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: 22-28 October, 2018

Summary of this week:

• Snapchat serves our college students, get this, NEWS
• Qualcomm has a new mid-range Snapdragon
• Facebook updates the Messenger app
• Microsoft's booming cloud business is pushing it towards $1Trillion
• How Andy Rubin got a $90Million severance from Google—not a good way

Monday 22 October 2018

Yet another invention that pulls water from the air and does other good things. When will one of these things become practical and deployed?

Let's all get together and write an AI code of ethics! Won't happen. We already have codes of ethics. Do we need more than don't lie, don't steal, don't murder, ...

Netflix is trying to become the biggest entertainment company in the world. And it will lose lots of money along the way.

Snapchat: the #2 and climbing source of NEWS for today's college students. CBS News? CNN? Who are they? Some where along the line these main-line-media companies decided to put fashion models in front of the camera and tell everyone they were serious journalists. That trick didn't work. Look where the are now.

The Saudi's  put a "mole" in Twitter to "spy" on users. One day the children will become adults.

The way to survive in space is with a better 3D printer. I wrote this story a few years ago that said the same.

It appears that Github went off the air for an embarrassingly long time.

I guess the Fins don't do small talk. Maybe I should move there.

Our TSA dreams of a day when facial recognition technology will work perfectly. What could possible go wrong?

Elon Musk claims to demonstrate his tunnel under Los Angeles on December 10.

Tuesday 23 October 2018

Quantum computing: now we have yet another technical field where we simply must import (cheap) labor because American engineers aren't smart enough to do the work (at the low wages companies want to pay).

Yet another President tries to convince tech companies to lend their smart people to the government for a while. I suppose this is easier than fixing the problems that squash the smart technical people already working for the government.

YouTube creates a Learning Channel and tries to provide tools that enable educators to educate.

More tech executives calls for Bloomberg to retract its story of Chinese supply chain interdiction. Why is everyone excited about something that isn't true? Follow the money.

I guess a month is enough time to change a lifetime of bad behavior as Linus Torvalds is back in charge of Linux.

No one saw this coming: even as blockchains fall in the market, blockchain engineers are receiving high salaries.

This is a nice post on the history of Android—the most-used operating system in the world.

A NASA investigation shows the obvious: bad management, i.e., bad managers can't keep track of their stuff.

Qualcomm continues to evolve its processors with a mid-range Snapdragon that has features of the previous generation's high-end processors.

Hot: Snapchat. Not: Instagram.

How would we ever survive if Twitter et al wasn't practicing censorship so well?

In the UK, politicians recommend that politicians spend everyone else's money to teach everyone else to not believe everything everyone else reads. How would everyone else survive without such great leaders?

Wednesday 24 October 2018

Mozilla releases Firefox 63.

Facebook gives the Messenger app a simpler user interface.

A sophisticated fraud scheme is revealed. The goal was simple: steal money from people. It worked pretty well for a long time.

North (used to called Thalmic Labs) releases augmented reality glasses that look like normal glasses. Let's see if they have the apps to sell.

American government does to the Russians government what the American government said the Russian government should not have done...or something like that.

WebPerl: write and run Perl in a browser window.

Asus introduces three new Chromebooks under $300. Someone still remembers what we are trying to do.

Thursday 25 October 2018

Strong rumors about Apple's big event next week: two new iPads, a new laptop (gone is the MacBook Air?), and upgrades to processors.

Boosted by its staggering growth in cloud computing, Microsoft is about to become valued at $1Trillion with a T.

The WikiTribune layoffs its paid journalists.

Our Immigration and Customs Enforcement (the dreaded ICE) meets with Amazon about using their facial recognition technology.

It appears that everyone loves the new iPhone XR.

Friday 26 October 2018

Saturday 27 October 2018

Andy Rubin (the father of Android) was paid $90Million to leave Google and avoid sexual harassment crimes.

News Flash (not): If you fall off a scooter going 10+mph, it will hurt; you may even go to the hospital.

Silicon Valley dwellers are living in converted vans and trucks because they can't afford actual housing. They save money, but not all is wonderful.

Microsoft, not a Silicon Valley company, will do business with the United States government. Much of the Valley doesn't want to do so...choosing rather to build censorship browsers for the Communist Chinese and other despots. The US govt has its faults. What other government do you wish?

It appears that the Florida package bomber was spotted on Twitter a while back and reported, but no one uh, er, well, you know.

Amazon has a good financial quarter, but its stock price falls for some reason.

Even though it is losing users, Twitter had a better-than-expected financial quarter.

Tim Cook blasts the Data Industrial Complex.

Want to learn? A great site for finding college classes that cost little or nothing.

Unintended consequences: see Uber and Lyft for example. Traffic deaths rise with ride sharing.

Want to be a video game programmer? Live in the culture of crunch otherwise known as "the sweat shop."

The repair-it crowd has a major win in government.

Sunday 28 October 2018

When did joining the conversation become "meddling?" If there is to be a conversation, there is to be a conversation. Irksome persons will join whether we like it or not.

The world realizes how the space bar (and shift-space bar) has always been there for web browsing.

The plutocrats are taking computer screens out of their kids' special schools. Everyone else is still trying to bring technology into government-operated schools.

Once again, someone shows how easy it is to hack into election computing systems. Don't connect it to the Internet. Simple. Done.

The recent change in copyright rules has allowed museums to preserve video games. Yes, as silly as some of them are, they are part of our cultural history.

The high cost of living in California's and Seattle's tech centers are driving people to other western cities and raising the cost of living there as well. Success leads to failure.

A moron walks into a synagogue in Pittsburgh and kills people.

For only $300...HP has a new display that serves as a docking station for laptops.

Intel has a record-breaking financial quarter.

A list of 99 magazines that pay for articles.

"We need to take our time while crafting our stories, to say something meaningful, or to craft a story of which we’re proud, whatever that may be." Perhaps 30 or 40 years is needed.

The core of your story. What is it? For me, it is often, "you can't judge a book by its cover."

Four things that stop some persons from writing, and one writer's tips for moving through them.

Some tips for finding writing clients.

Try again at a story. A writer never has to throw away a story. We can always put away a story for later.