20 June 2020
Review of Seeed Grove Components
A review of some of Seeed's Grove components (16x2 LCD Display, LED Button, 1m Waterproof LED Lightstrip) from Arduino Nano and micro:bit (using MakeCode).
17 November 2019
Compiling Dart to Native Executables for Windows, Linux and macOS with GitHub Actions
Dart v2.6 includes support for compiling Dart scripts to native executables for Windows, Linux and macOS. There's currently no cross-compilation but cloud services like GitHub Actions can be used to easily generate executables for each platform.
11 July 2017
Dart Code v2 - Now with Flutter debugging and hot reload!
In addition to command line programs, Dart Code now supports full debugging of Flutter mobile applications including hot reload and device switching!
03 February 2017
I found a ridiculous bug in YouTube and seem unable to successfully report it :(
I found a bug that results in a huge number of 404s from YouTube descriptions on the mobile website but have had no joy reporting it to Google.
27 January 2017
Simple Dart code to tweet using OAuth
Last year I blogged about some simple C# to post tweets. I converted that code to Dart for easier running on my Raspberry Pi.
06 January 2017
Visiting a site that uses Disqus comments when not logged in sends the URL to Facebook
I was surprised to see the Facebook SDK being loaded in the network tab on my blog when I don't have any Facebook buttons. It turned out to be coming courtesy of Disqus. No wonder Facebook knows everywhere you go!
02 December 2016
Using Alexa (Amazon Echo) to Preheat my Renault ZOE and check Battery Status
With only a small amount of code I was able to connect Alexa up to Renault ZE Services via Amazon AWS Lambda to control the car with my voice.
07 July 2016
Simplest C# code to post a tweet using OAuth
I recently needed to post tweets programatically and found myself lost in a maze of OAuth and bloated Twitter libraries so decided to see what was the simplest code I could create to post tweets using OAuth.
25 June 2016
HTML5 Pong in 20min with C#/Bridge.NET
I had a quick go at creating a simple Pong game using Bridge.NET to run in the browser. It took around 20 min for basic functionality and scoring/countdown timer.
12 June 2016
DaChip8JS - My C# Chip-8 Interpreter running in the browser
Using Bridge.NET I was able to easily get my Chip-8 interpreter running in the browser (and working on mobile!)
11 June 2016
Building a Chip-8 Interpreter in C#
I'm trying to build a NES emulator but since I've got a little stuck on the rendering code I decided to have a break and try something far simpler first!
29 May 2016
Running Go on a Chromebook in Developer Mode (without installing Linux)
Here are some instructions on how you can run the Go on a Chromebook in Developer Mode without having to install Linux or use Crouton! :)
08 May 2016
Easy JavaScript and CSS bundling and minification on GitHub Pages without build steps
Build steps to bundle your JavaScript and CSS on a small static site hosted on GitHub Pages suck, especially if you like to tweak things directly in the GitHub web app. Here's a better way.
26 April 2016
Have Software Developers Given Up?
Over the last month I've had so many 'fails' from (mostly) large companies that my twitter timeline has started to read like failblog. Have we given up?
23 April 2016
Removing [action 'action 17' suspended] rsyslog Spam on Raspberry Pi (Raspian Jessie)
My Raspberry Pi's syslog is full of this from rsyslog, caused by it writing to /dev/xconsole. It bugged me enough to find out what was causing it and terminate it.
09 April 2016
Setting up Automatic Updates on Raspberry Pi (Raspian Jessie)
Logging into machines and updating them periodically isn't fun but for internet-exposed devices it's important. Here's how I set up unattended updates on my Raspberry Pi.
08 April 2016
Setting up a Raspberry Pi (Raspian Jessie) to send Email
There are a bunch of things on Linux that send emails by default (for example, the output of Cron jobs). Here's how I set mine up to pass those emails on to a real email address.
04 March 2016
Installing Lighttpd, PHP 7 and LetsEncrypt on a Raspberry Pi (Raspbian Jessie Lite)
I have a friend wanting to set up PHP 7 and HTTPS on his Raspberry Pi who was having trouble beause a lot of these aren't in the main Raspbian apt repos so I thought I'd see how hard it was...
15 December 2015
My Week in a Tesla Model S P85
For the last 9 months I have been driving a Renault ZOE EV, but as part of Chargemasters POLAR Plus EV Experience I had the opportunity to drive a Tesla Model S P85 for a week. I took some photos and wrote up some notes on how I found it.
20 September 2015
Simple Windows utility to act as default browser and launch different browsers based on domain
I created a small utility that you can set as your default web browser in Windows and tell it which (real) browsers to launch for which domains; useful if you have some web apps that only work in one browser.
27 July 2015
Response from CYC
I recently blogged about poor experiences using the CYC network (mostly GMEV chargers) and sent the post to CYC. Today CYC responded.
25 July 2015
GMEV and CYC - The UKs Awful Recharging Network
We've had our electric vehicles for over three months now. We love them and wouldn't change them for anything. However, there's one charging network that has continually let us down, with not a single painless charging session across all our attempts to use them. That network, is CYC.
30 December 2014
How to Get Email Notifications of Xbox Live Games with Gold and Deals with Gold
Gold members of Xbox Live get free games each month (Games with Gold) and special offers each week (Deals with Gold). Here's how to get email notification each time they change to make sure you don't miss them!
06 November 2014
Using Inbox by Gmail with IMAP or from a Google Apps or non-Gmail email account
Google recently launched Inbox by Gmail. Like all new Google Products, if you're a Google Apps user, you've been excluded with no indication from Google for how long. Here's a simple workaround.
29 October 2014
Have the Angular Team lost their marbles?
I've posted before that I'm not a big fan of frameworks like Angular, however recent information about Angular's future only makes me hold my head in my hands even more...