My Posts

Privacy should be our choice

A great quote from this podcast by 23andMe Co-Founder and CEO Anne Wojcicki …


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Pi

This page is devoted to maths and in particular pi. The answer to the second question on this page is unexpected and I love the energy the maths teacher brings to the class in the video. I had some okay maths teachers but never one quite like this.


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The term 'Blockchain' is meaningless

There seems to be no single clean definition of what “Blockchain” actually means. There are a lot of woolly statements, several of which are clearly either wrong or too narrowly focused. This article goes into some of the different definitions and why they are wrong and then the implications of this from a business but also a legal perspective.


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The ultimate broken mental barrier - the four minute mile

I had never seen the original footage of Sir Roger Bannister running the first four minute mile. His narration of the race really adds to it as well.


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Using AI to find code problems

Ubissoft have introduced a tool that “uses AI” to identify potential coding issues when the developer commits code. They claim it can detect a significant number of errors and even suggest solutions in some cases. There will always be some errors that it will not be able to identify, for example where the implementation doesn’t match the requirements, however this approach could have a significant impact on the amount of time spent debugging. And it should improve over time as it learns more potential errors.


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Blackout by Marc Elsberg

This story documents one scenario that could happen when the nightmare happens of a massive power cut across Europe. It starts with a number of threads and weaves them well together. It follows an Italian as he realizes it is a terrorist attack on the smart power meters. This destabilizes the power grid which takes down most of the grid across Europe. A second attack targets the power plants. This leads to a power cut across Europe that lasts days and the storyline of how they track down the cause and the perpetrators.


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Reducing the team size to deliver

A project was struggling to deliver in time and the project manager resolved it by reducing the team size where the typical approach is to increase the team size. This decision was based on the overhead of communication and Brooks Law.


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Developer platforms must listen to developers in order to grow

This is an excellent study on why developers are so important to a platform. At the moment we are developing a platform and we have been trying to get this message across to the business side of the company. This article backs up what we have been saying.


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Don't let status change the conversation

I am probably like most people in that when I meet someone who I deem to be important the way I deal with them changes. It introduces a more reserved interaction with more careful responses.


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How do crypto-currencies work?

A very simple introduction to how Bitcoin works … using a stuffed penguin!


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