Dwayne Phillips ' Day Book
Items
I happen to view each day. Science, Techonology, Management, Culture,
and of course Writing
This is my day book for this week. I have modeled this after science
fiction and computer writer Jerry Pournelle's view, or as he calls it,
his Day Book.
I encourage you to see Jerry
Pournelle's site
and subscribe
to his services.
Go
to Day Book Home and pointer to previous weeks
Go to Dwayne's Home
Page
Email me at
d.phillips@computer.org
This
week: November December 24-30, 2012
Summary of this week:
- Apple to have a new iPad in March
- Windows 8 not bumping sales of PCs as wished
Monday
- Tuesday
- Wednesday
- Thursday
- Friday
- Saturday
- Sunday
Monday December 24, 2012
Looking ahead for Rovio - the little Finnish company that made that Angry Birds empire.
Windows 8 has not increased sales of PCs as wished.
Wikipedia
operates on $27Million a year - a tiny amount compared to other web
sites. Wikipedia is the 5th most visited site in the world.
Stop! Don't buy that iPad for Christmas - a new one is coming in March.
In case you haven't heard this yet, web sites are showing different prices to different viewers based on other information.
TypingPool - a service for audio transcriptions. Neat idea. Inexpensive, fast, and the people doing the work keep the money.
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 25, 2012
Christmas Day in the Western tradition.
Someone has tried to print an LP using a 3D printer. The results weren't good, but it was a first try.
China hits 1.1billion mobile phone users.
Acer appears to be introducing a $99 tablet next year.
Twas the night before...with Linux, Apache, and Perl...
Using technology in the Holidays.
My son's girl friend has been able to video chat with her family in
Russia. That is a pretty good use of all this technical infrastructure.
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 26, 2012
Even the Washington Post has a story about how electronic health care records are easily hacked.
Thoughts on blaming the other person instead of changing yourself.
The Mars Desert Project - people living in the Utah desert trying to simulate a station on Mars.
Google is gaining a foothold in business and is actually competing with Microsoft Office.
I remember when Google bought Writely.com and used it as the basis for
Google Docs. I work for a government contractor. We will always use
what the government uses. Hence, I am a big MS Office user every day.
Wired takes a look back at the predecessors of Facebook and the like. Guess what? None of these latest apps are new.
Are 3D movies fading away? I hope so.
Relatively speaking, few people received a Microsoft Surface for Christmas.
I guess that is one way to stand out from the crowd - get a Microsoft
device. Ten years ago, if you wanted to stand out, you bought an Apple
computer.
Must see video. SpaceX tests its vertical take off and landing reusable rocket. It has been a long time to build something like this (and notice that NASA didn't do it).
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 27, 2012
It appears that Apple will be building the Mac mini in the U.S.
The NY Times reports some improvement at Foxconn factories in China.
Gracenote has a system that shows you personalized TV ads. I won't have to watch any more ads for Cialis?
Let tourists live in your home, list it on OneFineStay. A bad idea?
Open Data - good for discourse or just good for being mean to other people?
A "newspaper" made a Google map of handgun owners in New York. In
response, someone made a map of the homes of employees of the
newspaper. Now, let someone hack into electronic health records and
make maps of disabled or infirmed or people in the hospital. That map
would lead burglars to easy-to-hit homes.
And speaking of... There is a security hole in Wordpress.
The airline industry, like many others, is offering cheaper prices to customers who divulge more information about themselves.
This story is everywhere, so people must be taking it seriously this time. Our government wants black boxes in all cars in 2014.
The data will be used to analyze safety issues. That is until some well
meaning government employee puts it on a government-owned laptop and
that laptop is lost in a restuarant and ...
Did the Internet "allow" you to work on Christmas Day. For me, yes.
The C programming language - it isn't dead yet. It is actually quite efficient and has lots of libraries out there.
Toshiba has a new 20MegaPixel sensor for cameras.
Ten Raspberry Pi projects in the real world.
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 28, 2012
No Internet viewing as today was a travel day.
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 29, 2012
The staff on Meet the Press recently knowingly commited a firearms crime on the air in front of millions of people. Will anyone be prosecuted?
Chinese workers have had their 2-week New Year's vacation removed so they can keep up with iPad mini demand.
Samsung may be fined $15BILLION by the European Commission; yes, it is related to their dispute with Apple. And that is real money, even for Samsung.
More evidence that it is easier to campaign than to govern and the silliness of those campaigning: The We the People petitions to the White House are far outpacing the White House.
The shift to wireless phones is complete as over half of US homes don't have or don't use their wired telephones.
Thoughts on the coming of the driverless car and truck and the accompanying unemployment.
"...well understood boundaries make decision making a lot easier." - Seth Godin.
The Senate has approved the FISA Amendments Act to extend warrantless wiretapping. Again, I thought all that big brother syping on Americans disappeared with the Bush fella.
John McAfee describes how he outwitted the police in Belize to escape the country.
17 Kickstarter projects that raised over $1Million each.
Keep this one: GNU Typist. A Free Open Source Software typing tutor.
I cannot emphasize how writers should improve their typing speed. This
will increase the amount of writing you do and the amount of money you
earn.
The Federal Communications Commision has just made it easier to install in-flight enterntainment systems on commercial aircraft. Let us all pause and applaud. The government actually did something good for us.
Must see video - one way to extinguish a boat fire.
I will have to try this one: Cycloramic - an iPhone app that vibrates the phone so it spins around and makes a 360 video.
Email me at
d.phillips@computer.org
Go
to Day Book Home and pointer to previous weeks
Go to Dwayne's Home
Page
Sunday December 30,
2012
Excellent tips from Dean Wesley Smith on setting writing goals for 2013.
Johanna Rothman on the value of carrying a notebook when you visit your doctor.
Keep this one: GNU Typist. A Free Open Source Software typing tutor.
I cannot emphasize how writers should improve their typing speed. This
will increase the amount of writing you do and the amount of money you
earn.
New York's subways now has a train-tracking app. I hope this is put to good use instead of used by those intent on evil.
Especially as a writer, if you need everyone to like you, gasp, you are in for problems.
Ten things an experienced author wished she knew before she started.
Windows 8 and the traditional computer just don't work well together.
Writers usually have inconsistent income - tips to survive in such an environment.
Stan Lee turns 90 years old.
Email me at
d.phillips@computer.org
Go
to Day Book Home and pointer to previous weeks
Go to Dwayne's Home
Page