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: 12-18 April, 2021

Summary of this week:

• Nvidia's GTC is this week with plenty of announcements
• Nvidia summary: much more processing power in smaller physical space
• Johnson&Johnson vaccine pulled
• Microsoft releases Surface Laptop 4
• AMD releases Ryzen 5000 series
• US sanctions Russia
• Amazon Prime grows 300% due to reaction to pandemic
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Monday 12 April 2021

It is Monday. Little time to view the Internet and little to view.

Strong rumors that Microsoft will be speech tech leader Nuance for $16Billion.

High tech leaves Silicon Valley and goes to Austin, Texas. The folks in Austin aren't sure this is a good thing.

Tuesday 13 April 2021

It's official: Microsoft buys Nuance for $19.7Billion. This is a push further into cloud and healthcare.

Nvidia is having their big conference this week. Expect many announcements from them.

Nvidia talks about their coming ARM processor.

Nvidia ups the processor for autonomous vehicles with release of the Drive Atlan.

Nvidia announces a rent-a-mini-supercomputer plan. Literally rent and return when done.

Nvidia announces eight new GPUs that work in everything from high-end workstations to gaming laptops. This is all about the work-from-home market of the last year.

We have a first in satellite technology: a repair vehicle refuels an operating satellite to extend its mission by five years.

The Washington Post writes about how bad it is that writers go freelance instead of writing for the Washington Post and its editorial board.

Intel's CEO calls for large investments in semiconductor manufacturing. Currently, the US output is 12% of the world's. He wants to boost that to 33%.

Wednesday 14 April 2021

The year of the virus was good for Stripe---an online payment processing company.

Tech workers at the New York Times form a union. There already is a union at NYT for the writers.

Some biting AI humor here from MIT.

Stronger rumors about the phones Apple will show at its next event. These things have become cameras with a telephone attached.

Microsoft releases the Surface Laptop 4. This is a pleasant upgrade. These machines have become the new MacBook in the coffee shops with lots of ooohs and aaaahs.

A little late but in the era of stay at home this will work. Microsoft has a new webcam and a new speaker/microphone.

AMD releases its first Ryzen 5000-series processors. They have built-in graphics that is good enough for most gaming in this era when the miners are buying all the GPUs.

Apple announces a big event for 20 April.

"History doesn't always repeat itself, but it usually rhymes."---Seth Godin

The Johnson&Johnson vaccine was been pulled (temporarily we are told).

As the year of the virus lingers in its 13th month, PC sales continue to grow.

Lamenting the impenetrable silos of social media accounts.

Thursday 15 April 2021

Please read. Once again, time shows that the experts were just plain wrong. Going out in the sunshine is good. Sunshine kills viruses. We've known that since we knew what a virus was. All the experts advised otherwise last year. Well, not all, just the ones in the enlightened districts. There were plenty other experts who knew right from wrong but were banished from the public discourse.

Sony updates their Xperia smartphones. These are cameras with a telephone attached.

Amazon updates their Echo Buds wireless earbuds.

Predicting coronavirus and flu: researchers partner with Apple to attempt this via the Apple Watch.

Big corporate and celebrity push to oppose laws that limit voting rights. I just don't understand why people oppose open and fair elections. Perhaps someone could teach me about this.

Parallels releases Parallels Desktop 16.5 with native support for Apple Silicon.

"The alternative is the leader (regardless of her title-authority isn't the point) who says, "not on my watch." This is the person who realizes that today at work never happens again, and this opportunity to make things better won't present itself another time."---Seth Godin

We have robots using lasers to kill weeds on farms. This is not a joke.

Friday 16 April 2021

The importance of access to high-speed Internet links in rural areas. Much of this sounds foreign to suburban and urban dwellers.

Our government sanctions the government of Russia for various misdeeds. Our President calls for a meeting with his Russian counterpart to ease tensions.

The year of the virus boosted Amazon's Prime membership from 50million to 200million. They are printing money. This was an established successful business that then grew 300% in a year. Could they have possibly caused...naaaaahhhhh couldn't be.

Big tech likes the idea of a rise in corporate taxes. These are established companies wanting laws that make it tougher to become established. This is an old tactic often used.

Chip producers warn that chip shortage could continue into 2023. The solution is obvious: governments need to give chip producers money. Another old tactic that is often used.

Microsoft releases a "Kid's mode" for the Edge browser.

A kid's online game sold on the Apple App Store is found to be a front for online gambling.

Real news that isn't news: makers of vaccines say we should buy their booster shots every year. Keep the money flowing. Yet again, an old tactice that is often used.

FreeBSD 13 is released.

Google Research and Google Brain researchers have a new SpeechStew that achieves even better speech recognition.

Saturday 17 April 2021

It is Saturday, not much happening.

More detail on the integrated circuit shortage as their is a backlog of machinery needed to build the machinery. Dependent on factories in China? Reconsider.

A little surprise here, but NASA selects SpaceX to build the next moon lander. NASA promises to return to the moon one day.

SpaceX moves to connect its Starlink s .....
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Sunday 18 April 2021

Insights into how people become wealthy in 21st century America.

Monday is a good day to fly a helicopter on Mars. NASA delays again.

We now report 3million worldwide deaths from a virus developed in a lab in China. Everything in the prior sentence is debatable.

Charles "Chuck" Geschke dies at 81. He co-founded Adobe and invented the Portable Document File or PDF.

We find a 3,000-year-old city in Egypt. We know little of our history.

The File Transfer Protocol FTP is now 50 years old. It seems silly now, but there was a time when being able to continue research towards a PhD hinged on transferring files from one system to another when those systems were never supposed to transfer files. FTP saved the day and a career.

The Zoom Towns: working from home in the year of virus allowed Silicon Valley dwellers to run to mountain communities around Tahoe and other places. Real estate boomed. Not all good news but, something to note.

Some ways that fiction writers can earn some money writing non-fiction.

How one writer manages to write from home with children in the home.

This blog provides the first page of a bestselling novel. Without context, read the page and decide if you would keep reading.

Mixed feelings about this post on how to cut the cost of an editor to work with you. It is part of the "race to the bottom" philosophy. And it takes money away from someone trying to earn a living.

Blogging as a business.

A classic blog post about making money blogging.

Want to earn money as a writer? Try cold calling everyone. One day someone will call back.