I love this: truly a vending machine for our times! Instead of scratch tickets that promise us fortune, these scratch tickets promise us fame! Well, if not fame, then many more social media followers. I guess that counts for fame in this day and age.
For more on this amazing vending machine go here.
P.S. Dries is a brilliant artist / technologists: check out the rest of his site, here.
It seems weird to think there are trends when it comes to fearing technology. But thinking about it, there seems to be. For awhile my sources of information kept providing me stories of how fearful robots were. Recently that has shifted, and the focus moved to how fearful AI is. Fearing robots is no longer trendy.
Well, trendy or not, here are some stories about robots that have had people concerned. If you have any energy left from being fearful of AI, I recommend them. 🙂
The fact that a city is even contemplating this is worrying: San Francisco Supervisors Vote To Allow Killer Robots. Relatedly, Boston Dynamics pledges not to weaponize its robots.
Not that robots need weapons to be dangerous, as this showed: chess robot breaks childs finger russia tournament. I mean who worries about a “chess robot”??
Robots can harm in other ways, as this story on training robots to be racist and sexist showed.
Ok, not all the robot stories were frightening. These three are more just of interest:
This was a good story on sewer pipe inspection that uses cable-tethered robots. I approve this use of robots, though there are some limitations.
I am not quite a fan of this development: Your Next Airport Meal May Be Delivered By Robot. I can just see these getting in the way and making airports that much harder to get around.
Finally, here’s a 327 Square Foot Apartment With 5 Rooms Thanks to Robot Furniture. Robot furniture: what will they think of next?
(Image is of the sewer pipe inspection robot.)
Comments Off on Sorry robots: no one is afraid of YOU any more. Now everyone is freaking out about AI instead
Posted in IT
Tagged AI, IT, robots, technology
I started to think of UGC when I read that tweet last night.
We don’t talk about UGC much anymore. We take it for granted since it is so ubiquitous. Any time we use social media we are creating UGC. But it’s not limited to site like Twitter or Instagram. Web site like Behance and GitHub are also repositories of UGC. Even Google Docs and Spotify are ways for people to generate content (a spreadsheet is UGC for Google to mine, just like a playlist is.)
When platforms came along for us to post our words and images, we embraced them. Even when we knew they were being exploited for advertising, many of us shrugged and accepted it as a deal: we get free platforms in exchange for our attention and content.
Recently though it’s gotten more exploitive. Companies like OpenAI and others are scrapping all our UGC from the web and turning it into data sets. Facial recognition software is turning our selfies into ways to track us. Never mind all the listening devices we let into our houses (“Hey Google, are you recording all my comings and goings?”…probably)
Given that, we should resolve to be smarter about our UGC in 2023. Always consider what you are sharing, and find ways to limit it if you can. Indeed give yourself some boundaries so that when the next company comes along with vowel problems (looking at you, Trackt) and asks for our data, we say no thanks.
We can’t stop companies from taking advantage of the things we share. So let’s aim to share things wisely and in a limited way.
Comments Off on UGC (user generated content) is a sucker’s game. We should resolve to be less suckers in 2023
Posted in IT
Tagged AI, IT, software, technology
Cape Breton is known for many things, including a great deal of history. One part of that history that I wish were played up more is the part it played in telecommunications at the beginning of the 20th century. I thought of that when I read about how a Cape Breton town (North Sydney) knew about the end of WW I before the rest of North America. It knew about it because of the Western Union offices there. It was a leader at the time. Sadly that Western Union building in North Sydney was torn down.
While that place is lost, there are still other sites on the Island that recognize that history of technology. There is the Alexander Graham Bell museum in Baddeck that is worth visiting. And while it is small, The Marconi Museum in Glace Bay is also good. There are some fine museums in Cape Breton: if you are going there to there to see that sort of thing, make sure you include those two.
Cape Breton had a significant role to play in the history of world telecommunications. That role should get recognized and more museums should be made to promote that era, in my opinion.
For more on North Sydney, see: wikipedia North Sydney Nova Scotia.
