Summary of this week:

• The week before Christmas...the news slows
• Uber loses yet another court case in Europe
• Facebook tells me when someone else uses my photo
• Apple is slowing the older iPhones to preserve the battery
• Congress passes income tax reform
• Eric Schmidt steps down as CEO of Alphabet

Monday December 18, 2017

Another European government files suit against an American tech company in a European court. Little doubt as to how this will end.

More news on how companies are creating their own education programs to compensate for colleges not teaching up-to-date topics. Again, I know all this stuff, but no one calls to hire me.

Twitter jumps into censorship this week. Funny how those who make their money on free speech want so much not-so-free-speech.

Facebook discovers and attempts to stop "engagement baiting." I guess that will be a new question on the Security+ test.

Interesting take on the fundamental attitudes of the computer programmers who run Silicon Valley and how that attitude affects the rest of us. Of course the rest of us could be arrogant and wrong.

Let the 2017 retrospectives begin!

Google reveals the most-searched terms of 2017. Not a lot of fun here.

More bad news for Uber. Claims that they went way over the line in corporate espionage.

Movie goers are giving the new Star Wars film an, "ok" but that is all.

..... Email me at d.phillips@computer.org

Tuesday December 19, 2017

In an odd twist, Twitter's censorship doesn't apply to government and military persons.

Atlanta's airport lost power. Chaos ensued. Digging out is a mess. There are few things worse than being stuck in an airport.

A new twist on home care for the elderly, especially those with dementia. This takes into account that sometimes those with dementia believe that what they see on television is real. My mother has been that way for several years. This tablet has a soft dog that interacts with the person and actually cheers them up.

Forgetting things may have to do with brain waves and them not functioning during sleep.

We are all safe now (silly): scientist confirm there was life on earth 3.5Billion years ago. To paraphrase Mark Twain...in two years we can say there was life on earth 3.5Billion and two years ago. I know this is silly, but really guys? Scientist "know" this stuff. Really?

Apple Air Pods—possibly the worst-looking things I have ever seen—are a hot item this Christmas.

I am struggling with the formatting that BlueGriffon puts in the html here on this site. Too bad that Kompozer quit working as Mac OS kept updating.

..... Email me at d.phillips@computer.org

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Wednesday December 20, 2017

Uber loses another court case in Europe. It is not an "information society service"—it's taxi cab company.

Reliable predictions indicate that Apple will sell 25million AirPods next year. Not bad for something that, frankly, looks ridiculous.

How YouTube has become the world's best film school—and it is free. Add to that how it is the best guitar playing school and so on and so on.

"When in doubt, make better tacos."—Seth Godin

Never shy about paranoia and foreign devils, the government of China bans foreign companies from mapping its roads.

Facebook will now notify me if someone else uploads a photo of my face and tries to pass themselves off as....wait a minute. Why would anyone ...

Just to show that maybe there isn't hope for the human race, someone shows the worst passwords for 2017. Yes, 12345 and qwerty and ...

..... Email me at d.phillips@computer.org

Thursday December 21, 2017

The state of California hit its green energy goals. Who is paying for this? And who will pay for the eventual cleanup?

It turns out that Apple is slowing older mobile devices to extend their battery life. Thank you Apple. I appreciate the help, honestly I do.

Apple plans to continue the merging of apps on all its platforms. This simplifies things for the users and especially for the developers.

The new level of details in Google maps. Satellite photos are enhancing the views even though their street view cars aren't going back to areas missed earlier.

Facebook flopped in its early attempts to curb fake news. They keep trying. I wonder if they realize the futility of the entire effort.

Mozilla releases Firefox for Fire TV. Go to YouTube easier and do other Internet noticing.

Here comes the NFL on smartphones from NBC and ESPN. So we either watch on a football-size TV or a 3" screen in our hands. Go figure.

LG announces new wide wide wide monitors. I guess the end-to-end photo of the Grand Canyon is now possible. Amazing. What happened to VGA?

Facebook stumbles and falls into another mess. This time they are allowing job recruiters to discriminate by age.

Walmart tries to move into the market of the rich customer who wants lots of personal service.

..... Email me at d.phillips@computer.org

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Friday December 22, 2017

It didn't take long for someone to shame Microsoft by fooling its face ID login with a crummy print of a photo. We keep dreaming of biometrics security. Perhaps one day, but not yet.

"The company will ditch this particular measure after finding it could actually entrench people more strongly in wrongly held beliefs."—Facebook Well, excuse me for having WRONGLY HELD BELIEFS!

Eric Schmidt is no longer CEO of Alphabet. Why work so hard all your life? Good for him.

The iMac Pros with 18 cores are being delivered sooner than first predicted. Powerful desktop computing. $5,000 is a lot, but we used to pay in the million$ for such power.

Comcast is giving $1,000 bonuses to 100,000 employees. Everyone else is mad. I am mad, but I am made at my employer for not doing such.

Kids who watch only Netflix are not learning what a commercial is. Sounds silly, but learning that you do pay for things is a pretty good learning.

It isn't that difficult to fool computer software into labeling one thing as another thing. Cute tricks aside, this could have deadly consequences.

Romanian hackers break into the outdoor surveillance cameras of the DC City Police. Deadly consequences?

..... Email me at d.phillips@computer.org 

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Saturday December 23, 2017

Here is an app that turns your phone into a security system that monitors intruders and notifies you. It is meant to reside on a spare cellphone to leave behind in your home. And, oh, Edward Snowden is behind the app.

We used to have Who's Who to tell us if we were important. Now we have the Russians. Take it as a compliment if they are following you.

Facebook insults its users by providing tools to allow us to see if we were duped by con artists, scammers, and politicians. Has it occurred to anyone that people may click or follow links just for a laugh?

If you want to buy the best camera that has a cellphone attached to it, read this review.

Crypto currencies had a really bad Friday night with BitCoin losing a third of its value.

..... Email me at d.phillips@computer.org

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Sunday December 24, 2017

How Eric Schmidt brought adult supervision to a group of coding cowboys and still managed to let the cowboys do their thing.

Some ideas on setting goals that are easier to accomplish, and then building upon those accomplishments.

Change the winter routine this year as a writer.

Write something as a gift to someone. Write more than a greeting card.

I find this to be excellent advice for writers:
    Do more of the work you were meant to do
    Manage yourself better throughout the day
    Give your brain a break

Stop thinking about making changes in your writing life. Do them this year. Next week.

Nice tips on how to create a one-minute description of your work.

Different ideas for earning pay while writing short stories$$$.

..... Email me at d.phillips@computer.org

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