DDK Pod
33 episodes - English - Latest episode: 11 months ago -DDK Pod - The Podcast where three guys who founded an IT company talk about IT industry related topics and things that interest us. Every few weeks, we take a look at what's going on in the industry news, talk about a main topic that really got us thinking and finish by providing a recommendation each for something we enjoy.
Get in touch with the show: [email protected]
Tweet us: @ddklimited
Find us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dalton-day-kandola-limited
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Episodes
DDK Pod Episode 032: The Energy Storage Conundrum
May 30, 2023 08:58 - 49 minutes - 112 MBDDK Pod Episode 032: The Energy Storage Conundrum. New and efficient ways to store and release energy are a requirement if we are ever going to decarbonise our world and halt climate change. There has been a lot of progress in this area in recent years, so we thought we should talk about some of the latest developments. We also cover many of the technologies in industrial scale use today. Bet you can’t guess what the most popular method of large scale energy storage is! Also co...
031 Space! Part 3: The Future of IT in Space
April 10, 2023 19:33 - 51 minutes - 119 MBDDK Pod Episode 031 Space! Part 3: The Future of IT in Space. Space, the final…yeah let’s not do that. Star Trek did have a point though. Just what will we find out there in space? Space is almost infinitely vast, so how come we haven’t made contact with anyone else. When we eventually do, will anyone be able to sell them managed service IT contracts? We might not be able to answer all of these questions, but we can certainly talk about them. Also covered is our pick of the IT...
030 Space! Part 2: The Environmental Impact of Technology in Space.
February 21, 2023 08:00 - 33 minutes - 75.9 MBDDK Pod Episode 30 Space! Part 2: The Environmental Impact of Technology in Space. The more we go into space and take things with us, from satellites to space stations, the more human detritus is left behind. This can be in terms of emissions into the atmosphere from rocket launches or the ‘space junk’ left behind in orbit as a result of space-based operations. It’s becoming an increasing problem and could lead to the space around our planet becoming unusable. We examine the im...
029 Space! Part 1: Current Use Cases for Space
January 23, 2023 12:47 - 35 minutes - 82.1 MB029 Space! Part 1: Current Use Cases for Space DDK Pod Episode 29 Space! Part 1: Current Use Cases for Space. Space is cheap now. That’s a little flippant, but it’s becoming increasingly true. Getting things into space is much cheaper than it ever has been before and commercial companies are making it all possible. We look at the implications for the technology sector. Also covered is our pick of the IT industry news and a few recommendations for our listeners. ...
028 Is Effective Business Change Possible When Working Remotely?
November 28, 2022 20:27 - 46 minutes - 106 MBDDK Pod Episode 28. Is Effective Business Change Possible When Working Remotely? The Covid pandemic may not be in full swing in quite the same way anymore, but many of us are still working either full time from home or in a ‘hybrid’ model with a foot in both the office and home working. We explore the often misunderstood role of a good Business Change manager, and try to answer the question of how effective business change can be without the face to face element. Also covered is ...
027 Personalised Medicine
October 11, 2022 06:29 - 43 minutes - 99.8 MBDDK Pod Episode 27. Personalised Medicine. We increasingly live in a world where technology is enabling concepts such as individually tailored medical treatments to become reality. The balance of cost effectiveness is often not quite there yet, but it isn’t far off. We take a look at some of the methods used to personalise medical interventions, and look towards the future when the ubiquity of technologies like genome sequencing could make personalised medicine the new normal. ...
026 Right to Repair
June 30, 2022 06:39 - 55 minutes - 127 MBDDK Pod Episode 26 Right to Repair. Old devices which cannot be upgraded or repaired are difficult to recycle into new devices, and often just get dumped instead. Items such as laptops, phone and tablets are screwed and glued shut. Consumers are threatened with voided warranties if they open them up to try to repair them when they go wrong. This kind of thing is commonplace across the IT industry but has to stop if we are to tackle the e-waste problem. We discuss. Also covered ...
025 Cyber Warfare and Propaganda
May 16, 2022 12:00 - 45 minutes - 103 MBDDK Pod Episode 25 Cyber Warfare and Propaganda. With events in Ukraine spiralling into truly miserable territory, we decided to cover an important and heavily related topic this month. Propaganda and Cyber Warfare have often been touted by western media as something Russia and China etc do, but reality as always is a little more nuanced. We talk about how tech enables propaganda and what cyber warfare is, why it’s important and how you can protect your own devices. Also covered...
