Dwayne Phillips ' Day Book

Items I happen to view each day. Science, Techonology, Management, Culture, and of course Writing

This is my day book for this week. I have modeled this after science fiction and computer writer Jerry Pournelle's view, or as he calls it, his Day Book. I encourage you to see Jerry Pournelle's site and subscribe to his services.

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This week: June 3-9, 2013

Summary of this week:


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

Monday June 3, 2013

France held an online election NO surprise that hackers broke into the system. Is everyone ready for national electronic health records?

Something new to me - crash software development courses. Take those who want to learn to program and immerse them in nothing but programming for a month.

Students "build" a supercomputer across the web.

Computex is this week, so expect dozens of product announcements.

The Dell XPS 11 Windows 8 machine is a laptop to flips into a tablet and everything in between.

The Asus FonePad Note - a smartphone with a 6" display.

Acer, and others, already has the new Intel Haswell processors in products.

EduClipper - a Pinterest for education.

Samsung announces new Galaxy Tab 3 tablets.

Make a small desktop computer out of a Raspberry Pi.

It appears that Apple is trying to put AirDrop into the next iOS release. They have tried this before and dropped it at the last second.

Seagate ships a thin thin harddrive for portable computers (5mm thin).

The world has changed. Microsoft no longer gets a $50 check on every consumer computer sold in the world. Hence, to continue as a company, Microsoft has to change and reports suggest a major restructuring.

The Chrome browser continues to gain marketshare in the mobile arena.

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Tuesday June 4, 2013

Intel continues to try to put its processors into smartphones.

Toshiba shows three Android tablets. Where is Windows 8?

E Ink is pushing its display technology for smart watches.

It seems that online dating leads to stable marriages just like traditional dating. I know several happily married couples who met online.

The Chinese are trying facial recognition software to help locate missing children.

A recent movie (fiction) is about being an intern at Google. Here is one actual Google intern's experience.

Here is a new term: fatbook. That is what we now call the good old fashioned laptop computer. It can't compete with tablets and convertables and such.

It appears that people fleeing Google Reader have landed on Feedly. I guess I will do the same. It is a shame.

Dell has already put the new Intel Haswell processors in everything.

Alienware updates its desktop gaming computers with the new processors.

SanDisk evolves the solid state disk market with 19nm products.

Windows 8.1 is to support internet tethering.

Western Digital makes the world's thinnest 1TeraByte hard drive thinner - 7mm.

Eye-Fi has a new SD card that sends images from your camera directly to your mobile device.

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Wednesday June 5, 2013

Qualcomm updates its system on a chip offerings.

Intel announces Thunderbolt 2 with 20GigaBitPerSecond speed.

The Apple eBook price fixing trial begins.

Apple and Samsung both gain in the US smartphone market with Apple widening its lead.

The NetTraveler malware has stolen information from just about everyone who had information worth stealing. Is everyone read for national electronic health records?

Good for Iowa City - no drones, no license plate readers, no traffic-light cameras. Free, responsible citizens. Hooray.

Intel shows a Surface-like tablet running a new Intel quad-core processor. I love it when Intel builds things like this to show everyone else the type of things they can build.

Lenovo shows a new portable computer that pushes performance out a notch or two - $1,000. There once was a day when the cheapest desktop computer on the market made news by selling for that price.

And Lenovo has just started its own cloud service - Lenovo Reach.

A 100GigaBitPerSecond undersea link opens under the Atlantic.

This is not a dentist's chair, that's what it looked like to me. It is a workstation.

Google improves the Glass camera with a software update. It appears that all they are doing is reducing noise via averaging - a very old technique that still works.

Microsoft runs a service where you can contribute money so college students can buy computers.

An application that looks like Reddit, but runs internal only so your team can discuss topics and upvote the discussions.

It appears that some people - users, those pesky people who pay the  bills - hate Agile Development.

Youth unemployment in Europe is terrible - revolutions coming? If yes, the U.S. will fall into them.

