Versatile Amphibian

I’ve had another week of travelling so a slightly truncated reading list again today, nevertheless, this week: Under Armor connects, Xbox One is watching you, weaponised Internet and psychedelic techno speakers. Business models All this outrage about the NSA weaponising the Internet is stupid. It’s like complaining that in order to provide security they’ve invested in secret weapons they’ve not told anyone about in case they really need to defend us. When the US reveals a new spy plane we all go: cool! When it turns out they’re using the Internet to spy on people and developing digital weapons we get our underwear all twisted. If they weren’t doing it, they’d be failing in their duty. Anyway, here’s what the (digitally) smoking gun looks like. And the spy plane. http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/11/this-is-how-the-internet-backbone-has-been-turned-into-a-weapon/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24803511 Everyone is getting into the technology incubator game these day...

I attended a really interesting panel discussion on smart cities at FutureFest. Here’s some takeaways: One. Big Business’ view of smart cities is not a popular one Big company’s (IBM and Cisco were name checked) attempts to create momentum around smart cities were lampooned by the experts. Someone described their ideas as attempts to create “panopticans”, designed to a central plan where ordered streets and facilities are monitored by all seeing computers. This is scary, probably impractical, but most importantly pretty boring. In my view the delights of cities are in the discovery of new nooks and crannies, the spontaneous sprouting of new businesses and sub-cultures as different groups mix. Central planning creates boring cities, like Dubai or Doha where culture has to be manufactured. I remember being told a story about an attempt to build a “soho” area in Dubai… where the rents would be much higher than surrounding areas because of the unique environment. Missing the point, I ...

So, day 2 of NAB is over and as everyone's jet lag faded, so the show began to liven up. Having looked at cameras yesterday, I spent today focused on production workflows and in particular the cloud. It's worth saying that thinking about production workflows is a worthwhile exercise. About $600Mn is spent on production worldwide in a given year. Technology and related services is a good 10% of that. In that context, most major, developed market broadcasters have already “done” file based workflow over the last five years, reaping the benefits of improved efficiency, particularly in multiplatform distribution. The end of tape is finally in sight in these organisations. With those big ticket projects finished for the time being, it was notable that several of the technology vendors that have historically made good money from them are now looking for service-based models, typically in partnership with more service-oriented companies. As it’s 2012, these models tend to involved the...

I’m firmly of the belief that participants in the TMT industry need to read widely in order to understand the present and future dynamics of the market. To that end, this post is a collection of the articles that have caught my eye. This week – pirates take over your 3-D printer, antivirus, military industrial complex, the EU goes 1984, the world realises that Chinese data might not be all it seems while Apple continues to take it over New business models A nice analysis of Google’s earnings, which were released late last week. The headlines are that although Android devices are being “lit up” at a rate of nearly 750,000 a day, most of Google’s mobile revenue comes from search on iOS. Google also persist in saying that Motorola will stand alone and not receive preferential treatment – not sure I buy that, but stranger things have happened! Revenues outside advertising were very low. Goes without saying... http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2012/jan/20/google-financials-android-m...

I know it isn't machine learning in any real sense, but I'm very much looking forward to IBM's Watson taking on the human masters of Jeopardy! next month. Semi-smart machines like Watson will revolutionise call centre systems over the next decade, improving front line customer service across all platforms and reducing the Developed world's dependence on outsourcing... not to mention being a whizz at punning!