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.
This post on dead tools came along due to two incidents. The first incident was cleaning out dead links of online tools on my social bookmarking account. (A social bookmarking account is a searchable online storage of links that would otherwise be favourites in your browser. This allows the links to be catergorised and become searchable. Creating an index of useful and trusted links.) The second incident was going through the verification resources created by American investigative journalist Craig Silverman.
Before 2010, I worked on very digital focused projects and used a battery of free online tools. In 2010, I started using Sysomos MAP, a paid for social media monitoring tool. Since then I have seen a steady decline in tools with many becoming dead tools.
Too big to care
In terms of dead tools – Google exemplifies the ‘too big to care’ category of dead tools. I documented the closure of 30 Google services that were useful in a post back in 2014. The one that probably has the biggest effect on online society was the demise of Google Reader. Google Reader would have made online media bubbles harder to fall into than they are now with social media. Google Now – the product that was considered the spiritual successor to Google Reader was the model for how to build a media bubble around the consumer – it used algorithms to give you more of the news that you liked over time and this goes beyond relevance which tools like Newsblur focused on in their training function. In 2006, O’Reilly had published a book called Google Hacks that documented useful things that you could do with Google services. The book is now largely of historical interest.
Since I wrote the Google services post, the company downgraded and made its search keyword planner and display advertising planning tools less useful, to the point of being useless. Google’s search function has become less useful and consumers have noticed. Google Search no longer allows Boolean operators. For instance
would have been able to use as a search previously and is no longer be allowed as a search. The Atlantic went as far as asking is Google dying? Earlier on in the year there was a similar discussion on Hacker News and Reddit among technologists.
Much of this comes down to the law of large numbers, Google only cares about really big niches. So Boolean operators have come out so Google doesn’t have to maintain them. Instead Google has been focusing on things like which is nearest coffee shop to your smartphone that it can provide as a recommendation. Google has pivoted from organising the world’s information to becoming a user’s life OS.
Open web to closed web
When I started using these tools the web had become a web of data. Platforms were generous with APIs and platforms like Flickr had allowed an ecosystem of useful tools to be developed on top of their APIs. Social networks offered more limited APIs which have closed up over time. This is the reason why the number of third party twitter clients have become severely diminished. From a research perspective, this also means that tools lost their data sources, which led them to become dead tools. This is why social media monitoring became all about Twitter, data sources from Instagram and TikTok are much more limited – for instance Instagram allows only single word or hashtag search.
Tools like software programmes often disappear when the people who have created them are no longer able to maintain them. Often these tools will have been developed by a single person to deal with a problem that they had run into ‘scratching an itch’. Life throws up other challenges and interests. It is remarkable that I have relied on some services for over two decades, which is a lifetime ago for the current generation of programmers who think that Tumblr is a distant memory.
Tools aren’t dead yet, but we have passed a golden age in the useful web for now. Hopefully new tools will arise over time to replace the dead tools we’ve lost.
The BBC had Darren McGarvey on, reading is own book The Social Distance Between Us. Something is added to the content through McGarvey’s own voice reciting his own book adapted for the ‘book of the week’ slot. His Glaswegian accent and experience recording Scottish tinged rap helps in his delivery. Darren McGarvey is better known in music circles as Loki and his two albums published in the 2010s before he became an author and fronted documentaries (like working-class Londoner Professor Green). This is McGarvey’s second book after Poverty Safari, which was released in 2018. Both of the books deal with the realities for the British working class.
Revlon files for bankruptcy – CNN – one would normally expect a brand like Revlon to be resilient in a recession for being an affordable luxury a la Esteé Lauder. Ron Perelman overburdened Revlon with too much debt and its impressive that it lasted this long
China
Chinese courts flex intellectual property muscle across borders | Financial Times – Chinese courts have issued four key cross-border “anti-suit injunctions” following claims made by the country’s massive telecom equipment and smartphone groups — Huawei, Xiaomi, ZTE and Oppo — in disputes against Germany’s Conversant, US group InterDigital, and Japan’s Sharp. These rulings have essentially sought to block non-Chinese companies from enforcing IP rights in other jurisdictions, meaning Chinese companies cannot be sued for alleged infringements.They are enforced via daily penalties on a foreign company’s local operations in China, if that company insists on pursuing a case. According to Rieko Michishita, a veteran China IP lawyer at Bird & Bird, the rapidly mounting penalties make the injunctions akin to “taking a hostage”. And the cases are an indication, she warns, of how Chinese companies and courts will become more confident in deploying such legal manoeuvres as the country’s technological prowess steams ahead
Fears of data abuse as Chinese health code turns red for financial scandal protesters | South China Morning Post – Victims of what could be one of China’s largest financial scandals found themselves unable to step outside to join planned protests because their health QR codes had turned red, reigniting fears that the large-scale data collected for contact tracing would be abused for other uses. Since late May, hundreds of people have taken to the streets in China’s central Henan province, calling for authorities to ensure the return of their deposits that were frozen in four rural banks in the province.
