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: 11-17 September, 2017

Summary of this week:

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


Monday September 11, 2017

Hurricane Irma moves through Florida south to north.

The whiteboard and the teleconference may have a new technology boost.

Python, the Pascal of this century, is the fastest growing programming language in the world. Keep it simple.

A year late, the New York Times explains how the Russians used social media during the election. Again, a year late.

And Facebook talks about these Russian fake ads, but won't provide examples citing legalities.

The next Apple big event is tomorrow. Strong rumors to follow.

The world intends to stop the make and use of fossil-fuel-burning cars. Intentions are just intentions.

Like Microsoft, Apple will skip the 9 and call the iPhone 8 the iPhone X. Someone must be paid a lot to decide these things.

Intelligence and AI. Good luck with that one. I never had any success in pushing it in.

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Tuesday September 12, 2017

What does Facebook have in common with Equifax?

Everyone wants Equifax to appear in Congressional hearings.

Everyone wants Zuckerburg to appear in Congression hearings related to Russian ads.

Apple continues its efforts to push the Watch into the medical industry.

Everyone is predicting nothing but electric cars in 20 years. Everyone is usually wrong in predicting the future.

Nintendo discovers that people love the past. It is bringing back the classic editions.

Coming from Amazon: a little black box they call a Fire TV.

Hurricane Irma reveals how Tesla controls the product we thought we bought. Who owns it?

According to some, Silicon Valley runs on LSD.

Logitech brings back a trackball. The trackball has always been superior to the mouse, but the market never liked it.

Tim Cook goes to pains to emphasize that Apple doesn't just make products for the rich. Being rich does help you buy a $1,000 phone.

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Wednesday September 13, 2017

Apple has its big event with new TV, Watch, and phones. Stories are everywhere. Here is one.

And there isn't much else on the Internet today that isn't Apple. I guess this shows that Apple can dominate the world for a day like it did in the good old days of what's-his-name Steve something.

Watch the recap in 15 minutes.

For guys like me, the big news is price cuts for the older models of iPhone.

But the price of the iPad Pro went up.

If you can afford it, farmers can farm more land with fewer hands. Here are the "robots" for farms.

The cycle repeats. See old IBM and Microsoft for examples. Government wants to smash successful American tech companies.

The folly of wireless battery charging: we still have wires and we waste power. Still, a tech darling.

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Thursday September 14, 2017

Facebook is tagging fake news, a.k.a., censorshp, but no one is paying attention.

How the Russians duped Facebook to think they were Texans. It is easy when Facebook is eager for your money.

The stuff of science fiction, the Brain-Machine Interface is inching our way.

Samsung tosses $300Million in to the self-driving car area. Why not? Everyone else is.

It appears that Facebook is building its own speaker you talk to. Why not? Everyone else is.

It appears that the shrinking of coach class airline seats has crossed the threshold into just plain dangerous.

And now we have a camera with the Polaroid name on it. Will it work at all? Probably not.

Want to get rich? Go back 30 years in time and buy a few houses in Silicon Valley.

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Friday September 15, 2017

How about 3TeraBytes of ... RAM, not disk. HP updates its Z8 powerhouse workstation.

A group of female employees file a class action lawsuit against Google for systematic on-the-job discrimination.

Facebook has self-serving ads, which means you can advertise just about anything disgusting thing you want.

Here is something from Facebook I like: a Snooze button that blocks a friend for a while but not permenantly.

Google News adds more (hyper)local news.

Facebook admits that they are NOT building a car. That makes them almost unique.

October 4th: that is Google's big hardware day where they will show, among other things, the next Pixel phone.

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Saturday September 16, 2017

Bodega, Silicon Valley, First-World problems, culture wars, and the like.

Microsoft advances image processing for business with its Pix and Office Lens. Make a crumpled note clean and readable.

Google's AI word searching matching gizmos flop just like everyone else's when you type hateful messages.

Facebook shows its political leanings in what information it shares with which part of our government.

Lenovo has four new Android tablets—reasonable prices, too.

The Cassini probe incinerates as it enters Saturn's atmosphere after 20 years on the road.

Fascinating article on how one tech writer has lived in a (fairly expensive) van for the past two years.

The movement to NOT have cable or satellite TV continues and continues faster than predicted.

The boys registered google.com 20 years ago. It didn't go online for another year.

How and why DropBox moved from AWS to its own datacenters.

Several Equifax executives have "retired."

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Sunday September 17, 2017

Heliograf: software at the Washington Post has written 850 stories. Writers? What writers? We don't need no writers.

Telecommuting, a shift in generations, and the power of the employee. The world changes everyday.

Fashion, taste, culture, and what people wear at these tech big events. Now if some of the men on stage at Apple and Facebook...

The sale of bunkers and other prepper or survivor gear and supplies is up recently. We can blame Donald Trump for all the acrimony. We can credit Donald Trump for business-friendly policies that spur spending. We can also credit the general propsperity of a nation to such spending.

Flexibility and rigidity in our writing habits. A habit is rigid, and that is okay.

Tips on entering the area of travel writing.

How to save what we write in today's world of computer everything. Backup. Backups. And backups.

Why writers need friends and colleagues and those who know those who have money.

More marketing tips for writers. Nothing new here, but worth refreshing our memory.

Marketing for writers—try positive reinforcement.

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