This Simpsons couch gag is a clever Ikea spoof / Boing Boing

How is the Simpsons this inventive after all these years?

In the old days where companies merged, you sat in one company wondering how the employees of the other company felt.

My company, CSC, is merging with HP-SE in March. We’re excited, and thanks to social media, we know that the feeling is mutual.

“I not only unreservedly endorse the merger.  I am perhaps the most excited as I have been in a decade due to the potential of these two firms joining forces. Frankly, an IT services powerhouse is being created that will be truly dedicated in transforming our client’s IT services to future state practices that will empower them for much success in the next decades.”

The HPE – CSC Merger Will Create a Powerhouse of Change… | Scott Stawski | Pulse | LinkedIn

“The BBC micro:bit is a computerised project board that’s being given to every year 7 (11-12yr old) kid in the UK.”

micro:bit Simon

The micro:bit is a fantastic project, with fantastic objectives. This is something that only the BBC could do.

How do we spread this beyond the UK and to rest of Europe?

Ideas?

“the number of registered developers increased by 2 million in the last year to a total of 13 million”

State of the Ecosystem

« Nous sommes un laboratoire urbain dédié au dialogue et à la création pour les multiples communautés nous entourant, des étudiants, des chercheurs, des entrepreneurs, des institutions et des habitants sur le campus d’Orsay »,

Proto204, le lieu improbable du Plateau de Saclay, Dossiers thema

Who knew Utah was a tech hub? Over the past few years, tech companies have rejuvenated Utah’s labor market. It’s home to an NSA supercomputing facility and a growing number of tech firms.

Map: The Most Common* Job In Every State : Planet Money : NPR

With all of these truck drivers it does make you wonder about the impact of self-driving delivery systems.

Private World – Maison Tamboite Paris

Maison Tamboite exists to remind me that I’m unable to imagine the top end price range of any product, even bicycles.

Cashpad, la caisse enregistreuse design et intelligente à destination des établissements de restauration.

Cashpad – La caisse enregistreuse réinventée

This is an extremely impressive product. Why?

Simply it removed the “Chain Advantage”. For a generation the resturant business was ruled by companies that had access to the logistics, and then the technologies of chain brands and systems.

The logistics advantage died about twenty years ago when the logistics operators moved to direct selling. That left the technology advantage…

Cashpad removes that advantage, the resturant had world class payment, stock control, operations and UI.

If this is happening to resturants, why not clothes, office supplies, or ???

I sometimes worry about Google. They seem to have some strange blindspots.

Today’s frustration…

They’ve launched a fantastic service called Google Arts & Culture, which contains a massive cultural database. This would be perfect on a phone when you’ve an hour to spare.

Good news is that there is a mobile app.

Bad news, you can’t search by location. Why? Who missed that off the spec?

“Back-to-school angst isn’t just for kids. To keep senior citizens up with the times, several Nordic countries are currently debating a proposal to send them back to school.”

Nordic politicians are debating making school mandatory for senior citizens

Why not the unemployed? Part-time employees?

For a generation we have spoken of “life long learning”. How do organizations, schools and governments facilitate this?