024 High Performance Computing
April 20, 2022 10:46 - 42 minutes - 96.6 MBDDK Pod Episode 24 High Performance Computing. Genuine High Performance is cool. Often words like ‘High performance’ get thrown around by marketing departments, but within IT there is a pretty tight definition of what High Performance Computing (HPC) actually is and why it’s different to other types of computing. We discuss both what it is and some of the super interesting applications it can be used for. Also covered is our pick of the IT industry news and a few recommendations...
023 The Metaverse – Do we care?
March 14, 2022 21:03 - 43 minutes - 98.9 MBDDK Pod Episode 23 The Metaverse – Do we care? The Metaverse as a term is becoming increasingly hard to define. Facebook recently rebranded their parent company to ‘Meta’, muddying the waters even further. So what is a Metaverse and should you care about it? Will it change the way you live your life in a meaningful way? It just might. Also covered is our pick of the IT industry news and a few recommendations for our listeners. Timecodes: 00:20 - The News 08:19 – ...
022 Technology and Loss
February 21, 2022 11:38 - 47 minutes - 110 MBDDK Pod Episode 22 – Technology and Loss. Everything we do leaves a digital trace. Our social media presence becomes a timeline of our life, a digital reminder, permanently etched into the fabric of cyberspace. But what happens when that life ends? We die, but our digital ghost lives on and that is not without implications. On a more positive note, what of the people who lose limbs or eyes or voices? Technology can allow such things to be recovered in ways which were simply inc...
021 The Great Facebook Outage
January 17, 2022 09:36 - 40 minutes - 91.8 MBDDK Pod Episode 21 – The Great Facebook Outage. Facebook had a bit of a blip recently. And by ‘a bit of a blip’ we mean ‘an enormous global outage which quite literally knocked the entirety of Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and all services which rely on Facebook for authentication off the internet.’ It’s fascinating to understand exactly how this happened, especially given that it was an error of Facebook’s own making. We discuss the outage, how it happened, and the wider implica...
020 Sandwiches and Blockchain
December 13, 2021 11:29 - 38 minutes - 89.3 MBDDK Pod Episode 20 – Sandwiches and Blockchain. Ever wondered how you can tell where the ingredients in the things you use, eat or otherwise consume come from? The answer is you usually can’t. Supply chains are incredibly complex these days and often span the entire globe. But with the emergence of technologies like Blockchain, there may be hope. We discuss the implications. Also covered is our pick of the IT industry news and a few recommendations for our listeners. ...
019 Management Jargon
November 08, 2021 10:05 - 36 minutes - 83.5 MBDDK Pod Episode 19 – Management Jargon. Love it or hate it, management jargon in the IT industry is probably here to stay. But does it help? Is it a route to greater productivity, or an impediment to getting even simple tasks done? We discuss the issue and throw in a few of the more comedic examples we have come across over the years. Also covered is our pick of the IT industry news and a few recommendations for our listeners. Timecodes: 00:18 - The News 07:36 – Mana...
018 Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality – fad or future?
October 05, 2021 08:00 - 42 minutes - 96.9 MBDDK Pod Episode 18 – Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality – fad or future? Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are popping up more and more in the world around us. The systems we use to interact with these new realities are changing all the time, with innovations like the Valve Index and second generation Microsoft Hololens shifting the art of the possible. The things we can do with AR/VR are changing rapidly as well, but is it all worth it? Facebook and others seem ...
017 Cryptocurrency - here to stay?
September 03, 2021 12:32 - 43 minutes - 100 MBDDK Pod Episode 17 - Cryptocurrency - here to stay? – Cryptocurrency is big news. From Elon Musk’s tweets changing the value of Tesla by eyewatering amounts, to stories of lost hard drives full of Bitcoins worth millions cast adrift in landfill sites, everyone knows a story about cryptocurrency. The truth about this new blockchain based technology is perhaps less straight forward than you might think. We take a look at how Cryptocurrency has evolved, why, and debate if it really ...
016 Over the Horizon? - The UK Post Office Sub-Postmaster Scandal
August 02, 2021 08:00 - 49 minutes - 113 MBDDK Pod Episode 16 – Over the Horizon? - The UK Post Office Sub-Postmaster Scandal. This week, we take a look at a very prominent IT related news story here in the UK. The Horizon system, developed by ICL/Fujitsu Services, had some serious flaws. These flaws resulted in a scandal which, over the course of more than 20 years resulted in many innocent people being sent to prison, lost livelihoods, lost marriages and possibly even the loss of one life. We take a detailed look at ho...