(The image above is the Marconi National Historic Site of Canada in Glace Bay, linked to at goCapeBreton.com)
Comments Off on The history of technology and telecommunications is also a history of Cape Breton
Posted in history
Tagged baddeck, Bell, capebreton, glacebay, history, Marconi, northsydney, technology, telecommunications
One of the great shames of the IT industry has been the push to marginalize women in our profession. As this 1967 piece shows ( The Computer Girls: 1967 Cosmo article highlights women in technology– ), women had a dominant role in the early days of the computing industry. I believe as long as the the 1980s, women were at least equally represented in the profession as men. Then for various reasons, IT became dominated by the boys and not the girls. That was a shame and it will only stop being a shame when women are at least equally represented. We still have a way to go, according to Deloitte and others. Until that time comes, read what used to be in Cosmo.
(Image from here, which is also worth reading: 10 women who changed the tech industry forever – The Daily Dot)
Comments Off on On “The Computer Girls: 1967” in Cosmopolitan
Posted in IT
Tagged history, IT, technology, women
Amazon has a new robot coming out, and there’s been a number of reviews. Here’s a list of just a few of them:
If those reviews have convinced you to get one, you can apply to get into the queue for them over here (they aren’t generally available): Amazon.com: Introducing Amazon Astro, Household Robot for Home Monitoring, with Alexa, Includes 6-month Free Trial of Ring Protect Pro : Everything Else
My thoughts:
Anyway, a home robot for under a grand is an exciting development.
P.S. While I was reading that I was reminded of this piece: Finding the servant call buttons in New York City’s Gilded Age mansions | Ephemeral New York. In some ways saying “Hey Siri/Alexa/Google” is the equivalent of pressing servant buttons. One day we will have a household of robot servants working for us at the press of a button.
(Image linked to from the Ephemeral New York article. Those buttons are in the Frick museum in New York: check them out if you go there.)
This is a cool story about a concept robot for homes: A BB-8 Droid for your home – Yanko Design.
I used to have problems with such concepts, because they provide an opportunity to have a device wandering around your home, recording data and selling it to others. That’s why I was never keen on such devices coming from Amazon or Google. I was very pro-privacy when it came to such technology.
For better and worse, I have since adopted quite a few Google Home devices in my house. If I was worried about them recording all the time, I appear to have gotten over it. As often is the case, the convenience they provide trumped privacy concerns.
Given that, I would love to have a robot like the one above. Instead of having multiple Google Home devices, I could just have one Google Home Robot that followed me around.
That brings me to the second problem. While it is cute that they illustrate this one rolling and bouncing around a home, mobility for robots is a huge challenge. Especially homes with stairs.
I see two ways around that. Such a robot would not be good for me, but people living in one level condos and apartments might find some combination of a vaccuum robot + Google Home device just the thing. And for people with stairs, maybe a robot above with wheels and a handle you can use to bring it with you up and down stairs might be the best alternative.
Robots are coming to most homes eventually. Maybe they will look like the one above. Maybe not. But soon we will see them everywhere.
:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22512190/npatel_20210512_4552_0069sq.jpg)
I’m not a fan of SpaceX’s Starlink technology. It’s ruining space in a number of ways, like this. I thought its one saving grace would be that it at least provides great Internet service. Yet according to this review in The Verge, it doesn’t even do that! Sad. Garbage in the sky, garbage on the ground.
Here’s hoping it gets better. And that someone finds a way to collect all the garbage circling the earth and do something with it.
This piece (Worst technology failures of 2020) by MIT Technology Review has a list of the bigger technology failures of 2020. Some of them, like Quibi and facial recognition abuses, are well known.
One listed here may be the greatest technology failure of them all, though for many it is not considered a failure at all. That is the unregulated pollution of space with tiny satellites. As the article states:
Since prehistory, humankind has looked upwards for awe and inspiration, to imagine what forces created the world—and which might end it. But now, that cosmic view is being contaminated with the reflections of thousands of inexpensive commercial satellites put aloft by companies like Amazon, OneWeb, and SpaceX, who want to cover the Earth with internet connections. Sixty satellites can swarm out of a single rocket.
To see what I mean, check out this picture from the article:
Telescope views from earth are being marred with the light of all these satellites. This is today’s problem. Tomorrow’s problem is going to be all the other pollution, light or otherwise, which is going to result from the rush to put things in space. Science is getting wrecked by this.
