Five years ago, I wrote that I had 30 connected devices at home. How has that changed over the last half-decade? Some of my devices have consolidated. My Eufy security cameras have a hub - so despite having more cameras, They're using fewer IP addresses. Similarly, I've replaced most of my LIFX bulbs with Zigbee which also use a hub-and-spoke model. So these are the devices I currently have connected: Video Doorbell Solar Battery LIFX bulb in external light Security camera EInk display…
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How well does SIP work on a modern Android phone, with no 3rd party apps? I'm trying to give up my mobile phone contract. As part of that, I'm switching my voice calls to VoIP providers. For family and friends, that usually means WhatsApp, Skype, Signal and other consumer apps. For work, Hangouts, Zoom, and Skype. But what about "normal" people who just want to dial a PSTN number? And what about "abnormal" people who want to dial my VoIP directly? These are my experiments using the OnePlus…
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Previously, on the Terence Eden Adventures: I accidentally won a load of vinyl on eBay, and I bought the cheapest record player I could find. The record player has USB output. So I shoved it into a Rock Pi S - an SBC similar to a Raspberry Pi - to broadcast vinyl all over my house via ChromeCast! Here's how. Detect the audio Install alsa-utils if they're not already present. Find your hardware with arecord -l One of the outputs should be: card 2: Microphone [USB Microphone], device…
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ISPs suck. They're designed to. The A in ADSL stands for "Asymmetric". That is, your download speed is faster than your upload speed. This makes sense for most domestic purposes. Most people suck down a lot more than they push up. But we've now entered the (permanent?) work-from-home era. If you're anything like me, you're spending more time broadcasting video than you ever did before. It's painfully obvious when you're stuck on a video call with someone who has restricted upload speeds.…
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Way back in the 1990s, the word "Netizen" was coined. I always took it to mean "someone who lives on the Internet". In modern times, the neologism has been superseded with "webizen". I find this an interesting development. It is well known that people often confused the Net with the Web. Hence the need for these "explanatory" t-shirts: Of course, the original meaning of Netizen was something quite different. Netizens are the people who actively contribute online towards the…
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I rediscovered an curious Tweet from 2012: adam kinsley@adamkinsleyInteresting that Arqiva point out that fastest legal use of Internet probably only requires 2.5MBPs. Reliability key #commsreview❤️ 2💬 3🔁 009:34 - Wed 04 July 2012 That was a reasonable - if incorrect - assumption at the start of the decade. Streaming TV was in its infancy, and it was ridiculous to suggest that people might want to broadcast from home. But now... Netflix expects around 25Mbps for its HD video. Google's Stadia …
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I, unironically, love Reddit. But it's just USENET with a better UI, and a few moderation improvements. Most days I use DropBox. But it's just FTP, but a bit easier to use and automate. I waste a lot of time on Slack. When I explain it to old-school nerds, I say it's IRC - but developed by someone who gives a damn about user experience. Most people in the world don't have access to WWW. Instead, they use Facebook which gives them a much simpler way to post photos and share their thoughts. It …
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The ridiculous proliferation of TLDs (Top Level Domains) continues unabated. I wondered how much you'd have to spend to secure your name on every TLD. tl;dr;tld Over $300,000! (Roughly €280.000 / £245,000.) But... This estimate is pretty rough. A few caveats: This only covers one version of your domain name - it doesn't cover misspellings. I've assumed a single year of registration. Some domains give discounts for multiple years, or only offer multi-year registration. Some TLDs have a di…
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The ultra secure messaging app, Signal, requires a mobile phone number in order to sign up to it. This, as my friend Tom Morris, points out, is madness. People don't own mobile phone numbers. They are rented from mobile operators. Yes, you may be able to move "your" number between a limited set of providers - but it ultimately doesn't belong to you. An operator can unilaterally take your number away from you. If you move to a different country, you will almost certainly have to change your…
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The Internet Fridge is a standing joke among technologists. I was writing about them in 2002, and they still haven't appeared! So I'm going to show you how I built one. Stop giggling at the back! All I want is for my fridge to notify me if the door has been left over for more than a minute. I'm building this with an Onion Omega2 - but you could just as easily use a Pi Zero or any other board. Design This should be simple (as all complicated stories start): When the fridge door is…
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A former advisor to the Prime Minister was recently convicted on charges of downloading indecent images of underage girls. I don't want to go into detail about whether or not his punishment is adequate, but I would like to talk about this curious remark made by the Judge during his sentencing: beginning today and lasting for two years, you are prohibited from using any device capable of accessing the internet unless it has the capacity to retain and display the history of internet use and you …
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Nominet has, after much prevaricating, launched its latest money grubbing venture plan to revolutionise the UK Internet industry. Rather than having fusty old example.co.uk or example.org.uk businesses can go straight for example.uk - Mind = BLOWN! There are, of course, some obvious downsides to this plan. It's always been the case that people could register misspellings of domains and snaffle up all the email which was misdelivered. Nominet is just doing their best to make it a little…
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