015 Game Theory
June 29, 2021 08:17 - 37 minutes - 86.3 MBDDK Pod Episode 15 – Game Theory. Game Theory is a fascinating thought experiment which is frequently used in the implementation of technology. In fact, it is game theory which (through GAN) underpins the deep fakes we covered in the last episode. We take a look at what game theory is, why it’s important both to society and our industry and how it relates to Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Also covered is our pick of the IT industry news and a few recommendations for our lis...
014 Deep Fakes: What are they really and why should we care?
May 26, 2021 12:48 - 35 minutes - 81.6 MBDDK Pod Episode 14 – Deep Fakes: What are they really and why should we care? This month we discuss the rapidly advancing technology of Deep Fakes. Deep Faking is an often misunderstood concept which we explain in detail. Built on technologies like GAN, Deep Faking has hit the headlines a lot recently due to pretty convincing recreations of famous celebrities becoming more common place. Even big entertainment studios are now using the technology to bring actors back from the dead...
013 Quantum Computing: Weird but Wonderful
April 22, 2021 09:19 - 45 minutes - 103 MBDDK Pod Episode 13 – Quantum Computing: Weird but Wonderful. This week we discuss the mind bending world of Quantum Computing. Join us on a (pretty nerdy) discussion of things like Qbits, Superpositons, Entanglement and (potentially) dead cats in boxes. Quantum computing is currently a very difficult thing to harness for real world applications, but has the potential to be truly revolutionary once somebody can figure it out. We cover how quantum computing works, what it may mean ...
012 Porn and Technology: ‘The Butterfly Effect’ by Jon Ronson.
March 23, 2021 21:56 - 32 minutes - 75.1 MBDDK Pod Episode 12 – Porn and Technology: ‘The Butterfly Effect’ by Jon Ronson. This week we discuss a fascinating story - the impact one man, Fabian Thylmann, had on the porn industry in the early 2000s. Journalist Jon Ronson decided to investigate and write an audio book about the astonishing impact Fabian’s grasp of fledgling internet technologies had at that time. He discovered how Fabian created one of the mightiest digital empires the internet has ever seen without anyone in ...
012 – Porn and Technology: ‘The Butterfly Effect’ by Jon Ronson.
March 23, 2021 21:56 - 32 minutes - 75.1 MBDDK Pod Episode 12 – Porn and Technology: ‘The Butterfly Effect’ by Jon Ronson. This week we discuss a fascinating story - the impact one man, Fabian Thylmann, had on the porn industry in the early 2000s. Journalist Jon Ronson decided to investigate and write an audio book about the astonishing impact Fabian’s grasp of fledgeling internet technologies had at that time. He discovered how Fabian created one of the mightiest digital empires the internet has ever seen without anyone in general s...
011 Online Learning – The death of school and university as we know it?
March 13, 2021 21:09 - 37 minutes - 85.7 MBDDK Pod Episode 11 – Online Learning – The death of school and university as we know it? This week we discuss the growth of online learning and the pros and cons of it being an alternative to formal classroom education. The effects of Covid-19 have forced so many educational institutions to use online services and tools to deliver content. We discuss the implications and lasting effects of both online and in person learning. Also covered is our pick of the IT industry news and a fe...
010 The Measurable Benefits of Technology
February 23, 2021 20:35 - 32 minutes - 74.8 MBDDK Pod Episode 10 – The Measurable Benefits of Technology. This week we discuss the example of the London Ambulance Service and their Computer Aided Dispatch system. This system has revolutionised the way the service is able to respond to emergency calls, and by measuring the amount of time and lives saved, the service has been able to prove how effective the technology has been. Measuring outcomes and benefits when delivering technology products is an essential part of hypothesi...
009 Humane Technology
January 27, 2021 17:00 - 31 minutes - 29 MBDDK Pod Episode 9 – Humane Technology. This week we discuss the efforts of one Tristan Harris, former design ethicist at Google and now President and a Co-Founder of the Center for Humane Technology, to better educate all of us about the extent to which technology is being used to manipulate our lives. This is often happening without our knowledge, but recent scandals such as the one which embroiled Cambridge Analytica, and the efforts of organisations such as Tristan’s, are starti...
