Category: Opinion

  • SmartHalo2 review: Update

    Since I published my two-part review of SmartHalo 2 back in the beginning of October, there has been a bit of a development – and not in a positive way. The SmartHalo team has made a long post over on Kickstarter, announcing that whoever hasn’t gotten their device won’t get it, and that they are…

  • Low-skill recruiting is spam

    My experience with recruiters has become somewhat of a recurring theme here on the blog, and for good reason. For some reason, my LinkedIn profile attracts a relatively regular stream of them. Here is one example that I would like to draw your attention to – identites hidden to protect the inept: The recruiter: First…

  • Ethics: Intention versus consequence

    When getting caught with their hands in the cookie jar, public officials tend to offer their good intentions as a defense. I don’t understand why we keep accepting such defenses. Who cares that your intention was to ensure proper tax planning? You still lied about whether or not you were domiciled somewhere else. I don’t…

  • Expanding on the digital divide

    This week’s post follows on to last week’s to talk a little about the digital divide. It is adapted from a paper I wrote back in 2017 as part of my Bachelor’s degree with the Open University. The term “digital divide” refers to the difference between having and not having access to information technology. The…

  • Ensure redundancy for critical systems

    As I’m sure you noticed, Facebook suffered massive downtime to several services last week, including Messenger, Instagram and so on. Such events often serve to highlight what services we have rely on. While I’ve been (at least attempting to) phase out Facebook for some time, there are still some things that I actually need it…

  • Reviewed: SmartHalo 2 displays and touch interface

    This is part two of a two-part series on my experiences with the SmartHalo 2 bike computer. Last week I talked about my general views of the device, and this week I’ll discuss both the displays and the touch interface. Touch interface The touch interface is a little temperamental. Sometimes it doesn’t react to input…

  • Reviewed: SmartHalo 2

    This is part one of a two-part series on my experiences with the SmartHalo 2 bike computer. It’s no secret that I’ve backed a few Kickstarter projects over the years. Some have entirely failed to deliver, some have delivered products so atrocious that it doesn’t bear thinking about, and some have delivered a product that…

  • A further metric for support

    I have previously written about key metrics for support departments – and I stand by everything I said then. I have, however, come to the conclusion that another metric should be placed under consideration. A quick recap, however, of the metrics I proposed then, as well as what they are intended to measure: Resolution rate…

  • Hacking team software used by criminal cartels

    Back in 2015, I wrote about the Hacking team data breach. Among other things, I wrote: Police departments are run for public service, Hacking Team is run for profit. Police departments are subject to independent oversight, Hacking Team is not. […} Had they been a company founded in solid morals and ethics, they wouldn’t have found themselves…

  • Should you start a blog?

    A friend recently contacted me through LinkedIn, writing: Hey!I see that you’re posting regularly to your blog, shared here on LinkedIn. I’ve been wanting to start a blog where I write about the things I learn, specifically related to my field of study (removed to protect their privacy), but I find it pretty scary. It…

  • State of the Blog 2021

    This is the sixth year in a row where I return with a summer retrospective article. These are meant to be the summer counterpart to my end-of-year roundup series. As a result, some information will be duplicated across the two series of posts. We have all been affected by the corona virus pandemic, and I have mostly been relegated…