Summary of this week:

Unemployment hits a four-year low in the US, but remains historically high
Successful companies are "hiding" profits in low-tax countries
Linux 3.7 is released
The transistor is 65 years old
A travesty at a school in Connecticut

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

Monday December 10, 2012

I begin my end-of-year, four-week sabbatical, a.k.a., time off with no pay. This is the second year in a row. Better to take this than to lose a job.

Someone has to build all those videos and applications and such that most people consume on their mobiles. Those producers use workstations like these reviewed here.

Apple's new iMacs are pretty nice computers; I just received mine. The iMac has become a footnote in Apple's business and is dwindling every month.

The most likely product to be built in Apple's coming American factory is the portable computer line.

Look at this Radio Shack computer device from 1983. That is what we used to call an "accoustic coupler." The actual buzzes, beeps, and bops were transmitted via sound instead of electrical connection. It worked - at slow speeds mind you - but it worked.

Looking for a TV this holiday season? Five lies the salesman may tell you.

This is what a room full of gold bars looks like.

IBM is manufacturing optical processing modules that move data at 25GigaBitsPerSecond.

Broadcom will be building LTE chip sets in 2013.

Gadgets and software for travellers.

We are at a time in the Internet's history when all countries have it. One outcome is that some countries want governments to control the Internet as part of thier policing of their subjects.

Notes on how the US Air Force wasted $1Billion (with a B) on a failed software project - no delivery - nothing.

Unemployment in the US hits a four-year low. That is better news, but it is kind of like reporting the low during the Great Depression; we are still in a great recession, and with new taxes and regulations coming in a month...well, you know.

Twitter prohibits Instagram photos. Oh well.

Bad news - it appears that Google Fiber won't scale nationwide as it is too expensive.

More insight on the 25-GPU machine that cracks 14-character passwords in less than six hours. Is everyone ready for national electronic health records?

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

Tuesday December 11, 2012

A Nokia engineer hacks into the Microsoft store to get games free. Is everyone ready for national electronic health records?

Foxconn as already replacing workers with robotics.

A clever little iPhone dock. Excellent design and style.

Some survey has dropped Apple way down in the rankings of "happiest company."

Wow, look at this one. A liberal New York Times columnist writes that entitlement programs keep people in poverty and illiteracy.

A former NSA employee claims that the NSA collects all emails in the U.S.

From the Google digitization of books comes a list of most popular English phrases since the 1500s. Those dastardly Google folks (not).

PSY - that Gangnam style guy - let eveyone use his video at no charge. He became famous and then really rich from the fame. Sometimes in some situations it is very advantageous to let people violate your copyright.

Speaking of copyright, the majority of copyright lawsuits involve trolls.

Now the Russians are backing away from government controls on the Internet. This is opposite of yesteraday. What happens tomorrow?

To protest UN involvement in the Internet, a hacker group dumps 1.6million passwords onto the net. Is everyone ready for you know what?

Next year the taxis in London will become rolling WiFi hotspots F R E E.

Successful companies are avoiding paying taxes by putting profits into countries that have no corporate taxes. Greed or smarts? I am asking about the countries and their tax policies, not the companies. The companies are obviously smarter and more agile than the governments.

As I drink a cup of coffee, I find a study that claims that drinking coffee reduces the risk of oral cancer.

The rise of the retailer restaurant. They have reinvented being nice to customers.

On the pleasure of using a dumb phone.

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

Wednesday December 12, 2012

My Internet viewing was curtailed this morning.

Apple is working with several television makers on designs (for Apple TV?).

Microsoft is increasing production of its Surface tablet with hopes of putting the units in stores before Christmas.

And the first retailer to sell the Surface is Staples.

Linux 3.7 is released with features that will help ARM developers.

New malware is stealing credit card information from point-of-sales systems worldwide. Is everyone ready for national electronic health records?

And hackers break into the General Mills Facebook page. Same question as above.

The San Francisco 49ers are raiding tech talent in Silicon Valley.

Survey says: Facebook is the best place to work.

The Russians are now making smartphones - watch for Yota Devices.

Yahoo, under Marissa Mayer, has released a rebuilt Yahoo Mail.

The history of the world is on ... YouTube . Yes, YouTube.

The TED talks are generally good, but there has been a lot of junk science on there as well.

Acer brings out yet another new Chromebook - higher price ($299) but twice the goods.

Intel introduces a new Atom processor that has server performance and consumes far less electrical power.

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

Thursday December 13, 2012

Now we have a new Google Maps app for iOS.

The Ars Technica System Guide for end of year 2012.

The profitless prosperity of Android.

Here is an expansion chassis for your Apple computer. Expanding my new iMac is impossible - not! Which is another good example of why instead of saying "It is impossible for X to exist" we should say "I don't know how X can exist."

The Air Force launches the X37B again, and once again we don't know what they are doing.

Eric Schmidt says that Google Fiber in Kansas City isn't just an experiment. Okay arlready, when are you going to bring it to my town? Or how about to rural areas like where my mother lives?

