Summary of this week:

Apple removes all the Bose products from its stores
Apple had another huge financial quarter
China is hacking the new iCloud
Google supports a USB security key
Yahoo has a better-than-expected financial quarter
Microsoft Garage: try not-quite-finished apps
Microsoft has a good financial quarter
Amazon has a bad financial quarter—Fire phone a disaster
Google Inbox: an email app that is supposed to be better than Gmail

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

Monday October 20, 2014

The government is coming to rescue us: our President signs an executive order to speed to adoption of th credit cards with computer chips in them.

Google has released the developer kit for Android 5.0.

Will we see a smartwatch from Microsoft before Thanksgiving?

FitBit has a new $250 watch.

Living as an independent contractor in the IT world.

Some people are making lots of money because of the Ebola scare: Sales of Clorox up 28%, overall cleaning supplies up 12%.

This story is all over the Internet, so it must be important: Facebook bans our DEA because it made phoney profiles, a.k.a., it lied. I feel foolish for writing this, but I guess someone has to write it or lots of us have to write it many times for it to make any type of dent: It is wrong for public officials to lie to the public. It is wrong at every level from the policeman at the school crosswalk to the head of the CDC and those folks who temporarily occupy the White House.

Apple has removed all the Bose products from its store. I think that is a bad move. Apple owns Beats. Beats and Bose compete. If Apple has the better product, people will buy it.

Want to work for Google? Master MatLab.

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Tuesday October 21, 2014

Virgin Galactic promises to start test flights on SpaceShip Two real soon now.

America has plenty of homeless people; America has plenty of empty buildings. Need we ask the next question?

Privilege, exploitation, athletics, and colleges: and colleges? How did colleges get mixed up in this? More on how we have corrupted sports.

This is a shocker: Apple made more $$$ on Mac computers than iPads in the last quarter.

By the way, Apple made $8.5billion in profits in the last quarter alone.

The government of China is hacking the new iCloud. The government of China, the PRC, is trying to steal everything from everyone in the world. Nevertheless, they have a large, literate labor force and are good money makers for everyon else, so all is forgiven.

Apple Pay is up and running.

Staples may have been hacked; get another new credit card.

The Ubuntu Linux distribution is now ten years old.

The "best desktop computer" in the world: the new Apple iMac with that 5K display.

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Wednesday October 22, 2014

Ben Bradlee dies at 93. Bradlee was the editor of a major newspaper at a time when such a job was influential. There will be hundreds of tribute pieces to him in the next few days.

Caught with their hands in the cookie jar, NSA officials and ex-officials cut commercial ties and no one is punished. Just shows that there are several sets of rules and which one applies to you depends on who you know.

Yahoo's last financial quarter was better than expected.

Nokia becomes Microsoft Lumia.

Google releases a USB security key to provide another layer of security when using its sites.

Success sometimes breeds discontent—Uber drivers are protesting work conditions. They don't seem to understand that driving for Uber is not supposed to be a real job, but merely a way to pick up a little extra cash here and there.

The future of world-wide communications is high-flying, unmanned aricraft. Such predictions seem to ignore bad weather.

The iPhone 6 and powerful computers of 1985. Hey, I used powerful computers in 1985.

Coming to Raspberry Pi: a little touch screen.

Hands on with the new Google Nexus 9 and the Nexus 6. Of course they are good products.

Hackers break into phone systems and steal millions. Of course nothing like this would never happen to Health Care dot Gov (not). Did I put enough negatives in that last sentence?

Coming to DSL is G.FAST technology and 1 gigabit per second rates. That is if your ISP will support it.

PhotoMath: you take a photo of your math problem, and the app solves it for you and shows all the steps. There is a lot of artificial intelligence technology behind this. It is quite impressive from a technical perspective. I don't know how many parents of 13-year-olds will buy this and how many middle-school math teachers will go nuts.

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Thursday October 23, 2014

Yahoo will have a new, redesigned home page next month.

Twitter will have a new service that gives you a temporary number to login. This is a variation on changing logins that have been in use for several decades.

Coming real soon now: Google Inbox app to recreate email on mobile devices.

Here now: Microsoft Garage where you can try apps that aren't quite finished.

Coming real soon now: a second version of Google's Chromecast.

Someone auctioned a working Apple I computer for almost a million bucks.

This story is all over the Internet, so it must be important—Apple opening 25 more stores in China (currently has 15).

This could be a signifiant leap or merely another stumble along a path: a $500 tablet gadget that translates American Sign Language to speak and text and back again.

With Anonabox discedited, several other Kickstarter campaigns promise to deliver inexpesive privacy routers.

HomeBoy—a new home security camera that uses a long-lasting battery. This provides much more flexibility in deployment and use.

A 100-year-old notebook was found in Antarctic ice. It is still readable. That is backwards compatibility.

The U of North Carolina is caught running fake classes for athletes. This is yet another part of the disgrace that sports has become.

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Friday October 24, 2014

Paul Allen donates $100million to fight Ebola.

New York City now has an Ebola case.

It is the end of civilization as we know it: bacon, cheese, and burger between two pieces of fried chicken KFC.

Microsoft had a better-than-expected financial quarter. Subscriptions to Office 365 and sales of Surface Pro 3 are good.

Amazon had a worst-than-expected financial quarter—stock plummets.

Amazon has $170million worth of unsold Fire phones. What do they do with all that hardware?

Research shows that mass surveillance is grossly wasteful. The research doesn't consider that governments don't care about waste.

Fremont, Ca. tech firm pays imported workers $1.21/hour. That is horrible.

Amazon Web Services moves into Frankfurt, Germany.

Sprint unveils a new lower-cost data plan for families beating all the other guys.

The Chinese launch an unmanned mission to the moon. NASA continues to study its studies about studying.

The 360fly is here: 360 degree horizontal 240 degree vertical action tough video camera.

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Saturday October 25, 2014

This company is making, large-format 4x5 cameras and selling them for $200.

Google has a major reorgainzation of its staff.

Since the intro of the iPhone, Americans are paying 50% more on cell phone bills. It all that data.

Google exec Alan Eustace jumps from 136,000 feet—a new record.

Google buys six office buildings in Redwood City.

The average Internet data rate takes a 50% jump in the US in the past year.

Strong, long passwords aren't really necessary, but we are forced to use them.

Reminder: Google's Nexus phones and tablets are meant to show people what can be done so they will do it.

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Sunday October 26, 2014

Those who estimate these things estimate that the world has 10,000 persons with Ebola.

After the launch of Apple Pay, Apple's stock remains at an all-time high.

There is a second ePayment system out there: CurrentC, and some store chains are prohibiting Apple Pay in favor of it.

Google makes real-time satellite imagery available to some non-profits via a new Skybox of Good program.

Here is something the new Mac Pro cannot do—be converted into a park bench.

Using the Day One app to keep a journal. I recommend keeping a journal.

Legislators in Italy are considering funding free public WiFi to boost their economy. There are some arguments in favor of this. The ability to connect to the Internet just about anywhere at just about anytime can help businesses.

Patience may eventually pay off at Microsoft: after two years of losses ($2Billion), the Microsoft Surface turns a profit.

A look at the people who are tasked with filtering porn from much of the Internet.

A look inside one of Apple-employee-only cafes. Lucky them. The rest of us? And some people wonder why some people hate the technocrats.

Ikea adds a motorized standing desk to its catalog.

Freelance writers can fall into paralysis and not write for money.

How to separate writing, editing, and proof reading and increase the quality of your writing.

There is wonder in every moment. All we have to do is notice it.

For the very fortunate few, here are some writing fellowships.

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