by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes we “know where everything is” despite outward appearances. Sometimes we have “a place for everything and everything in its place.” Sometimes both ideas work. Sometimes neither work. Data is everywhere. Data is the new oil or bacon or pizza or something good or bad. The trouble with data is if I […]
Organized Disorganization
January 31st, 2022 · No Comments
Tags: Analysis · Data Science · Information · Knowledge · Research · Technology
The General Store (as a Service)
January 13th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips We have XaaS or EaaS. We have returned to the day of the general store. We have almost everything as a service. Some call this XaaS. I call it EaaS (Everything as a Service or maybe AEaaS Almost Everything as a Service). Examples, IaaS, DHaaS, SaaS, PaaS, etc. (how many letters are […]
Tags: America · Computing · Customer · Technology
The Clipboard and the Pencil…and the Hurricane
November 1st, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Unfortunate events provide yet another great reason to use a clipboard and a pencil. My records indicate that this is the fourth blog post I have written about the clipboard and the pencil. The gist is that these old, simple tools are still quite valuable. Hence, we might reconsider a few other […]
Tags: Adapting · Emergency · Internet · Learning · Notebook · Simple · Technology · Tools
RISC, CISC, and General Systems Thinking
September 23rd, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Reduced complexity optimizes for simplicity. Increased complexity optimizes for simplicity in another form. Which simplicity is “best” is a matter of situation. Apple has recently moved to their own “Apple Silicon” processors. In general terms, Apple switched from Intel’s processors to ARM’s processors. ARM processors are a form of RISC. Intel processors […]
Tags: Choose · Computing · General Systems Thinking · Systems · Technology
The Wonder of Carbon Paper
July 12th, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Today’s copy machines make and store digital copies that go somewhere to someone. Carbon paper still makes a copy for safekeeping that goes to only those I designate. Copiers—”xerox machines” we used to call them—are now digital. When you make a copy, a there is a digital record of the original somewhere. Hence, […]
Tags: Copyright · Intellectual Property · Technology · Tools · Writing
The Technology Imperative, Part II
April 8th, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips We just cannot resist applying the latest technology to something. This is the second in my series on the “Technology Imperative.” (I have learned that there are books and papers with this title elsewhere.) The first part in the “series” was blogged in the year 2010. Oooops, not much continuity, but here […]
Tags: General Systems Thinking · Government · Technology
A Fundamental Problem with Machine Learning
April 5th, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Despite all the promise and all the already fulfilled promise, there is a fundamental problem with machine learning. Machine learning is that part of artificial intelligence that time and technology favors. We have the stuff needed to make machine learning work right now. Machine learning “works” because you feed in a million […]
Tags: Data Science · Ethics · General Systems Thinking · Neural Network · Pattern Classification · Systems · Technology
Researchers and Paying for Research
February 8th, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Research is expensive. Someone pays the bills. Sorry about the lesson in economics. The future of companies is often in the research they perform in the back rooms. Not glamorous, but often necessary. And those smart folks in the back rooms cost lots of money. The company has to be making enough […]
Tags: Economics · Research · Technical Debt · Technology
Figuratively and Literally
February 4th, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips We often use a “figure of speech” to describe something. Well, that’s nice, but I know that such-and-such cannot literally do something-or-other. Can we please have some literal descriptions? I have recently been reading constantly about a very popular software app. I won’t mention which one because that would take us off […]
Tags: Communication · Fairy Tales · Technology · Work · Writing
The New Economy, The New Technologists
January 7th, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Productivity leaps are possible and happening. I am sorry to write that fortunes can be made while employing just a few persons. I recently learned of a game called Among Us from a company called InnerSloth. In November of 2020, there were 500 million people playing the game. InnerSloth has four employees. […]
Tags: Cloud Computing · Economics · Jobs · Software · Technology