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: June 15-21, 2015

Summary of this week:

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

Monday June 15, 2015

Since 2013, more movies are made in Louisiana than California.

Jurassic World was filmed at the abandoned Six Flags near New Orleans. I went to that place before Katrina flooded it.

The Jurassic World movie set all types of $$$ records over the weekend. We just love to watch dinosaurs slaughter people.

Photos of a large, abandoned Soviet space facility.

Governments at work(?).

American government caught trying to buy security holes.

North Korean government turns off mobile Internet access of foreign visitors.

Iranian government learns something about security as it bans smartphone use by high officials.

Somehow, college campuses changed from the place where you could say just about anything as a learning experience to palces where you cannot say anything out of fear.

This guy, on a commerical airline flight, photos the ISS flying by.

FCC to expand Lifeline program to give money to the poor(er) for broadband access. Lots of money goes to Comcast and others.

Google to pay a fortune for its new London headquarters. Beware the extravagent building as it often precedes a collapse.

How Facebook's Open Compute Project changed the world of data centers.

Uber is now the old guy trying to fight off the startups.

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Tuesday June 16, 2015

Someone is cutting fiber optic cables around San Francisco. This exposes a major weakness in the system.

No one seems to fear giving cloud providers all their data.

"Email is the most reviled personal technology ever." Maybe, but billions use it.

Facebook will build a big data center in Ireland.

Facebook has a new photo app called Moments.

Facebook is going to court in Belgium over privacy law violations.

Adobe rolls out its annual update to Creative Cloud.

As part of this, Adobe introduces Stock: a stock photo service that may dominate the  market.

Uber tries the delivery business; watch out UPS and FedEx.

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Wednesday June 17, 2015

Our FDA bans partially hydrogenated oils, as they are no longer safe to consume. ooops, I guess they were for years, but someone changed their mind. That is sort of like global warming modeling or something.

A European court says that web sites are responsible for user comments. I guess all comments from now on will be reviewed before being posted. Somehow, in Europe at least, you are responsible for what everyone else says. Since the Internet crosses national boundaries, I guess everyone is responsible for everyone else in the world.

Need part-time work? Maybe you can deliver Amazon packages.

Tech jobs that pay at least $130K anywhere in the US.

ooops, its the same for everyone—trouble with a building contractor hits Apple, too.

Somebody working for the St Louis Cardinals hacked into the systems of the Houston Astros.

A look at the folly at attempts to reboot the digital world of the Federal workplace.

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Thursday June 18, 2015

Members of the WebKit Project announce WebAssembly: compile code from any language to run in the JavaScript engine.

SourceForge is now listed as malicious software. The world turned upside down.

Our FCC fines AT&T $100million for throttling data rates. Good for...oooops, just realized my phone bill will rise.

And Time Warner is next on the FCC punishment list.  ooops, this bills go up for their customers.

A House committee has taken the first step to freezing the new FCC rules.

California's Labor Commision ruled that Uber drivers are employees, not contractors. Will the word of some state regulators destroy the sharing economy?

A look back at early home computer advertising and culture. Some of it was pretty silly.

A call for a national ban on plastic bags. Why not keep working city by city? Or how about this idea: find a rich person who agrees with the ban, buy the companies that make the bags, and close them. Why the pull to have the President declare them illegal? Why is the solution in Washington D.C.?

Will the Internet of Things kill the password?

The most profitable thing Apple is selling (by percentage) are watch bands. Apple Computer has now become a huckster for watch bands.

Google turns the DropCam into the Nest Cam. Simple—buy a couple of companies and put the coolest label on the most mature product.

Microsoft adds French and German to the Skype real-time language translator.

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Friday June 19, 2015

IBM is laying off employees—quietly.

Intel will layoff employees as well.

Google buys a company whose product allows people to stream apps instead of the usual download and install.

We already have rumors about the Apple Watch 2.

Rumor confirmed: our FCC has included broadband access in the LifeLine program. Money flows from some taxpayers to Comcast et al.

This camera attaches to the iPhone. Excellent. The DxO ONE. Must see.

Nokia announces that it will return to the smartphone market.

Windows 10 will include XBox game streaming. Those folks at Microsoft are getting smarter.

HP shows a new lineup of portable computers for back-to-school. USB-C, detachable screens, under $500.

Our FAA promises rules for commercial drones by 2017 (or sometime after that).

Great news for the top 1% $$$—your own iMAX theater at home.

YouTube Newswire—an attempt to show verifired news stories as opposed to silliness.

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Saturday June 20, 2015

This is the type of work we should be doing in technology: a soft exoskeleton glove gives strength to hands that are disabled.

The European Commission is about to hit Google with a "big" fine—perhaps to pay off the Greece debt.

Ah the world of traffic signal cameras—a former CEO pleads guilty to bribery and fraud.

Apple and IBM extend their partnership to build a teaching app for public schools.

Tesla, Apple, Amazon, and betting on the future.

Hot fashion: the old Apple rainbow logo letterman's jacket. Yes, I would like to have one.

The stock of Red Hat is at a 15-year high.

Google's Android One phone project in India flopped. Well, not everything works, even for Google.

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Sunday June 21, 2015

It is Sunday. As usual, a few new items on the Internet today and a longer list of items about writing gathered during the week.

The Empire Strikes Back: how people are drifting back into Microsoft Office.

Meanwhile in Louisiana, the Governor vetoes the use of license plate readers for privacy's sake.

Sort of low-tech high-tech, the Pebble Time pretty-smart-but-not-really-smart watch.

Guess what? Not every colllege startup idea turns out like Facebook. Such success is highly improbably, but many college students don't seem to understand reality.

More on the significance of this week's WebAssembly announcement. I can program in C instead of JavaScript.

The Raspberry Pi now has an official case.

Uber et al: if you can't beat labor laws, create a new word. Here comes the dependent contractor.

One writer's success with Kickstarter campaigns. I guess this is working for some people.

Having a bad day? Here are a few suggestions to fill the time.

Recurring revenue and freelance writing. If you can get it, you've got it made.

Write what you don't know. We learn more that way.

Some ways that daily writing affect anyone's life. I like the #1 reason given: CLEAR YOUR MIND.

How some writers move from $1 blog posts to $100 for the same writing.

Common mistakes writers make in marketing.

An editor reminds writers why most of us write.

Tips on being "instantly creative." I'm not sure what that means.

How one writer got 600,000 followers in seven years.

Worry less, travel more, and write more.

If you write, someone wil not like what you write. It is a great skill to be able to separate what you write from who you are. "This is not me; it is only something I wrote."

Sometimes writers just need a little boost in confidence.

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