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: February 16-22, 2015

Summary of this week:

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

Monday February 16, 2015

LG shows a new smartwatch. The computers in these things are powerful, much more than needed.

Our FAA has proposed rules for commercial use of RC drones. Some are just plain stupid. You must keep line-of-sight with the drone. So it is now worthless to just about every business that seriously considered using them. That includes farmers who want to check there fences ten miles away and Amazon who wants to deliver packages.

A look at HP's new small, small desktop computers for $300. HINT: put a ruler next to them in the photos so we can see how small they are.

The laptop computer is not dead yet as Vaio shows two new models. For those of us who still need a full keyboard and screen in a portable form factor, these are pretty nice.

Western civilization is saved: researchers are close to perfecting a simple rub-on cream that will remove tatoos.

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Tuesday February 17, 2015

Seth Godin on why the us vs. them concept doesn't work in today's economy.

The philosophy of Steve Jobs on giving feedback as a jerk. You can give clear feedback without being a jerk, but very few managers learn that.

For the plutocrats, here are the top 25 boarding schools in the US.

Here come the cloud-connected, AI-enabled, cute little toys for kids. Are we ready for this?

Latin America was the biggest-growing smartphone market in 2014.

Mars One has narrowed the one-way-trip-to-Mars list of persons to 100 and has published their bios. The plan is to send four people to Mars without means to bring them back.

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Wednesday February 18, 2015

Here is confidence: Apple is making 5million of its watches and expects to sell them all.

Analysis shows that up to 50% of today's jobs could be done by computers and robots.

Privacy has become a luxury. I wrote about this in a short story where only the plutocrats can afford experts that erase them from the network.

Local tax breaks for businesses are used to bring jobs, but this data center has no employees.

Using neural networks have brought a breakthrough in facial recognition. I don't understand why such networks are not used for more problems.

IBM is investing $1billion in cloud software.

The WSJ does a major review on the newest Raspberry Pi.

The Equation Group: extremely sophisticated and successful hackers.

Qualcomm continues to advance the growing power and falling prices of SoC.

The Apple Watch is casuing lots of remodeling in Apple retail stores. I don't like that. The watch is wagging the entire company.

"Fifty Shades of Grey" had a record-shattering opening weekend at the box office. We should expect similar films in the next coupleo f years as everyone tries to cash in on the genre—if anyone can figure out what that genre is.

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Thursday February 19, 2015

The number of banks and such that allow Apple Pay continues to grow.

How to sell watches: have a supermodel wear one on a magazine cover. Apple learns fast.

Adobe PhotoShop is 25 years old today.

Linux lives on with 2,000 new programmers added in the past year.

HTTP/2 is finished and will be in browsers within a month.

Google's InBox, still invitation only, is now on the iPad.

Our President creates yet another new job: Chief Data Scientist and Chief Technology Officer for Data Policy.

This is all over the Internet, so it must be important. Lenovo laptops are being shipped with adware (from China).

Chinese New Year: the biggest human migration on the planet as 700million people go home.

Confusion: Microsoft, Linux, big data, Python, and R.

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Friday February 20, 2015

No Internet viewing today as we drove from Louisiana to Virginia.

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Saturday February 21, 2015

A review of the 2015 version of the Dell XPS 13. Just as people want to dismiss the laptop, they are becoming much, much better.

Strong rumors that Apple will sell its own electric car by 2020.

Details surface about the silly non-plan that LA schools had for giving every student an iPad.

Raspberry Pi: 5 million units sold. These guys should get a Nobel Prize. This is the most successful education project in history.

Health Care dot Gov fouls up tax returns for 800,000 people. These problems are predictable and were predicted.

Large sections of Niagara Falls froze this week. Must see video.

Secure? 14-year-old hacks into a car with $15 in parts.

The ten most important YouTube videos of its first ten years.

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Sunday February 22, 2015

A look at five different weather sites.

Someone understands fashion, technology, etc.: "fashion has something tech seriously wants: the ability to create and sustain demand for products that are—let’s face it—kind of useless."

The National Security Letter: how law enforcement tramples the Bill of Rights.

More government waste: DHS writes several million-dollar reports on why morale is so bad.

How several people moved into writing as a second career.

There are many ways to create habit of writing.

Part one of some excellent "rules" for life and writing.

A writing retreat can be a great thing. It can also be a great waste. Tips for choosing one.

An ambitious title, but some thought here: Writing exercises scientifically proven to redirect your life.

Writing for pleasure and no money can help make you a better-paid writer. Simply writing for any reason will make you a better writer.

Writing, even merely blogging, can change a person. It has happened to millions.

The new authority and authenticity in the 21st century.

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