Ged Carroll

Category: technology | 技術 | 기술 | テクノロジー

It’s hard to explain to someone who didn’t live through it how transformation technology has been. When I was a child a computer was something mysterious. My Dad has managed to work his way up from the shop floor of the shipyard where he worked and into the planning office.

One evening he broad home some computer paper. I was fascinated by the the way the paper hinged on perforations and had tear off side edges that allowed it to be pulled through the printer with plastic sprockets connecting through holes in the paper.

My Dad used to compile and print off work orders using an ICL mainframe computer that was timeshared by all the shipyards that were part of British Shipbuilders.

I used the paper for years for notes and my childhood drawings. It didn’t make me a computer whiz. I never had a computer when I was at school. My school didn’t have a computer lab. I got to use Windows machines a few times in a regional computer labs. I still use what I learned in Excel spreadsheets now.

My experience with computers started with work and eventually bought my own secondhand Mac. Cut and paste completely changed the way I wrote. I got to use internal email working for Corning and internet connectivity when I went to university. One of my friends had a CompuServe account and I was there when he first met his Mexican wife on an online chatroom, years before Tinder.

Leaving college I set up a Yahoo! email address. I only needed to check my email address once a week, which was fortunate as internet access was expensive. I used to go to Liverpool’s cyber cafe with a friend every Saturday and showed him how to use the internet. I would bring any messages that I needed to send pre-written on a floppy disk that also held my CV.

That is a world away from the technology we enjoy now, where we are enveloped by smartphones and constant connectivity. In some ways the rate of change feels as if it has slowed down compared to the last few decades.

  • Robot launch + more things

    Automata Eve robot launch

    I went along to the Automata Eve robot launch. More about the robot launch in more detail once I get around to write the post. Eve is a robotic arm aimed for light industrial usage.

    Untitled

    Everything else

    Moleskine Now Offers Retreats for People Who Work Remotely – Condé Nast Traveler – I get why they may be focusing on freelancers as the creative industries sees agencies using an increasing amount of freelancers. But there is also an opportunity for a luxury experience offering.

    Japanese porn company Soft on Demand wants to use virgin power to create electricity for romantic Tokyo event – Japanese marketers never fail to surprise me with these odd campaigns. The power comes from stationary exercise bikes. I couldn’t do any better than Sora News 24 at explaining how this campaign all comes together, so go and read it all there. Soft on Demand is the Japan’s largest adult entertainment media company and are putting a lot of money into marketing VR content

    Why Canon is helping users rent their kit to each other | Marketing | Campaign Asia – interesting idea but I could foresee a lot of problems with an AirBnB for camera bodies and lens, or maybe I am just a low trust individual. More marketing related content here.

    I hadn’t realised that population ageing and decline is a bigger issue in Bulgaria than it is in western European countries like Germany or the Nordics. In terms of population decline it even outstrips Korea and Japan.

    This seems to have been driven by the economic hardship caused in the immediate aftermath of the economic collapse of the Comintern (Communist International) group members and break up of the Soviet Union into Russia and members of the CIS.

    Very interesting documentary on the day-to-day impact by showing the lives of villagers that have been hit hard through this decline.

  • Video conferencing + more things

    Holographic-like video conferencing: a killer app for AR? | eeNews Europe – really??? I know the IBM had attempted video conferencing in Second Life, back when that was the metaverse du jour. It still wouldn’t solve a lot of the issues with virtual conferencing a la Zoom or Skype for Business. And then there would be a battery of security issues that continue to plague video conferencing. Finally there is the issue of computer mediated communication exhaustion. There is already issues with normal video conferencing software usage, let alone something like augmented reality.

    Apple’s new iPads cling to old Apple Pencil | The Verge – this looks like a potential mess. Why do the styli need to have technology in them? How long is a styli supposed to last for? Are new styli backwards compatiable with older styli? Its like the move from the 50 pin iPod connector move to lightning connectors on steroids.

    WSJ City – Feds scrutinise development and FAA approval process – interesting how they have gone in this direction focusing on the FAA approval process. I am surprised at the organisation capture that Boeing managed to make happen. It might be a mix of corruption and and incompetence. Dinging the FAA approval process could damage future US aircraft sales and trust in US certifications in general. It would be a boon for Chinese aspirations in the global aircraft market outside the US and EU

    Weber Shandwick’s UK Consumer Lead Quits – it’s interesting that she’s going without a plan. Weber Shandwick don’t seem to be too worried about contacts walking out the door.

    Nike and Boeing Are Paying Sci-Fi Writers to Predict Their Futures | OneZero – pretty standard. BT were doing this back in the 1970s at their research facility in Ipswich. People like MIT Media Lab have done similar things as well

  • Ken Kocienda on software

    Interesting talk with Ken Kocienda, covering his experience on product management and software design at Apple. Kocienda was a software engineer at Apple during Steve Jobs second time as CEO. Kocienda has since written a book – Creative Selection about his experiences.

