Summary of this week:

Apple awaits a ruling on its tax status in Europe—billion$ at stake
Hong Kong protestors use FireChat to communicate
Stolen health care information is much more valuable than stolen credit cards
Microsoft introduces Windows 10
We have the first confirmed case of ebola in the US
JP Morgan is hacked
Google hires guards as employees, not temp contractors

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

Monday September 29, 2014

How George Clooney kept guests from taking photos at his wedding.

Will Apple have to pay billion$ in back taxes in Europe?

Those names on Coke cans actually increased sales for the first time in a decade.

The richest people in America: Waltons (Wal-Mart) hold four of the top ten spots with the Koch borthers holding two spots.

Hate to ruin everyone's fun, but actual space battles will not be like shown in Star Wars. Blame physics.

The government of China has censored Instagram in wake of Hong Kong democracy protests.

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Tuesday September 30, 2014

Hong Kong protestors are using FireChat to communicate around the government. We shall see how long this lasts.

A part of Las Vegas has become an experimental startup city.

eBay will split off PayPal into a separate company.

Excellent thoughts from Seth Godin today on the sophistication of fear. "It's complicated," we say, even when it isn't...We invent these facades because they provide safety.

Microsoft is to have a press event today to tell us a few things about the next Windows OS.

HP introduces their Stream laptops and tablets: lower-cost Windows machines. The tablets are $100 and $150. That is pretty inexpensive.

A recent survey (here we go) shows that Americans believe scientists are competent but not trustworthy. Welcome to the world where "scientists" tell us what color dinosaur skin was and what the temperature of the earth was 1000... years ago to a tenth of a degree. It all comes back to us if we engage in political hyperbole.

The value of stolen health care information. Our information opens doors to lucrative theft—far more valuable than a credit card.

GoPro introduces a new line of cameras including a new, less-expensive model at $130.

DoorBot becomes Ring and advances the capabilities into more complete home security.

More detail on Apple and taxes in Europe. Let's think about this one a little bit. European Judges, paid by European taxes, are deciding if an American company should pay Billion$$$ in taxes to those European governments. Hmmm.

Google and Adobe and Chromebooks and Creative Cloud and streaming and all that magic of using a terminal connected to a computer.

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Wednesday October 1, 2014

We may be able to swap parts on Google’s Project Ara modular phone without turning it off. That would be interesting. I don't know if anyone would rush to the store to buy it, but it would be interesting.

Step back into practical reality with a look at the car of our future.

Microsoft introduces Windows 10 (they skipped over 9). I guess there is a brilliant reason for skipping the number 9, but those kinds of brilliant decisions are beyond me. More details here.

Now that the 6" phablet is fashionable (thanks Apple), pants makers are adjusting their pockets.

Great photos accidentally taken by Google Street View.

Some tales from working 24/7 at Apple.

ooops, that Downtown Las Vegas project has hit some pot holes or something.

Google continues its push into the education market with Drive for Education (as in disk, not car).

The FCC rules that blackout rules are out. There are many details yet and it seems the NFL will continue as it has.

The bumps of interpreting data. The vast majority of deceased NFL players had CTE in the brain. Of course, they didn't test the general population for such, neither did they test soccer players or former high school football players or...perhaps you see the problems with the current data.

Google raises the reward for finding errors in its software to $15k.

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Thursday October 2, 2014

We now have an ebola case in the US. And he was allowed to go home from the hospital. Now all those virus panic stories and movies seem all too real.

Apple takes two million iPhone 6 orders in six hours in China.

What hath man wrought? Must see video. This is not a real person, the computer generated it.

Coffee and improving your life. Maybe this is silly, but it is a different perspective.

Maybe rumor: Microsoft skipped Windows 9 because of poor programming searched for Windows 95.

Some people take $18K flights. Sigh. Maybe this is what is was supposed to be like for all of us.

The Director of the Secret Service resigns amid controversy. A Comcast executive is acting director.

Junk hacking and the non-security of the Internet of Things.

Rovio, Angry Birds, laysoff 130 people. Even the successful are having tough times.

