[00:00:00.00] - Gordon
Hello.
[00:00:09.12] - Taylor
Hello.
[00:00:09.28] - Gordon
My name's Gordon from Drayson Design.
[00:00:11.27] - Taylor
And I'm Taylor from the Creative Tinker.
[00:00:13.27] - Gordon
And welcome to "This Week With Taylor and Gordon," a weekly podcast and vidcast, where we talk about things that have affected our businesses over the last seven days. And thank you so much for joining us.
[00:00:24.14] - Taylor
Welcome back.
[00:00:25.03] - Gordon
Can't believe it's been another week. These weeks just fly by. It sometimes seems that we get to the end of the week and I go, "I haven't done anything." And in fact, I have. I've done lots, but just nothing monumental or nothing big. Lots of little things. Do you find that as well?
[00:00:44.25] - Taylor
Yes, I have in my project manager, I have a way to be able to see, filter by completed in the last whatever day, so that helps. It allows me to see what I've actually done, which can be nice.
[00:00:59.08] - Gordon
That's very good. So let's get straight into our topics. There is some news, but that's part of my topic. So I'll come to that when it's my turn. Would you like to go first or shall I go first?
[00:01:09.29] - Taylor
I'll go first, this week.
[00:01:10.26] - Gordon
Off you go.
[00:01:11.18] - Taylor
So this week I want to talk about Stingers. So not the equipment that police use to stop car chases. Stingers is another word for after credits. Now, I've spoken about this before, this topic before, where we have, or I created a script that basically adds our filming and...
[00:01:39.13] - Gordon
Our visits to the cinema.
[00:01:41.12] - Taylor
Yeah.
[00:01:42.20] - Gordon
Because for those who don't know, we go to the cinema every week on a Wednesday, and we go quite a distance because Taylor has an unlimited card with Cineworld in Crawley. So we go on a Wednesday evening there, and we've been doing that now for several years.
[00:02:00.00] - Taylor
Yeah. And I basically did it because I kept spending time adding in to the calendar and trying to figure out when you need to leave was tedious. And I didn't really want to have to think about it. So I wrote a script that basically calculated this all for us.
[00:02:16.19] - Gordon
So just so you know, sorry to interrupt, but we want to make sure we've got time to travel, time to have something to eat, and then time to get into the screen without waiting for all of the adverts and everything else. So all of those calculations need to be made, and that's what Taylor created his script for, and it's been running very well so far for quite a while.
[00:02:39.15] - Taylor
Yeah, so it calculates to leave time, calculates time to eat. We have different scenarios based on the type of film. So if it's an IMAX 4D or a special screening, then we'll go to a nicer restaurant and give more time to eat. If it's just a standard 2D film, then we'll go somewhere cheap and cheerful and you don't need as much time to eat because it doesn't take as long to cook and also doesn't take as long to eat.
[00:03:05.22] - Gordon
Yeah. And the reason for that is because Taylor drives, Taylor does the Cineworld, and Taylor gets a two for one with Meerkat Movies, and I buy dinner. So if he's spent a little bit extra on a surcharge for going into an IMAX screen, then it's only fair that we have a nicer dinner. So that's the reason for that.
[00:03:27.10] - Taylor
Yeah. And we've always wanted to know whether or not the film we're watching has after credits. So these can sometimes be like bloopers. These can be just bonus extra material. Sometimes they can be set-ups for the next film...
[00:03:43.29] - Gordon
Instalment.
[00:03:45.18] - Taylor
If it's a series, for example. And there's a website called aftercredits.com, and it's the go-to and the main resource online that has most films, and at least the new films that come out because you only really need to know them for new films. And there's no public API. There's nothing out there. There's just this website. And I found threads and forums of people that use TMDb, which is an open source version of IMDb that you can use with an API, for example. So you can get movie details, you can get the age ratings, you can get the cast members, things like that. So people that are creating their own database or need access to that information. But in every single forum that I found, people were asking, there's no after credits or there's no way to know if it is if there's after credits. And again, this website aftercredits.com was linked in most of the forum and threads that I found.
[00:04:50.11] - Taylor
I then did some digging and found that aftercredits uses WordPress.
[00:04:55.05] - Gordon
That's interesting. I think it's community information, isn't it? So people go watch the film, they wait until the end, and then they go and report back.
