Summary of this week:

Seattle wins a blowout Super Bowl, so everyone is talking about the ads
Super Bowl was a big night for Microsoft
Facebook Paper is out
Facebook is ten years old
Microsoft names Satya Nadella as its new CEO
Sony is leaving the PC business
HP and Asus build Chromebox computers

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

Monday February 3, 2013

Super Bowl ads aren't lying, but they are twisting reality a bit.

I liked the Radio Shack ad with all the people from the 1980s, but I am that old.

And GoPro had the best POV footage of anyone.

Here are all the Super Bowls ads.

Since everyone is talking about the ads and no one is talking about the game, we can conclude that we have gone back to the days of the Super Bowl blow outs. This means that most of America hated the game. Those in Seattle, and at Microsoft, loved it. A big night for Microsoft.

Our American laws are banning learners from some countries to use our MOOCs. I guess this makes sense, but still, we outlaw learning in some places - not a good headline.

More on Flappy Birds - the impossible-to-beat simple game that is addictive.

GoldieBlox - they make engineering toys for little girls. I love it. I have a granddaughter, her father, grandfather, and greatgrandfather are all engineers, and she is smarter than all of us, and she can see as a result of medical engineering advances.

If you go to the Winter Olympics, the Russians will spy on you, they will copy all the data you bring on all your devices. Consider buying clean devices to take with you and throwing them away when you return home.

A look at a YouTube star - very hard work, and ad income is dropping.

Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman is dead at 46 of drug use.

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Tuesday February 4, 2013

Computer science becomes mostly white, mostly male as early as high school. Those are the facts, arguments begin now.

Seth Godin on the Bat Boy Syndrome. The desire to stand near to greatness.

Health Care dot Gov is still with us, and its new problem is that it cannot deal with the thousands of people appealing the mistakes that it made.

Open offices, closed offices, forget both and move into the present of offices.

How our government reconstructs evidence to use in court (against citizens). This is terrible, another example of destroying government of, by, and for the people. It breeds mistrust and all sorts of other terrible things.

Facebook's Paper app is now on iOS - why look at the old Facebook app any longer?

And this review loves Paper.

It seems that China sent scientists to the U.S. to steal trade secrets about seeds and crops.

Great Apple video - all shot with iPhones. Too bad my iPhone camera stopped working.

I love this idea: send your employees on a vacation and require them to continue working. The change of scenery is often a productivity enhancer.

Our President receives $750million in corporate gifts for an education program. This is what a President should be doing instead of over-regulating all of us. Use the position to promote good - no tax breaks, no legislation, no regulation - just promote good.

This is all over the Internet, so it must be important. Facebook has made historical videos of some users' accounts. I guess I was left off the list.

Our government may require all cars to communicate with one another. Expect law suits about privacy and that little thing known as the Bill of Rights.

Google releases an SDK for Chromecast.

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Wednesday February 5, 2014

Asus introduces its Chromebox - a desktop Chromebook. It is a 5" square computer for $179, but you supply the keyboard, mouse, monitor.

The University of Wisconson is suing Apple over the design of its A7 processor. Always pushing back the frontiers of ignorance.

In case you didn't notice, Apple didn't have an ad at the Super Bowl this year.

It is official, Microsoft names Satya Nadella as its new CEO. Strong engineer, but a marketer? a visionary? We shall see.

Iridium hot spot reaches the Internet from almost anywhere on earth. Yes, this is great for hikers and other outdoor adventurists. It is also a great post-disaster communications system. $800.

DARPA now has an open-source catalog of its research results.

After nine years, the FDA approves the swallow-able pill camera.

Yet another government report that says the government is very bad about cyber security. And some people still think that Health Care dot Gov is secure. I don't understand those thoughts. Perhaps if I took a nap, the right frame of mind would appear.

The basic principals of User Experience design.

San Francisco continues its war on Google: orders Google barge be moved.

Duracell - yes, the battery maker - is starting its own cloud storage business.

How to win at Jeopardy and make everyone in the audience mad at you.

Firefox 27 is here.

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Thursday February 6, 2014

This is what we should be doing with technology: an amputee has a prosthetic hand wired to his nerves.

The world's culture is coming to an end: half the sandwiches bought in France are hamburgers.

The Red Star OS, North Korea, looks a lot like OS X.

The Seattle Seahawks did not invent the 12th man. Texas A&M had it for decades before the Seahawks.

