commodore
The Commodore wants to lead SA into the future
You can't miss The Commodore. Dressed in black, from his hat to his shoes, he stands out in any crowd. But he is no fashion celebrity. His real name is Tokologo Phetla, and he is a rare breed in South Africa: an entrepreneur in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). He has developed an artificial intelligence software system, which he named Christopher, in honour of the machine developed by legendary computer scientist Alan Turing during the Second World War to crack the German encryption machine, Enigma.
Dating sites, political ads, Fire TV and more: Tech Q&A
Kim Komando has all the answers about dating sites, political ads, Fire TV and more. Each week, I receive tons of questions from my listeners about tech concerns, new products and all things digital. Sometimes, choosing the most interesting questions to highlight is the best part of my job. This week, I received questions about whether any old tech is worth money to collectors, dating online, the Fire Stick, political ads and whether I shut down my app. Do you have a question you'd like to ask me?
Can data reveal the saddest number one song ever?
When I was 15 I discovered The Smiths, a band whose name had by then long been synonymous with misery. But it was Morrissey's unique style of being miserable – coquettish and laced with Northern English humour, flipping between self-pity and irony – that appealed to my teenage self. I'd always cry at the same points in each song: the end of Hand in Glove, the chord changes before the chorus of Girl Afraid, the line in The Queen is Dead where he sings "we can go for a walk where it's quiet and dry". I'm still not sure why the last one had such an effect. Two decades later, Spotify has built an algorithm that aims to quantify the amount of sadness in a music track.