Apple – the evil empire?

There’s a moment in one of those films about the early days of Apple where Steve Wozniak comes up to Steve Jobs and says that he has built a new computer with umpteen holes in the back so that you can plug in just about every device that was then available. It would have made those early Apple devices the dream machine for most people. However, Steve Jobs, without any thought about the feelings of his company’s co-founder, says ‘no’. And so started the locked in, world of its own, Apple empire.

Let’s be clear, I’ve used Apple devices since the days of the Apple IIGS, through those wonderful luggable Macs, right up until a few years ago. Apple was first with a commercially-viable WIMPS (Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pointers) interface, and they created the look and feel of a modern phone. I also love the idea of a magnetic connector, so that if you trip over the wire, it simply disconnects and doesn’t pull your laptop onto the floor.

But if Apple are so good, what percentage of the worldwide PC marketplace does it have? According to IDC data in April, Apple has 7.2 percent of the worldwide PC market. According to Statista, it has 14.2% of the US PC marketplace. What about Apple phones? Firstly, I’m told, you’re not allowed to hold them like a normal phone, you have to hold them sideways, just in case not everyone in the world realizes that you’re using an Apple device. Statcounter tells us that worldwide, Apple phones have 31.5% market share, with Android phones having 67.56%. (The tiny percentage left must be people using two tin cans and a piece of string!) However, if we look at the US marketplace, 62.13% of phones sold are from Apple, with Android having just 37.47%. A huge discontinuity between the USA and the rest of the world.

Medium published an interesting story about the psychology tricks (cognitive biases) Apple use to keep punters hooked on its products. Here are the tricks listed in the article:

Using gamification to improve user engagement – this is the process of turning something dull and mundane into a game – you might do it with your three-year-old to tidy up their toys. For example, the Apple Card in your digital wallet changes colour as you spend more money. This encourages people to spend more. Apple Arcade offers games that aren’t available on any other platform, which creates a sense of exclusivity (or social isolation!). Apple rings on the Apple watch motivates people to be healthier and offers rewards as people hit milestones.

Integrating behavioural economics with product design – an example is bringing out new products with updates (often minimal). This appears to make older models obsolete. The sunk cost fallacy is where a person has spent time and money not only buying a product, but also learning how to use it. So, changing to a different product doesn’t seem worth the effort. So, once an Apple user, always an Apple user. Habits or defaults use less brain power and seem easier at the time. So, if you chose Apple last time, you’re very likely to choose an Apple product for your next purchase.

The psychology of notifications – alerts help us feel that we’re keeping up to date with what’s going on. A red number next to your email icon makes it seem urgent that you check your emails. Allowing users to tailor their notifications gives them the illusion of control.

The mere exposure effect – as anyone finding themselves humming the tune of an advert knows, familiarity makes us choose a product (or tune). So, product placement means that only the good guys in films and TV wear or use Apple products. And we’re the good guys in our life story, aren’t we?

Dopamine-driven feedback loops – this neurotransmitter motivates and rewards us. When you check your email (or anything else) and find a new email, you get a small dopamine reward. So, you repeat the activity to get another reward.

Peak-end rule – mums looking after toddlers don’t remember every dirty nappy or the floods of tears, they remember the best bits – that quite cuddle reading a book together – and the end – the child finally fast asleep. Apparently, Apple product launches have high-intensity peak moments, when a new product or feature gets announced.

Paradox of choice – it’s very hard for people to choose what jam they want if there are more than six choices available. There are too many variables to weigh up. So, Apple restricts the number of product choices it makes available.

Reduction of cognitive dissonance – if you hold contradictory views about something, you are meant to feel cognitive dissonance, which is unpleasant. So, Apple turns off comments on all its social media platforms. There’s nothing negative for customers and potential customers to see. So, there are no potentially conflicting views.

Is Apple deliberately using psychological techniques to suck in people and keep them as customers? Are all big organizations doing the same only not so well? You decide. But on the plus side, Apple has pushed forward computing on PCs, tablets, and phones. On the downside, they may well be exploiting their customers in ways that Microsoft, Google, and PC and phone manufacturers can only dream of!