Two facts that astonish me: America On-Line is still in business and its revenues are growing.

Sony is leaving the PC business.

Soon you will be edit your Facebook look back video - phew, the world is safe again. Of course, there are those of those with thousands of posts on Facebook who were not deemed worthy of a free video.

Flappy Bird is raking in $50,000 a day in ad money. I am in the wrong line of work.

Twitter has a big financial quarter.

oooops, it seems that programmers in Belarus wrote part of the code for Health Care dot Gov. Double bonus for this story: Your tax dollars at waste and is everyone ready for national electronic health records.

Five minutes + $20 parts = hack into your car's computer system.

The E-Rate program: it was intended to help rural schools receive broadband Internet, but the opposite has resulted.

CVS Pharmacy will stop selling cigarettes.

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Friday February 7, 2014

Google and Asus announce a Chromebox for meetings - high-end only $1,000 video teleconference system.

HP will enter the Chromebox market real soon now - no prices announced yet.

The Mooshimeter: attach a multi-meter wirelessly to a smartphone and the world changes. I love this.

Extend the hours and reach of a museum by having telepresence systems roam the halls after hours.

Wozniak wants Apple to build an Android phone.

Twitter may sue our Federal government about disclosing public requests. It seems to me, an ignorant non-lawyer, that government of, by, and for the people would mean that we know what we are doing. In America, government employees are not special citizens.

It seems that the great Target retail account heist started with accessing an air conditioner. Yes, the great Internet of things is insecure.

O'Reilly will donate a Safari Books Online subscription to every high school in America. Good on them.

Yellow Journalism - NBCs report of hacking in Sochi was made in Moscow. There are many other little lies in the story. Some people who call themselves journalists will never learn.

After more urging from here and there, I am trying Evernote. Many people say it is the best app in the world or something like that.

Facebook is now storing data on Blu-Ray disks. Their system has robotic arms that move the disks about. We used a system like this 20 years ago that had VHS tapes. It worked then, the new system will work, too.

LinkedIn buys Bright - a better job search engine. I guess you pronounce that Be Right instead of brite.

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Saturday February 8, 2014

Comments on Google vs Amazon in the cloud. Amazon has the market now, but Google has better connectivity.

You know what they say about imitation and flattery. A parody of Facebook Lookback.

A look back at how popular websites used to look.

Graphene works better in reality than in theory. Something wonderful could come of this one day.

Ah, government and IT. NASA has a terrible $2.5billion contract HP.

Now in England, coming to America??? Police have access to national health records.

GoPro files for an IPO.

Coming next Fall, America's credit cards will be like the rest of the world's - chips in the card and you enter a PIN instead of that silly signature.

For those of us in Virginia - Natural Bridge will become a State Park in 2015.

Civilization is safe: a video tutorial on how to beat that unbeatable Flappy Bird.

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Sunday February 9, 2014

Twitter has a problem with slowing growth and retaining users.

The Waltons of Wal-Mart are funding much of the improvement in American education. I like this. I also see the danger. The government has mismanaged education funds. Those who have better financail saavy, i.e., competence, are entering.

America On-Line restores the 401(K) benefits it removed earlier this week.

How to improve your home office.

The future of wearable computers and articifial intelligence.

Flappy Bird is being pulled from app stores. I think there are legal and tax issues behind this.

Tim Ferris on writing a best selling book. I find much to dislike in Tim, but he knows his stuff.

Ways for a writer to increase productivity. Often overlooked in such pieecs is "learn to type faster!" That is important.

Excellent article on intellectual property rights. In the article, they discuss preachers, churches, and sermons, but the principles affect many others.

Excellent writing rules or guides: of particular importance are (1) Avoid non-working words that cluster together like derelicts (but for the fact that, the question as to whether, there is no doubt that) and (2) Don't use words thoughtlessly. (Waiting ambulances don't rush victims to hospital. Waiting ambulances wait. Meteors fall, so there can be no meteoric rise.)

The (sometimes) crazy world of fiction writing.

Terrible mistakes one writer made when quiting their job to be a full-time writer.

The role of space in creative work.

I link this here just because there is a photo of Encinitas, California. I once lived in the area.

Gaining confidence as a freelance writer.

Writing by talking to your computer instead of typing.

Do you waste time online? Most people would say that I do, but then that is where the ideas are.

Thoughts on writer's block. I have time block: I don't have the time to write everything.

Writers - try selling your works in your home town at local stores.

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