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Thursday June 6, 2013

Fujitsu breaks two records with its new Ultrabook - thinnest and most pixels on the screen. The bar has been raised for everyone else.

This story is everywhere and it is not good - a Federal Judge "secretly" orders Verizon to give the NSA the meta-data on cell phone calls of tens of millions of US citizens. More on the story here. This is a terrible day for America. Our government is just plain monitoring all the citizens it wants just because it wants to do so. What is this? The Soviet Union? And I thought all this big brother stuff left town with that Bush fella.

Remember when the TSA was going to loosen restrictions on tiny knives on airplanes? Forget it.

Couch shopping is increasing - people are using their tablets to shop and buy.

Is this a cloaking device or a bunch of big mirrors?

56% of American adults own smartphones -  not just cell phones.

Rent an office for an hour. Work or not.

Don't buy a MacBook Air as it appears Apple will announce updates next week.

A look at the perquisites that some big-time executives receive. It must be nice.

Vandalism in National Parks is skyrocketing - instant gratification offered by social media.

The trials and tribulations of the sharing economy. When you grow into real money, here come the regulators.

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Friday June 7, 2013

The news grows worse with leaks about the NSA's program to mine data from the servers of Internet companies. This is terrible.

So Anonymous posts leaked documents about this and other NSA programs.

And the NSA is breaking ground on an new gigantic data center in Maryland.

Apple reverses its public image in China - now they are an example of good environmental policies.

People are dumpling their portable Apple computers the week before WWDC.

Law enforcement (government) is asking companies to help stop theft. Silly. For years, these people have asked the car companies to make it more difficult to steal cars. The situation is simple: if someone steals my iPhone, I buy a new iPhone. Apple wins. Substitute GM for Apple and the situation is the same. Companies have no reason to make it difficult for you to steal their products.

Back during the Dust Bowl, someone had plans to build towers that would make it rain. Given all the waste and stupid government projects of that day, as opposed to all the waste and stupid government projects of our day, I am surprised these were not built.

Sierra Wireless LTE system connects cars to the net.

A detailed look at the state-of-the-present word processors. We have come a long way in some respects, but still struggle in others.

It really isn't difficult to break passwords and it is becoming easier every day. And there are a few tips for choosing difficult-to-hack passwords. And of course, I have to ask, is everyone ready for national electronic health records?

Some of our trash is sinking to 13,000 feet below the surface.

The government wants to require cars to disable cell phones so people won't use their cell phones in their cars. Gosh, what could possible go wrong with this idea?

About Google, Google Reader (about to die), and Google Now.

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Saturday June 8, 2013

Google, and everyone else, denies that the NSA has direct access to their servers. Many people say they are lying. This is a mess, and it seems that everyone loses here - citizens, national security, and those companies named in the TOP SECRET NSA PowerPoints.

This post provides more insight into how the NSA and Google et al system functions.

FreeBSD 8.4 has been released.

Cameras mounted on the dashboard of your vehicle are growing in use. Hmmm, maybe I should get one.

memes are used to explain the way cultural information spreads. And more thoughts on memes.

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Sunday June 9, 2013

Vine has become more popular than Instagram on Twitter.

Tips on finding free WiFi almost anywhere.

Some of the trials and triumphs of trying to write with a tablet - fat fingertips.

The leaks of secret intelligence programs continues from NSA. Who is doing this? What happened to that place?

If you want to write, or do just about anything useful, R E A D !

Some of the benefits of journal writing - this is one practice that I recommend to everyone.

A one-year alternative to attending grad school. These one-year self-study programs work, but you have to work hard with no one pushing you.

You can accomplish much in the early morning - here are some tips.

Can you keep writing when no one is reading? First, how do you know that no one is reading?

Success as a writer - part 1.

Success as a writer - part 2 - it may take a long time to acheive.

21 thoughts on self-publishing 2.0. Good stuff.

One writer's writing method that emphasizes writing by hand - twice - before typing.

Write what haunts you.

Some thoughts on starting your memoir.

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