Internet DNA - UX, Design and Tech musings

The new season, we discuss the pro's and con's of selling on the different marketing platforms, Amazon, Etsy, Ebay, Facebook market place. Not to be too much of a spoiler, but as an artist it's hard! Learn what we learned, and find out a little about the Vikings while you're there.

There may be monsters in the dark web but one man's monsters is another mans salvation and who are we to police freedom of speech Putting aside for a moment all the totally illegal stuff that I think we all agree is illegal; the more conversation is censored, in any country... even ours, the more we need somewhere to freely communicate. Now, anonymity does bring out a dark side of humanity, but we can't shut down hope as a consequence. This is all things about the dark web you wanted to know but were too afraid to ask... in case someone is watching ;)

Why can't computers tell good jokes? Do you know what the first wearable tech was? Not some cheating cowboys in a casino but a watch, you did know that one. Well how about virus zapping jumpers, flirting robots, bras that know when you are running., lobsters that don't age, octopus who live forever. and technology that becomes biology, join us... but don't forget to wear the right pants.

The pros and cons of working from your bedroom; from someone used to getting the train every day to someone used to freelancing at home. Can our mental health, creativity and new business engagement survive it, are some in a honeymoon period of cozy slippers and how do businesses manage their culture from afar. Will the remote manager be a different fish from the in person plaice? And finally how do you run a successful zoom workshop, apparently it involves roses!

What? Why? How? Exactly, that is the reason for our discussion today. Filling you in on all you need to know about creating a story for your business and how this helps growth, loyalty and ultimately success. Peppered with some strange and interesting facts as always.

The Simian army is coming to a server near you. With chaos monkeys, doctor monkeys, chaos apes janitor monkeys and the perfect Facebook storm. Is chaos engineering the best way to test a system's robustness and what happens when a monkey actually does a good job? We look at the twitter hacking, NHS virus and engineering through elasticity not scale, and well, best listen in to the pitter patter of little monkey feet.

Neo banks, digital banks, online only banks you name it, they are probably called it. Why haven't we swapped? Is it really loyalty or love of our bank or we are just too lazy to change? We dissect online banking, open banking and did you know that you are only limited to buying 4 gold coins, and the UK government can just take it off you if they get in a sticky situation, like now! ... read on. ps. sorry for the slight muffle it is only at the beginning.

Dear Santa, why can’t Google and Apple let governments use Bluetooth in a way enables their track and trace apps to work when they seem to be able to do it for their track and trace apps? For Christmas, or preferably sooner, can you just make them do that. How honest is Google - we explain the Covid-19 track and trace apps in more detail and touch on the scary side of privacy, where do you stand? And Dan says he's not weird about data, but I think we can be the judge of that.

We take a look at the apps out there, to see if there is anything that we really couldn't or shouldn't live without. But do we need a cake delivery app, family list maker, app to stop you fiddling with other apps, apps to help you buy more, feel more, do more. And what if these apps are bit by bit reducing our freedom and civil liabilities? Are we in fact sleepwalking back to 1984 and what is the real cost of track and trace and Huawei.

Bill Gates created corona virus - you heard it here first, or second, or third - so that he can then fine the vaccine, uh? yes well, moving on Abi gets carried away with a long list of 'cant live without' apps that she really can live without. While Dan thinks there is a social movement to off grid living, and that this may drive the tech needed to accelerate developing countries further into the digital future We need radicals, but alas that isn't Dan. Instead we sum up our findings on whether tech is helping us or not

Beating spam is a never ending story, but google, liking to be helpful in all walks of life have brought out google recaptcha, we discuss here what this is, what it means and how it compares to mud. Yes mud, possibly more interesting than recaptcha.

In this episode we discuss Just In Time management, and how a minor change in habit, can make a major disruption to supply and inventory. Sounds dry... not with us. Dan knows more than is really healthy to know about loo roll and Abi gets a crush on Pat Riley @_rileyio and we may talk some sense too.