008 The Tobacco Playbook
December 24, 2020 23:17 - 36 minutes - 33 MBDDK Pod Episode 8 – Merry Christmas one and all. It’s DDK Pod! The gift that everyone wants to find under the tree this year. This week we talk about the Tobacco industry playbook (sometimes called the disinformation playbook), the principles of which are as relevant to the issues of today as they were to Tobacco in the 1950s. Every day companies and powerful individuals in the tech industry and beyond attempt to alter the narrative. From the science of climate change, to the alt...
007 Ethics in Technology 3/3: Ethics in technology supply chains – Is it possible to be ‘good’ in the modern world?
December 09, 2020 21:04 - 33 minutes - 30.3 MBDDK Pod Episode 7 – This week we come to the final part of our three-part series on Ethics in the IT industry and discuss the ethics of technology supply chains. We all need to consume technology products these days. We simply have no choice if we want to stay relevant, but does that mean you have to hold your nose and ditch your ethics? Can you truly make a decision which is ‘good’ given the length of modern supply chains and the lack of transparency around where the materials w...
006 Ethics in Technology 2/3: Ethical trading and Retail - How to determine the ethical footprint of what we consume.
November 16, 2020 09:45 - 31 minutes - 29.1 MBDDK Pod Episode 6 – This week (slightly later than planned – apologies!) we continue our three-part series on Ethics in the IT industry and discuss the ethics of consuming tech in the modern world. Both companies and individuals have a responsibility to ensure that they remain within ethical standards, but is that really such an easy thing to do? We examine some ways of evaluating your own ethical footprint and look at the ethics of a case study we should all be interested in: lit...
005 Ethics in Technology 1/3: How to build an ethical IT company
October 23, 2020 20:36 - 31 minutes - 29.2 MBDDK Pod Episode 5 – This week we kick off a three-part series on Ethics in the IT industry and discuss the ethics of common working practices in tech companies. ‘Crunch’ has become synonymous with the ethically murky practice of requesting, or is some cases demanding, that staff work unusually long hours to get video games released on time. But the truth is this problem is not isolated to the games industry. We discuss this and how companies can improve on the outdated organisati...
004 ‘The Five Levels of Remote Work — and why you’re probably at Level 2’ by Steve Glaveski
October 05, 2020 20:28 - 33 minutes - 30.8 MBDDK Pod Episode 4 – This week we discuss ‘The Five Levels of Remote Work — and why you’re probably at Level 2’ by Steve Glaveski of medium.com. The Covid-19 pandemic has made working from home the norm for most modern professionals, but many companies are in their infancy when it comes to remote working. This article suggests a model companies can use to examine how far they are along the journey to remote working nirvana. We debate its merits and talk about our own experiences a...
003 Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine by Hannah Fry
September 21, 2020 19:10 - 27 minutes - 25.6 MBDDK Pod Episode 3 – Continuing the topic of algorithms and their use in the modern world from the previous episode, we discuss ‘Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine’ by Hannah Fry. She poses several thought-provoking questions in this book which we discuss: Should there be greater governance, legislation and transparency around the use of algorithms? Are ethical considerations always taken into account when developing new algorithms? How do we avoid passing or o...
002 The UK A-Levels fiasco: was it right to use an algorithm and where did it all go wrong?
September 02, 2020 20:43 - 40 minutes - 37.1 MBDDK Pod Episode 2 - We discuss the recent A-Levels fiasco in the UK and examine the use of an algorithm to determine student's grades. Was it right to use one? How could proper IT engineering best practice have avoided a damaging U-turn for the UK government? What will be the impact on future cohorts of students? We offer our take. Also covered is our pick of the IT industry news and a few recommendations for our listeners. Timecodes: 00:24 - The News 12:58 - The UK A-...
001 Can Assertiveness Make You A Great Leader?
August 13, 2020 16:45 - 35 minutes - 32.9 MBDDK Pod Episode 1 - We discuss the article "Finding My Fighting Words: How I Learned to Have Uncomfortable Conversations" by Daniel Shiner which deals with measuring intelligence and assertiveness and the extent to which improving your assertiveness can change your life. We also take a look at some of the more extreme methods for developing it. Also covered is our pick of the IT industry news and a few recommendations for our listeners. Timecodes: 00:26 - The News 09:01 -...