Thoughts on partnerships, payments, platforms and the systems that quietly shape modern commerce.
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Google, The Right to be Forgotten, and (monetised) Free Speech
There have been a lot of words written about the European Court of Justice ruling in May this year which forced Google to remove links to content when requested. Here are some I’ve written to expose how the issue is being handled in a simplistic way by most of the media. The European Courts ruled…
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Review: Kit Universal Bluetooth Keyboard Case
When I walked into the office with my sleek iPad Air tucked away in my new Kit Universal Bluetooth Keyboard Case, a coworker looked at it and said, “What the fuck is that?” After explaining to him that with a good keyboard I could ditch the laptop altogether and lighten the load of carrying my…
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The Quantified Self demonstrates how tech culture is getting it wrong
Two things happened recently that made me pay attention to wearable tech and the idea of the quantified self, and how both highlights how tech culture is getting it wrong. The first was over lunch when I saw a senior manager plug her Fitbit into her iPhone and sync up her data. I cheekily asked her what…
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Franz Kafka’s In The Penal Colony, Manus Island, and Australia’s second wave of racism and xenophobia
“The matter stands like this. Here in the penal colony I have been appointed judge. In spite of my youth. For I stood at the side of our Old Commandant in all matters of punishment, and I also know the most about the apparatus. The basic principle I use for my decisions is this: Guilt…
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SuperTooth buddy Review
Buying a hands free Bluetooth car speakerphone like the SuperTooth buddy is making a big statement that you can’t afford a fancy new car that comes with hands-free, voice activation, and a heads-up display, but despite this, are firmly committed to not having an accident while discussing the weather or whispering sweet nothings to your…
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The cloud needs to get personal
Beyond status updates and pictures of food, digital technologies have yet to have a massive impact on how people collaborate out of the office. Facebook, text and instant messaging, and email provide a toolset which allows families and friends to communicate and plan activities in a fairly clumsy way. The process is crude and prone…
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Trust and transparency in the social age
One of my first jobs was working for a Dutchman who refused to put prices on any of his products. He would work out the price when someone entered the warehouse or sent him a fax. His principle was that people should pay according to their need – the greater the need, the greater the…
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Review: Veho 360 Bluetooth Speaker
Before I got the Veho 360 Bluetooth Speaker my only experience of Bluetooth speakers was when a prankster at the office hooked hid it one in the atrium and played fart noises to startled geeks, accountants, and, telesales jockeys. Hilarious! I should mention that I also had some Bluetooth headphones that I paid an extraordinary…
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The problem with Utopian big data theories and why there is no magical data fairy pregnant with the truth
Big data will save us all. Or so some technical pundits reckon. Before I go into that a brief excursion into history is required. In 1979 there was an accident at a Three Mile Island nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania. The engineers had unwittingly let some water leak into the wrong system which triggered a shutdown…
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The conversation prism
Brian Solis of the Altimeter Group has released an updated version of The Conversation Prism which shows both how social media is very fragmented, and also points out the inherent weakness of the term social media. This is business today not something that is exclusively social or media focused. Most of the brands featured are…