Already astronomers are thinking of putting telescopes on the dark side of the moon to escape such problems. But without regulation, who knows if even this will be successful? To hear Elon Musk yammer on, he’s just going to be throwing who knows what into space. He’s already launched one of his stupid cars into the atmosphere. Hardly the guy you can trust to be responsible when it comes to deciding what should go into space.
Here’s hoping that in the rush to do more and more space development (a good thing) there is also an effort to make sure it is well thought and regulated (also a good thing).
Comments Off on The worst technology failures of 2020, including one not considered a failure but could be the worst of all
Posted in science
Tagged astronomy, satellites, science, space, technology
To be honest, I am surprised it lasted this long! I do remember the incredible hype surrounding it during the end of the dot com era. Then it came out, and the dot com era bubble burst, and so did the hype surrounding it.
It’s good for anyone to go through a bubble: it’s a good insulation against future bubbles. So RIP, Segway: you were part of one of my first big bubbles*: Segway, the most hyped invention since the Macintosh, ends production.
* The first biggish bubbles I went through was the AI bubble in the late 80s, early 90s. Anyone working in tech will likely go through many such bubbles in their life time.
Comments Off on The Segway, the last big hyped thing of the dot com era, is no more
July 3, 2020 in IT, new!
Tagged dotcom, IT, technology
This is interesting. In reflecting upon Java’s 25th birthday, this article looks at what else has lasted since that then: Java’s 25th birthday prompts a look at which tech products have survived since 1995 – TechRepublic.
You might think that very little has lasted that long. And it’s true, many technologies have died. (Altavista for one.) But many technologies continue to succeed and grow. Amazon, for starters. Java itself still is found in computers all over the world. Check out the piece and see what lives and what died since the mid 90s, when the World Wide Web came into its own.
Comments Off on Which technology has lasted since 1995, 25 years ago
June 20, 2020 in IT, new!
Tagged IT, Java, technology
That’s what this piece argues: Of course technology perpetuates racism. It was designed that way. | MIT Technology Review.
I disagree. Technology sometimes perpetuates racism, but it is often due to the fact it is NOT designed to account for racism. Sometimes machine learning software cannot perceive non-white faces correctly because they are trained with only white faces and cannot account for non-white faces. Sometimes search engines result in racist results, based on racist queries. AI systems can be made racist by engaging with a multitude of racists. If you feed systematic racist data based on redlining into your banking system or prison data into your justice software system, then those systems will make racist decisions. In all these cases, the fact that the systems are not designed to account for racism (or sexism or any form of discrimintation) is the problem. They need to be designed to account for these things.
Only when technology is designed to account for racism will it stop perpetuating racism.
Comments Off on Is technology designed to perpetuate racism?
June 6, 2020 in new!
Tagged discrimination, racism, sexism, technology
This is a great piece on understanding technology: The best is the last — Benedict Evans. One thing I love about it is that it illustrates its point by using non-digital technology. I tend to think of information and digital technology when I think of tech. This piece overturns that and talks about planes and ships.
And what is the point it is illustrating? Namely, this:
The development of technologies tends to follow an S-Curve: they improve slowly, then quickly, and then slowly again. And at that last stage, they’re really, really good. Everything has been optimised and worked out and understood, and they’re fast, cheap and reliable. That’s also often the point that a new architecture comes to replace them.
Smart piece. Once I read it, I wanted to apply the lessons to other technology too.
There’s much positive to be said about the benefits of Agile software development, and the shift of software development teams is one sign that many feel this way.
However, I think there are some limits to Agile, and this leads teams to fall into certain traps over and over. Indeed, the Wikipedia page highlights a common criticism of Agile, namely:
Lack of overall product design
A goal of agile software development is to focus more on producing working software and less on documentation. This is in contrast to waterfall models where the process is often highly controlled and minor changes to the system require significant revision of supporting documentation. However, this does not justify completely doing without any analysis or design at all. Failure to pay attention to design can cause a team to proceed rapidly at first but then to have significant rework required as they attempt to scale up the system. One of the key features of agile software development is that it is iterative. When done correctly design emerges as the system is developed and commonalities and opportunities for re-use are discovered.
