→ by David Porter on December 4th, 2013
Do TV Christmas Ads Build Brand Loyalty?
Seasonal blog: TV Christmas Ads Cost Millions, Raise Millions and Amount to Very Little
The annual Christmas TV ads have become a new commercial battleground. Christmas is the golden goose for most retailers and so they spend literally millions trying to win us over.
For those who care, MBF Blogs bring you a round-up of this year’s contenders.
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→ by David Porter on December 3rd, 2013
How technology has moved on assisting human limbs….
Technical Solutions for New Limbs Needn’t Cost an Arm and a Leg …
As technology continues its relentless drive for new solutions to physical human problems, we look at one company’s products and how they can help.
This blog is not an advert for the Israeli company MediTouch, but it it is a call for more awareness of the benefits for more physical rehabilitation solutions for sufferers of neurological injury or disease.
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→ by David Porter on December 2nd, 2013
Virtual Assistants Can Order Your Shopping For You
Imagine this: Widespread Virtual Assistance Means You Never Have to Wash Up Again …
Virtual assistants let you get shot of any job you don’t want to do. There are digital ones, robots and now companies who do your shopping for you.
We have become accustomed to call centres, payrolls and data analysis being outsourced overseas to save on labour costs. But now this concept has become widely available to individuals too.
One company is based in India. GetFriday in Bangalore will assign you a virtual assistant (VA) who may be quite young but will be qualified in all sorts of skills from computers to research, from economics to psychology. TasksEveryDay will do the same and even search out and apply for employment for you!
Their VAs will keep you in touch by emails (or any other digital channel you want) and are available on demand to do the sort of things that may weary you and use a lot of your valuable time.
In the case of freelance writer Katie Glass telling the story to the Sunday Times magazine earlier this year, even researching and writing can be done by VAs. They will find and set up interviews with people for you. They will draft and edit. They will help you set up your own business.
Of course, these particular ones can’t wash up for you. But they can get somebody local in to do it (or babysit, clean, service your car) and order your shopping to be delivered. They can organise your diary for you so you don’t miss events or forget anniversaries.
Glass mentioned the website Fiverr where 1.8m people ‘from all over the world outsource their skills’. Its headline says, ‘what people will do for $5.’
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→ by David Porter on November 27th, 2013
That old cement of life the algorithm is in the frame for busting one of the web’s strongest security systems.
CAPTCHAs are those often curly, sometimes near incomprehensible squibbled letters that you have to type into a box on a WordPress comment, a PayPal account or any email account on Google and some business sites.
Why? Just to prove you are a human being and not a web bot.
But now an algorithm has been created to crack the CAPTCHA and everybody is now frantically scrabbling around for a new web security.
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→ by David Porter on November 26th, 2013
Would a DNS-recreated prehistoric creature attract animal rights in the future?
Among many concerns about prediction and human development in the future, the legal issues are just being thought about.
And not a moment too soon.
Michael Hanlon wrote a substantial piece in the Daily Telegraph (22 October) saying that ‘from self-driving cars to man-made consciousness, science is about to unleash a host of legal dilemmas.’
He said, ‘disruptive technologies are threatening to rewrite the legal rulebook … as we stare into a future of automation and genetic augmentation, of new robotic and reproductive technologies’ the 21st century will be a boom time for lawyers.
And we are already witnessing how Parliament and the courts are struggling to keep up with, never mind one step ahead, of cross border cybercriminals, web scams and crime made possible by technology.
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