Data or diatribes

I went this week to the launch of the Royal Society's report on machine learning. 
It is a very interesting look at all the issues around the subject.
One questioner asked when we would reach the stage when algorithms will be able to do anything a human can do. None of the panel could put a date on it.
But by one yardstick, we are already there. 
Computer algorithms learn from the data they find to produce their outcomes. Just like scientists. 
An awful lot of humans base their outcomes on what Boris Johnson or Donald Trump says. 
Which do you think is better?

Don't buy, rent

More evidence of the rapid changes in the game.
Adobe, the people who make very expensive software for designing pages or manipulating pictures, will no longer sell their software in shrink-wrapped boxes for you to install on your computer. Instead, they will rent you access to the software in the cloud for 20 or 30 dollars a month.
This follows the lead of Microsoft, another purveyor of expensive, shrink-wrapped software. They are now offering Office 365 which you can use, in the cloud, for a modest price each month.
There are clear advantages for companies and individual professionals. You don't need to manage installations, updates and crashes. You can pay for it as day-to-day expenses, rather than a big licence fee now and then.
Google are to offer a music-streaming service. Why buy, collect and store music when you can play what you want whenever you want it. Play lists instead of LPs or CDs.
Apple, who introduced adults to digital music, are considering the same.
And BT are offering Premiership football, which used to be something the broadcasters had to themselves, following the lead of Netflix who commissioned a series with a star, which, again, used to be something only the broadcasters did.
All this is possible because we live in a connected world, where you can get what you want when you want it. And there are many more people offering it than there were in the old world.

Seeing through the Windows

Windows 8 is interesting. It moves away from the traditional Windows Start menu and into the world of clickable icons.
For decades Microsoft have made millions because the world has been compatible with Windows.
Most companies use Windows, so most commercial software is created to run on Windows.
Windows is on most of the computers we buy to use at home, so most of the software written for people at home has been created to run on Windows.
And most of the printers, scanners, cameras and other devices we buy come with software created to run on Windows.
The world works on Windows.
Or it did until Steve Jobs showed non-geeks how to download music and Google’s Android made millions of phones cool.
Now people are as happy to touch apps as they are to start a program from a menu. The Windows spell has been broken.
I bet there are more programmers writing software for iPads and Androids than there are writing code to work on Windows PCs.
Windows 8 shows Microsoft have accepted this. Why is it taking so long for the people who make printers and other peripheral bits of kit to provide an app as well as a Windows CD for people to set them up and use them?