🖊️ Intro

It's not quite winter but, it feels like winter. We have launched our brand-new website (finally). We've built it using some of the latest tools in the web developer world and the result is a lightning fast site. Check it out and see what you think. https://coded.co.nz We put in a colour changer in the top menu too. Why? For fun.

We read an article about colour theory and pulling colours out of photos. So, we thought we'd figure out a way to implement this on our site. The result is pretty cool.

🗄️ Useful links

1️ 🤔 Tim Ferris Podcast

Tim Ferris has had a pretty big impact on our lives. He is the author of the best-selling books The 4-hour work week, The 4-hour body, The 4-hour chef, Tools of Titans and Tribe of mentors.

In his podcast he interviews a range of interesting people. Some you may have heard of (Jamie Foxx, Hugh Jackman) and some you may not have (Dr Martine Rothblatt, Mr Money Moustache).

2 ❗ Among Us

This weird little game is something you can bring out at your next family gathering. It's available on your phone, and it's free. Everyone that wants to play will need to download it.

Here's the gist. Each player controls a character that can run around a small spaceship doing jobs. These jobs are easy puzzles that take 30 seconds or less to do. But, Here's the catch. One player is an impostor! and is trying to "knock off" everyone without being noticed.

It's a heck of a lot of fun with a group, and it will have you looking at each of your family members suspiciously for the rest of the night.

3 📖 Read Aloud

This extension will read the text on your browser to you. Sometimes, I find an article that I want to read but, I also have to work. So, instead of saving it for later I simply use this browser extension and have the article read to me. There are a range of different voices to choose from, and you can set the speed.

😎 What we're up to

We love nothing more than making things more efficient. As coders, it's in our DNA. If we can figure out a way to make a job easier we will do it. This usually involves writing some sort of small script to achieve the desired effect. For example, back when we were in our office at the salon, we spent one morning building a script so that we could turn on the heater from our computers.

Nowadays, its getting easier to automate these parts of life using smart devices. No coding required and usually minimal setup. So, what kinds of things can you automate?

Let's start with a simple one.

Light bulbs.

Ever wondered if you left the lights on at work? With smart lightbulbs such as the Philips Hue range you can actually set these to turn off, on a schedule, say 10 past 5pm. Why stop there! Set them up to turn on at 7:50am as you are heading to work. Best of all, you can control these via an app on your phone.

That's just the tip of the iceberg for smart devices though. Here's a list of things you can smarten up.

Blinds and/or curtains

Have them open and close automatically based on a schedule

TV

Have it automatically turn on and play your favourite show just by asking

Garage Door

When you get in range of your house at a certain time, have it automatically open

Door Bell

Be notified on your phone that someone is at your door. Even answer the door via your phone.

Door Lock

Unlock your door remotely

Vacuum

Have your floors cleaned on a schedule of your choosing, by using a robot vacuum cleaner.

Lawnmower

Have your lawns mowed using a robot mower.

There are some even cooler devices coming in the future such as the robot kitchen. It literally cooks your meals for you (See Moley Robotic Chef in the interesting stuff below).

In most cases you can hook these devices up to your smart speaker (Siri, Alexa, Google home) and control them just by asking.

If you want to know more, we love to talk about this stuff. Give us a yell, and we can have a chat about how to get started with this sort of thing.

🌐 Interesting stuff

1 🧐 Mycroft

2 🤖 Moley Robotic Chef

3 🖼️ NFTs Are Fuelling a Boom in Digital Art

💲 The Plug

We would love to grow this newsletter. We have some awesome ideas on exactly how we will do this tucked away for the future. For now, we are asking if you could please share this newsletter with anyone you think would gain something from it. We've added these handy buttons to the bottom of the newsletter.

Here's the cool bit. SendFox keeps track of how many people you refer. It even has a leaderboard. Best of all you get rewarded for your referrals. At present, we only have one reward but, we are planning more. You can check them out by clicking the share now button below.