Now, it’s not the case that teams either do design or not. But I have seen that there are a number of specific traps bigger that Agile teams fall into that arise from lack of design. These traps arise from making tactical or limited decisions outside of a larger framework or structure, which isn’t surprising since Agile followers are guided by the principles that the “best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams” and “working software is the primary measure of progress”. Unfortunately what I’ve seen that lead to is:
Given these traps, I think the way to avoid them is to inject some specific design phases into the overall software development lifecycle. One way to do that is to revisit a software development lifecycle (see diagram below) used by practitioners at IBM and documented in places like this IBM redbook. It has a waterfall quality about it, but it doesn’t have to be limited to waterfall type projects. It can be highly iterative.
The lifecycle process is shown here (taken from the redbook):
The part of the lifecycle in the large box is iterative and not all that different from an agile sprint. But here you take time to explicitly make design / architecture decisions before building software. You continue to iterate while making important design decisions before building.
Now, before you start your iterative software development lifecycle, you should need to make specific architectural decisions. You should make these specific decisions in the solution outline and macro design phase. For smaller teams, these two phases may blend into one. But it is here in solution outline and macro design where you make decisions that are fundamental to the overall solution.
For example, in solution outline you could make overall architectural decisions about the application architecture, the choice of infrastructure technology, what application frameworks are the target for the team. These overall architectural decisions guide the dev, test and ops teams in the future. You may also decide to park some of these decisions in order to do further discovery. Macro design could be next, where each of the dev teams make certain design decisions about their technology choices before they proceed with their iterations. As they are building and deploying code, they can run into issues where they need to make further design decisions, either due to problems that arise or technology choices that have to finally be made: and this is where the micro design phase is useful. Micro design decisions could be quickly made, or they may require spikes and proof of concepts before proceeding. Or there could be no decisions to be made at all. The main thing is more design checkpoints are built into the development lifecycle, which can result in less complexity, less maintainability costs, and less technical debt down the road. What you lose in velocity you can make up in overall lower TCO (total cost of ownership).
There is a risks to this type of approach as well. For example, if the project gets hung up with trying to make design decisions instead of gather requirements and making working software. The key stakeholders need to be aware of this and push on the design teams to prevent that from happening. If anything, it can help the key stakeholders better understand the risks before getting too far down the road in terms of developing software. Overall I think the risks are worth it if it helps you avoid these common agile traps.
March 31, 2020 in IT, new!
Tagged agile, devops, essays, favorites, IT, methodology, software, software design, software development, technology, testing, waterfall
That’s a bit dramatic, but Adafruit (a tech company I love) has been deemed an essential service and is helping to manufacture things needed in the fight against it. I am happy to see that.
Here’s a bit from them saying who they are and what they are doing. Awesome!
Adafruit is a 100% woman-owned, loan-free, VC-free. profitable, USA Manufacturing company. Please see our about page and press page to read about us. Our founder and lead engineer is Limor Fried, a MIT Electrical Engineer.
We have paused some operations in NYC due to COVID-19, we are paying all team members, contractors, and more. There are no layoffs for 130+ Adafruit team members.
Adafruit was deemed an essential service to distribute/make some PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) such as face shields, and manufacturer electronics for essential life-saving/preserving equipment and developement which is needed in New York and beyond.
Adafruit Industries located at 150 Varick Street, New York, NY 10013 by Executive Order 202.6, “Essential Business” by New York State:
https://esd.ny.gov/guidance-executive-order-2026
Comments Off on Adafruit goes to war against the coronavirus
March 23, 2020 in IT, new!
Tagged Adafruit, coronavirus, IT, nyc, technology, techwomen
Ballie is the cute little yellow ball above. Samsung unvailled ‘Ballie’ at the 2020 Consumer Electronic Show. If you go to the link, you can read all the things Ballie can do for you. What you don’t get to read is what Ballie is going to do for others. Because there’s never been a more potentially intrusive device in your house like this one. It can go around your house 24/7, recording not just sounds but images. Images (and sounds) that anyone back on the Internet can process.
