Amazon Alexa is a fun little bit of kit. But it can be tricky getting it to work with all your smart devices. Not every company has an Alexa skill - just like not every company has an app. Using Flask-Ask it is possible to bring Alexa smarts to a range of previously mute devices. Alexa coding works on "intents" - the following is a simple intent. That is, you can only ask the skill one…
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I recently signed up for a hackathon. Part of the deal these days is that sponsors get to send promotional messages to the attendees. Fair enough. The only problem is, most of these messages are rubbish! Here's the verbatim message I received - there were no links other than to Twitter. See if you can work out what this startup does... Just a quick heads up to let you know that we'll be…
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Recently, Lea Verou asked an important question about whether HTML should have a standardised way of letting users select a country from a list. Lea Verou@LeaVerouHTML Idea: <input type="country"> which would become a searchable dropdown with all countries and their flags.Wouldn't that be awesome?❤️ 1,863💬 113🔁 013:17 - Sat 21 October 2017 You can read through the conversation and make your own …
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Twenty One. I have 21 accounts which use Two-Factor Authentication. I use the Authy app to manage them all, but it is still a pain to scroll through and find the exact 2FA token I need. Encouraged by my friend Tom Morris's blog post, I picked up a YubiKey NEO for £50. It implements the FIDO U2F standard. Sadly, the YubiKey is substandard and frustrating to use. Here's what I found. First …
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The Video Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edentEVERY EMOJI! pic.x.com/2fcuqwu67c❤️ 1,306💬 54🔁 020:09 - Tue 24 October 2017 Download the WEBM version (19MB). The Process Mostly notes to myself, but I thought you lot might be interested 🙂 Get Every Emoji from Twemoji Twitter maintain the Twemoji Project - it contains high quality SVGs of every emoji. They generously make them available under CC-BY…
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OK, this might be the weirdest, most zeitgeisty thing I've ever been asked to review! I mean, it is literally exactly what you think it is. A device to turn your expensive smartphone into a penny-ante plastic gizmo. Oh, and there's an app! This is the preposterously named Ring Spinner (stop snickering at the back)! If you are overcome with desire to spin your ring (stop it) you can pick them…
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I've never been a big fan of subscription boxes. They always seem to deliver too much (who uses that many toothbrushes a month?!?!) or the quality is too variable. That said, I was intrigued by the offer of a bunch of British delicacies delivered to my gaping mouth every month. Kate@katebevanReplying to @edent@edent The idea is apparently that it's a surprise, tho choc, nice charcuterie,…
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This T47 drone was provided to me by RC Moment to review. A tiny, hand held drone, with blinkenlights, and SELFIE MODE! The 720p camera can record video as it flies, or turn around and snap a photo of you. It also has a range of SnapChat-style filters. Not bad for something costing £40. The motors and propellers fold away into the body of the drone - making it less prone to damage in …
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My mate Laura has written a book! She has very kindly sent me a review copy ahead of its release. The first thing to mention is that this is not a technical manual. There's the odd smattering of HTML in there - but this book is much more focussed on why accessibility matters and how to implement an accessibility positive culture - rather than which specific tags to use in your code. This is…
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A quick round up of the fascinating talks at the Hackaday London Unconference. This was a slight twist on the usual unconference format. There was only one room - so it was a single track event. There were three invited speakers who had presentations of 15 minutes - everyone else pitched for 7 minute slots. The organisers chose the running order. A twist on the usual unconference, but it worked …
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The good folk at Ailipu Technology have sent me a fist-sized USB camera to review. This is a cheap and simple way to get external video into a home server like a Raspberry Pi. This is the, slightly cumbersomely named, elp-usb100w05mt-dl36. What's in the box? The USB cable is around 5 metres long, and is wired into the camera. Four screws and rawlplugs are also included. Why? Because there…
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I've just bought an LG 360 - at £150, it's one of the cheapest dual lens cameras on the market. This an excellent bit of kit. Easy to use, impressive results, and an app which works pretty well. A single click button to take photos and videos, recording audio in surround sound, and perfect for uploading to Facebook or YouTube. Unlike most of the kit I review, I paid for this myself. I have no …
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