Sunday 2 October 2016

The Cloud for Your Parents

I realised that my parents probably didn't know what I did... I tried to explain Cloud terminology in easy terms... I put it all here; What Is 'The Cloud' (Part 1 - The Absolute Basics)

I still don't know if my parents understand what I do, but at least my wife does now.

Saturday 17 September 2016

Things I've Learnt About AWS ELBs

I'm going to get Evangelical on you now... If you use AWS, you probably use their Elastic Load Balancers (ELBs) and the chances are that if you use ELBs, you'll have used all the default settings when you created them and it just works... or at least it seems to just work.  If this is you, do me a favour and read this article I've put together.  You may know everything there is to know about ELBs in which case, you can point out all of the inaccuracies that I've inadvertently added, but for everyone else, it might just save your behind!

Sunday 21 August 2016

Wonder of Stuff 68 : Renewable Energy

With the news that the new Hinkley Point Nuclear Power Station decision nas been pushed back and with some interesting stats appearing regarding Renewable Energy, episode 68 of WoS discusses the topic of "How do we Keep the Lights On?".  So, when you're watching the next box set on TV, sending a Facebook message or simply switching on a light, have a quick thought about how (or indeed even if) we will to do this in 10 years time... and perhaps, if you're a little worried, you might watch this episode of WoS!


Wednesday 3 August 2016

Wonder of Stuff... What's Next?

Some of the more observant amongst you will have noticed that we haven't had an update for a few weeks.  The truth is that we've all been busy doing other things and as Richard mentioned to me tonight, the last episode with Andy David of Riversimple was so good, we need something of that standard, so that it doesn't appear to be an anticlimax... Well, we've decided that in order to do that, we need some of your help.  We need a guest!

If you or one of your friends has an interesting story or job related to Science, Engineering or Technology and is willing to spend an hour talking about it, we'd like to hear from you.  If you work in a lab, help build bridges, work in the NHS or anything that you feel may fit our general brief we'd genuinely be interested in having you on the show.  You may think it's not that interesting, but trust me, other people will be really intrigued!  So, if you want to be on the next episode, either drop us an email at wonderofstuff@gmail.com or send us a DM on Twitter and join the team!

Wednesday 20 July 2016

Wonder of Stuff 67 : Riversimple Special


Wonder of Stuff is a Vodcast (and Podcast) about Science, Engineering and Technology and anything else we find interesting.  In Episode 67 we talk about...

"Talking with Andy David, Software Lead at Riversimple"

If you like what we do, please SUBSCRIBE to us!  If you want us to discuss a subject email us at wonderofstuff@gmail.com or visit us at http://wonderofstuff.com.

Thursday 30 June 2016

Wonder of Stuff 66 : Science and Tech after Brexit | Stratolaunch | JUNO


Wonder of Stuff is a Vodcast (and Podcast) about Science, Engineering and Technology and anything else we find interesting.  In Episode 66 we talk about...

"What happens to the UK Tech and Science Industry when we leave the EU?"
"Stratolaunch Systems - Another Private Spacecraft"
"Sending JUNO to Jupiter"

If you like what we do, please SUBSCRIBE to us!  If you want us to discuss a subject email us at wonderofstuff@gmail.com or visit us at http://wonderofstuff.com.

Sunday 19 June 2016

GT08 Smartwatch Review... Part 2

In January 2016, I did a review of the GT08 Smartwatch, one of the cheapest Smartwatches that I had ever seen.  The original review is located here After I posted it, I received some more questions which I hadn't covered in the original review. This video is a response to those questions.


Sunday 12 June 2016

Wonder of Stuff 65 : Riversimple | MCR-1 | Tortoises In Space

Wonder of Stuff is a Vodcast (and Podcast) about Science, Engineering and Technology and anything else we find interesting.  In Episode 65 we talk about...

"Riversimple - The Hydrogen Car from Wales"
"MCR-1 - We're officially resistant to all Antibiotics"
"1968 - The year the USSR put tortoises around the moon" 


If you like what we do, please SUBSCRIBE to us!  If you want us to discuss a subject email us at wonderofstuff@gmail.com or visit us at http://wonderofstuff.com.

Sunday 22 May 2016

What's happening on the Wonder of Stuff...

So, I thought it was time again to update you all about what's been happening at the Wonder of Stuff. First off, I'd like to tell that episode 64 of WoS is out and on YouTube.  This is also available in an Audio only form so you can listen to it while at work and this also means that if the UK announce lower productivity figures in May, it's your fault!

Finally, we can announce that after one and a half years, WoS now has an official Twitter feed where we will be posting selected links and stories that we may not be able to cover on the show, but are nevertheless interesting. So please subscribe to us on YouTube and follow us on Twitter to let us know you're out there, even if you don't watch or listen every week.

Saturday 21 May 2016

Wonder of Stuff 64 : What's Under Antarctica?

Wonder of Stuff is a Vodcast (and Podcast) about Science, Engineering and Technology and anything else we find interesting.  In Episode 64 we talk about...

"What happens when life gets trapped under the Antarctican ice"

If you like what we do, please SUBSCRIBE to us!  If you want us to discuss a subject email us at wonderofstuff@gmail.com or visit us at http://wonderofstuff.com.

