A couple of different podcast episodes have brought together some thoughts on Linux usability and adoption. One is a discussion last year on the benefits of BSD (despite Linux’s popularity). Another is a recent discussion of Gnome 3, still a controversial desktop environment. A third was a mention of Linux by someone outside the Linux […]
Category: Technology
Apparently there’s a worrying trend in computer science academia. It could be another one of those “generational things”, but I wonder whether it’s actually a real problem. File Not Found is an article by Monica Chin on The Verge, and it summarises the trend for ‘Gen Z-ers’ to find difficulty in using files and folders […]
Image: “Blue Robot” by peyri. Creative Commons license CC BY-ND This article was inspired by a Kevin Kelly article in Wired magazine: Better Than Human: Why Robots Will — And Must — Take Our Jobs. It’s a little old now (2012), and seems unable to escape the idea of having jobs in the first place, […]
I got my first PC in 1995. It was a stunning machine with the following mind-blowing specs: Processor: 50MHz 486 SX2 RAM: 4MB Hard drive: 405MB Optical drive: Double speed CD-ROM Graphics card: Cirrus Logic something or other… Floppy drive Operating system: MS-DOS 6.22, Windows 3.11 (for Workgroups) Shell: Packard Bell Navigator Printer: Canon BubbleJet […]
I was interested to see the reaction to the young feller who came second in the recent Fortnite World Cup. The BBC interviewer told him: “You’ve taken a while to convince your mum this is real job.” Jaden agrees, but to be honest, it’s taking me a while to be convinced too. Can it count […]
Developing software was once a dark Wild West, where anything went. Before Agile Development and Scrum Masters, before even COBOL or assembly language, before there were even computers, it was a tough time for programmers. Men forced to play catch-up Indeed the very first computer programmer, Ada Lovelace, had to wait for a man, Charles […]
Hi. My name’s Martin, and I procrastinate. [Muted applause] Look, I’m even doing it now, while trying to communicate with you about a technique I’ve employed to try to curb my procrastination! [Uncertain, slow clapping] But to jump in to the meat of the topic, I’m finding that procrastination is not the same problem it […]
When Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple, like many others in the nascent Silicon Valley they started in a garage. In fact, Steve W (for that is easier to spell on this much caffeine) had been visiting the Homebrew Computer Club in their own garage for a while beforehand. What is the ‘American Garage’? […]
On one level, they’re just another cold call. Just another waste of time. Another reason to consider dumping your landline altogether (unless you’re like me, of course, and they have your mobile number too). Gah! I’m talking about the infamous Microsoft Call Centre Scam. It starts the same way each time: “Hello, sir, my name […]
It’s time to ditch the idea that, when not paying for a service, we’re the product. Tim Cook (billionaire chief of Apple) brought it up again in September, and recently Mark Zuckerberg (billionaire chief of Facebook) got a little angry with the accusation.