Month: March 2018

  • Ronnie Drew & things this week

    Listening to the late, great Ronnie Drew telling the story of Cú Chulainn. Cú Chulainn is one of the most famous figures in Irish folklore and Drew’s ravaged voice adds much to the telling. Ronnie Drew was the leader and vocalist in Irish group The Dubliners. In attitude, The Dubliners were more rock n’ roll…

  • BBC World Service + more news

    BBC Blogs – Technology & Creativity Blog – Shifting gear with the BBC World Service – interesting opportunities for developers, this mirrors the expansion of Chinese and Russian media internationally. The BBC World Service has also had its funding disrupted in a manner that make it more political. The long term impact of this bias…

  • Reid Hoffman on tech sector issues

    This Reid Hoffman video stands in sharp comparison to the Ayn Rand-loving frat-bro culture that seems to infect technology  sector companies based in Silicon Valley. However Hoffman in his past has reflected at least some of their libertarian views. However Reid Hoffman is cut from different cloth and represents a slightly older generation in the…

  • Join hands on apps + more news

    China smartphone makers join hands on apps, pose threat to WeChat | Reuters – this effort by vendors to join hands on apps reminds me of work that Google did on ‘streaming’ apps as needed that went a bit quiet. Interesting that the manufacturers are willing to go against Tencent. In a mature market handset…

  • Technology uncanny valley of the web

    The technology sector is in a maelstrom. Cambridge Analytica Whilst Cambridge Analytica surprised most people in digital marketing who get the technology. The claims surprised for three main reasons: Facebook’s scope of data access wasn’t surprising to marketers, but the level of shock the media felt was seismic Cambridge Analytica was considered to have some…

  • Google Drive & more news

    Google Drive privacy Sex Workers Say Porn on Google Drive Is Suddenly Disappearing – Motherboard – don’t assume that the contents of your Google Drive hasn’t been thoroughly examined by Google. Adult entertainment is merely the canary in the coal mine for Google Drive privacy. I would be very careful about using a cloud storage…

  • Yahoos and things this week

    Catching up with fellow former Yahoos. Employees of Yahoo! were known as Yahoos. All three of us worked on the European marketing team in London at the time when web 2.0 was kicking off. It was great to see my fellow former Yahoos. We kicked around the move away from quality in online media, historic…

  • Alternatives to big tech + more news

    Alternatives to big tech  Alternatives to Big Tech, and a t-shirt | Creative Good – as someone who has used RSS for a long time I am intimately aware of the needs for alternatives to big tech. Google Reader obliterated RSS readers and then obliterated RSS readership by abruptly withdrawing the product. I’d argue that…

  • Roxanne Shante + more

    The new Roxanne Shante biopic looks amazing and you know the soundtrack is going to be good. Roxanne Shante was like a breadth of fresh air in the early rap scene. She had an amazing technique and was well able to cut male competitors down to size. Roxanne Shante is a legend despite her limited…