Turns out, this is a story about the dangers of drawing conclusions by reading headlines without the full story. Despite understanding the importance of getting the details and knowing that journalism favours sensational story titles, I fell prey to scanning the news to keep on top of things. Trying to follow employment trends over the past two years was whiplash… Read More »Unbelievable, the Layoffs in the Tech Industry!
The perfect house: energy efficient, climate-controlled, with sweet filtered air inside. Want one? I don’t. To me, healthy living means opening a window to change the temperature in the house and rejoice in what the environment presents1. I’m an environmental pig, living in a house designed over a century ago, lacking in the latest energy efficient technology. Instead, I have… Read More »Evolving with Technology, or is Fresh Air good for you?
Being right about something that’s wrong isn’t very satisfying. This CBC article reports that the mobile app from my favourite provider of coffee and donuts was collecting personal location data inappropriately. The story, highlighting a report from Canada’s privacy commissioner, supports my ongoing contention that apps, in general, may be evil. The level of detail in the CBC post is wonderful, showing… Read More »Privacy and $2 Will Buy you a Cup of Coffee
This series began with my admiration of the Professor from Gilligan’s Island as an iconic scientist. My wonderment has long since evaporated into frustration because members of a profession I believe have noble motivations are frequently called into question. The two major factors I think are involved: the source of funding for scientific research (previous blog post), and the pressure… Read More »The Evolution of Evil Scientists. Part 2: The Public Posts
The day started normally. After making the bed and feeding the cat, I scanned all my biz. tech newsletters, expecting more CEO shenanigans, inflation impacts, and social media business woes. Not this day. I was gobsmacked1 by the summary of a research paper, done on laboratory animals, with possible implications profoundly beyond our everyday perception of the technological capabilities of… Read More »A Glimpse of the Future of Bioengineering?
When I was a little girl, the professor from Gillian’s Island was my hero. He was smart, unassuming, and solved a lot of problems. I deduced that scientists were incredible. As clever as physicians, with the power to save lives, but much cooler, as they shunned the limelight. Later in TV history came McGuyer, who fixed an awful lot of… Read More »The Evolution of the Evil Scientist. Part 1. The Money.
The basic premise of artificial intelligence, to use enormous amounts of data to find out new things, is easy to grasp. If any one of us had the time and stamina to study a million photos or stories about a thing, I’m sure we’d come up with insights about it too. Business products emerging from current applications of artificial intelligence… Read More »The GUIey Middle of Artificial Intelligence
One day, while shuffling between screens in Safari, the last tab popped into its own shell in the corner of my screen. Because this had never happened before, I hastily shut the new window, fearing a viral infestation that would steal my life savings, edit my LinkedIn profile, or browse photos of my cats. When it happened again, I realized… Read More »Give a Hand, or the Finger, to Techology.
What if everything in the future works like the automated public bathrooms of today? The average state-of-the-art bathroom has: All these conveniences should allow for a visit to the restroom that requires not touching anything that another human has placed their germy bits on.2 Problem is, the technology doesn’t work reliably. I’m sure you’ve been there. Toilets that flush while… Read More »Modern Potty Humour
Cyberspace isn’t much like space at all. It’s crammed full of bytes of information, churning and frothing with intelligence agents who gnash and dissect the data in search of new knowledge, or at least something else to sell us. This is big data and at least one embodiment of artificial intelligence. Recently, I heard an elegant explanation¹ of machine learning,… Read More »How Smart is Artificial Intelligence?