What Is?: Recent Episodes
Waterstons Ltd
Karl Southern, a PhD student from Durham University studying Post Quantum Cryptography, joins me to discuss the topic of Quantum Computing. Topics include how Quantum Computers are redefining what a computer is, what that means for security of our data in future, and whether we'll ever have a Quantum Computer in our homes.
Related Links:
Google claim Quantum Supremacy: https://ai.googleblog.com/2019/10/quantum-supremacy-using-programmable.html (and for those who'd like to read the actual paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1666-5)
IBM disagree: https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2019/10/on-quantum-supremacy/
Writing your first quantum program: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/quantum/quickstart?view=qsharp-preview&tabs=tabid-python
IBM cloud quantum services: https://www.ibm.com/quantum-computing/technology/experience
David Harvey joins me again to discuss Smart Factories. Topics include using data to streamline your production line, automated transport, and whether BB-8 (star wars robot) will be rolling around the factory of the future.
Related links:
Industry 4.0 revolution: https://www.waterstons.com/articles/the-industry-4-dot-0-revolution-1
The cost of a stopped auto industry production line (2005 but still quoted today): https://news.thomasnet.com/companystory/downtime-costs-auto-industry-22k-minute-survey-481017
Automated transport inside Boeing factory: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/at-boeings-777x-wing-factory-robots-get-big-jobs/
Mark Heaver joins me to discuss Blockchain. Topics include whether Bitcoin is a currency, private use of Blockchain like technologies, and how insurers and other companies are potentially looking to Blockchain for the future.
Related Links
Satoshi Nakamoto: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Nakamoto
Blockchain's scalability challenges (warning, highly technical): https://hackernoon.com/the-blockchain-scalability-problem-the-race-for-visa-like-transaction-speed-5cce48f9d44
Mark Carney "global digital currency": https://www.forbes.com/sites/billybambrough/2019/08/31/the-bank-of-england-governor-proposed-a-radical-competitor-to-bitcoin-and-the-us-dollar/#7c277ae1f034
Insurwave: https://insurwave.com/
David Harvey joins me to explain what autonomy is in vehicles, where we've come from and where we are going. Topics include cars that can "see", why it's easier to drive autonomously in cities, and being able to see round corners.
Related Links
Levels of autonomy: https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-news/tech/autonomous-car-levels-different-driverless-technology-levels-explained/
LIDAR vs Computer Vision: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradtempleton/2019/05/06/elon-musks-war-on-lidar-who-is-right-and-why-do-they-think-that/
BMW Self Driving: https://youtu.be/PhSooO33Eus
V2X, the language of cars: https://www.zdnet.com/article/what-is-v2x-communication-creating-connectivity-for-the-autonomous-car-era/
Maggie Mutkovicova joins me to discuss being customer centric with technology. Topics include "friendly" banks, owning up to mistakes, and whether you can be both innovative and customer centric.
Related Links
Amazon Go stores: https://youtu.be/NrmMk1Myrxc
Monzo's issues and explanation: https://monzo.com/blog/2019/07/30/we-had-issues-with-monzo-yesterday
and technical explanation: https://monzo.com/blog/2019/09/08/why-monzo-wasnt-working-on-july-29th
Cloudflare's explanation for their issues (very technically detailed): https://blog.cloudflare.com/details-of-the-cloudflare-outage-on-july-2-2019/
Slack's origin story: https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-the-video-game-roots-of-slack-2016-3?r=US&IR=T
Time travel with Curve: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/curve-time-travel
Rob Burgess joins me to discuss his opinions on the future of Space Travel. Topics include re-usable rockets, coping with other people when going to Mars, and why we haven't been back to the moon.
Related Links:
SpaceX landing boosters: https://youtu.be/HVqWEoyiaBA
Why we stopped going to the moon: https://interestingengineering.com/almost-50-years-since-the-moon-landing-why-did-we-stop-traveling-to-the-moon
SpaceX human passengers: https://www.spacex.com/dragon
NASA astronauts on Mars 2030: https://www.nasa.gov/moontomars/