Showing 61 - 70 of 168
A very taxing problem for all
Life, James Hein, Published on 08/03/2017
» Every government wants taxes. It is, after all, how the salaries get paid, and how funds are raised for re-election and looking after the country, often in that order. Consider the UK as an example. Starting in April, there will be a new set of tax regulations based on the IR35 guidelines. With the uncertainty surrounding this change there has been a rush of IT contractors leaving government positions, in many cases over half, halting a wide range of projects. This has been happening for over a year now with, as an example, the Ministry of Defence losing 30 out of 32 contractors last year. When the process of government is stopped because of taxes imposed, you're probably doing something wrong.
The eternal debate between privacy and security
Life, James Hein, Published on 01/03/2017
» What is the line dividing privacy from national security? If you are a privacy advocate, the line is closer to "everything is private". If you are a nation state wanting to protect its interests, that line falls somewhere nearer to your preschool diary. Homeland in the US is working on a policy requiring selected non-citizens entering the US to provide the passwords to their social media accounts to gain entry. This has triggered feedback from human rights groups, civil liberties groups and a bunch of professors. Given that every nation has a right to protect its borders and a customs official can search everything else you bring in, why not information in the digital realm?
Password ain't a password
Life, James Hein, Published on 01/02/2017
» How many people do you know, including yourself, who are avid Facebook users? Be honest. You will know that your account contains a large amount of information, much of it quite personal, that data thieves would be happy to mine and use. A solution is to protect this information.
Mind your passwords
Life, James Hein, Published on 25/01/2017
» Google, Facebook and Apple are the names of a few companies working on artificial intelligence (AI). I don't mean the kind of AI that simply teaches machines to be useful to humans, though that is also being done everywhere. I mean the self-aware kind. After so long at it I think the bigger organisations are locked in a series of dead end paths. Instead, I predict the first breakthroughs will come from small, even one-man operations thinking outside the cube. As an aside, when it comes to the search giants like Google or Yahoo and social media sites like Facebook, they all have their biases so the results you see may not be all that comprehensive, balanced or accurate.
Apple Store frustrations
Life, James Hein, Published on 11/01/2017
» I was wondering how to start my first regular article for the year when I visited an Apple Store with a friend. He was planning to drop off an iPhone with a cracked screen for repair. The store was large, filled with rows of tables holding Apple gear. There were lots of customers and many Apple "Geniuses", each with a tablet to assist customers. I was carrying my Samsung Galaxy S5 and no lightning bolt had struck me. So far, so good.
The road ahead
Life, James Hein, Published on 04/01/2017
» So it's time for 2017 predictions. For a start, I see this being a better year overall as far as technological improvements go. I base this on the possible freeing-up of resources under a Trump-led US, but that of course all remains to be seen.
2016 in the rear-view mirror
Life, James Hein, Published on 28/12/2016
» Another year has passed, and it is time to take a look back.
Of hacking and international cyber affairs
Life, James Hein, Published on 21/12/2016
» According to some reports Russia was the one that hacked into the Clinton servers and arranged the email leaks to get Trump elected. Many of the US security agencies don't agree with this latest assessment. So what do we know? We don't know for example if the servers are running Microsoft or Linux operating systems, if the emails were grabbed in a single block or slowly over time. There is very little info. This is a classic case of one side blaming the other for a result they didn't want, and I suspect that the real story won't come out for some time.
Microsoft and the Europeans
Life, James Hein, Published on 14/12/2016
» For those upset by Brexit and the election of Trump, Microsoft has an answer -- LinkedIn. In a statement to the EU after the recent acquisition, Microsoft indicated as much after the EU expressed concern that Microsoft would do its usual trick of integrating LinkedIn into Office and combine the databases. There were also concerns that only MS CRM users would have access but, given the take-up of the MS CRM system, that was soon dismissed as a concern. Microsoft has agreed to a number of EU conditions, including third-party access to Office, keeping Office customisable, allowing for separate installation of LinkedIn, and allowing it to be uninstalled. The EU has always been tough on organisations like Microsoft that try to set up any kind of monopoly, but this time it might be a bit of a storm in a teacup.
Even Facebook can't crack AI
Life, James Hein, Published on 30/11/2016
» So where are we as far as artificial intelligence is concerned? For some time now Facebook, with all of its resources, has tried to build a machine intelligence that can reason based on text input. Different groups have been trying for decades to build some form of machine intelligence but it is still a long way from what TV shows like Westworld and Humans portray. Even so, there are groups such as the University of Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute and the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence in Cambridge that are also looking into the long-term risks of developing AI, just in case.