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: 25 February-3 March, 2019

Summary of this week:

• The Mobile World Congress is this week
• Everyone has a foldable smartphone
• Sony has a new aspect ratio phone with a larger screen
• Nokia has a phone with five cameras
• And we all have 1TeraByte microSD cards
• India and Pakistan are having an actual shooting war
• Amazon to open grocery stores (not more Whole Foods)

Monday 25 February 2019

The Mobile World Congress is this week, so expect lots of product announcements.

The 1 TeraByte microSD card is here. It's so small we will all lose it, and then we can truly say that we lost everything.

Only a week after Samsung shows a foldable smartphone screen, everyone else does the same.

Microsoft releases a $3,500 HoloLens gadget. This is for the factory or the big box store, not for play (unless you have enough money to play with really expensive toys).

All hail the podcast. Wayne's World has become a reality. Create your own show, make it available to the entire world. Cost? Almost $zero. Will anyone listen? That is the question.

Sony introduces the Xperia 1 smartphone. The display is "tall," i.e., it still fits between our thumb and fingers, but has a much large display. Some innovation here.

A new industry: the sextortion scam.

Jeff Bezos says that Blue Origin will launch persons into space this year. NASA...NASA...NASA... anyone hear from the tax-payer funded non-player? 

Nokia's new smartphone has five cameras. Can someone bring an even dozen cameras?

Tuesday 26 February 2019

Sense of humor? This guy admittedly puts hoaxes on Twitter, but that is wrong. I guess Mad Magazine couldn't be published today either.

In a no-longer-SECRET battle, the US Cyber Commands defeats the Russians at the mid-term elections. I guess we believe the story. Sounds like something you leak to get more funding.

Facebook eases up on censoring the Russians.

And here come microSD Express. Yet another faster interface for memory cards that we use in cellphones and such.

Some one watches the content that people put on Facebook. It makes many of them ill, and they aren't paid much for the pain.

Bill Gates advocates the rich paying more and more taxes. A big problem is that Congress has to write tax laws that do what is intended with minimal unintended consequences.

Wednesday 27 February 2019

Lost in the tech news of the marketplace of the Indian sub-continent is the shooting war between Pakistan and India.  And people wonder why people wonder about Silicon Valley.

Our Federal Trade Commission is actually charging paid Amazon reviewers with fraud. Will they go after everyone who does this? And what about they friends of book writers who write reviews as favors?

The world of the app logo.

Real soon now, Samsung will be putting their latest memory chips in their cellphones. Twice the speed at the same price.

Must see video. Ready for this "robot" to bring a pizza or a box of donuts to your door? The tech is impressive, but the walking biped robot is ... a bit scary.

SpaceX is about to launch a test of its capsule that one day will camera persons into space.

News Flash (not): If you want a cellphone that last three days without a charge, you put a large battery in it.

Most of the tech industry is on Google's side in the legal case between Oracle and Google concerning use of the Java API in Android.

Thursday 28 February 2019

FedEx starts experimenting with a delivery "robot" for around the block and such.

Apple lays off 190 people who were working on its self-driving car project.

Headline says is all: BlackBerry sues Twitter for patent infringement.

Amazon backs away from yet another big office building—this one in Seattle. Is this a trend? Does Amazon have more employees than it needs?

ooops, Dow Jones didn't secure a database, and records for 2.4million person are exposed.

The future may be here next year as Boeing hints its autonomous fighter aircraft will be flying in 2020.

The cassette tape is making a comeback of sorts.

Evidence shows that Facebook does run anti-conservative editing projects. Facebook says that people are mis-reading the claims.

Friday 1 March 2019

"real soon now" has a new definition...it took Tesla three years, but here is their $35,000 car. This is supposed to be for the middle class.

Amazon Prime members can now pick the day for package delivery. I guess we have progressed to the point where simple, local delivery makes sense.

Just ahead of the RSA conference, Microsoft announces Azure Sentinel: a cloud-based SIEM (security information and event management) system.

Some adults in New York are trying to convince Amazon to change its mind, ignore the teenagers, and return to New York City.

Tesla is closing all the in-person stores and going online-only sales. Goodbye jobs. Hello unemployment.

We find "evidence" that there are huge reservoirs of water under the surface of Mars. Wake me when we are making coffee on Mars with this water.

March 8: Apple plus Girls Who Code.

2018 was a record year for "robots" in US jobs. New technology has brought lower prices and more use.

The UK is not playing around with US social media companies. Billion$ fine$ are coming if they don't censor as regulated.

Saturday 2 March 2019

Lyft lost $1Billion (with a Big B) last year. The ride sharing business is a financial failure. Everyone seems to think it is great. Yes, it is good to have a ride financed by someone else.

How do you control your subjects? Deny travel on a whim. See, e.g., China.

Real soon now, we can take photos of spreadsheets and then OCR that or something so we can edit it in Microsoft's Excel.

Apple, among other California, Silicon Valley companies, is predominantly California politically. No surprise. Some at Apple, however, feel ostracized. Apple prides diversity as long as you are diverse like they are. We still have the you and they and we and them.

If you own a Microsoft Band, you are in a small group. Microsoft is stopping all support for the device.

Early this morning, SpaceX launched the Crew Dragon on a test flight. This is supposed to carry persons into space real soon now.

Amazon censors videos about vaccinations. It doesn't matter if they are "pro" or "anti." The verb is the same.

News Flash (not): Federal, State, and Local governments are far behind in technology and the knowledge of their technology workers.

While India and Pakistan have been shooting real bullets at one another, they have also engaged in information warfare. This is neither a news flash nor a surprise.

Sunday 3 March 2019

Engadget is 15 years old and tries to summarize 15 years of tech progress. They do a miserable job of it. Sorry to see this.

There was a time when doctors visited sick persons in their homes. Perhaps we shall see that return.

Some analysis shows that those little electric scooters that we rent to move about downtown only last a month before they break apart.

I guess I don't understand technology. Tim Cook says that Apple is working on new amazing products including AirPods in new colors. New colors? Blow us away?

H-1B visa applications are being declined at a growing rate.

Writers—rejection does not equal failure. It merely means that someone else doesn't like what you wrote. There are a few billion others out there who might love it.

"We will never run out of excuses"—anonymous wise person. So, trying to write but...push it all out of the way and write.

Thoughts on making a better first draft of writing. I have been accused of first drafts that are 90+% final drafts. I don't know how to do that and I don't know how others don't do that. It is something I do.

Discipline in the creative writing life. A contradiction in terms. Maybe. Maybe not.

One writer's list of ten things to have a good book. Caution with such lists. Again, if you write "a book," you are a book writer. A good book is someone else's description of it.