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It's not often that you get to play with a computer which is smaller than its own plug! This is the Cubox from Solid-Run. An impossibly tiny PC which is pitched at the hobbyist and developer market. This will be a quick review based on half a day of mucking about with it. A Warning This is a toy for geeks. As such, there's lots of wandering around unmaintained Wikis, reading out-of-date…
Continue reading →toilet paper · 6 comments · 600 words · Viewed ~1,320 times
There was a fascinating article on HackerNews this morning about Japanese toilets. As someone who does his best thinking on the can, I've often wondered about "investing" in super Japanese-style loo seat. The problem is, once you factor in plumbing and electrical work, they cost around £800! That's a lot of cash to pay without first road testing something you're going to be using every day. …
Continue reading →Satire (Probably) usability USB · 1 comment · 550 words · Viewed ~729 times
What does the design of cables tell us about the men who invented them? Computer designers often strictly gender the components they create. The most obvious example is the motherboard - the central hub of the computer from which all electronic life descends. As well as circuit boards (often called daughter-boards) - cables are also subject to strict gender rules. The convention is that the…
Continue reading →BBC Interview · 150 words
While I was at the National Hack The Government hackday, I was interviewed by Chris Vallance - an amazing radio producer with the BBC. We spent quite a while talking about my findings of unsecured Government websites. It was a wide ranging chat, looking at spam, security, and the long term future of .gov.uk and .nhs.uk. He did a marvellous job of compressing it into a 5 minute piece which…
Continue reading →ble bluetooth energy hackday hacks necropost o2 · 850 words
This is a necropost - resurrected from the now defunct blog of a previous employer. Sadly, most of the photos have fallen down the memory hole. So use your imagination. Energy efficiency is the next battleground for electronics. As the price of electricity soars, people will become less and less enamoured with charging their devices every single day. Even if cold-fusion brings us unlimited…
Continue reading →android google tablet · 9 comments · 450 words · Viewed ~18,543 times
I've an interesting use-case, that I don't think is met by Android. I want my tablet to have access to my Google Play account but not have access to my emails. I recently acquired a cheap Android tablet to act as a remote control for my entertainment equipment. The tablet sits in my lounge where it can be accessed by all and sundry - my wife, guests, the plumber, etc. Occasionally, I want to…
Continue reading →democracy law Legislation · 3 comments · 600 words · Viewed ~263 times
Queen of the geek scene Emma Mulqueeny has recently been asked to sit on Speaker's Commission on Digital Democracy. They're currently soliciting for comments on the question: The system of laws and law-making in the UK is complex, but is that inevitable given the highly developed and interconnected society which laws regulate? Should you need to be a lawyer to understand and use an Act? You…
Continue reading →ebay Sponsored Post · 100 words
This post is sponsored by eBay. I've been asked by eBay to put together a series of collections. As an international trend-setter*, it is my sincere pleasure to gather up the best that eBay has to offer. For example, here is a collection dedicated to the Galaxy Note 3. It's a mixture of kit I've bought, or stuff that I really want. You can see all of my collections on eBay. *Well... …
Continue reading →Unsecured State · 1 comment · 700 words · Viewed ~256 times
It has been an intense few months digging through the security failings of the UK Government’s websites and trying to responsibly disclose them. It culminated with a week of blog posts exposing the vulnerabilities - and an award winning hackathon project. So what has been the reaction? The Good Privately, I've been contacted by people within the Civil Service who are working hard to make t…
Continue reading →hackathon hackday hacks rewired state Unsecured State · 1,000 words
What a crazy weekend! I made the last minute decision to attend Rewired State's "National Hack The Government 2014" hackathon. Rather than hack on any of the provided datasets, I wanted to work on an interesting way to present all the security flaws I had found in Government websites. I teamed up with Mark, Marcello, and Orlando - together we created "Corkr - Plugging the Government's Digital …
Continue reading →necropost o2 qr · 2 comments · 350 words
This is a necropost - resurrected from the now defunct blog of a previous employer. Sadly, the follow-up post has fallen down the memory hole. You can still read Sharon's response to it. Well, we can finally unwrap one of the little projects The Lab has been working on. Along with the Department of Energy and Climate Change we're aiming to stick QR codes on customers' energy bills. The…
Continue reading →bank co-op ux · 1 comment · 200 words · Viewed ~410 times
Having recently moved house, I have become very aware of which companies have modern back end systems. The most top-notch ones let me log on to their website, fill in a form, and all the address changes are made. A few required me to ring up and speak to a human being, which was a little annoying, but not the end of the world. Only one company insisted that I write them a letter. Co-Op…
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