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Our News, Tips and Advice

  • Happy Ada Lovelace Day

    watercolour of Ada Lovelace

    What is Ada Lovelace day? I asked Google’s AI for a simple explanation of Ada Lovelace Day, I thought Ada would have appreciated that. “Ada Lovelace Day is an annual event that takes place on the second Tuesday of October to recognise and celebrate women’s contributions to STEM fields. The day is named after Ada Lovelace, a Victorian…

  • Dr Gladys West – Developer of GPS

    Dr Gladys West and GPS

    October celebrates Ada Lovelace day by shining a spotlight on women who have made significant contributions in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM for short). Many of these women are uncelebrated, so I will attempt to redress the balance in a small way by dedicating our articles this month to female pioneers…

  • Microsoft Planner

    Planner Man

    Recently we have had requests on how to use Microsoft Planner across different organisations. This isn’t as simple as you might think but if done correctly it works well. Here is a brief insight to what Microsoft Planner is and what benefits it can bring for your organisation. The Benefits of Microsoft Planner Microsoft Planner…

  • It’s Your Domain!

    Microsoft 365 think about your domain

    I chose the theme for Octagon’s September Newsletter – Microsoft 365. Other members of the team have produced articles looking at some of the tools and features – me I want to look at a fundamental element of Microsoft 365, that is very often overlooked by clients until I undertake an IT and Cyber Security…

  • SharePoint Collaboration

    SharePoint Man

    SharePoint – A powerful collaboration tool Historically, Microsoft’s suite of Office programs revolved around the basic apps, Word, Excel and such, but now in a ever more connected world, collaboration and team efforts take centre stage in efficient and productive business. What was needed was a central area to exchange information and help people work…

  • Microsoft Teams Transcription

    Team

    Recently, I have been asked how to enable the transcription facility for Microsoft Teams in Microsoft 365. This is a very useful tool that saves businesses a lot of time. Transcription services in Microsoft Teams have revolutionised the way meetings are documented, offering a seamless integration of AI-driven speech-to-text capabilities that ensure no detail is…

  • Use AI to check a legal document

    As this month’s newsletter theme is AI, I would like to tell you about how I used AI to help me to go through a legal document.  I became aware of this document very recently and it is the Master Agreement we have with one of our suppliers.  This supplier is a very large company…

  • Technological Singularity

    technological singularity

    The concept of the technological singularity – a point where artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence – is a topic of both excitement and concern in the tech community. As we advance towards increasingly sophisticated AI, the possibility of reaching a singularity becomes more tangible. This hypothetical moment in time is often seen as a turning…

  • Careful with that A.I. Eugene !  /  How NOT to A.I.  /  Stop feeding the machine.

    Stop feeding the machine

    Stop feeding the machine. You may have heard a lot about A.I. recently, as lots of money is being thrown at large A.I. projects to explore the space and open new possibilities with computing. While at the moment it seems like a solution looking for a problem, in time it could prove to have great…

  • Copilot AI and the Phishing Email

    creat an image of AI on holiday on a beach in the sun with a cold beer and a Kindle

    Martin and Ben are the Octagon Technology newsletter editors this month and they have chosen artificial intelligence (Copilot AI) as their theme. They asked me to write the first article. Copilot AI and Word I had thought to write about how I use Copilot in Microsoft Edge, to help me with parts of the articles…

  • The Cyber Security Fallout of CrowdStrike Global IT Outage

    CrowdSrike updates

    Before I get into some of the cyber security fallout from the CrowdStrike global IT outage, you can read some of my thoughts on the incident here: The Wednesday Bit on Monday – CrowdStrike Global IT Outage In this article I look at just a couple of the cyber security implications of an IT issue…

  • The Technology Behind VAR: Revolutionising Football

    The technology behind VAR

    To continue with our Summer theme, I thought I’d give another insight in to some more football tech. This week it is the technology behind VAR The technology behind VAR has transformed the way football matches are officiated, bringing a new level of accuracy and fairness to the game. Introduced into the Laws of the…