Items I happen to view each day. Science, Technology, Management, Culture, and Writing

    This is my day book for this week. It is a log of things I see on the Internet.

This week: 11-17 June, 2018

Summary of this week:

• Microsoft is pushing hard into the video game business
• The new net neutrality is upon us
• Seattle repeals its month-old job tax
• Microsoft gives Office a new easier-to-use look
• Microsoft building system to replace cashiers
• Apple closes a security hole used by law enforcement

Monday 11 June 2018

In Newark, New Jersey the city puts all its police webcams on the Internet so all the citizenry can watch and call in with, "Hey, I just saw..." If you see something, say something. And the ne'er-do-wells can see what they can do without notice.

Microsoft has purchased a handful of small video game makers to quickly boost its ability to create new games.

Microsoft wants to build some sort of universal game streaming service that we can all use to play games on any device.

Elon Must promises a new software download real soon now that will significantly boost the Tesla self-driving mode.

No surprise here: people frequently kick and mistreat the delivery robots that scoot up and down the sidewalks. People love to kick machines and punch walls and throw golf clubs and turn over tables and (gosh how long can the list be?)...

Everybody wants to jump into the electric scooter renting business. Why?

I love Godin's short essay on leadership and the lack thereof at most car dealerships.

The Windows Red Team. IBM used to have such a team that struck fear into the hearts of its programmers. Done well, this sort of thing improves the quality of products and boosts the confidence of persons.

Tuesday 12 June 2018

The current administration's version of net neutrality is upon us replacing the previous administration's version of net neutrality. Both versions have their flaws.

A researcher at Duke invented a super-duper camera. Then he moved to China and sold it to the government their so they could watch their subjects more closely.

Facebook Sonar: an internally developed and used debugging and development tool has now been released by Facebook to everyone as open-source software.

How organizers in Brazil have used WhatsApp to empower previously disorganized groups of persons in labor and political movements.

Uber Lite: an app for less-powerful smartphones in countries with less bandwidth.

Citi Bank may replace 10,000 people in the next five years with "robots." Mostly this is software that will do what people do now.

An in-depth look at HP's latest attempt to put everything into a portable computer.

Time marches on: Microsoft does it latest announcement of what products it will stop supporting when. On the list are several products I still (am forced to) use everyday at work.

History rolls on: next year on this planet, people will spend more time online than watching what we used to call "television."

Amazon destroys returned products. What happened to re-use and re-cycle?

And now we have Electronic Storage Detection (ESD) Dogs. Yes, some dogs can smell electronic components.

We can now read Facebook's answers to Congress...all those, "I'll get back to you on that," things. Boring, poorly written, headache prone, excellent government-intended documents.

Wednesday 13 June 2018

Seeing through walls. Of course it isn't artificial intelligence; it is pattern recognition techniques applied to weak signals, and it seems to work.

Headline says it all: It’s 2018 and USB Type-C is still a mess.

Google moves its better technology for language translation to the offline platform.

A Federal judge approves the AT&T-Time Warner deal. No trust problems.

Seattle's government has a brief moment of sanity and rescinds last month's tax on jobs. The jealous are still jealous and angry.

Google improves its college-search capability.

Intel confirms that it will have its own line of graphics processing units in a year or two. No comment if these will be graphics for games or graphics architecture for use in parallel programming in the cloud.

Reddit creates its own video file format to woo advertisers.

Elon Musk "promises" to lay off 9% of Tesla's workforce.

Thursday 14 June 2018

Apple closed a security hole that law enforcement persons were using to hack into captured iPhones.

Amazon goes to "robots," a.k.a., software to eliminate humans who negotiated product buys. Jobs? Who needs a job?

Microsoft updates the look of MS Office and promises all of us that it will be easier to use. This version will be in my home today...and at my office sometime during the next decade.

Google opens an AI research center in Ghana, west Africa.

More government folly in the EU concerning the Internet. They are likely to pass a regulation requiring websites to filter all content for copyright. One—technically impossible. Two—just a bad idea.

The government of China looks to automobiles for yet another way to watch its subjects.

Microsoft, among others, is working on systems that will eliminate cashiers and other retail store employees. Jobs? Who needs a job?

Here we go...portable computers with 128GigaBytes of RAM and 6TeraBytes of disk storage.

Fake noise to make electric cars sound like real cars. What have we done?

The City of Chicago permits Elon Musk to build a rapid transit tunnel between O'Hare and downtown.

Young people are moving from one Facebook app to another for their news. The control still resides with Zuckerburg.

The standing desk is now declared to be for everyone at Apple. Sitting is the new cancer. Let's see how long this lasts.

Friday 15 June 2018

The 5G standard for cellular telephone is now complete. The actual systems will be here real soon now.

Unsupervised learning triumphs over the Rubik cube.

Google releases its diversity numbers, which no one is supposed to collect or uh er to collect or something. They aren't making any "progress."

News about the intricate and uh er twisted relationship between Facebook and researchers.

Amazon is now shipping its DeepLens camera system aimed at developers of vision applications.

While investigating Hillary Clinton for using a personal email server for official Dept of State business, James Comey used a personal gmail account for office FBI business. You can't make up this stuff.

Apple releases new Mac computer ads, but no updates to its aging line of Mac computers.

The University of Chicago has dropped all requirements for standardized tests for applicants. The circle is complete. Standardized tests have become a bonus for rich people and stopped being a measure of merit.

Facebook is building a data center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Saturday 16 June 2018

Jaguar sets a nautical speed record with an all-electric boat.

The Onion versus Facebook. Who knows who will win, but it will probably be humorous.

In the early 20th century, we were becoming smarter. Now we are going the other way. Note, as a perfect example, this article where they misuse "dumb."

Sunday 17 June 2018

Watch a Tesla scoot through a Boring Company tunnel. The innovation depends on almost-no-emission electric transport to reduce the size and ventilation requirements of the tunnels.

Facebook and Google are leaning on Wikipedia for real news. Wikipedia wants a little cash to help the cause. They deserve it.

Facebook researchers have a technique for putting open eyes on a photo with closed eyes. Clever.

Hacking the word "hack." Some folks have a lot of time on their hands.

Another perspective on writing and writers: we are always practicing—even when we are paid.

Finding someone to discuss your writing and their writing regularly. A friend who holds you accountable is a good thing.

Advice from Stephen King and a little more. Basic stuff. Consistent and persistent.

Everyone starts somewhere. Most of us make plenty of mistakes starting. Learn.

Unlock new ways to write and writer better. Learn—that's all there is to it. Learn and keep learning.

There are pieces of software out there that will allow a writer to have more time to write and less time to do everything else.