Exeter, England
Scientist, Author, Hacker and Tinkerer
Areas of Expertise:
- Objective-C
- iPhone
- Perl
- Astronomy
- Sensors
- Arduino
- consulting
- speaking
- programming
- training
- writing
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Recent Posts | All O'Reilly Posts
Alasdair blogs at:
http://www.dailyack.com
http://radar.oreilly.com
http://strata.oreilly.com
April 05 2013
My latest book, my first not talking about iOS and writing code for the iPhone and iPad, just went to press. It's called Distributed Network Data and it's hardware hacking for Data Scientists. It's the book of the +Data Sensing Lab and arrives just in time for this year's +O'Reilly Strata in Santa Clara, which… read moreApril 03 2013
I've been planning to leave academia for some time, but kept on putting it off. Unlike the U.S. where tenure is a thing pursued vigorously by the great and the good, here in the U.K. at least it has long gone to dust. But my job was as permanent as… read moreMaking money faster than you can type
February 21 2013
The 3Doodler is a 3D printer, but it's a pen. This takes 3D printing and turns it on its head... In fact the 3Doodler rejects quite a lot of what most people would consider necessary for it to be called a 3D printer. There is no three axis control, there is in… read more3D printing from your fingertips
February 21 2013
The 3Doodler is a 3D printer, but it’s a pen. This takes 3D printing and turns it on its head … In fact the 3Doodler rejects quite a lot of what most people would consider necessary for it to be … read moreThe black rectangle won't last as long as the beige box
February 13 2013
It looks like putting #Linux on #Microsoft's new #Surface is going to be an up hill struggle. I was actually expecting that... The era of the commodity beige box is coming to an end, and the days of the general purpose computer are almost over. Most people never needed or wanted a… read moreFebruary 03 2013
I think a lot about the future, and because of that I've gained somewhat of a reputation for making good predictions. This is a characteristic I share with prophets, messiahs and other ne'er-do-wells. I'm not entirely sure what to think about that. However one of the problems with making predictions… read moreYou don't have to be awesome all the time...
February 02 2013
In her post talking about the public-ness of mourning after the death of Aaron Swartz, Danah Boyd writes "...we’ve created communities connected around ideas and actions, relishing individualistic productivity for collective good. But we haven’t created openings for people to be weak and voice their struggles and demons." Geek culture is, at least… read moreThe inevitability of smart dust
January 08 2013
I’ve put forward my opinion that desktop computing is dead on more than one occasion, and been soundly put in my place as a result almost every time. “Of course desktop computing isn’t dead — look at the analogy you’re drawing … read moreSeptember 06 2012
Over the weekend the hacker group Antisec released one million UDID records that they claim to have obtained from an FBI laptop using a Java vulnerability. In reply the FBI stated: The FBI is aware of published reports alleging that … read moreMining the astronomical literature
August 15 2012
There is a huge debate right now about making academic literature freely accessible and moving toward open access. But what would be possible if people stopped talking about it and just dug in and got on with it? NASA’s Astrophysics … read moreAugust 03 2012
We may be living in the future, but it hasn’t entirely worked out how we were promised. I remember the predictions clearly: the 21st century was supposed to be full of self-driving cars, personal communicators, replicators and private space ships. … read moreTertiary data: Big data's hidden layer
March 19 2012
Big data isn't limited to multi-terabyte datasets or data markets. It also includes the hidden data you carry with you all the time and the growing data on your movements, contacts and social interactions. read moreSeptember 28 2011
While you'll likely interact with your smartphone tomorrow in much the same way you interacted with it today, it's quite possible that your smartphone will interact with the world in a very different way. The next mobile war has already begun. read moreJune 16 2011
From custom chips, to the data centers backing its new iCloud effort, Apple is committed to controlling the end-user experience. The web has no place in their vision. read moreMay 19 2011
Those evangelizing the revolutionary qualities of "the next big thing" (whatever it may be) would do well to revisit past "big things." Truth is, computing goes in cycles. read moreThe secret is to bang the rocks together
May 13 2011
Every so often a piece of technology can become a lever that lets people move the world, just a little bit. The Arduino is one of those levers. read moreGot an iPhone or 3G iPad? Apple is recording your moves
April 20 2011
Pete Warden and Alasdair Allan have discovered that iPhones and 3G iPads running iOS 4 are regularly recording the location of devices into a hidden file. read moreRadiation visualizations paint a different picture of Japan
March 21 2011
From talking to people on the ground in Japan, and by looking at the actual measurements across the country, a very different picture emerges than that reported by the Western media. read moreMarch 03 2011
We face a choice between a future of accelerating technological progress and an age of declining possibilities and narrowing horizons. That choice depends on the problems we choose to solve. read moreThe return of the Personal Area Network
March 01 2011
The web of things and less intrusive "wearables" could reignite the personal area network, at least in a slightly different form from years past. read moreRecent Posts | All O'Reilly Posts
Webcast: An Introduction to building mapping apps for the iPhone and iPad
September 28, 2010
The iPhone has quickly become one of the primary interface devices for geographically tagged data, and underlying geo-location on the iPhone and iPad devices is the Core Location framework. The framework is of the most powerful and elegant included...
Webcast: An introduction to building mapping applications for the iPhone and iPad
April 28, 2010
Duration: Approximately 60 minutes. Cost: Free The iPhone has quickly become one of the primary interface devices for geographically tagged data, and underlying geo-location on the iPhone and iPad devices is the Core Location framework. The framework...
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