    Interesting bits include:

    • Apple’s approach to open source in 2001. Apple looked at licensing and building their own software, but felt that open source was the right thing to do. Especially when it was the responsibility of a team of two to build a browser. Netscape was built for 20 different platforms, in that respect the Apple team had an easier time. KDE Conqueror had to only be moved from Linux to the Mac.
    • The role of demos in Apple’s development process. Safari was built with a stop watch because the brief was to deliver the best experience to customers. Speed was the differentiator that Ken Kocienda and the team locked on to very quickly. Dial up usage at the start of the development made page load time critical. A page load test was used on builds to ensure that there was no speed regression, build on build. At launch Safari was three times faster than Microsoft Internet Explorer for the Mac. Demos were done on a regular basis to demonstrate strength and potential of a project as its built.
    • Importance of focus. Apple doesn’t ship a lot of products (compared to rivals). Essentially the Mac line-up is four products laptop and desktop, consumer and professional. Because of the focus, it allowed the management to keep tabs on how the software doing.
    • The concept of a “Directly Responsible Individual”. Team formation and building was important part of culture. Top down leadership and bottom up contributions. The vision was very clearly communicated.
    • The role of whimsy and playfulness in designing software

    More on Apple here.

  • Zara model controversy & things I made last week

    Chinese netizens on Zara model controversy. I love Asian Boss’ qualitative interviews. The Zara model controversy happened only because its in China. Chinese netizens over react to anything they perceive as a slight. Fashion isn’t about ‘beauty’, but that subtlety sailed past Chinese netizens. Freckles indicate age and peasantry in Chinese culture. Beauty is porcelain flawless skin.

    Anand Giridharadas on the modern gilded age and how we should be skeptical of plutocrat philanthropy.

    New Balance China tends to march to the beat of its own drum. But even I was surprised by these sweatshirts with new romantic type detailing. China is unique in terms of its faux Korean aesthetic. I just don’t get the sportswear versus flamenco dancer look, I am just speechless at it.

    New Balance does New Romantic

    Samsung’s facial recognition is surprisingly easy to defeat. This is particularly bad for Samsung. Samsung’s other biometric authentication finger print ID isn’t as good as Apple’s. Samsung isn’t even as good legacy finger print scanners found on the back of Android handsets. Users have no reasonably secure option beyond PINs. I knew of siblings (not twins): a sister unlocking her younger brother’s phone at a glance.

    The moral of this story is that physical security of your phone is required to prevent unauthorised access to your device. Regardless of whether its made by Samsung or any other vendor.

    Goldman Sachs have a great (if terrifying) video on the use of biometrics in public places like airports and stadiums. This is really disturbing, nay, dystopian viewing if you care about your privacy at all. The human factors issue of the laptop loss at Clear affected the brand reputation. What’s impressive is the fact that the Clear brand survived disaster. It is rare for lightning to strike twice, even more so in technology.

  • ICYMI | 당신이 그것을 놓친 경우에 대비해서

    UK tariff plans to limit no-deal Brexit damage | Financial Times – the system would mean that products brought into Northern Ireland across the land border would not have any tariffs imposed. But many products shipped across the Irish Sea from Ireland to Wales or England would have tariffs slapped on them. Officials acknowledged that this could be vulnerable to abuse by the unscrupulous. One official played down the idea that smugglers could bring European cars or other expensive goods across the land border — and then into England — to escape tariffs. “That’s the kind of thing we would be monitoring closely,” he said. – interesting UK tariff plans that will be painful for UK industry (paywall)

    Lazada is livestreaming its birthday concert – directly on its app | Techinasia – over a decade after Tokyo Girls Collection

    President Trump’s Twitter feed: Can you really target an ad at him? | Slate – interesting. I used to do the same thing for UN and EU policy campaigns a decade ago

    China’s economy is 12% smaller than official data say, study finds | Financial Times – (Paywall)

    Hands over Siena: How Russian oil is buying the Tuscan city – La Stampa – interesting reading and a warning for UK property

    Facebook sues Ukrainian app developers for scraping user data – SiliconANGLE – Facebook sues Ukranians for ideas that they wished they had thought of

    Over 50s perceptions of post-Brexit changes | Yahoo! Finance – guess they will be in for a shock to be blamed on Europe

    Chinese Tourism Boom That Propped Up Luxury Brands Is Faltering | News & Analysis | BoF – Luxury brands have gained a lot of traction and growth out of China, but the bloom is off the rose

    AI Cameras That Can Spot Shoplifters Even Before They Steal – Bloomberg – pre-crime made real

    Microsoft Band and Health Dashboard Kill-Off Suggests Platform IoT Focus | ProgrammableWeb
    – it makes sense in the face of the Apple Watch