Episodes
Tuesday Mar 05, 2019
#15 - Our Devices Listening?
Tuesday Mar 05, 2019
Tuesday Mar 05, 2019
...or is it "are devices listening" to you?
Well yes. There's always a simple answer to these questions and it's yes. Breaking it down to the basics, pretty much all of our devices are listening because we've enabled Siri or Google or Alexa or… to respond to a keyword command like "Hey Siri" such that they can present us, in the case of Siri, with a spooky HAL 9000ish blob to indicate it's listening (because it wasn't before honest) and ready to perform our bidding.
Sometimes things can go amiss...
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Wednesday Jan 02, 2019
#14 - Mobile Security: The Inside Job
Wednesday Jan 02, 2019
Wednesday Jan 02, 2019
This was going to be a comparison of major phones, breaking down some of the exploits and weaknesses. I was potentially going to compare IOS to Android and throw fuel onto an already raging fire amongst smart phone enthusiasts which is, if you’re listening to a podcast, all of us. Maybe you’re not a geek or a gadget nut but you’re probably far more dependent on that device that you may realise. You’ve probably never really put a great deal of thought into how much of YOU is locked up in that phone. You might even have a Kanye-West style pin code like 000000 to unlock it (if you didn’t see the article I posted on the Codifyre Facebook page about the worst passwords and pin-codes of 2018, it’s worth a read. Kanye tops the bill.
Let’s start with what’s in your phone.
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Wednesday Jun 20, 2018
#12 - Staying Relevant in a Tech World
Wednesday Jun 20, 2018
Wednesday Jun 20, 2018
Once a new technology rolls over you, if you're not part of the steamroller, you're part of the road.
This is one of those podcasts which isn’t the offspring of late night research, countless hours of trial and error tempered by seminars, articles and other people podcasts. This one is coming from real life… whatever that means.
This one is coming from real life… whatever that means.
If you’ve found yourself working in the technology arena it can be as exciting as it is challenging. Sometimes these are one and the same and sometimes they could not be farther apart. Being a GenXr myself I was there at the beginning of the home computing boom. I remember the rise of Steve Jobs, and when Bill Gates was the young genius instead of Mark Zuckerberg except of course when he famously said “640k is all the memory anyone will ever need” or words to that effect. Ok fine he didn’t say that but, thanks to the post-truth world I think it’s probably perfectly ok to attribute that statement to him or anyone else for that matter. Even better if you turn it into a meme!
Getting back to the 80s and 90s when technology was “young” and when air-quotes were first invented (I was thinking some as I typed “young”). Back then I learn to program in C language, I could disassemble my PC and fix it myself, even over-clock the CPU to get more gusto from it and I was building linux kernel I got from Linus Torvalds (the OS namesake) himself because that was the only place you could get it. I will return to Linus as a flagship example of staying relevant in the technological age as he one of the most influential people in our technological era.
Let’s talk about that era. We are currently in a phase of advancement which is to say the least, complex.
Check out the full blog at
https://codifyre.com/tech-skills/staying-relevant-technology-world-editorial/
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Wednesday May 09, 2018
#10 - Machine Learning ( Real World Applications )
Wednesday May 09, 2018
Wednesday May 09, 2018
Machine Learning
I’ve heard the phrase Machine Learning banging around the media more intensely over the past few years and you know what that means… I’m not happy until I know what is really means.
My first conjured image is of course a lawn mower in a classroom trying to fumble its way through the shakespearean sonnet.
It seems I wasn’t far off! Ok I was pretty far off. But there is a smart lawn mower that learns how to cut you lawn which is in fact machine learning. It’s the word machine which I find distracting. We’re not accustomed to speaking of computers as machines or machines as computers although the latter is quickly becoming so and hence the phrase.
