Summary of this week:

• American companies don't know how to do censorship (I like that)
• Amazon the bank???
• Broadcom and Qualcomm draw out government's eye
• Microsoft releases Windows ML—AI tools for Windows developers
• Florida to stay on Daylight Savings Time
• Obamas become movie producers

Monday March 5, 2018

Government at its finest (not): State Department spends $0 of $120Million provided. Lots of excuses and blame on the President, but still, just show up and do your job. Those of us who have worked inside government know what is happening.

Facebook stumbles along in the censorship business. That is a tricky business to be in, especially if you won't hire sufficient and qualified persons to do the work.

Now the Chinese, they know how to do censorship. Fire anyone who inches over the line.

Roger Banister died this past week. He was the first person to run a mile in under four minutes. I like Seth Godin's tribute to Bannister and his method.

Further proof that although Americans invented all this social media stuff...the Russians are still the smartest people in the world.

Google learns that discriminating to end discrimination is a tricky business.

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Tuesday March 6, 2018

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A look at Microsoft's first always-connected PC, Surface Pro LTE.

Under CEO Satya Nadella, former Microsoft employees are returning.

Our Pentagon officers stumble in a rush to the cloud. They back out of 90% of a $1Billion contract amid protests both legal and loud.

This one puzzles me. Perhaps someone cane educate me on why Amazon is going to offer bank accounts.

< rant> I find this disgusting: tech resources wasted on making shoes that can order pizza and stuff. Hi tech? Nonsense. < /rant>

A robot arm is cooking hamburger patties. Raise that minimum wage and see these things everywhere. No problem for the out-of-work fast food workers. They will all get Masters in Robotics at MIT, right?

Microsoft is offering their cloud software to run on a client's own servers. Think of a submarine. There are cases when local governments just don't trust their data to be somewhere else.

Wednesday March 7, 2018

A new documentary is coming from a conservative film maker, yes they exist in the outer reaches of outerland, about how liberal-leaning tech companies filter the news and censor conservative voices. Don't expect any Academy Awards.

Uber has bled $10.7Billion in 11 years. Yes, they lose about $100Million a month. Profits? What are profits?

Google's photo identification systems Lens will be on all Android phones real soon now.

ooops, seems that our FBI had a little-too-cozy relationship with Best Buy's Geek Squad.

And our CIA gets in the act with officially sending classified information to some journalists. What?

Our national government sees national security risks in the buy/merger of Qualcomm and Broadcom.

Google has a contract with our Dept of Defense to help keep us all safe. Google employees are outraged. I guess I don't understand how these two statements are both true.

Thursday March 8, 2018

Western civilization is at risk (not): Alex is mistakenly laughing and scaring us out of our wits.

Real soon now, Microsoft will discard Windows 10 S and make it a "mode" in Windows 10. The market wins.

Amazon now has a lower-cost Prime service offering for those of us on Medicaid.

Paper news only: it is slower, and often the delay improves the quality of the information. Hmmm, it seems we have lost something when we created this instant-news monster.

Microsoft releases Windows ML that avails AI tools for Windows developers. Will Apple soon follow with something similar for MacOS or iOS? What about on ChromeOS?

Once again one of our government officials calls for a magical encryption that they can open but no one else can open. They want 1 to equal 0. Amazing that some adults think this is possible.

Friday March 9, 2018

Universal Basic Income is gaining momentum in California. Not sure who will pay for this or what else will be eliminated instead.

A recent study shows...Android users have higher brand loyalty than iOS users.

Our former President is about to become an entertainment producer. $$$ hear the cash register ringing $$$

Disney will soon have a Star Wars TV series on some direct-to-consumer platform.

Google is pushing its Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) framework to become a standard and make all web pages load faster.

News Flash (not): people go online and push a political agenda they want. This seems to be a great surprise to some so-called adults.

Another News Flash (not): people share unusual items more than they share the usual. When was the last time you saw a Tweet "The sun came up today!"

And we have more unbelievably obvious news stories: if people like entertainment, they will move to watching it in a more convenient place.

Florida has basically created its own time zone where it will be one hour ahead of the rest of America for half of the year.

A message in a bottle was found on the beach in Australia. It was cast into the ocean on June 12, 1886. This is some kind of record.

Saturday March 10, 2018

Google's Waymo will start running self-driving trucks around Google distribution centers near Atlanta.

The world has turned upside down: Facebook will stream 25 Major League Baseball games this season.

Palantir and Raytheon win a big Pentagon contract. $876Million over ten years.

Intel may step into the center of the Qualcomm and Broadcom acquisition or merger.

Daylight Savings Time...the ultimate in the nanny state pass-a-law-that-says-I-don't-have-to-go-to-bed-on-time solution. What was the problem?

Someone finally gets it...use a heat-generating computer to heat your room. Of course.

"Role models are fine. But not when they get in the way of embracing our reality. The reality of not enough time, not enough information, not enough resources. The reality of imperfection and vulnerability."–Seth Godin

We have reached a milestones with these ear buds that translate languages in real-time. Don't speak Spanish? So what?

Reddit apologizes that their site is so successful that the Russians used it. Why are all these social media sites apologizing for reaching their dreams?

Wikimedia seems to understand how all this works. IT IS A WIKI. EVERYONE EDITS!!!

The Hedy Lamarr story. Truth can be stranger than fiction. A Hollywood star that was a technical genius.

To date (6,000 days), America has poured $1Trillion into Afghanistan. I guess we should let those two numbers sink in and arrive at some conclusion.

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Sunday March 11, 2018

The secret of success at Netflix: data compression, not slick production of drama series.

A field test of the Bose glasses that feed your information (augment reality) while you walk.

Recent survey shows...Americans fear loss of jobs to technology more than loss of jobs to low-paid immigrants.

The Columbia River Basin—cheapest electric power in America and now the boomtown for electric-power-hungry Bitcoin miners.

One writer's 12-step process for writing a novel. Learn, try, experiment, use what works for you.

A discussion of hybrid publishing or sharing the risk between author and publisher.

Thoughts on blogging, how it is changing and has changed, and how it has remained a good exercise.

A few tips on moving from writing for content mills to writing for better-paying clients.

Creating writing prompts ... try some adventure like climb a telephone pole or descend into a culvert.

Some practical steps to starting a freelance writing business.

Some hard-won nuggets about freelance writing. It takes time. Hard work will be rewarded—I don't know about that one. Sometimes hard work is never rewarded.

It is natural for a writer to feel that what I have written isn't very good, and no one would want to read it, and...

More good ideas on memoir writing.

Writer, and the rest of us, take note, "most terrible things pass if you’re patient."

More excellent memoir tips. Live it.

More tips on getting readers. Touch their pain points. Careful here.

Some basics about writing a blog post that will attract readers.

Health advice for writers and others: I like this post about night routines that bring better sleep. For me, the big item in this post is hydration. For years I suffered with terrible morning headaches simply because I didn't drink enough water in the evening. That was all there was to it, not work stress, not worry, not anything other than drinking two or three big glasses of water after 5PM. Please, don't suffer like I did.