Hello. I’m a grumpy old web dev. I’m still wasting valuable memory on things like the deprecated img element’s lowsrc attribute (bring it back!), the hacks needed to get a website looking acceptable in both Firefox 2.5 and IE5.5 and IE on Mac, and what “cards” and “decks” meant in WAP terminology. Having this – […]
A constant passion of mine is efficiency: not being wasteful, repeating something until the process has been refined to the most effective, efficient, economical, form of the activity that is realistically achievable. I’m not saying I always get it right, just that it’s frustrating when I see this not being done. Especially so when the […]
Having been the VP of Engineering at a startup, I understand a lot of the challenges. The technical ones relating to the solution you think you need to build, more technical ones relating to the solutions the investors want you to build, the development process to best fit a rapidly changing product, team, requirements, and […]
Whatever your social media tool of choice is these days, it’s almost guaranteed to be filled with images and their associated hashtags #sorrynotsorry #lovelife #sunnyday Sometimes coming up with those tags is more work than perfectly framing your latest #flatlay shot. In the age of amazing image recognition tech, it must be possible to create […]
Now that we are making more conversational interfaces thanks to technology like botframework, interaction with the user is no longer limited to a tap on a link or a button. Having written language as the primary form of interaction with our systems gives significant difficulties in terms of intent understanding, but also gives great opportunities […]
As part of Microsoft’s recent Tech Days Online, I was very pleased to be able to record a couple of short videos about botframework, LUIS, the QnA Maker, and how I have been working with JustEat to use these technologies in their Customer Help chatbot solution. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend the live TechDays […]
On February 20th to 22nd you’ll be able to join MVPs like me at the 3 day online conference UK Tech Days Online. This is a chance for MVPs to talk about some of the cool new MS tech that’s out there, show you how to use it yourself, and give a few case studies. […]
As I recently mentioned, I’m now a Microsoft MVP! I thought you might like to see what bling you get when you’re awarded the MVP, so here it is: MVP Bling The box It’s a pretty big box, and quite heavy too.. Would you look at that picture though?! I mean, all those pens in […]
I’m extremely pleased to announce that I’ve just received the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award! Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals, or MVPs, are technology experts who passionately share their knowledge with the community. They are always on the “bleeding edge” and have an unstoppable urge to get their hands on new, exciting technologies. MVPs are […]
The rise of the conversational interface shows no signs of slowing down; chatbots are the new apps, Siri is getting old already, and although it’s still awkward to say “Ok Google” at your watch or “hey cortana” to your phone, somehow we’re happy to ask “Alexa” for the news, weather, or to play something by […]