FEATURES
The Real Cost of Not Engineering for Agility
Natasha Anderson, Practice Lead: Software Engineering Standard Bank Group. /* custom css */ .tdi_4_2a2.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_4_2a2.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } As Practice Lead for Software Engineering, I have always seen my role as being a champion for engineering improvement, promoting collaboration and continuous learning among the engineering community in my organisation. While these foundational aspects are important to organisations that leverage technology as a business outcomes enabler, the continuous pressures of a fast-changing world, exacerbated by COVID-19’s impact on our economy has allowed me to view the relationship between engineering and business success through an additional lens, which I wish to share with you. As the pandemic unfolded in the p...
Why Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Album Is Still as Critical as Ever a Decade Later
“My mama told me when I was young/ We are all born superstars.” The familiar opening line of “Born This Way,” the title track from a certain seminal album, carries just a little weight for Lady Gaga, who was born Stefani Germanotta, and who by her own volition became a classically-trained, boundary-pushing social provocateur with a vital presence in the pop zeitgeist. It takes a certain caliber of artist to become mononymous: Prince. Madonna. Gaga. Lady Gaga and pop culture both looked quite different in 2011 during Born This Way’s initial release, and reviewing Gaga’s boldness from that time — both in her melodramatic public persona and innovative production choices — serves as a reminder for how much has changed in the decade that has passed since. Gay marriage had not yet been legalized...
Artist Spotlight: Dazzo Wants to Leave a Mark on the Italian Dance Music Scene
24-year-old Italian DJ Dazzo has been passionate about music for as long as he can remember. Growing up in Italy, music was a very large part of his upbringing. Studying music since a young age inspired him to continue on the musical path in high school, where he learned the basics of composition and production, even learning how to play the guitar as well as the clarinet. Shortly after his studies, Dazzo became a DJ when he met his best friend and partner while working at Genoese discos, a public relations firm. Having bonded over their passion for music, the two decided to join forces and are now known as the emerging Italian duo Donis & Dazzo. Through innovative music production, their sound is constantly evolving. Davide Randazzo and Alessio ...
2 Fast 2 Furious Cars: How Fast Are They, Really?
Thereʼs always been something special about movie cars. From Steve McQueenʼs ʼ67 fastback Mustang in “Bullitt” to Burt Reynoldsʼ black Trans Am in “Smokey and the Bandit” to the GT500 Mustang Nick Cage called Eleanor in “Gone in 60 Seconds,” movie cars become objects of desire. This is due to something called movie magic. Without movie magic, Steve McQueenʼs Mustang would have fallen apart after the first jump, Burtʼs smogger motor T/A would have been stopped at the first road block, and Eleanor would have ended up in the Long Beach impound. Well, we decided to take a sledgehammer to movie magic and that sledgehammer is our trusty radar gun. We trucked six of the cars from “2 Fast 2 Furious,” the sequel to the 2001 summer blockbuster “T...
Ford Tremor vs. Raptor: What’s the Difference Between These Off-Road Pickups?
Ford’s current lineup of off-road vehicles is stacked. Besides the radical, revived Bronco and new Bronco Sport, the iconic F-150 Raptor has been redesigned, and a new Tremor package available on every Ford truck increases all-around capability. Both the Tremor and Raptor are designed with off-road use in mind, but for different performances and different preferences. Why would you pick one over the other? Read on to understand your choices between the Raptor and the Tremor package. What Is the Ford Tremor Package? Forget the F-150 Tremor FX2 and FX4 street trucks. Today’s Tremor package adds capability to with equipment that improves off-road prowess while enabling strong towing and hauling. Available on the midsize Ranger, full-size F-150, and Super Duty trucks, it’s ta...
Top 5 Quotes From Avicii, One of Dance Music’s Most Introspective Innovators
Despite his tragic passing over three years ago, Avicii‘s presence continues to be felt among artists, fans, and the dance music community at large. Having ascended to the heights of success in the formative years of his career, Avicii was uniquely positioned to change the trajectory of dance music forever. His path to greatness wasn’t without bumps, however. Having experienced success at such a young age, Avicii, a self-described introvert, was constantly in a state of flux. While he was very analytical in his personal and professional life, he ultimately arrived at well-formed convictions and learned to defend his creative instincts. Dance music would be all the better for it. Today we’re highlighting some of the most illuminating quotes from Avicii, wh...
