Summary of this week:

Google buying Motorola Mobility for $12.5B
IBM has a cognitive processor (at least it claims such)
Lenovo has a big financial quarter
HP dropping out of the PC business

Monday - Tuesday - Wednesday - Thursday - Friday - Saturday - Sunday

Monday August 15, 2011

Apple orders 56 million iPhones for the second half of 2011. 56 million of anything is a lot of anything.

Google is buying Motorola Mobility for $12.5 Billion.

OS X on a USB stick. I like the idea, but I am not sure of its success.

BART shutdown phone service last week. So this week BART's site was hacked and personal information of thousands of people was released. Is everyone ready for national electronic health records?

Adobe introduces Muse - a web site building tool. The emphasis is design vice coding.

Be big or be great. They don't always go together, but they can.

The world is not all Apple - Android is on 150 million devices worldwide. The key word I see in that sentence is "worldwide." The higher-tech companies are able to sell products to China, Russia, and India. I had a conversation about this with my father-in-law (I'm still in Louisiana). Exxon can't sell gas to the average car owner in those countries, at least not directly, as those countries national oil "companies." Apple and Google, however, can. Finally, someone in the west has learned how to sell a product to the average China-man.

The Dell Streak tablet goes away. The dominance of the tablet market by Apple is surprising. Not since the IBM 360 operating system and MS-DOS has someone domintated a market so thoroughly. What's next? The U.S. government will send the (in)Justice Department after Apple with an anti-trust case. Just watch and see what happens.

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Tuesday August 16, 2011

Linux kernal 3.1 is released.

Intel will again offer CPU upgrades via software downloads.

The coffee shop I am using for Internet access has slow access to the Internet. Sigh. I have been in Louisiana for the past five days. Neither my mother nor my in laws have broadband service in their homes, so I am at the mercy of coffee shops. Some are much better than others.

This biped robot runs at 6.8 miles an hour. That is faster than I run. Amazing stuff which may lead to technology to help humans whose legs no longer function to walk again.

Microsoft is killing the Reader. Over ten years ago, I used this software in an attempt to have my little government organization to put its documentation on little HP palm computers instead of on the big portable computers of the day. As usual, the technology leap was too much for a government organization. Now there is the Kindle and so on, and the government still won't put its documentation on small devices.

Big announcement from NASA: they are reorganizing. Wow! I bet that scares the Chinese space people.

Linux dominates servers in the financial world. The reason is its ability to pass messages quickly. Unlike MS Windows, Linux doesn't go away now and then to maintain itself or whatever MS Windows does when it goes away.

Apple has filed a couple of patent applications that would eliminate the printer driver. Instead of loading the driver on your computer device, your device would talking to the printer, obtain the needed information right now, and viola - printing. Two items - Apple doesn't make printers any longer (they made some of the first laser printers, wow) and if Apple gets this patent, they will be the only ones who can use the technique, so ...

Here is a tax proposal - don't tax the annual income on the super rich, take a one-time grab of their accumulated wealth. Take half of Warren Buffet's $47Billion and so on. I guess I wouldn't mind that as it wouldn't directly affect me. I wouldn't mind it if I knew that Congress and the rest of Washington would use it wisely, but wisdom when it comes to money seems to be lacking in Washington.

The Ultrabook saga moves on. Intel want cut its prices by 50%. It will cut by 20%, but that may not be enough for Dell and others to jump in.

Microsoft starts talking about Windows 8.

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Wednesday August 17, 2011

Today was a travel day, back to Virginia from Louisiana, so no viewing. Back in Virginia, someone must have left on the air conditioning outside.

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Thursday August 18, 2011

PC shipments are on the decline in Europe, but not for Apple.

What we know about the age and origin of our moon is now in doubt.

Lenovo says it will have an Ultrabook.

MSI shows two new thin portable computers.

And Lenovo just had a big financial quarter.

