Author: chris
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A Cool Head
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She has been here for three days. Three solitary days of watching and waiting. Sleep has been a problem, snatched naps, little Bo-Peeps, nodding. She has kept it at bay with the Pro Plus, but now it is wearing thin. Her concentration fluctuates, her mind feels like it is pulled…
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Claw and Fang Night
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The bright full moon shone through the window like a searchlight. Its harsh blue light illuminating the room and throwing pitch dark shadows where its fingers failed to reach. I had awoken with a jerk, the moonlight in my face, bright enough to perturb my vision through closed eyelids. Had…
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Who me?
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Looking back, I think I have been trying to write all my life. I can remember as a child earnestly explaining to my Mother that I wanted to write a book, but that I was going to need something that would put the words on the paper (typewriter? cold metal…
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Are AIs Intelligent and does it matter?
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Years ago, I asked a very intelligent friend what he thought of Artificial Intelligence. After the briefest pause he replied, “I think we are a pretty good simulation of it.” It took me a moment to understand what he meant. I guess Turing had it right in 1950 (or Denis…
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Can we build our own AI?
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Yes we can! What we have today is a form of AI that is trained to solve a particular problem. (Let’s save Chat-GPT et al until later.) We’ll focus on machine learning using neural networks. We start with a set of data about a particular problem. It could be handwritten…
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Why use AI in creative tasks?
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I first considered this question forty years ago. In the early 80s I had become fascinated with the use of computers in art and design. Studying architecture, I was frustrated with the process of drawing my designs and intrigued by the promise of computer aided design. I have always had…
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Are your products on cruise control?
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What some of those furloughed employees have been up to during lockdown… Boy are we looking forward to getting out of lockdown! One of the coping tactics that I use, and I know others do too, is imagining what life will be like in a post-covid world. Putting aside the…
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On the Spot
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Short story submitted to the Mogford Prize 2020 Chef stands grandly and full-bodied in the middle of his domain, his kitchen. Smoothing the crisply starched linen over his ample frame, tweaking his moustache and adjusting, again, his high pleated toque. The kitchen door bursts open and the waiter scurries in.…
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Thank You
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All of us leave a trail of small impacts on others as we travel through life. A kindness here, a mistake there, a product that helps, a book that makes a reader cry. We often know nothing of these little touches on others’ lives. Sometimes, these nudges turn out to…
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Quality Product Time
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Having decided to give up full-time work my successor and I decided that we should make a final trip together to visit key customers in the US. It was a great trip to NY and LA, visiting many of the major post-production, film and television production facilities. At one such…