I've an unhealthy amount of smart gadgets at home. Enough so that it's worth running an orientation session when friends come to visit. This is what the Alexa does, here's which light switches not to use, don't be scared if the Roomba attacks. That sort of thing. I don't know how long we'll live in this place. It's more than likely we'll move at some point. So what happens to the smarthome stuff we've accumulated? When we hand over the keys to the new residents - do we hand over all the…
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I go to lots of conferences, unconferences, hackdays, and tech events. As a vegetarian, I'm used to being relegated to second-class when it comes to event catering. If I'm lucky, I get some cheese sandwiches mingled with a plate of meaty snacks. That's why I was overjoyed at ODF Plugfest Rome when the organisers made this announcement: Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edent"All lunch boxes will be vegan (so that everyone can eat everything)"THANK YOU! #LibOCon17 #odfplugfest Sensible inclusive…
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Me being grumpy and stupid again. I have an IP Camera on my LAN, I want to connect to it via HTTPS. I can't. Why is that? Why do this? I have a username and password to access my IP camera. And my TV. And my lightbulbs. And all my networked gadgets. If I try to enter the passwords on a modern browser, I get this error message: It is now an accepted fact that data should be encrypted during transport - even on a trusted network. I have a modest home network of several dozen gadgets -…
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When I was a small child, I took an IQ test. One of the first questions I stumbled on was "A piece of candy costs 25¢. Jonny has a dime. How many nickels does he need to buy the candy?" My 7-year old brain popped. WTAF is a nickel? Or a dime for that matter? We don't have those coins in my country! We don't spend in ¢ either. There was no way to get around the cultural knowledge required by the test. There were several questions like that - all assuming the test maker and taker were from a c…
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You may not realise it, but bandwidth is expensive. It costs you time, money, and battery power whenever you download a file larger than it needs to be. That's why I've become a little bit obsessed with SVG - Scalable Vector Graphics. They're the closest thing to magic that the web has when it comes to image compression. Let me show you what I mean. This is the standard Twitter Logo. It's 512 * 512 pixels and, even with hefty PNG compression, weighs in at around 20KB. Here's the same…
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Way back in 2006, I got my first projector - a 720p model for a few hundred quid. Even after all these years, there's still something magical about watching a movie on a humongous screen. But projectors are still wildly expensive and out of reach for most people. Aren't they? DBPower have sent me their RD810 projector to review. It costs £60. That's not a typo. Sixty Quid. Let's get two things out of the way first. This is not an HD projector. The resolution is 800*480. That's fine …
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(…all analogies break down eventually…) On receiving a new credit card, there are two kinds of people in this world: OMG! FREE MONEY! SPEND IT ALL!!!!! This is a tool which can be used appropriately to make my life better. The first set of people quickly hit the limit of the card and are often reduced to making minimum repayments. This can then trap them in a lifetime of debt. Seriously, borrow £3,000 on a credit card and minimum repayments will only clear it after 30 years. Often the only…
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A few more photos from my trip to Beijing. During my trip, I took a quick excursion to the Temple of Heaven. I decided to take a selfie with this delightful water fountain. But there was something bothering me. I could hear... something... What's that? Zoom! Enhance! RUN AWAY! …
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Here's a weird market gap. Most modern phones use USB-C to charge. Increasingly, they forego a headphone jack in favour of using Bluetooth. Peachy! But all of the Bluetooth headphones that I can find are charged via Micro USB. Which is bloody annoying! I want to charge my phone, laptop, camera, games console, and headphones from the same charger. Even looking at the wholesalers on Ali Express - there are plenty of wired USB-C headphones, but an absolute dearth of wireless ones. What…
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The inimitable Jess Rose interviewed me for her Pursuit Podcast - talking about the Unicode Power Symbol proposal. We talked about how to subvert bureaucracy, building a team of supporters, adding new stuff to Unicode, and recognising that you're a background character in most people's lives. Bit of a ramble, but jolly good fun. Sketchnotes by the exquisitely talented Kate Holden. Find out more about Jess and subscribe to Pursuit Podcast and leave a nice review. …
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I've blogged before about how backward the Co-op bank is - sadly, they've not improved in the last few years. I needed to close down my business bank account. I hopped on to online banking, provided all my details, went through 2FA with a physical token, remembered my mother's maiden name and began searching the site. There was no way to close the account. Oh well, I guess I'll give them a call. After 30 minutes on hold I was told "The account closing team leave at 4pm, sorry." It was 5…
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A few years ago, I added WiFi to my Roomba using a 3rd party add-on. Sadly, it looks like Thinking Cleaner, the company which created the WiFi unit is no longer manufacturing them. But in their latest firmware release, they added a fun new option - the ability to make your Roomba sing! Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edentI've hacked @edent_roomba to obey its true master.(You'll want the volume up for this.) pic.x.com/urd5xuyuj1❤️ 26💬 1🔁 020:41 - Mon 18 September 2017 The Roomba has a basic spea…
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