IBM claims to have a cognitive processing chip. The Fifth Generation is finally here. For those youngsters, the "fifth generation" was a hot phrase in the early 1980s. It was pointing to just such processors almost thirty years ago. I will believe it when I see it.

Boeing has finally completed flight certification of the 787.

I like this one: a program at MIT takes donated toys and turns them into useful medical devices for developing areas.

Google and the Associated Press are offering a (very) few scholarships in technical journalism. I trust they will have their students study a few things about ethics.

Look at this - a free editing and proof-reading service. Kibin.com - Volunteers will read your paper and return it, usually within 24 hours. If you are in a hurry, they guarantee 24-hour service at a penny a word.

Stanford Engineering Everywhere - take course online.

A wearable, LED coat. Of course this is silly. It is, however, a step towards making things invisible or at least well camoflauged.

The ban on the Samsung tablet in Europe has been lifted everywhere except Germany and for a short time.

Some teens in Florida found a WiFi net called FBI_SURVEILLANCE_VAN. Surely this was a joke by someone and not a real FBI surveillance van, but then again...

Six computer labs that gave birth to the computer world.

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Friday August 19, 2011

Why buy a new Apple portable computer? This person upgraded theirs with more RAM and a solid state drive.

Learn to program - another site that promises results - Codecademy.

HP, which by the way is the world's largest maker of PCs, is calling it quits in the post-PC world. The PC business has been flat for years.

Scoble's experiences with six weeks on Google Plus.

Some theory on why we like rounded corners.

A 7th grader arranges solar panels in a leaf pattern - not in the flat, straight pattern that everyone knows is better. Guess what? The leaf pattern works much better. Hmm, are there other natural patterns that work better?

Why rocket into space when you can ride a baloon to 22 miles up? This is a good idea.

Image search software may help solve crimes.

Some tips on eating without eating grains. It works.

The AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) stood solid for about a decade. Now holes have been found.

Google Maps now has weather information. Is there any reason to go to weather.com any more?

The little driver-less pod "cars" are a big hit at Heathrow Airport. They are also more efficient because an entire train does not run when there are ten people waiting. The small vehicles run just enough.

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Saturday August 20, 2011

No viewing today as I had to drive around the beltway and work.

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Sunday August 21, 2011

HP is discontinuing its tablet and selling models for $99. This is a "tragedy" of sorts for HP. It also shows that people will be a not-an-iPad if the price is right.

This is great - a small system that uses sonar to detect nearby objects then sends a tactile signal to the blind wearer. Another great thing about it is the inventor has put it out in public for anyone to build and improve.

Talk at Linux Con is all about the cloud - whatever that is.

Good question from Seth Godin: "Is disconnecting a cell phone or a social network any different from trashing a printing press?"

Oh, look at this - the government of Argentina has censored a million blogs. I don't think they have freedom of speech there, or maybe they did.

Software is eating the world (nice phrase). And software can be written in a garage in Iowa or India or a homeless shelter in Mississippi or in a ...

For fun, ten viral ads.

Hmm, interesting, The Republic of Letters.

I'll have to remember this one - DocVert. It converts MS Word files into much more useful formats.

I find this to be a very useful skill - reverse outlining a draft of writing.

Writing a book and making money. Well, it seems that making money and writing books don't really go well together. There are other ways to make better money that are similar to writing books. So, why write books? I learn a lot by doing it and I find it fun.

A good explanation of how writing fiction helps boost the economy. It doesn't matter how bad your writing might be (in the eyes of some).

A simple(r) way to make more money as a writer - ask for more money.

A beautiful, simple desk.

Here is an example of how selling a book for $0.00 is a good thing for an author.

If you are a freelance worker, like a writer, you are your own IT department. Backup everything often. Buy the extended warranty.

Some things a writer can do while waiting in line or waiting in general.

Another change artist challenge from Jerry Weinberg. In this one, you go away, just go away.

Some thoughts on writing for yourself.

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