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 28-December 4, 2016
Summary of this week:
- Presidential election recount; the slings and arrows begin
- AT&T starts DirecTV Now
- Lots of possibly late movement in autonomous vehicles
- AWS holds its reinvent conferences and makes lots of product announcements
- GoPro lays off 15% of its workforce
- Nikola shows their hydrogen-powered truck
Monday
- Tuesday
- Wednesday
- Thursday
- Friday
- Saturday
- Sunday
Monday November 28, 2016
Today is cyber Monday. Go to the office, pretend to work, and shop all day.
It's a Monday after a long holiday weekend in the US. The Internet is pretty quiet today.
Some optimism toward disruptive technologies. Self-driving trucks and all that unemployment.
Samsung is considering breaking into two companies.
ooops, San Francisco's light rail system is hacked and is being held for ransom. Hi tech! Why do we connect infrastructure to the Internet???
President Donald Trump, Twitter, and the age of something different. Things won't go back to "normal."
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Tuesday November 29, 2016
Our EPA announces a new regulation (soon to be cancelled) re: more biofuels in gasoline.
AT&T starts DirecTV Now—TV via Internet for $35-$70 a month.
It appears that the Google Pixel is a success as it sells millions of units this year and next.
White Rabbit Project on Netflix: the heir to MythBusters.
The glitter falls off Uber as drivers nationwide want more $$$.
New video of the rounded Pentagon, a.k.a., Apple campus 2. Let's call it Pentagon West.
Our government bans our press from covering how our government treats us. When did our government separate from us?
Uber says, "We're a digital service, not a transport company."
Uber now collects location information of driver. How did they fall from simple ride sharing to this?
AWS has swallowed Amazon. Shopping? Who cares?
NPR
tracks down a fake news provider. If fake news is such a national
crisis, why didn't all these public-good sleuths get on this years ago?
"Silicon
Valley’s biggest failing is...the distinct lack of empathy for those
whose lives are disturbed by its technological wizardry."
Facebook discovers that Germany has hate speech laws and takes them seriously.
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Wednesday November 30, 2016
SUSE buys OpenStack assets from HP Enterprise.
Fear and loathing and net neurtrality and AT&T DirecTV Now. The world is coming to an end?
PacMan and Space Invaders are coming to Facebook! Wow, we are saved.
Ford to test its autonomous cars in Europe next year; no steering wheel, no pedals, no driver at all.
The UK passes a mass surveillance bill. Spying on everyone in 2017.
Autonomous car testing begins in Ontario.
Perhaps a bit late to the party, Intel creates a dedicated autonomous vehicle division.
The Internet Archive is building a copy in Canada in response to the Trump election.
What kind of portable computer would anyone buy this year?
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Thursday December 1, 2016
Dr. Apple? They've been meeting with our FDA, so rumor is they are working diligently at health care apps.
What the rich eat—door delivery meal kits are growing in certain neighborhoods.
GoPro—great product but a failing business—lays off 15% of its workforce. One day soon they will go bankrupt. Then we hope that a smart person will step in, take over, and manage the endeavor well.
Finally, Netflix allows us to download (some) movies and watch offline.
AWS is holding its re:invent conference and making product announcements.
AWS shows a tractor trailer rig called the snowmobile. It comes to you, picks up your AWS Snowball etc.
AWS improves its virtual private server offering and cuts the price to $5/month.
AWS launches an accelerator program for conversational AI.
Rekognition: AWS releases AI tools to outside developers.
ooops, medical studies show real bad effects of marijuana use. It is harmful, but plenty of other legal products are too.
Twitter will ban President Trump if he violates their rules (all subjective).
Google launches App Maker: create apps without writing code (the holy grail).
Smart fit watches: Fitbit buys Pebble.
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Friday December 2, 2016
Several nations in the mideast are cyber attacking Saudi government sites via the Internet.
Why pay humans to drive around and improve maps when autonomous drones can do it? Apple.
Here we go again. Facebook to use AI to filter porn and other videos.
Intel and Amazon will partner to build smart home services. I hope security will be considered first.
Elite Daily is failing as a business.
A group of children in South Africa were born with resistance to HIV.
A closer look at the waterless toilet backed by the Gates Foundation. Interesting, no new technology.
Nestle discovers how to reduce sugar in candy by 40% without affecting taste. The marketplace will decide.
The government of China has become very smart at how it censors its subjects.
White House augmented reality. I hope that taxpayers' dollars weren't used to create this.
Self-driving carts (robots) are delivering food in Greenwich, London.
Nikola One—a tractor trailer powered by hydrogen—is revealed. The future?
Someone calculates the cost of operating the Death Star.
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Saturday December 3, 2016
Google rolls out its Chrome browser version 55; say bye to Flash and hello to HTML5.
Rumors about Microsoft Windows 10 "Home Hub" and what it could mean for the connected home.
The race to archive government web sites. It happens with every presidential transition. My experience in government is that no one saves their history.
The Internet Archive vs our government and our National Security Letters.
Why hack banks? Because that is where the money is—$31million in this case.
The USB Killer: plug it into anything and it eventually fries the device with electricity. Diabolical.
Stephen Hawking agrees with some of us about technology erasing jobs.
A review of Amazon's re:Invent conference—world domination continues.
More guns sold in 2016 than in any year in US history. Who was President in 2016?
Best fat-burning exercise.
Be cautious with "fake" chargers for Apple products.
A review of LG Ultra Fine monitors and using them with Apple computers.
An early look at the reMarkable paper tablet E ink notetaking device.
Coming from Microsoft: AI that will describe images for blind users.
DigitalGlobe is flying a new satellite and providing Google Maps with much better imagery.
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Sunday December 4, 2016
Apple sends an open letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration re: its self-driving car ambitions.
Ars Technica op-ed: face it folks, IRL=URL=real life and online are the same. Just Tweet Mr. Trump if you don't think so.
Now THIS is a cool gift: steampunk USB thumbdrive secured in a combination lock.
Good piece on the wisdom of auditing elections. I am happy to say that the Commonwealth of Virginia has switched from Windows XP laptops to sheets of paper in its elections.
Facebook leases a lot of office space in Seattle.
How SnapChat's approach eliminated fake news without even trying.
Gab: When did freedom of speech become a far right alt-right thing?
Writer productivity tips. Sometimes you just have to give up some things to do other things like writing.
Excellent thoughts on writing stories and brevity. There are some items that deserve more words and space on a page.
There are ways that your local library can help you promote your new book.
Sometimes writers should not write. Take a break in tough times.
Fiction writers and writing non-fiction writing. If you can sit at a keyboard and bang words, you can sit at a keyboard and bang words.
A gift guide for travelers or what you really need when you travel. Hands-free stuff.
The book editor comes back at you with a thousand changes. How do you react? Breathe a while folks, this is NORMAL.
Challenges and growth as a writer. This works for some of us, but not all of us. If it works for me, I cannot assume it works for others.
Some novels change (some parts of) the world. Is that your goal or
ideal?
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