At a science-fiction convention, you queue for hours to hear a bit-part actor describe what it was like on the set of a forgotten sci-fi show. At a science-fact convention, you have a beer with a person who is literally changing the world with a laser cutter, some diodes, and a smattering of Python. Welcome to ElectroMagnetic Field! (I've stolen the subtitle from Ken MacLeod's description of Charles Stross's story Dechlorinating the Moderator.) I'm not one for camping. Or doing anything in a …
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My mobile provider - Three UK - offers WiFi calling, but only if you have a phone purchased directly from them. For everyone else, they have a crappy app which hasn't been updated in two years. So, let's break out of their artificial restrictions and get some WiFi calling on the OnePlus 5T! Step-by-step Open your phone dialler app. Dial *#800# You don't need to press send, you should automatically be taken to this engineering menu Touch the top menu item "oneplus Logkit" Scroll to the…
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Spotted in London, yesterday. A large, Microsoft Windows-powered advertising hoarding has been hijacked. It's not uncommon to see broken-down Windows displays - I run https://windowsisbroken.tumblr.com/ - which is dedicated to pointing and laughing at such mistakes. But this is the first time I've seen a display repurposed for profit! It appears to be running NiceHash Miner Legacy. A BitCoin mining program for older computers. I'm sure someone cleverer than me can figure out which…
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Amazon Alexa is a fun little bit of kit. But it can be tricky getting it to work with all your smart devices. Not every company has an Alexa skill - just like not every company has an app. Using Flask-Ask it is possible to bring Alexa smarts to a range of previously mute devices. Alexa coding works on "intents" - the following is a simple intent. That is, you can only ask the skill one thing. No state is maintained, no multiple commands to get right, no complexity. This gets information…
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Many years ago, when Foursquare was still cool, I built an app to let people check into chocolate bars. You know, "@edent is eating a Wonka Bar classic. 4/5?" It was a quick and dirty hackday project. Ever since, I've had the hankering to build something a bit more generic. I currently use Untappd to check into beer and Vivino for wine. I'd like to be able to check in to: Artwork Boardgames Cheese ... Things beginning with "D"...? So, here's my half-day hack to make that happen. Code…
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Just me scratching my own itch. I want to create an RSS feed of all the blog posts which I'd published on this day in the past. For example, if today is 21st of November 2016 then this plugin will show blog posts written on 2015-11-21 2014-11-21 2013-11-21 And so on. You can view a demo at https://shkspr.mobi/blog/on_this_day Code The code is pretty simple. The WordPress API is fairly easy to get on with. /* Plugin Name: OnThisDay Description: RSS feed of posts which occurred on…
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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 ThingMonk team. If you'd like me to speak at your conference, please get in touch. A selection of …
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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 off this work. I'd also like to thank Renault for their "esoteric" use of JavaScript! What's Availa…
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As regular readers know, I've turned a BLE Beacon into a wireless business card. Physical Web used the Bluetooth beacon standard to continually broadcast not an ID number, but a URL. If you're in my proximity, you can grab my contact details. The one problem with the beacon I have is that it has an exposed button. Every time it got bumped in my pocket, the token would emit a couple of shrill beeps and set itself into config mode. After a couple of months, the CR2032 battery died. …
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I like to tinker. My wife picked me up the new Raspberry Pi Zero. It's an ultra small and ridiculously cheap computer. How small and cheap? They give it away free on the cover of magazines... Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edentIf you hurry down to WHSmith in Oxford, there are still a few @TheMagP1 copies left.❤️ 3💬 0🔁 208:10 - Fri 27 November 2015Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edentReplying to @edentIn related news, @summerbeth is the best wife of them all! #PiZero pic.x.com/utsf2m13jo❤️ 11💬 1🔁 00…
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Many years ago, as I was wandering around the Louvre, I came across a painting which bore an uncanny resemblance to me! Spooky, eh? Yeah, yeah, it's not the greatest likeness ever, but people who know me seem to think I look like the chap on the left. This got me thinking... Wouldn't it be great if when you entered an art gallery, a computer could tell you which painting you look most like? Well, I think it would be great. This is my blog, so what I say goes! Getting The Data I'm using …
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Perhaps the most legendary piece of plastic in the hacker community is the humble "Cap'n Crunch" whistle. The free-in-cereal whistle was able to emit a piercing shriek at 2600Hz - the exact tone required to unlock the US phone network. So, because it's all I seem to do these days, I turned my my trusty RepRapPro and decided to see whether it was possible to 3D print a whistle which could produce the same frequency. I found a customisable whistle on Thingiverse and customised it to include…
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