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: November 7-13, 2016

Summary of this week:

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

Monday November 7, 2016

How about letting algorithms choose presidential candidates. Can k-means clustering do worse than this year?

More news on the Orange Pi $20 computer.

China's government imposes a new cyber law that is basically requires companies to help watch the subjects.

Deutsche Telekom has built a drone defense system to keep the pesky things away from airports and other places that don't want them.

Apple's next big thing may be augmented reality.

Once again with feeling, our FBI Director concludes that Hillary Clinton is Hillary Clinton.

An AI program that can classify documents as secret or not. It actually works.

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Tuesday November 8, 2016

And we enter another election with a fault-prone vote tallying system. From a systems perspective, there is no system.

Photoshop for audio. Now you can't believe any audio you hear.

Audi autos caught cheating on emissions tests.

I have no interest in this, but for the record I will write a link and post a link. The latest fad sweeping western civilization is the mannequin challenge.

Google will update election results every 30 seconds today.

This is a good explanation of why AI systems are biased and why it is so difficult to fix that.

Our Zumwalt-class destroyer: the financial folly of large government programs.

Google updates its Android Auto app. Note, this type of stuff is illegal in a lot of states.

Here is well-informed groaning about the updated Apple portable computers.

Computer lip reading is advancing. One day, this will be a big app for the hearing impaired. This is the target app for a Google Glass.

Soylent names a scapegoat for its nausea-inducing meal substitute.

Would you let Amazon market researchers into your home if they promised to dust the furniture?

Our lameduck President blasts Facebook fake news. He assumes the citizenry is stupid.

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Wednesday November 9, 2016


Gosh! Donald Trump was elected President of the United States. All the polls were wrong. "We didn't see this coming," said someone on the inside of the Clinton campaign.

The main stream media will now return to work.

There are already economic shocks from the outcome of the election. Temporary? We shall see.

The price of gold rises about 4%.

Financial futures markets drop worldwide.

Fleeing the US for Canada? Lots of Internet interest in such.

Silicon Valley is emotionally devastated over Trump win.

The Replublican party will have the White House and both Houses of Congress. This is a complete change from the day Obama was inaugurated. That is the ultimate judgement on a presidency. Obama flopped just like Bush ahead of him.

GoPro is recalling its new drones. They are failing as a business despite a great product.

Amazon hires De Niro to be in a "TV" series and compete with Netflix.

Facebook now competes with LinkedIn with job opening and applications.

Samsung ran a full-page apology in major US newspapers regarding its exploding phones.

Vespa shows that you can have an all-electric vehicle that doesn't look stupid.

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Thursday November 10, 2016

I put the following on all my social media accounts this morning:

Post-election angst. Many people I know are feeling awful in the wake of the election. Grab that feeling. Never forget how that feels. Now, consider that after every presidential election, 35-40% of all Americans feel like you feel right now. What would you like those who are happy to do right now?
Now we know a little better how to act towards one another.
This is, among other things, a learning experience. Some of us have paid the tuition, i.e., we feel awful. Now we choose if we are to learn.

I am surprised at the post-election angst among those who are old enough and well educated enough to know better. Tim Cook tries to reassure Apple employees that the world has not come to an end.

Did this election end the age of Facebook?

A reasoned alibi for Facebook. People wanted a change. It was probably that simple.

Some of Trump's negotiating positions on technology.

Perhaps a silver lining to all of 2016's "election" is that we will consider our neighbors more.

It appears that Hillary Clinton will have more individual votes than Donald Trump.

Will Trump repeat Obama's mistake in imposing a one-part health insurance bill?

Will populism continue to spread past Brexit and Trump?

AI brains in the UK are leaving colleges and flocking to Google's DeepMind.

Calexit: remember that "word" as some Californians want to secede from the union.

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Friday November 11, 2016

Mark Zuckerberg denies that Facebook news affected the election.

But Facebook admits it must to something about the spread of fake news.

First impressions from the first users of the Snapchat Spectacles.

MIT lambastes the Silicon Valley call for Calexit. Note, MIT is in a state carried by Ms. Clinton.

A usage report on the Microsoft Surface Dial puck.

Nvidia has a good financial quarter.

Excellent advice on choosing a "career."

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Saturday November 12, 2016

November 14th, look up and see the moon larger than at any time your life.

As expected, IMDb sues the state of California for the right to display a person's age. Freedom of speech squashed in what state?

Maybe the worst software error of all time: Facebook tells your friends that you are dead.

Facebook launches Messenger Rooms.

Amazon sells out the Nintendo Classic Edition in, well, less than a second or something.

Big data, big flop in the recent election.

The safety pin statement—I am a safe person to meet.

Got a quarter million dollars? Buy your own jetpack. Finally.

Despite all the groaning, the new Apple MacBooks continue with record sales.

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Sunday November 13, 2016

More on Facebook and the outcome of the presidential election.

Zuckerberg, "I know nothing, nothing, nothing."

Calls for Facebook to own its position in the world.

It will be better for Facebook to regulate itself before some government decides a 1927 law gives it the obligation to regulate Facebook.

The FBI cost Clinton the election, so says everyone in the Clinton campaign.

How to clobber expensive servers with a $1.98 laptop (a little exaggeration).

Stuck in your writing? Write something completely different just for you.

The positive affect on a writer of teaching abroad. I taught abroad (sort of). A good experience.

Reframing our internal dialogue to help us as writers to write freely.

Find a less-than-interesting job, and give your best efforts to your early morning writing.

Setting and meeting your goals as a writer.

Some good notes on writing.

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