I was recently given 3 rather locked-down network cameras. Each camera was pre-programmed to communicate with a specific website, and only attach to a predefined wireless access point. Naturally, there was no supplied username or password. I thought about how I might get access. Using a man-in-the-middle attack to sniff the password, or trying to dump the firmware and examine that. Sadly,…
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When I was younger, I was taught that a roll of papyrus in ancient Egypt cost the same as the monthly wage for the average citizen. Nowadays the cost of paper is negligible. That's how it goes with new technology - it's frightfully expensive to begin with, but after a while it's as ubiquitous and disposable as paper. Ebook readers are the latest in a long line of "written-word" technology. F…
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I'll be wording this post carefully as What 3 Words (W3W) have a tenacious PR team and, probably, have a lot more lawyers than I do. W3W is a closed product. It is a for-profit company masquerading as an open standard. And that annoys me. A brief primer. The world is a sphere. We can reference any point on the surface of Earth using two co-ordinates, Longitude and Latitude. Long/Lat are…
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Hello! Thank you for reading what I write. Sorry to ask, but… who are you? I was chatting to a friend about what it is like running a blog, finding new topics, keeping up with a daily schedule, moderating comments, etc. And they asked, quite reasonably, "who are your readers?" And, honestly, I have very little idea! The only analytics I have on here is basic WordPress JetPack statistics. I can s…
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This is a bit of a brain dump of how I got a 3G USB dongle working on the Raspberry Pi. Following on from getting the Raspberry Pi to send SMS. That's The Power Of Love The first thing to say is use a powered USB hub! I had lots of problems getting the modem working when it was plugged directly into the Pi. A 3G signal takes more power than the Pi's USB sockets can supply. In the above…
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I've been blown away by the number of comments and visits to my original review of the 511EB. To clarify some of the points and answer some questions, I've decided to post another video review. This shows the speed of page turning and some of the idiosyncrasies of the eReader. Run VT, Errol! Startup Screen Click to download full size I've set my startup screen to show my phone number and…
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Imagine… Last night, lightning struck our house and burned it down. I escaped wearing only my nightclothes. In an instant, everything was vaporised. Laptop? Cinders. Phone? Ashes. Home server? A smouldering wreck. Yubikey? A charred chunk of gristle. This presents something of a problem. In order to recover my digital life, I need to be able to log in to things. This means I need to know my u…
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I've just got a WiFi light switch. As I've explained previously, swapping out all my existing light bulbs with Smart Bulbs would be hugely expensive and has the disadvantage of not working when the switches are off at the wall. A WiFi light switch (theoretically) allows me to control the lights from my phone - and anyone else to use the physical buttons on the wall. That helps avoid this…
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Well, it's been ages coming, but it's finally here. Elonex have released V0.47 of the 511EB software. V0.47 was released on 12th March 2010. The previous firmware (V0.41) was released on 18th January 2010. The next release should include note taking functionality. You may be interested in part 1 and part 2 of my review. This firmware update resolves some issues when processing very large…
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I set myself a resolution last year - go 12 months without using physical cash. No coins, no notes, no gold bullion, no cheques. I attempted to do all my spending on credit card, Direct Debit, and bank transfer (BACS). It worked! Mostly... Here's where it didn't work, and what I learned from it. Foreign Cash Went to Hong Kong and withdrew £100 in local currency. Was completely unnecessary. …
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No spoilers, sweetie :-) This evening's Doctor Who - The Bells of St John - revolves around mysterious WiFi signals. Alien SSIDs which, if you connect to them.... well, watch the episode to find out! In the show, they look like these: So, can we do the same thing for our home WiFi network? Yup! There are some limitations though. SSIDs can only have a maximum length of 32 byte. Those are…
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...or do I just need new glasses? I'm not a graphic designer. I find it hard to get into the mindset of excellence through beauty. I understand user flow, interactions, happy paths, delighting the user, humane design, and so on - but when it comes to the art of making something look nice I'm all at sea. I understand that, as Aral Balkan so perfectly puts it, design is not veneer - but that…
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