Here's how to control the Toshiba 49U6863 - and other similar models - using Telnet. Quickstart At the command prompt, type telnet 192.168.0.123 4660 then type 1012 and your TV will turn on. MAGIC! Background After six years of use, I decided to upgrade my old 37 inch Panasonic TV. I know Toshiba aren't the coolest brand around, but the 49 inch monster was half the price of the old TV. Yay…
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For a musical that's over 90 years old, Anything Goes is pretty funny, lightly charming, and wildly racist. A few weeks ago we saw a youth-theatre production of the classic Cole Porter show. The cast were enthusiastic, the band in fine form, the voices loud, and - apparently - at no point did anyone there say "Hang on... is it OK for a bunch of white actors to put on exaggerated Chinese accents…
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Quick review of https://www.moneydashboard.com/ - sorry for the lack of screenshots, but I don't need you seeing the state of my bank balance! Open Banking is here! For the technical among you, it means I can use OAuth to give a read-only token to an authorised financial institution. Updates are streamed in real-time. They can then do "stuff" with my financial details. For the non-technical,…
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There's a lovely Twitter feed called Yore Computer - run by Rob Manuel, it randomly tweets out scans of 1980s computer magazines. A wonderful mix of nostalgia, dated references, primitive graphics, incompatible file formats, and unrealistic promises by advertisers. Here are a few of my favourites that I've spotted. Behold! The comment section - hasn't changed much! YORE COMPUTER 🕹…
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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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