Nestled in a sleepy corner of a 12th Century church in Iffley, is this delightfully modern sculpture. A large knot carved out of stone and placed upon a plinth. Look carefully and at the top of the base you'll see a series of strange runes hewn into the rock. It was a soggy day - as they all are in Oxford - when we discovered it, so we didn't hang around too long to see if there was any…
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Welcome to my yearly NaBloPoMo - where I attempt to publish a new blog post every day in November. This year is likely to be challenging as I've just started a new job. As of last month, I am the Open Standards Lead at Government Digital Service - part of Cabinet Office. As ever, this blog is personal - and never reflects the views of my employers, past-, present-, or future! I am also now…
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Last year I published details of the BMW i3's API. I've now swapped my i3 for a Renault Zoe - so I thought I'd perform the same exercise. edent's Car@edent_car🔋 100%🚗 76 miles🔌 Plugged in⚡ Not charging⚠ Secured and Locked#RenaultZOE❤️ 1💬 0🔁 020:18 - Sat 15 October 2016 All these API calls can be found by using the Renault ZE Services website. I am indebted to this German blog post for kicking o…
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I've spent an entire year driving the BMW i3 Electric Car. This is a long-ish term review which is intended to reflect my experience with the car and the UK's charging infrastructure. I spent three days a week commuting between Slough and Oxford, on a mix of motorways and quieter streets. I drove all the way to Norwich and back, and made regular trips into London. The UK's charging…
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This is a sponsored post by LOPOO UK who've asked me to review their Oittm Bluetooth Realsound Speaker. Let's get one thing out of the way first, this is not the Amazon Echo! It's about the same size, shape, and design - but it has a very different purpose What's it for? This is a big Bluetooth speaker with integrated LEDs and microphone. At a basic level, you pair your phone with it and…
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After four fun-packed years of Digital Disruption, it's time for me to move on from The Lab at O2. I've had an amazing time, building 3D printers, charging phones from lemons, building paper-prototypes with unemployed people, finding all sorts of interesting security bugs, teaching kids to code, redesigning the nation's gas bills, creating holographic iPhone displays, speaking all over the…
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I never tire of telling people how bad my Nest Protect smoke alarm is. It is a buggy box which requires magic batteries and doesn't support some of its advertised features. Still, I've drilled it on to my ceiling now, so have to put up with it. This morning, I glanced bleary-eyed at my phone. OH FUCK! THE HOUSE IS ON FUCKING FIRE AND MY FUCKING NEST ISN'T WORKING! I sniffed the air. I…
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We all know what an email address looks like and how to validate them, right? A few years ago I got the Chinese domain name 莎士比亚.org. You can browse to it, link to it, and send email to it. Or can you? When I tried two years ago, none of the major email providers supported sending to non-ASCII email addresses. Today, I tried again with six of the big "Western" webmail providers. How did they…
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It is time for me to have a clear out. I've got hundreds of books which I've replaced with eBook, CDs which I never listen to, and DVDs I'm ashamed to own. Selling them individually on eBay or Amazon sounds like a lot of hard work... That's where Zapper and MusicMagpie come in. Both offer the same basic service: Scan the item's barcode with the app. The app makes you a cash offer for your…
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For a bit of light reading, I've been going through some of the documents published by Sir John Chilcot's Iraq Inquiry. There are thousands of Telegrams, eGrams, Teleletters, and other miscellaneous communications. For those unfamiliar with the jargon, the inquiry have helpfully published a guide to reading the evidence. In it is this delightful titbit about the timestamps used on telegrams. …
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If you've spent any time in a modern design environment, you'll be familiar with the idea of User Stories. As a first-time user, I want to log in with Facebook, so that I don't have to set up a new account. Fairly easy, right? Stick enough of those up on a wall and you've got yourself a party! If you've ever played an RPG or Roguelike game, you'll be familiar with how your character can…
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This morning I received an email which made my heart sink. In order to co-ordinate things better, we'd like to invite you to our exclusive Slack Channel! A variety of rude words danced around my brain. I think this makes the, what, 9th? 10th? Slack that I'm part of. Don't get me wrong, I like Slack as a service - but it only really works if you have One Slack Team To Rule Them All. I've just …
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