NaBloPoMo · 1 comment · 250 words
Digital technology allows us to seamlessly share media with no degradation. Well, that's the theory - the reality is more complicated. This low quality gif is doing the rounds again. The HD version is easily available - but there appears to be something more "real" about low quality. It keeps being shared on social media - one Tweet currently has around 45 thousand likes. Here's the…
Continue reading →BBC BBC Interview maslow NaBloPoMo solar · 250 words · Viewed ~376 times
A few weeks ago, I had a delightful chat with the BBC about our solar battery storage. You can watch it on iPlayer starting about 7m 30s in. Community battery technology is here. It is feasible. And it just works. The solar panels on our roof generate more power than we can use - so we store it and share the rest. Yes, even in rainy England, solar panels work! Storage is expensive now -…
Continue reading →energy future ideas internet of things IoT NaBloPoMo · 2 comments · 500 words · Viewed ~350 times
A bit of future-gazing which I can't be bothered spinning into a 15,000 word Gartner report. In the UK we have a competitive electricity market. Only one set of wires comes to your house, but you can buy your electricity from a number of providers. Some only offer organic, corn-fed, Wind Farm power - others promise price stability - another gives you a discount at their electric car chargers -…
Continue reading →browser NaBloPoMo web · 1 comment · 400 words
I spent 15 years in the mobile phone industry - working variously for big mobile operators, with phone manufacturers, and consulting with industry groups. I say this not to brag, but to let you know that I have experience with these matters. Web browsers are often called a User Agent. They are a software agent acting on behalf of their user. So what happens when the browser acts against the…
Continue reading →design logo NaBloPoMo · 2 comments · 200 words · Viewed ~362 times
A little mathematical / spatial / design problem I've been having. I have an icon which, depending on the user's preference, can be inside a square or a circle. Is it possible for it to be centred in both? Here's a visual example. On the left is the AirBnB logo centred in a square. When the background is turned into a circle, the logo appears to "drop" - the bottom of the logo is closer to the …
Continue reading →HowTo NaBloPoMo programming python tutorial · 1 comment · 200 words · Viewed ~3,482 times
As ever, mostly notes to myself. I have a bunch of old images which don't have any timestamp associated with them. This quick Python script will add a DateTime EXIF metadata tag to an image. This uses piexif which can be installed using pip install piexif This simple script reads a photo, adds a timestamp, then saves a copy of the new photo. from PIL import Image from PIL.ExifTags import…
Continue reading →alexa Amazon api battery hack NaBloPoMo solar · 450 words · Viewed ~248 times
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…
Continue reading →NaBloPoMo startups · 7 comments · 450 words · Viewed ~26,554 times
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…
Continue reading →flag i18n NaBloPoMo · 27 comments · 850 words · Viewed ~21,712 times
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 …
Continue reading →NaBloPoMo security ui ux · 12 comments · 1,400 words · Viewed ~5,428 times
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 …
Continue reading →emoji linux png svg twitter · 2 comments · 400 words · Viewed ~664 times
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…
Continue reading →ring spinner zonto · 400 words
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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