Talk Tech on Third Thursday – September 2016

Spotted any interesting tech this month? Or have your tried something out and are dying to tell people about it? Well, whether you’ve got something to share, or if you just want to listen to what’s new, then coming and Talk Tech this Third Thursday with us!

So, what is this all about? Every Third Thursday we get together to talk about new and emerging technologies. Topics are always varied, based on who turns up and what’s new but over the last few months we’ve discussed IoT (Internet of Things), Bitcoin, Robotics, Android, Tech Startups, Augmented Reality and all sorts of other topics. It’s an open invitation, everyone is welcome, so feel free to bring a friend or colleague along.

We’re meeting at Bar George this Thursday 15th at 12:30. Hope to see you there!

Talk Tech on Third Thursday – August 2016

After a brief hiatus last month, we’re back this month, looking to bring together people working in tech, people developing new tech and also those with just a passing interest in tech. That’s right, Third Thursday is back and we’re meeting at Bar George on Thursday 18th from 12:30.

So, what is Third Thursday all about? Well, it’s a meeting up to share the latest news, talk about our new gadgets and share problems, solutions and whatever is new in the tech world. The topics of conversation tend to be varied, depending on who turns up, but we’ve talked about social media, cryptocurrencies, augmented reality and a host of other technologies. The main topic is always technology, though we tend to skid into adjacent topics from time to time. This month, IoT has been high on our agenda at Code Club, so I know a number of you will be keen to talk about what we can do on-island, where opportunities lie and also what’s scary about this new tech.

It’s an open lunch date, anyone can join us. And we always have a varied group, from people specialising in tech, to others who run start ups to others who spend their time building systems and solutions. So if you want to meet some interesting folk, please come and join us. Bring your gadgets, bring your problems, but above all, bring your stories and exploits.

See you Thursday 18th , at Bar George at 12:30

No Third Thusday for July :(

Sorry everyone, I messed up! I’m away in Ireland at the moment and completely ruined the planning for this month’s Third Thursday. It’s worse than just forgetting about it too! @ProgramX had offered to host it while I was away, but I didn’t organise a table and sending an invitation out slipped my mind. So we COULD have had one, but due to a litany of failures, well, now it’s not. It’s fortuitous that some of you are away on holiday or business, but that’s still not an excuse. Please accept my humble apologies. I’ll learn from this failure and make sure it won’t happen again.

So, we can treat this as a Summer Break and all go and gain levels in Pokemon-Go so maybe we can focus on location-based gaming and augmented reality next time …

Talk Tech on Third Thursday – June 2016

This Thursday is the Third Thursday of the month and as we’ve been doing for a while now, we’re meeting up for a Techie lunch to share the latest news, talk about our new gadgets and share problems, solutions and whatever is new in the tech world. The topics of conversation tend to be varied, depending on who turns up, but we’ve talked about social media, cryptocurrencies, augmented reality and a host of other technologies. The main topic is always technology, though we tend to skid into adjacent topics from time to time.

It’s an open lunch date, anyone can join us. And we always have a varied group, from people specialising in tech, to others who run start ups to others who spend their time building systems and solutions. So if you want to meet some interesting folk, please come and join us. Bring your gadgets, bring your problems, but above all, bring your stories and exploits.

We’re meeting at Bar George in Douglas between 12:30 and 14:00 this Thursday 16th June. And if you don’t have time for lunch, just come and grab a quick cup of coffee. Hope you can join us!

Check out Jibo: the social robot

Here’s an interesting one. It’s a little robot called Jibo that can be your digital assistant. It’s fixed in one place but has a multitude of sensors to help it find out what’s happening in the world around it. It can see, hear and speak thanks to a couple of webcams, 360 degree microphones and natural language processing and can learn from the world around it to adapt to your daily patterns and actions. There are a couple of offerings that claim to do all this, but where Jibo is different is in that it communicates using moves and displays that are emotive and expressive to help make it more social and relatable. You can sign up to learn more at their website here: Jibo

In the meantime, if you want to learn more and figure out how to build for it, there’s an SDK available to figure out how to access Jibo’s motors, speech technology, facial recognition and tracking, touch input technology, and more. It also gives you an easy way to build Jibo Skills (robot applications) through animation and behavior editors. Check out the SDK at the Jibo Developer Portal.

In the meantime, check out this video showing how to use the SDK

“Reality is frequently inaccurate.”

Do you know who came up with that quote? Well, it was the inestimable Douglas Adams. Everyone knows his most famous quote: Don’t Panic, fro the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but here’s a collection of 42 Douglas Adams quotes to live by.

My favourites:

“There is no point in using the word ‘impossible’ to describe something that has clearly happened.”

and

“I don’t accept the currently fashionable assertion that any view is automatically as worthy of respect as any equal and opposite view.”

and

“If you try and take a cat apart to see how it works, the first thing you have on your hands is a non-working cat.”

Check them out : 42 Douglas Adams quotes to live by. Which are your favourites?

altMBA – Goal Setting

My first couple of days doing Seth Godin’s altMBA have been quite interesting. I’ve met a really interesting bunch of people, picked up lots of interesting and useful information, but am reeling from the ton of material that’s being shared across the group. It’s amazing how we all have backgrounds that are so different, yet can all share learning that’s relevant across the group. I’m not quite sure of the best way to catalogue all the external resources that are coming out (or whether I’ll ever have the time to absorb them), so just wanted to capture some points around Goal Setting, which was the first project we worked on.

We were introduced to Zig Ziglar who had a lot to say about setting goals. Some tips here:

There’s a very succinct and effective way to delineate your goals. Check out Zig’s method here and here. You can find Zig’s worksheet here.
..
Use the Ziglar Seven Steps of Goal Setting process to break your goals into specifics, and describe the when and the what and the who.

Some useful links from Slack conversations:

So much to read .. and we’re only just starting ….