Summary of this week:

Is it ethical to pay someone to edit Wikipedia?
I am tied up away from the Internet for several days
Apple may sell 500,000 iPhones this weekend
Microsoft will continue to sell Windows XP through April 2011
Steve Jobs had a liver transplant a couple of months ago

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

Monday June 15, 2009

Intel is bring more performance to the lower end of the processor market later in 2009.

Is Google afraid of Microsoft's Bing? I doubt it, but Google has some pretty smart boys and girls and they are probably paying attention to Bing.

Hold everything. TechCrunch's CrunchPad is out yet. Disregard the video (that was since pulled).

Apple cut the speed of the disk drive interface in half on its newer portable computers. Most people will not notice the difference.

Is it ethical to pay someone to do Wikipedia edits? Of course it is, that is until someone starts abusing this concept. I see a lot of things that I would like to edit (contribute to) on Wikipedia, but don't have the time. There are probably a few starving college students who would love to do these contributions to Wikipedia this summer for a little money. Is that wrong? But yes, some BIG government or corporation can easily abuse this and the cheaters would ruin everything for everyone. Alas.

In spite of tough times, HP continues to fund research. Good for HP.

Bob Sutton relays a story about umpires and screamers. Good stuff.

Thoughts on Google's book scanning project. Like paying people to edit Wikipedia, there is much good in Google's project. There is also the potential for abuse. People don't fully trust Google to behave. Hence, the lawyers are called.

Here is a look back at Apple's switch from PowerPC to Intel processors. This retrospective concludes that is was all about money. Well, this is a business and one aim of business is to make money for the people who own the business.

How quickly the world's media has changed. Twenty years ago CNN was hailed for its full-time coverage of the first gulf war. Now CNN is being Tweeted or Twittered to death for its "lack of coverage" of events in Iran.

Intel looks at the smartphone market for its processors.

Dell is buying a lot of ad space on Twitter, and believes the ads are working to the tune of $3Million.

Email me at d.phillips@computer.org
Go to Day Book Home and pointer to previous weeks
Go to Dwayne's Home Page

Tuesday June 16, 2009

I am in some unusual meetings all day, plus extended commuting time. One result is almost no Internet viewing today.

I expect the same for Wednesday and maybe Thursday.

Email me at d.phillips@computer.org
Go to Day Book Home and pointer to previous weeks
Go to Dwayne's Home Page

Wednesday June 17, 2009

My expectations came true. Extra commuting and blacked out, so no viewing today.

Email me at d.phillips@computer.org
Go to Day Book Home and pointer to previous weeks
Go to Dwayne's Home Page

Thursday June 18, 2009

I actually find some time this afternoon to view the Internet. Ahh, it is good.

The next iPhones - next year's - will have multi-core processors.

U.S. broadband use is up, and per the law of supply and demand, so is the price.

An amazing story, an airline pilot dies in flight over the Atlantic, the plane lands safely. All this is covered live on the net.

Apple should sell 500,000 iPhones this weekend.

Some deeper impression of the MacBook Pro lineup.

Here is some magnetic storage that moves, but doesn't spin. This may be revolutionary or it may be another new idea in storage that never worked.

This Verizon stick modem provides Internet access anywhere in the world. All you have to do is buy the right data plans for the right countries and so on.

Microsoft will sell Windows XP into April of 2007. Face it, Windows XP is one of the most successful pieces of software Microsoft has ever produced.

Apple is a software company, an idea company at its heart. Forbes likes the new iPhone software much more than the hardware.

NASA inches towards returning people to the moon. Sigh, This is all long overdue, and their is plenty of blame to go around.

Email me at d.phillips@computer.org
Go to Day Book Home and pointer to previous weeks
Go to Dwayne's Home Page

Friday June 19, 2009

The diminishing returns of collaboration - interesting.

A video demo of the MiFi.

Video is coming to Wikipedia. I am looking forward to this. I look at Wikipedia a lot regarding music and musicans. A link to a video will be a great addition. Who wants to read about how something or someone sounds?

I guess sometimes a court has to do something to make an example. After the smoke clears, they do it again in a sensible manner. A $1.92 million dollar fine for copying music.

