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: 24-30 August, 2020

Summary of this week:

• Zoom had a major outage
• Windows 95 turns 25 years old
• Worldwide smartphone sales drop 20%
• Walmart involved in buying TikTok
• HP has a good financial quarter
• So does VMWare

Monday 24 August 2020

And now we have 23 million-year-old leaf fossils that show CO2 levels (of course the news is bad for us and requires more money for leaf fossil research).

I doubt this report, but it claims that 70% of our movie theaters have opened.

More computer science students are skipping online college this year and taking jobs. College this fall barely resembles college and simply isn't worth the expense in money and time.

Tuesday 25 August 2020

Some photos of the floating Apple Store in Singapore.

Coming real soon now, "Airplane Mode." It is a game that lets you sit still for six hours and experience economy class flight on an airliner. Of course it is boring. That is the idea.

Today is the 25th anniversary of the introduction of Windows 95. It did change things.

This could be a breakthrough in elderly care in the home. MIT's CSAIL developed what is basically a radar that works in the home and tracks activities. You can monitor your elderly loved one without putting cameras everywhere.

Coming next year, a 4K-capable Nintendo Switch.

Wednesday 26 August 2020

Sometimes you do the simplest thing, it works, and everyone wonders why it took so long to do it.

ASUS shows its latest camera with flip-up, triple-lens camera.

Fitbit shows several new watches.

From Gartner: global smartphone sales down 20% this last fiscal quarter.

Microsoft adds a nice dictation and transcription feature to MS Word online.

Chrome 85 is released.

Amazon opens a large office building in Hyderabad.

Guess what? When you put on a mask, facial recognizers don't recognize you much. Someone had to do a study to prove this.

Thursday 27 August 2020

More news on more AI research institutes to be funded in the next couple of years.

Facebook tries to improve is Messenger Rooms as Zoom continues to dominate the video teleconference market in the year of the virus.

Google tries to move its Nest Hub into motel rooms. That is a huge market opportunity. It is also a slow-moving market.

It appears that the real battle between Apple and Epic is over the use of its "Unreal Engine" that powers hundreds of games from other developers.

Our FDA authorizes the use of a $5, 15-minute COVID-19 test. Let's see how this works and how it affects behaviors in the year of the virus.

I'll just quote the article: "LG has officially announced a portable air purifier that you wear on your face like a mask."

Don't buy a new TV; buy an Nvidia gadget that makes the picture look better.

Clearview AI CEO claims that 2,400 police agencies are using its facial recognition technology.

Friday 28 August 2020

It appears that everyone—in this video LG—is making a smartphone with more than one screen.

HP had a better-than-expected financial quarter. People are buying more laptop computers as they and their kids have to stay home in the year of the virus.

VMWare also has a better-than-expected financial quarter. More demand for virtual this and that in the year of the virus.

A few peaks and leaks of Sony's forthcoming new smartphone.

It appears that Walmart is involved in the effort to give TikTok an American owner. I suppose keeping TikTok alive is something critical to the survival of civilization.

In western China, we have " the largest-scale detention of ethnic and religious minorities since World War II." And we wonder if such political leaders would create a cold virus to mess with other countries.

Saturday 29 August 2020

Meanwhile in Saudi Arabia...women are playing serious video games. This is a big deal there.

Computer simulation has changed the way researchers make and test new drugs. IBM has a new drug-making lab "in the cloud" and all that.

Another "from humble beginnings" story as Roku is now a dominant player in streaming entertainment into the home.

I don't understand this story, but it is all over the Internet. It is something to do with Elon Musk, robot surgery, and putting enough wires into a brain so that we can control things merely by thinking. What could possibly go wrong?

"Persistent commitment doesn’t lower the urgency of the moment, it acknowledges it."—Seth Godin

I am intrigued by how NBA players work for social justice by cancelling their written agreements. Lying to promote justice...hmmm, a new world.

This is another one of those ideas that is so simple that I wonder why it took the smartest people in the world so long to see it: test the waste water coming out of buildings to detect the virus without any individual tests (that take two weeks for results).

Real news that isn't news: a person catches a virus twice. Who'da thunk such was possible? Answer: anyone who has ever had a cold twice in one year.

An advance in aviation technology as the "bullet plane" takes a big step towards reality. Too bad CNN doesn't know how to express numbers.

The year of the virus has been very good to US tech companies as their value now exceeds the entire European stock market.

Sunday 30 August 2020

Having troubles with the Internet connection at Starbucks this  morning.

Video of a flying car test flight. It isn't practical, but it is a step.

The year of the virus has been good for readers and writers on Medium dot com.

The concept of concise writing.

Some ways to attempt to create the coffee shop writing experience at home. Nice suggestions.

Making mostly invisible tasks visible. I have worked in "invisible" tasks for decades and have written about visibility methods for as long.