Here's a question - what's more ecologically sustainable... a physical telephone directory, or a phone book smartphone app? At base level, the "death to paper" technologist will say the printed telephone directory claiming dead trees and non-biodegradable plastic packaging. In retort, the telephone directory publisher will respond that (somewhat incredulously) that a smart phone uses … Continue reading Infinitely measured
Category: Themes
A couple of years ago I wrote a blog article that was unusually well read. As a colleague at the time put it, "don't think its because of anything other than your employer", which cut my literary aspirations down to size in a second. But the article - What motivates developers? broke all of the bandwidth … Continue reading What motivates developers – two years on
There was an article published on the Stratechery blog last week about the failings of BlackBerry (and Nokia) that put in mind a piece written a few years ago by The Partners' Jim Prior (and part of his book Preserved Thoughts). Ben Thompson's piece on the mobile industry noted that, in the relatively short history of personal computer … Continue reading The power of two
As the TV-licensing fee paying father of two toddlers, one of the most consumed parts of the wealth of the BBC's output in our household is CBeebies - the channel aimed at pre-schoolers. Although I use the term channel, content is probably a better description because having been born into the iPlayer age, our two … Continue reading The public service remit
About a year and a half ago I wrote about the competitive battleground that was the living room. Eighteen months later I feel I might have been missing the point; by the look of the numbers from Ofcom's Communications Market report this year, the battle for the living room has been won, by TV content. … Continue reading The living room battle is over
Every once in a while, an old colleague of mine Francis requests a theme for a blog article. A few days ago he asked me why, when we shared an office, I'd seem to pick up every sales telephone call I received. He wondered why... The mechanics of it are simple, I guess. I'm easily … Continue reading Answering the phone
Twenty or so years ago an old friend of mine set up a "knowledge-based" business and needed a loan of a couple of hundred thousand pounds to get up and running with the infrastructure required to establish a company - an office, furniture, kit, staff and so on. Five years ago I heard a chap … Continue reading Thoughts on starting up
In the next hour I'll be handing over my staff pass, my laptop and my phone, and getting the TVP shuttle bus to Reading Station as I leave Microsoft for the last time as an employee. It's a time of mixed emotions; in many ways last Friday, the last day that my kids attended the … Continue reading Thoughts on leaving
So it's time for another chapter in my career to open. Two years and five months after starting, it's time to gracefully exit, stage left from Microsoft. It's been a fascinating time. Remarkably, when I joined in March 2011, only the first inklings of the company's future product set were public (or even private internal) … Continue reading Leap, and a net will appear*
The admissions from the Metropolitan Police this week about the Ian Tomlinson case, where an officer was found to have used unauthorised and unnecessary force which led to the newspaper seller's death a few years ago, mark an interesting turning point in our video-surveillance society. Whilst the UK has become one of the most videoed … Continue reading Big brother is us
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