Summary of this week:

Computex is in Taiwan this week, so we have lots of announcements
Here come much thinner gaming laptops
Intel announces a new series of CPUs
#covfefe and other nonsense
Nest has a new, much better Internet camera
Qualcomm and Microsoft team to bring Snapdragon processors to laptops

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

Monday May 29, 2017

Today is Memorial Day in the US. It is not Veterans Day. It is not Armed Forces Day. It is a day when we stop to remember those who are not with us because at 18 they went to Iraq or Okinawa or someplace we had never heard of before and did not return. They aren't with us any longer, and it is easy to forget them.

The Defense Digital Service, reinventing the “tools and practices that lag far behind private sector standards." I could write a book about such programs in government, but it would be boring. The conclusion of each chapter would be the same. No, these hot young new guys don't know anything that everyone else already knows. Someone, however, gave them the authority to make changes that everyone has been denied.

ARM introduces new processors that tilt towards AI-type of functions (neural networks).

Computex is in Taiwan this week, so expect lots of announcements.

Asus updates all its portable computers. Lots of CPU and GPU power and great touch screens.

Technical plutocrats don't like democracy in Texas. Plutocrats prefer dictatorship of tech plutocrats.

WiFi is really slow here today...

"It's okay to stop when you're happy."—Seth Godin

Universal Basic Income: I like some of the proposals as they admit there is much waste in every government program, so let's just have one.

Robotic glove helps stroke patients recover. This is what all those tech plutocrats need to be doing, not telling Texas how to use its bathrooms.

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

Tuesday May 30, 2017

Hotels finally start to do something about Priceline and others taking their money.

Sony may change the world, but not just yet, with the Digital Paper tablet $700, but a major advance.

Intel updates the X-series of processors—18 cores and 36 threads.

More rumors about Sergey Brin and his giant $100million airship. The age of the luxury airship begins. Stay above the fray in the apocalypse or something like that. Once in the air, earthquakes are not a worry.

The laptop ban may extend to all international flights. Just take a pill and be comatose for the flight, I guess or get a copy of War and Peace.

Woz things Apple is now too big to have the next big thing.

A note: India produces more ethical or white-hat hackers than any country in the world.

Wikipedia switches to HTTPS so free people can read with someone looking over their shoulder.

Stodgy old Dell has a couple of sleek all-in-one desktop PCs.

Look out for Essential and its Home assistant. A new company with a new take on products.

And the first look at the Essential Phone.

Nvidia's laptop-making partners will all have an ultra-thin but powerful gaming laptop this month.

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

Wednesday May 31, 2017

#covfefe #covfefe #covfefe sigh, we have a new word for the day. How long will this be famous?

Stop working on cool apps. Try real problems—they are much harder.

Good infographic on your workspace at work and what it tells others.

And the Google-Uber lawsuit gets wierd as Uber fires Anthony Levandowski.

The Washington Post has a predictable take on the FCC and changing regulations regarding the Internet as a utility.

The Nest Cam IQ: a much better Internet security camera. The hardware is easily better, and the software promises a lot more.

Researchers are making advances in brain-computer interface to allow the paralyzed to communicate.

Flying this machine from Kitty Hawk. Must see video. I couldn't stop smiling. The computers do all the things that a super athelete would have to do.

A closer look at Andy Rubin's Essential PH-1 phone.

After a recession, Americans are saving more and consuming less. See these next two on spending on lunch and spending on vacation. We are saving for the next recession.

If you are "going out for lunch," you may soon be alone.

Most Americans didn't take all their time off last year.

This is not news, but someone finally yelled it, Silicon Valley is ‘extremely liberal’

Old guy has a great entertainment setup with NO CABLE TV.

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

Thursday June 1, 2017

Hillary Clinton things Facebook et al should hurry up and work hard to moderate everything. Gosh. Ideas.

Someone at Booz Allen Hamilton left a lot of user IDs and passwords on an open Google Doc file.

The 7th generation of the reMarkeable E Ink paper replacement. Still not there.

Hillary Clinton is glad Jeff Bezos bought and saved the Washington Post. The WAPO actively campaigned for Hillary in this last election. Hence, Bezos spents hundreds$ of million$ on her campaign.

