computer vision emotion · 2 comments · 400 words
Digging through my old tweets, I found this gem. A billion dollar idea that I never did anything was. Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edentWhat if your phone's front-facing camera captured your reaction to reading a text message? #bluesky❤️ 0💬 1🔁 011:01 - Fri 03 October 2008 If my hazy memory is correct, we'd been asked to imagine future uses for a mobile phone with a front facing camera. The year …
Continue reading →desk review wfh · 600 words · Viewed ~331 times
I've spent six-months working from an old kitchen table, and there is never quite enough room for all my monitors and associated kit. With the news that we're all going to be working from home for a while longer, my employer very generously agreed to pay up to £150 for a WFH desk. So I spent £147. It's a gorgeous and spacious model. Lots of rooms for monitors and gadgets - and a chunk of s…
Continue reading →IoT ip cameras review security · 3 comments · 750 words · Viewed ~397 times
I hate the Internet of Things. It's a load of overpriced junk, which abuses your privacy and demands a monthly fee in return. That's why I was pleasantly surprised to see this fall out of the eufyCam 2C box. There's no monthly fee. The recordings stay in your home. The batteries last for ages. I can get on board with this! The package costs around £220 (discount of £40 if you use my code) and …
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None of us are going out to gigs in the foreseeable future, right? So the next best thing is watching shows on video. Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets is an epic blast. Recorded at the Roundhouse, it is gorgeously colourful and has just the right amount of "backstage" interviews", And, being a disc, there's no sticky floors and the beer is a lot cheaper. The surround sound speakers get a good …
Continue reading →exif gps metadata photography · 2 comments · 150 words
Here's a quick one-liner to reduce the precision of location stored in a photo's EXIF metadata: exiftool -c "%.2f" -TagsFromFile @ -GPSLatitude -GPSLongitude photo.jpg (Thanks to the EXIFtool Forum for their help.) Why is this useful? Modern phones automatically attach a GPS location to every photo you take. GPS resolution is around 10 metres. When you share your photos, you're often sharing …
Continue reading →gender language · 11 comments · 850 words · Viewed ~1,293 times
I am not a linguist, nor an expert on gender. I'm just trying to muddle my way through this confusing world the same as anyone else. The English language is adaptable. We'll happily bodge words together to make new ones, verb our nouns, and grammar-flex to the point of breaking. It's a fun language! English is (mostly) genderless. The French have le chat and la table - because cats are boys and …
Continue reading →solar · 5 comments · 350 words · Viewed ~295 times
We've had our new solar panels for 6 months. Here's how they've performed over summer. 3,361 kWh Generated 2,445 kWh Exported ===== 916 kWh Consumed Despite working from home every day, using laptops, monitors, microwaving lunch, we only used about 5.5kWh of solar each day. About 72% of our summer generation was sold back to the grid. According to our electricity provider, in those 6…
Continue reading →comedy Movie Review Sci Fi · 200 words
When carefree Nyles and reluctant maid of honour Sarah have a chance encounter at a Palm Springs wedding, things get complicated as they are unable to escape the venue, themselves, or each other. It's almost impossible to review this movie without giving away the twists and turns that it takes. Just know that it is deeply funny in unexpected ways. It stars the cop from the TV sitcom and the…
Continue reading →cloudflare data gdpr · 11 comments · 700 words · Viewed ~12,626 times
It has been over a year since I cancelled my Cloudflare account. They keep emailing me and haven't taken me off their marketing lists despite repeated requests. Their CTO told me he would investigate, but nothing changed. Their Data Protection Office hasn't respond to my requests. Cloudflare do not appear to respect the GDPR. I've escalated this to the highest levels of Cloudflare, but they…
Continue reading →Doctor Who font · 7 comments · 250 words · Viewed ~1,225 times
As part of my silly floppy artwork, I wanted to find a retro computer font. Then I remembered that there's a 1960s Doctor Who serial with this beauty. The War Machines is a cracking slice of 60s sci-fi. It's very groovy. But what font is it? It isn't Westminster. The W is completely wrong. And the letter T is mirrored. Westminster has a surprising and interesting history. It isn't Data…
Continue reading →HowTo linux vpn · 1 comment · 100 words · Viewed ~2,198 times
I couldn't find a simple guide to this - so these are notes to myself. Create a file called myVPN.xml: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <AnyConnectProfile xmlns="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/encoding/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/encoding/AnyConnectProfile.xsd"> <ServerList> …
Continue reading →food gadget review · 4 comments · 450 words · Viewed ~3,841 times
I read this wonderful article about the invention of the rice cooker and, because I am easily influenced, bought one. This is the YumAsia Panda Mini. It seemed to hit the sweet spot for physical size and price. For £80 you get a rice cooker, steamer, and utensils. Makes enough rice for 2 people. Although, when full, we felt like it was more like for 4. Depends on how hungry you are. It's …
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