Saturday 7 May 2016

Wonder of Stuff 63 : Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies


Wonder of Stuff is a Vodcast (and Podcast) about Science, Engineering and Technology and anything else we find interesting.  In Episode 63 we talk about...

"Will the Real Inventor of Bitcoin Please Stand Up! "

If you like what we do, please SUBSCRIBE to us!  If you want us to discuss a subject email us at wonderofstuff@gmail.com or visit us at http://wonderofstuff.com.

Monday 18 April 2016

Wonder of Stuff 62 : Memory

Wonder of Stuff is a Vodcast (and Podcast) about Science, Engineering and Technology and anything else we find interesting.  In Episode 62 we talk about...

"Memory: Inside the Human Brain"

If you like what we do, please SUBSCRIBE to us!  If you want us to discuss a subject email us at wonderofstuff@gmail.com or visit us at http://wonderofstuff.com.

Thursday 7 April 2016

The End of Yahoo?

I started my Internet journey in the mid-nineties when I was at university.  For the first couple of years it was all about passing files around using FTP and Gopher, but then one day in my final year, the department IT technician announced; "I've installed a Browser on the Sparcs" and right there, the World Wide Web changed my life forever.  I learned HTML and it started my career.  I was introduced to some of my dearest friends because of it and I even found my wife through it.  

But on that very first day, when I fired up Mosaic 0.9a on the Sun workstations, the very first Web page I saw was that of Yahoo! and it looked like this...


Yahoo Screenshot

For the remainder of the nineties, Yahoo! was the search engine everyone used, yes there were sites like Excite, Lycos and Webcrawler but Yahoo! was the big one and I suspect that they, along when many other tech startups around that time, thought their rise was unstoppable.  But it wasn't.  For Yahoo!, three things happened; AltaVista (which amazingly ended up being bought by Yahoo! via the purchase of Overture), the bursting of the Dot Com Bubble and finally Google.  In the UK at least, they never really recovered from those occurrences and Yahoo! lost all market share within a couple of years.  The brand hung around this side of the pond only because they did licensing deals with people like BT to supply email services, but when those ended so did any hope of Yahoo! coming back into the UK.  They fared better in their heartland of the US, but even there the business was severely damaged.

So, why am I pouring my heart out into a computer about an old Search Engine company?  Why am I lamenting the poor management of an organisation who delivered an average Webmail service?  Well, the truth is I have a real soft spot for Yahoo!  They were around when I started in this industry and after I started designing Web apps.  I stole their top level classification shamelessly and built it into my designs.  Also, to be honest, I loved their slightly jovial logo... It was the first company I'd seen that were, outwardly, a bit fun and quirky.  I mean,  who would incorporate an exclamation mark into their branding?  Well at that time, nobody.
  I also have a sneaking admiration for the attempts they've made at pulling themselves out of the quagmire they found themselves in.  In 2007 they bought the Zimbra Mail and Scheduling platform (although I suspect it was to cream off skills to enhance their Mail service) and now, they have a really well presented set of apps for Android and IOS which are genuinely lovely looking pieces of design... but I suspect that all of this is too little too late and according to the latest news reports, it's going to be split up or sold on to Time Inc., Softbank or some other bunch of asset strippers.  

Now, you may think that I'm being unfair to Yahoo! and that CEO Marissa Mayer is starting to turn things round, but when you consider that Microsoft were prepared to pay around 44 billion USD in 2008 but today the core business is only worth around 2.5 billion USD, it does appear to be terminal this time.  So, you know the old adage; "It's better to burn out than to fade away"?  It appears that the fate of Yahoo! will very much be the latter and for a company which was a trailblazer at the start of the Web, that is a real tragedy.

Wednesday 6 April 2016

Wonder of Stuff 61 : Nicola Tesla | The State of Consumer VR


Wonder of Stuff is a Vodcast (and Podcast) about Science, Engineering and Technology and anything else we find interesting.  In Episode 61 we talk about...

"The Life and Times of Nicola Tesla"
"How the Oculus, HTC and others are impacting the Consumer"

If you like what we do, please SUBSCRIBE to us!  If you want us to discuss a subject email us at wonderofstuff@gmail.com or visit us at http://wonderofstuff.com.

Sunday 3 April 2016

Wonder of Stuff Stories we Haven't Covered...

Occassionally, we have more stories stockpiled than we can actually cover in the show.  This is especially the case now we've changed the format, so in order for you not to miss them, we've put the links to them below so you can read and inwardly digest in your own time! 

Medicine & Human Biology


Physics



Biodiversity & Biology



Genetics



Food Supply & Technology


Engineering
Space

Thursday 24 March 2016

Going Back In Time!

Last week was the 60th episode of the Wonder of Stuff, and by way of a celebration,  I thought it was time to take a trip back to where it all started; episode 1, 2 and 3 so you can point and laugh at how naive and poor our presentation skills were and how young we all looked (well it was 2014!)  #massageyourbrain #wonderofstuff

Episode 1
1) Rosetta and Philae (http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/)
2) Android Lollipop (http://www.android.com/versions/lolli...http://forum.xda-developers.com/showt...)
3) 1 in 200 men alive today are descendants of Genghis Khan (http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/ma...)
4) Sunspots and Sun Timelapse (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDYY...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_st...)
5) Algal virus that slows Brain function (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sci...)

