The UK has the notion of a "strict liability" law. If you are caught with a picture of child abuse - you're guilty of a crime. It doesn't matter if it was sent to you unsolicited, or misaddressed. Possession is the crime and there are no mitigating circumstances. On that cheery note, let's consider Twitter's new image embedding functionality. If your friends post a photo onto Twitter, you will see it in your timeline automatically. No need to click on anything. (As an aside, that's a…
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A few days ago, I posted this animated gif that I'd created from the 3D Doctor Who Special. I created that gif manually, but I wondered if it was possible to create such an animation in an automated fashion. Turns out, it's pretty easy! This relies on ImageMagick - which is a powerful image manipulation tool. All of these scripts work on Ubuntu - and they should work on any GNU/Linux disto as well as Windows and Mac. Get Your Image I just pressed "Print Screen" while watching a…
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I loved the latest episode of Doctor Who. What made it even better was the fantastic use of 3D. It had just enough "wow" moments to make the use of technology worthwhile - without totally overdoing it. I watched the episode live at home on my Panasonic TX-L37ET5B. After the broadcast, I wanted to watch it again. That's where the problems started. First, a quick lesson on how 3D TV broadcasts work. Generally speaking, most 3D TV is Half-Side-By-Side. That means the left and right image…
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The horror of the quantified audience The cinema is on the deserted outskirts of Pinewood Studios. It's a wet and windy day — not unusual for England in late summer — and I'm here to take a look at the future of audience test screenings. My friend, Ross, has asked me to take a test drive of his company's newest way of destroying artistic integrity helping movie studios connect better with their audiences. Thursday mornings aren't my preferred time to sit on a cheap polyester chair and tip my …
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Earlier this year, I went to the annual "Ada Lovelace Day" lectures at Imperial College. There, a succession of impressive ladies demonstrated that women are perfectly capable of participating in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths/Medicine) careers. We all nodded dutifully - and applauded the women who had pushed back the boundaries of science and science communication. All was going well, until one of the presenters displayed a slide talking about gender-specific toys. In…
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Imagine, just for a moment, that the Government wanted to keep a record of everyone's sexuality. They need to know this detailed demographic data because it will be highly useful in civic planning. It will help them work out what provision needs to be made for sexual health services, how many children are likely to be born, how many schools to build, etc. You trust the Government, you voted for them, you and your friends have nothing to hide with regards to your sexuality. But! Shock…
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You should visit Bletchley Park. Seriously. It's the most amazing museum - dedicated to the wartime effort to crack Enigma; the Nazi cryptographic machines. The tour guides of Bletchley Park are full of fascinating stories. They can tell you how all the primitive computers work, about the history of each building, they know all the curious little facts which make visiting the park an absolute joy. There's one story in particular that I never tire of hearing. By 1945, Turing's computers…
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I've recently moved in to a new house. The WiFi from my lounge just about stretches to upstairs, but it's a fairly noisy radio environment as everyone on the street also has WiFi. The 5GHz range is clear as a whistle - but only a few of my devices support that frequency. So! It's time to turn to HomePlugs. These nifty little gadgets create a wired network over your power cables. The most recent version promise up to 500Mbps transfer speed (a theoretical max which is never reached) - and, as…
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I've been taking a look at how big brands try to buy their way in to social spaces online. I'm not talking about ephemeral advertising on the side of the screen, I mean "sponsored posts". It strikes me that large companies simply don't realise that buying your way into a conversation is an admission of failure. It's like being that kid who no one likes but, hey, we'll play with him because his parents buy him loads of toys. It's not friendship, it's not authentic, it doesn't create anything…
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Ah! Valkee! For the last few years I've been blogging about this "miracle cure" for depression - in 2011 I called Valkee a technology scam and last year Valkee's website was found to be misleading the public. They claim that by sticking a light in your ear, you can cure both depression and cancer. These are dangerous quacks who need to be stopped. Earlier this year, the Finnish TV show "MOT" did a rather detailed exposé of Valkee: Valkee won the "Hoax Prize" from the Finnish Sceptics' …
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There's a popular meme which resurfaces every so often. Politicians who have accepted campaign contributions should be required to to wear those "sponsor's" logos names during all official duties and visits to constituents. The size of a logo or name would vary with the size of a donation. This is often called the Nascar proposal - after the sponsored uniforms that the racing drivers wear. They'd look something like this The clever folk at mySociety are looking for new and interesting…
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I've always wondered if it's possible to tell who has commissioned a particular survey on YouGov. When you read a question like "Would Boris Johnson make an awesome Prime Minister?" it would be interesting to know whether it's Cameron getting his knickers in a twist, or Milliband sowing the seeds of discord. One survey I was filling in contained a particularly dull set of questions about mobile phones. One of the survey pages just wouldn't progress, so I took a look at the page's source…
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