Business Insider's list of 100 best apps in the world.

Google donates $600K to put free public WiFi in San Francisco parks.

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Friday October 3, 2014

For the hearing impaired, a Google Glass system that hears what a person says and shows the text to the Glass wearer.

Evernote vastly improves its online version.

The top ten stars of Vine: nine are men.

A very bad review of Apple's Health app.

Apple unveils a new, much better set of benefits for its employees. Those are good benefits.

The USB hack becomes public. Now anyone can load malware through the hole.

Facebook—officially, for real, no kidding, one more time—apologizes for experimenting on its users.

JP Morgan is hacked—76million households are affected. But do not worry, Health Care dot Gov is absolutely secure.

Intel claims a savings of $9million by using its own Internet of Things tech in one of its factories.

After 30 years, IBM drops support for Lotus 1-2-3. That was once the dominant spreadsheet software in the world. There are still a few government agencies, no names please, that use Lotus 1-2-3 and Lotus Notes.

The rich give less to charity than the poor. That's odd, but real. And I am sick and tired of hearing how someone gave tens of million$ to Duke or Harvard—places that are already rich.

Google starts a new project—the Physical Web—aimed at making the Internet of Things actually work.

More people are using the Chrome browser, and people are shifting back from Windows 8 to 7.

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Saturday October 4, 2014

A comic take on what happened to Windows 9.

More layoffs from Sprint.

Want to work for Apple? Move to California and go to a UCxx or Cal State xx college.

Russian hackers have found a way to control thousands of Apple computers.

There appears to be a link between losing the sense of smell and death in five years.

One person's experience of living on airbnb and such for a year—the digital nomad.

Bill Gates is back at Microsoft trying to make Office dramatically better.

This must be a really important story as everyone is repeating it: Apple will show new iPads on October 16th.

Samsung pays Microsoft $1billion a year in Andoird patent license fees. That's a lot of money for doing nothing.

A look at those of us who are Introverted according to the MBTI.

How 50 startups manage their source code, a.k.a., everything they have that is valuable.

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Sunday October 5, 2014

Google will have security guards as employees, not contractors. Will this be the start of higher wages and better conditions? Will this be the end of part-time, low-pay jobs? This is a little story and it may fade away never to be heard again, but then again, it may be the most significant story of the last ten years. Imagine what would happen if the freelance age, the part-time (no benefits) age ended with this. What would it mean if high-profit companies poured money into employees?

More details on how the Downton Project of Las Vegas fell apart—including three suicides.

For the first time, there are no Saturday morning cartoons on broadcast networks. Cable-only networks are different.

Wearing Epson's Moverio BT-200 smart glasses for a week. They look like you are wearing something odd. If, however, they would provide needed services to the handicapped...see how that changes everything?

HP releases yet another 10" Android tablet for under $300.

Posts that may help move past a fear of freelancing.

This writer wants to quit writing. So do I, but I can't seem to stop. The pen, the keyboard—they call me, the scream at me. There, I took a another stupid sentence and started another novel I hate and love this.

I love to write; I hate to write. Somedays are some of those days where it is hard to roll out of bed and fall on the floor. There, I took a three-word sentence and started a novel. Funny how this writing thing works.

Some thoughts on reusing your writing to make more money.

Sometimes not writing helps the writer to find stories.

And sometimes it takes years for someone else to like your story.

Some ideas on extra income as a writer. Plumbers make more money on average, but sometimes you can get lucky.

Common doubts that writers have. This is one of the tensions of being a writer. The writer needs to let loose and write. Then someone walks in and calls your work garbage. Then you wake up the next morning and do it all again.

Do you write for yourself or for the market? I am in a somewhat fortunate position that I can write mostly for myself. Finances, however, can change with the stroke of a Congressional pen.

Ten tools for writers that include a kitchen timer, Post-It notes, and paper notebooks.

Some tips on writing part-time and living the rest of your life, too.

A good list of writers' conferences.

How one writer is preparing for NaNoWriMo.

Steps you can take to create a daily writing habit .

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