My local council, Woking, have found themselves in a spot of bother recently. It has emerged that they are subsidising parking charges for specific Christians churches. If you belong to a different church, worship a different god, or just want to go shopping, you have to pay for parking. The total subsidy was at least £55,864 between 2009 and 2011, and is still rising. The National Secular …
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Last month I gave an interview to the Metro newspaper about QR codes. …
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At Over The Air I demonstrated what I considered a novel use for one of Android's sensors. I wanted to create a Theremin - a type of musical instrument which is played by moving one's hand over it - changing pitch and tone by moving nearer or further away. My first attempt used the proximity sensor. However, on all the Android phones I tried the sensor's accuracy was binary - it could sense…
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A delightful evening in London spent watching a pair of helicopters fly through Tower Bridge. It appears that it's part of the London™ 2012© Olympics® opening ceremony. First, the practice run: Then the three flights through the bridge Thanks to IanVisits for alerting us to the event, and Tom Scott for organising the picnic. …
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To quote Chris Applegate: "There is no HTTP code for censorship." But perhaps there should be. My ISP have recently been ordered to censor The Pirate Bay. They have done so unwillingly and, it would seem, have complied only with the letter of the ruling. Their block is, for now, trivial to circumvent. I am concerned that this censorship will become more prevalent. As network neutrality…
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Twitter recently announced that 80% of UK users were active on mobile. The means every time you tweet a link to your website, the chances are that it will be a mobile device which tries to open your site. This is a quick guide to what I consider to be the "best practices" for mobile redirection. It's pretty simple. Have a mobile friendly site. Redirect users who have a mobile. …
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I've been pretty disgusted with how the Tories are treating equal marriage, so I decided to put the case to my local MP. Here's my letter and his somewhat disappointing reply. Dear Jonathan Lord, I understand that there will shortly be a free vote on the issue of equal marriage. Some politicians have insisted that this is an issue which is not a priority for the electorate. I disagree -…
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I love Android, I really do. I'm chuffed to bits with the Galaxy Nexus I won recently. I've had a dozen Android phones before that - stretching all the way back to the HTC Magic. But it's getting obvious that Android has a serious design problem - even with the gorgeous new "Holo" theme for ICS. The issue is one of consistency. Users have limited cognitive surplus and often rely on muscle…
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Another brilliant event from Over The Air. The perfect mix of lectures, hacking, and relaxing in a country manor / museum. And, to top it off, my hack won a brace of prizes! The Wifi just about held up. Although I think it's fundamentally impossible to provide decent connectivity to 200+ people. Especially when they're geeks. Dan Benton@dogsbodyorgIt's people like @edent that break…
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Last week I attended Google's Big Tent event. I may write about some of the panels later, but I want to focus on how I flummoxed the Minister for Universities and Science - David "Two Brains" Willetts (Photo by Paul Clarke) I posited to the Rt Hon Gentleman, that student loans were crippling the high-tech workforce of the country. When I graduated, I was unable to get a bank loan for a…
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Regular readers may know that I'm not a big fan of Valkee - the magic light you shine in your ears to improve your mood. Back in September, I complained to the ASA about the Valkee website. I felt that it was making unfounded claims, was confusing testimonial with science, and was generally misleading. In December, the ASA referred it to their counterparts in Finland for investigation. Today, …
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Before Cadbury's inaugural hackday began there were a number of rumblings on the blogs about the extact nature of Cadbury's intentions. See Thayer Prime's and Emma Mulqueeny's thoughts on the subject. As it happens, after a bit of gentle poking, some of the terms were clarified. The event itself went rather well, but I'd like to point out a few points where it didn't quite live up to the Hack…
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