Redefine Meat are a brand that is competing in the meat alternative space from Beyond Meat to Quorn. Redefine Meat is plant based and has support of chef Marco Pierre White. The premise of the ad addresses a thorny question in a humorous way. What happens to the herds of livestock who would be no longer needed, if the world became a vegan utopia? Their solution is the cow repurposing institute – a job training centre for cattle. Of course, the likely solution will be much less vegan friendly.
The trailing edge chip shortage
Asianometry goes into the shortage of trailing edge process manufactured processors. These produce chips with a low cost per unit as the capital costs of the chips were covered years ago. Older foundries are running at very high utilisation rates. There is a problem trying to get hold of older equipment. Interesting point mentioned that MEMS are in particular demand due to the Ukraine invasion.
Skinner on Machiavelli
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli is so well known his family name became a noun and and adjective to describe someone who was cunning. The Prince – his book on governance is cited by far more people than have actually read it. I liked this talk by historian Quentin Skinner on the man and his work. Skinner is from the Cambridge school of historians that seeks to contextualise the environment of historical figures (and so better understand their actions).
McDonalds goes ambient
This seems to be an ad that was commissioned for a Spanish speaking market, but I suspect that it might be a student piece of work. The craft is stunning. Given that McDonalds has worked hard to point out that its food is made from ‘real’ ingredients, this ad might be counterproductive – hence the reason why I think it might be a student project. It promotes McDonald’s range of McMuffin breakfast sandwiches.
I was first aware of MEMS (micro-electromechanical system) with Texas Instruments DLP chips in projectors which were key to digital cinema and vast improvements in home projectors alongside LED light sources. I did a bit of freelance work for AOL Germany and had a review of the DLP technology that had been installed in Leicester Square and used to show the remastered original Star Wars trilogy. Depending on the MEMS, they do not even have mechanical parts.
They are classified as MEMS because they use structures used in conventional machinery, such as springs, channels, cavities, holes and membranes. Some MEMS devices convert a measured mechanical signal into an electrical or optical signal, they may also be referred to as transducers. In Japan, MEMS are more commonly known as micromachines, and in European countries, MEMS are more commonly referred to as microsystems technology (MST).
MEMS are in every modern smartphone as digital compasses and accelerometers that provide essential functionality for these phones. Asianometry provide a really good background of the potential in MEMS.
The Goodwill Project
The Goodwill Project published an interesting spoken word work by Milorgia (Georgia Anne Muldrow and Milo better known as R.A.P. Ferreira). You can hear more of the project on the Bandcamp page. It’s an interesting freewheeling collaborative work that draws from R&B and hip hop.
Russia’s situation
Interesting interview with Russian opposition politician Vladimir Milov at the Austrian Institute For Europe and Security Policy. Some of the comments about the importance of the Orthodox Church in Russia has been overblown in importance is very interesting.
Saab 900
Big Car did a great history of the original Saab 900, for a car that was as revolutionary in the 1980s as Tesla had been in the 2010s. The reality is that the Saab 900 was a mix of clever engineering and hand me down parts from the likes of British Leyland.
Saab never managed to get scale in its car business, which was the reason why it disappeared under the disastrous ownership by General Motors. However, looking at other manufacturers like Rover Group, there is no guarantee that an alternative owner could have done any better. The Saab 900 Turbo, alongside the Audi Quattro was the stuff of my pre-teen automotive dreams.
Iain Tyrell this tour around a beautiful example of the Saab 900 Turbo 16S. His detailed explanation on turbos is really interesting. Its also interesting to hear that its a bit lighter than a Porsche Boxster.
Lessons from Ukraine
Interesting BBC segment on how the Ukraine war is changing the nature of war. Integrating information into the fighting is interesting. Their assumptions about the tank doesn’t take into account that the Russians haven’t used infantry and armoured vehicles in a tactically smart way. Infantry without tanks are vulnerable, as are tanks without infantry.
What’s next for Glossier as founder Emily Weiss steps down after eight years | Vogue Business – Glossier is famous for popularising millennial pink in its stores, its zip-lock bubble pouch and for pioneering everyday beauty in an industry obsessed with perfection. However, signs of internal shifts began earlier this year when the beauty brand laid off nearly one-third of its staff, according to an internal email obtained by Modern Retail. It also enlisted the singer and Gen Z favourite Olivia Rodrigo to promote the brand in April, after years of relying on its own community. There have been other bumps in the road. Two years ago the sub-brand Glossier Play closed, and the brand was also called out by former store employees who made allegations about racist behaviour and a toxic work culture. Glossier publicly apologised. – for many marketers in the beauty and personal care space Glossier was the poster child of a ‘new way’ of brand building. It looks as if it wasn’t the new way at all and its had to pivot to more conventional means.
Glossier is moving from scrappy start-up to a mainstream beauty brand. Will Weiss stepping back mean that Glossier will be up for sale?