Here are some good reasons for scheduling meetings to last one hour. In government, people schedule meetings for an hour because that is the default and they don't have to think. If the meeting is over in 20 minutes, we sit and talk for the next 40 minutes.

Sigh, can government organizations do no right? The University of Wisconsin is trying to update its 30-year old payroll system. Millions of dollars later, they have nothing. I think they have both a Computer Science department and an engineering school there. What gives?

There is a plan to demolish parts of Flint, Michigan and return it to nature. The city cannot afford to attempt to maintain the crumbling infrastructure. There is some merit to this idea. It is unfortunate that someone in Washington D.C. has heard of it and wants to - what else - take the plan national and do it all over the country. A good idea gone crazy. Oh well, can government do no right?

It must be tough for American companies to deal with the government of China. I often don't like what they are doing (both sides), but I don't envy their position (the American companies).

Email me at d.phillips@computer.org
Go to Day Book Home and pointer to previous weeks
Go to Dwayne's Home Pag

Saturday June 20, 2009

Adobe updates it online services. It now has a spreadsheet and has left "Beta" after a year. The non-beta means that it is selling services now.

The Washington Post reports on Google's tricycle camera arrangement. I am amazed at how far behind the newspapers are on such stories.

Commercial firms believe their vehicles are better than NASA's for returning people to space. They may have something here, or they may just be trying to sell their wares.

As Spaceport America breaks ground on its facility.

Could "honesty cafes" work? Pay your bill with no person taking it? Sure they could and then they couldn't.

The Kindle DX (the bigger one) perhaps isn't good for reading paperback novels.

On per household penetration, the U.S. is 20th in the world in broadband use. South Korea is first. There are many explanations for this. One is that many aging baby boomers and their older parents have no interest in broadband. They have most of the money and the least interest.

"Tethering" the iPhone is still "sometime in the future." As the Nigerians say, it will happen "some time after now."

The iPhone 3GS is faster than the old 3G. This is not a surpise, but it is nice to have some measures.

Steve Jobs had a liver transplant while on medical leave.

Tim O'Reilly writes about health care. It does sound like a lot of fury over 4.5%. As he writes, surely someone could save 4.5% in the system. There must be that much waste to cut. The situation doesn't make sense to me either.

Solar mirrors could be a bit distracting to military pilots in training. Who would have thought it?

And being ambassador to Sweeden costs $500,000. No real change in Washington. That is a shame.

Email me at d.phillips@computer.org
Go to Day Book Home and pointer to previous weeks
Go to Dwayne's Home Page

Sunday June 21, 2009

Now that the iPhone has a video camera (with other phones soon to follow), is there any hope for the small, inexpensive video cameras?

This is one of those stories that I had to see several times before I believed it - it is so stupid that it had to be a bad joke on the net, but it seems to be true. The City of Bozeman, MT was demanding that job applicants provide user names and passwords for all their online accounts. I am not sure what they city was going to do with that information. Anyways, the city has dropped that requirement. Bozeman is a nice place near Yellowstone and such. I visited their once and enjoyed my stay.

Roadtrip 2009. This kind of thing appeals to me.

Stowe Boyd notes that many movie critics have been laid off, but we don't miss them. This is true of much of the disappearing major media. We don't really miss them. If the Washington Post went under, my wife would miss the coupons that come in the Sunday supplement. Then again, it would take about a month for some other business to figure out how to distribute them. What's the cliche, "you don't know what you've got till its gone?" I suppose we could turn that around into something like, "you don't know how little you needed it till its gone"

Intersting question, what would be the best handset for freedom? This Iranian "election" story is giving a big voice to people who like to wonder about technology and revolutions.

Ray Bradbury is helping raise money to keep libraries open. I like that. I love the Internet spread of knowledge, but I like libraries as well. Maybe as much for the atmosphere of sitting and reading as for the books. I wish the big book stores would create more seating space.

Here is an idea for writers: take a writing retreat of your own. It can be done very inexpensively. Stay in a crummy motel and spend your days in a local public library.

The retreat is a great way to stop "digital fidgeting."

How did Microsoft XP come to rule the really small portable computer market?

I still love to read the One Sentence stories.

George Will writes aboutt the dependency agenda in Washington.

Email me at d.phillips@computer.org
Go to Day Book Home and pointer to previous weeks
Go to Dwayne's Home Page