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: October 19-25, 2015

Summary of this week:

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

Monday October 19, 2015

In a move towards the mainstream, Google is running primetime ads for its smartphones.

Eric Schmidt: European courts don't like large (American) companies.

I don't recall how long we've been in the latest economic recovery, but layoffs are the news again.

OpenBSD turns 20 years old with release 5.8.

Growing: computer science support groups for women.

How Facebook is continually becoming the "place where you live on the Internet."

The Nintendo Entertainment System is 30 years old.

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Tuesday October 20, 2015

Amazon sues over a thousand people who are taking money to post reviews.

Amazon and the New York TImes continue to fuss about worklife at Amazon.

The new Star Wars trailer is out.

Researchers at Stanford are using Google Glass to augment reality and help teach the autistic.

Here is a mechanical keyboard with Bluetooth. I am tempted, but high price for the  mechanisms.

Crazy severance package requirement from a bank to laid off IT workers.

A lower-cost approach to build and use a multi-spectral camera.

Can we trust the individual persons working at cloud computing companies? Probably not.

Amazon is moving towards its own shipping, and that will severely hurt UPS and FedEx.

It appears that the Chinese are not abiding by the agreement to stop hacking the U.S.

HP updates its Chromebook line and goes back to Intel processors.

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Wednesday October 21, 2015

Living at Google—example of those who slept in their vehicle in the parking lot to avoid high costs.

Facebook announces TechPrep: resources to help under-represented persons go into computer science.

Yahoo is bringing in new people as executives. Departing executives aren't so happy.

Just about all the major tech companies are against the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA).

Why wait until movie premier to break box office records. The new Star Wars movie breaks all record for ticket sales.

Clock Boy and family are moving to Qatar.

A first look at Google's Magic Leap: augmented reality, 3D hologram projections.

Google Photo now has 100million active users.

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Thursday October 22, 2015

WesternDigital is buying SanDisk for $19million.

The AnandTech  review of the Microsoft Surface Pro 4.

ArsTechnica has a quite  favorable review of the  Microsoft Surface Book.

Our government to the rescue—yes, another case of your tax dollars at waste. Our FAA wants tail numbers on registered drones (all drones). How and when to accomplish this is TBA.

WikiLeaks publishes emails of CIA Director John Brennan.

Our DHS uses cellphone Stingrays and will continue to do so. They will get court orders except when they don't want to.

According to the Internet, the most important thing in the world is the 30th anniversary of Back to the Future.

MythBusters has announced that 2016 is its last year.

Researchers find security holes in the Network Time Protocol (NTP). Yes, everyone uses it and everyone is vulnerable.

And this year will be the hottest in the history of earth. I guess the planet will boil away next year.

HP is closing its Helion public cloud—can't compete with Amazon's AWS.

YouTube Red: pay $10/month, ads go away, and other perks.

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Friday October 23, 2015

Brief Internet viewing today.

Google and General Assembly partner to offer a 12-week Android developer class—$13,500.

Tech companies had a good financial quarter with better-than-expect returns. The winners include:
Microsoft, Alphabet (Google), and Amazon. The Amazon news is noteworthy in that sales are increasing. Is the economy improving or is Amazon clobbering other retailers?

The good earnings and stock price boost makes Jeff Bezos of Amazon 3rd richest person in America.

NASA space launch advances. By the end of the decade we may be able to put a person in orbit. What went wrong with NASA?

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Saturday October 24, 2015

A look at enterprise WiFi boxes shows a major change in performance without a major change in price.

Ars Technica looks at the $50 Amazon tablet. I have one of these and agree with the review. The tablet is just fine, a good value for the money, it if had Android and not Amazon Fire OS on it.

Few seem to remember that in 1997 Microsoft gave Apple money so Apple could stay afloat.

Good for Google—they are providing technical assistance to refugees and others trying to help refugees.

A different view on all these new coding academies. Programming is a skill learned through years of practice. Twelve weeks in an academy or boot camp is a good start, but that is all it is.

Steve Ballmer comments on the Amazon work envrionment claiming that those who left Microsoft for Amazon came back in a year or two.

Some Kickstarter campaigns are raising more money than some presidential candidates.

I find this to be a fascinating post on the changing culture at Google—they are maturing.

This is an interesting hobby: "driving" across the US in self-driving cars.

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Sunday October 25, 2015

This electric wheelchair can climb stairs. Of course Congress went the other way and basically banned stairs—something that had been in use for a few years.

How to weigh objects with the iPhone 3D touch.

ooops, it seem that most closed-circuit security cameras are easily hacked.

Writing to make a difference—it means many things to many people. As a writer I can make a difference in my life. Any more than that is a bonus.

What is means to be a writer—some realism.

How one writer hires virtual assistants and increases their total income.

Some of the benefits of writing for content mills. It is a lot of needed practice.

The Remote Year program: travel the world for a year with a group of people.

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