[00:05:05.07] - Taylor
Yeah. But the aftercredits.com is the biggest site that is contributed to and maintained. And because it uses WordPress, it means that there's a REST API. So WordPress by default comes with a REST API. And what I found was that I could query the REST API and the way that they had ordered and organised it in the back-end is they'd use categories to determine what type of stinger or what type of credits there are. So if there was credits at all, then it would show the word stinger in green. If there was none, it would say no stingers. And if it was unknown because no one had given information, then it would show that. But then they would also put the type of after credits. So you could have "during credits" or you could have "after credits." And that gave you whether or not the... Sometimes you see the credits on the left and you see the actual behind the scenes on the right. Sometimes it'll be bonus content, like I said, or sometimes it will be a set up for a sequel, and it has those categories as well. So all I needed to do was basically try to find a way to see the way that they had structured the title, try and match that so that when I'm creating my calendar event, I can send the title to it and also the year because we need to know what year where the film is.
[00:06:31.11] - Taylor
Most of the time it's 2025, so if there's no title in it, then it just grabs the current year. And it does a search for that and says, "find me every single instance that is either a movie or a TV show and has this title" and does a fuzzy search. And it then returns me the whole content. And I can find the categories which are just IDs. But because I know the IDs and hard coded them to what they mean, I can then basically say if it has 123; 268; and 54, I know what those categories mean, and then I can just map them to my script.
[00:07:08.22] - Gordon
And this is something that's automated now. It does that for you. You don't have to manually look at them and add that information in.
[00:07:15.25] - Taylor
Exactly. So I wrote a, for the first time, I wrote a Cloudflare worker, and I essentially wrote my own API proxy. An API proxy essentially allows me to send my creator. So I just send the title and the year to my custom API, and then I in that API make the request to the aftercredits.com, REST API endpoint and do all of the calculations there, have all of the categories and stuff. And so all it does is it returns me the nicely formatted code and/or response that I want, which will tell me if there's after, during, any credits or not. And it is just done for you under the hood. So you don't have to have that in the actual... I don't have to have that in my script because it's quite a big chunk of code. So people could potentially use it if they wanted to. I'm not going to make it public just because I don't want people to abuse it or use it. If people do find out that this is possible, the poor guy who or person that runs this website may see a spike in their server resources because if somebody else does something similar and they make it public, then a lot of people are going to use it.
[00:08:31.22] - Taylor
It may be something I actually reach out to the person that builds it and say, "Look, I built this. It might be of interest to you." Because he could actually create the endpoint himself directly on his website, but obviously that does mean he would get requests. But if his server can support it, then it may be something he wants to offer and didn't know that he could offer, I guess. But yeah, I just found my own solution and created a workaround to what I had to deal with because I didn't have access to the actual WordPress install and the actual raw data.
[00:09:11.01] - Gordon
Yeah, and the reason for doing this is to make sure that we're as efficient as possible, because when you watch a film and it finishes at half past 11 at night, all we need to do is before the film starts, we can have a look at the calendar, we can see if there's anything after the credits, and we know whether to stay or not, because if there is something after the credits, normally it's worth staying for. So we'll just sit there and just wait and watch it. But if we know now that there isn't anything there at all, we can just get up and walk out. I quite like watching the credits and seeing all the wonderful people that have been involved in it. But you can still look at it as you're walking out. And yeah, it's just to be efficient. And I suspect that the amount of time that we've spent waiting for the after credits is longer than the time it took you to actually implement this function. So we're already saving money, saving time, if you like, from now on. It's also a good way to fix and solve and find solutions for problems.
[00:10:19.05] - Gordon
So this was an issue. We didn't know how to get the information. You went away, did some research, and you've created a solution that I don't think anyone else probably knows about or has. So, yeah, pushing forward your own skillset as well. Anything else you want to say on that?
[00:10:33.18] - Taylor
I don't think so. It was interesting to work out how to create my own proxy API. So, yeah, it was quite interesting. Proxy APIs are quite good because if you put them behind Cloudflare, you've got all of the stuff that comes with Cloudflare, which is like bot protection, DDoS protection, rate limiting, things like that. So you can essentially have your own... You could put your own API behind Cloudflare, and all you're doing is proxying to the API that you have. It means you don't have to give the official or real API URL to...
