from UK Gov Camp have put up some of the videos from the barcamp. Here's me chatting about mobile and the WordPress Mobile Pack - from Steph at Helpful Technology. See my blog post about the day. …
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I've been using Ribbit Voicemail ever since SpinVox died. Sadly, Ribbit has croaked. So, how to get my voicemails transcribed and have MP3s emailed to me? Enter Tropo! Tropo makes it simple to build phone, SMS and Instant messaging applications. You use the web technologies you already know and Tropo's powerful cloud API to bring real-time communications to your apps. Basically, you write…
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