Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips We need more explainers. These are persons who answer the question, “Whatcha’ doin’?” Whatcha’ doin’? Hows’it work? How ya’ doin’? These are simple questions. These are the basic questions we ask others all the time. Often, we repeat the question six or seven times in different forms and still don’t receive an […]

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by Dwayne Phillips There is nothing wrong with mimicry. Let’s stop kidding ourselves; much of today’s machine learning is simple mimicry. mimicry: noun, the action or art of imitating someone or something, typically in order to entertain or ridicule. Let’s be candid here. Much of Machine Learning (ML)—a currently popular branch of Artificial Intelligence (AI)—is […]

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by Dwayne Phillips When assuming that another person already knows something, ask, “And why would they know that?” It happened again the other day at work, someone interrupted a presentation, pointed to something mentioned but not shown, and asked, “But what is that thing? What does it do?” The presenter, unable to hide the aghast […]

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by Dwayne Phillips If someone asks a question in English, please answer in English. Please avoid some other private language. In recent conversations, I asked, “Your research, how far ahead in time are you working? Your work may become reality in 1, 5, 10 years?” The answer was, “TRL 4.” (see this for a translation) […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Any topic and just about any situation. Please provide three pages that contain a thousand words and several figures. Right or wrong, we reach a point in life and history that we need information on this or that. What format? Try the title of this post. On three pieces of standard-size paper […]

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by Dwayne Phillips It is important to use the right or correct word and avoid using the wrong word. This is an old fundamental in writing and speaking. Why am I writing about this? Because I continue to encounter professionals who make this error often. What is the right word and the wrong word? Consider […]

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by Dwayne Phillips As a writer and just about anyone else, we must be flexible in a rigid manner. The same is true for almost every adjective and its antonym. A writer must be flexible. Except when the writer must be rigid. Except when exceptions arise. The same goes for just about any adjective and […]

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by Dwayne Phillips These inconvenient facts seem to be everywhere. They are inconvenient, however, only when we have a story to tell that denies reality. There are some old sayings like, “opinions being mugged by facts,” and “don’t confuse my opinion with facts,” and “there is nothing like facts getting in the way of my […]

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by Dwayne Phillips This is one of the fundamental questions that persons working projects need to answer. We know what we are attempting, but we don’t know the actual progress and how that compares to the expected progress. There are several fundamental questions that should be asked and answered by people working on projects. Among […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Though we hate to admit it, the goal of us who work in computing is to produce a TPS report. The “TPS Report” is the butt of all office jokes. It is meaningless paperwork that serves no purpose. For a full explanation, see the Wikipedia page on it. Those of us who […]

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