Summary of this week:

This is November - National Novel Writing Month - I am participating this year
Election day comes and goes in the U.S.
Apple has 95% of the tablet market
Even Microsoft admits that tablets are killing netbooks
The U.S. switches back to Standard Time (a long story)

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

Monday November 1, 2010

We are now in November, and this year I will be writing a novel as part of NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month.

In the future (don't you just love things that begin this way?), instead of erecting cell phone towers we may use our portable radios as relays in a mesh network. This would shift the power needs from a central tower to each portable device. There are good and bad points to this - as usual.

A stern warning about unencrypted WiFi networks.

Microsoft is pushing its cloud computing initiative with what else but advertisements. Yes, there is some substance behind the ads.

The Chrome browser is growing at the expense of Internet Explorer. I use Chrome most of the time now at work. In my case, however, Chrome is easing out Firefox.

The Turkish government has banned YouTube for the past two years. They are now lifting that ban.

The director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications has declared that the future of supercomputing is in graphical processing units. This is good news for programmers as programming a GPU takes much more programmers than programming a supercomputer.

After a rough start, Windows XP will go down in history as one of the most beloved products Microsoft ever produced. Half of IT professionals surveyed say they will stick with XP long after support expires.

When does Daylight Savings Time end? That depends on where you are. It seems that the iPhone software can't keep up with the politicians who keep tweaking the DST idea.

A UK firm has a mobile hotspot for rural areas. It extends the 3G network with greater range and higher data rates. My mother needs one of these in her pasture.

There is probably too much math being pushed on kids in school. Then again, if we don't make every kid take algebra, how will we identify the small percentage of kids who will become scientists and engineers? My wife once tried to convince one of my sons to take calculus in high school. She realized that she never learned any calculus anywhere and was a happy, well adjusted adult without it.

Seth Godin makes a good point about voting and not voting: If you don't vote because you're trying to teach politicians a lesson, you're tragically misguided in your strategy. The very politicians you're trying to send a message to don't want you to vote.
We are now in November, and this year I will be writing a novel as part of NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month.

In the future (don't you just love things that begin this way?), instead of erecting cell phone towers we may use our portable radios as relays in a mesh network. This would shift the power needs from a central tower to each portable device. There are good and bad points to this - as usual.

A stern warning about unencrypted WiFi networks.

Microsoft is pushing its cloud computing initiative with what else but advertisements. Yes, there is some substance behind the ads.

The Chrome browser is growing at the expense of Internet Explorer. I use Chrome most of the time now at work. In my case, however, Chrome is easing out Firefox.

The Turkish government has banned YouTube for the past two years. They are now lifting that ban.

The director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications has declared that the future of supercomputing is in graphical processing units. This is good news for programmers as programming a GPU takes much more programmers than programming a supercomputer.

After a rough start, Windows XP will go down in history as one of the most beloved products Microsoft ever produced. Half of IT professionals surveyed say they will stick with XP long after support expires.

When does Daylight Savings Time end? That depends on where you are. It seems that the iPhone software can't keep up with the politicians who keep tweaking the DST idea.

A UK firm has a mobile hotspot for rural areas. It extends the 3G network with greater range and higher data rates. My mother needs one of these in her pasture.

There is probably too much math being pushed on kids in school. Then again, if we don't make every kid take algebra, how will we identify the small percentage of kids who will become scientists and engineers? My wife once tried to convince one of my sons to take calculus in high school. She realized that she never learned any calculus anywhere and was a happy, well adjusted adult without it.

Seth Godin makes a good point about voting and not voting: If you don't vote because you're trying to teach politicians a lesson, you're tragically misguided in your strategy. The very politicians you're trying to send a message to don't want you to vote.

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

Tuesday November 2, 2010

I have to put this post at the top of the viewing list today. It goes through the list of silly legislation and regulation in response to terrorists actions. In the war between terrorists and regulators, the terrorists are winning by a wide margin. They are able to make regulators look silly. Citizens of the free world are caught in the trap.

I like this one. Chinese subjects are able to access banned Internet sites via their Kindles.

For those who either don't remember 1989 or weren't around in 1989, this photo shows 1989's Apple portable computer and today's.

The first big adopters of wireless broadband may be businesses.

The South Korean government will spend $8Billion on offshore windfarms. I don't know if that is a good expense of public funds or not. We shall see.

The International Space Station is ten years old and cost us $100Billion. Was it worth the expense? This is a government project, so factor in probably $30Billion in waste. Ouch.

Thirty-three developers leave openoffice.org. Ouch again. I have long used OpenOffice software. I hope it finds a way to continue.

