Being a review of 2013, from my FourSquare check-in and blogging perspective :-) The year started off cold and snowy in Woking. I was busy teaching a Code Club in the local library. For our anniversary, Liz and I went on holiday to Las Vegas. The jetlag was unfortunately crippling, and the Beatles' Love show was cancelled 5 minute in - which was very upsetting. That said, we had front row seats to Rebo and Zooty Penn and Teller, Saw Ray Kurzweil speak, And flew over Vegas in a…
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I've only had my solar panels for a few weeks, but I'm already trying to hook them up to the Internet of Things. I'm using the Fronius DataManager card. The API is fairly well documented - but you should be aware that it offers no authentication! The API is Read-Only - but I would still recommend against opening up your firewall to allow unfettered access. Aim I want to draw a (static) graph of my day's energy generation - suitable for sharing on social media. I've released the PHP code…
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I was listening to a podcast recently which was kind enough to mention one of my blog posts. The presenter said: ...and you should Google for this, because I'm really not sure how to pronounce this. Is it shu-huk-spur? dot mobby? Le sigh! It's a conversation I have most weeks when I'm on the phone to someone - usually a call centre - and they ask for my email address. "Sierra Hotel Kilo Sierra Papa Romeo Dot Mike Oscar Bravo India" Whereupon I am inevitably asked: Is that dot com or dot …
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Earlier this year I found a security flaw in Samsung's handsets. Of course, I responsibly reported the flaw to them. It would have been nice if Samsung offered a Bug Bounty like so many other companies - but I was satisfied having helped save the world in my own small way. However, last week I received an unexpected email from Samsung: This year you helped us secure Samsung mobile devices for our customers and would like to thank you for your contribution. As a small token of appreciation,…
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My friend Marc Rogers, the eminent security consultant, was quoted the Guardian talking about his predictions for information security and cybercrime in 2014. The ongoing development of the internet of things will continue to impact cyber security in 2014, as attackers now have more potential entry routes to sensitive governmental, corporate and personal data than ever. Mundane objects – such as thermostats and fridges – which were once completely unremarkable from a security perspective, have …
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(With a little upfront investment). I've blogged before about our Solar Panels and how they're performing. Liz and I have recently moved house, and decided that it made sense to get panels on our new property. Basically, we're so capitalist that we can only enjoy the warm glow of Earth's yellow sun when it is enriching our bank accounts. We looked at several local installers, before settling on Sims Solar. Paul was able to produce a detailed set of measurements, understood my crazy…
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I love Dropbox, I really do. It sits on my home PC, my laptop, my server, and my Android phones and tablets. Nothing comes close to it for seamlessly giving my machines access to the same set of files. It even runs on Linux - well... mostly. All my devices run Linux, from my Raspberry Pi to my MacBook. One of the great things about Linux is that is allows for case-sensitive file names. That is, "Bob" is a different file to "bob". However, lesser Operating Systems can't handle that. So…
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The UK telecoms regulator Ofcom is attempting to simplify the way consumers are charged for telephone calls. (Disclaimer: I work for a company which is regulated by Ofcom. This is my personal blog.) To deal with the multitude of different types of phone numbers - each with their own unique cost - and the rise of the mobile phone, Ofcom want this to be the norm by 2015: Under new rules confirmed today, telephone users calling service numbers will in future see the cost broken down into an…
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I've written before about the difference between a person being childless and being childfree. It is a simple matter of intention. Those who want children but don't have them are childless - whereas those with no desire to procreate are childfree. This is quite an important distinction - and yet it is almost completely absent from the recent Office of National Statistics' report saying "one fifth of women are childless at age 45." They recently put out these data as an infographic on…
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During my commute home I like to listen to podcasts. The London School of Economics has a regular lecture series which it is gracious enough to record and podcast. The lectures are consistently interesting - although of inconsistent audio quality - and offer a fascinating glimpse into the minds of its speakers. Last night, the crackly audio gave way to a familiar voice; Nelson Mandela. In this lecture from April 2000, Mandela talks about how people should comment on and judge African…
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This is a necropost - resurrected from the now defunct blog of a previous employer. Sadly, all of the photos have fallen down the memory hole. So use your imagination. One of our missions in The Lab is to introduce the ideas of prototyping and rapid innovation into the business. That's a fairly hefty systemic change for any company - so how do we go about doing it? Paper aeroplanes. Yup. Sheets of paper, crudely folded and then thrown are the perfect way to get people collaborating,…
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I'm sure that the Word Of The Year for 2014 will be Polinfographic - a hideous portmanteau I've just constructed of "Political" and "Infographic". Infographics are the content-lite, citation-free, colour-heavy spurts of marketing jizz which have replaced the sound-bite as the political parties' weapon of choice. Voters, apparently, can't remember such complex ideas as "Education education education" or "If you want a [racial slur] for a neighbour, vote Labour". So along comes the political…
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