Category Archives: Misc

Number stations – Low tech but high encryption

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Team Fortress 2 Spy by ~GraffitiWatcher : http://graffitiwatcher.deviantart.com/art/Team-Fortress-2-Spy-174849322

Team Fortress 2 Spy by ~GraffitiWatcher : http://graffitiwatcher.deviantart.com/art/Team-Fortress-2-Spy-174849322

Flipping through the frequencies and the different wave lengths was one of my favourite things to do as a kid. You are meant to be asleep, but you’ve got the transistor radio and a single ear phone plugged in.

I use to love getting the foreign stations and listening to the different languages, music styles and jingles. It was exotic and strange simultaneously.

Every now and then you would find some strange beeping, static that seemed to have a pattern or just numbers being spoken. These were the Number Stations.

Joe Molloy is a freelance technical consultant, project manager and writer, based in London, UK.

Joe helps start-ups and companies convert their vision and ideas into real world products and services. Joe specialises in helping companies get it done.

NeoLucida – New take on old tech

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Camera LucidaI can doodle badly. I have tried on a number of occasions to draw free-hand and it’s just not my bag. The last time I had to do any sort of live drawing was when I was a science teacher. To create pictures that meant something to the student and were easy enough to copy into their notes, I had to practice; a lot.

Now this item, called the NeoLucida, is a modern take on a very old bit of tech: the Camera Lucida.

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Joe Molloy is a freelance technical consultant, project manager and writer, based in London, UK.

Joe helps start-ups and companies convert their vision and ideas into real world products and services. Joe specialises in helping companies get it done.

Fold your geek T-shirts in five seconds

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I have just a small collection of geeky t-shirts and I always find it a PITA to fold them until I saw this technique. I’m favouring the second one from now on.

I showed my wife Sarah. She said she would be impressed if the technique meant it also got ironed and made its way up the stairs into my chest of draws.

Japanese version

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Joe Molloy is a freelance technical consultant, project manager and writer, based in London, UK.

Joe helps start-ups and companies convert their vision and ideas into real world products and services. Joe specialises in helping companies get it done.

Finally a folding bike I want

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I am a very lazy cyclist. If I cycle to work at all, I also have an Oyster card in my pocket too in case I can’t be bothered or I’m too tired to cycle home.

If I’m working at a client site where I can’t bring the bike inside, I do get worried about it. Why anyone would want to take a steel framed 15 year old bike is beyond me. More annoyingly if I don’t want to ride home, I can’t take it on the train or tube system unless it is a folding bike. OK fair enough we are packed in like sardines already.

I like the idea of the Brompton folding bikes but I would prefer a larger wheel size. Now there is in my opinion a candidate, the Montague Folding Military Bike

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Joe Molloy is a freelance technical consultant, project manager and writer, based in London, UK.

Joe helps start-ups and companies convert their vision and ideas into real world products and services. Joe specialises in helping companies get it done.

The Chair is the killer

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I watched last nights Horizon with much interest. I am a sedentary person and it worries me. I do a lot of sitting and although I do get up and move around its not always so. If I’m engrossed in a task, two hours can fly by and my back at this point rebels.

Remember “the chair is the killer, the chair is the killer.”

I will freely admit it, I hate the gym. My exercise routine is mostly the mile walk back from the child minders having dropped off my boy.

The program highlighted for me two fundamental beliefs that I adhere to. Science is essential to helping us make a better life for everyone and that one size really does not fit all.

If you didn’t see the program here is the gist:

  1. Not everyone responds well to prolonged aerobic exercise, to be exact there is ~20% of the population where it does no good whatsoever.
  2. A High Intensity Training regime of three 20 second burst of flat out cycling with a 20 second rest in between, three times a week is beneficial

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Joe Molloy is a freelance technical consultant, project manager and writer, based in London, UK.

Joe helps start-ups and companies convert their vision and ideas into real world products and services. Joe specialises in helping companies get it done.

Behind the scenes of the Games Makers

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The Apps for Good folks have now moved from the Bevenden Street Trampery site out to their new one at Mayer Street in Hackney.
 
I got to see what a Games Maker saw during their training as the building was used for their training. All of the rooms are named after previous Olympic cities and there is the 2012 colours everywhere.
 

Joe Molloy is a freelance technical consultant, project manager and writer, based in London, UK.

Joe helps start-ups and companies convert their vision and ideas into real world products and services. Joe specialises in helping companies get it done.