Spam 2.0

After many years of being reasonably smug about how little email spam I receive (which I put down to having a relatively uncommon name and, over the years, being relatively careful about where I use my email address online), I have found in recent months a big increase. That escalation has been due to my … Continue reading Spam 2.0

Guardian Technology – Rest in Bits

At the end of 2009 a publication that has an important significance in my own life will fold. Guardian Technology (previously Online, etc) will be published in print form for the final time on December 14th. The section has been important to my career because I found two jobs through the paper, although tellingly, the … Continue reading Guardian Technology – Rest in Bits

Thinking about the future…

At 6.01pm on Wednesday November 4th I became a father. After a rather long labour, and an emergency c-section, Oscar James entered the world. We are pulling together a few artefacts that, later in life, Oscar will be able to look at to gain an insight into the world into which he was born in … Continue reading Thinking about the future…

Changing models of security…

An article in The Australian from Tuesday (heck, dontcha just love the global world we live in) talks about SaaS provider NetSuite rejecting Google Apps on the grounds of Google's terms of service regarding mining of data. This shows one of the key issues that Cloud/SaaS is starting to open up - that of information … Continue reading Changing models of security…

I love a party with an Atmosphere…

Well, not too often that a blog post will be titled in homage to a song by Russ Abbot.... I spent last Thursday at Google Atmosphere, a day long, business-focused event looking at cloud computing held just down the road at the Bloomsbury Street Hotel. Key speakers included journalist Nicholas Carr, Amazon CTO Werner Vogels, … Continue reading I love a party with an Atmosphere…

Visions of the future

The new phone has got me thinking about how visions of the technology of the future go through a strange pattern of appearing to be wild and outlandish, and then suddenly somewhat quaint and of their own time. I've never really been much of a science fiction fan (for those of you who are not … Continue reading Visions of the future

Ditching Nokia…

After over 12 years, for the first time I have bought myself a new personal mobile phone that wasn't built by Nokia. The main driver for me to change was, in the end, the availability of Spotify Mobile, and that combined with my increasing use of services from Google has led me to an HTC … Continue reading Ditching Nokia…

Changing Behaviours not Processes

Spent my Tuesday this week as a client in my own company as a delegate at a Unified Communications event run by IDC and HP at the wonderful Gallery. Lots of talk about video conferencing, which wasn't too much of a surprise as Tandberg were also sponsors. What it's made me realise is the extent … Continue reading Changing Behaviours not Processes

Wither the CIO?

Another topic of discussion at the Bathwick session yesterday was how the emerging world of SaaS and Cloud might impact on the future of CIO roles. In a world where technologists are no longer required to purchase what are fully-functioning business services, why have a CIO? For me, the value in an internal group to … Continue reading Wither the CIO?