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: 7-13 August, 2017
Summary of this week:
- Foxconn to open an R&D facility in Michigan
- Google fires engineer who dares to disagree
- Europeans planning new taxes on American companies
- Disney to pull content from Netflix and stream it themselves
- Intel building 100 of its own cars for self-driving testing
- Big firms form the Automotive
Edge Computing Consortium (AECC)
- Morons in Charlotsville, Va.
Monday
- Tuesday
- Wednesday
- Thursday
- Friday
- Saturday
- Sunday
Monday August 7, 2017
The
bullying of self-driving cars is already in full swing. Alter street
signs to send them in circles.
Nice
job if you can get it, resters, versters, coaster $1million a year and
don't work in Silicon Valley. If nothing, it illustrates how an
essential person can just stay home and the team continues to function
fine.
White
hat hackers and how our governments prevent them from helping us.
Foxconn
to open second US facility. This one is R&D for self-driving cars
in Michigan. The upper midwest gets two new job centers.
Continuing
to change the status quo, our President creates a Real News channel on
Facebook. The old media continues to die.
The
Radio Shack TRS-80 computer is 40 years old this week. Derided as the
"trash80," it exceeded all sales expectations. CPM.
The
Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship was held this last
weekend. Sigh. Computing. Business.
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Tuesday August 8, 2017
Google
fires the guy who dared to act like an adult. They say he violated
their Code of Conduct. Any excuse is as good as any other.
Data
shows Google isn't alone in diversity failures and programs to correct
everything.
European
governments are working to keep American companies from ruling the tech
markets there.
Good for them. Protect your own industries and jobs. I see little wrong
in that sentiment. The implementation deatils, well, we haven't seen
those yet.
News
flash (not): spreaders of fake news are using software to do the work
instead of people. Who would have thought of that? (everyone)
Beating
casino slot machines with brainpower. Of course it is legal. And of
course American casinos will bar you from playing as is their right.
Apple
and others in technology influence regulators in their favor. This is
neither news nor fake news.
Amazon
becomes Sears by selling its own products under generic brand names.
The retailer knows what the shopper wants. Fair?
T-Mobile
offers unlimited data plan if you are over 55! Something for me.
In
case you haven't heard, we will have a solar eclipse this month.
Former
government employee admits that all the password practices stemming
from him are bad.
Coming
real soon now from Intel—1 Petabyte SSD in a "ruler" form factor. 1,000
Terabytes
Apple's
new building and open seating isn't popular with employees. Notice
Google and take care how you criticize.
Elon
Musk has built his empire on tax payers' money. It is all legal and
pretty smart, too.
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Wednesday August 9, 2017
And the
Google saga continues and drifts into legal matters with the National
Labor Relations Board.
The
government of India blocks access to the Internet Archive. Censorship
on the sub-continent.
Disney
will cut ties with Netflix and start its own streaming service in a
year or two. Has Netflix taught everyone else how to do this?
IBM
shows software that distributes deep learning across machines to
dramatically speed all the work.
The
Internet has spawned hateful divisiveness OR freedom of speech
flourishes. The trouble with freedom of speech is that many of us
are all for it as long as you speak the way I want you to.
We
inch towards a self-driving, ride-hailing world where no one owns a
vehicle. See
my story about this.
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Thursday August 10, 2017
Facebook
officially takes on "TV."
Facebook
claims to be banning deceptive ads.
And the Google thought police etc. story continues. A company
wide meeting is to be held. The essay
writer holds interviewers with the "wrong" media outlets. And
"most" Google employees think firing they guy was wrong.
The
folks who study these things have made a small correction in the
history of the magnetic poles of our moon: a 1Billion-year correction.
And some people wonder why some people wonder about the science of
climate change.
Disney
may be watching our kids as they play online Disney games.
Intel
pushes further into self-driving cars and will build 100 of its own
this year.
Mozilla
Information Trust Initiative (MITI): they have nice goals, but wander
dangerously close to simple censorship.
This is being touted as some sort of breakthrough or design genius or
something. The
next iPhone will have a virtual home button, i.e., an icon on the
screen instead of a physical button. That's nice, but that's all it is
folks. This isn't a new idea or a "design" breakthrough or
anything. Why all the sound and fury about this simple thing?
Got
$2,000? Buy the Intel i9 processor with 18 cores, 36 threads, and all
sorts of stuff you should get at that price.
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Friday August 11, 2017
Curtailed Internet viewing today.
The
travails of Google, its Echo Chamber of correct ideas, etc. continues
as they cancel their big company-wide gathering.
Big
companies join to form the Automotive Edge Computing Consortium
(AECC)—big data for self-driving cars.
More
details on the nonsense that became "strong passwords."
A
closer look at AMD's Threadripper processor for the desktop. "Better
than Intel in everyway."
Nvidia,
like everyone else, is reaping big profits from cloud computing. Not so
good everywhere else.
Microsoft
shows Windows 10 Pro for Workstations. Got a upper tier PC? Get
this (or get Linux).
The
guys who hacked HBO are leaking emails from the ransom negotiations.
Of course HBO was going to pay some money for the return of their
intellectual property.
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Saturday August 12, 2017
Abbreviated Internet viewing again today.
And the saga of Google, the echo chamber, diversity, and all that continues. Mr. Damore also gets a article in the Wall Street Journal. Those who research these things—sex and ability—don't agree on it all.
The studies are impossible and inhumane to conduct. In my humble 40
years of experience, I find that women don't like STEM because they
just don't like what happens in STEM environments. Personal preference.
And now we can put software into strands of DNA. I guess this is an advance in some way or other.
The state-of-the-art in computing tablets for the summer of 2017.
Robert Kirkman moves from AMC to Amazon for any new projects. The Walking Dead stays where it is for now.
Apple spends about $1Billion a month on R&D.
The
solar eclipse is coming to North American real soon now. It is not a
license to freak out, though many have always treated it that way.
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Sunday August 13, 2017
There are some sort of morons in Charlotsville, Va. making a mess
of things in the name of the "alt-right." I think the left-wing press
is blaming this on the right. Why not? That is as simple as it is
wrong. I guess the headline "Morons Marching" doesn't sell as many ads
as "Alt-Right Emboldened by President."
At one time, music recordings were on disks that spun at 78rpm. Listen to them online.
Want to build your own computer? The 2017 version of this task.
Someone makes this, so perhaps someone wanted it: a camera hidden in a screw.
Journal writing to influence yourself and then others around you.
One engineer lays out his path to writing better.
Excellent advice about writing. Write a word or two. Write a good sentence. Move. Write.
This posts is all lists, but these are good lists to read and research for writers.
Some practical tips about writing while you are in a plane, car, or whatever. Write with pencil and paper.
Just a few of the reasons why a writer should have a journal.
The practice of positive journalling and how it can help with creative writing.
Different ways to journal. Of course you could use all five methods and change them from time to time.
I like this post regarding what a writer's website should have.
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