Until companies and other organizations can demonstrate proper stewardship of such data, I wouldn’t recommend anyone get one of these things. They are far from essential and potentially harmful.
Comments Off on Maybe Ballie the ball robot is a device we don’t need in our homes
January 22, 2020 in IT, new!
Then read this: How Smart TVs in Millions of U.S. Homes Track More Than What’s On Tonight – The New York Times.
It’s a year old, but I highly doubt the problem has gone away. You may want to consider at least not buying from the brands listed. You may even go as far as having your TV unplugged when not watching it. For more tips, see this.
Comments Off on Thinking of getting a SmartTV?
December 6, 2019 in IT, new!
Tagged IT, privacy, smartTV, technology
According to this iPad vs. Mac: Is a tablet better than a laptop for school and work? in The Washington Post, not yet.
I agree with that assessment. I think there will be a time soon when you can, but not this year. Read the piece before you try to go solo with a tablet.
Comments Off on Can you replace a Mac with an iPad?
September 8, 2019 in advice, IT, new!
Tagged advice, ipad, IT, technology
The problems with colonizing other worlds can be read here: Humans Will Never Colonize Mars.
It’s a bucket of ice water to dump on the head of anyone who optimistically thinks it will happen. It may happen, centuries from now. More likely places like Mars will be colonized by robots that will do a lot of the activities we once expected humans to do.
Comments Off on The problem with colonizing other worlds…
September 2, 2019 in ideas, new!
Tagged astronomy, exploration, Mars, planets, space, technology
Slack may not be the end of email, but some version of it is likely going to result in a decline in email. If it won’t be slack, it might be one of the ones mentioned here:
Speaking of Google, the company has a Slack alternative of its own, called Hangouts Chat, as does Facebook, in Workplace. Microsoft has Teams, which is bundled with its Office software and which the company says is being used by more than 500,000 organizations. This multi-front attack on email is just beginning, but a wartime narrative already dominates: The universally despised office culture of replies and forwards and mass CCs and “looping in” and “circling back” is on its way out, and it’s going to be replaced by chat apps.
I doubt email will go away forever: that’ not how tech works. Dominant tech tends to fade away rather than outright collapse. That’s likely what will happen with email.
Will Slack et all be better? Good lord, no. Just different. Some aspects of it are better, and many aspects will be worse than email.
For the curious, here’s more on this idea: Slack Wants to Replace Email. Is That What We Want? – The New York Times
Comments Off on Is Slack the end of email?
August 16, 2019 in new!, work
Then read this Vice piece: How to Make a Phone Farm
I’ve seen pictures of Phone Farms in China, but I thought you needed some advanced tech to run them. Turns out, you just need a bit of work and some old phones, and…well for the rest, read the article.
For those who don’t know, Phone Farms are banks of cell phones automated to do the things you do manually with your phone.
P.S. I expect marketers will read this and start to come up with ways to defeat this, if they haven’t already started. This provides a threat to them, and a ramp up of this can be seriously deterimental.
Comments Off on So you want to make a phone farm…
Tagged IT, marketing, smartphones, technology, Vice.com
When it comes to Einstein, what comes to mind? This?
How about this?
Yep, his hobby was making a better fridge. Read about it here: Einstein’s Little-Known Passion Project? A Refrigerator | WIRED.
It’s odd but fun to read.
Comments Off on Everyone should have a hobby. Einstein’s was different than most
July 12, 2019 in fun, new!
Tagged einstein, fun, science, technology, wired
I continue to be a big fan of the Apple Watch. For one, it allows me to put away my phone and still not miss notifications. It’s the remote control for your phone you didn’t think you need. Still I am glad for this, because I need to get more out of my watch: 20 Most-Wanted Apple Watch Tips and Tricks – Hongkiat.
If you are maxing out all the features of your watch, that’s great. Otherwise, take a peak at that link and get more out of it.
Reading this piece about how a $999 monitor stand is everything wrong with Apple today, and while my judgement isn’t that harsh, I agree that Apple has missed a step with such a stand. There is a premium that Apple can and does command for its products, but when they are so far outside the range of the market, they start looking ridiculous.