A few podcasts ago we discussed Self-Driving Cars and machine learning is definitely at the core of their success. We have all driven cars and would unanimously agree that no two routes are the same even if you’re driving the same route every day. There is always some element of surprise. These cars would not exist if not for some very clever learning algorithms which prioritise success paths over failures in order to adapt their reactions and even their default behaviour to new situations. Just like us human learners.
What about other non-driving based applications? The mower is essentially a tiny little self-driving car that works out your lawns shape and the best route while having the luxury of not having to contend with human driven lawn mowers, drinking and just mowing all over the place.
Machine learning and AI (Artifical Intelligence) are peanut butter and chocolate, ham and cheese, bacon and…. everything. What’s the point of learning if you aren’t going to use what you have learned? I could dive deep into the inner workings of machine learning algorithms but that would be a serious snoozer to the non-enthusiast and as complex and fasinating as it is, it’s more fun to try to derive the gist of what it all means by looking at the applications because without application there is no learning.
Are we surrounded by learning machines who will eventually take over the world? Yes!
But how? Let’s have a crack at a top 5!
Check out the podcast for the list.
The shownotes for the episode are here:
https://codifyre.com/technology/machine-learning-are-you-smarter-than-a-toaster/
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Wednesday Apr 04, 2018
#8 - Self Driving Cars (Robots Rule!)
Wednesday Apr 04, 2018
Wednesday Apr 04, 2018
Robots will rule us all. I feel that’s already been established by more sci-fi writers than can be credited in one podcast.
You may have recently seen that an Uber self-driving car killed a pedestrian in a headline grabbing frenzy that re-awakened the humanity in all of us.
Questions like
What if… insert dystopian human based car fiasco here where AI (artificial intelligence) is deciding the fate of human lives with alarmingly regularity. During my recent discussions I found some common themes where these infinite ethical conundrums often came back to the questions of responsibility. Who do you blame if AI kills one of our humans AND… assuming the AI is forced into making a decision which means one life over another how does it make that choice? Heavy stuff folks. Fasten your seatbelts. Or don't.
Doing my best and simplifying my position, I’ll start with defining for the curious (hey that’s why you listen to podcasts isn’t it!) how self-driving cars work and then we'll start talking philosophy and how we are trying to tackle those tough questions, or, ask ourselves if we're just being too darn human.
Read the notes at
https://codifyre.com/culture/self-driving-cars/
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Tuesday Nov 28, 2017
#3 - The Mysteries and Insecurities of IoT (a.k.a The Internet Of Things 2017)
Tuesday Nov 28, 2017
Tuesday Nov 28, 2017
The Internet of Things! Oh! That! The Internet… got it… Of… no problem… Things… nope you lost me.
When I first heard the term IoT I had no f*cking idea what it was and what it meant. Obviously it was made completely clear when I was told what it stood for…
How long did it take, and who came up with that catch phrase? And why on earth did it stick? Internet of Stuff would have been IOS and we can’t have Apple breathing down our necks. Internet of Devices? What stopped us there? The Institute of Directors perhaps? Those biz savvy suits play hardball about being top dog on the google search so we couldn’t usurp that acronym. So here we are with IoT.
Regardless of how we got here… IoT is a buzzword/acronym/TLA (three letter acronym)/phrase which only through the atrition of use is starting to become somewhat understood.
Defering to wikipedia (give that guy some money) it’s defined as: “The Internet of things (IoT) is the network of physical devices, vehicles, home appliances, and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity which enable these objects to connect and exchange data.”
It’s that last bit… the “network connectivity” that is the critical new element that creates IoT. We’ve had the “physical devices, vehicles, home appliances, and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators”…and of course the machine that goes “ping!” for a while now in the form of TVs, toasters, baby monitors, lawn mowers, ovens, heart monitors and teddy bears. Yes Teddy Bears. I’m thinking of that old scary Teddy Ruxpin thing from the 80s. It haunts me in my nightmares.
Read more on our blog/shownotes page.
https://codifyre.com/culture/iot-internet-things-2017-probably-internet-stuff-acronym-already-taken/