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Brown Fence and Wire Co.

Insurers Tripping Over the Blockchain

April 13, 2017 • Features, InnovationComments (0)

Insurance underwriters like to think they’re hard-headed and precise number crunchers, when in fact the aspects of their profession they seem most fond of are those where they get to practice voodoo, poking through the entrails, reading the tea leaves and deciding the insured’s fate.  IT tends to tear the bones from their beards and expose...

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Photographing Bird's Nest

Disruptive, Maybe Not – But Still Very Cool

October 23, 2015 • Innovation, NewsComments (0)

“Disruptive” has entered every technologist’s vocabulary and, as invariably happens with a popular buzzword, the term is now as overused as the “f” word in a Tarantino drama.  To be disruptive, a technology needs to upset a business model, not a...

Chullora Railway Canteen

EMV Crosses the Ocean

December 4, 2014 • Innovation, NewsComments (0)

Americans are usually indifferent to global standards but they’re embracing EMV, the smartcard technology that has dominated Europe for a decade.  Just under a year from now, any merchant (except for gas stations) that isn’t on board will be...

Enrico Fermi

Less Uncertainty in Quantum Computing

March 27, 2014 • Innovation, NewsComments (0)

A recent article in The Economist explained why skepticism about the utility of quantum computing is justified, one of many wait-and-see voices about this exotic and arcane technology.  There are certain classes of tasks that may be performed much more...

Not One Big Brother But Brothers All Around

February 5, 2014 • Innovation, NewsComments (0)

Joaquin Phoenix’s girlfriend in “Her” wouldn’t have been a program worth a fig if she didn’t have some ability to gauge her user’s emotions – so why does does it seem so alarming when Apple seeks to patent a system...

Early Tablet User

Tabula Rah Rah

January 24, 2014 • Innovation, NewsComments (0)

TechCrunch sounds a little surprised to discover that tablets are taking over the world.  Funny, because we’ve all heard the growth projections: Gartner, as an example, says that sales of all devices are going to grow by 7.6% this year – and...

Envisioning the Future of Smart Glasses

November 6, 2013 • Innovation, NewsComments (0)

Someday I’m going to write a book about why market research is as useful as star signs and casting the i ching.  Techmeme turned up this survey in which it’s implied that Google Glass is headed for the shelf with the Palm Pre simply because consumers...

Moving Securely To the Cloud

November 4, 2013 • Innovation, NewsComments (0)

Many organizations still hesitate to leap into the cloud.  This usually stems firstly from cost considerations, which are different for everyone.  Caveat emptor, ’nuff said.  Then it’s concerns over security and seamlessness (see this...

Airplane Runway Crash

Replacing Professionals With a Computer

October 27, 2013 • Innovation, NewsComments (0)

Ah, my old nemesis!  Nick Carr, the same one who caused a furor by insisting that “IT Doesn’t Matter”, meaning IT is a commodity and of no strategic value to a business, now believes that IT is taking over so much of what we do that...

Charging Towards The Future

October 23, 2013 • Innovation, NewsComments (0)

I don’t know about your city, but if my town gets any more electric vehicles there will be a noticeable drop in street noise.  The traffic cops drive electric tricycles, municipal workers zip around in Priuses, the taxis are being replaced by new hybrids,...

Beyond the Password

October 6, 2013 • Innovation, NewsComments (0)

Irritating as passwords are, most companies aren’t going to rush to buy new authentication technology for all that a bunch of new ideas have been discussed in the Wall Street Journal.  We’ve been hearing for years about biometrics, three-factor...

Data Visualization May Be The Thing – But Caution Required

August 17, 2013 • Innovation, NewsComments (0)

We’ve all been impressed by the clever and revealing things that can be done with big data sets in terms of graphic representation of deep and complex relationships; but IT World has found that it’s possible to be too impressed by these data...