Is this iMac great? No doubt. Is the stand price ridiculous? Also no doubt. Do better, Apple.
Comments Off on The $999 monitor stand, or how Apple takes its eye off the ball sometimes
June 10, 2019 in IT, new!
Tagged apple, IT, technology
I really liked a recent article about Ben Sisario, the New York Times reporter who covers the music industry. He is talking about what he uses to listen to music, and this quote jumped out at me, especially the part I put in bold.
(I) try to keep an eye on all the major platforms out there, which means regularly poking around on about a dozen apps. My go-to sources are Spotify, SoundCloud, Bandcamp and Mixcloud, which has excellent D.J.-style mixes and to me feels more human than most.
At home I have a Sonos Play:5 speaker, which plays streaming music and podcasts, and is a piece of cake to use. I also have Google Chromecast Audio, a little plug-in device (now discontinued) that allows me to send high-fidelity streams to my stereo. It sounds better that way, but it’s not nearly as easy to use as the Sonos.
To be honest, my preferred way to listen to music is on CD, as unfashionable as that might be. You push a button, the music plays, and then it’s over — no ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms!
Like Ben, I started to listen to music on CDs again too. For a number of reasons:
I still love Spotify, but I don’t want to depend on Spotify to enjoy music.
That’s my two cents. For more on Ben, see: Why Play a Music CD? ‘No Ads, No Privacy Terrors, No Algorithms’ – The New York Times
Comments Off on Why Play a Music CD? Lots of reasons….
June 9, 2019 in music, new!
Is this:
It uses smart ink, so it’s low power. But it changes throughout the day, based on the information it gets from the Internet. It looks great, and it’s around $134, which is not bad.
I’d like to see more tech do this. A fine marriage of high tech and aesthetics.
For more information, see A smart poster that knows the weather | Yanko Design
Comments Off on A smart poster that knows the weather (and a great alternative display)
May 23, 2019 in cool, new!
Tagged art, display, IOT, smartink, tech, technology, weather
First off, what is it? It’s this, via the About section of the site:
Stratechery provides analysis of the strategy and business side of technology and media, and the impact of technology on society. Weekly Articles are free, while three Daily Updates a week are for subscribers only.
Recommended by The New York Times as “one of the most interesting sources of analysis on any subject”, Stratechery has subscribers from over 85 different countries, including executives in both technology and industries impacted by technology, venture capitalists and investors, and thousands of other people interested in understanding how and why the Internet is changing everything.
Everything I’ve read on it has been insightful and in depth, including this piece on IBM and the acquisition of Red Hat.
Comments Off on Stratechery: a great site you should read
Tagged business, IT, media, strategy, technology
From OpenShift Origin vs OpenStack – Red Hat OpenShift Blog:
OpenStack provides “Infrastructure-as-a-Service”, or “IaaS”….
The OpenShift hosted service provides “Platform-as-a-Service” or “PaaS”. It provides the necessary parts to quickly deploy and run a LAMP application:
Concisely:
Companies keep trying to make smart eyewear happen. First Google. Then Snapchat. Now there’s another company making a go at it. IT Business magazine has details on North, the company trying to make it happen here.
I think these are a big improvement on Google Glass. Is it enough? I don’t believe so. I think greater miniaturization needs to occur, such that there is very little difference between the shape of “dumb” eyewear and the shape of “smart” eyewear.
Meanwhile, we are getting closer to that time when there is very little difference. Stay tuned.
Comments Off on North, or advances in smart glasses since Google Glass.
This is what the Internet is:
The internet is the wider network that allows computer networks around the world run by companies, governments, universities and other organisations to talk to one another. The result is a mass of cables, computers, data centres, routers, servers, repeaters, satellites and wifi towers that allows digital information to travel around the world.
The Internet is a network of networks. Much of what people believe the Internet is actually runs on top of it: the Web, social media, email, gopher, what have you.People often say “I liked the Internet when..”. They are talking about the platforms they use on the Internet. Things popular on the Internet now — hello Facebook! — will be a relic in the future. Technologies running on the Internet come and often go, but the Internet itself is relatively constant and changes slowly.
The quote highlighted above is from this article: What is the internet? 13 key questions answered | Technology | The Guardian. It’s a good introduction to the Internet at a basic level.