 

Guide Share Europe Annual Conference 2023

If you work on mainframes and you live in the UK or western Europe, you won’t want to miss out on the UK’s premier mainframe conference and exhibition. It is, of course, The Guide Share Europe (GSE) UK Annual Conference. And it is taking place from Monday 30 October until Thursday 2 November at its regular home in Whittlebury Hall, Whittlebury, Near Towcester, Northamptonshire NN12 8QH, UK. After last year’s successful face-to-face conference, this one should be even better. And this year’s strapline is “Where Technology and Talent meet Tomorrow”.

In-person meetings like this not only provide excellent education for attendees, but also the opportunity to speak to the exhibitors about where they are focusing their attention and to catch up – and argue – with other mainframers during the day and in the bar in the evening!

And, importantly, the GSE conference has just opened up registration this month. So, if you were hoping to get a room in the hotel where the conference is taking place, I would advise that you book straight away.

This year, the Diamond sponsor is Broadcom. The Platinum Sponsors are BMC, Vanguard Integrity Professionals, Rocket Software, and IBM. The Gold Sponsors are Opentext, and Vertali. The Silver Sponsors are MainTegrity, Ensono, DataKinetics, Beta Systems, Veracode, and SEA Software Engineering of America.

This year’s exhibitors are Enterprise Performance Strategies, Velocity Software, Trident Services, Macro4, Planet Mainframe, SCC, Fitz Software, TSG, </mooody cow>, Interskill, Red Hat, Dell Technologies, Action Software, and Verhoef Training.

Although there are now a number of sessions on the Monday afternoon. The conference proper kicks off on Tuesday morning with a brief keynote from Mark Wilson, followed by HSBC Bank’s Paul Hopson.

That is followed by three days of excellent presentations from various experts. There are typically 16 streams running covering all aspects of mainframe life, from 101 sessions for people who are new to the mainframe world. To sessions on CICS, IMS, Db2, security, application development, women in IT, new technologies, storage, system management, and much more. And there are keynote presentations on the other days. That gives nearly 200 sessions across the three and a half days of the conference.

And if you’re still debating whether to go, let me recommend it to you. The quality of presentations is always excellent. And the networking opportunities are brilliant. There’s usually 500 or more people there. It would be a shame for you to miss it.

See you there.

Why do mainframers feel the way they do? Part 2

This week, we continue our look at what can affect the mental health of mainframers. Having discussed genetics, a person’s history, and the effects of adrenalin, we start looking at how a person’s GI tract affects their mind, and vice versa.

Intestinal permeability (ie leaky gut) occurs with chronic low-grade inflammation, which happens more often in disorders such as anxiety or depression.

It is estimated that 90 percent of the body’s serotonin is made in the digestive tract. In fact, altered levels of gut serotonin have been linked to diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome, cardiovascular disease, and osteoporosis.

Stress can affect the composition of, and the total amount of, biome (bacteria etc) in a person’s gut. The biome can be directly affected by neurons, immune cells, and enterochromaffin cells (neuroendocrine cells found in the gastric glands, that aid in the production of gastric acid through the release of histamine).

The brain also modulates gut functions such as: motility; the secretion of acid, bicarbonates, and mucus; intestinal fluid handling; and mucosal immune response. These maintain the mucus layer and biofilm where individual groups of bacteria grow.

Plus, the brain may affect the biome composition and function by changing intestinal permeability, allowing bacterial antigens to penetrate the epithelium and stimulate an immune response in the mucosa (mucous membrane). So, through the autonomic nervous system, the brain modulates immune function, which can increase epithelial permeability to bacteria, which facilitates their access to immune cells.

Changes in the composition of the gut flora due to diet, drugs, or disease correlate with changes in levels of circulating cytokines, some of which can affect brain function. Cytokines are small proteins that affect the behaviour of cells around them. They are especially important in the immune system.

The brain and the gut are connected by the vagus nerve, which wanders (its name comes from the same source as the word vagabond) round the body and contains nerves sending messages from the brain, and nerves sending messages to the brain. It affects how the gut behaves (trying to keep everything well – a homeostatic role), but it’s also part of the Gut-Brain Axis, sending messages from the gut to the brain, which then impact on mood.

