Tag: gadget
More hacking to secure the gadget army: The KanKun SP3
So a couple of years ago I bought some KK-SP3 (from ikonke). They are ‘wireless smart plugs’, and despite their pretty-sketch appearance, work. Its a tiny little white box that plus into your electrical outlet, and contains a relay and small linux board. The only real issue that i had initially was that it came…
The power of (your) invisible hands: could we create a security and efficiency incentive that works?
I’m a big fan of “the invisible hand“, an economics concept coined by Adam Smith. The concept is that your individual selfish action can cause (good) social benefits elsewhere. An example would be putting a $0.05 tax on a plastic grocery bag. You being the cheapskate you are now reuse bags, and that causes a…
Decoding the Airthings Wave Radon output
OK, so i ran the Airthings Wave for a few weeks, I ended up with an average of ~20-30Bq/m^3, which is below the Health Canada worry line of 200Bq/m^3. Now, its time to look at how to make this integrate with my Home Assistant. The device uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), and is integrated via…
What are we buying? A wifi baby camera. Will it be secure?
Armed with $20 and an interest in learninghacking, I visited Canada Computers today to see what ‘extended boxing week sale’ they had. And lo and behold, it was this. A Trendnet WiFi HD Baby Cam TV-IP745SIC. $19. Sweet. Since this is designed to be in your home, monitoring your baby, with bidirectional audio, and cloud…
The Internet of Radon Things
Earlier this week someone brought up Radon gas. He was somewhat surprised that we all knew about it, but we didn’t know enough it turns out. Health Canada has a great resource on it here, including a survey of the prevalence in homes. Radon is the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers, and the…
