Tony is a Geek

This is purely posted as a reminder that I need to purchase one of these (when I get the funds!) You can see my problem - I have to use a traditional jack to jack the vehicles up, then slide in wheel ramps under each wheel (it does the job) The MG F experience: The Subaru Sambar experience: The Standard Vanguard experience: Ah, so now you realise one of the problems.  I'd like to see you get that jack underneath the car to be able to get it up in the air to put the wheel ramps in place....oh and then go to the other end of the car and ....okay, trust me, without having to physically remove the bumpers each time, there is no way to jack up this car.  Yes, yes, it is a problem of my own making because I made it so low.  BUT, I just recently attempted to do some work under the front of our Fiat 500 and it was actually too low to get the trolley jack underneath also..... (yes, I'm trying to justify the purchase)

As you know, I've been a bit of a fanboi over the past year for all things to do with Virtual / Digital Humans ( Avatars - yes, I said that word ) UBS has teamed up with IBM and avatar biometrics outfit FaceMe to build two "animated digital assistants", which will now be tested over three months. CHECK OUT the original article here: https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/32350/ubs-puts-digital-clone-of-chief-investment-officer-in-branch What is of more interest to me is what technology is being used to make/render the Digital Humans. Enter (another) New Zealand based Digital company - ( it makes you wonder if all these companies originally did work on Lord Of the Rings or other similar movies and are now switching all that knowledge to this area? just a theory ) Anyway, here's another quick video showing the general offering from the FaceMe company .

There comes a time when it's not all about "you"... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-44696284 I met Debbie last week and she kind of changed my view on life quite a bit.  Sometimes we get so wrapped up in 'doing the work', we forget to sit back and take stock of just how much of an impact what we are doing is having (in a positive way) on real people living real lives. I'm truly humbled to be working on this initiative and helping to make people's lives better.

https://hackernoon.com/38-actions-and-insights-to-become-a-better-software-architect-f135e2de9a1b Just like this person, I get asked a lot "so what do you do?". Until a few years ago ( when I got caught out and it was very embarrassing ), I used to say, "Oh me, I'm a plumber".  Said in an Ironic Software development way, meaning I work on all the software plumbing that is hidden out of view, but is essential to making the things do what you need them to, not the literal "water based / kitchen / bathroom plumber person" ( of whom I have the utmost respect for, as they do a tremendous job that I am more than happy to pay for their services to do as it is beyond my skill set ).  Yep, that was an awkward 15 minutes chatting in a kitchen with a real plumber, wanting to open the oven, crawl inside and hope they walk away.  anyway.... So now, I just say, "Oh me, I help companies to build Skynet".  This creates two options of conversation co...