Obviously, I've never downloaded "warez" in my life. And, for the avoidance of doubt, I was never a member of the so-called "Scene". But such shenanigans were almost unavoidable on the early web and - wow! - is it weird seeing snippets of your history presented in an academic study! Why do people "pirate" software and other intellectual property? The answer isn't as simple as you may think. This isn't a book about noble thieves, or cheapskate freeloaders - rather it is an examination of the…
Continue reading →
If you hang around on a social network long enough, you'll find the same tropes being repeated again and again. So, I thought I'd document some of the ones that I personally find annoying. This blog post is an extension of my moderately popular Twitter thread - with a bit more detail about why they are irritating. The Thief of Words .social-embed{all:unset;display:block;}.social-embed *…
Continue reading →
We've had solar panels on the roof of our London home for exactly two years. They've just tipped over the 8,000kWh mark. The first question people tend to ask is "how much do they cost?" And the answer is… "It depends." The costs we paid two years ago aren't going to be particularly relevant to you. We have a 3 storey house, so paid a bit more for scaffolding. Our electrics were in a decent state, so we didn't pay for a new consumer unit. I wanted Ethernet on the inverter so paid a bit more f…
Continue reading →
I've been experimenting with Far Infrared heating. The panel itself is fairly boring technology. A large solid-state "thing" which turns electricity into Infrared energy. But what's the "smarts" in it which allows it to be controlled? TO THE SCREWDRIVERS, ROBIN! There's a single board hiding in the boring grey shell. It's a QNQ010W - which doesn't have any publicly available data. KB-5150 appears to be a popular name of a variety of power supply boards. Flip it over, and this is what we…
Continue reading →
All gadgets have to include WiFi now. That's the law! Does your home smell horrible? Would you like it to smell lovely? Well, friends, the good folk at Asakuki think that I'm the sort of person who knows lots of putrid people. So they sent me this Essential Oil Diffuser. It's pretty plug-and-play. Pour some water into the supplied jug, tip it into the unit, shake in a few drops of your favourite flavour, hit a button, and WHOOOSH! As a basic diffuser, it's great. Smells come out of it…
Continue reading →
As previously discussed, I'm doing the Certified Blockchain Professional course. It is self-directed learning, so I'm going through it at my own pace. In order to consolidate my learning, and help organise my thoughts, I'm blogging about my reflections on each module. These are mostly notes to myself - but I hope if you find something interesting (or incorrect) that you'll leave a comment. Another poorly edited chapter full of grammatical mistakes and logical leaps. Oh well! I've booked this…
Continue reading →
SUPERCHIMPS! IN! SPAAAAAAACE! The previous book was about neo-Dolphins, this one is about chimps. And it is very good. Ultimately, it is a book about slavery and ecology. What do we owe to our planet? Can we take "lesser" races and bring them sentience and sapience? Should they be allowed to develop their own culture? What can we do to prevent "alien" cultures from influencing us? Despite its slightly preposterous setting - it presents a plausible view of how humans might attempt to colonise …
Continue reading →
The blood donation centre was full. It was literally standing-room only, with those of us waiting our turn stood around until a cheap plastic chair became available. Perhaps it was delays. Perhaps there had been an urgent call for blood. Perhaps the events in Ukraine spurred people to donate. Perhaps, even subconsciously, it feels like a good time to donate what you can, ensure the reserves are fully stocked, and - selfishly - make a deposit at the Karma bank? Just before the needle pierced…
Continue reading →
As previously discussed, I'm doing the Certified Blockchain Professional course. It is self-directed learning, so I'm going through it at my own pace. In order to consolidate my learning, and help organise my thoughts, I'm blogging about my reflections on each module. These are mostly notes to myself - but I hope if you find something interesting (or incorrect) that you'll leave a comment. The key to remember is that "mining" really means "solving cryptographic puzzles in order to validate a…
Continue reading →
What with the situation in the world, I've been trying to reduce our domestic gas consumption. Looking through our smart meter readings, our biggest usage is heating (in winter) followed by hot water (showers and baths) then cooking. We have a Tado smart thermostat which turns the heating off when we're out - but I wondered if there was something more efficient we could do. Burning gas to heat water to pump around a home is… daft. It's noisy, expensive, requires a yearly service, and is d…
Continue reading →
About a million years ago, the then Coalition Government in the UK announced a slew of Open Data projects. They wanted - in their words - to "mobilise an army of Armchair Auditors". That is, ordinary people would be able to look through the data and find interesting errors. I'm a civil servant (this is a personal blog) so I can't comment on the politics behind the idea. But I think it is fair to say that, over the years, it fell out of fashion. Open Data kept being published but very few…
Continue reading →
There is no point in remaking movies. I just don't understand why you would take something which was successful, beautiful, and critically acclaimed - and then go "I can do better!" What can a film-maker possibly add? There's a high likelihood that the remake will fall flat on its face or become the punchline to a joke. I'm sorry, but I just don't think great movies should be re-made when there are so many original stories to tell. And yet… Spielberg doesn't waste a single frame. He updates t…
Continue reading →