Comments Off on What the Internet is (and what it is not)
Tagged Internet, IT, technology, theguardian
I saw this in Best Buy the other day, Amazon Fire 7 8GB FireOS 7″ Tablet With MediaTek MT8127 Quad-Core Processor – Black : Android Tablets – Best Buy Canada, and after reading some reviews and other articles (see below), I decided to get one. The $59 price tag had a lot to do with this.
My first thought was to try to use it as much as I could out of the box without making modifications to it. I set it up according to instructions, which were simple. I think you really want to have an Amazon account/userid to do this. I did and so things went smoothly.
The Amazon Fire has a modified version of the Android OS, which means it’s like an Android tablet, but not exactly. Likewise, Amazon has an App store, which is a limited version of the Google Play App store. You can get a number of apps from the Amazon App store, but not everything you can get on the Google Play store.
I wanted this device mainly as a place to consume media. Good news is it runs Netflix, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Mail, Texture and a modified version of YouTube. I was especially interested in Texture, which allows me to read magazines like New Yorker, Bon Appetit, Wired and others. I have been trying to read them on my phone and the experience was poor. On the tablet, the experience was much better, and the resolution was good. Likewise, YouTube videos are better on the tablet than the phone.
Downsides? First the device is slow compared to my iPhone 6. You notice it with things like Twitter and Instagram. You don’t notice it for things like Texture because there is more reading time and less scrolling. It’s not terrible, but it is noticeable if you have a newer device. If you have an up to date phone or tablet, you will notice this.
Another downside is the limited number of apps, especially media apps. I could not get the New York Times, Guardian or CBC app for it. It comes with the Washington Post, not surprisingly.
The browser that comes with it is slow. You cannot download other browsers without hacking the device.
One upside is you can get quite a few apps working for it. I downloaded Remember the Milk (for todos), Simplenote (for notetaking), WordPress (for blogging), Dropbox and more. I mainly want to use it for media consumption, but those things make it better.
To summarize: for $59, I think it is a great device for media consumption and basic functionality. If that’s all you want, I think you’d be happy with it. I’m glad I got it. Some reviewers said it is better to get the Fire 8 or 10, but for the money, I think the Fire 7 is surprisingly good.
P.S.Originally I was going to hack it to make it more like an Android tablet, but for now I think I’ll leave it as it is. If you did want to hack it, here’s some links to articles along that line:
P.S.S. This is not sponsored content.
Comments Off on Some thoughts on my new Amazon Fire 7 8GB FireOS 7″ Tablet for $59 at Bestbuy.ca
October 23, 2018 in advice, IT
Tagged bestbuy, hardware, IT, tablet, technology
Do what this article says: The New iPhones Look Fine. But My Old One Is Better Than Ever. – The New York Times
Comments Off on How to get more life out of your old iPhone
October 13, 2018 in advice, IT
Tagged iphone, nytimes, phone, smartphone, technology
These sculptures by John Peralta are beautiful. Here’s one
You can see more here: Machinations: Historical Machines Exploded into Individual Components in Sculptures by John A. Peralta | Colossal
Comments Off on This is beautiful: sculptures of old machines exploded into separate parts
Tagged art, collosal, sculpture, technology
One way is to read this: How to become a Git expert – freeCodeCamp.org. There’s a lot of good pages on how to get started on git, but if you are joining a software project, you may be expected to know more than the basics. You may be required to know the kind of things that piece talks about. Of course you can ask people on your team for help, but why not get as much skill as you can first and then ask better questions? There’s always something new to learn when it comes to git and software management: learn as much as you can by yourself and increase your skill set and your value to the team.
Comments Off on How to take your git skills to the next level
October 10, 2018 in advice, IT, new!
Tagged advice, git, github, IT, skills, sourcecontrol, technology
I’ve had this saved from some time ago but I want to post it for two reasons: The Modern Meeting: Call In, Turn Off, Tune Out – The New York Times.
One reason is just as a placeholder for how work is now in this time period. I will be happy to go back in five or ten years from now and see how much has changed.
