Terence Eden. He has a beard and is smiling.

Terence Eden’s Blog

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Reflections on four years in the Civil Service

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Terence Eden standing outside Number 10 Downing Street.

Four years ago today, I turned up in Holborn for my first day at GDS - Government Digital Service. Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edentReplying to @edent🅁🄴🄶🄴🄽🄴🅁🄰🅃🄸🄾🄽 🅂🅃🄰🅃🅄🅂▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓100% COMPLETE> @edent is now part of @GDSTeam > Press any key to continue…>❤️ 49💬 16🔁 006:37 - Mon 10 October 2016 I've now experienced two Prime Ministers (Primes Minister?), two departments, and one pandemic. So I tho…

The usability of HTML elements

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The HTML5 Logo.

Last week, I gave a talk at the Maps for the Web workshop. As part of the discussion, I talked about how some HTML elements are really easy for developers to use and understand, and others are hard. I'm not aware of any formal research on this - all I have is my experience as a user and teacher of HTML. If you know of anyone who has looked into this more deeply, I'd love to know. Let's take a…

Movie Review: Bombshell

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Three identikit blonde white women stare at the camera.

When Gretchen Carlson slaps Fox News founder Roger Ailes with a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment, not a soul could predict what would happen next. Her decision leads to Fox News correspondent Megyn Kelly coming forward with her own story, as well as multiple other women, inciting a movement that reverberates around the world. This is a grim film. No one deserves to be sexually assaulted or…

Adding Web Monetization to your site using Coil

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A tiny lego Storm Trooper eats a chocolate coin.

Recently, my blog was featured on Coil's list of monetised content. I'd like to take a little time to explain what Web Monetisation is, how to get set up with it, and what my thoughts are. Quickstart Stick this line in the <head> of your HTML page. &lt;meta name=&quot;monetization&quot; content=&quot;$ilp.uphold.com/ieELEKD7epqw&quot;&gt; That's it. You should replace my uphold address…

Movie Review: In Time

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Movie Poster - people hold guns

In a future where people stop ageing at 25, but are engineered to live only one more year, having the means to buy your way out of the situation is a shot at immortal youth. Here, Will Salas finds himself accused of murder and on the run with a hostage - a connection that becomes an important part of the way against the system. This is a wonderful piece of high concept sci-fi. Where time is…

Performative Emotions

· 2 comments · 400 words


Black and white photo of a little Lego clown. He is sad.

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 …

Review: Lexar corner desk

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A black desk.

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…

Review: eufyCam 2C Wireless Home Security Camera System

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Flyer explaining how Eufy is different.

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 …

Review: Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets

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A psychedelic explosion of love.

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 …

Reducing GPS accuracy in photos

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Unix is user-friendly — it's just choosy about who its friends are.

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 …

Titles and Pronouns

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Some giant question marks standing in a field. Photo by https://www.flickr.com/photos/dbrekke/181939582/

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 …

Six Months of Solar Power Stats

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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…