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What makes the Tesla brand so popular?

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  It’s that time of year when I nervously wait for the proposed bill going on my credit card bill. No, it’s not early Christmas present spending (although that is a worry to come) but it is the annual visit to the garage for my car for its service and MOT. As always, one has to be careful when dealing with car garage s but the worry is always that if there is something seriously wrong with the car, is it worth repairing or should I be investing in a new car? Alongside this, there is the Ultra Low Emission Zone in London that has just been introduced which is just a few miles down the road from where I live. My car, being an “old” diesel, does not allow me to travel in such zones without paying. So perhaps I need a new car anyway. So I started to look at new cars. I was very surprised to see that the bestselling car in September in the UK this year was the Tesla Model 3 . The Society of Motor Manufacturers and...
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Are low-code platforms really the way forward?

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There has been a significant amount of hype in recent times with respect to no-code and low-code platforms. The promise is that no-code platforms will make software development just as easy as using Word or PowerPoint so that the average business user can move projects forward without the extra cost (in money and time) of an engineering team. Unlike no-code platforms, low-code platforms require coding skills but still promise to accelerate software development by letting developers work with pre-written code components in a secure way. I can’t deny that this hype makes me smile as this is not really a new phenomenon; indeed, back in the 90s, in my very first job, I worked on such a platform. Apart from showing my age, this highlights a common scenario where technology can be ahead of its time. For example, Sony launched their  Glasstron product  - a head-mounted display with dual LCD screens and earphones – in the 1990s, way ahead of the Virtual Reality (VR) headsets that are ...
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The sound of technology

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I love music, any kind of music. For me, and for most of us, we can attach memories and our social interactions to music tracks. For example, if I am listening to the  School Of Fish  (an alternative rock band), I am instantly transported to a time when I was studying at Loughborough University and I was browsing for new music in the  Left Legged Pineapple music shop . I have a collection of over two thousands cds but most of them were gathered in the 1990s / 2000s. In the last twenty years, how I have consumed music has changed significantly with the advent of streaming and online services. Technology has had a profound impact on music especially in recent times. It has altered how music is transmitted, preserved, heard, performed, and composed. Most musical sounds that we hear have been shaped by technology. For example, many church organs now use synthesized or sampled sounds rather than actual pipes. Technology is changing the essence of music but does everyone really...
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The rise of machines in the classroom

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  Most of you will know that I am the Chair (aka Head of Governors) at my local Primary School ( Mayplace Primary School ). All my children attended and becoming a Governor was my chance to give something back to the School and the community that supports it. I have been a Governor for over eight years now and a number of aspects have changed, not least the use of Technology in Education and this is what I wanted to concentrate on, in this blog. Technology in schools today … Our school has embarked on a strategy of embracing outdoor learning, not just as a single lesson but embedding it throughout the curriculum. This ethos was essential not just for learning about the world we live in but also for improving pupil well-being and mental health. Indeed, when we started looking at amending the School Strategy a few years ago, an Isaac Asimov short story called “ The fun they had ” came to my mind (published in the 1950s). Set in the future,...
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How does Social Media impact Insurance Companies?

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  In today’s digital age, Social Media is an increasingly important part of our daily lives. It has revolutionized communications, to the extent that it is now our preferred medium of everyday communication whether for engaging with businesses & entertainment, catching up with news or simply socialising with friends. The last thing many people do before they go to sleep is scroll through their feeds and it is also probably the first thing they look at when they wake up. What is Social Media and when did it begin? One way to think of Social Media is that it is a platform that facilitates the sharing of our thoughts, ideas, and information allowing us to communicate with other people via virtual networks and communities. It is usually based on user-generated content and gives people the chance to get to know each other better. The development of social media started off with fairly simple platforms. GeoCities was one of the earliest ...
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