This headline caught my attention.  Barclays is to begin testing next year levering US technology.  I am just surprised the fight for some type of electronic payment system has been given up on so easily. The proposed gain of reduction in processing from 6 days to 2 days hardly seems a laudable goal in this day and age. Treasury plans to allow cheques to be paid via smartphone Plans to allow cheques to be paid into banks by smartphone are set to cut processing times from six to two days, the Treasury said on Thursday, in a move expected to … Continue reading Barclays is planning to test the cheque imaging technology early in the new year with a range of customers

The long overdue pardon for Alan Turing is issued today.  Turing, a brilliant mathematician was one of the fathers of computers which happened as he worked to decrypt Nazi communications during the war. Royal pardon for codebreaker Alan Turing | BBC Turing’s work helped accelerate Allied efforts to read German Naval messages enciphered with the Enigma machine. He also contributed some more fundamental work on codebreaking that was only released to public scrutiny in April 2012. His personal story, and the reason for his 1952 conviction for homosexuality is one of interesting comparison on how far some countries have come … Continue reading Royal Pardon for codebreaker Alan Turing

I recently posted my views on Bitcoin determining that it is some kind of asset class that is gradually becoming regulated as such. Today courtesy of 7 Stories to Read this Weekend I came across this article. It is well written sometimes humorous and very deep. Worth the read. Bitcoin, Magical Thinking, and Political Ideology  | Alex Payne Most charitably, Bitcoin is regarded as a flawed but nonetheless worthwhile experiment, one that has unfortunately attracted outsized attention and investment before correcting any number of glaring security issues. To those less kind, Bitcoin has become synonymous with everything wrong with Silicon … Continue reading “Bitcoin, Magical Thinking, and Political Ideology” | Alex Payne

Here is a great example of financial services turning their enormous data stores into customer useful information. MasterCard Big Data division to build restaurant reviews site built on customer payment data | finextra Cristobel von Walstrom, vice president, MasterCard Advisors Information Services says the site will run on purchasing behaviour, "that is, how people are voting for restaurants with their wallets". She says that where people actually eat when they’re in their hometowns and when they’re travelling helps to provide a better insight into popular destinations than online review sites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor, which are too easily gamed. Continue reading MasterCard Big Data division to build restaurant reviews site built on customer payment data | finextra

Venturebeat reviews a report on mobile technology platforms.  The big news is that html5 has dropped in favour of faster native app platforms with Javascript the biggest gainer.  Objective C which was popular in the beginning is dropping in favour. There is a recognition that we all experience that mobile must launch and run quickly with potentially spotty data connections. Latest mobile dev trends: Facebook’s mobile API & Javascript are hot; HTML5 & old web architecture are not Facebook has now swiftly become the most popular social service for devs to connect their apps to, according to the latest mobile … Continue reading Latest trends in mobile development platforms from Venturebeat–Facebook API and Javascript big gainers

I don’t know what everyone is complaining about the new yahoo mail design.  I have had an account for years that went into disuse when gmail appeared, however this latest design finally puts it on a par with gmail in terms of interface. It is minimalist, but rich in function and very fast.  In fact so much so there are times it downright feels like gmail.  However the big story here is how good and positive app changes can get lost in bad rollout strategies.  Yahoo recently placed Jeff Bonforte of Xobni in charge of Yahoo Mail.  Yahoo recently bought … Continue reading Yahoo email redesign being lost in serious outages for users