Tag Archives: technology

Don’t Learn to Code

(Imagen 4)

Some of you may remember the 2010s, when learning to code would solve all your problems forever and ever. 

There was even an “Hour of Code” in 2014:

“The White House also announced Monday that seven of the nation’s largest school districts are joining more than 50 others to start offering introductory computer science courses.”

But people on the other side of the aisle endorsed the advice:

“On its own, telling a laid-off journalist to “learn to code” is a profoundly annoying bit of “advice,” a nugget of condescension and antipathy. It’s also a line many of us may have already heard from relatives who pretend to be well-meaning, and who question an idealistic, unstable, and impecunious career choice.”

But the sentiment was the same: get out of dying industries and do something meaningful that will set you up for life.

Well, that’s what they thought in the 2010s.

Where are the “learn to code” advocates in 2025?

They’re talking to non-person entities, not people:

“Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott expects the next half-decade to see more AI-generated code than ever — but that doesn’t mean human beings will be cut out of the programming process.

“”95% is going to be AI-generated,” Scott said when asked about code within the next five years on an episode of the 20VC podcast. “Very little is going to be — line by line — is going to be human-written code.””

So the 2010s “learn to code” movement has been replaced by the 2020s “let AI code” movement. While there are valid questions about whether AI can actually code, it’s clear that companies would prefer not to hire human coders, who they perceive to be as useless as human journalists.

Ubiquity Via Focus

Well, that’s done and over with.

So let’s move forward with the third year of the revived Bredemarket.

In case you missed it, Bredemarket provides content-proposal-analysis services for identity/biometric and technology firms by means of standard writing offerings.

And Bredemarket will improve its capabilities to serve you…by the means of ubiquity via focus.

No, Bredemarket isn’t ready to reveal what “ubiquity via focus” is yet…but I think you’ll figure it out.

Ubiquity Via Focus.

Make America Hallucinate Again

While some are concentrating on the political aspects of this story, I would like to focus on the technological aspects.

“[Dr. Katherine] Keyes is cited in a paper titled ‘Changes in mental health and substance use among US adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic,’ which appears on page 52 of the MAHA report and lists JAMA Pediatrics as the journal. A representative for the journal confirmed to ABC News the paper does not exist.”

Quoted from https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rfk-jrs-maha-report-contained-existent-studies/story?id=122321059

Anybody who has paid attention over the last two years knows EXACTLY what happened.

The word “hallucination” comes to mind.

Figure it out yet?

Someone took a shortcut in researching and/or writing the MAHA paper…something that all the generative AI companies are saying is a perfectly wonderful thing to do. After all, you won’t lose your job to AI…you will lose your job to someone who uses AI’s “help.” Until AI hallucinates and puts organic food dye-free egg whites on your face.

The continued inaccuracies in generative AI-authored writing are not limited to one political movement.

(Imagen 4)

Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie, and Chevrolet…in the UK

I needed a blog post idea for Monday, when my U.S. “hungry people” will be satiating themselves at Memorial Day cookouts.

So I thought of a 1970s feel-good U.S. commercial that makes no sense to our friends (if they still like us) across the pond.

For starters, the UK won’t watch baseball on Monday. They will watch cricket.

And hot dogs? People at a cricket match are more likely to consume sausage sandwiches, or fish and chips, or curry dishes, or pies.

Speaking of pies, it’s not what you think.

“Steak and Kidney Pie – It is a classic British pie filled with chunks of beef steak and kidneys cooked in a rich gravy.

“Chicken and Mushroom Pie – This pie is made with tender pieces of chicken combined with mushrooms in a creamy sauce, which is then encased in pastry.

“Cornish Pasty – Although Cornish Pasty is not a pie, many refer to it as a handheld pie. It is a pastry filled with diced meat, potatoes, and vegetables.

“Shepherd’s Pie – A minced lamb or beef pie is topped with mashed potatoes in this preparation.”

And on and on through other meats, but no apple pie on the list. (And forget about pumpkin pie.)

Cars

Which brings us to the British equivalent of the Chevrolet. In the 1970s, I’m not certain that Chevrolet was “America’s favorite car”—sister GM brand Oldsmobile may have held that title numerically. But “Chevy” vied with Ford as the sentimental favorite in the 1970s. 

