One of the hardest things about attending conferences with multiple tracks is deciding which talk to go to. 👩🏻💻Karina Pencarski@kary_keyReplying to @hackferencebrum@hackferencebrum is breaking my heart, 2 amazing talks by @supersole with Servo and @etiene_d with my lovely Lua at the same time! #hf2016❤️ 2💬 1🔁 013:21 - Fri 21 October 2016 If your friends are talking opposite each other, it is pa…
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In September 2016, I was delighted to deliver this talk to ThingMonk 2016. This is the 20 minute distilation of my adventures Singing to my lightbulbs, hacking my vacuum cleaner, finding my car's source code, hacking my electric car, getting hacked by my light switches, securing my security cameras, and a whole host of other IoT nonsense. Huge thanks to Bennycrime for filming, and the whole…
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Imagine you have a series of number you wish to sort. Sorting is a well known computer science problem - generally speaking you compare one value to the next and then move the item either up or down a list. With "English" characters, that's fairly easy. When a computer sees the character 1 it's really seeing the Unicode character U+0031. When it sees 2 it's really seeing the character U+0032…
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The history of slavery and its devastating aftermath is too complex for a simple blog post, but I wish to draw your attention to how slave owners were compensated when slaves gained their freedom. And whereas, towards compensating the Persons at present entitled to the Services of the Slaves to be manumitted and set free by virtue of this Act for the Loss of such Services, His Majesty's most…
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I don't often venture into American politics. It is hard to know whether Trump is a master strategist - as Dilbert seems to think - or merely a chaos monkey. But, somehow, he seems to have stumbled on genius tactic. Trump has repeatedly called for Clinton to be thrown in jail. This has provoked a howl of rage from the liberal media elite. In a civilised democracy the victor simply doesn't…
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The best ideas occur while drunk, don't you agree? Having just attended the blisteringly brilliant Hackference Brum, a bunch of us were drinking in a pub and chatting about how focused on the future most conference are. There's rarely any time to reflect on the past. That got me thinking... Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edentGENIUS (drunk) idea. Retro conferences. Everyone turns up in 1970s…
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Oh noes! The computer science exams taken by 16 year olds may contain errors! BBC News Technology@BBCTechComputer science exam had coding errors bbc.in/2eHHa0Cbbc.co.ukSQA admits 'coding errors' in computer science examScotland's exam body admits to a series of mistakes in one of this year's computer science tests.❤️ 23💬 1🔁 007:14 - Mon 17 October 2016 As a professional computerist, I was intrig…
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I get to visit a fair few start-ups. Some are hopelessly idealistic (my favourites!) some are hopelessly cynical. Recently, I got to spend a few hours with a new "Quantified Self" start-up. For the sake of protecting the guilty - let's call them "Fronk." Fronk have decided that women are under-served in the wearables market. Their (male) CEO, (male) chief designer, (male) head of strategy,…
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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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