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: 19-25 August, 2019

Summary of this week:

• Nvidia shows ray tracing on Minecraft
• Livestreaming comes to Reddit
• Google and Nvidia continue competing in cloud gaming
• Social media companies "discover" Chinese govt information campaigns in Hong Kong
• Tesla rooftop solar panels are catching fire
• YouTube under investigation for COPPA violations
• States are using computers to grade student essays (FOOLISHNESS)
• Big companies found The Confidential Computing Consortium
• Intel releases a new line of processors for thin laptops

Monday 19 August 2019

Our IRS is sending letters to us reminding us about paying income tax on gains made in cryptocurrency speculation.

23 local governments in Texas were hit with a ransomware attack. Don't connect it to the Internet and you won't be held for ransom. I know that is simple advice, but no one seems to understand it or heed it.

Protestors show up at Palantir. They don't want American companies to work for the American people to enforce American laws—so long as the wrong person is President.

Twitter is running ads purchased by the government of China regarding protests in Hong Kong. It seems innocent—running an ad purchased by a government. It happens often in America, but... 

Donald Trump and Tim Cook are becoming close friends. The topic of conversation is tariffs.

From cubicle to open space to the pod. We go around and around with our workspaces. How did we ever accomplish anything other than buying new office furniture?

Tuesday 20 August 2019

Strong rumors: the Apple TV+ entertainment network is coming in November for $10 a month.

The largest of large-scale integration ever seen: Cerebras System makes a wafer the size of a mouse pad hold 400,000 interconnected computers. The goal is to run AI network faster than anything before.

Livestreaming comes to Reddit. Is the world readdy for this?

Google and Nvdia step into competition in cloud-based gaming.

Twitter "discovers" and discloses a large effort by the government of China to run an information campaign directed against protestors in Hong Kong.

After 25 years, the world's first operating webcam is going away.

Big American tech companies ask Congress for help with big French taxes.

At the same time, a dozen states ask the Dept of Justice for help prosecuting big American tech companies.

A growing list of influential persons is pushing a plan to pit the plutocrats against one another in a race to the moon with a $2Billion prize. Current NASA requests for a moon expedition are at $50Billion. For that type of $$$ return, the risk is worth it.

Dell introduces a line of gaming desktop PCs with its own label on the outside (vice Alienware). These are a good value with high performance and without the extra $$$ charged for the Alienware label.

Wednesday 21 August 2019

Western Civilization is safe: Keanu Reeves is making another Matrix movie.

Gmail adds spelling and grammar suggestions—of course it is powered by AI (what isn't these days?).

IBM is making much of the technology of its Power processors open source under The Linux Foundation.

What kind of foolishness is this? In 21 states, computers are grading student essays for standardized tests.

Now we have the Prolon caloric restriction, i.e., starvation, diet. 800 calories a day for long enough to trick our bodies into burning all our stored fat.

European regulators are now investigating Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency. Results of the investigation are predictable. Facebook needs to get its checkbook ready.

It appears that YouTube has been violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Fines and appeals to come. Once again, billion$$$ will disappear into "The Treasury."

Here comes Apple's "The Morning Show." Celebrity cast member salaries will make it one of the most expensive shows ever.

Facebook is hiring "journalists" (do those still exist?) for its forthcoming news section.

Actually something new in desktop PCs. Dell has a new take on the all-in-one PC by putting the computer in the stand vice the monitor AND allowing us to replace components as we wish.

Got $1,500 for a new monitor? Dell-Alienware has one.

Thursday 22 August 2019

Intel launches a new line of processors with lower electrical power and higher processing power for the really thin laptop computers.

Left-leaning media reports that Facebook's editing is right down the middle of right and left politics. Sigh. All studies are funded by someone. The last truly non-biased study was ... uh, er, ... let me think a while ... it was the one that concluded water freezing at 32 degrees.

Sigh. WeWork uses the same old password on its WiFi at almost all its locations. It was revealed years ago, but nothing has changed. Beware.

Think its easy to create a social media site and get users? This is a good history of over a dozen failed attempts, some well funded.

Big companies (Microsoft, Google, Alibaba, Red Hat, IBM, Intel, and others) have formed The Confidential Computing Consortium to improve cloud security. Their site is confidentialcomputing.io 

The government of Singapore must have lots of money. They are contracting FitBit to supply gadgets to improve the health of many residents there.

