This is the second of my "Python Pals" short stories. They're designed to be solve-it-yourself puzzle stories to help kids learn the basics of programming. All feedback welcome! The Python Pals Write A Wrong Poppy's mother, Ada, was not happy. "I don't care about that," she shouted down the phone, "Why am I always the one who has to pick up the pieces?" She carried on ranting. Penny and…
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As part of the Parliament and Internet Conference, there was a panel discussion about 4G networks. These are my notes on the session. I've applied the Chatham House Rule - mostly because I can't remember who said what, rather than any backroom skulduggery. Any errors are mine and mine alone. Neither Vodafone nor EE have signed up to the Network Neutrality pledge. O2 have. (Disclaimer, I work …
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No one would have believed in the first years of the twenty-first century that the online world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences lesser than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various blogs they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a woman with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm…
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As mentioned earlier, I've been inspired by the Byte Brothers to create a mystery story which kids have to solve using their l33t h4x0r skillz in Python. This is loosely based on The Byte Brothers Go to a Getaway, by Lois and Floyd McCoy. My well-thumbed copy was printed in 1984. I'm not sure when I got it, but I remember being around 8 or 9 when I first started writing programs in BASIC. …
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I'm currently getting involved in the Coding For Kids scene. I'm setting up a workshop in my local library to teach kids programming - specifically, the MIT language Scratch. I've been left slightly dissatisfied with the unstructured nature of the Scratch teaching materials. While it's quite fun to teach a cat to dance - it doesn't seem to be building up to anything. I'm also working with…
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As we enter another NaBloPoMo - where I try to write a blog post each day in Novemeber - I thought I'd take a look back at how this blog has developed. On Friday, October 30, 2009, I switched on WordPress statistics so I could get a better idea of what was popular on my site. My average traffic back then was 80 visits per day. Not bad for a backwater blog. Since then, my writing has been…
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I want to clear up a small misunderstanding Yesterday, I Tweeted: Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edent#PICONF12 Andy Smith says "never use your real details online" - Martin Hewitt not looking best pleased. Nor the other MP in the room.❤️ 3💬 0🔁 009:50 - Thu 25 October 2012 In the space of a few hours, the story was on the BBC: And Slashdot: I was at the Parliament and Internet Conference yes…
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Facebook has been getting a lot of criticism for its lack of mobile revenue. A fact it tried to hide from its IPO. Much ink has been spilled, but is it really necessary for Facebook to worry? Here's a quick case study. Facebook has, in its infinite wisdom, decided that I would be interested in adverts for cancer. Or, perhaps, AXA have decided that 30 something males are a prime market. The …
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Last night, I attended Ada Lovelave Day Live. An inspirational and entertaining evening celebrating women in technology. One of the ways that people can get involved in Ada Lovelace day is be blogging about women in tech - I blogged in 2009 and 2010 but - to my shame - I didn't in 2011. So, here is a double post in penance :-) Mary Anning (21 May 1799 – 9 March 1847) First up, Mary Anning. I …
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One of the great things about publicly blogging for the last 5 years, is that I can remind myself of what I was doing this time last year. Or several years ago. The Terence Eden of October 2009 was a busy chap! 22 blog posts! What a guy :-) One post which caught my eye recently, was asking "What are the browser statistics for 10 Downing Street?" Here was their answer UK Prime…
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I love QR codes. I'm unashamed about that. I've helped business and charities use them effectively. I think QR codes are doing pretty well thank-you-very-much. Yet, for some reason, those little black and white squares are really divisive. Some people seem to hate them with an irrational and burning passion. Perhaps it's because QR codes are free to generate - so there's not huge profit in…
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tl;dr Buy fresh wasabi in the UK. It's amazing Fresh Wasabi? In The UK When I was at university, I moved into a shared student home with Liz (spoiler she became my wife several years later!). Liz was, and still is, quite the cook. However, her range of culinary equipment dumbfounded our house-mates. I once came in to the kitchen and witnessed a blazing row between her and someone who had…
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