Another decade has passed into the annals of history. I know that applies to every unit of time from the smallest of microseconds (and below) but people do like a good pattern and boundary to think about don’t they. I am no different and a nice patterned number like 2020 seems pretty cool. Bearing in mind that growing up I used to read the wonderfully named 2000AD comic every week.
Here we were told tales of Judge Dredd in Mega city one, Strontium dog et al. Of course the comic was not about the year 2000, but the far off turn of the century back in 1977, seemed a glowing future. So to be in 2020 despite some its Brazil like qualities is pretty awesome.
Whilst I am slipping back into the 70’s and 80’s here this should really be what happened the past 10 years, so here goes.
I started 2010 as the first full year out of corporate life, having quite in Feb 2019 to start Feeding Edge. There were a few months of things I am probably still not able to write about but it was quite stressful, but I started 2010 with a bang. Diving into a stack of projects writing lots of code, startup land. I even wrote 7 predictions for the decade just passed. Well you have to if you have a blog and its rolling into 2010.
I suggested “Keep Walking. Obviously the big one to consider is what used to be called mobile. Everything is mobile now. We already have relatively easy access to 3g and wi-fi to allowed our technology to be untethered. Of course this needs to be wrestled away from the anti-competitive telecoms companies. The thing stifling growth is the wayward charging mechanisms” I think that stood up ok, the real game changer is now going to be 5G and what software defined networking does. Sim cars? e-sims are already a thing and there is plenty of non sim based networking.
Also Brands crossing digital borders. Engagement with people where they happen to want to be online and offline will have to increase. It will not be enough, as back in the early web to just leave you website lying around to be found. Business has to become a travelling exhibit, a movable market stall that can be adjusted and placed wherever people are or want to be. Digitally distance knows no bounds, but you need more than a sign post or banner ad. Active guides, persuaders, dare I say salespeople? Maybe I am referring to my evangelist brethren though? People who know the territory” I think this probably is a tick too, especially with the social media influencers now.
Also “3d Printing. 10 years should be enough for this to become “mainstream” as by then the transmission of 3d content and design with the associated rules and regulations, kite marks, certifications etc will start to be in place. Why move goods all over the planet when you can make them locally? It really is a no brainer.” Whilst not sat in out home style mainstream the number of companies engaged in this is pretty impressive.
Check the rest out on the link, not least I quote the current POTUS “ot interested in money but it helps to use it to keep score”
The end of 2010 and into 2011 saw the weird switch I had into Kids TV. The Cool Stuff Collective and the entire crew at Archie Productions made for the most entertaining work based thing I have done with a team. I fully documented the fun and tech from this first post on. Yes 3D printing on kids TV in 2010. So 39 episodes over 3 series. I think that’s a pretty good run and lots of people still get a little surprised in the few minutes intros I often do now.
2011 was a dark year though when my dad died in april.
2012 after I had slumped a bit and then went mad getting fit, partly as a reaction to losing dad, and realising what my kids would go through if I didn’t we found Choi Kwang Do. Which has been a major part of all our family lives this decade. We now have 3 2nd Dan black belts and 1 1st dan in the house. 1 Chief instructor, 2 assistant instructors and a leadership. 3rd Dan approaches rapidly this coming year for Predlet 2.0 and I. I can’t say enough about the Choi family that we are part of.
VR has been a big part of my world for a long while and in 2013 my first Oculus Rift arrived One of many I might add.
I was in 2013 also carrying on the build of the Unity based training hospital for Imperial College, this had started in Second Life, a create place to prototype and build live, but then got way more serious and complicated. I still look at the code and wonder how it wasn’t a team fo 20 people building it!
Also in 2013 the new (and still going version) of Rocksmith arrived. It is still the best use of software and gaming I have ever come across. Utterly fantastic (if you want to play electric guitar that is).
Jan 2014 saw my most popular post ever on anything. I complained at the mess that is EA and its management, or just plain locking out, of kids accounts. It still gets comments and reads. The stunning lack of ability for a company like EA to be able to solve letting parents make choices for their kids, based on only applying US law to us all was, and is, ridiculous. Predlet 2.0 turns 13 in a few weeks and the problem will (I hope) magically go away). The post though… well long may it help.
April 2015 I blogged, partly in frustration about my longevity on the tech space and partly to get me going again after a bit of a downturn in jobs and contracts. As I said then “So I am left in a slightly bemused state as to what to do with this knowledge. With this all going so much more mainstream again I am no longer working in a niche. Do I ply my trade of independent consulting chipping away in odd places and helping and mentoring some of the new entrants in the market or do I try and find a bigger place to spread the word?”
In August 2015 whilst on holiday I got a call about a potential new role. The one I started in April 2016. I was not sure it was going to take that long to start but September 3rd 2015 I started to write what I consider to be my best professional achievement Reconfigure and its follow up Cont3xt. I had not originally planned to write fiction. A war story of the life of a metaverse evangelist 2006-2009 was more likely. However I dived in and found the most rewarding daily unrolling of the plot hit pie with both books. The links are on the sidebar or just head to Reconfigure and Cont3xt
April 2016 I started as an IoT Analyst at 451 Research, where I still am, though as of today working for a much bigger corporate owner/partner. Writing is like code, with less compiling or interpreting to do. File formats for things like 3d models or animations also do not figure. I do miss programming properly, though I still have plenty of tech projects on the go for fun and for education.
Other very notable things for the past decade. We moved house from Warsash too Basingstoke, plus a lot of renovations and building. I served as a school governor for a few years. Jan went from strength to strength in her career once shot of IBM. We celebrated out 20th wedding anniversary, its the 25th this year! I also became a Doctor of Technology in 2018!
As a family we travelled the world, Japan was stunning (my 50th), The norther lights and ice hotel (Jan’s birthday treat). We took an RV around Canada. We toured LA, San Fran, Yosemite, death valley, Vegas and the gran canyon in a car. I have ended up in Vegas, San Jose, Boston, Raleigh, Chicago, Barcelona, Madrid, China and a few other places with work.
There is a stack of tech in the house, some 50+ things connected to the wifi including the awesome Meater thermometer and a dancing transforming robot.
We are on our 3rd electric car with the latest Nissan Leaf. We also have a robot japanese toilet and deep japanese bath to help relax with inspired by the trip)
Despite all the Choi I realised I had put on way too much weight in 2018 ending up at over 120Kg so last year started with an intense 800 cal diet and stack more Choi and Walking which dropped me to around 95Kg before I decided to take a rest in April. Then I slipped over in the kitchen at easter, gave myself a server concussion and sort of lost ability to push that particular agenda for a while, so back at 105Kg now, which is still OK but 2020 is another burst of fitness/weight loss that I know I can do as I have done it before. Having dropped over 25kg I figure I can do another 15 or so.
So what does the roaring 20’s have on offer?. Who knows maybe early retirement due the rip roaring success of a Netflix series of Reconfigure, a fantastic lottery win or who knows what. The tech is going to be brilliant, the games are going to be awesome and life is going to rock.
Come on then 2020, let’s do this.
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