I popped round to an NHS dentist a few months ago - and they stuck my head on one of these contraptions. The Kodak 8000C takes a panoramic X-ray, giving a superior view of your teeth. Nifty. The dentist showed me where my wisdom teeth were and I was impressed with how high resolution the image was. Afterwards, I asked the dentist if I could have a copy of the scan. She wasn't terribly sure.…
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I'm now on my third EV. You can read my thoughts on the BMW i3 and the Renault Zoe. This review is primarily focussed on the tech included with the car. Bluetooth Connects quickly, and no glitches with streaming audio. Call quality was clear, but didn't show caller's photo - which is a shame. Doesn't show album artwork - so no AVRCP 1.6 support. I couldn't get it to do a 30-second-skip…
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One of the problems with the BlockChain goldrush is that it attracts a lot of people who don't necessarily have the required technical skill to safely run a service. This in turn reduces trust in the ecosystem. I'd like to discuss ArtChain.info - "Certifying Art Using the Bitcoin Blockchain" - and the some of the security issues I found there. XSS This is one of those simple bugs which every…
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I only occasionally play computer games - mostly I watch my wife shoot people on screen while I give her "helpful" advice like "he's behind you" and "don't walk into that fire." I am a good husband. The main reason I don't play much any more is that I just don't get the sense of pride and accomplishment which comes from games. In most video games, you don't get better - your weapons get better. …
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I rate every pint I taste using the Untappd app. Think of it like TripAdvisor for lager, stout, cider, bitter, and all manner of other beery goodness. Seriously, I've reviewed over 600 different drinks Recently, I decided to see if I could self-host my beer check-ins. The first step - extracting my own data from Untappd. Pay To Play If you become an Untappd Supporter for US$5 per month, you…
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I don't run adverts on this blog. The most I do is the occasional Amazon Affiliate link when I'm reviewing some tech. I'm happy with that. The site doesn't cost me much to run, and I'm lucky enough that it increases my reputation and online goodwill. But I've been thinking recently about ways to make a more material gain from my blogging, tweeting, StackOverflowing, and GitHubbing. So, here…
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Unicode contains a range of symbols which don't get much use. For example, there are separate symbols for TradeMark - ™, Service Mark - ℠, and Prescriptions - ℞. Nestling among the "Letterlike Symbols" are two curious entries. Both of these are single characters: Telephone symbol - ℡ Numero Sign - № What's interesting is both .tel and .no are Top-Level-Domains (TLD) on the Domain Name System…
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I have been receiving letters from a dear friend by the name of Ophiuchus. He has been researching some curious anomalies in the Unicode Standard. While I cannot vouch for all he has written, I thought it worth presenting his discoveries to you. My friend, I bring you a curiosity! I have been engaged in a most frustrating task. That is, trying to decipher the ancient history of our friends at…
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As of today, I've been employed by GDS for two years. Time for some reflections. The Big Working for the government isn't much different from working for a large business. I know people harp on about the inefficiency of the public sector - I can only assume those people haven't seen how much money FTSE100 companies waste on nonsense. The work is important. Don't get me wrong, I loved my time…
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Oh ho! You thought we'd finished with the mobile phones of Doctor Who series? We've done all of New Who - but what about Classic Who? I wasn't able to find any episodes of Who where the Doctor uses a mobile - but I found the next best thing... adverts! Jon Pertwee New Zealand Telecom In 1985, Jon Pertwee was the face of New Zealand Telecom. In a series of adverts he explains fibre optics,…
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To celebrate the upcoming series Doctor Who staring Jodie Whittaker, I'm attempting to chronicle all the mobile phones used in previous shows. If you think you've spotted something that's not listed here, or think I've made a mistake, drop it in the comments. You can follow along with all 10 series. Here we are at the close of the Capaldi years. This series aired in 2017, so we are very nearly …
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To celebrate the upcoming series Doctor Who staring Jodie Whittaker, I'm attempting to chronicle all the mobile phones used in previous shows. If you think you've spotted something that's not listed here, or think I've made a mistake, drop it in the comments. You can follow along with all 10 series. Before the Flood Not until episode 4 do we get a new phone for Clara. Nice clear shot of…
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