Bernie Goldbach

Visited a Man Cave and a Viewing

I went to Waterford to explore a N3 Man Cave and then onward to Dungarvan to attend a viewing of a former colleague. Along the way I made a short audio note to myself.

Visited a Man Cave and a Viewing

Little things from organic harvests

In our back garden we are between harvests from vines and harvests from stalks and trees.

Little things from organic harvests

Into the wood chipper

I am reading “Into the Wood Chipper” and hope Elon Musk never sheds that phrase of endearment. Musk’s shockingly ignorant, callous, and bigoted perspectives about America’s humanitarian institutions seep through the 209 pages of this page turner.

Into the wood chipper

Tipping and tech at Brekkie

While in the Lyrath Estate for the Amplify 2026 conference in mid-June, I enjoyed a lovely five star breakfast in the Eden Bistro and then saw how a hospitality worker could earn a tip without actually working a table

Tipping and tech at Brekkie

Welcome rain in Ireland

After a long afternoon shower, I can now smell grass clippings and wind-blown pollen. It’s good to reacquiant myself with Irish mist.

Welcome rain in Ireland

Reading from the Book of Miessler

Since the beginning of citizen journals, back in the time of Live Journal and Geocities, reading text gave me a direct route to thoughtful people. Daniel Miessler, in his post Text is Thought, and Thought is Holy reverberates this essential truth

Reading from the Book of Miessler

From my war planning notebook

In the 1990s, I worked as a military planner alongside colleagues from NATO. When we reviewed potential conflicts, we knew there was never going to be a single war. We knew any conflict in the late 20th century would be a stress test of our global operating system.

From my war planning notebook

Chill Work Desk

One of the problems with my current work desk is my laptop doesn’t recognise my face. And I have to share my bench seat with my cat.

Chill Work Desk

Sharing my Pentagon Perspective on TippFM

I shared a few thoughts about how Trump won The Iran War Participation Trophy on TippFM, our local radio station. He plans incursions on a different level.

Sharing my Pentagon Perspective on TippFM

Respect for braided cables

I have new-found respect for braided USB-C cables. Mainly because they are the only device that can keep all my equipment running.

Respect for braided cables

Shopping with smart glasses

In 2023, we would go shopping with smart glasses because they often told us things we didn’t know just by reading the labels.

Shopping with smart glasses

AI is a moving substrate

The phenomenal growth in the capability of AI is not linear. If I charted the speed and sophistication of the AI services on the Y-axis of a graph and time to execute a result on the X-axis, my graph would approach the vertical. Independent research from the UK’s official governmental AISI, …

AI is a moving substrate

Parents managing addictive scrolling

In today’s Sunday Times, Charlotte Ivers laments “GenZ is paying for our dire social experiment.” Her concern has resonated through the conference halls of major edtech events I have attended since 2024.

Parents managing addictive scrolling

Getting ahead with smart connections

After 20 years with a public profile on LinkedIn, I believe I have figured out a way to minimise noise here. In my case, it means figuring out how to make meaningful connections

Getting ahead with smart connections

Long Tail from 2006

Twenty years ago, I spent several days every summer recording what creative media students thought about books that were in Amazon’s best seller lists.

Long Tail from 2006

First thoughts about AI Winter

I use my lens of “AI Winter” when reading vendor reports concerning the reach and capabilities of artificial intelligence. An abrupt “AI Winter” will occur by 2029, with reduced access to AI that will be driven by economic downturn and vendor failures.

First thoughts about AI Winter

Surely I could use Claude as a gardener.

It’s the Independence Day in America and I used part of the morning to cut loose years of unread emails in my Yahoo! I asked Claude to handle the job in a quick and dirty way while I did some yard work.

Surely I could use Claude as a gardener.

806400000000000

That sequence number represents a K-loader transit number of coal destined for West Berlin from OPLAN 4307 that I used during a four-year period as a strategic airlift planner.

806400000000000

Being kinder to my blood pressure

Forty years after my last intercontinental flight, I’m trying to see if I can do a minimum crew rest turn-around. I am failing.

Being kinder to my blood pressure

Developing age-friendly data literacy programmes with SOLAS

I’m at an education showcase with SOLAS, sharing how we train elderly people how to use AI on their phones. I’m running the free programme in community libraries throughout County Tipperary, Ireland. This AI just with your phone training programme leverages instructional material …

Developing age-friendly data literacy programmes with SOLAS

My blog could leak secrets

As I read the Sunday Times in my sun-split garden yesterday, the sound of a helicopter overhead took me back to room 1D377 in the Pentagon. I rode there several times by an Army helicopter.

My blog could leak secrets

Claude made my Amplify2026 Calendar

I asked Claude to compare the Irish Research and Development Group’s Amplify 2026 agenda to content inside my Personal Knowledge Management system. Then I asked Claude to add to my June 18th calendar a timetable of things Claude knew I would be interested in learning at Amplify2026. The result …

Claude made my Amplify2026 Calendar

Hoping Siri gets as smart as my Gemini

I’ve bought six iPhones in my life and expect to buy only four more. It looks like the next two that I buy will come with Gemini-powered Apple Intelligence–but probably only if I buy the iPhone in the States with an American address.

Hoping Siri gets as smart as my Gemini

The cost of feeding my plastic brain

I have a plastic brain. At least that is what neuroscientists tell me and I’ve noticed some of those experts also believe my use of artificial intelligence might be readjusting how I think. And my enjoyment of AI is also taxing my neighbours.

The cost of feeding my plastic brain

Notes from the second day #edtech26

I enjoy learning where ideas originate and during the second keynote of edtech26 in Dublin, I learned some of Felicitas Macgilcrhist’s ideas coalesced after reading The Anxious Generation.

Notes from the second day #edtech26