I'm not a big fan of NFC. I think it's an impractical technology except in very specialised use cases. Because it's so rarely seen in the UK I don't tend to post about it much. The Boy Whatley recently posted about his new favourite NFC toy - the Nokia MD-310 (catchy name, guys!). That reminded me - there was an interesting use of NFC which I'd seen in Las Vegas. Las Vegas - like most of the developed word - is full of QR codes. They're on fliers, printed on t-shirts, in all the…
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I've been thinking a lot about libraries recently. When I was a child I was taken to a library every two weeks and made to check out the maximum allowance of books - that's what having an English teacher for a mother gets you! Once I went to university, I stopped going to the library. Even university libraries are pretty poor for computer science books - and the ability to buy cheap paperbacks online obliterated my need to visit them. It wasn't until Surrey libraries started offering…
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After posting about using the Galaxy Note II for a full day of work, someone asked me why I didn't just plug in a proper keyboard and mouse to it. To be honest, I'd never even considered that as a possibility! In order to plug in USB peripherals to an Android device, you'll need a USB-OTG adapter (OTG stands for On The Go). One end plugs into your Android's charging port, the other end is just a regular USB port. The total cost for a USB A 2.0 female to Micro USB B male Cable Adapter on…
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We've just come back from a lovely holiday in the USA. I'm a fairly seasoned traveller - yet I always find the USA the strangest country to visit. Perhaps its because it all seems so familiar - from the movies and TV shows, and the fact the speak the same language - that the differences seem really bizarre. Here are the Top 5 Weird Things about the USA: Credit Cards During our holiday, we mostly paid with credit card. In the UK, we use the Chip & Pin system. It's far from fool proof,…
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I recently got a MakeyMakey. It's a sort of ersatz USB keyboard that can be plugged into anything electrically conductive. So, I plugged it into my Raspberry Pi, loaded up the Scratch programming environment, and created a fruit and veg interface. See for yourself! The scripts themselves are very simple. The MakeyMakey in its default state, acts like a USB keyboard - so it will send up, down, left, right, and the space key. So, it's really easy to use with Scratch's "Key ___ Pressed"…
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