Summary of this week:

The death of the jumbo jet, the news media, and public education
LA closes all its schools on an email hoax bomb threat
Software causes the loss of 100K banking jobs
CISA rides into law as part of US budget
Star Wars VII opens
2016 to be the hottest year in the history of Earth
Microsoft works with the government of China on Windows 10

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

Monday December 14, 2015

The day of the great big commercial airliner is over. People want more flights and that means fewer passengers per plane.

200 countries agree to limit the use of fossil fuels (if they feel like it as this is not a binding treaty).

Twitter informs some users that governments may be hacking into their accounts. Has Twitter et al become commercial nations?

The YouTube 2015 rewind.

2015 has been a bad year for technology IPOs with most failing.

A look at AltSchool—small schools funded by rich people that work really well, but won't scale.

When we talk about things we don't understand, we usually sound stupid to those who do understand. In this case, the subject is diversity.

Government, cryptography, and lying. Sigh. Read the above item. In this case, the subject is cryptography.

MIT creates a message system that floods the network with dummy traffic and causes surveillance systems to fail.

We return to the 1980s when AI algorithms were ready to advise doctors and better than doctors, but no one would accept that reality.

Dell continues to improve its portable computer.

On the death of "the news media."

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Tuesday December 15, 2015

I'm having all sorts of Internet access troubles at the coffee shop this morning.

If you get a toy drone for Christmas, be sure to register it with our FAA to avoid $27,000 fine. Not kidding, this is the law or uh regulation or something.

MacKeeper, those guys with the annoying popup ads, are exposed with terrible security holes.

Microsoft begins distributing Planner to a few customers. It is a lightweight project management tool.

Netflix is working to improve the quality and reduce the data load of its videos.

Dell is trying to sell Perot Systems. Got $5billion on you?

Apps and algorithms have caused the lay offs of 100,000 bank employees in the US and Europe this year.

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Wednesday December 16, 2015

Los Angeles closes all its schools due to a prank email—640,000 kids stayed home. We continue to look stupid as we terrorize ourselves.

More on this from Schneier.

A look at the new Star Wars film. Reviews seem generally good for the renewal of the series.

Google releases its search 2015 results and video.

The most-searched items state by state for 2015.

Backdoor encryption viewed in light of the Clipper chip from a generation ago. It sill won't work.

Are we now in the Golden Age (whatever that is) of Open Source everything? Still have to pay for tickets to see Star Wars.

Our EPA ran an illegal social media campaign and was caught. Prosecuted? Jail time? Different story.

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Thursday December 17, 2015

The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) was attached to the US budget as a rider. This is how you pass legislation that no one wants.

California will require a driver in driverless cars. That kills the most useful aspect of such—transportation for the disabled.

iPhone sales are expected to finally drop. This hurts Apple as the iPhone funds much of the rest of the company.

Google's self-driving cars move into a new business unit.

Here is a machine learning approach to self-driving cars. It only involves $1,000 in hardware.

The US Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time in 9 years. It's about time.

This is bad for America: new law restricts travel due to "heritage." Some men are a little less equal than others.

LinkedIn upgrades its job listings to include more data.

Target has another hack that hurts its customers. I think I missed out on this one.

Facebook and Uber partner so you can call an Uber ride via Messenger.

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Friday December 18, 2015

2014, 2015 are the two hottest years in the history of planet earth. 2016 is predicted to break those records. When will the oceans boil?

Microsoft is making a special version of Windows 10 for the Chinese government.

Amazon is building its own air transport company.

That Star Wars movie opened last night.

Reddit is banning users that post Star Wars spoilers and hoaxes. I haven't seen the movie, but here is a guess: the good guys either win or are setup to win in a later movie.

Global average Internet speeds rose 14 percent last year: 5.1 Mbps. Only 5% have "broadband."

A third of Americans would like Apple and Disney to run our Federal government. I wouldn't argue with that.

Dennis M. Ritchie from 1993 on The Development of the C Language. Excellent reading. Computing was different when more thought was needed.

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Saturday December 19, 2015

Slight Internet viewing today as it is a travel day.

Facebook is offering a bonus for employees to move closer to the workplace. Good for them.

When you register your drone with our FAA, everyone will be able to see your name and address. I guess this is to, uh, er, well there must be a good reason for telling everyone where you live and that you own property and stuff. Someone please explain it to me.

Encryption backdoors are not secure, and this week's news proves it. People found backdoors in Juniper firewalls this week. ooops. If a backdoor is there, the wrong person will find it. And that is just one of the smaller problems with them.

Tim Cook answers 60 Minutes questions on why it keeps money overseas. It is simple—it saves Apple's owners money. Who owns Apple? You do.

The headline says it all, "Clinton and Sanders are fighting about data because campaigns are bad at protecting it"

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Sunday December 20, 2015

The BBC is moving to machine translation of news broadcasts. A human translater will listen to the translation first.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Beatles starting Christmas Eve on Apple Music.

Hillary Clinton wants a Manhattan Project for encryption with backdoors so she can read our mail while no one can read her email, or something like that.

Hit the backspace key 28 times and hack into Linux—last week at least.

Good memory techniques. I don't call them tricks. They are working techniques.

Our President calls for more help from Silicon Valley to catch terrorists. He often forgets that he is the President and that the agencies over which he presides can hire companies to help do the work.

Top ten "free" online courses working professionals should take.

Atherton, California: I've never heard of it either. That is because it is the most expensive housing zip code in America.

Another kid is arrested for bringing an electronic gadget to school. Another case of us all looking stupid as we terrorize ourselves.

This is not a surpise, the Star Wars movie breaks all the money records for the opening day and weekend.

This is a good writer's tip: set an alarm clock and do not allow yourself to leave your chair until it dings. You might as well write while you are stuck there.

Still in college? You can write for a little money on the side. Many now-famous writers did this. They didn't wait for a degree to try to write professionally.

A take on the 12 days of Christmas for writing exercises.

Writing, at least writing to be published, can be so difficult.

Good post on the value of content—words and video—in marketing in 2016.

The Who + Do formula for writing.

A few basics on how to make our writing easier to read.

Infographic on the state of freelance writers. Most earn less thatn $10K a year. Coffee money and nothing else.

Organizing your workspace for better productivity. If you are a writer, close your eyes and type.

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