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: January 5–11, 2015

Summary of this week:

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

Monday January 5, 2015

"To the extent you can replace written documentation with face-to-face interactions, you can reduce reliance on written work products and improve the likelihood of delivering the system. The more frequently you can deliver running, tested slices of the system, the more you can reduce reliance on written “promissary” notes and improve the likelihood of delivering the system."—Alistair Cockburn

CES 2015 is this week with many, many product announcements.

HP shows seven new monitors. Big, bright, more pixels, and curved.

Nvidia evolves its processors with a new 256-core processor meant for mobile devices.

A practical, wearable, medical computing device: Valedo monitors your back and has you exercise.

Microsoft keeps the Nokia, low-cost cellphone line going.

This may work: Triby—a WiFi phone that you stick on your refrigerator.

HP competes with the Chromebox with two small Windows PCs.

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Tuesday January 6, 2015

Some philosophizing on post-modernism, (dis)trust, and computing.

Which countries have the best free, public WiFi (US is 20th). I type this while using a free WiFi in a coffee shop.

ESPN on the web (only) for $20 a month. We are watching the latter half of the 20th century end.

The new Sony Walkman—only $1100!

Facebook buys a voice recognition technology company.

Samsung shows an SSD the size of a business card that holds a terabyte.

HP shows new Zbook portable computers that deliver workstation performance.

The stories keep coming about America's CTO and her collision with the Federal bureaucracy. What was expected? Does anyone understand reality?

Intel's latest Atom processors will boost performance in lower-cost tablets this year.

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Wednesday January 7, 2015

Dell shows its Venue 8 7000 Android-powered tablet at only 6mm thin (world's thinnest) for $400.

SanDisk shows a new USB thumb drive with a micro-USB jack.

New rumors for Apple's 12" MacBook Air show how to squeeze more computer into a smaller box.

Dell is using some of the same techniques to make their 13" portable computer ever smaller.

Lenovo shows its LaVie line of portable computers—the lightest in weight in the world.

The free MS Office for Android is almost here—test versions are available on Google Play.

Intel is donating $300million to tech scholarships to women and minorities. Trying to end race and gender discrimination by discriminating on the basis of race and gender is problematic.

We can now play 2,400 more MS-DOS games in a web browser.

How about a 42-inch Android tablet on the wall for the kids (of all ages) to play? My grandkids would...

The price of oil continues to drop. This is great when you buy gas, but is causing big, long-term pain in world politics.

Sony shows a TV that is 5mm thin. This is almost unbelievable.

"The Interview" continues to break all record$ for online viewing and $ale$.

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Thursday January 8, 2015

Intel's newest Broadwell processors will bring Chromebooks better battery life and less bulk, but not much performance increase.

More evolutions in the use of pen-like I/O for tablets.

Intel introduces Curie: a wearable system on a chip that fits in a button and other things we already wear.

Intel shows a Windows 8.1 PC on a HDMI interface (Linux version also available).

Those browser privacy modes don't really give that much privacy—super cookies.

June 2015 will have one extra second. Silly, yes, but it could disrupt the Internet.

The Safari browser is now 12 years old.

Coming real soon now: a new look for Amazon.com.

Philips shows its new noise-cancelling headphones that DONT need batteries. They draw power through the Lightning interface.

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Friday January 9, 2015

OnKol (pronounced on call) is a good step in the right direction of remoteley monitoring elderly family members.

Our President wants to offer two years of free community college to all Americans. Newt Gingrinch advocated for a similar idea a few years back and was branded as some kind of evil. Anyways, our President's proposal is guaranteed to raise the cost of college tuition, and I don't know why he and his advisors can't see that.

Our President declines to act on Aaron Schwartz persectutors citing technicalities.

The price of oil drops for a seventh week in a row.

Apple is hiring with a goal of marketing its products to bigger business.

The government of China has banned Uber.

Got Apple gadgets (MacBook as well)? This charger can work with all your devices at the same time.

Google search had a bad 2014 with its share dropping.

More rumors about Microsoft's new browser—much better features than other browsers.

Wireless earbuds without ANY WIRES.

Drones are becoming much better—and much sooner than expected.

Two CES products almost guaranteed to succeed: USB 3.1 and Type-C.

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Saturday January 10, 2015

Google publishes a guide for schools to bring in Google technology. It is part tutorial and much product promotion. The guide is here.

This has bee THE story in the world this week, but I have yet to make a note of it. Terrorist killed a dozen or so people at a Paris, France magazine office. Some Muslims will kill you if you poke fun at the prophet. Some people "in the west" believe that you should be able to speak your mind. Some people believe that there are some things you just don't say. Everyone has some merit in their argument. I fall on the side of liberty.

Here is an Android tablet that sure looks like a Microsoft Surface tablet.

Disney shows the BeachBot—a cute little thing that draws giant pictures in the sand.

Given all the security problems of the past year, will the Internet crash in 2015?

Forget the Internet of Things, now we have the Internet of Self.

SpaceX lands a rocket on a little floating barge in the ocean—not perfect, but close.

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Sunday January 11, 2015

Mankind's progress over the last 150 years, "We figured out how to save ourselves ~30 hours of work per week, and we use them to watch TV."

Energous demonstrates a system that wirelessly recharges all our mobile devices.

Extend Gmail with these lab experimental extras.

Grandparents, like me, are using Facebook while young adults use Instagram (what is that?).

A look at East Palo Alto, the place in Silicon Valley that everyone forgot.

All sorts of people create all sorts of rules about writing and writers. Forget them.

Several good points on why you should plan or outline before writing. I think that planning and outlining are part of writing, not some separate activity.

A variation on the notion of writing every day.

Some thoughts on "over writing."

And yet more good reasons to write in a journal. This is the one practice that I recommend to everyone.

Tips on finding inspiration. The journal is a great idea.

"Do everything with gratitude and love. It’s much more powerful that way."

It is possible to have a full-time job a write at night. It takes a lot of love.

Fear as a writer is normal. It is good to know that; it is bad to think you are the only one.

And some well-worn tips on writing more this year. Basically, don't do other stuff; write instead.

Good tips for writing a report.

This writer builds their long-sought writing shed.

One writer tries working at a standing desk.

One writer's experience with taking and writing with Adderall. Exercise extreme caution. If you need amphetamines to write, perhaps you shouldn't be writing.

With all the resolution silliness we see at this time of year, this one makes sense. A writer cannot work unless healthy, so take care of yourself starting right now.

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