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: 18-24 September, 2017

Summary of this week:

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

Monday September 18, 2017

It's a Monday. A typical slow Monday. Television had its Emmy awards last night, and we continue to watch the shift from the big old TV networks to anyone with a checking account can make a "TV series" and get an award.

Researchers claim they can use pattern recognition to detect Alzheimer's ten years sooner.

Facebook's Messenger now has 1.3Billion users.

Tez: Google opens a mobile payment app in India.

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences had their awards last night. Here is a summary of what we watch in a fast-changing medium.

Idaho wants to create a dark sky reserve. I hope they succeed. There are many places on earth where we can see the stars, but there are no roads to those places.

IBM releases their J9 JDK/JVM as open source—OpenJ9.

Headline says it all: Linux Foundation President Used MacOS For Presentation at Open Source Summit.

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Tuesday September 19, 2017

Apple's new A11 processor—engine of the iPhone 8 and X—is more powerful than the Intel chip in the MacBook Pro. And to what end? So we can shoot a full-length motion picture while sending text messages and playing games? Useful use?

We learn that Amazon's "AI" software recommends dangerous combinations of chemicals. This all comes from the desire to have software do the work instead of people. That saves money and raises profits. Again, to what end?

In Burma, Facebook is censoring groups under government persecution. Explanations?

Intel and Waymo (Google(Alphabet)) reveal that they have worked together on self-driving cars for years.

Researchers have combined neural networks with the result guessing passwords pretty well. This is published research. What are those who don't publish their security breaking software doing?

A company named Pi has a wireless charging system that is years ahead of everyone else.

The end of another era as Toys R Us declares bankruptcy.

Amazon Web Services will begin renting computers by the second instead of the hour.

We learn that Equifax had an earlier hack that was not revealed to the public.

Nike's Flyleather—grind old leather to a powder...end up with fibers to weave into shoes.

The Oregon Trail returns to classrooms via MineCraft.

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Wednesday September 20, 2017

Microsoft realizes the importance of video games and promotes a gamer to its senior leadership for the first time.

iOS 11 is ready to download today.

And the new iOS 11 shows a new App Store.

Mexico has a second earthquake. And Hurricane Maria is following the path of Irma.

Reviewers like the iPhone 8, but not that much. Wait and spend on the X.

Amazon's software has an error that is sending perople notes about their new babies.

Rumors that Amazon is building smart glasses to extend Alexa to a mobile platform.

Stronger rumors about a new Google Home mini or smaller package. Clever.

All the sugar and twice the caffeine—Jolt Cola comes out of retirement to fuel yet another tech boom or something.

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Thursday September 21, 2017

Google steps further in to smartphones with an acquihire of HTC at $1.1Billion.

With iOS 11, the WiFi and Bluetooth may not be completed turned off when we think it is.

Google is integrating its Home technology into the Nest line of security cameras and such.

It seems that Tesla has a business deal with AMD to develop their own processor for self-driving cars.

Hurricane Maria smashed Puerto Rico. All the power is out. All communications are out. When a place has a good infrastructure, like the US, businesses and such stop buying their own backup power systems as they aren't "needed." Then something happens, and the predictable and predicted follow.

In the UK, having a computer science degree doesn't increase your income over guys who can code enough to justify college.

While "comfortable," airline cabins have too high pressure, too low humidity, and too little oxygen.

Peter Thiel may soon have a position in the Trump administration. He can drop his salary down to $150K from the millions$ he now makes. And he can sit in frustrating meetings all day. Some see this as a sort of controversy or a "reward." I am missing the reward part. Can someone explain that to me?

Early reviews of the latest Apple Watch claim it isn't very good. Upgrade to something worse?

Keyboards: Cherry has a new mechanical one that doesn't disturb fellow cubicle dwellers as it is silent.

Keyboards: Kailh has new mechanical keys that are small enough for laptop computers. We wait to see.

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Friday September 22, 2017

A Federal Court rules that law enforcement must have a warrant to spoof cell phones.

Canada sees an increase in foreign applicants for jobs there. The good news is the environment looks good. The bad news is that Canadians won't get the jobs.

HP Enterprise to cut 5,000 jobs or 10% of its workforce.

Can AI intuit character from appearance? Yes it can, given the right training data. What could possibly go wrong?

Zuckerburg pledges to curtail ad revenue at Facebook. I guess Facebook did get the current President elected(?).

Google's cloud computing service expands its offerings of Nvidia GPUs.

MongoDB is going public. Here comes the money.

WalMart may start delivery goods into your home instead of on the doorstep. What could possibly go wrong?

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Saturday September 23, 2017

Uber is banned from London. The established taxis win.

The value of Apple has dropped significantly since the latest iPhone announcements.

United Airlines will create an auction system so passengers can try to name their price to be bumped from flights.

A better way to burn wood in the developing world. And charge your iPhone.

Cable cutting and the cost of ESPN. They seem to be related.

Russian hacking and state voting systems: this has a simple remedy—don't connect it to the Internet.

The 20-minute nap at work. Of course we all know this would help, yet we prohibit ourselves from doing it.

How Nestle makes lots of money bottling water that costs them almost nothing.

Azure, Microsoft's cloud platform, is offering more Ubuntu options. Microsoft? Linux?

The Chinese invade Washington DC with bicycle rentals.

No surprise here—giant windfarms in the ocean affect ocean life.

Those in power work hard to keep the outsiders on the outside. Zuckerburg has a plan to curb political ads. Senators have a plan to curb political ads. 

What is inside the iPhone 8?

The new VW camper van that we cannot buy in the US because we know better than to allow such fun.

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Sunday September 24, 2017

At only $525, Western Digital has a 12TeraByte hard disk for personal machines. Amazing.

A look inside Mark Zuckerburg's I'm-not-running-for-President presidential campaign.

Harvey Mudd College: a tiny college for rich kids who become great computer scientists. Is it the college or the background of the rich kids? I strongly lean towards the latter theory.

Excellent tips for research before writing historical fiction.

The anchor point for a writer.

Struggling with research for writing? Go to a library and ask a librarian. They have been knowing information science and knowledge management for a couple of centuries.

Is it possible to be writing too many pieces in too many areas? I suppose so. I haven't met anyone who does this.

Writing as taught by the CIA. Nothing amazing here. Just the basics.

Does writing make a person a writer? Do there have to be readers reading the writing? I think not.

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