Summary of this week:

Google buys DeepMind - an AI company
CNN is hacked
Apple has another record financial quarter
AMD releases its first 64-bit SoC
Lenovo buys Motorola from Google
Satya Nadella is the current favorite to be the next CEO of Microsoft

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

Monday January 27, 2013

The Syrian Electronic Army hacked into CNN's web site and twitter account. Is everyone ready for national electronic health records? Does anyone believe that Health Care dot Gov is secure?

Hackers gain access to law enforcement inquiries at Microsoft. And so it goes. And people believe that no one will sneak in through Health Care dot Gov and gain access to all IRS records and everything else.

Karl Marx, wage inequality, the 1% of the 1%, and so on.

This is all over the Internet, so it must be important. Google buys DeepMind - a UK artificial intelligence company. Google had to out bid Facebook for this - $500million.

Google reaches out to the Republican party. It is smart to be nice to both sides in Washington.

The art of non-leadership and the intelligence community. There really is an art to acting like a leader while not leading.

Detroit wants a special category of visa for top tech talent: you have to live in Detroit to get the visa. Let's call it Silicon City or something? Folks in Washington D.C. have to help. Let's see, how can Detroit convince the rest of America that Detroit needs a special favor?

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Tuesday January 28, 2013

A look at the new Mac Pro from the perspective of a pro who needs processing power.

Apple says that it won't merge OS X and iOS.

Apple has another record financial quarter.

And it appears that the iPod is on its way out.

Microsoft changes the name of SkyDrive to OneDrive. What is in a name? Evidently a lot of money in court cases.

Google Glass finally comes for prescription glasses.

Congressmen from both parties ask our President to remove our Director of National Intelligence.

The latest WiFi standards require new devices to stay compatible with old, old devices, and that slows everything.

Some people still need more power than a tablet. Here are three high-powered portable computers.

Pinterest pushes past email as a popular way to share information with friends. I suppose I am just too old for all this.

Here is how to defraud the government and steal taxpayer's money. Of course, the government employees are supposed to watch for this and they didn't. It is always the government's fault.

Intel has a special-purpose processor that will process voice commands in your hand instead of sending them to the cloud like Siri does.

A billion smartphones were shipped last year world wide.

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Wednesday January 29, 2014

Quentin Tarantino sues Gawker over a leaked script. This is good for writers and other creators of content. Suppose I write a book on Google Docs (which I have in the past), someone hacks into Docs and steals my work. Is Google responsible? I think so, and my Tarantino's case will push that concept.

Pinterest launches an Interests area. I looked and I like it.

Just like the Mac (well, sort of), the IBM PC Jr is 30 years old. The PC Jr was a big flop. I remember it.

I find that I have to qoute this story, no comment needed: "W. Garth Callaghan doesn't know how long he has to live. But he can be certain of one simple thing: No matter his fate, his daughter will have a handwritten note tucked inside her lunchbox each day until she graduates from high school."

Apple is trying harder to promote the Apple TV product.

Yahoo had a bad financial quarter.

AMD shows its first 64-bit, 8-core, server on a chip.

A Porsche made in 1898 was found in a shed in Austria. What I find remarkable is that two large-scale, extrememly violent and destructive wars were fought in the region since 1898, and this survived.

The Nintendo Wii U is now officially a major failure.

This is great: a man hiked the 2,600-mile Pacific Coast Trail and took lots of photos.

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Thursday January 30, 2014

Lenovo buys Motorola from Google. There was a time when Motorola was the number two maker of microprocessors in the world. There was a time when we called those things microprocessors.

Talk about wasting tax dollars, how about $5billion for camouflage uniforms that didn't work?

Google continues to push into the education market.

People use Facebook, Google, etc. all the time. The software they use at work should have the same type of interface. This has been said many times, but still, it isn't being done.

Facebook officially announces Paper - a new app coming next week to iOS.

Soylent has an official nutrition label and it looks okay.

Thoughts on Google's attempts to acquire lots of artificial intelligence and robotics talent.

The appeal and growth of Blue Bottle Coffee.

Edward Snowden has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Just consider what it would mean if he wins.

Facebook is ten years old.

The state of California claims that coding bootcamps fall under its regulatory powers. The end is nigh.

The sales of tablets are slowing due to saturation. We need to wait until some of these things wear out to buy new ones.

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Friday January 31, 2014

Satya Nadella is the current favorite to be the next CEO of Microsoft.

Boeing may be read to use biofuels in its planes.

People at work are using the cloud more than their IT departments know or will admit.

Tech skills with $100,000+ salaries.

While Chromebooks are selling well, Google doesn't (directly) receive any money from them. Google does, however, make money everytime anyone goes the Internet, and Chromebooks are an inexpensive way for people to go to the Internet.

79% of smartphones shipped last year in the world were run by Android.

Business Insider is now bigger than the Wall Street Journal.

The next update to Windows 8.1 will not use the tile interface by default. Microsoft learns that all that was one big mistake, sort of like New Coke and other management debacles.

LibreOffice 4.2 is now out.

Some states are considering anti-NSA laws. This is much like the states that are passing anti-gun control laws. These states take the Bill of Rights more seriously than some in Washington D.C.

For a few days only, Best Buy is selling the $900 Microsoft Surface Pro for $500.

Must, must see video of Felix Baumgartner's 128,000-foot free fall from point of view cameras attached to him.

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Saturday February 1, 2014

The NFL has put beacons in the Super Bowl stadium to test micro-location ads. I head the NFL is short of money these days (not).

Not to be outdone, Major League Baseball will have lots of iBeacons in stadiums for opening day in April.

Facebook is betting its future on Paper - coming Monday.

Google has another good financial quarter. Google is growing its product line and, while not everything suceeds, its push into new markets is working.

More on Microsoft abandoning its failed Windows 8 interface.

This outlook for IT workers in 2014 is bright. We shall see what happens.

Another book from another former TSA employee. Yes, it is as expected in the world of theater.

The price of Amazon Prime will go up up up.

The Army and Lockheed Martin ran a successful driverless convoy test last month. Can you spell unemployment? If you are a cross-country truck driver, you might as well learn.

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Sunday February 2, 2014

New term for me WQHD (wide quad high definition) screen with 2,560x1,440 resolution.

How to run Linux distributions on Intel's NUC (Next Unit of Computing).

Flappy Bird is the now game that is dominating the Apple and Google app stores. This one is supposed to be addictive because it is incredibly difficult to play.

The Super Bowl, America's unofficial national holiday, is tonight (not today as it should be, but tonight as it shouldn't be). Microsoft will have its first ever Super Bowl ad. The Super Bowl ads have been killed by the Internet. You don't have to watch the game to catch the great creative commercials any more. So watch The Walking Dead reruns while seeing the ads on YouTube.

How our country destroys the disk drives that held our secrets.

As a writer, "The times that scare us the most are the ones we should be looking for."

Every writer should notice, notice all the time.

Thoughts on book covers. Many of us have to make covers for our e-publishing.

And in case we have forgotten, Heinlein's Rules for Writing.

Thoughts on writing and having fun while writing.

Blogging and trying to make money: when you first start, you have to write a lot and not get paid.

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