Four years ago, I reviewed the LG-R105 360 Camera. It's a pretty nifty bit of hardware. Sadly, LG have decided that they don't want to support it any more. They already got your money, so fuck you for expecting any further updates. Here's their message: We express a sincere gratitude for your patronage to LG 360 CAM Manager Service. Due to changes in our operation policies, LG 360 CAM Manager…
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(Mostly notes to myself.) If you have a lot of images in a directory, and want to quickly make an image montage, here's how to do it on Linux using ImageMagick. First up, this command finds all JPG file, then resizes them so they fit in a maximum box of 256x256, then sets the quality to 75%, then saves them as JPGs: find ./ -type f -iname "*.jpg" -exec mogrify -verbose -format jpg -layers…
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Last year, I set myself a challenge to only read books by women. I got through 42 books - not bad for a pandemic! This year I was more relaxed - I just picked books which took my fancy. And a few that I needed to read for my MSc. Quite a few came from NetGalley which gives out Advance Reader Copies. So I got to read unpublished books for free in exchange for a review. My year starts in…
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I hate the way modern workplaces make you beg for feedback. Something about the forcing of humanity into little boxes and vague sentiments really gets my goat. So, this year, I added an extra question to my validation-seeking questionnaire. As well as asking how I did this year, what I could do better, where we can work together in the future etc etc blah blah - I added a little bonus. A…
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It's my birthday! As is customary, here's my year in review. See 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010. Like lots of you, I guess, it kind of feels like a year of stasis and stagnation. The last year seems to have whizzed by. Most of it spent in the same house - with only occasional forays to OutsideLand. A couple of day-trips to the coast, a few doctor's appointments,…
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When I was a kid, I used to pray every night for a new bike. Then I realised, the Lord doesn't work that way. So I just stole one and asked Him to forgive me Emo Philips Perhaps, in the context of technology, you've heard the phrase "Better to seek forgiveness than beg for permission"? It's usually said when someone is trying to do something that the "grown-ups" in the organisation probably…
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Kevin Kelly has written an insightful blog post about Class 1 / Class 2 Problems. I encourage you to read it. I agree with the thesis, but not the specific conclusion. Blockchain tech could unleash collaborations of several million members working on one project in real time, or orgs that are far more leaderless than today. How? Projects like the Linux Kernel already have thousands of…
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The tyrannous Huntsmen have declared everyone in one village to be outlaws, since they insist on supporting the magical beings of neighbouring Darkwood. Why won’t they accept that magic is an abomination? Far from being abominable, the residents of Darkwood are actually very nice when you get to know them, even Snow the White Knight, who can get a bit tetchy when people remind her she’s a Pri…
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I spent last Thursday at COP26 - as part of the Open UK delegation. It was an amazing day - which filled me with hope. As it was my first large in-person event since the Before-Times, I was extremely nervous about how it would go. Thanks to the Herculean efforts of Amanda Brock, May Cheung and their small army of volunteers it was a flawless event - all held in a magnificent set of tents. …
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Every so often, I copy and paste some code from a website and it utterly fails. This is probably a good reminder not to practise ✂️ & 📋 development, but it is also a reminder that "smart" formatting often trips up new students. Here are a few examples I've seen recently - produced as a result of computers trying to be cleverer than humans, and humans not checking if computers are being stupid. C…
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The book Antifragile is pretty bad. Like most popular management books, it's a single useful idea padded out with anecdotes. Some organisations are overly reliant on the status quo. If a single thing changes, it can be catastrophic. For example, a sudden shortage of HGV drivers causes their entire supply chain to collapse and they go bankrupt. These organisations are fragile. Some organisations …
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The good folks at ASAKUKI have sent me one of their fancy WiFi Projectors to review. Straight out of the gate, it's important to set expectations. This is a ~£150 projector. You aren't going to get the same fidelity as a £1,000 laser projector with quantum nano pixel marketing gibberish. Instead, you get a native 1080p resolution, an adequate speaker, and built-in WiFi screen-mirroring. Photos …
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