Consumer behaviour
How Labour lost the Indian vote in the local elections – New Statesman – new Indian immigrants have more in common with Rishi Sunak than with the 1970s East Africans. Born to a wealthy, upper-caste Hindu family, this immigrant is likely to have attended one of India’s most prestigious private schools, aspiring to attend an Ivy League university. They were raised by domestic help who cooked and cleaned for them. Sunak embodies the Indian upper middle class. He understands the new wealthy India. Hell, he’s a card-carrying member of the new wealthy India: the Stanford educated son-in-law of one of the biggest Indian tech families, born to middle-class Indian doctors. This means that when Labour draws attention to Sunak’s elitist background, it makes him more appealing to both Indian demographics. He achieved the social mobility the 20th-century immigrants hoped for for their children, and he is a member of the family that encapsulates the new elite India
Economics
All the reasons why so many near-retirees are going back to work — Quartz – the pandemic may have been an even bigger setback to this age group than the current data suggests. There may be many older workers who want to return to work right now and are facing well-established obstacles, such as age discrimination, that make it much harder for an older employee to be rehired after leaving or losing a job, Davis suggests. Going back to work after retirement? It’s complicated. The data also don’t indicate how many of the people who went back to work would have preferred to retire, but couldn’t—a sign that the system could be failing them
Is British science aiding and abetting the Chinese human organ trade? – Last month, for example, a government bill was passed banning British citizens from travelling overseas to purchase an organ. Accompanying this awareness is a growing unease in western academia. Eminent medics are starting to look back uncomfortably on decades of “constructive engagement” with the Chinese medical establishment – those all-expenses-paid trips to lecture budding surgeons, and the profitable arrangements to train batches of them in the west. Meanwhile editors of academic journals are scouring their back issues for too-good-to-be-true studies on organ transplants, that may have arisen from experimentation on human guinea pigs in places such as Xinjiang. In October last year a world-renowned Australian transplant doctor, Professor Russell Strong, called on all Chinese surgeons to be banned from western hospitals to prevent them using the skills they pick up there in the organ harvesting market. Now, a leading human rights body has warned medical equipment manufacturers – among others – that they might be prosecuted if their kit is found to be used in the illegal Chinese trade. – this is going to expand areas of decoupling
Unilever’s Samir Singh: Sustainability shouldn’t burden consumers with guilt or expense | Campaign Asia – existential threats to the personal care business wouldn’t just come from being innovation laggards, but could also come from feisty D2C brands or strong local rivals eating into market share. Here, Singh is more concerned about one over the other. “Despite the noise, D2C brands have made no impact on market share charts in the personal care business,” he contends. “You will hear a lot about them for the first six months to a year, (then) they will peak and then in two or three years, they tend to disappear.” Instead, it is strong homegrown local brands that worry Singh more. He points out that across categories ranging from deodorants to skin care and across markets ranging from India to Indonesia, Unilever has felt local threats to its storied global brands. These brands have been able to compete on price, innovation, distribution and brand recall. “While we have been winning with our global names, these local brands have taken market share from us previously,” he admits. – this looks like headstone for the DTC CPG boom, other comments about sustainability are interesting as well
Chanel profits skyrocket 171% on price hikes, Americas gains | Vogue Business – Chanel famously increased the prices of its iconic handbags last year (the small Classic Flap bag rose by an average 21 per cent in 2020 and a further 30 per cent in 2021, according to Jefferies analyst Flavio Cereda) and said a twice-year price adjustment is the norm for the brand. Price increases “depend on product categories and countries because it depends if the currency in one country has moved in a direction. There is not a single pricing decision which has been made in January. Usually, we revise, we adjust prices when we have to, twice a year.”
Joint Venture Between High-Tech Rheinmetall AG and DEMALOG, Germany’s Biggest Biometrics Company – Soldier Systems Daily – The strategic objective is to integrate biometric technology, artificial intelligence software, and digitization solutions in three different areas: driver monitoring, security, and industry. For Rheinmetall, the joint venture marks an important step in the transformation to digitization technology and expanding into driver monitoring solutions. Furthermore, the new joint venture enhances the Düsseldorf-based technology group’s future-oriented diversification into biometrics applications geared to the security sector and industry. The move also adds to its existing digitization and software expertise. Importantly, the partnership reinforces Rheinmetall’s capabilities in five strategic technology clusters: automation, sensors, digitization, alternative mobility, and artificial intelligence
Virtual clubbing points to future profits from the metaverse | FT – Hybe, the agency behind K-pop band BTS, was hit by a 98 per cent plunge in sales from its core live concert business in 2020 as tours were cancelled. But total annual revenues and operating profit still rose over a third, as it was quick to offer VR concerts and content. With such digital content repurposed at a fraction of the cost of live shows, operating margins rose to nearly a fifth higher than pre-pandemic levels. CJ ENM, which started using the latest VR and augmented reality technology for its virtual concerts in 2020, has also enjoyed a boost to content sales. These have since risen steadily, more than doubling in the latest quarter, as did operating profits from its music division. For Sony, sales from its music segment rose a fifth in the year to March
Making the metaverse – Smart2.0 – its odd, or disingenuous the way Meta is outlining an open metaverse rather than a walled garden, rather like a turkey voting for Christmas
