The problem with RSS and feeds I like RSS as a concept, but, where I've seen it used, it's always felt like it's missing one thing; the ability to dynamically limit the audience of some posts. This isn't an inherent problem in RSS, but more how it's been used as an all-or-nothing syndication method. While... Continue Reading →
London Commuting; Already badly broken and doesn’t seem to be getting any better
My first experience of Commuting into London was nearly two decades ago. It wasn't something I've ever particularly enjoyed (unlike some who find it's a great reading opportunity), but it generally did the job of getting me from where I'd chosen to live to where I'd chosen to work. After about 5 years I left... Continue Reading →
Feedback – Take it, but also rate it.
Something I've seen over the (several) years I've been working in tech is a lack of understanding that feedback has differing levels of value. Sometimes this goes to the extremes of feedback that's ignored because it's come from a person or group which has consistently provided low value feedback, or groups which don't get a... Continue Reading →
Peercache – locally shared caches of build dependencies
The idea Currently most build systems have two sources for build dependencies; A remotely hosted source (e.g. maven central, internal build cache on a server), or a local on-disk cache, but many development groups have another potential source which doesn't seem to be being used at the moment; other developers on the same LAN, which... Continue Reading →
Open Sourcing the Enterprise Password Safe
Some of those who know me may have heard me talk about an Enterprise Password Safe product which I built and worked on from the mid-2000's up until shortly before joining Facebook. Now I've left Facebook and I've been looking over my old repos and realised that it's a project that could benefit from being... Continue Reading →
Raspberry Pi Zero Bitcoin “Wallet”
A few weeks ago I tweeted to see if anyone had put a Raspberry Pi Zero W and a PaPiRus eInk display together to make a Bitcoin Wallet. Unfortunately there were no responses, so I thought I'd see what I could do.... fortunately the answer was quite a lot... First off the warning; This setup... Continue Reading →
Importing Devices
I've often wondered if people who recommend importing devices which are only available in specific countries realise it's a self-defeating practice. Companies monitor sales through channels, they don't know where the end customers are. So if, for example, there's a product only available in US, and you buy it from a US-based supplier, the company... Continue Reading →
Oh Hai
Time to play 🙂
Google Play Edition Devices
So in the last couple of months Google have released the Google Play Edition HTC One, the PE Samsung S4, Nexus 7 (2013 edition), ChromeCast, and the MotoX all only in the US, adding to +Google Glass's continued US-only availability. If you go beyond hardware there's things like Voice, All Access Music, and I'm sure... Continue Reading →
Leaving OUYA
Nearly 8 months ago I met with a few software engineers working from some rented desks in San Francisco. They were the +OUYA engineering team. We talked, they took me through their interview process. I also had a meeting with Julie Uhrman, after which I went from being a believer that it could happen to... Continue Reading →