My own piece of the Internet
 
Tag: <span>vision</span>

Tag: vision

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 of the main pumps responsible for cooling the plant. Sadly, the pipes feeding the backup pumps were incorrectly shut after maintenance. Normally the techs would have been warned, but the warning light on the control panel was hidden by a paper tag. The situation quickly …

A rant about Google Glass and social media

I was going to write something about how Google Glass is for losers who have to live their lives through a technological veil and I thought better of it. Apart from the medical, engineering, and commercial applications  I thought there may be a little envy in my skepticism about needing to have a computer strapped to my head so I can see the world the way a bazillion dollar company wants me to see it. OK Glass. The thing is, we’re all bored, distracted, unengaged so we can be socially virtually engaged. Like automatons we stare at our screens so …

Random default thumbnails for Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

I installed the Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP) and was frustrated by the stripey default thumbnail that was displayed if a post didn’t have a featured image. Unfortunately for me, this was quite a few. So what I ended up with was: Pretty ugly. So I did some pretty basic hacking and created a pretty awesome (just ask me) way of displaying random thumbnails if there isn’t a featured image associated with a post. Here’s what it looks like: Before I continue I need to offer a disclaimer – I am no coder so if you find anything here …

The power of vision

In the early 1990’s almost everything stopped. In Melbourne, tram drivers abandoned their iconic trams in the middle of the streets where they were to stand for almost two months like icons to a broken system. The then State Government had fucked up badly had to sell the state bank to the federal government. There were rumours that the government had stopped paying insurance for their tens of thousands of workers, and in shopping centres everywhere shops is simply closed the doors and called in the receivers. At the same time I left school and then quickly deferred university to …

The recipe for online success

When I was just starting out in the web game in the 1990’s, I met a bloke just back from working in London and about to open a restaurant. He wanted to change the way Melbournians ate fine food. There would be no mediocrity. Every ingredient would be individually sourced and the finest available. The staff would approach hospitality as professionals, not as students with a part time job. The sommelier would be a verified expert at pairing the finest wines with the finest food. The venue, whilst humble would be in a great location, have parking and be easily accessible …