The second reason is that no matter what happens in five or ten years from now, people who work in offices will always struggle with meetings. There is no solution to effective meetings: there is only managing your time and how best to be effective in the time you are working and meeting. If you work with people, you will have meetings. Nowadays you have too many meetings and you need to manage them and your time as best as you can.
Once meetings were hard to schedule. There were no digital calendars, no videoconferencing. You had to call or talk to someone and arrange to meet them, they would write it down on a piece of paper, and then physically show up and have the meeting. You likely worked with a limited number of people. And even then, even though they were hard to set up, meetings were a pain. Meetings will always be a pain. If they weren’t occasionally useful, no one would ever have them.
But meetings are occasionally useful. Sometimes they are essential. As long as people work together, there will be meetings. If you are working on many different things with many different people, you will have many meetings. Try to be as effective as you can in them. For those holding the meeting, don’t expect so much of people: get what you can and then end the meeting.
Comments Off on The state of meetings
October 3, 2018 in nytimes.com, work
Tagged efficiency, meetings, nytimes, productivity, technology, work
When it comes to insurance and wearables, I think the effect of these devices will be limited. I think this because:
So in short, I don’t believe people or insurers will get much benefit from wearable tech. People will not get breaks on their insurance, and insurers will not be able to reduce their risk substantially with the use of wearables.
If you are skeptical about the greatness of the iPhone 6s, this piece makes a good argument for it: Reasons you should buy an iPhone 6S instead of an iPhone 8 or iPhone X – Business Insider. If money is a prime concern, you can find refurbished 6s phones for a fraction of the cost of a new iPhone 8 or X.
If you want an iPhone and you are fine with refurbished — and some places give good warrantees on such phones — then consider making an iPhone 6s your next phone. Or get a new one from your mobile phone carrier or buy one outright from Apple.
Comments Off on iPhone 6s: still a great phone in the era of iPhone X
July 5, 2018 in IT, new!
Tagged apple, iphone, IT, phones, technology
Just how bad is it to have your house filled with smart devices? Kash Hill attempted to find out by connecting many of them up in her house and then track all the data that they sent out. The results are fascinating. Some of them send the data out in the clear, which is terrible. But even the ones that encrypt your data and leaking things about you via metadata.
Essentially whatever value smart devices provide — and some of that value is doubtful — they are monitoring equipment that you set up yourself. Just how much they monitor can be seen here in her study: The House That Spied on Me.
It’s a great read, and for some, it will be a great revelation.
Image via Home Depot’s web site.
Comments Off on What happens when you fill your house with smart devices?
Tagged IOT, IT, smarthomes, spying, technology
I am unexcited about the direction in Smartphone design. The key design idea that less is more in a phone is becoming Less is a Bore. Perhaps that’s why this design of a Blackberry got me thinking about it. While it still has a gorgeous screen, the phone itself is worthy of looking at and touching. It strikes the right balance. The phone as a design object is worthwhile.
It would have been good if Apple had struck out in a new design direction with the iPhone X. Instead they went with Less is More. Instead we have a phone with the Notch and a camera on the back that sticks out. It’s as if Apple would have preferred not to have these cameras and sensors, so rather than design the phone to incorporate them into the design, they stick out, figuratively and literally. In a few years from now when Apple has gone in a different direction, Apple fans will look back and exclaim how poor that aspect of the phone design is.
As for now, we live in an age where the screen dominates design, from TVs to smartphones. In the future that may change and the technology that we interact with will be contained in objects that have noteworthy design in them.
For more on this beautifully designed phone, see If BlackBerry Ditched the Keyboard | Yanko Design.
Comments Off on In an alternative universe this is the next hot smartphone
Tagged apple, design, iphone, IT, smartphone, tech, technology
 | smartpeopleiknow on On the end (?) of the Cape Bre… |
 | Carl Setzer on On the end (?) of the Cape Bre… |
| Carl Setzer on Happy Birthday to Gmail, from… |
| smartpeopleiknow on Happy Birthday to Gmail, from… |
| Carl Setzer on Happy Birthday to Gmail, from… |
| smartpeopleiknow on Happy Spring! Here’s som… |
| Carl Setzer on Happy Spring! Here’s som… |
Smart People I Know 