Take a look at Paul Allen's Stratolaunch System. World's biggest airplane ever will launch satellites.

Ross Ulbricht (Dread Pirate Roberts) of Silk Road loses his court appeal and faces life in prison.

Friendly hackers take over a mall's billboard, but leave a friendly message.

DeepMind of London now has 20 researchers in Mountain View near its owner, Google.

Strong rumors that Apple will release a smart speaker home assistant gadget later this year.

Uber, the world's darling for some reason, lost $700million in the last quarter alone. $7M a day.

The government of Ethiopia turns off the Internet to prevent cheating on nationwide school exams.

Qualcomm's Snapdragaon processors (with LTE) will power laptops and run Windows 10.

The role of technology with the oppressed, their oppressors, and turning the tables. Beware, the oppressed often become the next oppressors.

You think your computer looks cool? Look at these. Hobbies are great.

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

Friday June 2, 2017

All the big tech leaders hate it that Trump has pulled out of the Paris Accords. Odd, they all make billion$ by running huge datacenters that use more power than towns so that rich people can keep photos of their food in the cloud.

Apple has paid app store developers $70billion and claims app downloads up up 70% this year.

Google adds more natural language understanding to its Sheets spreadsheet.

Tesla fires a female engineer who is suing the company for sexual harassment.

Guess what, starting a business is a lot of hard work.

Must see video: Draper has built a little bug that flies.

SpaceX will resuse a Dragon capsule today to resupply the ISS.

Now we hear that Hillary Clinton lost the election because of the DNC data center.

Another guess what, some Americans disagree with our President regarding climate change.

Google announces that the Chrome browser will block ads next year. Get 'em while you can.

Take heat from computers and heat your water. Why has this taken so long?

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

Saturday June 3, 2017

Want actual flames to come shooting out of your graphics card? Try this over-clocked unit.

The enlightened intelligentsia "believe" in climate change but invest money the other way.

WalMart is paying employees to deliver packages on their way home. Take that Amazon!

Facial recognition technology, billboards, knowing who we are, targeting us, and all that.

Pittsburgh hasn't learned its lesson. They were going to be self-driving, now they are going to be self powering.

The EU is about to fine Google $9billion. That's a big parking ticket.

San Francisco continues to fight itself and may ban delivery robots.

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 June 4, 2017

Excellent post about unlearning what we are "taught" in school, and then unlearning everyday the rest of our lives.

On-site child care: the big tech companies, flush with money, don't offer it. This one is easy to explain. Consider I bring my kids to work and leave them at the on-site day care. Now I have to leave work after eight hours and take my kids home. The purpsoe of the big tech companies is to provide a way for me to stay 16 hours and keep working. They want me to have an in-home child care so I don't have to go home.

How Wall Street battles Silicon Valley for talent. Answer: money.

SpaceX does it again. This time they used a capsule and landed their launcher safely.

Guerrilla tactics at Google (sorry, that is a name from the last century).

A good moment from open-source software history. One person stood and said, "I will do the right thing."

Focus. FOCUS. F O C U S. And write. Sometimes start writing and the focus comes along.

The writer's edge—that something that sets you apart from "the crowd" (whatever the crowd is).

Writing a book with someone else is rewarding and challenging. See the movie about Julia Child and her collaboration on a cookbook.

Something more to see in Chicago—the American Writers Museum.

Planners that use paper and pencil for freelance writers. Yes, if you plan your days, weeks, and months you may accomplish more.

Thoughts on different types of writing and understanding feedback from others.

A book needs time to cook. I heartily agree. Sometimes you have an idea that won't go away. It may take several years for the idea to become something on paper. That is okay.

I love this post: write that story, write that story, someone out there is waiting to read the details.

You can't do everything. There is a minimum acceptable product for each day. If you acheive that, be happy.

"I discovered something a while back: when I do my fiction writing–my soul work–every day, my life just flows and everything becomes easy. I no longer have to struggle, for anything."

Distractions...because writing novels is hard!

"Meanwhile, we worry about monuments made of stone which are easily destroyed instead of taking on the bigger issues not so easy to resolve."

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