Summary of this week:

There was a major solar eclipse over the weekend
The SpaceX cargo ship launched successfully - and then docked with the ISS
Dell is hurting from all these tablet sales by other companies
But Lenovo's profits rose 46%
Seagate to buy controlling interest in LaCie
The Facebook IPO flops - lawyers enter

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

Monday May 21, 2012

This is an amazing event: 60,000 Orthodox Jews, men only, filled New York City stadiums to protest the dangers of the Internet.

According to one group that counts these things, for the first time Google's Chrome is the world's most popular browser.

Microsoft launches a sort-of social network - so.cl. This is from Microsoft Research, and the launch was done quietly.

Cable TV companies are combining to let their users use each other's WiFi hotspots around the country. There are 50,000 such combined hot spots.

Linux Kernal 3.4 is released.

Google pulls back some of the hype about their augmented reality glasses. Still, we are moving in the right direction.

Great photos of the solar eclipse.

Hulu becomes another "TV network" with its own original shows this summer. What will we call these things? They aren't really TV networks, but they are doing the same thing. Nevertheless, more jobs for writers, directors, actors, and such.

A look at HP's new workstation. I guess that is what the PC makers call their more powerful computers - workstations.

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Tuesday May 22, 2012

If you can't prove that the government has spied on you, you can't sue the government. So says the Obama administration. I suppose this is a suit over how competent the government spies are, or something like that.

The SpaceX cargo ship launched. Oddly enough, NASA is proclaiming this as a great accomplishment for NASA.

This is sort of a world record for engineers who sort data, but Microsoft Research broke Yahoo's 2009 record for sorting.

Oxford University is investigating Yeti or Bigfoot or whatever the (supposed) creature is called. In the Honey Island swamp of Louisiana, we call it...well, I can't remember what we call it there. I think we call it bigfoot.

Eugene Polley dies at 96. He invented the wireless TV remote control.

Has college become too easy? Probably. The average student is studying about 45 minutes for every hour in class. The old rule of thumb was two hours study for every hour in class. Hmm.

Well, this is some good news about education - colleges are using the Internet to augment learning.

I guess this could aid bicycle safety. A rear-ward facing camera and a display on the handlebars. The rider looks forward and can see what is behind.

California inches towards allowing self-driving cars on its roads.

Here it comes - The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency wants to install license plate scanners on an Interstate in Utah. The scanners would record all license plates (vehicles) that pass by. Look for a national system of license plate scanners whereby the government would be able to tell itself what car was where when. The technology is here. Our only hope of privacy is the usual incompetence and envy built into government agencies.

Perl 5.16 was released.

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Wednesday May 23, 2012

A look at the second generation Ultrabook from ASUS.

The global market for tablet computers grew 124% over the year. Most of that, no surprise here, is due to the iPad.

And all these tablets are hurting Dell and other makers of traditional portable computers.

But Lenovo's profits went up 46% as they beat everyone in growth in the PC market.

Since the Raspberry Pi can't seem to get its product manufactured and shipped, others are stepping into the new market. This is the Android PC System (APC) from VIA at only $45. It isn't as small as the Pi, but you can buy it in July - at least that is what they promised.

In the UK, Martha Lane Fox is giving people a refurbished PC and a year of broadband for $240. Here is more on Fox.

ooVoo is now offering 12-way video chats - no charge.

This is a little silly because it is about dolls, but it is a peak at things to come. You go online, design a doll, they push a button, their 3D printer prints it, and they mail it to you. One of a kind manufacturing.

Most people don't like "open office" designs. They want more privacy.

Signs that we are in a tech bubble.

Mozilla launches an effort to teach the average person the building blocks of the web.

Want to go ballistic and fly to an altitude of 100 miles in a cramped tube? Here it is.

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Thursday May 24, 2012

"President Obama has issued a directive to urge major government agencies to focus on the "growing mobile revolution." " Unbelieveable. This is like directing an Olympic-class runner to run faster. Nothing will happen as most government agencies can barely have a web site that stays up on Internet 1.0.

Six lucky university communities will get funding from Gig.U to install fibre optic broadband networks. George Mason University is part of Gig.U. Perhaps...That would be nice.

Rumors about the next release of OS X - maybe it will have voice dictation? I hope so.

Seagate intends to buy controlling interest in LaCie. I hope this improves both companies instead of ruins one of them.

The CIO and CTO of our Federal government are trying to attract young programmers to come to work for the government. This has about a 1/100th of 1% chance of succeeding. The prospects for long-term success are much worse. Those who actually come to Washington - high cost of living, bad traffic, and low pay - will be really discouraged when they encounter their managers.

The Facebook IPO mess is now turning to legalities as charges of insider trading arise. Still, Mark Zuckerburg made so much money that he had to sell $1Billion in stock to pay his taxes.

Microsoft Office is coming to iOS and Android tablets in November.

Watch this video as ALL this ketchup comes out of the bottle. Silly, yes, but these coatings are bringing us frictionless surfaces - the stuff of science fiction.

Linux Mint 13 is released.

The President may have solved traffic congestion in major U.S. cities. Cause unemployment and high gas prices and people either have no place to go or no money to buy gas.

A father watches his son's life light up at Maker Faire. Great stuff.

The SmartTripod - the winner of the Microsoft robotics competition.

A year behind schedule and, no doubt, far over budget, Northrop Grumman's Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle, a.k.a, blimp, is about to take its first test flight for the Army.

ooops United Airlines spilled passenger information on their web site. Is everyone ready for national electronic health records?

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Friday May 25, 2012

No viewing this morning as I had breakfast with some fine gentlemen.

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Saturday May 26, 2012

The SpaceX vessel docked with the International Space Station.

Research in Motion to lay off 2,000 people.

A man cleaned up an old missile silo and has sold 1,800 square foot units as survival condos.

Ten reasons you should quit your job. According to the post, the world has changed and all the reasons for wanting to have a long-term secure job have disappeared.

Steve Balmer's Windows 8 computer has an 80" screen.

Ford says that the Sync automotive software is in four million cars.

A look at the ZBoard electric powered skateboard on the street. This has a ten-mile range. Good transportation.

This odd-shaped pot stirs itself. Fascinating. Look at other problems like this and what do we have?

Neat video - life backwards.

A short video - a real one - from Google Glasses.

A 19-year-old lived in an America On-Line building in Palo Alto - for two months - before someone noticed.

One in eight Americans have no one to talk to.

In New Orleans, The Times-Picayune is scaling back to three print days a week.

Yet Warren Buffet bought 26 small, local newspapers.

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Sunday May 27, 2012

Twenty long pieces of advice from Stephen King's "On Writing."

A plan for writing one high-quality blog post a week.

LG has sold three million LTE phones worldwide.

As opposed to everything else, online jobs are on the rise. The trouble is finding online work that pays more than a dollar an hour. I have yet to figure out how to earning an American middle-class living working online.

Six tips to help you write when you don't have the time.

A "secret" to writing massive amounts on demand - a routine, a "click-whirr."

A how-fast-do-you-read web site.

Are college degrees worth while any longer?

People seem to love that Windows XP. Microsoft is resorting to telling us how much money we are wasting by still using it. We still use it at work, but we are a government contractor and we use it because the government still does.

In 1977, Steve Wozniak wrote an article for Byte magazine describing the Apple II.

Focusing on description in writing.

Larger startups are still using co-working spaces. You have lowered your standard of living, so if you can tolerate it, you will be more efficient.

One of the issues with "how many words did you write today" is that typing the words is only one part of writing. There are others. Still, if you organize yourself - yikes - you will be typing words everyday.

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