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Presented at 28C3 by Cory Doctorow:
Freedom in the future will require us to have the capacity to monitor our devices and set meaningful policy on them, to examine and terminate the processes that run on them, to maintain them as honest servants to our will, and not as traitors and spies working for criminals, thugs, and control freaks.
Read the transcript by Joshua Wise
Watch the talk on YouTube
Posted in Tech
Hipstamatic has released it’s latest iPhone App; the Hipstamatic D Series. In this case, ‘D’ stands for disposable. In today’s digital world, where we connect more frequently online than we do offline, this is Hipstamatic’s attempt at reinventing the fun of the disposable camera. I must admit, I’m quite excited.
Posted in Tech
I wanted to find out what calls an iPhone App was making to its supporting website. Specifically, I wanted to re-use some of the API calls it was making in one of my own projects. It turns out that you can spy on your iPhone Apps without too much difficulty.
I used SquidMan which is a graphical front-end to the Squid proxy. The process is fairly simple:
This should be enough for most of you, but for more detail, and screenshots, read on.
Posted in Tech
With no public documentation for the ChinesePod API, I set out to identify the sequence of API calls required to retrieve lessons. The API is very much a work in progress and these calls may change. But until they do, feel free to use my research below to get yourself up and running.
http://chinesepod.com/oauth/request_token
http://chinesepod.com/oauth/authorize?oauth_token=1cd233ac7212009a199be7e7b25a605a
http://chinesepod.com/oauth/authorize/1cd233ac7212009a199be7e7b25a605a
http://chinesepod.com/oauth/authorize/1cd233ac7212009a199be7e7b25a605a/1
http://chinesepod.com/oauth/access_token
http://chinesepod.com/api/course/getUserCourses?count=10&page=0&lastitem=0&format=json
http://chinesepod.com/api/lesson/getUserLessons?status=active&service=lesson&count=20&page=0&lastitem=0&format=json
http://chinesepod.com/api/lesson/getLesson?format=json&id=1796
http://chinesepod.com/api/lesson/getLesson?format=json&id=1794
http://chinesepod.com/api/tool/getFlashcard?format=json&count=100000
http://chinesepod.com/api/user/logout-for-iphone?a_token=4f405fd2cb805e09898066d056419cf2
I have managed to test these API Calls using the oauth-proxy and will document the request response cycles in further detail as I make use of them in an upcoming project.
Watch this space.
Posted in Tech
Just over a month ago I was asked to be part of the AlertMe Panel. As a Panel member I was sent a free AlertMe Smart Energy Kit and SmartPlug (£49.99, £25.00), and a one year subscription to the service (£1.99/month). In return I’ve been asked to take part in three or four challenges throughout the year. I should probably point out that I’m not obliged to write about my experiences but have chosen to do so as I’ve been watching the company for a while and find it hard to ignore anything that involves collecting data about the world around us.
With many of the utility companies in the UK trying to stamp their mark on the smart energy market, it is going to take something different for a non-provider like AlertMe to corner a significant market. Google (an AlertMe partner) tried, but only recently abandoned it’s attempt to collect home-energy data when they decided to retire their PowerMeter API.
Posted in Tech
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