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: March 23-29, 2015

Summary of this week:

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

Monday March 23, 2015

German SAP turns an old Palo Alto theatre into a coffee shop. If I were there, I would be there.

Who would have thought that the MacBook Air would be derided as being old. The 11" Air is my current coffee shop machine.

The art and culture of the remix and the mash-up. Innovation has often come from mistakes and theft. It is just that today people admit it.

GM (Government Motors) is recalling all the Chevy Volts ever made.

Congress continues to grill the head of our FCC on broadband Internet regulation.

More commentary on the "pay people more" movement.

Europe is about to hit Google with anti-trust charges.  Good luck—American company in European courts.

Twitter is hit with the latest gender-discrimination suit in Silicon Valley. I pity the fool who does such to my granddaughter.

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Tuesday March 24, 2015

Once again, Google tells us that they are still developing Google Glass and augmented reality.

Apple cuts its target for Watches in half due to manufacturing problems.

Microsoft has released the software development kit for Windows 10.

Pixar releases RenderMan free for non-commercial use. A community website is here.

I read the 400-page FCC ruling on the Open Internet. Here are my comments.

More advances in prosthetics—lower cost, more ability, easier to fit to individuals. This is what we should be doing in tech work.

India's Supreme Court strikes an Internet censorship law. There is hope for basic human rights.

A review of Dell's M3800 Linux developer laptop computer.

The headline says it: The War Over Who Steve Jobs Was.

A look at the Asus Transformer Book T300 Chi—the name is much too long.

Coming, a first for the NFL—a game shown on the Internet only.

A ride on a luxury Leap bus in San Francisco. Yes, it costs more, and yes it is worth it if you have the money.

The FCC-Open Internet lawsuits are flowing.

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Wednesday March 25, 2015

Salt Lake City is next in line to receive Google fiber service.

Google spent $16.8million last year on Washington lobbying—4x what Apple spent.

Ars Technica obtains 4.6million license plate scans from the city of Oakland. Yes, the police are watching everyone without warrant.

Fox is bringing back The X Files for six episodes.

Driving external 4K displays from the newer Apple portable computers.

As part of a going-out-of-business sale, Radio Shack is selling customer data.

A simple integration of technology: Ford's new cars can read speed limit signs and limit your car's speed.

At Apple retail stores, the geeks in blue t-shirts will be fashion designers real soon now.

The psuedoscience of nootropics.

Here come the USB Type-C thumb drives.

Our TSA has spent $1billion on a program that trains employees to spot suspicious looking people at airports. Yes, there is some science behind this. Yes, you need to be pretty gifted to apply this science. No, the TSA does not hire people with the sufficient skills. And, most importantly, a lot of people who fly do so because they must do so, not because they like it. In fact, many flyers are scared, nervous, uneasy, and such. Hence, they "look suspicious."

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Thursday March 26, 2015

Congress re-introduces a bill to make the results of publicly funded research freely available to the public. Someone has to pass a law to do this? Are you kidding?

For programmers: Bazel—a build tool that Google created and uses.

The return of the classic watch. As a coincidence, I am wearing my new Timex Expedition ($30).

By 2020, we will have to choose which flying car we want to buy. We shall see.

"The Shut-In Economy" Once, the term "shut-in" referred to an elderly person whose health prohibited them from moving about outside the home.

Facebook announces many new features for developers. Wait six months for the results.

The BBC has fired "Top Gear" host Jeremy Clarkson.  What will happen to the  most popular show on earth?

Amazon Home Services begins. Hire  someone to come to your house and work.

Another restart trying to bring LibreOffice to the browser. Is it necessary any longer? The free office suites won the war and forced Microsoft to be free.

American tech companies openly plea to American government to stop misusing them. What happened to government of  the people? Perhaps I am just naive.

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Friday March 27, 2015

No Internet viewing today.

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Saturday March 28, 2015

People wonder why people wonder about science like climate change. More scandal in reviewed science pubs.

Amazon requires its warehouse workers to sign non-compete agreements. Have they no shame?

ooops, after story breaks, Amazon changes its mind and gets some shame.

Tim Cook to give away his hundreds of million$. Good for him and best wishes in doing so wisely.

Google teams with Johnson & Johnson to build surgical robots.

Facebook delves into solar powered aircraft that will beam the Internet to people.

Ellen Pao lost her gender discrimination lawsuit. All counts lost. Nothing.

Ruth Porat, Google's new CFO, will be compensated $70million. Must be good to be her.

Amazon offers unlimited cloud storage for $60 a year. And I guess unlimited really means what it means.

Yet another evolution in memory chip technology brings promise of TeraBytes on thumb drives and such.

Pocket camera and software help the visually impaired move about freely.

How an immigrant built SanDisk despite the best efforts of our Department of State.

This story is all over the Internet, so it must be important: You can now play Super Mario 64 in your browser.

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Sunday March 29, 2015

Is it a sharing economy or an economy of desperation where jobs are scarce?

Hillary Clinton's lawyer says that her email server has been wiped clean. I am guessing that the technical persons doing so know how to truly delete files from a disk. And yes, for her at least, this is legal.

Pebble Time hit the $20million mark on Kickstarter, and yes, that is another record.

"Tell the story you’re most afraid of—it’s the one that’ll resonate strongest with your readers."

A look at the classic Eberhard pencil.

More advice on "write what you know."

Tips on writing what you want to write and making some money along the way.

To write, one should be first able to observe or notice.

Some basic tips for submitting short stories to publishers.

Email me at d.phillips@computer.org
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