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: October 26-November 1, 2015

Summary of this week:

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

Monday October 26, 2015

We must be in another dot-com bubble: a London company is building an indoor lake.

Even with all the free publicity, the latest Steve Jobs movie is a box office flop. I think they have all been that way.

Yesterday, Yahoo showed the first live-streamed only NFL game. I watched some of it.

The case that continued government funding of science research is a waste of money.

California's bullet train will be late and over budget—so much for shovel-ready projects.

Time-Warner cable tries to adjust to the changing world with Internet-only TV in New York City.

EPIC FAIL: an apt description of the mess and waste of electronic health records in America. Our President spends $9billion and we go practically nothing. Just fax your medical records or use the modern fax of scan and email.

Facebook at Work signs up the Bank of Scotlant and its 100,000 employees.

An 11-year-old is selling strong passwords for $2. You can't crack these in 1,000 years. The passwords, however, fail most password requirements in that they don't have numbers, caps, and special characters. The world, however, knows that those requirements are silly, but people who don't know the difference still require them.

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Tuesday October 27, 2015

The World Health Org concludes that eating meat—processed and non—causes cancer. Now what do we do?

And here is a story explaining the faulty science behind the studies.

The European Union is about to vote on their own net neutrality law.

The world turns upside down again: Microsoft rated as high as Apple in customer delight with Google falling.

Microsoft opens a "flagship" store in NYC. I guess that means it is a really fancy store or something.

A look at how Microsoft built the new laptop computer. Interesting in some respects, but still, look at the photo. They are trying to make a product VP look like James Bond or like the actor who plays James Bond. This is a fantasy land. What gives? Do we blame this all on Steve Jobs or Sarah Palin. Come one, we need a scapegoat for this folly.

It appears that Google is moving into the processor design business.

Forget tech careers and go to temporary jobs; hope the gaps between aren't long.

The Kangaroo: a new class of portable computer and desktop. Connect it to a monitor/keyboard and compute.

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Wednesday October 28, 2015

Apple's sales in China are booming—latest quarter doubled over previous year.

Apple had a good financial quarter selling 48million iPhones in three months.

Sales of the iPad fell 20% in the last quarter compared to the previous year.

Oracle will build a charter high school on its land in Redwood City, Ca.

This is an excellent article on the use of robotics in disaster recovery.

Our Senate has passed the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) bill above everyone's protest.

Twitter is shrinking with a declining user base and falling stock prices.

In local stores, Walgreens is buying Rite Aid.

The quick, benefits of reducing sugar intake.

How cell phone carriers make $24billion a year selling our data.

That Google WiFi router is actually worth the high price.

If you buy in volume, you can custom order Raspberry Pi boards.

HP focuses on private clouds with version 2.0 of its Helion OpenStack.

The European Parliament passed its net neutrality bill with fast lanes and slow lanes and all sorts of mischief.

IBM is about to buy the computing infrastructure that runs The Weather Channel.

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Thursday October 29, 2015

Alphabet Google is bringing project Loon balloons to Indonesia next year.

The Samsung Galaxy View: an 18.4" Android tablet. That is a big-screen tablet.

More numbers from IBM on the lower total cost of ownership of employees using Macs vice PCs.

Apple spent $8billion on R&D the past 12 months. That is 3% of total sales revenue.

This is what we need: a lie-down workstation.

ooops The EFF finds license plate reading cameras left open to anyone with a browser. Yes, anyone can red all the data captured by these supposedly law-enforcement controlled devices.

HTML5 is one year old and growing.

Tech leaders in the UK urge the PM to allow tech migrants in (so they can have a larger, cheaper pool of labor).

If you have a new MacBook, this clever port hub is an essential $35 accessory.

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Friday October 30, 2015

The Microsoft PC: an admission that Apple was right all along?

After 35 years of one-child-only, China moves to a two-child policy.

Google states it is ready to ring part of the earth with its Look balloons.

Apple to spend $15billion on capital investments this year.

Facebook is testing a feature to make it craigslist.

15 good productivity apps.

Microsoft will integrate Skype into Office Online so that you can chat with other editors while editing a document.

LinkedIn has a better-than-expected financial report. I doubt the error-prone expectors (estimators) will not be punished.

Google will melt Android and Chome OS together next year in a line of portable computers.

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Saturday October 31, 2015

A look at the Google Lunar Xprize and the companies that are still working towards a lunar landing.

If Google and Facebook ever share their customer data, they could either build a great personal assistant or do something rotten.

Our Army tests the offensive and defensive use of swarms of small, inexpensive, buy-at-the-mall drones.

Back in the age of Unix there was a philosophy: a tool should do one thing well. Where did we go wrong?

NFL players file a class action lawsuit against FanDuel. I think they want some of the money, and they may be entitled to it.

A reporter joins Airbnb as a host and learns that most of their public statements are false.

50 most under-rated universities in America. George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. is high on the list. I have an association with GMU.

NASA once again proves that it can take really cool photos, but do little of any substance.

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Sunday November 1, 2015

With unemployment dropping (it isn't), there is a battle for talent (there isn't). I'm not sure what country the writer of this post inhabits, but US unemployment isn't 5%. That is the official government statistic that was broken by the great recession of the Obama administration.

A group rides in a self-driving Volkswagon 1,500 miles across Mexico.

A look at the Fossil line of smartwatches that don't look like smartwatches. It is jewelry.

More researchers show that words and not special characters make the best passwords. Why won't those people who require passwords listen?

HP officially splits into two companies today.

Smartphone ownership in the US has doubled in the last five years.

Uber and such are ruled by the raters, and it seems we are awfully fussy.

Harvard law school has a project to put all Federal and State court rulings online for everyone for free. They certainly have the money required for such.

Yet another recommendation to write like you speak. That works for some writers.

When writing a long piece—like a novel or textbook—it is easy to lose interest. Here are some tips to help stay with the project.

A good infographic for NaNoWriMo.

Fiction tips from Ian Fleming.

One freelance writer quit social media and benefited greatly. Here is her story.

A case for why Facebook is a waste of time for writers. It is a numbers game.

If you are trying to make a living as a freelancer, take yourself seriously. Do the serious things.

Cloud storage for freelance workers. Please, this is your livelihood. Make copies of your livelihood.

Some humility lessons in the age of the Internet.

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