The gut is also closely linked to the body’s immune system. Most of the body’s immune system works on the gut! When our immune system identifies an invader, it releases cytokines, and the body is protected by inflammation as white cells attack the invading organisms. However, some people have low levels of inflammation all the time.

It’s worth noting that the brain and the immune system have two-way links.

Stress can cause inflammation. Stressful events include bereavement, poverty, debt, social isolation, and maltreatment as a child. Being overweight causes inflammation. Even public speaking can increase inflammation!

Most inflammation occurs on the inside of the body, which people can’t see. One of the ways that the body naturally keeps the levels of inflammation down is through the vagus nerve. It controls the inflammatory reflex.

The inflammatory reflex is a neural circuit that regulates the immune response to injury and invasion. If cytokine levels in the body rise, the vagus nerve will detect the change and send a message to the brain. A signal is then sent down the vagus nerve to the spleen, acting on macrophages (white blood cells) to reduce the cytokine level. Cytokines can cause collateral damage to the body’s cells near them. Interestingly, vagal nerve stimulation can reduce inflammation. Increased vagal signalling inhibits inflammation and prevents organ damage.

The health and fitness of the vagus nerve is called vagal tone. A high vagal tone equates to a better capacity to keep inflammation down.

Other factors associated with increased inflammation include: obesity; sedentary lifestyle; disordered sleep; emotional and physical trauma; medical illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and autoimmune; infections (including exposure to unsanitary living conditions and poor hygiene); medical treatment such as surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation; and antidepressant treatment resistance.

The body’s natural immune response can trigger oxidative stress temporarily. This type of oxidative stress causes mild inflammation that goes away after the immune system fights off an infection or repairs an injury. Oxidative stress refers to an imbalance of free radicals and antioxidants in the body, which can lead to cell and tissue damage. Free radicals are molecules with one or more unpaired electron that are very reactive. Antioxidants are substances that neutralize or remove free radicals by donating an electron. The neutralizing effect of antioxidants helps protect the body from oxidative stress. Examples of antioxidants include vitamins A, C, and E.

The blood-brain barrier protects the brain. We used to think it was impenetrable.

The neuroimmune system is composed primarily of glial cells and mast cells (a type of white blood cell). During a neuroimmune response, cytokines send inflammatory signals across the blood-brain barrier, which activates microglial cells in the brain, which then release more cytokines. As a consequence, this can kill neurons or shrink them, reduce the number of synaptic connections, and the synaptic supply of neurotransmitters can be disrupted. And it can block the regenerative process that would create new cells. Tryptophan is a serotonin precursor. Microglial cells can instruct nerve cells to make other end products such as kynurenine. This makes less serotonin available in the brain and kynurenine (and other alternative end products) are toxic. So, inflammation in the body can have a negative impact on the brain – perhaps, leading to depression.

There’s lots of research evidence linking inflammation in the body with depression.

What I’m suggesting here is that the mental health of mainframers and others can’t be taken in isolation and needs to be looked at along with the physical health of their body.

But even that isn’t enough. The mental health of a person depends on a much bigger picture. George Engel in 1977 first came up with the idea of a biopsychosocial model. He suggested that in order to understand a person's medical condition more than just biological factors had to be considered. It’s also important to look at psychological and social factors. And these three types of factors are interlinked. In 2017, Wade and Halligan said, it is generally accepted that “illness and health are the result of an interaction between biological, psychological, and social factors”.

Psychological factors include: stress management; positive thought; resilience; mental discipline; and giving and receiving love. Social factors include: support from social groups; and access to medical and health education. Lastly, biological factors include: healthy diet; exercise; freedom from addiction; time to relax; and no genetic predisposition to disease.

And, maybe, we can take that a stage further. How a person feels depends very much on their employer’s attitude towards their staff, and politics – how keen national and local government are to ensure a person feels safe and has somewhere to live; whether they have access to education and health services; whether there are shops and places of entertainment nearby; and whether there are affordable and green transport links for business. And so much more.