So here's the narrative: Windows XP was a storming success. So successful that people didn't need to upgrade from it. And certainly weren't going to upgrade to Windows Vista, which was widely accepted within and without Microsoft as a dog. With three legs. And mange. Windows 7 sorted out all of the problems with VIsta, … Continue reading Windows 10… first impressions
Category: Technology
I woke up early this morning. I had things on my mind. And the kids are away so I was perturbed by the silence in the house. I checked my phone. I skirted through LinkedIn, Facebook. On Facebook there was a particularly irritating ad for Windows 10 proclaiming that it would allow me to "sign … Continue reading The end of the PC era
Sitting on the train this morning reading this week's Economist briefing on Silicon Valley made me think one thing above all else. If the techno-utopian vision of a virtual, Artificial Intelligence world is so close, why the heck is so much of the world of technology development focused in such a small and relatively remote … Continue reading The triumph of the PostIts
I have written in the past about how the language that we attach to failing is part of the fundamental challenge of organisations dealing with the ambiguity of the world we are in. Failure is pejorative, so it's no wonder that people find it so hard to embrace. The lessons from the world of agile … Continue reading Happy mistakes
In a panel discussion organised by the global pay-wall provider The Times this week, Baroness Lane-Fox of the Interwebs apparently suggested that the UK government should scrap investment into the HS2 programme in favour of high speed internet infrastructure. She's wrong. We need both. And the irony for me is that both of these initiatives … Continue reading Platforms come in many forms
London yesterday was plunged into the sort of stiff-upper-lipped, passive-aggressive chaos that we Londoners seem to be so good at as the entire Tube network was shut down by industrial action. Putting aside the whys and wherefores of the strike itself (although as the 40-something parent of two small children, living in the suburbs, there … Continue reading Down the tubes
A chap I met yesterday asked me if I could recommend some sources to help him get his head around "digital". Now whilst I'm sure that whattheheckisdigital.com exists, as an exercise in identifying my own sources of influence it was interesting, because it highlighted how much of my work is synthesising from diverse sources. Here's … Continue reading A digital reading list
So in the verbose email style it seems so ingrained in the culture of Microsoft, Satya Nadella has announced a new mission statement for the Redmond behemoth - to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more. A really great mission statement, to my mind, combines four key attributes: aspiration, specificity and tangibility, … Continue reading Mission to nowhere?
There seems to be a repeating narrative about the rise of the robots going on at the moment: from the front page of this month's Harvard Business Review, to Channel 4 prime time drama on Sunday nights, the robots are coming and they're after us, our jobs, our sanity... Now, last time I looked, the most … Continue reading Dumbing down
The concept of Agile software development has reached primacy within so much of the technology industry. For certain types of software, it seems to be proven through popularity if nothing else that Agile produces better software. But what if the answer to the challenge you are facing isn't in code? In the world of startup, … Continue reading What if the answer isn’t software?
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