Month: January 2017

Wikipedia defines ‘artificial intelligence’ as ‘intelligence exhibited by machines’. But the term AI is often taken to mean, machines doing something similar to what people can do. The debate about what computers can do and what people can do, and when computers might catch up, is fascinating. But it’s not a business discussion – perhaps…

The big news this weekend was Donald Trump’s “executive order’, that there should be no immigration into the US from certain countries for a while. Aside from the various political issues involved with this, it also looks like a lot like really bad software. Reading the ‘executive order’ (here) it seems to make reasonable sense…

Software companies  – and websites – which give people complex ‘terms and conditions’ to read are not just being a little ignorant – they are insulting their customers. Let’s go through what this is saying, as an imaginary conversation between me, the software company, and you, the customer. You know and I know that you’re…

If you want to monitor your own health, here’s some useful factors.   How much are you sleeping and how well What are you eating Are you brushing your teeth Are you getting any exercise Are you spending time in dangerous environments (If in China or India) are you spending lots of time in dirty…

Software programmers and developers come in a variety of different types, and it would be silly to try to generalise. But can we just say, people involved in making something nearly invariably have a different perspective on that thing as the person who uses it as a tool in their work. The simpler the thing,…

Supercleverpeople look after their own interests, and don’t mind making life harder for nonsuperclever people. Clever people have: Built legal and immigration systems where you win or succeed if you understand clever rules or can afford to pay someone who does Built employment systems which end up paying salaries to supercleverpeople and leave the rest…

I read that the UK’s Money and Mental Health Policy Institute has published a report showing how people with low mental health struggle to work with banks and manage finances. This can include difficulty remembering passwords, problems constraining spending, anxiety, problems making decisions, difficulty dealing with human bank telephone help staff. They could add difficulty…

For years we’ve had minicab companies in London which would arrive after a telephone call and take you anywhere, for an extremely competitive rate. Sometimes the rates are so cheap the driver could hardly be making minimum wage – £20 for a taxi ride which could take 40 minutes, and the driver has to go…

For an example of non human centric automation, tere’s an example from my experience coming from York with 3 young children, with Virgin Trains last Sunday. We had reserved seats – but were told when we got to York station that the train had “no seat reservations”. There had been some computer failure at the…

  One  of the customers of our small business is moving their supply chain to SAP. Not very interesting is it? They’ve sent me a long letter explaining it. I had to read it. The letter explains why they are moving to SAP, they hope my business will benefit from their SAP, they are aligning…