Did you know that the porn industry was the pioneer of pushing boundaries and making the web what it is today. The games industry has now taken on this touch and we discuss in what ways and how gamification has spilled over into other aspects of our online and offline lives.  Does a leader board, 100k+ followers or super hosts actually just put the rest of us mere morals off and how does this play out with morale in educational games? Dan has a rant about loot boxes (again!)... and then we move on to the finance industry magicking money out of the air. Errrrr might we get some negative feedback? You will have to listen.

Is technology a help or a hindrance during this unprecedented Covid-19 lock down. What would it have been like without zoom and social media. What will change when we emerge from this stasis? Would slower supply chains and 'paperwork' actually have had a beneficial effect. Dan gets a little cross with the pasta panickers as he doesn't have a chest freezer, pantry or shed to fill with the stuff and Abi gets trolled. It is a brave new world but has technology made it better, do we all really need house party or will an old school phone do?

It is different times we find ourselves, and different times mean.... new laptops! Well that is where we have found ourselves thrown into homeschooling. In this episode we discuss the right and wrong laptop choices for children; budget, specs, pitfalls, warranty, and mistakes we suggest you don't make as we have made them already!

The rise and… pan of 3d printing, but will it be the future? Will printing with organic material allow us to live a green life; it doesn’t matter if it wears out, or isn’t strong forever, as you just print another one. Imagine printing storage boxes at the moment you need them, or re-purposing whole rooms to become something else.. careful going out for the night the kids may have recycled and re-printed the furniture. We discuss the type of printers now and in the future, the type of applications they may fulfil, and spend too much time focusing on eggcups.. but no mention of Covid-19 we promise.

Good, bad or over hyped? We can see the future but right now a connected toaster isn't quite doing it for us. Today we explore the possible uses of IoT and their benefits to humanity. Big data has always been used for good and bad so the more connected our devices the more companies know and the more they can use this for... or against us. But what about the good in emergency services, supermarkets, global emissions and greening our planet? Or perhaps the netflix-atisation of our fridge? What if this connected world could help us save money. Forget uswitch, just use AI to always put us on the right tariff, and cancel unused subscriptions. Then there is self mending machines, roads, trains and even humans! Imagine not having to get rail replacement buses ever again. We are in an age of digital dis-harmonisation - who doesn't shout at their device. Can IoT change that, will we start to love alexa?

Online safety for kids, the potholes of being a parent with these digital natives. This podcast touches on family sharing, screen time, good and bad apps and games such as Whatsapp, SnapChat, Fortnite, TikTok and more -  trust, responsibility, dialog, trolling, what not to post, privacy, communication, life gaming and streaming, a short rant about weirdos!

Google, Duck Duck Go, Ecosia, Tor, Dog pile, Swiss Cows, I'm not making these up they are all search engines, and which one should we use? Not to forget social searching, video searching academic and medical searching and if you are Dan tank searching - not petrol or fish just to be clear. This week we have a look at whether we should be using a different search engine, what privacy has to play in this and how much Dan hates GDPR - again.

New Year, too many iphone apps. What are useful, which are annoying, some are life saving, but still we can't seem to rid ourselves of the sweetie style icons.

A brief exploration into the how, why and when of stepping into immersive virtual reality and at what point that virtual reality becomes actual reality and vice versa.... children will accept any reality they are born into.    WARNING: perhaps don't take a Solpadeine when trying to do a podcast as you may sound like you are already in that amniotic fluid... as Abi does.

With all those earnest 2020 predictions and 2019 'best of's, we thought we would do something a little different, ludicrous predictions; no plugs, no wires, no plugs just magic. Immortality, the Silicon Valley Caliphate, King China or will the internet will just break under all this pressure. Its all to play for.

Why do we need faster than superfast broadband? Is 5G going to change our lives? Will the countryside ever really catch up? Possibly not but throw in some charging rhinos and candy floss trees and we have plenty to talk about.

