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: 19-25 June, 2017

Summary of this week:

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


Monday June 19, 2017

Yesterday was Father's Day in America. This is sort of a holiday made up by the folks who sell stuff on holidays made by those types of folks. Still, it is a good thing to remember fathers and fathers of fathers.

Here is a tribute to fathers.

Toxic chemicals in the manufacture of those little parts that power our digital world. The US is clean, but still gets parts from other places where the workers are, well, you can guess the rest of the story.

YouTube tells us how it is fighting terrorism online.

What an industry: 5billion persons now have cell phones. That is Billion with a B.

Apple raids Breaking Bad. With everyone making content, it is a great time to be successful in Hollywood.

Our President meets with tech CEOs today. "Please help us fix government." Perhaps. These efforts come and go. There is plenty of expertise in government offices. There is also, however, plenty of persons with no expertise, lots of seniority, and no desire to move a nanometer.

Volunteers port Microsoft's code editor to Raspberry Pi, Chomebook, and other platforms.

Google maybe be recreating the company town by building housing for its employees.

A call to consumer action against Uber.

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Tuesday June 20, 2017

To show the RNC know as little about cybersecurity as the DNC, a leak of almost 200million American voters info.

Our President met with computing tech leaders about updating the Federal government. Talk. Talk. Talk.

Google supposedly launches its new job searching capability. Not working for me, yet. Where is it?

High tech money moves into cities. Now no one else can afford to live in those cities. Killed what was craved.

Perhaps we have sea water desalination powered by the sun and nothing else. This could change much.

Climate changes; agriculture changes. This is not fake news, nor is it news.

Fuze, programming, teaching kids, playing video games, and all that results from the mix.

Remember how Amazon said it wouldn't have layoffs at Whole Foods? Well...you know. Layoffs coming.

One for free speech as our Supreme Court says that you can trademark what you want regardless if someone else doesn't like it.

People are cutting off cable TV because of high prices. Cable TV won't lower its prices. Bye bye cable TV.

Google open sources Tensor2Tensor to make repeating AI experiments quicker and easier.

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Wednesday June 21, 2017

Travis Kalanick forced out as CEO of Uber.

Another wonderful ad from Apple. This one is about memories.

What is left of the Kodak brand is selling low-cost Android tablets in Europe.

Chris Lattner left Apple to run the self-driving cars at Tesla. Six months later, he leaves Tesla.

Microsoft introduces Stream. It is an Office 365 video service primarily for business use of training etc.

Intel stops making several smaller single-board computers that were aimed at IoT.

Adobe has a better-than-expected financial quarter largely due to people paying rent for cloud-based software.

For some reason, I don't know why, we need super-duper computers to do weather foreceasts. See Farmer's Almanac.

Lenovo has a desktop computer that weighs the same as a MacBook Air. Power advances.

The Cable News Network wants its Great Big Story to be the next cable news without cable TV.

Amazon Prime Wardrobe. Why did this take so long? They send you a shirt in three sizes, you keep the one that fits.

Facebook's Instagram Stories now has 250million users.

Apple hates product leaks more than the US Government...well, you know.

Tim Cook and Donald Trump find the time to discuss immigration. Now that all the hoohaa has blown over, perhaps we can move to some conversations instead of all the yelling and waving of hands.

Yoga, i.e., proper exercise is as good for back pain as physical therapy.

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Thursday June 22, 2017

Unusual schedule today with little time for Internet viewing.

Someone at the New York Times has a firm grasp on the obvious. Lots of people poured money and faith into Uber without looking close enough.

Showing faith in a corrupt group, Intel signs a 7-year contract with the Intl Olympic Committee.

The productivity wars: Twist, by Doist, takes on Slack. They could all work on the names.

On a test track with pro drivers, a Tesla Model S goes 560 miles on a single charge.

Sega brings back classic games at no charge for iPhone and Android. (re)Play your childhood.

Scott Adams is one of few who understand the Health Care bill situation. Too bad he isn't in Congress.

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Friday June 23, 2017

It appears that election cybersecurity was much worse than previously reported. Most blame the Russians. I blame us—the only persons we control.

Once again Facebook changes its mission statement to more goodness and less badness. Fluff. How about those half-salary H-1B visas?

Some tech leaders like the current President and the push to reduce regulations. It is all opinion, and where you stand depends on where you sit.

Google introduces a new video standard format. This one for VR and 180-degree viewing.

Our TSA turns to Google and others for deep learning and body scanning and less embarassment of the TSA at airports. If someone would just build a TSA-proof machne.

Waymo (Google) hires a Tesla engineer or two to help with its self-driving technology.

1,000 Uber employees want Travis Kalanick back.

WalMart wants its business partners to stop using Amazon's Web Services, i.e., its cloud.

McDonald's moves to machines vice persons to take our order. Investors cheer with their money. So raise that minimum wage to a living wage. Eliminate those jobs. In come the machines. Out go the employees. Up goes the value of the company. Everyone wins, right? Oh wait, is that what we wanted to accomplish?

Censorship is alive in well in China.

Headline says it all: 20 percent of planet Earth visits YouTube every month.

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Saturday June 24, 2017

US tech companies doing business in other countries. Now it is Russia asking probing cyber questions.

Facebook, fake news, and uh, you know, CENSORSHIP.

Yet another story of sex misbehavior in high tech ... let's just call it behaving like a fill-in-the-blank-with-something-disgusting.

More leaks. This time from Microsoft.

And we have more leaks of classified methods. This time from all the Obama folks who are just dying to talk about how they knew what the Russians were doing and all the angst they suffered in service to the greater good.

The Facebook Live Create Kit: enhance your Facebook Live videos.

This is becoming routine (good for us taxpayers): SpaceX resuses a launch vehicle and lands it for more reuse.

OneWeb gets a permit to launch 720 low-orbit satellites to blanket the earth with broadband. They aren't they only one doing this. Is there enough space for all these birds?

In case we didn't know it, Google has always read our gmails to send us ads for stuff we sort of want.

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Sunday June 25, 2017

Someone hacks the UK's Parliament.

White hats hack Microsoft Windows 10 S—the unsinkable operating system or so we were told.

Censorship continues in China.

Silicon Valley sort of realizes for the moment that working 24 hours a day is a bad idea.

The folks at MIT have built a self-driving wheelchair. There are obvious uses at hospitals everywhere.

The Rhode Island legislature considers license plate readers to catch uninsured drivers. Such measures have failed in other states as soon as the residents learned about the invasion of privacy.

The Raspberry Pi is still the most popular single-board computer by a widening margin.

Thoughts on working from home, from the office, and having the ability to choose any day depending on what you are doing.

No, you don't need an degree in English to be a writer. Yes, that degree will help you find jobs and income, and those things are pretty important to anyone trying to write for a living.

Travelling and writing; travel with your notice-r turned on full sensitivity.

Some tips on indicating the passage of time in a story without just putting the date there as a subtitle to the chapter, and that also works well sometimes.

Three excellent tips to remember in writing.

The REAL story is often not the one we start writing. Give yourself a chance to see the real one and switch to it.

Good ideas for stories and books come in odd times and odd places. ALWAYS have a way to record the ideas. The is one of the few universal tips.

Receiving feedback and editing. Accept the feedback. They aren't stupid people.

Writing and the poison of comparison. Write your stories. Other people may pay lots of money to read them. Maybe not. Still, write your stories.

Some measure of success as a writer brings some measure of questions from others trying to reach your measure.

The danger and problems of perfection rules.

Things to avoid while trying to increase freelance writing income.

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