Today America’s favorite car is the Toyota.

But what of the United Kingdom? Obviously not everyone could afford a Rolls Royce. They were buying Fords in 1975, primarily the Cortina and the Escort. I owned an Escort here in the U.S. many years later, but never owned a Cortina, a primarily UK auto related to the Taurus.

Today the UK’s favorite car is Volkswagen.

You feel safest of all.

Razor and Blades as a Service: HP Instant Ink

You know the razor and blades business model, where you can buy the razor very cheaply, and then you spend a lot of money over the years buying the blades.

Of course, this business model also applies to other complementary products, such as game consoles and video games, and printers and ink.

Ink as a Service

And companies can extend the business model. Rather than buying individual razor blades, video games, and ink cartridges, you can obtain the complementary products “as a Service.”

For example, HP Instant Ink:

“HP Instant Ink is the hassle-free, money-saving ink subscription service that automatically delivers ink only when you’re running low. Plans start at $1.79 a month.”

Of course that price assumes you only print 10 pages a month, but whatever.

I won’t dwell on the specifics on the plan (charging by the page rather than the ink used, reducing your privacy by letting HP and whoever else know when you print 900 pages, etc.). 

Vendor benefits from as a Service

But I will note that HP instant Ink has the same vendor advantage as any other “as a Service” offering:

Increased customer lock-in.

I will speak from my own experience. 

  • When my company sold on-premise solutions to government agencies, they paid from their capital budget and the contract was for a fixed term. After 5 or 7 years or whatever when the contract term expired, the agency’s hardware would be antiquated and it would have to go out to bid again.
  • Later, when my company sold cloud solutions, there was more budgetary flexibility. Some agencies didn’t have to use capital funds; this was a service, after all. And if the vendor was really fortunate, there was no contract term limit either, so the agency could stay with the vendor forever. Obsolescence wasn’t an issue because Amazon or Microsoft took care of that behind the scenes.

HP Instant Ink isn’t a perfect parallel, since it doesn’t include obsolete printer replacement. (But it could.) But the Ink as a Service (IaaS) offering certainly helps lock you in to HP…and to using HP ink rather than third-party ink.

And it’s yet another move from people owning things to people licensing things.

But if it provides a benefit (HP Instant Ink claims “up to” 50% cost savings), then it may be worthwhile.

(Imagen 3)

Go Forward. Move Ahead.

(Wildebeest bridge picture via Imagen 3)

A few of you know the particulars of this story about avoiding long-term risk for short-term gains. But the particulars aren’t critically important to most readers.

The business risk of new markets

One time a company wanted to enter a new market. This new market would completely change the way the company did business, both from a technological perspective and from a business perspective.

While the technological challenges were daunting, as usual the business challenges were even more so.

The biggest risk to the company was that the new market operated on a different revenue model, one in which revenue was deferred.

  • In the company’s current market, revenue started at contract signature.
  • But in the new market, the company would have to wait over a year and a half after the contract was signed before it received a dime of revenue.

In a publicly traded company, or even a privately held one, the powers that be are reluctant to undertake an initiative where they won’t get any revenue for 18 months.

“The quarter ends in less than 8 weeks. We want revenue NOW!”

So the company hemmed and hawed about entering the new market, scared of the financial risk. Finally it told its prospect that they’d enter the new market…if the prospect would make an immediate down payment. The prospect was not pleased and went with the company’s competitor instead. And the competitor continued to dominate this market.

For a time.

A few years later, the original company decided to accept the financial risk and, in the words of Devo, “go forward” and “move ahead.” And luckily for the company, it wasn’t too late. The company successfully entered the new market and became a dominant force.

Quarterly gains via risk aversion

We see this today, where a number of companies are struggling to survive. They do the prudent thing, letting go of the employees who don’t provide immediate revenue and concentrating on those who do. The engineers who can code something NOW! The salespeople who can get contract signatures NOW!

This isn’t necessarily the wrong thing to do. If your firm is about to close its doors, you have to do whatever you can to keep the business operating.

But what after that?

Continue to act in a reactive way, chasing the next short term deal?

Good luck.

Bar None

(Imagen 3)

Follow-up to my March post “When Remote Bar Exam Technology Failed, You Won’t Believe What Happened Next.”

