Summary of this week:

Jeff Bezos buys the Washington Post
Microsoft cuts the price of its Surface Pro tablet
The Chinese are stuck on Windows XP
The NSA gives surveillance data to the DEA who then gives it to the IRS
President meets with tech executives, discusses surveillance and security

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

Monday August 5, 2013

A summary of the security problems discussed at last week's Black Hat convention. And there are still people who think that it will be just fine if we all put our health records (un)securely on the Internet.

A look at the complex path taken by startup companies. It is not all easy. It is not straighforward.

"When far too much information gets classified, nothing is really classified. Respect for the system erodes when information readily available in open sources is ostensibly guarded with high-level classification."

The role of MOOCs in Indian education.

Yahoo is hiring PhDs to boost its R&D capabilities.

Stuck with tablet inventory, Microsoft cuts the price of the Surface Pro.

Half of the TOR sites are down. This is part of an FBI operation connected to child porn.

How you can personally outsource just about everything in your personal life.

"How to Design Programs" complete second edition online.

It seems there is a company that makes "technical" clothing for women. I am not sure what that means, but this review likes them.

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Tuesday August 6, 2013

Jeff Bezos buys the Washington Post. What do you do with yet another failing newspaper?

It appears that employees of the Post were crushed by the announcement. In many ways, these purveyors of truth are the most insecure, childish people on the planet.

Sergey Brin helped fund the laboratory or cultured beef shown yesterday.

ooops, some photocopy machines are changing the text and numbers from the original to the copy. That is an odd error or hack or something.

This laptop has solar cells - it charges in two hours and runs for ten hours. If the claims are true, this is revolutionary.

NVIDIA opens an office in Ann Arbor, Michigan to work on automotive systems.

Catching a moment in time: the state of the portable computer in the summer of 2013.

It appears that some US law enforcement agencies are receiving informtion on citizens from US intelligence agencies. At one time that was clearly illegal. I have not kept up with the laws regarding such.

JetBlue will be offering luxury seating on some of its coast-to-coast flights. This is something I hope not to see because I doubt I will ever be able to afford it.

Clothing that becomes a shelter. Some of these are silly, but others are ingenious. The good ones should be almost required for hikers, hunters, and the like.

I didn't know this: you can use the iPhone headphones to snap a photo remotely.

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Wednesday August 7, 2013

Not much to view today, odd.

Yahoo is unveiling a new logo soon, but for now is showing variations on the current one.

The changing tablet market - sales are actually down at Apple and everywhere else.

South Korea has a roadway that charges electric vehicles as they move along.

Firefox release 23 is now here.

The Chinese are still stuck on Windows XP.

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Thursday August 8, 2013

A new rural broadband map that shows areas with broadband access. I find the tool to be overly optimistic in that there I rural areas that the map claims have service providers, but I know they don't because I've been there and asked.

Now we learn that the NSA gave information to the DEA which then gave information to the IRS. And I thought all that big brother stuff left town with that fellow from Texas, ol' what's his name. What was his name anyway?

IBM and a government agency in Australia botched an IT project. IBM is being punished. The linked story doesn't say what happened to the government employees involved in the project.

A few thoughts on limiting classification of government documents.

Young, idealistic, software wizards are less likely to work for the government given recent revelations about domestic surveillance. This is a national tragedy - yet another in a long list of such tragedies. When citizens don't trust government employees that nation and its individual communities suffer terribly.

From the creators of YouTube, we now have Mixbit for 15-second videos.

For only $2,000, you can buy a special-edition RED Sony computer.

Here is the LG G2 - a big-screen smartphone.

This story is all over the Internet so it must be important: a Federal Judge declares BitCoin an official currency that can be regulated. Funny how these declarations always lead to more government regulation.

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Friday August 9, 2013

An in-depth look at this summer's MacBook Air.

President Obama met with tech executives to discuss surveillance and national security. That such a meeting occurred and was noted indicates a great loss for both national security and the rights of citizens.

Attach electrodes to your head and give yourself a few extra volts now and then. It improves mental performance for the short term. I'm opting out of this experiment.

ASUS pulls out of the Windows tablet market. No one wants to buy they products.

The more we learn about the NSA surveillance the worse it gets.

Something to watch: a documentary about DEFCON (the convention).

Some schools and some teachers are allowing students to bring smartphones and tablets to class. Alas, perhaps there is hope that learning will occur.

The homeless of NYC and technology. It is unfortunate that many of them play games all day. One surprise is that they find smartphones and laptops in the trash cans - even new, unopened ones.

It appears that talking on the phone while driving does not increase accidents.

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Saturday August 10, 2013

Asus, not Samsung, will be building the next Google tablet.

Ah to be a lawyer - the Department of Justice declares all phone calls by citizens to be relavent to terrorism investigations.

Considering the affects of a 13" iPad. The device would be fun, but would it sell enough copies for Apple to make it?

Several secure email services close instead of complying with Federal agencies.

Will Quip be the death of the word processor?

Note to Washington Post employees: Jeff Bezos will walk out of a meeting if you don't get to the point.

Jimmy Wales would rather have no Wikipedia in China than comply with government censorship. He will probably receive that.

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Sunday August 11, 2013

Thoughts on personal cloud computing.

Does a writer need an office? Be careful with things like this. You may become dependent on a particular place.

Get ready. The new iPhone is coming on September 10th.

A look at the increasingly complicated topic of health insurance for the freelancer.

A look at Scrivener - a tool that more and more writers are using. Maybe one day I will move on from the use of a blank piece of paper and a pencil for mind mapping and storyboarding.

Thoughts on keeping track of all your characters in fiction.

Freelanceers - tell everyone you know that you are looking for work.

The Freelancers Union has joined freelancers together to pool resources for affordable health insurance. Obamacare may destroy that program. Oh well, I guess now we are learning what was in that 2,000-page law.

Business advice for writers. Yes, if you work for yourself, you are a business.

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