I recently read about an innovative telephone call scam. A scammer rings the mark and asks for her credit card details. If the mark refuses, the scammer tells her to hang up the phone, then dial 999 and ask for "Sergeant Scammer of the Fraud Squad". The mark does so, and is connected to what they assume is the emergency services. However, because the scammer hasn't hung up at their end, the…
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I had a great time at the Homeless Hackday. This is a belated write up, because I wanted to let a few thoughts peculate. The Problem There has been a worrying rise in the number of people rough sleeping - especially in the capital. There are a number of charities and Government departments which are available to help people who are homeless. They wanted a smartphone app / mobile web site…
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Last year, I wrote about how Authentec wouldn't support their fingerprint readers on Linux. I've been chatting to the good folk at Authentec, and they've agreed to release the specification documents! So if you want to code up an interface for the AES2810 or AES2550 you can! A word of note, the best way to get the latest version of these documents is to register for the Authentec Developer…
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I did something decidedly analogue yesterday; I withdrew cash from a machine. I know, I know, I should have used my NFC enabled smartphone - or my chip & pin card. But it turns out most cab drivers prefer cash. On the screen was one of those ghastly animated adverts. Rather than selling me a mortgage or loan, it was advertising a fast food chain. The ad concluded by telling me to download the…
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In the year 1124, the King of England had a problem with the people who produced the kingdom's money. The quality of the coins in the early part of the reign was poor, as the moneyers made a large profit by producing underweight coins or coins of debased fineness. In 1124 Henry called all 150 moneyers to Winchester, and called them to account for their activities — 94 of them were convicted of i…
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Recently RIM contact developers asking for feedback on why we were or were not planning on developing for Blackberry 10. I was paid $50 for my opinion - in Amazon vouchers. I hope this hasn't comprimised the honesty of my answers. These are just my thoughts - I can't claim that they would solve RIM's problems, but I do think they would be a good way to help reclaim developer mindshare. What…
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This is a bit of a brain dump / diary of what I've discovered about using 3G dongles to send SMS using Python on the Raspberry Pi. Here is how to use Python to send an SMS from the Raspberry Pi via a 3G USB dongle. In order to talk to the dongle, we need to install pyserial wget http://pypi.python.org/packages/source/p/pyserial/pyserial-2.6.tar.gz gunzip pyserial-2.6.tar.gz tar -xvf…
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One of the perils of being a reluctant capitalist is the cognitive dissonance. Normally, on a sunny day, I look outside and smile. Blue skies, warmth, chance for an ice cream, people smiling, lovely. Yesterday, I saw the sun was shining, I rubbed my hands together and let out an Mr Burns-esque chuckle of delight. Last November, we installed solar panels on our roof. The Government ensures…
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Last night, Google held its second "Luvvies and Boffins" event at The Science Museum. Part of the Science Museum Lates - an adults-only evening event. As well as tours of the museum exhibits, there was a chance at some hands-on science. We were led by an excellent team from Technology Will Save Us. A group whose mission states: Technology Will Save Us is a haberdashery for technology and…
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Cracking on with my Raspberry Pi, I've written my first program in Python. The aim - to be able to send an SMS via a 3G USB dongle. The problem - the way SMS needs to be encoded is hideously complicated. For example, suppose you want to send "This is a very simple message :-)" to the phone number +447700900123. This is the command that you need to send to your dongle: AT+CMGS=42…
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(I think I'm the first person to try this - so I decided to document the process.) A few weeks ago, I won a Raspberry Pi at the #OTA12 hackday. It arrived on Friday, so I thought I would turn it into an SMS server using the incredible FrontlineSMS. 0. Setting up the Pi This is the easy part. Follow the excellent guide on the eLinux wiki. Essentially, download the Debian image, extract, and dd…
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As I was wandering over Waterloo Bridge, I spotted a Blimp flying above London. I find that Blimps have an otherworldly quality. Sleek, silent, and majestic. I fired off a few photos as it flew overhead. It then turned and went to approach The Shard. Where, finally, it docked and her passengers alighted. Here's the time lapse: Of course, it was just a trick of perspective. But wouldn't it …
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