Better gasoline-powered motors may be the answer instead of electric motors. Whenever the government mandates a solution vs. a requirement, we should all beware. Would you go to 635 lawyer hacks, i.e., Congress, for an engineering solution or to some engineers? We burn fossil fuels for a reason - it works. Sorry if that offends some people.

A new way to enter letters on a touch-screen equipped cell phone. This is from 8pen. I guess I could learn how to use this. I wish they had a usable demo online so I could try.

I'll have to look at this one closer - the Aloha-Editor. An HTML5 editor.

The brainiacs at NASA aren't asleep. They have figured that they could send an unmanned mission to the moon much quicker and cheaper than a manned mission. Duh! I am glad we are paying them for these insights.

This German camera pan-tilt controller can move the camera faster than a human can move his eyeballs. I am not sure what the application is here, but there are possibilities.

Really small portable computers running Google's Chrome operating system are due this month. What will they be? What will they do? It is great to be a consumer at this time.

It seems that women and men sense pain and pain medication differently. That makes sense on the surface.

The U.S. Department of the Interior is running a competitive contract in which they require companies to use Microsoft products. Google feels this is overly restrictive. Hence, Google is suing the U.S. government. Most companies will not sue the government as the government has all the money and "he who has the gold makes the rules." I like to see companies who take on the government.

It is a Federal election day in America. The occasion we have every two years where we vote the bums out of office and wish that the group that comes in doesn't turn out to be bums as well.

Email me at d.phillips@computer.org
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Wednesday November 3, 2010

Election day passes. For the third election in a row, the House of Representatives changes majority party. Can any of these guys spell "over reaching?" Maybe one day they will learn that voters are voting against the incumbent instead of for the challenger. Then maybe the challengers-turned-incumbent will behave accordingly.

Some Apple news:
Sales of really small portable computers sinks 80% as people want iPads.
Apple has 95% of the tablet market. The only way to go is down.
And Apple's forecast for 2011 is 100 million iPhones and 48 million iPads. Those are big numbers.

An in-depth review of the smaller MacBook Air.

Fedora 14 has now been released.

A look at the WeTab - a German-made tablet running the Linux-based MeeGo OS.

Some policy news, the WiFi Alliance and HomePlug Powerline Alliance will now work closer together on standards, testing, and interoperability, and other things. This sounds like a good thing for consumers.

T-Mobile continues to grow its 4G (HSPA+) network. They now have 75 markets online.

Internet Explorer 9 has the best HTML5 compatibility. At least so far.

I like this index card blog. I especially like this post about hats.

I will have to look at this online app for the iPad later (I don't have my iPad with me now). chalk.37signals.com

And look at this meeting room that 37signals uses. Computer displays, chalkboards, and cork walls. I love it. I want one of these rooms.

California voters don't like former high-tech executives. But this is California where if you want to be elected you support state employees receiving lifetime pensions that are greater than their salary. Of course you can afford it, all you have to do is elect a president who will print money and bailout your state. Hence, Google's Marissa Meyer should move to another state before running for office.

The latest terrorist airplane bomb plot may be the end of in-flight WiFi. The TSA declares the terrorists the winners once again. Sigh.

Email me at d.phillips@computer.org
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Thursday November 4, 2010

Wireless technology can help monitor a person's health when they are not in the doctor's office or hospital. This is a good thing. How in the world more technology will lower health care cost is beyond me though.

Along the lines of "these guys must be kidding," the FCC is holding meetings. You have to pay $1,500 to attend the meeting with these public servants. Your tax dollars at waste.

Google is blurring the images of German homes on Street View. Google is only doing this for the 3% of Germans who want their homes blurred. 97% to 3%, well, I don't know. A big deal about nothing.

Germans have planted chips in the eyes of blind people. They can see shapes and such in three days. This could become something of great significance.

It seems that candidates who supported net neutrality didn't do well in this week's U.S. elections. This is a voodoo science story. "Net neutrality" means vastly different things to different people and is only one small issue considered by voters.

I wonder if this idea will work - your computer fits into a wall outlet. The vast majority of computing and storage occurs at a server. You only have a keyboard and monitor on your desk.

Now this will increase the movie-going fun - theatres are monitoring movie fans with cameras. The stated objective is to catch people who ilegally video the movie on the screen. What they do with the video of the audience is your guess. Be careful who you go with and what you do during the movie.

Seth Godin on "the new laziness" and fear. I like this post.

Yes kids, we processed images long before Photoshop. At least I was involved in those things in the early 1980s. And I wrote a book on the topic as well.

