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: December 21-27, 2015
Summary of this week:
- Hello Kitty user database leaked
- The web page turns 25
- SpaceX big success with launch and landing of rocket
- Hyatt hotels admit malware problem
Monday
- Tuesday
- Wednesday
- Thursday
- Friday
- Saturday
- Sunday
Monday December 21, 2015
Tim Cook states the obvious on 60 Minutes regarding encryption backdoors,
“If there’s a way to get in, then somebody will find the way in,” Cook
said. “There have been people that suggest that we should have a back
door. But the reality is if you put a back door in, that back door’s
for everybody, for good guys and bad guys.” It seems that journalists,
who couldn't spell encryption five years ago, believe the nerds are
lying about this.
Some reasonable FAQs about encryption and who, all of us, uses it.
Funny business at the Miss Universe contest as the wrong winner is announced and so on.
If you are a pilot and give someone a ride, you cannot accept gas money from them. Our FAA to the rescue. I am not sure who they are rescuing and from what, but they surely are rescuing someone.
The success of Silicon Slopes in Utah.
3.3million Hello Kitty fans have their information leaked online.
Facebook has replaced Flash with HTML5 for video viewing.
The Nielson ratings for smartphone apps of 2015: Facebook #1, but Google has 5 of top 10.
The first web page went online 25 years ago.
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Tuesday December 22, 2015
SpaceX successfully launched and then landed its first stage on solid ground. This is a first. There are many stories about this on the Internet, and I linked to just one. This post has better photos of the event.
Oil prices hit an 11-year low.
Let's see...that guy who was buddies with the oil men was President
during the prior low. A guy becomes President who will not bow to those
greedy oil men, and oil prices rise for 7 years. There must be
something here I don't understand.
It appears that Google and Ford are working together to build self-driving cars.
Alphabet is losing $.15billion a year on all non-Google projects. These are high-risk R&D.
Bad times at Toshiba: 7,800 laid off and $4.5billion loss.
Our FAA has its drone registration site up on schedule. Let's see if anyone registers or if the site crashes.
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Wednesday December 23, 2015
Must see video: robotic reindeer pull a sleigh. Yes, it is silly, but it also demonstrates the load-carrying capability of the legged tractors.
What goes up, must come down. Drone crashes during sporting event and almost kills a skier.
Neat little website that rates your town on how liberal or conservative it is. This is based on political contributions.
Our TSA tells us that full-body scans are mandatory for some lesser citizens.
Again, they lie about how no photos are stored on the computer. Perhaps
the TSA has invented a new type of computer that doesn't have memory
and uses a completely unique operating system. Gosh. Sigh.
Europe accepted a million refugees in 2015. This is four times larger than any prior year.
ooops, the state of Washington released 3.200 convicts early due to a software error. We're from the government and we're here to help.
American home broadband adoption is falling while use of smartphones only is still rising.
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Thursday December 24, 2015
Ars Technia reviews Linux Mint 17.3-—excellent desktop.
A new study shows that people eat what you put in front of them. Hence...QED.
The Norwegians discover a 1500-year-old Viking settlement while building an airport.
Hyatt hotels finds malware on its payment system. ooops, there goes the credit card number.
45,000 persons registered their drones on our FAA's website in 48 hours.
Social media and such have been around long enough to mine the data and predict romantic relationships.
Cory Doctorow delves into yet another future aspect of self-driving cars: programming and re-programming. It is all about control.
Ultrasound may be a way to treat Alzheimers.
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Friday December 25, 2015
Today is Christmas day, so the world isn't spinning much.
We now have the return of the cassette tape. Make those mix tapes and pull out the Sony Walkman.
If it's a fault, feature it: taco shop owner turns robbery footage into an ad.
Fujitsu breaks offs its PC and mobile phone making divisions into new companies. The profit margin on these things has shrunk too much.
Remote sensing is difficult, so don't take what remote sensors say as the absolute truth. Here is another example: archeologist find "ancient artifact" that is really a brand new healing energy doodad.
Got a new gadget device for Christmas? Computerworld has a list of articles to help you use it today.
The best of intentions of the ignorant: our Congress wants encryption backdoor laws.
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Saturday December 26, 2015
After 15 years of work, Perl 6 is released.
And now we discuss how much, if any, money is saved by reusable launch vehicles such as SpaceX.
Boeing does a major upgrade to the venerable 737—the 737 Max.
This guy does nothing but travel and earn travel bonuses.
The day after Christmas is full of videos of people falling off their new hoverboards.
This is a good paper on artificial intelligence.
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Sunday December 27, 2015
Funny videos of people who can't fly their new Christmas drones without hitting the ceiling or a tree or a....
Not so funny hospital stories stemming from Christmas hoverboards.
On the safer side of gifts, it seems lots of people got a Fitbit for Christmas.
Seen Star Wars? Wait a week and see it again for a better experience.
If you suffer from writer's block, here are some suggestions to break through.
Here are some Facebook items I didn't know about Pages and Groups and reaching an audience.
More things I didn't know—this time about eBook publishing. These things keep changing and if you don't pay attention you are behind.
We are now in Winter, but to start 2016, take the time to clean your writing house.
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