Episode 2

1) Regin Spyware (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/...)
2) Space Engine - "a free space simulation program that lets you explore the universe in three dimensions, from planet Earth to the most distant galaxies." (http://en.spaceengine.org/)
3) The New Generation of Food Science Startups (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/bfa6fca0-5f...)
Impossible Foods: http://impossiblefoods.com/
Hampton Creek: http://www.hamptoncreek.com/
4) Solar Roadways (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Ro...)
5) A history of Computer Graphics (5 parts) - quality computer game nostalgia:
(https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE1j...)

Episode 3
1) Stephen Hawking and Artificial Intelligence
2) India's Space Endeavours/Orion Launch
3) The myth of the eight hour sleep and the World's Largest Solar Array

Sunday 20 March 2016

Episode 60, 20th March 2016 : Myths of Science



Wonder of Stuff is a Vodcast (and Podcast) about Science, Engineering and Technology and anything else we find interesting.  In Episode 60 we talk about...

"Solving some Scientific Myths"

If you like what we do, please SUBSCRIBE to us!  If you want us to discuss a subject email us at wonderofstuff@gmail.com or visit us at http://wonderofstuff.com.

The Wonder of Stuff Medicine Trilogy

For the last few weeks, the Wonder of Stuff has changed its format.  We've had a trilogy of shows covering; Medicine, Drugs and asking the question; Are we Entering a new Golden Age of Medical Science... possibly even a new Age of Enlightenment.  So, for your delectation we present the last three Wonder of Stuff shows below.  Also, if you would like to comment on them, please visit our Blog at http://www.wonderofstuff.com.







Tuesday 9 February 2016

Episode 57, 7th, February 2016 : Drugs and Medicine

Wonder of Stuff is a Vodcast (and Podcast) about Science, Engineering and Technology and anything else we find interesting.  In Episode 57 we talk about the following...

"Are we too Reliant on Prescribed Drugs?"

If you like what we do, please SUBSCRIBE to us!  If you want us to discuss a subject email us at wonderofstuff@gmail.com or visit us at http://wonderofstuff.com.

Sunday 31 January 2016

GT08 Smartwatch Review


This is my review of the GT08 Smartphone. Directly imported into the UK from China.

Purchased from: Wayforward Electronic Co., Ltd. through AliExpress (http://www.aliexpress.com/item/GT08-Bluetooth-Smart-Watch-Phone-with-SIM-Card-Slot-2MP-Camera-MTK6260A-SmartWatch-Support-TF-Card/32482846977.html)

Cost: 19 GBP (inclusive of Import Duty)

Time to Delivery: 14 working days

Monday 25 January 2016

Episode 56, 24th, January 2016 : Should we send Humans into Space?

Wonder of Stuff is a Vodcast (and Podcast) about Science, Engineering and Technology and anything else we find interesting.  In Episode 56 we talk about the following...

"Should we send Humans into Space?"

If you like what we do, please SUBSCRIBE to us!  If you want us to discuss a subject email us at wonderofstuff@gmail.com or visit us at http://wonderofstuff.com.

Tuesday 12 January 2016

Episode 55, 10th, January 2016 : Outernet | Our 2016 Predictions

So, the Wonder of Stuff is back with a bang and the very first episode for 2016 is now out!
Apart from a story about how Africa is getting Internet based data from Satellites, the rest of this episode is taken up with our mammoth 2016 predictions show! So, there's a bit of a look back at what we said would happen in 2015 and then we look to the future! Internet Street Furniture, Hoverboards, China, Cyber Attacks, Alternative Proteins, Drones, Nuclear Fusion, Driverless Vehicles, Tesla, Oculus Rift, Project Morpheus, 5G, Internet of Things, Smartwatches and a Bluetooth Hat, it's all there for your delectation... Start 2016 on a positive note and give your brain a massage!
Wonder of Stuff is a Vodcast (and Podcast) about Science, Engineering and Technology and anything else we find interesting.  In Episode 55 we talk about the following...

1) "Outernet - The New Face of Satellite Internet?"
2) "Our Predictions for 2016"

If you like what we do, please SUBSCRIBE to us!  If you want us to discuss a subject email us at wonderofstuff@gmail.com or visit us at http://wonderofstuff.com.

Sunday 3 January 2016

Episode 54, 20th December 2015 : Climate Change | Fracking | Painkillers


Wonder of Stuff is a Vodcast (and Podcast) about Science, Engineering and Technology and anything else we find interesting.  In Episode 54 we talk about the following...

1) "The Paris Climate Change Agreement" including "Hydricity - Solar & Hydrogen Power"
2) "Fracking"
3) "Painkillers"

If you like what we do, please SUBSCRIBE to us!  If you want us to discuss a subject email us at wonderofstuff@gmail.com or visit us at http://wonderofstuff.com.