The Red Ferret Journal

Free Software May 8, 2021

Watomatic – automatic tool helps you switch away from WhatsApp

The latest moves by Facebook to tie WhatsApp users more closely to Facebook haven’t gone down too well on the net. The result is a fair number of people who are planning or who have already left WhatsApp for more private shores. The problem is, how to let your contacts know you now prefer to use Signal, Telegram or any of the other more private messaging apps? Step up the free open source Watomatic app. This nifty little tool lets…

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cool tech May 3, 2021

Ringo DIY mobile phone – build it yourself for fun and profit

What better way to motivate youngsters to take up electrical engineering than getting them to build something themselves? This Ringo DIY Mobile Phone is a neat little open source package, which comes with everything needed to build a mobile phone from scratch. Well almost scratch. You do have to do a bit of soldering, but the boards come ready made. So no clean rooms required.

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Reviews April 24, 2021

AOC U32U1 Porsche Design 4K Monitor Review

The AOC U32U1 is a great 4K-monitor for browsing, mailing and editing pictures or videos. I’ve used this monitor during the pandemic to work from home.

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Eco Friendly April 21, 2021

PDK – new kind of plastic can be recycled for ever, at a price

Scientists have come up with a new form of plastic which can be recycled back to a pristine state for resuse a huge number of times. This makes it a big contender to help stop the mountain of plastic trash we waste every day. The new material, PDK – which stands for polydiketoenamines – come with a penalty though. It’s very expensive to make. Something to do with one particular chemical component which costs a lot. However once PDK is…

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Eco Friendly April 14, 2021

Eat Just chicken – world’s first lab cultured meat gets go ahead in Singapore

So the race is on to wean us all off meat and turn us into happy little plant eaters. Leading the charge is Beyond Meat (disclosure: recently tried their Beyond Burger and it is astonishingly good), closely followed by a bunch of alternatives. Among the most interesting is California based Eat Just, which recently announced that it’s lab cultured chicken had won approval for commercial use in Singapore. Why Singapore? We’re not sure. Anyway the bottom line is that our…

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Eco Friendly April 7, 2021

Biofil – The world’s first chip-fat powered EV charger?

Trust the Aussies to do something different. What you’re looking at here is a ‘standard’ 50kW DC electric vehicle fast charger. What makes the Biofil different is the fact that it’s hooked up to a biodiesel electric generator. Which uses the waste cooking fat from the service station (or rest stop for you Americans) fryers to do the deed. The problem is simple. Many of Australia’s roadside restaurants are so remote they’re off grid, which makes it hard to offer…

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Eco Friendly April 5, 2021

Hempearth – world’s first plane made from hemp aims to fly high

Hempearth, a Canadian cannabis company, has announced plans to build an airplane using hemp as a key component. There’s little argument that hemp is the wonder plant of the ages. Despite being associated with its naughty cousin, marijuana, hemp has been put to thousands of vital uses over the ages. Not only has it been used for rope, but also fabric, medicine and a super food. But this latest incarnation is taking things to a whole new level.

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Eco Friendly April 2, 2021

Gocycle G4 – the world’s most stylish e-bike continues the trend

Twelve years ago next month, we first reported on a new electric bike which was making waves. The designer, Richard Thorpe, had come out of F1 motor racing design and applied those principles to making the most stylish and downright ‘cool’ e-bike the world had ever seen. It weighed 16kgs, had a range of up to 20 miles and a price tag of £1158. We road tested it, and then followed up a year later with a comparison test between…

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