Or Analysis paralysis as it is called... mainly because it has a more catchy name! Why are we struggling to make decisions in the work place, how have meetings impacted this, and what should we do to counter it. Nike as we discover had the right attitude 'Just do it!'

A world of knowledge at our fingertips and we're watching cats fall off sofas. The internet and the way we consume data is actually rewiring our brain. This can’t be good. Or can it. Does memory give us a rich life and rich canvas from which to draw new ideas, or we can we use this knowledge and the rewiring of our to springboard into the future.

A discussion about the difference between UI & UX, is there such a thing as Dark UI, or is it just bad UX and does User Experience Design really work for small businesses. How can we take UX into the future now it is coming of age to look at the whole picture of us as people not just that instant dopamine hit for a user lining the pockets of giants.

WeWork's fall from grace, Airbnb rushing to IPO, nobody actually making any money. Who remembers the original crash of 2000 or the mobile phone crash or the bitcoin crash, electric bike crash anyone? We discuss the likelihood and as all good news channels at the moment hypothesise about what may happen.

Smart buildings, electric cars, renewable energy, it's all there so is it technology or the messaging and our habits that need to change? Technology in theory can help us clean up the mess we have made and prevent us from doing it again; but what about in practice? Which government will actually commit to saving our long term future over their short term goals - it seems a simple answer so why is no one doing it? Enter Greta Thunberg. Or maybe the actual best solution to climate change is removing humans altogether... and perhaps farty cows - if we tasked an AI with solving climate change, would this be it's solution?

Who should regulate the tech industry? Ethics is not black and white, silicon valley should ‘do no evil’ but who defines evil? It is a minefield and a polarising topic, why are a vast majority of people so verbally against wrong doing of a company but physically don't change their habits? Should we be offered what we want even if it is not what we need and who should decide? We discuss the differences of government versus self regulation, morals versus ethics, and how an ethical framework needs to be put in place… soon.

This week we are discussing holograms; the difference between a hologram and holograph and if they will be the next big thing, or if the uses are somewhat gimmicky. Feeling we hadn't quite finished on genetic engineering and the power unlocking the gene sequence could give... think Mutants from X-Men... we meander through this enormous subject too, taking in VR & AR as we go.

How will genetic engineering effect us and will the perfect person really be that perfect? Is the ethics about improving ourselves as a human being or penalising those that have not been enhanced as they are more likely to become ill, be less intelligent, less sporty...technology is neither good nor evil.... it is the way in which it is use. Regenerative medicine, robot rats, spying moths and internal micro-bbbbbots. Oh, and surely it is easier to turn humans into robots than robots into humans?

Dan and Abi continue to look at the technology that will shape our future and where you can invest time to stay afloat in that brave new world. From lego to data science taking in generative art and our usual dig at Netflix - film genre's really do need to be redesigned. How smart is smart?

How does technology - AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) - effect the way we work not just today but in the future (sorry farmers you get a bit of a bad wrap here). What if colloquialism effected driverless cars, the main frame computer keeps raising his (it's) head as picking the perfect pattern may actually just be a lottery and guerrilla marketing, anxious lemurs, meaning, purpose... all in a day's podcast.

Should I give up instagram? Would you? How does it really make you feel, we discuss  FOMO, the idea of hiding metrics, rage quitting, how a feed about how rubbish your life was may actually make people feel good about themselves. And perhaps the solution is to take control of your social media, curate it in a way that inspires you, not be enslaved to the machine (or your friends' perfect lives). You can find Abi's new art gallery at @abismalll and blue ants anyone?

First of all lets deduce what a soul is, is consciousness, is it being able to reflect, or being aware that we are aware? or something much more godly altogether, Are slugs the most intelligent creatures in the world? and if so how would we know, quantumly speaking. Would data help us to make good decisions, and how do we feel about decisions not being our own? and finally when is the right time for robots to gain that consciousness, probably before they get their hands on an arsenal of nuclear weapons.

