I'll admit it - I never really got the selfie. I was trapped in the mistake that they were a mere narcissistic folly. I couldn't have been more wrong. The more I travel the world, the more I see a change in people's behaviour around monuments. It used to be people jostling to get the one perfect shot of a thing. Even if they got the perfect shot, they never looked at the result. Why? People want to take a photo like this: But it often ends up coming out like this: That's not intended…
Continue reading →
One of the hardest things to do is shut up someone who is well-meaning. I have a lovely colleague who, almost every time I see him, asks if I have kids. He's not malicious, just forgetful. If I say "no", I get "Well, plenty of time yet!" or "When you do..." or "Why not?" or any number of comments. In the childfree community, we call these "bingos". Because, after a while, you start to mentally stamp a card like this: Other variants are available. I am childfree by choice. Emphatically not…
Continue reading →
This isn't entirely a rhetorical question. I'm genuinely interested. A few weeks ago, I bought an electric screwdriver. One of the key selling points, for me, was that it charged via micro-USB. My last electric screwdriver had some weird proprietary connector which broke. I've hundreds of USB cables - of various lengths - and dozens of chargers - of various strengths. I will always be able to buy a new charger for this screwdriver - even if the original manufacturer goes bust. In fact, the …
Continue reading →
Back when nuclear power stations were first proposed, we were promised "energy which is too cheap to meter". That is, the cost of electricity would be so low, invoicing for its use would be prohibitively expensive. Well, that didn't exactly turn out that way! But as our electronics have become more efficient, the cost of processing payments begins to outweigh the cost of providing electricity. How much would you pay to fully charge your smartphone? A quid? 50p? If you're desperate, a fiver? …
Continue reading →
I'll be upfront, I mostly got this eReader because it's the only one on the market with a USB-C connection. OK! OK! That's not the main reason. It has pretty good support from the manufacturer and a vibrant community around it. Masses of memory, warm lighting, and oodles of space. And, I think, pretty hackable. Quick video Specifications Android 6.0 - with a promise to update it to Android 8.0 Touchscreen with Wacom stylus 1.5GHz CPU 2GB RAM 32GB storage plus a microSD slot 7.8 inch…
Continue reading →
A few years ago I wrote an Alexa skill to see what bin day it was. The skill only worked with my local council - Oxford. I've since moved house and wanted to recreate the service for my new council - Bexley. Demo Terence Eden is on Mastodon @edent Replying to @edent @AgileAppsGroup Success! Blog post coming soon for my Alexa powered bin day thing. pic.x.com/eCoHMii0nI ❤️ 3💬 3🔁 007:58 - Mon 14 October 2019 Brilliant, eh? The API Bexley Council don't publish an API. I initially thought…
Continue reading →
I really wanted to write a rant about how incompatible smart lights are ruining the world. But... errr... Everything just works. Previously on my smarthome adventures, I kitted my house out with LIFX Bulbs and some WisQo Switches. I've moved home and none of my bulbs are compatible with the existing sockets! What else am I going to do except BUY MORE LIGHTBULBS! As much as I enjoy LIFX, they're bloody expensive. A single GU10 bulb is FIFTY QUID! Our new kitchen has 17 bulbs. Even if bought…
Continue reading →
Here's a quick write-up of a minor XSS (Cross Site Scripting) vulnerability on the website of Three.co.uk - one of the UK's mobile providers. A brief recap... Most websites have a search function. If you search for something which cannot be found, the site will often say "No results found for XYZ." If we can convince the search engine to spit out HTML, we can inject malicious content into the page. This is usually done by searching for something like <script>alert("h4X0r");</script>…
Continue reading →
The internet isn't the first technology to alter how we communicate, but it is making our language change faster and in more interesting ways than ever before. Linguistically inventive niche online communities spread slang and jargon exponentially faster than in the days when new dialects were constrained by physical space. What's more, social media provides a fascinating laboratory for watching language evolve in real time. There's something profoundly disturbing as seeing your cutting-edge …
Continue reading →
I'm increasingly concerned with the power that CDNs wield - and CloudFlare in particular. So I decided to delete my CloudFlare account. While they claim to have removed my account, they still seem to count me as an active customer. I wonder how many people bought shares in their IPO based on inaccurate customer numbers? Timeline 2019-08-04 I raised a support ticket to close my account. 2019-08-05 CloudFlare sent me confirmation that they'd removed my account. 2019-10-02 I received an…
Continue reading →
If you've seen that episode of The West Wing, you'll remember this scene: I'm not a paying member of the OCSE, but I fully support their aims. Because messing around with maps is fun. So, can I build a web-first maps which is South-up, Pacific-centred, and Peters-projected? Here's what I managed to do using OpenLayers - an Open Source web maps library which is pretty hackable. Get started Following the example documentation gets us a boring North-up map. Booo! Flip that, reverse it …
Continue reading →
Post-birthday haze, it's time to set out my resolutions for the upcoming year. Get better at empathy I have a theoretical understanding that other people are humans, with their own complex lives and decisions. I'm not always good at putting that into practice. Groups of people and abstract personae, I feel like I have a good handle on. Individuals, less so. I don't want to be this: But I want to get better at understanding people. Healthier living I know it's a cliché, but I have an …
Continue reading →
