Current Developments
The Smartphone Story
The Invention of the SmartphoneIn 2004, a Canadian company, Research-in -Motion invented the Smartphone, named BlackBerry. This novel portable communication device was built by Mike Lazaridis and marketed by Jim Balsillie, the co CEO’s of Research-in-Motion. It was a...
The Microsoft Success Story as told in my Book Where There’s a Will. There s a Way
Microsoft was formed in Seattle by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975. They had created a version of the Basic operating system for use on the Altair, a successful Personal Computer kit. Later, in 1981, they were selected by IBM to develop the Operating System for the...
The Wealth Tax. The article on a possible Wealth Tax in the April 13, 2021 Opinion Section of the Toronto Star, argues that a Wealth Tax would be the simplest, fairest and most effective way to collect billions of dollars of extra revenue a year. Nothing would...
Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)
Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) is a relatively new and revolutionary economic theory. It states that a government that can print its own currency does not have to worry about budgeting large deficits since it can print the money to pay for it. Instead it states that...
AI at the Grocery Store
When we last wrote on this subject, in Artificial Intelligence and the Job Market, Amazon had recently announced its Amazon Go Convenience Stores that automated the checkout process letting shoppers select their goods and walk out without having to wait in line for a...
Advances in Home Robotics
The Toronto Star recently published an article dealing with advances in home robotics. When we last wrote on this subject in Artificial Intelligence and the Job Market, we reported the development of the Roomba, a floor vacuum cleaner. While appreciating the...
Artificial Intelligence – Bob Dylan’s view
Bob Dylan renowned singer, songwriter, poet, author and painter is the recipient of many awards. These include The Presidential Medal of Freedom, and, in 2016, the Nobel Prize in Literature “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”.
Douglas Brinkley of the New York Times interviewed Dylan a few years ago. In the interview Dylan provided his insight to this question: “Are you worried that in 2020 we’re past the point of no return? That technology and hyper-industrialization are going to work against the human life on earth?”
“Sure, there is a lot of reason to be apprehensive about that. There is definitely a lot more anxiety and nervousness around now than there used to be. But that only applies to people of a certain age like you and me. We have a tendency to live in the past, but that is only us. Youngsters don’t have that tendency…. As far as technology goes, it makes everybody vulnerable. But Young people don’t think like that. They could care less. Telecommunications and advanced technology is the world they were born into. Our world Is already obsolete.”
To we which we can say: Here, Here!.
IoT
The concept of an Internet of Things has been around for some years. Today, it refers to an internet connected network of physical devices of all types equipped with embedded sensors and capable of transmitting the sensed information wirelessly to the...
BlackBerry stock removed from the S&P/TSX 60 index.
BlackBerry has fallen on hard times. This company invented the first smartphone, the BlackBerry, in 2004. It was the darling of the technology community at Waterloo University in Waterloo Ontario, Canada. It had the market to itself until Steve Jobs had Apple...
Cloud Computing
In 2016, Thomas Friedman published Thank You for Being Late, an analysis of accelerating forces that are reshaping our world in the 21 Century. The three fields he covers are Computer Technology, Globalisation, and the Environment. He cites, the exponentially...
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