Terence Eden. He has a beard and is smiling.

Terence Eden’s Blog

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1,800 days of minute-by-minute solar generation as Open Data

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Solar panels on a roof.

Back in 2014, I released a year's worth of solar generation data. I was enormously proud to recently discover that the data were cited in a couple of academic papers: Colantuono, Giuseppe & Kor, Ah-Lian & Pattinson, Colin & Gorse, Christopher PV with multiple storage as function of geolocation (2018) page: 217-232. Elsevier BV. Solar Energy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2018.03.020…

Book Review: "Philosophy of Race: An Introduction" - Naomi Zack

· 1 comment · 350 words


Book cover.

Philosophy of Race: An Introduction provides plainly written access to a new subfield that has been in the background of philosophy since Plato and Aristotle. Part I provides an overview of ideas of race and ethnicity in the philosophical canon, egalitarian traditions, race in biology, and race in American and Continental Philosophy. Part II addresses race as it operates in life through…

Review: OldShark Ring Light

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Ring light with phone pinned in the centre.

As part of my quest to become an internationally renounced fashion vlogger (shut up! It could happen!) I've been sent a ring light to review. If you've ever wondered why all your favourite YouChubers are so well lit - this style of light is the reason why. They provide a constant, shadow-free, evenly spread light. So, what's this £40 light like? This is made by Jiangxi based OldShark. …

Goodbye avatars .io - hello unavatar!

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A smiling pixel art face.

Given a social media user's username, how do you get a picture of their avatar? I always used avatars.io - but sadly that service has bitten the dust. So I've switched to unavatar. It's dead easy to use. https://unavatar.now.sh/twitter/edent will return @edent's avatar. You can use GitHub, Facebook, Gravatar, Instagram, Telegram, YouTube, SoundCloud, and a couple of other providers. Simple…

Game Review: Arcade Spirits

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Your choices are "inchorent screaming", "coherent screaming", or "await death".

I'm playing through the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. You can follow along with all my game reviews. I've never played a dating simulator before. I'd heard of them, and their weird parodies like Hatoful Boyfriend, but this is my first time playing one. And, I'm delighted to say, Arcade Spirits is delightful. The game looks gorgeous, the voice acting is top notch, and the sound …

Halfway through the year

· 350 words


A digital watch.

We're exactly halfway through 2020. Fuck. It feels like I've spent two-thousand-and-twenty days living through the year 2020. I know how lucky I am to be employed and to be shacked up with a loving spouse. I'm festooned with privilege, but it's emotionally tough. Liz and I have spent the best part of four months without leaving our home. We have a small garden, and enough exercise equipment at …

This Artwork is an amiibo

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A circular chip behind glass.

A few weeks ago, I picked up 20 NFC tags. But what to do with them? I know, let's make something impractical! I had this gorgeous Barret Biggers - Link Blot poster which had lain in a drawer for far too long. So I turned it into an Amiibo. Nestled in the corner, sandwiched between the print and the glass, is an NTAG215 chip. Using the open source TagMo app for Android, I've written the…

Game Review: Minit (and how to get it working on Ubuntu Linux)

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Simple black and white graphics.

I'm playing through the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. You can follow along with all my game reviews. I like puzzle games, and Minit has a unique twist. You only have 60 seconds to complete each action. But, before we get onto the review, here's how to get it running on Linux. Linux Download the minit_linux.zip file to your Downloads directory. Download…

Review: WiFi Endoscope

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Lights around a camera.

DO NOT PUT WIFI DEVICES UP YOUR BUM! OR ANYONE ELSE'S BUM! Right, with that disclaimer out of the way, here's my review of the DDENDOCAM Snake Camera - a 2 metre long, endoscope style camera. People send me the weirdest stuff to review! Video Here's me investigating my sink drain. Aren't you glad you read my blog, eh?…

Game Review: EXTREME MEATPUNKS FOREVER

· 1 comment · 250 words


A cartoon person stands in front of ASCII art shelves in a supermrket.

I'm playing through the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. You can follow along with all my game reviews. The thing about EXTREME MEATPUNKS FOREVER is that it is EXTREME. And it is so EXTREME that it feels a little like a tweenager shouting about how bad-ass they are. The story aesthetic is gorgeous. Brilliant mix of cartoon and ASCII art. I'm not good with controls. I found…

Game Review: A Mortician's Tale

· 1 comment · 250 words


A cartoon dead body.

I'm playing through the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. You can follow along with all my game reviews. How many people have you killed in a video game? Thousands? At least. But how many funerals have you performed in game? Hardly any. It's hard to describe A Mortician's Tale as a game. It is a lovely experience where you play a new employee of a funeral home. The game is,…

Symbian Won

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Network access. Ask every time, disallow, ask first time?

I was working in the mobile phone industry just as smartphones were taking off. I saw the Palm Pilot rise and fall. I witnessed NEC and Sagem and a host of companies launch smartphones and then disappear. But the greatest tragedy of them all was Nokia and their Symbian Operating System. (Actually, Symbian's ownership and relationship with Nokia is complex. But let's gloss over that for now.) …