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: 27 March-2 April, 2017

Summary of this week:

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

Monday March 27, 2017

How Amazon and its web of independent partners sell us marshmallows and such.

ooops Microsoft's Docs.com was sharing private files by default.

This would be a first: Norway may build a tunnel for ships to pass through hazardous waters.

The recent ban of tablets and laptops on planes from the Middle East seems to have an actual terrorist plot behind them.

The biggest story of this morning involves United Airlines and young female passengers wearing leggings.

The White House Office of American Innovation is up and running under our new President. Persons from the office have already meet with dozens of who's who in successful American companies.

Good post by Seth Godin on trying to have people change their mind.

Uber shows that if regulated like old-fashioned taxis it cannot operate.

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Tuesday March 28, 2017

The politics of the FCC and all that is called privacy.

Our government, facial recognition databases, and all that is called privacy.

More information on the White House Office of American Innovation.

It is coming. Soon we will have WiFi in our brains to connect directly to...Snapchat?

Western civilization is about to end (probably not) as Congress votes on the FCC.

The Microsoft Insider program (testers)—ten million strong and growing.

Cute kid + old water heater = must-see video. There is something about two circles next to one another that means someone is watching.

I love XKCD.com comics. This one I particularly like.

The word "they" is now singular to some of the enlightened.

Apple releases iOS 10.3 with a new file system and help to find your lost little wireless ear bud things.

The Iron Law of Bureaucracy runs amok. If you ever meet a law enforcement officer, don't move, don't say anything. Just be absolutely still. Any action can provoke an lawful attack on yourself. What has happened here? This is bad for everyone.

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Wednesday March 29, 2017

Finally, UK residents can buy the Google Home AI talk-to-me box.

Facebook releases Stories to all of us. Post photos that disappear in 24 hours. Technology? Important problems?

Recent studies show that brainstorming doesn't work; well, it sort of does and doesn't depending on other factors.

Hong Kong governement officials had the personal info for 3.7million people on a laptop. You know the rest of the story...

NASA can't put a person into space (its job), but it can rent a data center and put cool photos online (not its job).

opensource.google.com - a new site from Google showcasing its open source projects.

Industrious, WeWork, Co-location, agism, culture, $$$, and all that. Going to the office.

It's about time! Hillary Clinton goes to Silicon Valley to bust her supporter's chops about sexual harrassment in the workplace. Long a favorite in Silicon Valley, Clinton and other liberal Democrats have looked the other way instead of influencing the brogrammer culture.

The politics of who will have the power on the Internet. Many Silicon Valley companies backed the losing side in the recent elections. The lobbyists who backed the winning side are getting favorable legislation. This seems to be a surprise to many people.

Qualcomm is working on a computer vision system for our phones. This is not just a camera, but a complete system.

Nvidia eyes the medical sciences with its graphics processors that are darn near perfect for neural network simulations.

Will this work? SpaceX is about to reuse a launch vehicle for the first time.

Proving once again that corporations have better lawyers than the government agencies, our IRS loses big in a lawsuit against Amazon—$1.5billion big.

Our TSA once again stretches the envelope of what is believable. Not good, just believable as in, "You won't believe what the TSA did this week!" Yes, we do.

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Thursday March 30, 2017

Samsung brings out the S8 Galaxy phone to a waiting world.

Facebook allows live streaming 360-degree (if you have the right gadgets at home).  Now the entire world can see what is sneaking up behind you.

The FCC Lifeline Program will no longer give people money to have broadband service.

Tesla releases new software so your car can drive itself more.

A recent survey shows...technologists think behaviour on the Internet will become worse.

Notion: a system of relatively inexpensive sensors for your home to let you know when things break.

Jeff Bezos is now the second richest person in the world.

Jeff Bezos shows a model of the capsule that Blue Origin will use for space tourism.

Automation at work; people not at work. History tells us the jobs will return. Will they?

If the technology works in Silicon Valley, it probably won't work anywhere else. Plutocrats in the bubble. I think this is part of the plot for those Hunger Games stories.

One version of what a software "bot" is and how they will make life easier even if we are all unemployed.

Congress changes the rules on ISPs and our data. Someone starts a campaign to reveal the browsing of Congress critters. Everyone gets excited for a day.

I find this one fascinating. This warehouse "robot" walks a human to the right spot in the cavern of products.The touchscreen shows the human what product to load in the bin. Automating the reaching and picking and placing is a bit too expensive at this time. Just wait a few years though. Anyways, the smart robotic cart leads the not-nearly-as-smart person around the warehouse. The makers sell this as a collaborative robot in that it works with the human, not replacing the human. oes anyone else see the arrogance here? The makers are condescending towards the little people who work in the warehouse.

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Friday March 31, 2017

Walmart, Amazon, lower prices, and what that means to the major brands in America. Lower wages, fewer jobs. At what point do you realize that you help the consumer too much. You lay off persons so everyone else can buy cheap stuff. Then everyone else is layed off, too.

SpaceX does it. They reused a launch vehicle and it landed on a barge to be used again. This seems to work. NASA?

This probably won't work. Attach jet engines to your arms and legs and try to fly a little.

"Hello, we are calling about your iCloud. What is your password?" the latest phone scammers.

Facebook adds a person fund raising feature. Next comes the kitchen sink.

"The menace of unreality" Networks of rumor sites are spreading craziness everywhere. What to believe?

People will move into Apple Park next month and start working. The photos show they have a long way to go on this.

Everyone wants to build a self-driving car. If your an engineer in this field, you are sitting on a pile of gold.

Canadian government partners with industry giants to fund an AI research institute and attract immigrant talent. Good for them. That is smart immigration policy.

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Saturday April 1, 2017

Today is April 1st or April Fool's Day or official worldwide fake news day...be careful of what you see online

The US and China battle for the Indian market.

A group of April Fool's jokes already online. Love Amazon's Petlexa that understands your dog.

Donald Trump has crippled American science and technology.  Not really, but some people seem to think such.

Good use of technology. The Swiss are flying medical samples between two hospitals via autonomous drones.

Apple's stock price has risen 24% this year. That is an addition in value of $146billion. Addition, not total value.

Microsoft closes its own CodePlex and moves to GitHub.

Amazon tries to create its own Internet stars with its Influencers program.

Obamanomics lingers—US college graduates are paid less now than before the prior presidency.

ESPN has lost 12million subscribers since 2011 and 621,000 in the last month alone.

This is a shocker (not really): laptop batteries don't last as long as advertised.

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Sunday April 2, 2017

Forget all this March Madness phoniness—baseball season begins today. (That March Madness stuff is nothing but the U19 level of AAU basketball. College and high school basketball are both dead.)

Transforming abandoned shopping malls into offices, colleges, and shopping malls.

Facial recognition on your phone? Forget it. Simple photos fool it.

This time it may work a little better. After 30 years of nothing, maybe AI will help medical doctors. Expert systems in the 1980s were going to help doctors diagnose. The expert systems were better than doctors, but the lawyers decided they weren't good enough. Is AI good enough now or have people simply accepted the errors computers make?

How one writer keeps six documents open while writing in a seventh. Distractions?

How one person wrote a novel using bits and pieces of time while working a full-time job.

Writing and publishing 200 books. How one person did it.

Good ideas here to push you to finish that novel or other major piece of writing.

Freelance writer, or freelance anything. Number 1: take care of yourself. Eat, exercise, sleep. If you are sick, you don't work, you got no money.

Go look at whopayswriters.com

Writers: let's talk about money.

The title of the story: spend some time and effort on this one.

The universal computer tool, i.e., the humble spreadsheet, and plotting a novel.

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