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How American idea of Supermarkets transformed the whole world?
What is good can have dire consequences too! I learned from this engaging podcast from Freakonomics (if you haven’t read the fantastic book, stop and immediately get it) on how the food policies of the USA in the early and mid-20th century, planned with good intentions and valid reasons led to industrialized crop growing, supermarkets, death of small farmers, obesity, our addiction to sweet in everything we eat, active encouragement of a carbohydrate diet (the resulting discouragement of fruits and vegetables), and, many more: The first world war accelerated the demand for more food production, which led the Government (United States Department of Agriculture-USDA) to start encouraging better science and…
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The podcasts I listen to, and the best app for playing them is now free!
What’s a Podcast? A podcast is an episodic series of audio or video files which a user can download in order to listen. Next, to messaging & listening to music, I use my Smartphone for listening to Podcasts. For nearly a decade now, they are my companion during my evening walks and commute – helping me to relax, learn and catch up on the happenings effortlessly. Earlier I have written about the podcast episodes I have listened to: Listening to the (late) Sci-Fi author Jerry Pournelle, and reading his classic “The Mote in God’s Eye“ Listening to Rob Reid and then reading his Sci-Fi comedy book “Year Zero” which was about…
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Developer on Fire – Interview with Eric Brechner aka I.M.Wright
Every manager should be listening to this interview which is packed with useful insights and life experiences. I found the Podcast channel “Developer on Fire” to be a series of interesting conversations that Mr Dave Rael has with his guests from the Software Industry. This week, I listened to the one with Mr Eric Brechner (@ericbrechner), who is a Software Engineering Manager at Microsoft Corporation and has over three decades of experience in managing software development. Eric is well known by his pen name I.M.Wright and has authored two well-researched books on managing Software Projects and the teams – Hard Code and Agile Project Management with Kanban. I am giving…
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The San Francisco’s Facial Recognition Ban and the questions it raises
//14th May 2019: San Francisco, long at the heart of the technology revolution, took a stand against potential abuse on Tuesday by banning the use of facial recognition software by the police and other agencies.// The word that came to my mind when I read about the above law (ordinance) was “Hypocrisy”. Silicon Valley is where most of the technology used in surveillance gets invented by tech giants and exported worldwide – now the elected officials of the same community are saying it may be harmful and are enacting a ban for it – I am confused to say the least!!! I subscribe to the idea that technology advancements and…
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Tim Ferris Show – Joe Gebbia, Co-Founder of Airbnb
The Tim Ferris Show is an engaging podcast channel to listen. In episode #301, Mr Tim Ferris sits down with Mr Joe Gebbia, the Co-Founder of Airbnb – what a show it was – entertaining, insightful and informative. Don’t miss listening to or watching this show. In the interview, Joe covers a wide range of topics, right from his college days where his entrepreneur skills were honed, to the motivation/situation leading to starting AirBNB, his early days and others. “Anything I come across that feels impossible, I probably need to take a second look.” – Joe Gebbia I liked the formula for life that Joe proposes which is aptly applicable…
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Windows Weekly podcast live
I have been listening to this podcast for many years now, I download using a podcast app like Pocket Cast into my smartphone and listen during my drive to work and back. It’s become a habit for me to listen to “This week in tech” in early parts of the week and “Windows Weekly” in the latter part of the week. Today while I am at Atlanta attending Microsoft Ignite conference I was surprised to see the hosts of Windows Weekly doing a live show in the connector hall between Building B & C at Georgia World Congress Center. Seeing the hosts Paul Thurrott & Mary Jo Foley in flesh…
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The father of Visual Basic – Alan Cooper
In last week’s Twit Triangulation podcast I enjoyed listening to Mr.Alan Cooper the father of Visual Basic, whose works I admire a lot. His book on “About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design” has had a profound influence on how I have been designing software solutions for the last 15+ years. The computer industry has been built by numerous talented engineers but it has had only a handful of pioneers like Mr.Cooper who have put the users first when they design their products. Mr.Cooper has long argued against software throwing dialog boxes and displaying error messages. He twists the popular saying “Form follows Function” to “Form follows Function to hell” if you apply…