Here is an idea - applying "library rules" of behavior to an office or part of an office. I like this idea - I like it a lot.

Are there any real differences between machine learning, data mining, and statistics?

Here is a good Raspberry Pi project: a solar-powered FTP server.

The transistor is 65 years old this week. It changed the world.

So far this is just a cute toy, but controlling things with your mind can change the lives of the disabled.

The American frontier still exists - fewer than six people per square mile. See the map. There is frontier land in New Jersey and Florida.

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

Friday December 14, 2012

Here is something that shows technology can be used well. Many kids have poor "fine motor skills" and cannot use things like tablet computers. This device translates big motions into tiny ones to help these kids.

The Korean Labor Ministry has ruled that Samsung is responsible for cancer in one of its employees. What will this mean for the rest of the world?

Has radar and radar jamming just become obsolete? Quantum imaging may be done so.

It seems that employers hire people based on possible freinds. No, this isn't illegal.

You wrote your book, you are ready to ePublish it, but you need a cover. Now what?

The Obama administration is allowing the National Counter Terrorism Center to keep its database on American citizens. We are quickly losing the citizen title for the subject title.

The U.S. and UK have refused to sign a UN communications treaty. Something in their about blocking the Internet and human rights. That sort of stuff.

In our rush to Facebook and the like, we may have lost some important things about the Internet.

Seattle joins the list of cities that is building its own gigabit network.

Believe it or not, some Kickstarter projects actually do spend the money they raise wisely and ship products.

A list of the best blogs to read if you are starting a business.

A site to help you find work while you travel the world.

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

Saturday December 15, 2012

George Will as an excellent editorial on unions, right to work (without being in a union), and the wholesome competition among states.

In light of the travesty in Connecticut, Jerry Pournelle explains the term "run amok" and how it relates to the Connecticut story.

Joseph Woodland dies at 91. He invented the bar code.

A U.S. International Trade Commission Judge has cleared Apple, Intel, and HP of patent infringement charges.

All those people who thought Apple was silly for making a smaller iPad, well...Apple thought they would sell only six million of these this year, but it looks like Apple will sell 12 million of the little iPads. This is outpacing the sales of the big, old fashioned iPad.

The EFF is challenging the NSA in court. That is a losing battle as the NSA will claim national security and secrecy and all that.

A look literally inside the new 27" iMac.

A bicycle from 1969. I never had one this good, but I had friends who did.

Also from the past, a 1949 book on How to Avoid Work.

A Kickstarter project for a less expensive 360 degree streaming camera.

A French television show sneaks into an Apple Foxconn factory in China - it is not a pretty picture.

It has now been 40 years since people walked on the moon. What a waste of four decades. Your tax dollars at waste.

An electric motorcycle with only one wheel.

Maybe the Twinkie will survive as Wal Mart and Kroger are bidding to buy assets of the bankrupt Hostess.

We are living longer, but what good is it to live disabled? This "news" isn't new as most of us figured this one out on our own. Still, what is the use. Medical science has advanced more in defeating death than it has in defeating ailments.

Week one of a person's experiment with a dumb phone. Earlier this year, I was in Germany for a week with an iPhone where I didn't pay for data service. I missed the maps and such.

If you want to buy an Apple product, go to Wal Mart for a lower price.

Philip Parker has a book writing computer system that sells hundreds of thousands of books on Amazon.

Email me a t d.phillips@computer.org
Go to Day Book Home and pointer to previous weeks
Go to Dwayne's Home Page

Sunday December 16, 2012

Windows 8 has not brought a rise in PC purchases as hoped by all those companies that make PCs. This is bad news.

What is it that you haven't written yet? Please start because the rest of us want to read it.

This couple just celebrated six years of international travel.

Someone made an Indiana Jones journal and mailed it to the University of Chicago. This is well done, and the university cannot figure out its origin. Perhaps there are clues in the journal that an archeologist could follow and...

A look at how much self-publishing has changed just in the last three years.

Poking a little fun at writers...You might be a writer if.

If you want to make money from writing, you may have to get serious.

Create your own information product, a.k.a., a book or something like it.

If you are a freelance worker, you must take care of your health. If you are sick, you don't work.

Something in this post brings to mind a simple concept: we understand when our muscles are tired, but we rarely understand when our minds are tired and when our emotions are tired.

Writers tend to be waiting for some time in the future when everything will come together. Act like everything is together now. Write today.

Can stories change the world? Stories are the world.

Work hard and work smart. It is not an "either or."

Eight signs that you were meant to be a writer.

Tips on writing an article.

Making money as a copywriter. It isn't as creative as writing novels, but you are writing and earning money. Most combinations of those two things are pretty good.

Some notes from the "early days" of blogging.

If you want to write more and write better, try this: take care of yourself. If your health fails, you won't write a thing. This is pretty boring advice, but it is one of the few things that I find will work for everyone.

Email me a t d.phillips@computer.org
Go to Day Book Home and pointer to previous weeks
Go to Dwayne's Home Page