Technology

<p class="p1">I am travelling on a three stage international flight today, it has a few hours stopover in each transit location, but that&#39;s little enough time that on upset can throw the whole flight out of whack.<p class="p1">I woke up this morning to see Google Now telling me that my first flight from Melbourne to Sydney had been delayed (I love big data and personally don&#39;t rely mind what services now about me, as long as I am aware) by two hours, which would mean I would miss my second and longest flight leg. I checked my emails, nothing from Virgin, no SMSs either. I checked the flight statuses on their website, which confirmed that my flight had been delayed (I&#39;m intrigued to know how you know a flight is going to be delayed in advance, but that&#39;s another discussion), so rang their customer service line to see what was going on.<p class="p1">After a bit of fathing about, which I always seem to get with Virgin customer service, it often takes three explanations to make them understand what you&#39;re talking about, I was informed that I had been moved to a flight an hour earlier. Still no emails or SMS regarding this, so what if I hadn&#39;t had rung?<p class="p1">I was still a little unsure about the change, but I figured there&#39;s certainly no harm in getting to the airport early, so left aiming for the earlier flight anyway.<p class="p1">Finally at a little over 2.5 hours before my new (unconfirmed) flight I finally received a phone call telling me to call Virgin about a flight change, so after ringing their customer services line and more fathing about, it was confirmed again that I had had my flight changed.<p class="p1">I am lucky to live close to the airport and I am also lucky that I have technology telling me my every move before I even know it myself, but what if I had been living a fair way out and wasn&#39;t so connected? Is three hours notice really enough time to get to the airport and checkin to an international flight on time? I guess this is a sign of when automated internal systems can fail.

<p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Over the weekend I saw <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1798709/" target="_blank">Her</a>&nbsp;and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2007360/" target="_blank">Computer chess</a>, very different films about technology that were delivered in very different ways, but there were several similar threads running in them that got me thinking, these similarities were&hellip;<p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">They ended up not being about what I was expecting and (more seriously), they were about the interactions of computers with humans, albeit at very different ends of the spectrum.<p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">At one end, the amateur made Computer Chess dealt with the early days of computers interacting with humans (taking place in the 70s), in the film the programers are seen playing out the moves that the computer programs suggested, with the computers effectively playing &lsquo;each other&rsquo;. The concept of the computer playing a human is still seen as a crazy idea and the computer winning, even crazier. In fact, one of the plot twists is that a particular chess program, actually performs better against an &lsquo;unpredictable&rsquo; human instead of a &#39;predictable&#39; computer.<p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">At the complete other end of this is Her, a film that I equally loved and/or hated depending if it was satirical or not. In Her, most are seen in almost completely subversive relationships with their technology, entrusting just about everything to them. It was a reality that wasn&rsquo;t too far in the future from our own, but the scariest thing about it was how self absorbed everyone was, even away from their technology, all they did was talk about themselves and their problems. Again, I&rsquo;m not sure if this was intentional satire or just an americanisation, but it showed just how comfortable people were with having their technology interact with them.<p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">This got me thinking about &lsquo;Computer Human Interaction&rsquo; as opposed to the more traditional &lsquo;Human Computer Interaction&rsquo;. Of course, for as long as we&rsquo;ve been interacting with computers they&rsquo;ve been interacting with us,&nbsp; but as we have more services and products like Siri or Google now that pre-empt us and often are the initiator of an interaction, we need to think about new paradigms for those interactions that are helpful, but not creepy.<p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Interesting times.

2014 was quite a year, especially for technology and how it affects everyone. Here are some of my highlights, lowlights and observations on the year and how it maybe affected developers.

53,056 people from 166 countries descended on Lisbon for this year’s Web Summit. I’m not sure if this makes it the world’s largest startup event, but it’s damn big. I have attended startup events around the world and have often found them obsessed with nothing but raising money. Whilst the topic was in abundance at Web Summit, it also had enough of something for everyone, with discussions on technology, design, ethics, futurism, and more. If you’re not interested in discussion, but would rather just network and party, you will also have a full schedule.

Creating a modern and feature-rich mobile app has never been a simple task, but is now more complex than ever. There are a plethora of platforms, programming languages and strategies to consider, and knowing where to start and what path to follow involves understanding and appreciating a lot of interconnected components.

\#UNIT runs regular meetups in Berlin aimed at those working in tech who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LBGTI), but with an overarching message of providing a space for speakers who you might not always see at more mainstream events. I personally don’t identify as any of these, but I always enjoy the diverse messages and fun atmosphere I hear at the meetups, and this was my second time attending the yearly conference.

Yael Eisenstat has an interesting past. She ‘came out’ as a long term CIA employee in January 2017 after Donald Trump delivered a poorly received speech in front of the C.I.A. Memorial Wall. She didn’t intend to be sensationalist or release state secrets like some previous ex-secret service employees who revealed their identity, rather she had had enough of Trumps stream of insults to her country and hoped that her actions could make a difference. She has advised vice-presidents and major corporate companies and now works at New York University as an adjunct professor. Whilst at the eccentric and eclectic Tech Open Air in Berlin, I spoke with Yael to discuss technology, its impact on society, and we, or tech companies can and should do about it.

Just how far are you willing to go not to use software that you disagree with? Chris Ward takes a look down the rabbit hole.

I have been to many tech conferences over the years. I have sat in so many startup pitches and talks that are barely masked marketing pitches. I have introduced myself and told people what I do and where I am from so many times that it all becomes something of a blur.