Infrared camera hidden on Pixel 4
Biometric authentication is on the rise. Fingerprint sensors, iris recognition in airports, and face unlock on phones. Does it work if you just put a picture of the owner in front of the camera? It shouldn’t. Here’s a look at the technology hidden in a Pixel 4 which maps your face in 3D with an …. Read More
Meltdown and Spectre
Interesting video about some vulnerabilities. What GCSE students need to take from it is the carving up on the RAM for different programs, that’s part of the operating systems job in the system software lessons.
Create your own Crypto currency
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-49826161 I was asked about creating a new currency, it is indeed possible but not easy. It starts touching on the essence of what money is. Facebook tried but didn’t get far. This article is an interesting one where someone tried to create a new currency, got lots of momentum, and then disappeared. The woman …. Read More
Hard drive disassembly
Want to take a hard drive apart and put it back together again? Want to take the data from a broken hard drive and put it into a working hard drive? Don’t. This video shows how an independent repair shop does it properly. A great look at the inside of a working disc. You can …. Read More
Domino Computer
Matt Parker made a computer out of dominoes. Yup. It’s really cool, he constructed logic gates (which he breaks down in a separate video) out of dominoes. It’s a simple calculator so takes two numbers and adds them together, but it’s impressive to see how it’s working.
Making a CPU
This is a fascinating series that creates a computer from a single chip. It gets very deep on the electronics very quickly. Proceed with care.
Moonpig Hack
Customer details were hacked from Moonpig, this is a breakdown of what happened, but also important thoughts about what should be done when someone finds a vulnerability.
Logic Gates
These are the logic gates that we need for AQA GCSE 2019-2021. Next year will add XOR, but for now, these are all. My magnificent year 10 class take the credit for the graphic idea for the NOT gate, I take the credit for the others myself. Hopefully they’ll help you remember which one is …. Read More
Who Invented the Keyboard and is the Dvorak Really Better than the QWERTY?
If you’ve done lesson 6 of the understanding computers module in year 8, you may have seen the history of the computer include the typewriter which is where the weird order of letters on your current keyboard comes from. If you’ve wondered why they’re placed in this weird order or if there’s a better way, …. Read More
Break statements and why I’ll dock marks for them
Right, break statements and why they’re bad. Generally it’s indicating you’ve got a problem with the flow of your program and you may need to restructure. Imagine the following that hunts for a number, it’s an odd program, but it’s an illustration. # x = some number you’re hunting forx = 56for i in range(100): …. Read More