Gadgets and tools

Current email, calendar and task list setup

I use a few tools to help me keep on top of my email, calendar and task list. These are in addition to the basic Gmail and Google Calendar services. Airmail - I've always preferred having my email in a client rather than in the browser and the cleaner and simpler the better. Airmail does the job very nicely if you're a Mac user. Sanebox - the filters/tabs for 'promotions' and so on in Gmail don't really cut the mustard for my inbox - I need something that can spot just the important messages and filter out the rest. I…

Paul Miller30 May 2023

Gadgets and tools

Some thoughts on AI and tech for good

I’ve been working around the edges of machine learning and AI for many years now. We implemented some basic machine learning in the startup I was running in 2006 and I watched as many other startups implemented similar things during the 2010s. As an investor at BGV I’ve seen our portfolio companies use AI to differing extents to build successful businesses and have a positive impact.So I knew that the recent spate of LLM innovation was coming. It’s impressive to see what companies like OpenAI and others have achieved. There’s something uncanny about the interactions you have with ChatGPT or…

Paul Miller21 May 2023

Gadgets and tools

Electric dreams

Earlier this week the UK Government brought forward the deadline for a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2040 to 2030. This is a jolly good thing. The resulting media coverage has mainly been about whether or not it's possible. My recent experience makes me think it is. We switched from a plug-in hybrid (Audi e-tron) to a full electric (Tesla Model 3) about three months ago. We don't have a charging point at home for complicated reasons (the freehold of our building is currently being sold) but it's been very easy to keep it…

Paul Miller20 November 2020

Gadgets and tools

Moving my blog back from Medium to WordPress

I got a bit fed up of Medium. There's something about the format that encourages long articles structured in a particular way. I found it very limiting and realised it was stopping me from writing anything at all. It also started to feel very click-baity to get people to pay the monthly subscription and I wasn't finding anything worth reading. So I've moved everything back to Wordpress. In case you're thinking of doing the same, I found that the best way of migrating all my posts was to open a free account on Wordpress.com and use their Medium importer. I…

Paul Miller12 November 2019

Gadgets and tools

Retro computing — Amiga 500

I was surprised that it worked, but it did. Dad and I cranked up the old Amiga 500 yesterday. The power supply is bigger than many of today’s desktop computers and it needs a strange set of cables to get it connected to a TV but other than that, it looks like a pretty modern machine — everything built into a space not significantly bigger than the keyboard. I immediately remembered the familiar tick when there’s no disk in the drive and when you do put one in, it sounds like it’s being ground up like coffee beans rather than read by…

Paul Miller18 February 2013