CategoryTechnology

Robot stuff

It’s getting closer and closer via BBC Technology’s post commenting on a European Parliament draft report from in May 2016: The report suggests that robots, bots, androids and other manifestations of artificial intelligence are poised to “unleash a new industrial revolution, which is likely to leave no stratum of society untouched”. and This could, if not properly prepared...

The supply of greater fools feels endless

From Fortune’s article: The Ugly Unethical Underside of Silicon Valley A few quotes tell the story. For starters: “What if Theranos is the canary in the coal mine?” says Roger McNamee, a 40-year VC veteran and managing director at Elevation Partners. “Everyone is looking at Theranos as an outlier. We may discover it’s not an outlier at all.” Because: So inexperienced people are...

Artificial Intelligence stuff

I’ve been reading a bit around AI lately. It started with this piece in the New York Times which focusses initially on Google (in particular Google Translate) and then the extraordinary speed with which they’ve reorganised the entire company around AI. And then the ‘arms race’ to AI control in the industry: Google’s decision to reorganize itself around A.I. was the...

Public transport

Every time I see a bus packed with people, I say a silent thank you to all of the passengers. I can’t help but think of this comparison: (via: Going Car Free) Taking public transport, even when it’s crowded, or rainy, or hot is a valuable contribution to society. If only more people did it when possible (I totally get that it’s often not feasible). We don’t need more...

Apple Pay is really new and amazing for some people

I used Apple Pay this morning in a shop and the girl behind the counter was amazed by it. She wanted to know all about it and how it worked. She was young and tech savvy and yet this was an entirely new (and massively cool) concept for her. If you have an AMEX and have had Apple Pay for a while you’ll likely find this strange – to you paying with Apple Pay is probably so routine...

Netflix launches Fast but should really call it Random

Netflix released their own stripped down version of SpeedTest called Fast – here try it now. I don’t know if it’s indicative of how bad our internet connection is or what, but it seems that every time I try it I get a vastly different speed result. In the last few minutes my speeds have ranged from 1.2 Mbps through to 25 Mbps with no discernible pattern. I tried it on my phone...

Remote working and company culture

This piece by David Niu on Entrepreneur made me think. In it he outlines his view that remote working inhibits company culture. He notes his own views: I firmly believe that a strong company culture determines your success, and you can’t have a strong culture without people working together in an office setting. and A strong workplace culture is an organization’s No. 1 competitive advantage...

Techmeme de-clickbait-ifying

Techmeme is the first thing I check every morning. It’s my window to the tech world. One of things I really appreciate is their human editing of headlines. Not only do they de-clickbaitify, but they also add details that help to communicate the real story. Here’s a story from The Verge: Apple updates iTunes with a ‘simpler’ design that doesn’t really help And...

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