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: August 10-16, 2015

Summary of this week:

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

Monday August 10, 2015

It is early Monday morning, and the world has yet to start revolving again.

Some technologists are finding ways of connecting advances here and there and applying them to health care. Good.

Case in point: this eye tracking system allows paralyzed persons to communicate by moving their eyes. This is what we should be doing with technology.

Some thoughts on leisure. Calm ourselves, folks.

The future is hardware and the little tools that make it possible for anyone to make hardware.

There are many aspects of each person that, when combined, identify that person much better than a fingerprint. And, by the way, the fingerprint is not unique. Sorry, I know "they" have been telling us that for a long time.

H-1B visa holders are predominantly, 99%+, not diverse. The more we know about H-1B, the worse it gets.

There are places, like airliner bathrooms, where human waste is captured and held. Such places lead to research into diseases and their spread.

"Rebecca Black is too famous to be normal and too normal to be famous." The life of a viral video person four years later.

Google renews its efforts to build the $50 Android One smartphone.

A Linux admin reviews Windows 10, "Overall, there's really nothing to see here."

This story is all over the Internet, so it must be important. Persons in the ISS are eating some lettuce grown there.

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Tuesday August 11, 2015

Alphabet: the company that holds Google and all those Google endeavors. This is a major change and it brings risk.

See abc.xyz—yes, that is the URL.

Another take on the story. There are many on the Internet today.

Google shares rise 6% after Alphabet announcement.

Another take on what the Alphabet moves for Google and its talented employees.

And yet another commentary on Google Alphabet.

Microsoft releases Windows 10 for IoT Core. An OS variant for embedded devices. Finally, someone calls these things what they really are.

Lenovo is the first to put Intel Xeon processors in a laptop.

This writer makes a good case for forming guilds in the software and tech professions.

What's in a domain name? Much.

Use of Chromebooks and Codenvy to develop software is on the rise. Program through the browser.

The other side of startups: Zirtual deletes all its social media accounts and fires all 400 employees by email.

Coca-Cola is funding research to show that obesity is not from diet.

Pay TV (cable) continues to shrink with stock prices falling as well.

The freemium model, give away things and make money later, doesn't seem to be working.

Now we have Car-as-a-Servce CaaS. Next?

Fascinating post about education, educators, and technology. Apt for the back-to-school season.

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Wednesday August 12, 2015

Lawrence Lessig considers running for president as a Democrat.

A call for downloadable operationg systems.

In a generation, driving a car on the road in the US will be illegal. I have written several short stories to this affect.

Hillary Clinton is giving her email server to the FBI. Of course, after months of delay there is something known as tainted evidence.

China devalues its currency another 2%.

Tim Cook and Eric Schmidt invest in a shower head company that claims to save 70% water.

Oracle posts then unposts a blog telling security researchers to stop looking for holes in its software.

Firefox 40 is out.

Facebook is working on a mobile news app so the news media can bother us all with breaking news.

Hackers hack a Corvette via an insurance company dongle. You would have thought the insurance company...nah.

Vanity Fair has a big story on Tinder and dating.

Tinder doesn't like the Vanity Fair story, not one bit.

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Thursday August 13, 2015

The EPA accidentally poisoned a river in Colorado. Accidents happen, but when a company has an accident the government fines it. When the government has an accident, what happens?

Julian Assange has been in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for three years. That is a long time to be under house arrest.

The government of Russia may block Reddit from its subjects. Why not?

Rumors about the coming iteration of the iPad mini.

Twitter has removed the 140-character limit on direct messages. Plain tweets are still limited.

More twists in the Hillary Clinton email mess. Was anyone at the State Department thinking about anything let alone basic security?

"What is the future when more and more work can be done by intelligent machines instead of people, or only done by people in partnership with those machines?" Tim O'Reilly

Intel tries to hire a "more diverse workforce." If you have a daughter, push her through engineering school whether she likes it or not. I understand the desire to have a diverse workforce, but an engineering company hires degreed engineers, and if women are not getting engineering degrees...well, please someone tell me the answer.

In their attempt to do the same, Apple will have ten paid internshipts for CODE2040 fellows. Yes, disciminating to end discriminating has its problems.

Ohm: a completely different type of battery for your car.

Facebook cancelled an internship after the intern revealed code flaws. Be careful when describing errors as some people don't want to know.

Qualcomm reveals the Snapdragon 820, better in every way.

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Friday August 14, 2015

No Internet viewing today as instead I had breakfast with some fine gentlemen.

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Saturday August 15, 2015

More news about the WalkCar—that thing that looks like a laptop, but you stand on it and it moves.

The smartphone market is saturated, so people are being layed off.

The 14 quickest unicorns ($1billion companies).

CHIP—a $9, little single board computer that runs Linux. This is great stuff.

Google and Dell introduce a Chromebook for the workplace. Here is more on the technology and advantages of Chromebooks in the office.

There are experiments now with driverless shuttles in controlled places like college campuses.

You can now run Windows 10 on your Apple computer.

Google avoids regulation of drone testing from one part of the government by working with another part of the government. Don't ya' just love how government works?

Samsung shows a 16TeraByte solid state disc in a 2.5" package. Amazing.

This is what rich people do in their spare time: a group of architects want to raise $2billion to build a Lord of the Rings city—full size.

People who calculate such things calculate that 4,000 people a day die in China due to air pollution.

Samsung introduces the Galaxy Note 5 phablet.

The title says it all: Automation Angst.

In business-to-business sales, Chromebooks are now the top-selling laptop.

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Sunday August 16, 2015

Samsung's latest ads feature the Galaxy Note 5 and the S-Pen.

Researchers monitor bears via drones and drive the bears nuts. When you measure something, you change it. I guess we have to keep repeating that even though people will keep repeating the error.

Don't like drones overhead? Hack them and bring them down. It is quite easy.

Thoughts about the future with 5G networks and more powerful smartphones (radios+computers).

ooops, a tracking system problem grounded hundreds of flights on the US east coast. Hackers?

Intel gives money to Navajos in Arizona for high school programming training. I hope they give more than money.

Is Amazon a terrible, life-crunching place to work? or has the press misrepresented everything, again.

Given component costs, it is possible to build a $50 smartphone.

XKCD cartoonist Randall Munroe has another Amazon science best seller. The Daily Show was a top news program. XKCD is a top science "blog." Maybe these guys have something here.

It appears that the Soylent wonder drink is loaded with lead and cadmium.

The 16 top-earning authors for 2015.

This post has links to 100 writing exercises. This is a good reference.

Thoughts on returning to writing after a while of not writing.

An attempt to apply project management techniques to writing.

Finding the time to write, actually the post is about being better organized so you need less time to write.

Tips for GTD for writers.

Hidden markets for writers: the business-to-business trade publications.

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