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: 7-13 February, 2022

Summary of this week:

• It is official that Nvidia will not buy Arm
• Apple raises pay for retail workers (otherwise they would all quit)
• Samsung has a big event
• Nvidia is now worth more than Meta

Monday 7 February 2022

Toshiba will split into two companies.

Rumors about Apple's updated computers for this year coming real soon now.

Our government decided to remove Chinese equipment from out networks. Our government also grossly underestimated the cost (reality is 3x the estimate).

Jeff Bezos built his own ship. You have to go under a bridge to leave the shipyard. Tear down the bridge? Throw eggs at the ship? Fear and loathing in Rotterdam.

Government regulation run amuck: in Germany, 21,000 empty planes in the air this winter per regulation to keep airport reservations.

Warning your fellow writer: folks need to hear that if you have a successful book, you get $1 on each copy sold, not half, not much of anything.

When a writer dies, what do you do with their unpublished works?

I have been a project manager. I wrote books about project managing. Many writers, however, don't know the subject and struggle as writers because of that.

Many of us writers don't like to be "out there in public." Marketing in public, however, is essential if you want any income.

How one writer learned to make a living writing blogs and articles for magazines.

This writer wrote six novels in a summer (possible, actually not difficult). Then learned how to write better by not writing for a while.

Thoughts on freelance work and making a living online.

Tuesday 8 February 2022

The world spins all the way around again: Intel to fabricate RISC designs from its former competitors.

And another complete change: if you download a word Docx from the Internet and it has macros in it, Microsoft will block the execution by default.

A quick reversal here: our IRS will NOT use facial recognition as a login to file taxes.

Someone leaks Samsung's new lineup of tablets. Good hardware coming our way.

It is official: Nvidia will not buy Arm.

These are small steps but they are a start as spinal implants help accident victims to walk again.

Wednesday 9 February 2022

The EU governors are ready to pour billions into semiconductor manufacturing. A lesson learned late, but learned during the prolonged year of the virus: China is not a reliable business partner.

Inflation. Apple increases pay and benefits for its retail workers. Otherwise, they would all quit their jobs and do something or other.

Pandemic prosperity for semiconductor manufacturer GlobalFoundries.

Facial recognition technology continues to be rejected. This is the case until someone uses it to solve a heinous crime.

Almost every major department of the our Federal government is buying foreign-made cellphone unlocking gadgetry. This is not just law enforcement---everyone.

We are starting to see faults in small computer chips that are collapsing large networks. Something akin to the shoe tack that caused the loss of a great battle.

Fear and loathing at Peloton with layoffs, a new CEO, and all sorts of sundry angst.

Thursday 10 February 2022

Samsung announced a lot of new and updated phones and tablets. Here is one summary.

AMD gained market share in the x86 market. This is the highest share ever for AMD.

LinkedIn is trying to stay away from political posts and, as the headline states, it may be the best social network there is.

Can't beat the machine as Sony as a new AI-based driver for Gran Turismo that beats everyone.

Pandemic prosperity for TWilio.

The best value in computing becomes better as Amazon has its Fire tablets on sale at 50% off.

This may be bad news. Dr. Fauci (the man that has been wrong so many times we can't keep track) says we are coming out of the pandemic.

Ukraine defeats Russian bot farm. The cyber war has been in progress for quite a while.

Whoooo$h. Nvidia is now more valuable than Meta.

DARPA flies a helicopter without a pilot for half an hour.

Friday 11 February 2022

YouTube is introducing new video editing features. And, of course, they are making it easier to compete with TikTok.

One video game company goes to a four-day work week.

Misbehaving at the CIA and collecting on Americans. Probably hyperboly in the press.

Pandemic prosperity continues at Disney.

Reports of using AI to decipher ancient languages. It may prove helpful.

Our President wants to give $5billion of our money to electric car companies to build charging stations along the Interstate highways. Are we to also give subsidies to other transportation companies?

In China, where all news is supposed to be good during the Olympics, censorship lives on.

We are seeing reduced prices on Apple's computers using their M1 processor. This usually indicates new computers with new processors are coming real soon now.

Saturday 12 February 2022

Pandemic prosperity for China's largest chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation SMIC.

Intel officially announces that it is making processors just for crypto mining. They will do the job and consume far less energy.

A look at Alienware's new X14 portable gaming computer. Nothing unexpected. It is smaller, thinner, lighter, and less powerful. It is still expensive. The name brand costs you.

The James Webb Space Telescope takes it first images.

"Sort by price insulates the producer from the customer. When we resort to a single metric, we get what we measure, and the side effects pile up."---Seth Godin

McDonald's has a chicken Big Mac (news to me). Also news is that demand has exceeded supply and they pulled it from the menu.

MUST SEE VIDEO: Here it is folks, a flying car in Slovakia. Why do they have all the fun?

Government control run out of control. This man in Turkey has leukemia and has constantly tested positive for you know what. He can't hug his grandkids.

Cisco attempts to buy Splunk for $20Billion.

Looking at the coming world of the metaverse and blockchain and web3 and looking back at past hype-and-burst cycles. One of the major differences is that today we have unprecedented government regulation, a.k.a., the pandemic.

How "Big Tech" has repeated the practices of big oil and big railroads and big land and big pyramids or whatever we had 3,000 years ago. Same thing: we need open competition until I have made it big and then we need regulation to prevent others from challenging my position at the top of the hill.

Sunday 13 February 2022

The Internet news is quite slow this morning.

A former Airbus engineer is make a hotel out of an old A380.

One results of how we chose to react to the virus is a big drop in college attendance. While there are other ways to learn for life, many of those are subpar and will hurt us in ten years.

Ne'er-do-wells don't have to take things from your computer. They can ruin your life by putting things on your computer.

CPUs sure are more complicated today than in the day of the Zilog Z-80.