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.

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This week: December July 14-20, 2014

Summary of this week:

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


Monday July 14, 2014

My mother-in-law passed away Sunday the 13th. The week was devoted to family with much-curtailed Internet viewing.

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Tuesday July 15, 2014

The Empire Strikes Back! (cool title) Microsoft is fighting back against those really cheap Chomebook with Windows running laptops this Christmas at $200.

Microsoft layoffs start this week.

Nest and Samsung are working on a standard for mesh networks for the smart home. I hope they are building security into the system.

Sverker Johansson and his software create several thousand Wikipedia articles a day, every day. Some people hate this idea. I like it. His software crawls through Internet databases, mostly about wildlife in the Philipines, and publishes articles based on the data. He is moving information from obscure databases to a famous, widely used database, and he is doing it for nothing, no pay. I would call that charitable.

Seattle says its okay for Lyft and Uber to operate. Will any other city in the US follow the lead?

Microsoft is working on a headband that will allow blind people to more easily naviagate cities. This is what we should be doing in technology.

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Wednesday July 16, 2014

Google contributes an Android development course to Udacity.com. I hope this works well. I had an unpleasant experience with Udacity recently.

The odd couple. Apple teams with IBM to move iOS into the enterprise. Thirty years ago this was all unthinkable.

Google puts former Ford CEO on its board. Self-driving cars are on their way.

The German government may revert to manual typewriters for creating sensitive documents. That is a good idea. I am glad someone else finally recognized it. Much of today's office automation is not used in government, so governments might as well revert to old, non-electric technology.

A really really black black erases 3D features by absorbing practically all light. Excellent camoflauge.

The Caribbean island of Montserrat is generating all its electricity from a volcano, a.k.a, geothermal power.

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Thursday July 17, 2014

The complete notes of Charles Darwin are posted online. Darwin was wrong—something proclaimed by microbiologists of today. Given what he could see, Darwin drew logical conclusions. What he could see, however, was quite limited by his technology.

There is a battle in progress over who can regulate ISPs, the states or the central government.

Apple agrees to pay $450million in the eBook case. Some Federal courts may not allow Apple to escape this lightly.

Research into password security reveals common sense: use a sophisticated strong password for your bank account and use anything to comment on silly web sites.

How Germany used computer analysis to win the World Cup. Big data showed the coaches and players that speed of play and passing the ball quickly were keys to winning. The players were logical enough to agree to the change in play. Some players in some sports won't agree to anything the coach says. Today's 20-something athletes, who grew up with a computer in their hand, are more apt to do what a computer says.

Netflix, Verizon, and Comcast continue to argue about who should be paying whom. I am still amazed that little old Netflix, those guys who mailed DVDs, has become an American giant.

For some reason, Microsoft Bing is joining Google in the right to be forgotten, a.k.a., censorship.

Government to the rescue, our FBI sees driverless cars as a powerful tool for criminals. I have no doubt that they will now propose legislation that gives the government power to operate the cars and so on.

A tutorial on cancelling cable TV and going back to the airwaves. I am disappointed to read that they discuss digital antennas. There is no such thing as a digital antenna folks!

Progress in moving data using blinking LEDs.

This could change everything or it could be another flop: a "social" robot called Jibo.

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Friday July 18, 2014

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Saturday July 19, 2014

New MacBook Airs may arrive in late August. I am waiting for one as my current MacBook is five years old and the battery is failing me.

Google sends a million Chromebooks into education in the last quarter alone.

Amazon brings the Kindle Unlimited plan. $10 a month and read all you want.

A look at the 49ers new Silicon Valley stadium.

Google is revising Chrome OS.

A TweetBot catches the Russian government editing Wikipedia regarding the downed airliner.

Microsoft wants more H-1B visas. Microsoft laysoff employees. All at the same time.

Universities that are attracking women into computer science.

How to work around your ISP to get top speed to watch Netflix.

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Sunday July 20, 2014


You must see this. Why send a plain envelope when you can illustrate it?

Over the past 150 years, some of the best illustrations come from Alice in Wonderland.

Timeless and good advice: if I want to change someone else, I first change myself.

A group, which searches for and finds missing persons for free, won in court over our FAA. Sometimes our courts defeats our regulators' attempts to rescue us from ourselves.

How our FCC is stuck in 1996. Gosh. This is a true story, not a short story fiction.

Now is the best time to be a writer or is it the worst time to be a writer and try to make a living?

Writing and health. If you are to be a writer or any freelancer, you must maintain your physical health. Sick people don't write or work or earn any money for food and other such things.

A dictionary of sorts for aspiring writers.

How to use a storyboard to help start your novel.

Summarize the piece you are writing in one sentence.

What is success as a writer? The way you define it for yourself may save your mind.

Some tips on writing better and faster. These are good. I have used most of them through the years.

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