Summary of this week:

It's official - Yahoo buys Tumblr for $1.1Billion
The U.S. Senate calls Apple a tax avoider - big battle coming?
Microsoft releases the XBox One game and entertainment system
Lenovo PC sales rise while everyone else's fall
Apple may sell fewer iPads this year than last
Yahoo bought Tumblr for access to a younger audience

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

Monday May 20, 2013

YouTube is eight years old.

Coming - commercial (industrial) drones. Can you spell "rise in unemployment?"

The Yahoo board approves the $1.1Billion purchase of Tumblr. They promise to keep their hands off. That usually happens for a year or more, but then the iron law of bureaucracy takes hold and ...

WordPress claims that 72,000 blogs have already left Tumblr for WordPress.

The Chinese resume their hacking of U.S. governments and businesses. Is everyone ready for national electronic health records?

It appears that browsing and email will come to the nook Simple Touch real soon now.

A former Google employee is providing inside information to the UK government in a tax dispute with Google.

The IRS is quickly replacing the TSA as the most despised agency in the government. A company is suing the IRS for wrongfully seizing the health care records of 10million citizens. Your tax dollars at waste.

NetBSD 6.1 is released.

Apple retail stores set a new record for revenue per square foot of store space.

Immigration reform laws may spur more software replacing humans. Again, can you spell "rise in unemployment?"

Samsung announces its own super-duper resolution display.

The new Arduino Robot for $275.

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Tuesday May 21, 2013

Yahoo updates Flickr - 1TeraByte of storage per user and new interface. That is 1,000 GigaBytes. I have never understood all these cloud services that "give" you 5GigaBytes. Who cares about 5Gigabytes?

Western Digital has just released a 1.5TeraByte external and portable disk drive.

The U.S. Senate is going after Apple on taxes and "tax avoidance." Who doesn't try to avoid taxes? Apple claims everything is legal, and they are probably right (98.6% chance of that). Some Senators want to give Apple a black eye and label them as greedy. We shall see who has the better public relations - hint: it isn't the Senate.

Oh, and look at this: the NSA is trying to avoid paying taxes on the power it consumes in Utah. Hmmm, tax avoiders!

The Chinese hacked Google in 2009 trying to learn who the American government was investigating. U.S. law enforcement goes to U.S. companies and seeks information. Records of those inquiries on kept on company computers. The Chinese hack those company computers to learn which of its spies are being investigated by U.S. law enforcement. It all fits together. And the U.S. government assures us that if our medical records are kept online, they will be safe. No one will hack into them. How can they make those claims?

Someone has 3D printed that handgun and fired it nine times. It is not ready for prime time and is not a threat to society. Wait ten years.

Now that YouTube is 8 years old, get this number: 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.

American Airlines is making changes that discourage those big carry-on bags. I guess there is something wrong with me. I used to take one-week trips to California and could put all my belongings under the seat in front of me. I didn't use the overhead bins for anything. I was in a tiny minority.

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Wednesday May 22, 2013

The inventor of the GIF file format reminds us that it is pronounced "jif" like the peanut butter not like "gift."

Teenagers are leaving Facebook and all the "drama."

Amazon dreams of building a greenhouse office or something like that.

Tim Cook appeared before a Senate committee. The shouting is just beginning.

It is sort of difficult to put a tag this story, other than stupidity reigns. The Departments of Justice and Education have informed public colleges that if any person takes offense to what is said, sexual harrasment takes precedence over freedom of speech.

Microsoft releases the XBox One game and entertainment system.

AMD falls from second to fourth place in CPU sales. Samsung and Qualcomm ride the mobile wave up.

I like this design: a cross between a bicycle and a scooter.

Google released version 27 of its Chrome browser.

Google has put conversational search into that release.

A Senate committee has sent the immigration bill to the entire body. The bill is almost 900 pages long. It is predictable and predicted that this will be another big Washington mess.

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Thursday May 23, 2013

Lenovo continues to grow while everyone else in the PC business is shrinking.

HP redesigns its line of portable computers.

