I'm using an old Android phone as a webcam. The camera lens is great, the DroidCam software is nifty, but the Android OS behind it is old and dying. My phone often needs rebooting. Which means that the app also needs restarting. The phone's screen faces away from me, so I can't interact with it. This is a quick guide (mostly notes to myself) about rebooting and starting an app from the command…
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Does the world need yet another film of Macbeth? And this one doesn't even have a shtick like setting it in a space station. And - to make matters worse - it's filmed in black and white, with a 4:3 aspect ratio. What is this, the Snyder cut?!?! And yet… it is perfect. Joel Coen's direction shows exactly what can be accomplished with a set that looks like it is out of a 1960s BBC dramatisation. S…
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Can you protect your home for £99? That's what this new X-Sense kit I've been sent claims to do. It's a LoRaWAN box with a claimed 2Km range for its variety of low-power sensors. The kit comes with two Infrared motion sensors, and four door / window sensors. Here's what it looks like: What's in the box? The base station is an anonymous white box, with a small speaker grille at the back and a …
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London is slowly opening up - and TodayTix had tickets for half-price. So I thought me and my girl would go on a date! Nestled at UNIT HQ - just by Bond Street station - is an brilliant immersive theatre experience. This isn't like Secret Cinema - too many people in desolate wasteland queuing up for over-priced drinks from bored vendors. Instead, it's a cosy and tightly controlled experience,…
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I have a new job! Yay and Hurrah! One of the best things about the new team is they have an internal wiki detailing what they do, with comprehensive information for new starters. I can't begin to tell you how useful this was. In my opinion, every team in every workplace should have something like this. Before I even started, it had told me what I needed to know about the team, their priorities, …
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I love Mindustry. It's like an open source version of Factorio - defend a base and build huge sprawling factories. One of the constraints is the limited number of resources on some levels. You need silicon to make alloy. But to get silicon, you need sand and coal. But what if you don't have sand and coal? Similarly, you need oil and titanium to make plastanium. But you might not always have…
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When I was young, I had a piggy bank. A piggy bank is incredibly secure. It's fairly big - so it is hard to lose. It is brightly coloured - so you can find it easily. No one else can see how much money there is in there. The only way to get money out is to smash it - providing visible evidence if someone has robbed you. And smashing makes a noise - deterring would-be thieves. A piggy bank is…
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Drawing on unseen and iconic material from the BBC archive and private collectors, The Vault is an unforgettable journey through 50 years of Doctor Who, via carefully selected photographs, props, costumes designs, production memos, letters, scripts and more. This is the full and official story of Doctor Who, from the first pre-production memos in 1963 to the most recent props created for the…
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I started working for Vodafone in the early 2000s, just about the time they paid billions for their 3G licences. As "exciting" new phones were launched, teams were desperately trying to recoup that spending. It led to an explosion of profitable ideas - Ringtones! Games! Premium SMS! Adult video clips! - but I want to talk about something which didn't make quite the same impact. Video calling. …
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There is a thoroughly modern story coming out of Ireland: Drones are being used routinely around Irish racecourses to take advantage of a short time lag between broadcast footage of events and the action on the ground. Even this small delay allows gamblers take advantage of changes to so-called “in-running” betting odds, if say a horse begins to struggle, jumps awkwardly, o…
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Twenty-Twenty-Two is Twenty-Twenty-NEW. Yup - time for me to regenerate into a new job. To recap - five years ago, I started at GDS in the Open Standards Team. Two-and-a-bit years later, I took a 6 months secondment to NHSX to do Open Standards. Eighteen months later, they finally let me go. I joined the Data Standards Authority to do - you guessed it - Open Standards! I've been banging on…
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I've moved to s a standing desk. So now, obviously, I need something useful to do with my feet! It's time for a USB powered set of foot pedals! They're between £20 - £40 depending on what the algorithm think you'll pay. The USB cable is about 2 metres long - which is just about adequate for me. The switches have little tactile nubs on them and are well sprung. These aren't Cherry MX quality s…
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