By 2050 UX professionals will be 1% of world population
In 2017, Jakob Nielsen of NN/g predicted that by 2050, there would be 100 million UX professionals worldwide (aka 1% of the population).
God help us, I sincerely hope this is not the case.
Book – Human-in-the-loop ML & AI
Human-in-the-Loop Machine Learning Active learning and annotation Available from Bookshop.org.
Farewell to Hughes’
M. Hughes’ Pub was on Chancery Street in Dublin. It closed in 2021. Brendan Gleeson made a documentary about it, and it had it’s premiere at the IFI.
He performed his “Farewell to Hughes’s” on the Late Late Show. Not with Gaybo, but with some new fella.
Book – The electronic privacy papers : documents on the battle for privacy in the age of surveillance
Last week I met David Banisar. From his experiences, knowledge and our short discussion, he’s someone I wish I met 20 years ago!
I also wish I found his book, “The electronic privacy papers : documents on the battle for privacy in the age of surveillance” 20 years ago.
Written in 1997 (!) it looks at the increasing problem (then…) of maintaining privacy for both private individuals and companies, whilst governments attempt to guarantee access to electronic communications.
Interesting chapters – Privacy and the information snooperhighway, The battle for control of cryptography, Lobbying for the surveillance of digital telephone, Cryptography, the battle for it’s control, and export controls. It doesn’t seem to be available.
Inventor portrait: Alan Adler
I came across a really nice short interview/portrait video of Alan Adler, the inventor of the Aerobie, and most importantly the Aeropress coffee maker.
He describes how the idea of an Aeropress came to him – he wanted to make a single cup of coffee but all coffee makers made multiple cups.
And like all good products it was co-opted by others who had a similar need.
What’s really nice is how he describes complicated concepts like aerodynamics, with plain language.
What’s also nice is his no-fuss method of using the Aeropress – none of the hipster drama.
There’s other nice video portraits of Marty Cooper, the inventor of the cellular phone, and Todd # Greene, the inventor of the Headblade.
They talk about the important aspects of product design – prototyping, ideation, social impact of technology, designing for specific users, the empowering aspects of giving people a product.
The series is from David Friedman who “makes videos about interesting people.”
Debugging CardDAV problems with Thunderbird
Thunderbird 102 card/caldav integration not working/145668. Restarting Thundrbird in safe-mode
Irish passport is world’s 2nd most “powerful”
The Irish passport is the world’s 2nd most powerful passport in the world, according to the tax and immigration consulting firm Nomad Capitalist.
They define power as by scores for Visa-free travel, Taxation, Global perception, Ability to hold dual citizenship, and Personal freedom (freedom of the press, mandatory military service, etc.).
Oh dear. Does this mean we’re going to have billionaires building bunkers in the Comeragh mountains? I hope not.
Linux market share passes 4% for first time; macOS dominance declines
Linux was on 6.34 percent of computers last month if you count ChromeOS. Do we count ChromeOS as Linux? It’s Linux-“based“.
America’s Last Morse-Code Station
The usage of Morse code in maritime communications was formally phased out in 1999, but in California, a group of enthusiasts who call themselves the “radio squirrels” keeps the tradition alive. These radio squirrels remind me of the English Coastwatch volunteer stations.
These kinds of stories make me a bit sad, but the photography is really beautiful.