The good folks at Sonoff have sent me a bunch of kit to review. See my previous review of the S20 WiFi plug. This is the Sonoff Pow - a WiFi enabled in-line power switch. Set Up Wiring up the Pow is relatively easy. The cover to the terminal block is secured with a simple screw. I found the opening a little cramped - but it's easy to open up the entire unit. Which gives us a full view of the circuitry. There's an unpopulated header on the bottom left - yup - this thing is hackable! A …
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In the last couple of months, I've been seeing the ú symbol on British receipts. Why? 1963 - ASCII In the beginning* was ASCII. A standard way for computers to exchange text. ASCII was originally designed with 7 bits - that means 128 possible symbols. That ought to be enough for everyone, right? Wrong! ASCII is the American Code for Information Interchange. It contains a $ symbol, but nothing for other currencies. That's a problem because we don't all speak American. *ASCII has its …
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The good folks at Sonoff have sent me a bunch of kit to review. First up, the S20 WiFi Plug - an easy way to retrofit IoT smarts to your existing appliances. This fills the same niche as the Belkin WeMo but with one crucial difference - it's about half the price. Direct from Sonoff it's US$13 - from Amazon UK the smartplug is £15. The cost of the WeMo is £40. How does it compare to the Belkin WeMo? Both are compatible with IFTTT, have 2.4GHz WiFi, and have buttons and status LEDs. The …
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I read a Guardian article about an artist who set up an analogue camera in front of their TV, set it to long exposure, and set a movie playing. The result was a rather wonderful collection of images. You can see more of Jason Shulman's works Is there a way to automate this process? Yes! Here's my attempt at a "Long Exposure" of "Taxi Driver". It's not the same as Shulmans's process, but I think it is rather charming. Here's a timelapse of how it was constructed. I experimented with …
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I recently downloaded an album from Bandcamp. On trying to extract the zip file using Ubuntu, I got the error "File name too long." This is a known problem with Bandcamp. If you have a problem with long filenames in zip files, here's how to fix it. Quick Solution unzip -p -c whatever.zip "filename.ogg" > shortname.ogg That will extract a specific file from the zip and then rename it before writing it to disk. If you don't want to use the whole file name, you can use unzip -p -c…
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Imagine that you are sat, blindfolded, in the back of a taxi. How could you tell if you were being driven by a human or an autonomous vehicle? If you've not read Alan Turing's The Imitation Game, I can highly recommend it. The paper is short, well written, and contains a whole world of ideas. This is where we get the concept of the Turing Test. Can a human be fooled into thinking that the computer they are communicating with is a human? It is often assumed that the communication must be…
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Five years ago, Twitter updated its logo and demonstrated that it could be made entirely of circles. Interestingly, the official Twitter logo doesn't use circles directly. So, here is an SVG I've made which is only circles: Or, without the edges, and no transparency: And the raw code: <svg height="100" viewBox="0 0 100 100" width="100" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"> <circle cx="50" cy="50" fill="#fff" r="100"/> <circle cx="35" cy="33" fill="#1da1f3" r="56"/> <circle cx="07" …
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I was incredibly fortunate that my new employer sent me to a conference in China recently. I can't discuss what I did out there - but I can report on all the delicious food I ate! (NB - I paid for all meals myself!) Being veggie in Beijing was relatively easy. I had a stock phrase "我吃素" (Wo Chi Su - I eat vegetables), and a smattering of tourist level Mandarin. I had recommendations from friends and - most importantly - I had the HappyCow app. An indispensable guide to veggie eating around …
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I can now query my solar panels via my Alexa Amazon Dot Echo thingie (why so many names?). https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/VID_20170501_161804.webm I flatter myself as a reasonably competent techie and programmer, but fuck me AWS Lambdas and Alexa skills are a right pile of shite! Sorry if that sounds a bit harsh, but they're a pain in the arse to get anything done. I wanted something simple. When I say "Solar Panels", call this API, then say this phrase. That's the…
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Regular readers will remember that I have had a disastrous experience with WiFi light switches. I've had pretty good results with LIFX bulbs - but I really wanted something which can control my lights' switches. Enter the new WisQo smart lightswitches. The company claims that they'll work with the UK's "unique" wiring designs. They've kindly sent me a set to review - adjust your bias filters accordingly. The good news is they actually work! The bad news is that the app is tedious to use.…
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