Summary of this week:

Security hole found in Qualcomm processors
Summer Olympics begin in Brazil
Computers crash at Delta Airlines, nobody flies
Intel buys machine learning company Nervana
Federal court regins back the FCC a little
HP Enterprise buys what is left of SGI
Local flooding devastates Denham Springs, Louisiana (home of many friends)

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

Monday August 8, 2016

Amazon's offices in Japan were raided by the government's anti-monopoly arm.

Much has been made this past week of Apple's slow refresh of its computers. The entire industry has been slow with new processors lately.

Researchers find security holes in Qualcomm processors that are all over Android phones.

The chip card credit card has flopped. It's too slow. Help on the way real soon now.

HP has a backpack with a battery in it large enough to charge a laptop.

World changer: MIT and DARPA build a LIDAR sensor the size of a grain of rice.

WalMart bets $3billion on Jet.com to gain a little on Amazon.

The Oregon Trail is now a table top card game. Nostalgia and the current trend to table, hands-on games.

Things you can do with your old tablet computer.

Email me at d.phillips@computer.org
Go to Day Book Home and pointer to previous weeks
Go to Dwayne's Home Page

Tuesday August 9, 2016

Cloud computing anyone? Delta Airlines loses power at its data center and doesn't fly for a day.

Before the end of the decade, NASA will launch a bunch of cube sats to the moon.

Facebook tries again in India. This shows the potential of the Indian market.

The Internet Archive posts thousands of Amiga games online that we can play in the browser.

Monster.com is acquired by Randstad. International mergers in the job hunting business.

One engineer's efforts to help dementia sufferers with Android tablets and Amazon IoT buttons.

Companies having values? It is the persons who work for a company who have values. See, e.g., Tim Cook and Apple.

The ACLU and a FOIA request force our FBI to release aerial surveillance video of us.

Using a Bluetooth "smart lock." Might as well leave the door open as these are easily hacked.

Importing foreign scientists and engineers? The US education system is to blame. It is also a simple numbers game. More people are born outside the US than inside. They are being educated.

Email me at d.phillips@computer.org
Go to Day Book Home and pointer to previous weeks
Go to Dwayne's Home Page

Wednesday August 10, 2016

SpaceX continues to make progress towards deep space with testing of its bigger engines.

A Swedish church will use drones to send Bibles to Syria.

Google, like everyone else, blocks Adobe Flash. It's over.

No surprise here as Facebook sides with advertisers over users regarding ad blockers.

Intel buys Nervana Systems and their machine learning expertise to aid its data center business.

Researchers find Sauron malware. It has been working secretly for five years. Who knows who has used it for what.

Google improves its Maps for users of less-costly smartphones and travellers whose cellphone data plans don't travel.

Stronger rumors about how Apple will make big changes to its laptop computers.

Cutting the cable (TV habit). It was designed to waste our time and it succeeded.

Email me at d.phillips@computer.org
Go to Day Book Home and pointer to previous weeks
Go to Dwayne's Home Page

Thursday August 11, 2016

Federal court rules that our FCC reached too far in telling cities and states what they could do regarding broadband.
The regulators lose; the elected representatives win.

Why watch the Olympics. See a squirrel view as he grabs a GoPro and runs up a tree.

GoPro to start selling its six-camera, $5,000 VR system.

Seagate shows a 60TeraByte Solid State Disk.

Smartphones? Passe. The Internet of Things is where the real growth is. Let's hope someone remembers security.

Contrary to industry trends, Apple laptop computer sales rise 30%.

Big security hole found at Microsoft that affects all Windows devices (tablets, phones, etc.).

Google updates Docs to run in split screen mode on the iPads.

Headline says it all: I like the Olympics better without announcers

Email me at d.phillips@computer.org
Go to Day Book Home and pointer to previous weeks
Go to Dwayne's Home Page

Friday August 12, 2016

HP Enterprise buys SGI (Silicon Graphics). I didn't know SGI still existed.

