Amazon Dash. One Button to Rule All Buttons!

My best friend lives in the UK. Now he can order a roll of toilet  paper with just a push of a button. Within 24 hours it will be at his door step and he will no longer have to rely on the old method of washing his bum.

This button is called the Amazon Dash. It is a service which uses a WiFi connected device with a big round button for ordering stuff over the net.  My first reaction was, no way ! I don’t want a button to order stuff. Then I googled the list of things that  can be bought.  Bounty, Tide,  Gatorade, Kraft Mac & Cheese,  Olay, Gillette, L'Oreal, Gerber, Huggies, Wellness, Finish, Dixie, Optimum Nutrition, Greenies, Hefty, Orbit is but a few available as of now.  I could see myself ordering  Kraft Mac & Cheese. But what's the point of waiting 24 hours.  I want it to be more like Pizza, delivered within 30 minutes. 

Is it a stupid idea? Jeff is not stupid.  Maybe I don’t like button pushers.  I do try to avoid people  who enjoys getting others irritated and starting fights.  Now you might say they are two different things. What if a real button pusher finds this device. He can press it a 100 times and I would be end up having 100 bottles of Tide. For now it won't work. You can order only one  time per 24 hrs. But I wanted it to be like pizza. I guess I won't have it both ways. Maybe I could hide it somewhere and have an automated device push it for me! Sound stupid? I present you the the Microbot Push.  It is around 50$. Dash is only 5$ apiece. So a full system with 10 products would be around 100$. Now it is getting silly. But is it evil? I do wonder what they can deduct from my buying patterns.

Fortunately it is not currently available where I live so I am safe for now. If it was, I am sure I will buy it!

What is OEE?

Writing about a topic that is as interesting as watching paint dry is not that hard. I would go so far as to say that it is easier than writing about a hot topic. For example, Why the new Samsung phone keeps burning (see hot topic!). It is a fact that no one knows why such a thing is happening. To write about the manufacturing process of the same phone is simpler. There are books on the subject. In fact OEE came about from a Japanese book. You can read about it here. I have been involved with maintaining an OEE software solution at my work place. OEE software is different than your average business software. It has more color and lots of graphics. Its like switching to reading comics after reading all of the game of thrones books. It is both simple and complex. Simple feed and visualize the data. Difficult to see the connections and to find answers. Article I wrote is published at Medium. Its has been though few revisions and so far I like what is there. Except maybe the ending. I need to keep it more simple. If you are here and like to know what is OEE then give it a go!

Link: https://medium.com/@maithree/calculating-overall-equipment-effectiveness-oee-using-automated-software-89cdfa0f65c0#.7c6jud2t0

Return of Clippy. Will the helper bots make a comeback?

A long time ago in Windows, Clippy would kindly offer help and hints on using the Microsoft Office package. The force was not strong with the little paper clip and the experiment with intelligent user interface ended in disaster. Twenty years later the bots are making a come back. The question is will they achieve what Clippy could not?

Office developers wanted to add a human like interface to the system hoping that it would enhance the interaction. This was a mistake and users found the AI to be more annoying than helpful. The bots these days are not design to copy human intelligence. They have a limited scope and a clear purpose. A pizza ordering bot is a good example. It may not offer all the toppings and combo's . It will however help you place an order easily and efficiently. The new trend is to have small chunks of intelligence.

Revolution in the mobile devices has also been very helpful. It is not only the technology capabilities that makes it possible . The mindset has also changed. After Siri and Kortana, people are comfortable with bots helping you with daily tasks. In future a service technician who came to fix your sink would ask his phone if he has the right part in his van. He need not get up or even open an app.

There are still dangers lurking in the shadows. The few who tried to mimic human intelligence had some very public fails. Who can forget Tay the racist chat bot. Clippy was not all bad. Reason Microsoft finally pulled the plug on it was that it has become redundant. The new version of Office was far easier to use. Perhaps it was too early to the party.

Getting Started. Three Things to Think About!

Ready to start that first article? Take a moment to think about these three things first!
- Plot
- Target
- Key takeaways

A story needs a plot. Maybe it is about how bots have given up on world domination and now here to help our lives easier. It should have interesting characters. A hero or villain with a plan.

Next is the the target audience. Who will likely read it? Who will find it interesting. Is it only for some one who knows how to code C# or can your grandma who has trouble starting word can read this? We need to think about this as it will dicate how we put the idea in to words.

Finally we got the key takeaways. If there is nothing to takeaway after reading then the article have not achieved anything. You can tease the reader with some of the takeaways at the beginning, serving as a effective intro,

How I became a Writer on Tech

I was updating my LinkedIn when I saw, on the top of the page, a prompt asking me if I had any published work.
What about my thesis ?
Anything else?
No.
Really?
Not even a small news paper article. Damn! I needed to get something published. I was dead set on getting a paper published. So how did I end up becoming a  Tech writer. Simple . I wanted to do it easy. Apparently easy and quickly are not things you should associate with publishing. At least not if you are willing to dish 1000 of dollars to what they call 'Predatory open access publisher'. No way. I always hated paying for my education. Just ask Coursera.

Ok, can I make money writing ab article? I typed that in google. And the internet said Yes! I sure love that. That's how I became a tech writer. Now on to writing a piece on A.I : The Assistive  Intelligence.

P.S: I need a place to track my progress. So i created this. Hope this is not going to be short term thing. If it is, then it was fun for the whole 60 min.