Summary of this week:

Amazon starts monthly Prime Video subscriptions, competes with Netflix
Google Books wins its fair use case
Apple updates processors in MacBook (and a new color)
Intel to lay off 12,000 people
Opera browser has built in VPN
Prince dies at 57

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

Monday April 18, 2016

DJI introduces a new Hollywood-quality drone. Note, this high performance only cost $4,600.

Testing shows the value of the display on the new iPad Pro.

Programmers, hackers, and the like are working together to craft solutions for refugees in Europe.

Want a real camera? Get this $27,000 Hasselblad.

Let's try again: Amazon announces monthly subscriptions to Prime and Prime Video. This allows Amazon to have a direct competitor with Netflix.

The death toll for the Ecuador earthquake is now over 250.

Instagram and those weight-loss photos.

One of Amazon's not-so-successful programs is AmazonFresh delivery.

And we have another case of a crime lab faking results. It is supposed to be science, but it is often not.

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Tuesday April 19, 2016

Apple updates the central and graphics processors on the 12" MacBook—plus a new color.

Everyone is doing machine learning. Is this the next race to the bottom?

After 10 years, Google Books wins its fair use court case. Their book scanning is legal.

The earth is warming. We'll all boil away next year. Run to ... well, I don't know where (not).

The death toll from the Japanese earthquakes remains low, but hardships abound.

The United Fruit Company, a.k.a., Apple, searches Hollywood for Apple TV content.

Netflix's stock price collapses after poor financial forecast.

Still, Netflix has twice the US subscribers as Comcast.

Theranos goes from bad to worse and is now being investigated for criminal activity.

I have never heard of this man, but it seems that many have. Silicon Valley "coach" Bill Campbell dies.

FLIR System teams with Movidius to make a much smaller thermal imager.

Avery Dennison partners with Evrythng, 10billion clothing items will soon be labeled for the Internet.

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Wednesday April 20, 2016

Intel will layoff 12,000 people in the next 12 months—11% of its workforce. Economic recovery?

The government of Canada spent three years investigating Google's business practices, no problems.

The EU charges Google with antitrust violations. Another witch hunt.

Dinosaurs were dying before the big meteor hit. So much for another theory.

White Hat hackers demonstrate the ease of surveillance using nothing more than a cellphone number.

Love this: the AAduino—put an Arduino single-board computer in a AA battery form factor.

A set of videos for learning how to use GitHub.

We are violating our laws by not deleting information we collect on ourselves. Of course this is silly, but our fellow citizens working in the intelligence community are spying their neighbors and not following our laws about these practices. You can't make up this stuff. Here is a tip: unless you smash a disk drive with a hammer, you aren't deleting the data.

Even successful Amazon employees say the workplace is brutal.

Airbnb adds a feature to help you live like a local and avoid tourist traps.

The state of the practice in 13" screen portable computers.

Apple quietly makes a major upgrade to the MacBook Air—double the SDD.

Apple updates its App Store developer site with information on creating an app business.

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Thursday April 21, 2016

Study confirms fears: drugs are being inserted into our water and food supply. Is this what killed the dinosaurs or some prior civilizations that disappeared? The water filtering systems can't remove these things.

It appears that Volkswagon will buy back 500,000 cars. Will the car owners sell?

Apple to pay $25million to lawyers and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Siri patent suit.

Our government, with plenty of our money to spend on stuff, is changing the images on money.

Google releases the 50th version of its Chrome browser.

The slow transition to chip-enabled credit cards is causing a spike in theft of credit cards.

The latest developer version of the Opera browser has VPN capability built in.

EmblemHealth is replacing qualified US workers with overseas workers. Protests don't mean a thing.

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Friday April 22, 2016

Performer Prince dies at 57. That is my age.

Google improves its tracking of individual users; that means more ad money for Google.

The government of China has blocked Apple's iTunes and iBooks.

Google's financial report not as positive as expected; its stock falls. Once again, instead of punishing the estimators who were wrong, someone punishes the company who had a good quarter with growth in everything.

HBO's Silicon Valley: comedy can't keep up with the silliness that is reality.

Seeking a boom industry? Internet advertising up 20% in 2015.

Only in Europe (so far), Ford cars will read speed limit signs and prevent speeding.

The near future: automation and the loss of jobs.

Headline says it all: "The FBI spent over a million dollars to unlock an iPhone with nothing on it"

Microsoft Translator boosts its capabilities.

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Saturday April 23, 2016

Excellent thoughts on encouraging everyone in your organization to learn, learn, learn.

National Security Letters magically transform from unconstitutional to constitutional. Wow, magic.

Micrsoft has a weak financial quarter, but cloud computing business is up.

NASA stumbles and fumbles through another budget cycle. They lack vision and a sense of reality. Hmm, no future, no present, some stellar accomplishments in the distant past. Hmm.

We are all safe now (not). World leaders sign the Paris accords which "doesn't require any nation to do any specific thing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions..." Form, not function from a large group of well-meaning persons who seem to be out of touch with reality.

A look at Microsoft and open-source software—not free open-source software.

$400 allows you to monitor your home power use. It pays for itself in 50 years. Silly device.

ooops, nagging problems show that maybe Tesla has fundamental problems with making cars.

CERN releases 300 TeraBytes of data to the public. Any of Hillary Cinton's emails in that?

Apple changes the conditions of development for the Apple Watch.

The Clinton campaign is spening $1million on social media trolling.

The suicide rate in the US is up 24%—some economic recovery we have (not).

Our government has shrunk to "scolding people on Twitter."

Our NSA refuses to provide our Congress with information on its actions. Of course we are violating our laws, but we don't seem to be able to hold ourselves accountable. What is wrong with us?

Our Justice Dept has withdrawn yet another request to Apple for yet another iPhone.

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Sunday April 24, 2016

It is Sunday, so a lot of remarks on writing.

Tech investment, unicorns, and water bears. Of course most of it is nuts.

We may have found the 2nd largest lake on the planet under Antarctic ice. How did we miss this? This is still a pretty big planet, and we are ignorant of much of it.

The Empires strike back: Broadband providers are hitting the cord cutters with monthly data limits.

Must see: this post shows how far data storage has progressed and programming skill has regressed in 30 years.

Want to write a good story (or anything else)? Write a lot of good stories (or a lot of anything else).

Take a small step towards writing that book. Just one small step today, and one tomorrow, and one the next day...

Simple tips for making more time for writing.

Pay for college by being a freelance writer? A good fantasy. I have no doubt that it has worked for a few.

Some good advice in this post about resisting distractions.

Write what we really think, no matter how frightening. We don't have to show it to anyone, but putting it down will relieve a lot of problems in our lives.

What it takes to be a professional writer. You don't have to be a pro. You can write and be happy and have a daytime job that pays the bills and be happy.

Typical problems with those who try to teach writing, and how to avoid such classes.

Things writers hear that are not true, but still hold us back. Financial success is slow to come, if it ever comes.

Tips on how to FINISH that book, novel, story, etc. Write the climatic ending first. Then write towards it.

Business writing doesn't have to be all facts—the importance of the story of your organization.

Tips on blog writing to help grow a business.

Thoughts on memoir writing and finding a reason to write a memoir.

Some common excuses for not writing and some common answers.

Thoughts on finding a writing guru. The funny thing is, after you find one, you don't need contact. You just think, "what would the guru do?"

When writing for someone for free, still set limits and get a written contract.

Tips on creating images you own for your own use.

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