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: 13-19 March, 2017
Summary of this week:
- Chuck Berry dies at 90
- Silicon Valley doesn't seem to understand what is bad behaviour
- Intel buys Mobileye—jumps into self-driving vehicles
- Microsoft puts Teams on Office 365, no extra charge
- GoPro has more layoffs
- Oracle cloud computing provides a good financial quarter
- Nvidia moving into new partnerships for self-driving vehicles
- Raspberry Pi sets another record—Nobel Prize?
Monday
- Tuesday
- Wednesday
- Thursday
- Friday
- Saturday
- Sunday
Monday March 13, 2017
More self-driving cars. I think we are missing the point.
First uses of such vehicles should be limited. Short distance, low
speed, special situations. The self-driving vehicle is the tech
industry's gift to those who no longer can drive due to physical and
mental ailments. Let's start there, modestly, with good intentions and
charity.
Hackers (the ne'er do well type) work around the globe mostly outside geo-politcal boundaries.
Seth Godin has an excellent post on how we (mostly mis)judge others from the SAT to the job interview.
"the
real way to build good habits is to focus less on making good choices,
and more on building an environment that limits decision-making
altogether."
The bro-grammer life of Silicon Valley. And people wonder why companies are being sued. Babes, balls, belly dancers.
The
folly of Daylight Savings Time. It is no longer useful, but children
and Congress continue to treat the exception as the norm.
The jobs situation in Canada is as bad as in America. Engineering degrees mean little.
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Tuesday March 14, 2017
A snow day here. Seems like more sleet and rain than snow, but schools
are closed and government is slowed. I have to go to the office, for
which I am thankful I have an office to go to.
Everyone agrees that today's biggest news is that Intel buys Mobileye and jumps into the self-driving car market.
Marissa Mayer to get a $23million severance package. It is nice to be a Silicon Valley plutocrat.
Pandora jumps into a $10/month premium music package.
Great stuff: Terms and Conditions (from iTunes): a graphic novel.
The Nintendo Switch has been hacked. What took them so long?
Hmm, BAE Systems (where I work) fires an employee for trying to care for his dying wife.
The third place away from work and home. Many now see it as the key to happiness.
The Catholic church attends SXSW—Compassionate Disruption. I like it.
The People Farmers (I like the term) of Google, Facebook, and those who saw it coming soon enough to take advantage.
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Wednesday March 15, 2017
Microsoft makes Teams a free part of Office 365 to compete with Slack and other work collaboration tools.
Silicon Valley and the culture of, well, I don't know what to call it, but they don't think much of women for other than...
American tech companies are fighting American extra-territoriality.
You
build a social platform where people can post to the world. And then
some people do so, and then, and then you have Facebook with all its
current troubles.
Contemplative reading and remembering what you read.
Chrome 57 is out and reduces the resources used on background tabs.
Grab, an Uber competitor, opens tech offices in India and Vietnam. Lower salaries, equal talent.
The world turns: kids growing up with Netflix don't know what commercials are.
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Thursday March 16, 2017
DeepMind, Aphabet's London group, claims a breakthrough in how neural networks remember sequences of tasks.
Our Dept of Justice delivers indictments on the great Yahoo hack. There are Russians on the list.
Family Link: Google's attempt to help parents monitor what their kids are doing online.
Git this and that: GitLab acquires programmer chatroom company Gitter.
GoPro lays off 270 persons (17% of workforce) to try to become profitable.
AMD announces two lesser performing and less costly Ryzen processors.
Oracle rides cloud computing to a good financial quarter.
Google's Project Sunroof shows the amount of sun your home's roof gets.
I tried it. Interesting results. My house has too many trees and is
facing the wrong direction. Most of the houses on my street are
similar. The local elementary school would be a power-generating
monster.
Facebook admits the obvious: they can't monitor and cut all users' posts. Germany sues Facebook over fake news. This could be the end of social media in some countries.
Most high performing persons want quiet workspaces. Of course quiet is subjective.
NetBSD 7.1 is released.
Federal judges continue to use statements outside official regulations to block regulations. "I knew you when you were a teenager. I know what you are trying to do." Fascinating.
Ethernet makes a comeback in vehicle control systems.
McDonald's begins early testing of mobile order and pay. The drivethru becomes a freeway.
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Friday March 17, 2017
No Internet viewing today as I had breakfast with some fine gentlemen.
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Saturday March 18, 2017
Amazon creates yet another way to get us to buy more stuff with Outfit Compare.
A judge wants Google to reveal names of everyone who did a certain kind of search. What?
Google has a new algorithm to reduce jpeg files by 35% more, and they made it open source.
Nvidia partners with world-wide trucking giant PACCAR to make self-driving trucks (and create long unemployment lines).
And Nvidia partners with Bosch. Bosch will sell Nvidia's self-driving technology to auto makers.
Uber's self-driving cars are needing a lot of human intervention, but they are early at this.
Wikileaks knows the details of CIA hacks on your software. WikiLeaks will SELL you the details.
I like this thought-provoking essay on personalized learning systems.
The technical interview. What a joke, but most technical interviews are jokes (that aren't funny).
Nintendo doubles production of the Switch game console to keep up with demand.
NYTimes story tries to blame video games for the bad state of the US economy for the past eight years.
The men of Sweden has struck on a great idea. All the women in the world should move there. This isn't a joke, but a twist on reality.
Amazon provides additional free stuff if you are an Alexa developers (AWS credits).
Our government required Cal Berkeley to delete 20,000 college lectures from the Internet. This group saved copies. Why does our government promote ignorance? Regulators gone awry—again.
IBM expands its veteran's training and hiring.
One for fun: a $3million Patriot missile was used to shoot down a $200 drone. At least the US military wasn't the one doing this. But, I guarantee our tax dollars paid for most of it.
Raspberry
Pi has now shipped 12.5million units. This breaks some kind of record.
I repeat my call for a Nobel Prize for the founders. This is the most successful education project of all time. Perhaps the Guttenburg press can claim that.
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Sunday March 19, 2017
Chuck Berry dies at 90.
Seagate introduces 12TeraByte, helium-filled spinning disks. Got photos to store?
A look back at WordStar—the word processor that dominated the early days of having your own computer for writing. I used it extensively through the 1980s.
Opioids and how quickly persons become addicted to them.
Nothing to do this weekend? Tie 100+ balloons to a chair and, well, float a while, get arrested, get fined.
The idealism of economic globalization from Tim Cook. Yes, it can work, not sure it does, though.
How one Google engineer quit Silicon Valley and moved back to India. Cost of living: it's not what you earn, it's what you spend. And in some places you spend an awful lot just to have a bed to sleep in.
A group won $105K at the Pwn2Own hacking competition by busting through Microsoft's Edge browser.
How do you drive a self-driving car crazy? Put it in a circle.
To write a book. Yes, most people can do it.
Some other strategies for social netwoking as a professional writer.
Professional writing: patience often helps.
Journal prompts to keep the writer's mind thinking.
Excellent post on self-inflicted problems experienced by writers.
KEEP THIS HANDY: five places to send short stories.
Want to write a book? Don't waste time searching for the best book-writing software. Use Microsoft Word. It will suffice.
One thing at a time. Do it now. It works.
Silly stuff about our handwriting, but a nice infographic nonetheless.
Productive writers and the "first thing in the morning" stuff. Sleep when you want (2AM to 11AM if you want). But write when you first wake.
If you never attempt to write, well...
Want to be a better writer? Take better care of yourself.
"there are no excuses. No reasons good enough to stop doing what matters every day."
Creativity is borrowing ideas.
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