This article is trying to help programmers and people like them, when they have conversations at work that are about understanding, explaining, deciding etc. It’s not so much about persuasion or selling, or mentoring or coaching. These are all important kinds of conversations, but I’m not the person to help you with them. It might … Continue reading Debugging how conversations go at work
Category: Speech and language
Analysing white noise sounds from nature
The sound of rain, a breeze through trees, water in a stream and waves on a shore are probably familiar to you. They’re different but similar – they all contain white noise and don’t sound like e.g. a guitar, but they also don’t sound the same. In this article I try to analyse some recordings of … Continue reading Analysing white noise sounds from nature
Finite state machines
This is the second article in a series about some classic computer science: Regular expressionsFinite state machinesComparing regular expressions and finite state machines Finite state machines are a way of checking that a series of inputs is valid, potentially doing some actions while you’re doing this checking. They’re not something I use all that often, … Continue reading Finite state machines
Regular expressions
This is the first article in a short series on some classic bits of computer science, which are occasionally useful in professional programming: Regular expressionsFinite state machinesComparing regular expressions and finite state machines A useful tool with a bad reputation Regular expressions are a way to define a set of 0 or more text strings … Continue reading Regular expressions
Looking for copyright music in live streams
My friend Ted has recently started exercising in earnest, to get fighting fit for when he can go back into schools, museums etc. to blow children's minds about creative writing. While he exercises, he plays music from CDs to motivate him and he live streams it to Facebook for accountability. Sometimes the live stream is … Continue reading Looking for copyright music in live streams
Great British Place Names Made of Smaller Bits
I was driving recently and saw a sign for a place whose name was built up of two things joined together. That got me wondering about other places I’ve seen whose names were like that. So I found some data, downloaded it, played around with it, and this is the result. There’s no great point … Continue reading Great British Place Names Made of Smaller Bits
Organising technical documents for a good user experience
I was doing some technical writing at work recently, and I realised that I had automatically and unconsciously used a particular structure for the document. It’s not something that geeks like me are always taught – I know it only because my Dad used to help people improve their technical writing. So, in case it’s … Continue reading Organising technical documents for a good user experience
Language can teach us about usability
I think that the way people use language can give some insights into the usability of the software we design and build. By definition, if you're reading this then you use language, and also use some kind of computer, and in this post I'll try to show how what we have already observed about language … Continue reading Language can teach us about usability
When is a speech and language interface a poor choice?
Introduction This post is in a series about computers, speech and language: Why are speech and language interfaces useful? What makes speech and language interfaces hard to create? Part 1: Overview What makes speech and language interfaces hard to create? Part 2: Speech What makes speech and language interfaces hard to create? Part 3: Language … Continue reading When is a speech and language interface a poor choice?
What makes speech and language interfaces hard to create? Part 3: Language
Introduction This article follows on from a few about computers, speech and language: Why are speech and language interfaces useful? What makes speech and language interfaces hard to create? Part 1: Overview What makes speech and language interfaces hard to create? Part 2: Speech What makes speech and language interfaces hard to create? Part 3: … Continue reading What makes speech and language interfaces hard to create? Part 3: Language
Random Tech Thoughts 