Samsung has now sold 10million Galaxy S4 smartphones in a month.

Microsft is hiring 10,000 people - in China. And some Senators want to skewer Apple about tax money. How about jobs?

Like the rest of society, airline passengers are going mobile. Use of tablets and smartphones is rising on airliners.

Once again, we have a shortage of programmers. Really?

Politicians in Washington conintue to wiggle about on immigration. I prefer the concept of small bills that stand or fall alone. An overhaul of immigration, while it sounds nice, just doesn't work in Washington. Tons of pork is always hidden in bills that are 900 pages long.

HP's new Envy Rove 20 - 20" screen, carry it around the house, all in one.

Northrop Grumman has a UAV with 130' wingspan that can stay aloft for 30 hours.

Pidora - a version of Red Hat Fedora for the Raspberry Pi.

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Friday May 24, 2013

A look at Nvidia's latest high-end video card.

Steve Jobs and family have been giving money anonymously for 20 years.

A second entry in the new line of quiet Apple commericals.

Acer adds a 14GigaByte solid-state drive to its Chromebook.

A little information on how Google recognizes the objects in your photos on Google+.

These 14 fortunate people built Tumblr and stayed with it until it was bought for $1.1Billion.

NOAA's GOES-13 weather satellite failed this week, just as hurrican season begins. Your tax dollars at waste.

Sometimes XKCD hits on something profound. This cartoon expresses the Amish attitude towards technology. The Amish try something at a distance before they bring in into their home and expose their family to it. The Amish do not dismiss technology immediately. They consider it for a while. They consider their family's safety and well being to be more important than new things.

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Saturday May 25, 2013

Now the Iranians are trying to hack U.S. infrastructure. And some people seem to think that if we put all our health records online that no one will try to hack into them. I don't understand the logic.

The FCC is putting more money into rural broadband programs. What rural broadband programs? I am sure that hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent, but to what effect?

Google is building wireless networks in developing markets, a.k.a., other countries. How about Google doing some of that in rural America?

This guy has been writing software for Google Glass for six months - his observations.

Always looking for something to regulate, Federal regulators are eyeing all these new mobile apps that help people check their own health cheaply. Funny, the President wants affordable health care. The President's employees keeping seeking to kill affordable health care.

Details about the Beagle Bone Black system.

This chart shows how Yahoo bought a much younger audience with the purchase of Tumblr. Now, if they can use what they have.

An open-source house design. CNC machines can cut the wood so that you "just" have to put the pieces together.

Google provides before and after overhead photos of Moore, Oklahoma.

A palm-sized computer BRIX from Gigabyte. Real powerful processors available. Prices not available.

We have reached a milestone in the history of the tablet computer - Apple may sell fewer iPads this year than last.

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Sunday May 26, 2013

ARM processors are about to move into supercomputers.

And Intel processors are finally on a tablet - this one from Samsung.

A Java programmer built an office suite of software in 30 days. It is called Java Office Suite or Joeffice. See it at joeffice.com.

This person used only Google products for three weeks - his observations. One thing, any cloud storage is much better than local storage.

Watch out, here come smartphones from Lenovo.

A look at the Internet of things, a.k.a., your toaster with an IP address.

Some interesting tips on using the Chrome browser. I love keyboard shortcuts.

Comparison - do not fall into this trap. Do not compare yourself, your writing, your career, your life, your anything with anyone else.

When you work alone, you often have to proofread your own material - that isn't easy. Here are some tips to proofreading.

Some tips for writers on removing some of the physical and mental clutter so they can write.

An editor gives suggestions on submissions.

Four suggestion on writing well. Reading and thinking are keys.

Let us not forget the value of taking a nap.

Dividing today's publishing world into five different paths. This is a good piece. Here is a link to the infographic.

Some thoughts on Guided Journals - journals with prompts and questions about particular subjects.

There are good reasons for a writer to stop writing on one project. Do not, however, stop writing. Write on other projects instead.

Instead of going to Google for writing research, ask people who were there.

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