We see more and more ink spilled, computer power devoted to, software feature descriptions incorporating how to make the most of AI. Different generations are using AI for different roles, from life coach or adviser to encyclopaedia or search engine. The announcement of the teami up between the designer of the iMac and the founder …
Category Archives: communication
anhedonia and digital dopamine
i recently signed up to try the Opal app for which I’d seen many ads on my Instagram feed. The app essentially puts your own smartphone into parental guidance mode, and lets you lock yourself out of social media (or any other) apps for blocks of time. I had found that I was spending more …
Death of the college essay
An article in The Atlantic, considering the quality of essay output that AI can make, reflects on the stasis of the humanities over the last 40-odd years and suggests a way forward. Have we under-valued a broad education in a range of disciplines, and are now reaping what we have sowed?
meta
A lot of press coverage this week on Facebook’s corporate name change to Meta. An interview with Mark Zuckerberg at The Verge shows some of the thinking behind the announcement. What do you do when you have billions of customers who are using your service on a platform you don’t control, and where your ability …
two more months of MS Teams
For four years I’ve been studying, and using Microsoft Teams on and off. This has been a good way for various uni small groups of students to collaborate and share files, but one thing had confused me. Often when working on a folder of files, to find the most recent one, I would want to …
medium and message
This picture of a quilt, where someone had sewn together a representation of graphs of temperature data and UK COVID deaths reminded me of the way that the chosen medium influences the nature of a conversation. And done! A year of temperature minima and maxima, and UK COVID deaths, recorded in fabric. Data visualisation has …
clickbait and netflix
Compelling argument on Slate about Netflix heading the way of all social sites as they follow the way of all sites that are seeking to monetise attention.
privacy online
A recent ad for some of the iPhone’s new privacy features is a reminder of how much your online activities are mined by various third parties to build online profiles of you. And yes, I recognise the problems with embedding this as a youtube video. Related is this Twitter thread on privacy, via Haoran(some swearing …
explaining finances
I presented the treasurer’s report at our church congregational meeting. When I do one of these, I try to explain the standard documents so that people can read the reports and make sense of them. I’ve tried a couple of times now, and what I find works is to help people zoom out and see the …
assumptions made about communication
Much has changed this year in terms of communication norms. I think I’m reaching a point where it’s not entirely awkward not to shake hands when I see someone, but there are still times where even that lack of contact is a window into all that has been lost. While zoom fatigue is increasingly documented, …