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.

  • Donald Byrd + more news

    Donald Byrd

    Renowned artist Donald Byrd died the other week and Blue Note paid tribute to him by posting his concert from the 1973 Montreux Jazz Festival on SoundCloud and allowed fans to listen to it for free. I love the accompanying notes that label president Don Was wrote for the release. Listen here.

    https://flic.kr/p/bCfTWr
    My favourite Donald Byrd album – Spaces And Places

    Donald Byrd was known as one of the rare bebop jazz musicians who successfully explored funk and soul while remaining a jazz artist. As a bandleader, he had an influence on the early career of Herbie Hancock. More culture related content here.

    Business

    BBC News – North Sea oil investment at 30-year high, industry says

    Consumer behaviour

    40% of consumers are unaware that Google Adwords are adverts | Econsultancy

    Mobile Society Research Institute Home ≫ Mobile Phone use by children and its effect on children 2012

    Press Release – 2012 Digital Lifestyle Study | J.D. Power

    Why Consumers May Be On Crash Course – consumers are clipping coupons at a rate not seen since before the 2007 recession.

    How to

    From Harlem Shake to Tutorials: How Socialbakers uses YouTube | Social Media Statistics & Metrics – Socialbakers

    3 Paths Toward A More Creative Life | Co.Design

    Interflora SEO Penalty Analysis 2013 – Martin MacDonald

    Innovation

    Yoshida in NY: Sony snaps out of NIH syndrome – the interesting aspect of this is that games developers really didn’t like massively parallel systems for programming, the challenge will be how to be innovative when trying to be partner-centric

    Luxury

    Marketing, DKNY’s “theft” caught on Facebook | Market-interactive.com

    Media

    Nikki Usher: The IHT wasn’t just a brand or a history — it was an alternate editorial lens » Nieman Journalism Lab – interesting retrospective of the International Herald Tribune

    Transport for London unveils Penguin series to mark 150th anniversary – Brand Republic News – a really nice idea, particularly when one thinks about the synergy in London of reading a book on the commute

    2013 Digital Future in Focus Series – comScore, Inc – they also have a series of webinars to present the data as well

    Startup LocalResponse Targets Twitter Conversations With Display Ads – Ad Age Mobile

    Moscow’s speed cameras ‘knackered’ by MYSTERY malware • The Register – you couldn’t make this up…

    New Anti-Piracy System to Hit U.S. Internet Users on Monday

    Martin Sorrell on What’s Next – Harvard Business Review

    Mindshare – The Global Media Network – Vine, Video Sharing by Twitter

    Online

    Facebook’s new search struggles with the real world | The Verge

    Software

    Digital Media Strategies: Dennis Publishing and New Scientist on evolving consumer publishing | TheMediaBriefing – interesting how Dennis was moving away from InDesign

    Samsung finally folding Bada OS into Tizen | The Verge – interesting move given that Tizen is a more fully-featured operating system and Bada was aimed at more downmarket phones

    Mozilla previews Firefox OS with four phone makers and 18 operators onboard – Computerworld – looks like taking a second run at WebOS type eco-system a la Palm

    Framebase • The best programmers are the quickest to Google

    NPR News Apps | How to build a news app that never goes down and costs you practically nothing

    Technology

    Apple Is Solving Supply-Demand Problem, Selling More iMacs – AllThingsD

    Why don’t MacBooks come with cellular networking? – Marco.org

    Wireless

    Bits v. Bytes: Follow the money | asymco

    SK Telecom denies 4G ‘curse’ – probably explains why all the major Korean carriers got fined for over subsidising handsets…

    France Telecom CEO Stephane Richard Talks Apple, Regulators – AllThingsD – interesting carrier takes on Nokia and Blackberry

    Samsung’s Heft in Android Worries Google – WSJ.com – market power could go away from Google to Samsung

    Samsung’s Ill-Conceived Apple VoiceOver Suit Stayed in Germany – AllThingsD – the ramifications for Samsung’s reputation are interesting

    Apple, Samsung patent hearing ‘unprecedented’ in Australia – consolidated charges, the thing that surprises me is why they are fighting so hard over a small market like Australia?

  • Siberian meteor burst + more

    Siberian meteor burst

    I know that there have been 500 people with minor injuries, but  the Siberian meteor burst felt like I was living in a Jerry Bruckheimer film. The best observation I saw about it was in Vice magazine’s email newsletter which asked why so many drivers in Russia had managed to film the asteroid rather than keeping both hands on the wheel? The reason for the multiple recordings of the Siberian meteor burst is driver cams used to help with car accident disputes. The Siberian meteor burst brought back memories of the Tunguska event in 1908 which levelled large swathes of Siberian forest.

    Business

    “Physically Together”: Here’s the Internal YHOO No-Work-From-Home Memo | AllThingsD – I could see a post coming on from Becky McMichael about the benefits of remote working and flexible hours etc etc

    PrivCo | LIVINGSOCIAL $110M Debt Infusion From Existing Investors With Oppressive Terms – I wonder what implications this will have for GroupOn

    Consumer behaviour

    HBO: The Weight of the Nation interesting site on obesity in the US

    Culture

    So there has been extensive character redesigns and different actors will be voicing some of the main protagonists, but I am super-excited that Production I.G are returning with another installment in the Ghost In the Shell series of anime. Arise looks amazing judging by the trailer footage now available on YouTube. More Japan related content can be found here.