Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips This is an old saying told to me many, many years ago. It is true today more than ever. Recent “reports” tell me that some Federal agencies are arresting folks who are merely trying to help their neighbors. And I hear of nice folks pointing guns at other Americans who are temporary […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips Was my book or speech or seminar replaced by Wikipedia and ChatGPT? Time for me to learn. Was my book replaced by Wikipedia, i.e., each section of my book can be read or the reader can just go read a few Wikipedia pages? Is my book redundant to Wikipedia? The same can […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips Did the system we are building pass the test? Wrong question. Let’s consider the purpose of testing. We have been testing the system we are building. The first question is almost always, “Did the system pass the test?” Wrong question. What these anxious folks want to know is, “Will the system do […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips Forget the term “social media.” We are fussing about society media in which everyone in society has a tall soapbox on which to stand and shout. And many of us don’t like that. It’s not social media—it is Society Media, in which everyone can now shout as loud as Walter Cronkite used […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips A text without a context is a pretext. Know the audience. Sorry, these are old basics but they still apply. “Do you know who I am?” That question is a biting indictment of a person who approaches another in ignorance and starts talking in grand fashion about what might be grand ideas, […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips Back to a basic: write with nouns and verbs. It brings us closer to brevity and clarity. Those are pretty good places to be. I was reminded of this short and powerful writing tip this past week. And yes, it was from Strunk and White. They used the title of the post […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips BYOD or Bring Your Own Data is a big deal. It has been in computing since the start of computing. Nothing new here folks, but it is still important. Everyone is a data scientist (sort of). Everyone works for a data-centric organization (sort of). Data is the new oil (sort of). Data […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips We seem to think that everything will be on the screen and we don’t need to use pieces of paper. Years ago, we didn’t have the computers we have today. How many years ago? Twenty? Ten? Two? Years ago, some of us would take great pains to put lots of information on […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips The systems we use at work are woefully behind what we use at home. This is especially true if we work in a government organization. At the time I wrote this post, OpenAI demonstrated their GPT-4 with ChatGPT. That means I see how to summarize lots of things and understand what is […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips We know the answers. We have the information. Can we access it? More importantly, can you access it? We have the data silo. Some call it the data stovepipe. Some call it the sandbox. Others call it job (in)security. Enough of the metaphors and cliches. We have the information. I can find […]

[Read more →]