Junkyard Tornado – why you need to get your house in order before going for Digital Transformation “…complex structures do not arise in a single evolutionary step…” – John Maynard Smith Nobody in their right mind believes that if a tornado swept through a junkyard it would assemble a Boeing 747. Yet, many organisations and...
IT Strategy with Donald Rumsfeld In a 2002 Department of Defense brieifing held by Donald Rumsfeld, then Secretary of Defense, regarding WMDs, he stated “there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not...
Bluffer Syndrome – How do unqualified people get into technology leadership positions? When I left a previous role I was able to meet my successor on the way out. I knew in 5 minutes that this guy wasn’t going to make it. How did I know but those that chose him didn’t? The answer is...
Bitcoin Mining Slaves – the story of the miner botnet Bitcoin Mining Slaves – the story of the miner botnet Bitcoin is a wonderful example of distributed computing. It is a digital crypto-currency built around a peer to peer network using open-source software. Created by the mysterious ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’, the Bitcoin system went live in...
How drones will reshape Middle East enterprises How many neglected online shopping carts are a result of expensive shipping costs and lengthy delivery times? Eighty-six percent, according to management consulting group McKinsey & Group. That’s a staggeringly high percentage, and one that should act as a sure-fire cause for retail firms to explore alternative methods...
Why Blockchain’s only limit is human imagination Back in the mid-90s when I first had access to the Internet, I couldn’t really understand what the hype was all about. I was a gamer in those days, so my first use case for the Internet was to find WAD files – custom maps, weapons and characters...
Linux on the Desktop – the right kernel at the wrong time On the 25th August 1991, an unknown 21-year-old student at the University of Helsinki in Finland, named Linus Torvalds, posted on a Usenet forum that he was working on creating and releasing an operating system kernel based on Minix, a Unix-like operating system....
NeXTSTEP – the father of Apple’s iOS and OS X In 1985, Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, left the company due to board room politics and intrigue. He subsequently launched NeXT – a computer company that would focus on providing high-end workstations to businesses and the educational sector, with an emphasis on selling these workstations...
Extension of the self – why you always want the latest gadgets When the first iPhone went on sale on 29 June 2007 its release was likened to that of a “cultural event” and a “pivotal event in time”. People queued all night, for many hours, to be one of the first to own this...