The Age of Innocence: Here’s What These 10 DJs Looked Like Before They Were Famous
When it comes to glow-ups, many of us have the luxury of burying all evidence of our braces and bowl cuts deep in the depths of old family albums. But for the celebrities, it’s inevitable for photos from the vault to pop up now and then. So what did some of our favorite electronic artists look like before they were main stage headliners? From childhood portraits to pre-fame head-shots, we’ve gone digging for mementos from the pasts of Alison Wonderland, Flume, RL Grime, and other dance music superstars. Complete with swooping side bangs, toothy smiles and early 2010s rave attire, they remind us that not too long ago, these artists were just like us. Let’s take a trip back in time. Freddy Kennett of Louis The Child. Robby Hauldren of Louis the Child.
How an All-Pro NFL Punter Is Following His Electronic Music Dreams
When former NFL All-Pro punter Marquette King would blast one of his signature booming kicks, one question came to mind for the millions of fans watching at home: “What is he going to do next?” It’s not a question that punters hear often. Punting has never been a sexy position in football. Punters appear only a handful of times per game and when they do, they are largely absent from the breakneck plays and ferocious hits that make the NFL so popular. Once the pigskin leaves the foot, the camera pans as it follows the ball’s flight through the air, leaving its launcher to fade into the rearview. But King forced it to refocus with his signature celebratory post-punt dances, which made punting exciting. During his six years with the Oakland Raiders from 2012 ...
The Club You Don’t Want Let Into
Throughout the 1990s, corporate CD clubs like Columbia House and the BMG Music Service dumped millions upon millions of compact discs on a consumer public ready to replace their vinyl collections en masse. But with an unbelievably cheap collection of great music came contracts full of semantic trickery, double asterisks, and paragraphs in parentheses. BMG made its name with the seminal “Buy one get 12 free” offer, before warping the deal to “10 CDs for the price of half” — meaning the purchase of one half-priced CD (discounted as such only after the purchase of multiple full-price discs from the club), earned the member 10 free discs (but only if the total cost of full-price discs purchased exceeded the full-price cost of the otherwise free discs). Both confusing and shady, but at least BM...
Testing the Tesla Model S Plaid: Milestones, Records, and Other Geeky Factoids
Hey, have you heard? The 2021.5/2022 Tesla Model S Plaid can run a sub-2.0-second 0-60-mph time on a prepped raceway surface. Well, sort of. The way we gather acceleration data uses the same launch methodology as the NHRA, drag racing’s sanctioning body. The official timer starts after 1 foot of forward progress—a.k.a. rollout—so that the car has fully broken the light beam at a competition drag strip’s start line. (We factor in this rollout via software when testing without a beam, which is most of the time.) The thing is, on a prepped surface so sticky with resin that it nearly pulls off your shoes, with three electric motors driving all four wheels, and 1,050 lb-ft of torque at your disposal, a lot can happen not only in one foot, but also within the length of a car on its w...
Inside The Fargo 25th Anniversary Cast Reunion With Steve Buscemi and More: Tribeca Review
“They said, ‘Your character is gonna be a very good-looking guy,” said Steve Buscemi, answering a question about how much he knew in advance about the Fargo character written specifically for him, at the Tribeca Festival’s 25th anniversary screening of Fargo on Friday (June 18th). He was, of course, joking about the fact that multiple characters refer to his Carl Showalter — one of two semi-competent and ill-fated criminals central to the movie’s harebrained kidnapping scheme — as a “little guy” who’s “kinda funny-looking” in a “general kinda way.” These descriptions would have been fresh in Buscemi’s mind, because he sat and rewatched Fargo with the audience on Friday evening; before director Joel Coen and star Frances McDormand arrived for the Q&A. It was billed as a Fargo reunion, b...
Tesla Model S Plaid Fast-Charging and Range Test: How Far Can It Go?
When the now popular Tesla Model S electric car was first introduced in 2012, there were no Superchargers available. Today, there are 25,000 Tesla Superchargers around the world, and with the Model S Plaid adopting a new powertrain, Tesla was able to re-design the battery to take advantage of the third-gen 250-kW Supercharger. Despite Tesla still using the 18650 form-factor cylindrical battery cells, these now have improved chemistry to deliver higher performance and durability. (This is the fourth major chemistry improvement since the first Model S.) With it newest 100-kWh battery pack, Tesla claims the Plaid can recover 187 miles of driving range in 15 minutes of charging at a V3 Supercharger. But just how realistic is that claim in practice? See all 12 photos First, a little ...
