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 21-27, 2016

Summary of this week:

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

Monday November 21, 2016

Fear and loathing inside Facebook as employees talk about the fake news and all such else.

Excellent post on the ethics of being a computer programmer. Decades ago, computer science professors always told "funny" stories of programmers' misdeeds. Everyone laughed and assume such were okay.

The Washington Post—winners of a Pulitzer in the 1980s with a fake story—hammers a fake news site and its writers.

I love the Johnny Ive-desiged Christmas tree. Just beautiful trees, nothing else.

Little-known things you can do in Facebook.

This post tries to add some clarity to the Internet of Things hyperbole.

UK cuts corporate tax rate. Facebook adds jobs in the UK. Coincidence?

GoPro reveals a hidden "telemetry" feature in the Hero 5 Black model.

How to play Doom on the MacBook Pro's touch bar. Too much time on your hands.

What a Tesla "sees" in self-driving mode.

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Tuesday November 22, 2016

Saturday Night Live hits it perfectly with the coastal bubbles. Secede from the union?

Attention Louisiana: nutria burgers are the rage in Moscow.

Excellent post on learning and teaching programming and how the subject is taught so badly.

Note to all Americans who want to bring the Internet to everyone on earth: despots disapprove.

President designate Trump says we are out of the Trans Pacific Partnership.

IBM is building more data centers in the UK. Brexit? Loss of jobs?

Apple steps out of the WiFi router business.

Google's Popular Times now tells us how busy a place is. This is much like indicating traffic conditions on roads.

This could change a lot of things for the hearing impaired: Ava does a speech-to-text translation.

Donald Trump will change the definition of net neutrality. Some will applaud; others won't.

Google buys QwikLabs and will add training for the Google cloud offerings.

Here are the hottest cloud computing job skills. Hint: learn Amazon Web Services.

ooops, Facebook's Internet transceiving drone crashed on its first test flight. That's why there are tests.

LipNet: Oxford researchers have a system that reads lips much better than people can.

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Wednesday November 23, 2016

A note this Thanksgiving: most of those flooded in Louisiana three months ago are still living temporarily with friends and relatives and waiting on FEMA to flip a coin that determines the rest of their lives. Please remember them and send a note to your Congressman re: FEMA.

How governments worldwide are using social media to watch and influence subjects.

Fascinating paper about the cyber threats to civil society.

Apple to be back in Black Friday after sitting out last year.

Air transport pilots go on strike—Amazon possibly crippled.

Google's DeepMind partners with UK's National Health Service. Privacy? Security?

It seems that Facebook has helped the government of China censor its subjects.

Hundreds die in Tehran from the "Asian brown cloud."

Google revamps its website-building tool Sites.

Amazon cuts the prices of it cloud storage service S3.

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Thursday November 24, 2016

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the US—a national holiday. This is a great example of the value of the international Internet. Tech news sites in the US are mostly quiet today, but those in other countries are in full, its-just-another-Thursday mode.

Donald Trump, Tim Cook, and maybe Apple plants in the US. There is much involved in this.

Get ready for this to be repeated—Trump FCC advisor wants to eliminate most of what FCC does. The regulators may shrink to what many of us believe are their intended levels.

This may become a messy story as Google is warning prominent persons that their gmail is hacked.

Hacked election? There are many calls this week for a recount in key states.

Must see video of how today's digital cameras can capture video in the dark—not an infrared trick.

Thank you EPA: Volkswagon ceases sales of diesel-engine cars in the US.

If you can get it...MST3K has a marathon today!

HPE's Meg Whitman likes the Trump plan to lower tax rates on bringing US cash back into the US.

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Friday November 25, 2016

The day after Thanksging: a semi-official national holiday.

I'm having Internet troubles here this morning, so not as much viewing.

Aha! Yet another why-Clinton-lost excuse: the Russians helped fake news sites promote Trump for President. Governments often try to influence elections in other countries.

Apple stops showing us how much it spends on ads.

Google opens a school in Berlin for entrepreneurs.

Bletchley Park is become a cybersecurity school.

How to steal a $100K Tesla with a $20 Android phone.

Having defeated Hillary, the fake news industry goes after Elon Musk. Part of the previous sentence is a joke.

Afraid of election hackers? Let's use paper ballots. Why not?

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Saturday November 26, 2016

Fidel Castro dies at 90.

Thoughts on hiring and retaining female engineers.  Here is one: find a 4.0 18-year-old female and sign a contract. Free college, job guarantee for ten years.

Online retail sales continue to break all the records.

Gift ideas for the tech person. I like the binary watch.

How those successful people treat the holidays.

Perhaps some major media outlets give the Russians a bit too much credit for fake news.

Truth is stranger than fiction: people are paying these guys to dig a hole in the ground.

Let the voting recount begin. Let's see what kind of riots we have if a Presidential election is reversed.

Bruce Schneier has a thoughtful essay on hacking voting machines and the general state of our election systems.

The origins of post-truth in American universities run by, well not be conservatives.

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Sunday November 27, 2016

The Hour of Code becomes a big commercial enterprise run by east coast syndicates (see Peanuts).

Western plutocrats open schools in Africa; locals unhappy. See "The Ugly American."

Fake news? How about fake scientific research and publications? Ca$h is all that is needed.

Coincidence? Black Friday sales set record on heels of Trump election.

Fake news? How about poor journalism, ignorance, and bias in reporting. Let's get real.

Some writers, certainly not me, sit and wait for perfection. I guess I gave up on being really good a long time ago and have settled for pretty good ever since.

How a writer may pack well and light for trips.

It is possible to increase writing speed and quality at the same time. Artisans in many other fields have known this for centuries. Ask any carpenter.

The idea that you can choose to be a suce$$ful writer. I'm not sure about this one.

Were you born to write? I'm not sure what that means.

Simple story concepts: "You want to write the most interesting story you can personally identify with."

This is a post full of links to posts about the elements of telling a story.

What to buy a writer for Christmas. The emphasis is on jewelry for the ladies.

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