The planet Earth has completed yet another cycle of carrying me around the sun, and so it is time to cast an eye backwards. Despite this blog, I'm not much of a diary keeper. Since the demise of FourSquare I've not kept particularly good track of where I've been or what I've been up to. Still, let's see what memories of the last year I can dredge up, eh? December 2014 I created a micro-podcast - "About A Minute". I was interested to see if people would listen to shorter, more focussed…
Continue reading →
How often have you seen a meeting request which says... To join the conference call, please dial 0306 999 0348, then type in your access number (07700 900 951) followed by the hash or pound key. What a faff! If you're reading the message on your phone you have to flip back and forth as you try to remember which numbers to dial. Well, there's a better way! You all know the standard keys on a phone - 0-9, *, and # - what if I told you there were two more? Yes! That's right! Two hidden and…
Continue reading →
I was recently gifted a Satechi WiFi Travel Router & Charger. Currently available on Amazon for £35. It's a clever little device with several useful functions: Travel adapter. Plugs into most power sockets and has a universal plug on top. Two USB charging sockets. Connect to Ethernet and share the signal via WiFi. Connect to WiFi and share the signal via WiFi or Ethernet. In built router with lots of network configuration settings. Use it at a hotel and share a …
Continue reading →
One of the most addicting aspects of Open Source software is the ability to scratch one's own itches. I've been blogging since 2004 - and while I'd never mistake longevity for expertise - I do take a certain pride in letting my readers know that I've spent over a decade bashing out words. So, I decided to build a simple widget which would display my posting history in a calendar style. And now, it's time to release it to the world! It's available on GitHub and the official WordPress plugin…
Continue reading →
After much kerfuffle, the world has finally got used to the new Google logo. Well, almost. My eye is continually caught by the poor contrast of the yellow "O" against its background. Take a look... This is Google's default logo on its regular grey background. The contrast ratio between the yellow and grey is 1.50. That fails to meet current accessibility guidelines. This is just awful - I find it quite hard to read, especially for long passages. The text seems to shimmer about the…
Continue reading →
A couple of months ago I noticed there was an auction of Sci-Fi related material in London. The catalogue was amazing! The original Leela costume from Doctor Who, costumes from Star Trek, gizmos from Blade Runner - and a whole bunch of Star Wars props! Sadly, I couldn't afford the original pieces of the Death Star (expected price of £10k-20k) nor the Millennium Falcon blueprints (a more reasonable £1k). I made do with scraping the images out of the catalogue. Here are all the gorgeous art w…
Continue reading →
I've been busy writing the definitive Sercomm Camera API documentation. (No, you need a hobby!) While doing so, I noticed that I couldn't get my Pan/Tilt/Zoom camera to... well... pan! No lateral movement whatsoever. It'd move up and down - but its left and right movement was non-existant. I could hear the stepper motor whirring, but it wasn't producing any movement. Weird... TO THE SCREWDRIVERS, ROBIN! The Sercomm RC8230 is remarkably easy to open. Behind 4 rubber stopper are regular…
Continue reading →
If you thought Web Fonts were pretty nifty, then you're going to think font subsetting is really cool. No, honestly! It is! As I've written about before you can dramatically reduce the size of your Web Fonts by cutting out characters that you don't need. For example, suppose you don't need to include the русский алфавит - you can immediately drop 66 letters (upper- and lower-case), a whole load of accents, and a bunch of other Cyrillic stuff. That's up to 400 fewer characters - a huge space …
Continue reading →
Eight years after I published this blog post, I helped officially release all these domain names as open data! Funny how life works out, eh? Would you like to know every domain name the UK Government had registered? Of course you would! There could be all sorts of interesting tit-bits hidden in there (ProtectAndSurvive.gov.uk? EbolaOutbreak2017.nhs.uk? MinistryOfTruth.police.uk?) Rather than relying on Freedom of Information requests, or Open Data, we can go straight to the source of domain …
Continue reading →
The one book I insist my new hires read before starting is Edward de Bono's "Simplicity". It suggests that we should value others' time over our own. Every hour we spend making things simple gives a net benefit to humanity. Whether it is laws, industrial design, software, or documentation - our goal should be to make things radically simple. Not only does simplicity save time - it also saves us from making catastrophic mistakes. Many recent Internet security issues are a direct result of…
Continue reading →
Earlier this year, I attended a lecture given by Alan Rusbridger - the outgoing editor of The Guardian - entitled "The World After Snowden." Held at Oxford University, and attended by journalists, technologists, and former spies - it was an exceptionally interesting talk and provoked a lively debate over dinner. In light of the publication of the disastrous Investigatory Powers Bill, I've decided to write up my notes. Except for the opinions expressed in public, I've deliberately avoiding…
Continue reading →
Regular readers will know that I have solar panels and an electric car. Is there any way to hook the panels up so they directly charge the car? Can I set my electrical system up to divert surplus electricity into the car when my house isn't using it. This is what I do with my hot water iBoost - when household energy usage is low, it automatically switches on my immersion heater. Can I rig up something similar for my car? I've been thinking about this - and I'm not quite sure that it's worth …
Continue reading →