Amazon's AWS launches Kinesis Analytics to help analyze streaming data.

Arianna Huffington leaves the Huffington Post.

Nvidia has a good financial quarter spurred by its growth in data centers.

A look into the history of abuse and stalking on Twitter and why nothing ever seems to happen.

HP introduces cloud-optimized PCs. These are Chromebooks that run Windows, sort of.

Virtual reality and exoskeletons as a therapy help paraplegics regain what doctors felt was lost. This is what we should be doing with technology.

Security researchers show how to unlock any Volkswagon sold in the last 20 years with cheap computer stuff. Don't you wish those security researchers would go away and let the rest of us sleep blissfully? (not)

Researchers believe they have killed the idea that man came to North America via a landbridge in Siberia/Alaska.

Listening to the small sounds emitted by a disk drive can reveal data on the drive.

Email me at d.phillips@computer.org
Go to Day Book Home and pointer to previous weeks
Go to Dwayne's Home Page

Saturday August 13, 2016

A look at robots that replace farm workers.

Near science fiction on flying cars. The regulators will kill these.

Many of the security hacks reported this week came from Def Con. You can't sleep if you attend.

The DNC hack fallout continues as personal email address and phone numbers of members of Congress are released.

A clever little app that remembers things you tell it to remember. Extremely simple, it may prove useful.

Razer has a mechanical keyboard case for the iPad. It is big, heavy, expensive, and wonderful.

Not just Volkswagon: everyone's car keys from the last two decades are easy to hack.

Easy money for European governments: fine Google Billion$ for whatever you want.

Now and then on TV, you can see the green pool at the Rio Olympics. Be thankful we can't smell it.

Email me a t d.phillips@computer.org
Go to Day Book Home and pointer to previous weeks
Go to Dwayne's Home Page

Sunday August 14, 2016

A low pressure system sat on Baton Rouge for several days pulling water from the Gulf of Mexico and dumping it on the river basins. The flooding along the Amite, Comite, and Tangipahoa rivers means thousands of homes under water and lost. Sixty miles of Interstate highway, supposedly impervious to such little things, are closed.

Kenny Baker, the actor inside R2-D2, dies at 82. The man and the costume charmed a generation.

SpaceX lands a booster on a barge offshore. This is four out of five.

Thoughts on the human tendency to goof and lose security keys that, in today's world, ruin the lives of 100millions.

Fuchshia: the next operating system Google is developing to run on sensors to big computers.

Yet again, someone demonstrates how to hack a computer voting machine and rig an election. Why do we insist on using such vulnerable systems for elections?

AI: teaching computers to think like humans. Finally, we are asking, "but WHICH humans?"

Private programming schools are making inroads in the job market. They cost a lot, so wager your money.

I know we writers are creatives, but we have to have some organization to our workspace and our life.

How smaller, simpler goals made life and writing easier for one writer. I recommend this to just about everyone. Take a step, then another step, then another step.

What you write, anything, is never wasted. It is more words on paper and on the screen. It is practice towards a better state.

Steinbeck on habit and writing. The habit is created through sheer hard work. If you don't write everyday, you don't write.

This is a good essay on how writing helps us to feel better about ourselves. Of course we doubt and we grimace when our writing doesn't make a million bucks, but we have something to show for our time, and some people smile when they read it.

There is no shortage of great ideas for stories. There are more stories than can be written. People will give them to you if you ask. Promise them 1% of all profits.

Fear, uncertainty, doubt, and writing. They don't have to go together, but if they do for you, that is okay. Keep writing.

Struggling to write means that you are a writer who is struggling. Nevertheless, you ARE a writer.

The fears of financially successful writers.

Editing our own material is difficult. Here are common mistakes.

Email me a t d.phillips@computer.org
Go to Day Book Home and pointer to previous weeks
Go to Dwayne's Home Page