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Techerati turns one: A year in review

Wed 4 Dec 2019 | James Orme

470 Articles, 180 Features, 92 Interviews, 78 Videos, 35 Keynote sessions.

This January, Techerati turns one.

When a new publication launches, especially in as crowded a market as enterprise IT, no one can predict how the first 12 months will pan out. When we pressed the launch button from our then-temporary unit in the Closerstill Media office, we had no guarantee anyone would turn up at our doorstep.

Even though our inaugural year demanded late nights, prompted regular head scratching, and (especially in those first few months) triggered occasional self doubt, we can sign off 2019 with pride in how far we have come and gratitude to The Techerati for coming out in force. This year, almost half a million of you turned to us for your digital digest, and we can’t wait to welcome many more in 2020.

Thank you for your continued support, and for overlooking the occasional typo. Oh — and don’t forgot to subscribe to our newsletter if you haven’t done so already.

James Orme, Editor

Here's what got you scrolling in 2019:

TensorFlow can now run on £12 edge hardware
At TensorFlow Dev Summit in March, Google’s Pete Warden ran TensorFlow Lite on an Ambiq Cortex-M4 board handling simple speech recognition. The experimental demo on the prototype board offered a tantalising glimpse at what we now call the ‘intelligent edge’.
German chemicals giant Bayer victim of year long cyber attack
It can take one afternoon for hackers to compromise a business’ crown jewels. In April, German chemicals juggernaut Bayer revealed it fended off a year-long attack. Luckily for Bayer, no data was compromised in the sustained breach.
Unmasking Adversarial AI with Pin-Yu Chen
Machine learning researchers are not solely concerned with improving the accuracy of models. They want to know how they can be corrupted and undermined – a research agenda that warrants more attention. Techerati spoke to an IBM researcher at the heart of it.
Google admits listening to some smart speaker recordings
Hey Google – are your workers listening to me and my girlfriend argue? In July, the tech giant admitted its developers listen to a small number of Google Assistant interactions to train its software, prompting a backlash from privacy regulators about the opaque intrusion of a new breed of home devices.
Scientists unveil breakthrough image of quantum entanglement
In July, researchers from the University of Glasgow mesmerised the world with a breathtaking image of a form of quantum entanglement known as Bell entanglement, capturing the phenomenon on camera for the first time.
The future of car ownership with Singapore’s first Netflix for Cars
Would you pay a monthly fee for a service that allowed you to hop from car-to-car on a monthly basis without having to worry about maintenance and road tax?

Singapore’s Carro, Southeast Asia’s largest automotive marketplace, reckons there is ample appetite in the city-state, so much, in fact, that the company launched its “Netflix for Cars” in March this year.
TFM 2019: How Bacardi uses data to top up the bottom line
To transform Bacardi into something sellable in upmarket Cuban taverns, founder Facundo Bacardí Masso had to “tame” the sugary spirit by filtering it through charcoal and ageing it in white oaked barrels. Fast forward to the age of data, and Bacardi has returned to its origins, taming and refining its data supplies to enable better decision making across the company.
Do smartwatches pose a cyber security risk?
How long until a compromised smartwatch brings down a company’s cyber defences? According to cyber security expert Chester Avey, the clock is ticking.