[00:11:09.01] - Gordon
People who want to use it. Yeah.
[00:11:10.04] - Taylor
You can always then basically remove and turn off that proxy, and people will never be able to find the original API.
[00:11:16.03] - Gordon
That's very good. Talking of APIs, I got an email through this week and it was from Tado. Now, Tado is the new heating system that I have recently installed. So I've been using Nest for a long, long time. Then Google bought it out and now they are going to shut down the servers that run it to make my Nest smart thermostat into a dumb thermostat, as in you can't control it with an app, you can't control it with automation, you have to physically touch the unit to be able to make changes, which is not good at all. And so they suggested I move to Tado. Now, Tado is a company that Taylor's already looked into, something he's decided is a good system. And Nest was suggesting that I move over to Tado, and it's like a one-to-one replacement. So the transmitter, the receiver are just one-to-one replacements. The receiver, it shows the connections you will have in Nest and how you put them into the Tado. Very easy to do. And so I did all that. And now the advantage I've got is that the Tado system has thermostats for radiators, so I can set specific temperatures in specific rooms, which is great.
[00:12:40.25] - Gordon
And it is a smart system. It allows me to make changes to the system with automation. I can link to it with an unofficial API using Home Assistant, and it's obviously got the app as well. And you can also just go to the Radiator and turn it up. However, today, not today, this week, I got an email from Tado saying that those people who are on their free plan, as in don't pay any subscription to them, will be rate limited now to 100 requests per day, 100 API requests per day. Now, I've got five devices, effectively. I've got the controller, and then I've got the four thermostats on the radiator. So just polling all five of those means I can do that a maximum of 20 times in one day, and that's my API usage finished. I can't do anything else. Now, that doesn't sound a lot, especially when you consider that some of the automations are making graphs to see as and when the temperature changes in each room. Now, that's just not going to be possible with 100 API requests in a day. It's just there won't enough. However, I can pay them money and get a subscription.
[00:14:05.28] - Gordon
The only benefit for the subscription for me would be the API requests, and that is then upped to 20,000 API requests per day, if you pay them money. And I'm really annoyed because I researched all this. I decided that this was going to be the right system for me. I've installed it. It pretty much got installed a week or two ago and implemented into Home Assistant last week. And now I'm being told that basically I can't use it as I wanted to from now on. And it's like, I am so annoyed. Anyway, I have already sent an email to Tado to let them know that they're changing the terms on me. They're unauthorised? No, they have an API that is that was being used by Home Assistant, which is not an authorised API. So it was one that they were just letting people use. And I'm guessing what's happened is that it's become so popular now that they're thinking, "kerching, we need to charge for this. We need to then get lots of money." Because their subscription just doesn't offer enough to warrant the price. I mean, it's not a lot. It's like £26 a year or something.
[00:15:28.22] - Gordon
But I don't need anything that they offer me. It's basically telling me if there's a window open, I think they must have a sensor or something. Tell me if there's a window open and do I want to cut the heating off because the window's open. And there's also the GPS locator. So you can basically have it turn the heating on as you get within a certain range of your house. Well, that's no use to me because there's multiple people in this house and I can't set it all up on everyone's devices. So it's not something I need or want. So the API requests, it seems like they're going to force me to basically get what I'm already getting now, but I'm now having to pay for it, and it's very, very annoying.
[00:16:19.02] - Taylor
I guess the way that they look at it is that the two features that you just mentioned are probably possible on Home Assistant. And so people were basically not paying because they didn't need to because they could do everything with Home Assistant for free, essentially, obviously, minus the gear that you buy already. But you already have the gear if you're connecting to Home Assistant.
[00:16:41.29] - Gordon
Yeah, and that's what annoys me, because instead of saying, "look, we realise that are people going to be using Home Assistant, we'd like to make sure that they can continue doing it because that's what you've been used to up to now. And that's part of why you purchased the system, because It was connected to Home Assistant. So we're going to give you 5,000 requests a day, and we're not going to charge you for that. But if you want more because you're a big user, then we'll give you 20,000, but you need to pay us £3.99 a month" or whatever the cost is. But to give you 100 requests, it's like, I don't know if the app is using the API, and therefore any changes you make in the app count towards the API. Probably not, I would guess. Yeah. So it's basically going to be Home Assistant and anyone who's got any other automation set up with Make or If This Then That or other systems like that. But it's rather annoying. I am a little bit upset about it because it's only a week or two after I've actually implemented the system. So we will see what they come back to me with.