And now we have adversarial machine learning. We used to call that deception or simply lying. Of course no one lied to the computer (ooops, perhaps we have done that one before) while it was learning to drive a car or locate criminals. What could possibly go wrong?

Apple commits a fashion goof. Its new credit card is incompatible with leather. High-dollar, high-fashion folks who carry the latest Apple products are known for carrying high-dollar leather products.

Now to the ridiculous: YouTube removes BattleBots videos citing something about cruelty to animals.

Palantir renews its contract with our government (ICE). There was a time when companies that worked with us were thought of as good. Now, since the wrong person was elected, working with us is a bad thing.

Amazon opens its biggest office campus in the world. And it is in India. Jobs? Who needs jobs?

Friday 23 August 2019

Our Dept of Justice arrests dozens of Nigerians involved in mail and bank fraud.

Thousands of Chinese surveillance cameras are still in American security systems. The fear is that these cameras are feeding their data to the government of China. This is all a grand mess that will require years to remedy.

Personality and expectation clashes in interviews of female computer programmers. It is possible to work hard without being a jerk. It appears that many have never learned that skill.

Google also learns that the Chinese government was running deception  on YouTube related to the Hong Kong protests. Simple propaganda using the available outlets.

One sign of the success of the short-term rental business (Airbnb) is that their is now an industry that tries to catch Airbnb hosts who violate local regulations and evade local regulators.

Our FCC seems to be unable to ascertain how many of us have broadband access. The meta question is why does anyone need to know this?

Qantas Airways is testing 20-hour non-stop flights to Australia. Can flight crews and passengers actually survive these trips? Will everyone have to pay $20,000 to have their own room?

Claims that an electric-powered dump truck produces more energy than it consumes. The description makes sense. Let's see it put to good use.

It appears that vaping produces its own set of severe lung illnesses.

Dell releases a new Alienware desktop gaming super duper PC.

Dell updates the XPS 13 line of laptops with better processors and a better display. You can't miss by buying an XPS 13.

Saturday 24 August 2019

...hereby ordered to stop working in China... It's a negotiation. It is unfortunate that those who buy and sell stocks see it otherwise.

Facebook promised to give data to researchers. Data has not been given. Angst and legal proceedings ensue.

News Flash (not): we love to talk. We love to spread what we hear. Some have understood this and taken advantage of us.

How to make money by stealing someone else's music. It isn't difficult.

Details are emerging about Disney's coming streaming service. Fans are excited. Lots of Star Wars and comic book heroes and other wonderfulness.

It appears that most of South America is on fire.

I am sitting in Chick-fil-a. A police officer from the Fairfax County PD walks in. He is carrying 60 rounds of ammunition on his belt. SIXTY. Am I missing something? Are we at war?

Seattle takes a different approach to drug offenders: help instead of punishment. It might work. There are plenty of things that could go wrong. More than anything else, it depends on the competence of the persons involved.

Sunday 25 August 2019

Opioids in the coal country of Utah. This all flourished in the time of the previous president, and the media has blamed the companies with no responsibility for inaction on that man.

Background on that little "robot" that vacuums carpets.

How to engineer the earth to change the climate. Odd how folks who complain about other folks changing the climate want to change the climate. The same old us vs them fuss.

A practical use for self-driving vehicles from Sony and Yamaha. This is the first step: closed courses in limited situations.

Using software (Google has many tools for gmail right now) to write for us. If your life is simple, generic answers by all means use these tools. If, however, your life is more complex and personal, be complex and personal.

"It’s possible to connect with people without endorsing their worst actions. In fact, the best way to undo negative actions may be to engage with people to persuade them that there’s a different way forward."—Seth Godin

The state-of-the-practice in portable computers. You can't go wrong buying a Dell XPS 13. It has become the Ford/Chevy pickup truck of computing.

I highly recommend this little article to those who make their living in software development. Ten lines of code plus a massive database equals today's "application." Software methodology? Who cares?

Outstanding article on the end of Agile development. When everyone and everything is agile, nothing is agile. And most "agile" teams are so in name only.

How sketch a book before writing it, a.k.a., making an outline, can help some writers begin.

Despite the cliche title, I like this piece on writing for magazines.

The trials and smiles of writing something with another person.

Some good tips for writing. I love this one, "It’s doubtful that anyone with an internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction."

Dreams (nightmares) to stories. A great source.