Dwayne Phillips' Day Book

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.


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This week: 16-22 August 2021

Summary of this week:


Monday - Tuesday - Wednesday - Thursday - Friday - Saturday - Sunday


Monday 16 August 2021

It is Monday. The news begins slow. Of course the big item is Afghanistan and our President's huge error of judgement. It is difficult to assess the damage to how the world views the US after events like this. It took more than an generation for the US to recover some standing after the fall of Saigon in 1975.

For those of us who remember 1975, Kabul is Saigon part II. Unnecessary.

Once again, Joe Biden is completely wrong on foreign affairs. The problem is that he is now our President.

Ethereum is attempting to greatly reduce electrical power consumption in its block chain by changing the fundamental method of verification.

Research shows that working fro home does not work for every person and every job. I hope they didn't spend much money on that research.

Strong rumors that Apple will have several events this Autumn to launch new products.

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Tuesday 17 August 2021

Facebook and Amazon want to operate a new undersea cable that runs between California and the Philippines.

Our Dept of Homeland Security is moving to monitor "public" social media content for intelligence. There remains a debate about what is public information and what is private.

Our FBI's Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) left a terrorist list open to view for a few weeks.

Amazon has its Fire tablets on sale. Not great machines, I find them to be the best value in computing.

Intel returns to the market for standalone graphics processors in 2022 with the Arc.

Engineers at MIT build an inflatable prosthetic hand that allows amputees to "feel." This is what we should be doing with technology.

This story must be important as it is all over the Internet: a Wikipedia vandal put swastikas on 53,000 pages. Quickly removed.

Remember the great 3D TV fad and flop? Some are predicting the same for the foldable smartphone.

Amazon, always looking for a way to sell stuff, is encouraging teachers to use a special Wish List to buy classroom supplies.

Where there is $$$, there is a scam. Russian, Chinese, and Nigerian ne'er-do-wells steal $Billions (with a B) of pandemic relief funds. The year of the virus was very good for them.

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Wednesday 18 August 2021

Facebook bans the Taliban. Seems they would have done that years ago.

Intel is backing out of the computer camera and other sensors business.

YouTube provides better search capability to users.

Qualcomm now has a drone system for sale. It can use 5G and that makes it better than most other drones.

Adobe extends more Photoshop features to the iPad.

Must see video: Boston Dynamics robots jumping through an obstacle course. What is keeping these machines off the marketplace?

oooops, major security holes in millions of webcams and baby monitors.

Take care when taking advantage of working from home. White collar jobs could become "piece-work jobs." That means a huge drop in pay for large parts of the economy.

Beware the jokes on LinkedIn. They are much like April Fool's jokes and the National Enquirer headlines. I guess we call that disinformation these days instead of jokes.

One shot? Two shots? Now booster shots? This is a money-making machine.

Microsoft is considering the Ehtereum blockchain as the basis for reporting software errors and paying contributors.

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Thursday 19 August 2021

The prolonged year of the virus continues to be good for Nvidia.

Americans want to keep false information off the Internet. No one knows how to determine what is false.

Amazon wants to open big box retail stores.

I am living this and expect to see much more of it: organizations are making contractors come into the building while allowing employees to stay home.

Global Foundries is planning an IPO instead of selling itself to Intel.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is now Asia's most valuable company.

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Friday 20 August 2021

"Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud, or EC2, turns 15 years old this year, marking a significant milestone for both the company and the computing world it serves."

Intel shows its Alder Lake line of processors coming this Fall.

How successful companies work through tax laws to reduce their tax burden. This is all legal and praiseworthy. We all use all the tax reductions that are legal.

In America, the trick is to succeed without becoming too successful or angering politicians. Our FTC continues its pursuit of Facebook.

For the first time in 10 years, Microsoft increases the subscription price of Microsoft 365.

The changing workplace continues: Stitch Fix's managers are removing much of the flexible location and hours of its agents.

Facebook attempts to help Afghans by protecting them from Taliban.

Dell shows its first portable monitor.

A closer look at at Samsung's foldable smartphone.

Apple delays its return to the office again. It looks like January 2022.

Once again, the experts were wrong. All those plexiglass walls erected to stop the virus actually did the opposite (study from Johns Hopkins Univ).

This story must be important as it is all over the Internet: Tesla is working on a humanoid robot.

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Saturday 21 August 2021

BOOM! Cryptocurrency use explodes up 881% in the last 12 months. In the actual mining days, when a mine played out we had a ghost town. What will be the ghost town equivalent today?

A California Judge strikes down Proposition 22 wherein the voters said that Uber drivers et al are contractors, not employees. Power to the pe, no power to the Judge.

Qoute, "From the early days of the outbreak, health departments have struggled to collect information on cases, and often only had delayed and incomplete data." All the "follow the science" has been hollow since there was little science in the science. Someone finally admits this.

GM is recalling ALL Chevy Bolts for a fire hazard.

We have more than we want to know about "the average Chick-fil-A customer."

"Cable cutting" continues as cable TV services lost 1.1million American subscribers in the last three months.

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Sunday 22 August 2021

The tale of student loans to attend college and interest payments. The tragedy is we are asking 18-year-olds who don't know what they are doing to decide on these matters. You borrow money, you pay interest. I understand that and feel it is right. I, however, am not 18.

Where Americans are moving in the past ten years. Retirement communities are the big "winners."

Facebook released some information and witheld other information about what is popular on their platform. Some people see "bad news" in the facts. Folks like to laugh at pets and smile at grandkids.

Researchers visit China and try to decide which is the biggest lie of all the lies told by the CCP.

A good interview with Apple's Tim Cook. I am surprised at some of his answers. A person of his age should know better about time and "who is in control," etc.

Princeton researchers built a system like Apple's CSAM system. They quickly spotted the danger of identifying "bad" behavior. It is all about who decides good and bad.

A 12-step process to improve a person's writing. There is some pretty good advice in here.

Thoughts on a writer's portfolio.

Thoughts on a series bible (guide) and using Scrivener. A series bible (or series guide) is a collection of key details about everything and everyone in the world of your series, from the characters' eye colors, birthdates, personalities, and the cars they drive, to their family history, the name of pertinent streets, and the timeline for major and minor events (current and backstory).

Research is necessary for some types of writing. It can also be a big help in many other situations with many writers.

Thoughts on the "writing sprint." By some other name or two, I do this. It works for me. As per usual, try this and use it if it works for you.

NaNoWriMo? How about ChaBooCha and NaNonFiWriMo? Here are a list of writing challenges. This could be fun.

How one person wrote their way through grief. It is a good practice for many.

Some pretty good tips on outlining a nonfiction book.

"If you intend to write a novel, I can tell you most publishers may ask you for an outline and a few chapters."

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