The highlight of my week (and possibly my year) has been finally releasing Duologue, a chatbot that rescues you from uncomfortable silences by prompting you with questions to ask when the conversation starts to dry up. You can check out this Facebook messenger bot on the Duologue Facebook page. Duolouge is also open source, so … Continue reading
Tag Archives: computer science
Think Drink Do: Innovation from Paper, November 2014
I always enjoy innovation agency Paper’s Think Drink Do events, in which they have a series of speakers focusing on behaviour change and related concepts followed by a practical crowdsourcing innovation exercise. This time we had Cath Richardson from the Government Digital Service providing insights about how to encourage government departments to focus on citizen … Continue reading
MOOC Overload (Or, The Day The Code Came)
I may have overdone it slightly. I signed up for three MOOCs all running concurrently. Two of these are computer science/programming courses and one is a business school/social sciences course on organizational analysis, just for a bit of variety. I’ve already told you about my adventures with CS50, Harvard University’s well-known introduction to computer science … Continue reading
MOOC Overload (Or, The Day The Code Came)
I may have overdone it slightly. I signed up for three MOOCs all running concurrently. Two of these are computer science/programming courses and one is a business school/social sciences course on organizational analysis, just for a bit of variety. I’ve already told you about my adventures with CS50, Harvard University’s well-known introduction to computer science … Continue reading
Dragon of Doom Eats London
If you come here often, you’ll note that many of my posts are, well, a bit silly. I think silliness is generally underrated. Playfulness is an important part of the human experience, even for adults–and in a world where I interact almost exclusively with other grownups (many of whom are not a bit silly) it … Continue reading
Algo-rhythm
I went to a céilidh recently. In contemporary terminology, a céilidh is a gathering for people wishing to partake in traditional Scottish dancing (or Irish, if spelled céilí). However, I am told by Wikipedia that the term originally referred to any kind of social gathering, not necessarily involving dancing. There’s a parallel in belly dance … Continue reading
For Data Wizards Everywhere
Today’s discussion topic is the similitude between querying databases and casting spells. If you are not a person who deals frequently with databases, that probably means nothing to you. Actually, I imagine many of you who do deal frequently with databases are equally mystified. I shall endeavor to explain. Databases are made up of tables. … Continue reading