Force Directed Graphs of the London Underground have been done many times before - but I think I'm the first person to add the new Elizabeth Line (CrossRail). I've also created a JSON graph of all of London's rail services - including DLR, Trams, C2C, ThamesLink etc. Demo Play with it yourself Grab the code from GitLab I've also created a version with every London station and train line. …
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One of the problems with OEmbeds of Tweets is that they're heavy. Lots of JavaScript, tracking cookies, and other detritus. See this excellent post by Matt Hobbs looking at how to make your website faster by removing Twitter embeds and replacing them with images. Here's my attempt to turn a Tweet into a semantic SVG! This doesn't attempt to faithfully recreate the exact look and feel of an…
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A decade ago, Stephen Elop made the announcement that Nokia was adopting Windows Phone 7 as its platform of choice. Being the mobile nerd that I was, I live Tweeted the press conference. Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edentRight, where can I watch thus #Nokia press conference? Is there a mobile friendly live stream?❤️ 0💬 0♻️ 007:31 - Fri 11 February 2011 Let's take a look back to see what Elop and…
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This was an excellent writing prompt from Janet: Janet Hughes@JanetHughesWhat do you miss the least from pre-lockdown life? I absolutely do not miss wandering around the office looking for a meeting room for a confidential call or if I hadn't managed to book a room in advance. Let's never return to that joyless frustration, hey?❤️ 149💬 45🔁 010:27 - Wed 03 February 2021 Toilets! That's what I won…
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I am reading The Digital Transformation Playbook for part of my MSc. It's a good book, but I found this passage about eBooks a little confusing: what about gift giving? No one I have ever asked has thought that an e-book was an acceptable substitute for a printed book when giving a gift. I've received an eBook as a gift (thanks David!) and it was perfectly acceptable. It was nice to…
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Another short - and probably incorrect - prediction about disruption. Spotify, for all its tech, isn't magically disruptive. The business model is similar to a radio station. It pays music publishers based on what songs its listeners' request. (This is grossly oversimplified. Stick with me.) Spotify buys a product wholesale and then sells it retail. This is different from, say, the original…
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This is a frustratingly good movie. I wish I had the film-making vocabulary to describe it properly. As a fun sci-fi heist, it is a triumph. The special effects are light-years beyond Star Wars - both the original and the sequels. The multi-lingual world it presents is possibly the most realistic depiction of the future that I've seen. It is Firefly with a grander vision, bigger budget, and…
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Convenience subscriptions are huge business these days. A monthly delivery of X, to save you time, money, and effort! The problem is - subscription living rapidly becomes a chore. I cancelled a convenience subscription today - and I'd like to explain why. Smol offers dishwasher tablets and laundry pods by post. Their schtick is: Cheaper than the supermarket - and more environmentally…
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This is so annoying. Boyue have released an Android 8 update for their Likebook eReaders. But it's impossible to upgrade it on Linux - here's my guide to getting it working Ubuntu / Debian / Pop OS. There's some Linux debug tips at the end of this post. Install VMware Virtual Machine Download the latest version of the Virtual Machine. Make the downloaded file executable. chmod +x…
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Once in a while, big companies suggest that the answer to abuse is to ban anonymity and institute a Real Names policy. This time, it is Google's turn. They think that critical software should only be authored by people with "real names". I don't want to go into whether this is a good idea or not. Nor philosophical discussions of what a "real name" is. I want to discuss how this would work…
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Last year, I blogged about why I make my work calendar public. It is useful to have a public website where people can see if I'm free or busy. But the version I created relied on Google Calendar which, sadly, isn't that great. It doesn't look wonderful, especially on small screens, and is limited to only one calendar feed. So I used the mighty power of Open Source to build my own! …
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As part of my MSc, I'm being asked to think about "digital disruption" - so here are some personal thoughts about the future of transactions with the state. The UK Government has a lot of APIs to let computers communicate with each other. Most of them are department-to-department. For example, the Ministry of Birds wants to get an updated list of incidents from the Department of Avian Accidents …
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