“The State Bar of California announced Friday that its beleaguered leader, who has faced growing pressure to resign over the botched February roll out of a new bar exam, will step down in July. Leah T. Wilson, the agency’s executive director, informed the Board of Trustees she will not seek another term in the position she has held on and off since 2017. She also apologized for her role in the February bar exam chaos.”

No idea if Wilson was sued personally.

Read the updated story at https://www.mahoningmatters.com/news/nation-world/national/article305606501.html#storylink=cpy 

Visible Light Transmission (VLT) Percentages and Automobile Windows

Here are three questions for you:

  1. When a car pulls up to you, do you want to look inside?
  2. Here’s another question: when a car pulls up to you, and you’re a law enforcement officer, do you want to look inside?
  3. And here’s a third: if you’re driving a car, how much window tint should the car windows have?

The answer to that third question varies on a state-by-state basis, which also affects the effectiveness around the second question.

I’ll use my state of California as an example. According to the “Window Tinting Laws By State” page on Geoshield’s website, the Visible Light Transmission (VLT) percentage on car windows depends on which car window you’re talking about.

  • For the front side windows, the minimum VLT value is 70%.
  • For back side windows and rear windows, any VLT value is allowed.
  • For the windshield, the minimum VLT value is 100%, except on the top 4 inches of the windshield.

But VLT percentages vary on a state-by-state basis. In Arkansas, front and back side windows have a minimum VLT of 25%.

And I would bet that if someone in California drives to Arkansas with “excessive” back side window tinting, they can get in trouble…if the highway patrol officer notices.

So if you’re a criminal, and you don’t want a law enforcement officer to see you, it’s safest for you to sit in the back seat. If you’re a rich criminal, you’re probably being chauffeured anyway, so this should be easy.

By the way, how many of you figured out why I’m asking these questions?

(Automobile tinted window image from Imagen 3)

One Product You Cannot Get at Amazon Fresh

I went back to the Upland Amazon Fresh at noon, primarily to see how Amazon incorporates technology into its services.

Amazon Fresh supports the Dash Carts I discussed in a previous post. (The Whole Foods I visited this morning does not.) These let you scan your items as you take them from the shelves, speeding your checkout.

Dash Cart in the wild.

Another device speeds your checkout by weighing your produce before checkout. Looks like you have to manually input the item number, though.

Weigh now and check out later.

This device appeared to be for returns, but I wasn’t really sure.

QR code for…something.

As I wandered through the store, I was impressed with the variety of groceries offered.

But I was unable to find one item in Amazon Fresh—something that is readily available at the Dollar Tree next door.

The missing item?

Books.

Remember when Amazon was only a book seller?

Amazon Fresh, Just Walk Out, and Reducing Automation

Between the Upland store grand opening, my musings on Amazon One, and a combination of the two, I have focused on the Amazon Fresh retail chain lately.

But I haven’t touched on the demise of Just Walk Out.

Not because of shrinkage, but because shoppers want control…and Just Walk Out took control away.

It’s masterful, really. You just throw your purchases into your cart, and a battery of cameras record and price everything automatically.

In reality, a battery of cameras and third world workers record and price everything semi-automatically. But I digress.

Anyway, all your purchases are recorded and totaled, and your payment method is charged as you just walk out.

THEN you find out how much you just spent.

Guess what? Customers didn’t like the surprises. They wanted to know how much they were spending BEFORE they were charged.

Customers wanted a better solution:

“Shoppers said they preferred being able to track their spending during a shop, access receipts instantly, and easily find products—all things that are harder with a fully automated system.

“The new solution—smart trolleys known as Dash Carts—lets customers scan items as they shop, view their basket total in real time, and pay using contactless payment at the end.”

Dash Cart picture from https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=21289116011

The love for Amazon Dash Carts horrifies engineers, who are shocked that customers rejected the technological marvel that was Just Walk Out.

Except that customers don’t want features. They want benefits…such as being able to control their spending.

And if the manual Dash Carts offer better benefits than the automated Just Walk Out…then Just Walk Out does exactly that and leaves the premises.

And if you need to communicate the benefits of your technology solution…

Bredemarket can help:

  • compelling content creation
  • winning proposal development
  • actionable analysis

Book a call: https://bredemarket.com/cpa/