Jamie Thomas has been in court since 2006. She has been fined $1.5M for downloading 24 songs. Your tax dollars at waste. Will someone explain what has become of the American legal system to me?

Home consumers (like me) have adopted Windows 7. Businesses (like where I work) have not. We still use XP. We do so because our primary customer, the U.S. government, is still using XP. The U.S. government is still using Office 2003! But that is just another case of Your Tax Dollars at Waste.

Ars Technica (a great site) launches ars.tv. Look at http://arstechnica.com/site/tv.ars

Email me at d.phillips@computer.org
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Friday November 5, 2010

Another 4G mobile hot spot from Clearwire.

A NASA deep-space probe flies by a comet and sends back great photos. I criticize NASA a lot. This, however, is what they are supposed to be doing.

For the first time in history, subscriptions to cable TV dropped. I access the Internet at home via a cable TV provider. I guess if I used Verizon FIOS (which also provides cable via a an optic wire) that wouldn't count as cable TV?

The purveyors of MS Windows finally admit that tablet computers are taking away sales to those really small computers (that run MS Windows). Microsoft had better be writing lots of apps for the iPad and all those other coming tablets right now. Someone is making money there.

A company named Gigabyte has a computer that changes from a netbook to a tablet to a desktop. I suppose this provides utility for some people.

Experiences with a wood cookstove.

Once again, people are trying to put power-generating turbines in the Mississippi River. When I went to college in Baton Rouge (two times, total of five years), I lived a mile from the river. People have been talking about and prototyping these things for decades. Yes, there is a lot of energy there waiting to be used. Perhaps it will work this time.

Some friends of mine are involved in Book View Cafe. I need to look at it more closely.

Funny title - Indian Outsourcers Feeling Unloved. It is a competitive world. Governements requiring that tax dollars be spent in the tax region seems legitimate to me. If you want government contracts - and believe me, there are plenty of reasons NOT to want government contracts - you have to be in the tax region.

A new technology out of Australia gives broadband performance using old home television antennas.

Email me at d.phillips@computer.org
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Saturday November 6, 2010

Email me at d.phillips@computer.org
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Sunday November 7, 2010

In the U.S., we fell back an hour last night to Standard Time from Daylight Savings Time. You cannot call it "standard" if you use it less than the special time, but Congress can do any stupid thing they wish. They are, after all, in Congress - a license to steal.

A post about Polish programmers working for a New York City startup, but remaining in Poland. This is outsourcing folks. These Polish programmers are not cheap. They do, however, have the skills the startup needs. And those skills are hard to find in NYC.

A wind-powered vehicle travels faster than the wind. Why not? The wind is not the only source of energy available to it.

The jetman keeps improving his one-man, wing, with jets or whatever it is called. These are stunts, but one day may lead to something useful, i.e., something more important than an appearance in a James Bond movie.

It seems that older Americans are less healthy than their British counterparts, but outlive them anyways.

And it also seems that there are big security holes in mobile banking apps. Is everyone ready for national electronic health records?

Here are some dollar figures to charge for freelance writing. The pay isn't much compared to some steady jobs, so you need to live in a low cost-of-living place. It can be a good second job or a second job in a family where someone else earns a good living. Take care in quiting your job and plunging into this. And yes, do buy and read the annual Writer's Market books.

One writer's angst during the first week of National Novel Writing Month. I've had great fun this week doing this.

Neat photos, holding a water baloon in your hand while it bursts.

More tablets are hitting the market. This one is loaded, but sells for $1,000 - not cheap.

Ah, this is a pleasnat workspace. A long, shallow "desk" attached to a wall. It lets in all the natural light while still providing plenty of horizontal surface area.

Some tips on naming your characters in fiction.

One writer's experience in self-publishing and giving away the book.

EditMe - a low-cost, commercial, supported, online wiki for your group.

"Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing" by Dean Wesley Smith. Fascinating.

You are never too old to "start" as a writer. This woman, age 81 years young, publishes her first book.

YouTube has hit one billion subscriptions. Here are seven tech-related ones.

Sad (for me at least) but true. If you want to write, you have to revise what you write.

Some thoughts on clutter and how that affects a writer and freelancer.

And some excellent points on self-publishing, the overhead costs of publishers, and how to price an eBook. Summary: no one knows what to charge for eBooks.

I like these thoughts on how work will change in the next decade. These are more like wishes, and I as much as I would like to see them, I doubt they will become commonplace.

I also like this idea - a project manager's blog on a large project. An excellent way to keep everyone informed on the big picture. Also, a great thing that I doubt will happen.

Email me at d.phillips@computer.org
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