Kieran O' Callaghan

If you make something easy for people to do, they will do it 

Today, I happened on an article by the founder of iZettle, Jacob de Geer, he mentioned that…

“mobile payments are all about the experience”

And that got me thinking, it reminds me about a story I read a while back about how Two Brothers Turned Seven Lines of Code Into a $9.2 Billion Startup.

As it turns out, they has a simple vision, and it was to…

“increase the GDP of the internet,”.

Introducing Patrick and John Collison, two really technology high performers, who grew up in the country in Limerick.

“If you think about the broad trajectory of the internet, most of the breakout successes are still to come,” Patrick says.

Patrick’s desk is covered in books. There’s a copy of  “The Dream Machine”, about J.C.R. Licklider, the technologist who conceptualized and funded the early internet.

The volume was out of print, but Patrick loves it so much he bought the rights and paid to publish hundreds of copies for employees and guests.

I like this bit about time and his life…

The wallpaper on Patrick’s computer displays a countdown clock for his life: He has 52 years and a few days left.

“This is a very coarse estimate, but it’s a reminder that you get old quickly,” he says, a touch of gray now in his red hair.

“When you talk to people who are old, some wish they had enjoyed themselves more, but not many wish they had wasted more time.”

Whats interesting about Stripe is their payment solution was targeted to developers and all the developer had to do was copy and paste to solve a complex problem.

Lunch?

Stripe use an algorithm to select lunch buddies for their employees, and every few months everyone moves seats

Cut and paste has never been easier

The 7 lines of code (actually 12) that implements the Stripe interface

I’m currently doing an Android programming course, I’m about half way through in fact. Why, you might ask?

The chart below really says it all, as a tester how do you test 50.1 billion things connected to the internet in the year 2020. Testers will write great automation code that works 24/7. Last year I wrote about Industry 4.0 and how its a game changer

Testers need programming skills to further a career in all Agile testing environments, with more and more devices connecting to the internet, it is impossible to test everything manually, now testers need to write good code and if you can design and develop an app as part of a learning process, how bad?

I read this article on the future of work a few months ago,  and it got me thinking, in fact I have been pretty busy learning Java, until now.

The article covered the following:

1. First the personal impact: why we work, how work fits into our life, how our careers progress, how we stay current in our skills and capabilities, and how work gives us meaning and purpose.

2. Second, the organizational impact: what are jobs, what roles do people vs. machines play, how are organizations set up, how do we leverage contingent workers, and how do companies redefine jobs as software and robotics become more powerful.

3. Third, the societal impact: how do we educate and prepare people for work, how do we transition people when jobs change, how do we support policies for minimum wage, immigration, and work standards, and how do we fix economic problems like income inequality and unemployment.

With the mobile technology, one of the reasons this market is accelerating is the explosive role of sensors, which have gotten cheaper than ever (sensors that see better than our eyes now cost less than $2,000).

The smart phone we carry often has 6 embedded sensors (temperature, GPS, accelerometer, humidity, ambient sound, magnetometer, and more). These sensors enable mobile devices to do things we never thought computers could do, and Pokemon Go is just the beginning.

Pokémon Go is a free-to-play, location-based augmented reality game developed by Niantic for iOS and Android devices.

The game utilizes the player’s mobile device’s GPS ability to locate, capture, battle, and train virtual creatures, called Pokémon, which appear on the screen as if they were at the same real-world location as the player. The game features a freemium business model and supports in-app purchases for additional in-game items.

Soon we will devices that listen to our voice, understand when we are under stress, monitor our heart beat, and give us personal recommendations for better meetings, work conditions, and customer interactions. The opportunity for work augmentation, work improvement, and productivity improvements is massive.

Drones are coming to a farm near you

Farm tech, The emergence of “farm tech,” drones, artificial intelligence and sensors applied to farming. Machines from companies like John Deere use cameras and sensors to precisely plow fields, plant seedlings in the right place, and place just enough water to keep each plant moist.

They can “see” weeds to pick them, add just enough fertilizer for each plant, and look at plant color to decide when it should be harvested. This technology is available today, and its improving farm productivity already.

Sounds like a challenge?