Social Media: Accelerates information overload and disinformation

I have been writing extensively around the scourge of social media, but there are very few write-ups that determine the veracity of the algorithms, which undermine the experience of the web-sites. Therefore this brilliant write-up from Scientific American deserves recommendation. Modern technologies are amplifying these biases in harmful ways, however. Search engines direct Andy to … Continue reading Social Media: Accelerates information overload and disinformation

Working on “hard problems”?

high snowy mountains under blue cloudy sky in sunshine

Ben E Kuhn writes: For some reason, a lot of smart college students end up with the idea that “solving hard technical problems” is the best thing they can do with their life. It’s a common refrain in Hacker News comments, job ads and interview questions.School is a closed-world domain—you are solving crisply-defined puzzles (multiply these two numbers, implement … Continue reading Working on “hard problems”?

Cybersecurity for the healthcare

NBC news writes: Hackers have published extensive patient information from two U.S. hospital chains in an apparent attempt to extort them for money. The files, which number in at least the tens of thousands and were posted to a blog on the dark web that the hackers use to name and extort their victims, includes … Continue reading Cybersecurity for the healthcare

RSS Feeds: Federation of the data

facade of palais royal with columns in town

Will Webberley writes: At that time RSS was still very much "a thing" for many people (though the discontinuation of the hugely popular Google Reader in 2013 was a bit of a bummer to these communities). However new people now joining the web scene would be far more likely to instead engage with these extremely well-funded, well-marketed, … Continue reading RSS Feeds: Federation of the data

Be careful of the cloud providers!

I was drawn into a fascinating discussion around "price shocks" by the cloud service providers (like Google/Amazon) who have a stranglehold over the market for enterprise cloud computing. One of the back links went as far as 2011 to The Register: On Wednesday, as it announced that App Engine will officially lose its "preview" tag in … Continue reading Be careful of the cloud providers!