Should we start a crypto-currency - we think we have the perfect plan? Gold, the upside of the black death, social media, free speech and  how about uni-culturalism? Uniting cultures to create something better, wa fusion not pockets of opposites.

Ever tried to learn design as a non designer? How do designers get it right? A dissection of what it is that comes naturally to designers that makes that difference to the UI of a website from pattern libraries and style guides, to balance and rhythm of the gestalt theory. How contrast may be more important than colour and no any old photo won't do - oh and our usual moan at the UI of Netflix.

Advertising is nothing new and has honed it's skills in persuasion over many years, but with the introduction of data and the ability to minutely target and perhaps know you better than you know you, at what point is it too much, at what point is it no longer our decision, or was it never our decision? Oh, and apparently most people go left!

With all this 'bad' news and fake news the aliens would think the internet only brings trouble, but is that true? ... or just more fake news. There is so much about technology that has continuously improved our lives that we have forgotten it is even technology, but where are we going with it? It seems perhaps eternal life and leaving earth... is there really nothing in between?

A swiss army penknife is the perfect way not to create a mobile app, letters to Google and screens are wider, so how wide should websites be? The usual long route from A to B (without an old-school map).

Science fiction - our favourite topic... not the spaceships stuff but future-fi or cyber-fi - the integration of human's and technology basically. Lots of great books and films, and some really quite interesting thoughts.

As a slight diversion from the norm Abi wanted to discuss the differences between user experience research and market research. Inviting Jem Fawcus CEO and Founder of Firefish Market Research to join the podcast an interesting discussion ensues. Through the myriad of methodologies and practices utilised by both types of research, the holy grail really is looking at humans as humans..... didn't Confucius say 'life is simple but we insist on making it complicated?'

Abi talks in schools about the different jobs available in tech. As tech touches every industry the variety is huge and kids need to know that whatever their subject, secret power or cool rating, there is a place for them. This week we discuss Developers and Programmers, the array of Designers, Systems Administrators, Operators and Architects....it may not sound fun! but that is where you are wrong!

Dan and Abi meet Bill Ottman CEO and Co-Founder of minds.com to discuss censorship v freedom of speech; unveiling what social media algorithms really do and how you are not in control of your own data or even in front of your own friends. Cryptocurrency, transparency, open source, open minds and open to other people's opinion. Check out minds.com if you have a moment, a platform without bias.

What if technology could educate our children better than we can? What if it was a force for good? Kids use technology so how do we help them get the best from it; what can it do better than humans? This episode looks at just that -  the ways to engage children with technology to inspire, educate and create better human beings... how we ended up on banks and a lesson in taxation, the economy and the environment I am not sure, but a meander through the good, the bad and the downright ugly.

… and on to GDPR, but only briefly before we brainstorm ways to increase your mail list both on and off line, how to keep it tidy and wishing Dan’s mum happy birthday.

It is good, it is the best actually, but is it enough to stop Abi from falling asleep. Lots you need to know about email marketing… in fact so much that we will have to carry it on next week as well.

As a small business should I be using Facebook or Instagram, should I be using a market place like Etsy, Ebay or Not on the High Street or should I have my own website? And if I have my own website do I need a blog - can you keep a blog up to date? - and if not what to do. Then should I have eCommerce on my website if I sell products or just an enquiry form? For once all your questions are actually answered with no curve balls, just a little underwater sounds and a ticking clock (sorry!).

Thinking of studying computer science at Uni? Want to change careers? Programming languages have moved on and here is a little run down, peppered with a little bit of 'evil fb' for good measure.

Making sense of the myriad of related words to do with branding; logo, identity, brand, branded and a bit about hash keys too... but hopefully not making a complete hash of everything.

Or as Dan likes to put it - Digital Nomads... Riding on the coattails of poverty. Hippies? Capitalists? Homeless? Economy wreckers? or just living the dream... oh and a bit about why the internet isn't free.