[00:17:56.23] - Gordon
I suspect they're going to say, "tough cookies, if you want that information, you're going to have to pay us for it," which is a little bit of a sour taste in your mouth when you suddenly realise you've got £25, £26 every year to pay out that you weren't expecting. As I said, it's not a lot, but had I made the decision to do that, then that would have been my decision. To be forced into it is the bit that I don't like, and that's the bit that annoys me. But you're still looking at implementing it yourself when you move into your flat, aren't you?
[00:18:30.00] - Taylor
Yeah, I'll still get it.
[00:18:31.14] - Gordon
Yeah. So, yeah. I mean, it's possible. They may be able to do it locally. I'm not sure. But, yeah, we shall see. We shall find out. I have a feeling there's going to be lots of Home Assistant people who are going to complain if they have Tado, and maybe they'll change their tact a little bit and let Home Assistant people use it. I don't know. Who knows? But I've put my email in and we'll see what they say. Wasn't what I was going to talk about today, but I feel that's quite an important topic.
[00:19:04.14] - Gordon
One of the things that happened this week, which was part of the news, was we had Apple announcements, three big major products, four versions of the iPhone 17, new Airpods 3, and also the Apple Watch, which has been updated, both the Apple Watch and the Apple Watch Ultra. And I was going to talk about how I go about deciding whether I'm going to upgrade or not. And along with that comes the software upgrades, which are going to be available on the 15th of September. So what I think I'll do is I will hold that over for next week and we'll talk about how to safely upgrade your software because all the devices are being upgraded with new software, new features, potentially new conflicts. There's all sorts of things that could happen. So I'll talk about that next week. But as far as the announcement goes, I think the AirPod Pro 3s were the thing that I was, I'm just excited about, because they now have this auto translation feature, which is quite exciting. It's a bit like something from, what is it? Hitchhiker's Guide, I think it was, where you put something your ear, I think it was called a Babel fish.
[00:20:32.04] - Gordon
You put something in your ear and you can then hear people talking in the language that you know and it translates. And that's effectively what the Airpods are doing. So you can put them in and someone can talk to you in a different language and you'll have a voice in your headphones that will then translate it into English. And then you can speak in your language, in my case, English. And if they've got headphones in, it will translate it into their language. And if they haven't got headphones in, then it will come up on your phone with what you're saying and the translation. So you can then show it to somebody so that they can see what it is you're saying to them. And this is a phenomenal way of doing meetings. If you're doing that, if you're going on holiday and you want to talk to the local people who don't necessarily understand your language. It's also going to be very interesting if you get people who are tourists or speaking a different language, get into the lift with you and you've got your headphones on and they start talking about you in their language, where you're going to be able to understand what they're saying now because you've got your headphones in and it's just been relayed to you in your language.
[00:21:45.17] - Gordon
So, yeah, huge innovation and something that's not been as easy to do in the past. We've had translation on phones before, and you could use a phone, but it's not very easy or user friendly, whereas just sticking some headphones in your ears and being able to understand someone is a really big leap forward, I feel. And I think it's going to be something that a lot of people are going to jump on. I'm considering it. I have the Airpods Pro 2, and they are working fine, so I don't need to upgrade. But I like the idea of being able to talk to people in different languages. So that's going to be something I'm going to consider. Anything else you've got to say today?
[00:22:35.25] - Taylor
No.
[00:22:37.10] - Gordon
Thank you so much for joining us. As always, we're on YouTube. Please like, share, and subscribe.
[00:22:43.02] - Taylor
You can also go to our website thisweekwith.co.uk to find all of our past episodes.
[00:22:48.23] - Gordon
And if you would prefer to listen to our podcast version, that can be found on all the major podcast platforms. Just do a search for "This Week With Taylor and Gordon," or ask your smart speaker to play the latest episode, and it should do so for you. We'll be back with you next Friday at 1pm. Until then, my name is Gordon, and I'm from Drayson Design.
[00:23:10.00] - Taylor
And I'm Taylor from The Creative Tinker.
[00:23:12.13] - Gordon
Goodbye.
[00:23:13.00] - Taylor
Bye.
