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: 20-26 January, 2020

Summary of this week:

• SpaceX has a good crew capsule test, predicts persons in space in six months
• Netflix has a good quarter
• IBM has a good quarter
• Stronger rumors of a cheaper iPhone this year
• Chinese coronavirus spreads
• Chinese governors sit on their subjects even during Chinese New Year

Monday 20 January 2020

Those who predict such things predict that the trillion-dollar Silicon Valley companies will hit $2trillion quickly (or maybe they will be the next Enron).

Our FBI siezes WeLeanInfo—a site dedicated to publishing leaked information on persons. It had records on several million persons gleaned from some 10,000+ data breaches.

Elon Musk and SpaceX could put Americans into space in six months. Where is NASA? Of course NASA provides some facilities and such, but our government space program is mired in its own muck.

In Europe, the ESA is testing machinery that could crack moon dust (lots of it on the moon) to produce oxygen.

Everyone is doing their best. Incorrect statement. Everyone is doing as well as I expected. And "expected" is subjective. We may not want to admit this, but it is true.

For programmers: JetBrains creates a simple font where we can easily tell a number 1 from a lowercase L. Funny how we still struggle with this.

The case for elderly users of computers and the Internet. The bad side is that developers are ignoring their own grandparents. We need persons to help others to see, and it is the young who cannot see.

Tuesday 21 January 2020

Open-source software is shifting in the licenses it uses. The GNU licenses are losing favor while the MIT and Apache ones, which offer more freedom to the next user and programmer, are gaining.

Candor can be uncomfortable; An Amazon exec publicly asks a Facebook exec about how Facebook uses user information for profit.

And selling user data extends to many American hospitals. All in the name of furthering medical knowledge, but it might be nice if someone asked.

There is potential for killing cancer cells by modifying parts of our immune system. There is also potential for lots of things going wrong in all this. Let us hope some are careful.

In a global economy, Tim Cook and others want major changes in how different nations tax corporations that span national borders.

Bruce Schneier on the growing surveillance state.

The governors of China are banning plastic straws and all plastic this and that this year. We shall see what happens.

If you want to buy a good-old gas-powered Subaru, you only have 15 years to do so.

Wednesday 22 January 2020

IBM has a better-than-expected financial quarter. Again, better cloud computing brings in the money.

Qualcomm shows new processors for mobile phones. They span the price and performance range of the marketplace.

The Supreme Court won't hear a Facebook facial-recognition-privacy case. Hence, Facebook is in the throes of a multi-billion dollar lawsuit in Illinois.

Netflix has a better-than-expected quarter as it has become a major producer of entertainment. Its original content is driving its growth.

Another perspective on social media companies and personal privacy. What is a person were wrongly facing jail? Wouldn't Facebook release evidence to stop that? It appears not.

Stronger rumors point to Apple selling a less-expensive iPhone this year. No hint on the price. $200 is reasonable to me, but I don't run Apple.

Cruise, a subsidiary of GM, shows its prototype of a fully autonomous car. Like the original Google vehicle, it has not steering wheel, pedals, etc.

We now have a person in the US with China's coronavirus. No conspiracy theory here, just an alarm.

Governors in the US and France agree to some sort of agreement on how much to tax each other's companies.

It appears that the Saudis hacked Jeff Bezos' phone last year. A little money buys a lot of tech savvy (or is it the other way around).

The wearable computing fitness fad or such doesn't always work. Under Armour has cancelled its devices and dropped out of the market. The fitness market is a small group of the same people who are fit and exercise. It doesn't seem to grow past that group.

Thursday 23 January 2020

Going back into the history of facial recognition in the 1960s and the CIA. Odd how a basic technology in computer vision has become the most evil thing in the world.

 The Internet is full of stories related to the Saudis hacking the phone of Jeff Bezos. Business Insider's top 10 has five stories on it.

The definition of success has changed: Amazon Music only has 55million customers and is trying to gain a foothold in the market.

Meanwhile in China---where they invent deadly contagious disease---the governors of Wuhan close mass transit.

Huawei cancels its user conference due to coronavirus.

oooooops, Microsoft leaked information on 250million customers.

Seattle will hold an election where residents can vote by phone. What could possible go wrong?

Industrial exoskeletons are becoming practical. Now, let's make them smaller and bring them into the home.

Nokia brings a $129 smartphone into the US. Now if Apple and Google will follow along.

Friday 24 January 2020

Lots of information about China's coronavirus including speculation about hiding information and allowing disease to spread.

It appears that everyone on the Internet is fascinated by Google's image of a fly's brain.

Apple signs a deal with Broadcomm to buy their wireless components.

Intel has a good financial quarter driven by sales to—what else—cloud computing data centers.

Boston Dynamics has setup a software SDK on Github for its "robot dogs."

Why use all that video teleconference tech for business? It seems to work great for long-distance dating.

Obsession, hard work, and being good at something.

The deciders in Germany decided to rid themselves of nuclear power. Now they are learning that the alternatives aren't so good.

Google changed its search results so that ads look more like search results. Everyone moans. Hey, it is a free service. If you don't like it, use another free service offered by someone else.

HP updates its Chromebooks aimed at education, i.e., they survive the drops and other innovations of kids.

Saturday 25 January 2020

The Metropolitan Police of London are now using facial recognition systems on the streets for parts of the day. They will search for known criminals and the other usual suspects.

A long article on facial recognition technology and uses.

In China, the governors attempt to control their subjects due to disease, but it is Chinese New Year and many persons have had enough.

A company proposes tiny living areas to help ease the housing problem in San Francisco. You essentially buy a bed and public bathroom for $1,500. There are no doors as that violates regulations. You have a curtain for privacy and security.

Boredom at the impeachment. I guess this means something. In the end, I expect members of both parties to show that they are members of both parties.

It appears that Microsoft has succeeded in copying Google's Chrome browser.

Wikipedia passes another milestone: six million articles in English. The site has 255million views a day. Cost to the user: $0. I suppose the creators should receive a Nobel Peace Prize for bringing persons worldwide together peaceably.

Sunday 26 January 2020

Thirty-six years ago this week, we saw the Macintosh for the first time.

Speculating on future designs for the iMac. All glass, one piece, practically a docking station, and other cool ideas.

It is a matter of numbers. With its large and growing population, India passes the US as the world's #2 smartphone market. Build cheaper technology for the masses and China and India will dominate.

The race between Boeing and SpaceX to put Americans in space via America, not Russia.

More fussing about the Space Force logo and Star Trek. Fiction creators mimicked government agency logos when creating fictional organizations. The Space Force logo is a rational extension of current logos. It is all from heraldry which centuries old.

Some of Alan Turing's stolen property is recovered after 36 years. The old phrase, "crooks are stupid," seems to apply here as someone wanted to loan the stolen items to a university library for display. The person had even changed their last name to "Turing."

Unintended consequences: those doorbell cameras are changing society. When we measure something (like with a camera) we change what we are measuring. Nothing new. Could be interesting, but its not new.

A few persons seem to understand that all this living-on-Mars hype is a bad idea.

Practical practices so that you will write more than you do now.

How one person earns their living writing.

The goal you choose in writing will have much to do with what happens next. Almost everyone chooses a different goal. Go with it.

Thoughts on writing dialogue.

Building an audience in a blog.