Summary of this week:

Happy Birthday America
Windows 7 is now on just more than half the PCs in the world
Hollywood discovers the camera carrying UAV
Samsung has $5.9Billion quarterly profit
Strong rumors of a smaller iPad model
Best Buy laying off 2,400 including 600 Geek Squad jobs

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

Monday July 2, 2012

If you are one of the few who ever used Apple’s MobileMe, Sunday was a big day as Apple actually turned it off.

This chart shows that Windows 7 is now on a little more than half the PCs in the world. The chart also reminds us of what a big failure Windows Vista was.

Best Buy has reduced the prices of Apple’s latest computers. These aren’t big discounts, but they are discounts.

Samsung has a new health-monitoring app. This is great, if anyone wants to use it. I guess there are those who will use it on doctor’s orders.

This story must be important as it is all over the place this morning. Apple pays $60Million to settle a trademark dispute.

AMC (American Movie Classics) is off Dish Network. Maybe they will settle their dispute shortly.

There is no “offline” anymore. (?)

Excellent question from Stowe Boyd, ”Why do we still call them phones?”

Cambridge University and Imperial College London are putting their supercomputer on line for rental.

The Declaration of Internet Freedom.

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Tuesday July 3, 2012

Strong rumor: Apple to launch the updated iMac in October.

And the new iMacs might have the new retina display.

I’ll have to try this one: use an iPad as a second monitor for your portable computer.

Turn customers into service reps instead of having call centers. This might work as long as you pay these people for their time.

Advances in the area of stretchable electronics.

The Jitterbug cellphone gets an update. This is the “old folks” phone that basically sends and receives phone calls with large buttons and display.

This cyclist keeps a computer running using his legs to generate the power. That isn’t such a big deal except that this is a 32-core server from HP - a real computer.

This all works from the Pedal-a-Watt device.

California is inching towards allowing driverless cars. I find it interesting that Google has done most of their driverless car research in California - the nation’s leader in regulations. It would have made more sense to do this in Nevada or Arizona.

This appears to be a great device: A camp stove that also charges your electronic devices. If it works, it can change much in the world of survival and outdoor activities.

Here is an example of a Kickstarter project. People are using Kickstarter to fund all kinds of projects. Hmmm...

The biggest complaints that developers have with working with Apple.

Excellent data plot shows the demise and comeback of computers from Apple.

I suppose the patent wars will never end. Much of this seems silly, but there is a lot of money at stake as well as a lot of jobs.

A word I have learned this week: derecho. It means straight as in the straight 80 mph winds that hit my neighborhood. It is opposite of tornado which means swirling as in, well you know, tornadoes.

The C programming language lives on!

Why are American kids so spoiled? I never noticed the trend in my house.

What is inside the new Google tablet.

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Wednesday July 4, 2012

I am on a short "vacation," so the Internet viewing will be shortened for a few days.

Big rumors - Apple to have a smaller iPad by the end of the year.

Prediction, not rumor - tablets to outnumber laptop computers by 2016. This is a safe bet if for no other reason than tablets cost about half of what laptops do.

A look at Blueseed - put a cruise ship in international waters and avoid all the visa immigration hassle.

Nice video on the history of the Formula 1 racing car.

Ford predicts self-driving cars on the road by 2017.

Apple isn't the only retiring failed projects, Google has a long list of them retiring soon.

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Thursday July 5, 2012

Olympus has its own project like Google Glasses. Yes, this is not a new concept. People have been working on augmented reality glasses and such for decades.

A closer look at the relative rise and fall of Wintel and MacOSX.

Software, written by people who look at things, is predicting when crimes will occur. The LAPD really likes this. Such techniques have existed for a long time with police veterans. Then someone decided that it was racist or something-or-other-bad-ist to predict crime. We have learned that is okay for a impartial computer to predict crime.

A look at the rise of Nvidia.

Automate This - some organizations will adapt faster than others.

A critical look at the Gates Foundation and their giving.

While we celebrate the American Declaration of Independence, we consider Thomas Jefferson - an early DIY guy.

Put a camera on a UAV and look what Hollywood can do. These UAVs after all are only more powerful radio-controlled aircraft.

Kanban for 1. Yes, you can apply these tools to much simpler situations.

It seems that Packard Bell computers are a brand name for the low-end Acer computers.

Maybe this is a great idea or maybe it is a silly attempt to apply computing to something. These guys have made a "headlight" that predicts the flight path of raindrops and alters the light beams to miss them.

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Friday July 6, 2012

We are starting to see more Raspberry Pi experiments, and that was the purpose of the thing. Here someone is reviving their old video games.

Best Buy is using some of the techniques from the Apple store. I wonder if they will be sued for patent violation.

Amazon might bring out their own smartphone. They have succeeded with a small, special-purpose tablet so maybe they can do something with a phone.

Programming languages: Objective-C is more popular than C++. This is of course because Objective-C is what Apple requires you to use to program in iOS. This also of course depends on how you define "popularity." In spite of the "depends," the influence of iOS is obvious.

The Galaxy smartphone provided Samsung with a $5.9Billion quarterly profit. The definition of success has changed.

No more Windows Home Server from Microsoft.

A German college student passed all the exams needed to earn a college degree. The "problem" is that he did this in 20 months, and the university feels cheated in that he didn't pay tuition for all the normal semesters. Pushing back the frontiers of ignorance.

This is a clear case of entrapment, but who cares any more. The Pentagon will plant false information on its networks, monitor who accesses it, and if it is leaked, know who to prosecute.

Research into how humans walk and why we can do so. This has led to a better pair of robot walking legs. I hope it leads to better walking for those people whose muscles no longer work.

And this one looks promising - for the first time an MRI scan of a brain has controlled a robot.

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Saturday July 7, 2012

Abbreviated viewing this morning.

Mozilla is stopping work on Thunderbird, well, sort of.

Best Buy is cutting 600 Geek Squad jobs as well as 1,800 more store jobs.

Apple has pulled the green label from its products.

The rumors continue to grow about the smaller iPad.

This is not good - the new Google tablet will go on sale at Staples. Staples can kill any good product.

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Sunday July 8, 2012

Writing on the iPad - try Byword.

Is Sony a dying organization?

Intimidated because other writers write better? Accept it, it happens all the time.

What author name should you put on your cover? For one answer, see this post I wrote a couple of years ago. Put yourself on the bookcase next to someone famous and popular.

A look at the Mophie Juicepack Power Station. That is an overly long title for a battery you carry to recharge your iOS devices, but it works.

Where can I see this documentary? Craigslist Joe lived off Craigslist for a month. In theaters: August 3rd, 2012

My grandson would love this table - it has tracks built in for toy trains.

Climate change ruining the world? Almond growers in California are enjoying the weather and a third record year in a row.

Tips for starting a freelance career.

Economy in writing - placing less demands on your readers’ time.

Here is an example of a Kickstarter project. People are using Kickstarter to fund all kinds of projects. Hmmm...

Scoble on “scalable living.”

A variation on analysis paralysis. I will think about being a writer, I will study about being a writer, I will read about being a writer, but I won’t write.

Top 100 creative writing blogs - updated.

Fix sentences by combining them.

A few creative notes from da Vinci.

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