Items I happen to view each day. Science, Technology, Management, Culture, and Writing

    This is my day book for this week. It is a log of things I see on the Internet.

This week: 9-15 April, 2018

Summary of this week:

• Zuckerburg preps for Congress
• Facebook has already lined the pockets of Congress with $$$
• Most popular Black Lives Matter page is a fake
• Zuckerburg Day One at Congress "ask my staff"
• Judge rules that Uber drivers are not employees

Monday 9 April 2018

Goodbye 32 bits. We loved ya'. Nvidia drops support for what we used to consider a huge address space.

Will the Facebook controversy ever go away? Zuckerburg is prepped for Congress by a flood of consultants. I always find it fascinating to see the rich humbled by Congress and low-paid government employees.

The fix is in (?): Facebook gave campaign contributions to over 80% of Congress members who will be speaking with Zuckerburg.

Facebook, which used to welcome researchers and research, bans yet another research and data science company. And some people say that our current president is anti science.

UC Berkeley sort of offers its Data Science course online for free. This is one of those that you have to enroll and take it at specified dates. So, it isn't recorded for learning at your time and pace. And that makes it pretty worthless.

After 32 years, the WeirdStuff Warehouse in Sunnyvale is closing. That place was a treasure.

Tuesday 10 April 2018

ooops, the biggest Black Lives Matter page on Facebook was a fake. It was tied to a middle-age white man in Australia. There is some wisdom in the old sayings of, "Don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see." And, "There is a sucker born every minute."

Apple claims to be powered by renewable energy. That is true if you count buying stuff here and there to overcome what you use there and here.

Google releases a much-improved speech-to-text service for developers.

Facebook vows to cut profits to do good-er or something. This falls along the cliche of any publicity is good publicity.

Apple introduces the iPhone 8 PRODUCT(RED). Profits from such will go to charity.

HP introduces the Chromebook X2—a $599, 12" tablet with detachable keyboard and stylus. It is a Chromebook, so you work online all the time.

The leader in R&D spending in the US is Amazon at $22.6Billion.

Twitter is being dominated by bots; many of the bots are "legitimate."

Steve Wozniak is quitting his job at Facebook (what did he do there?). Facebook makes money by selling our information. The Woz likes Apple where hardware and software are sold.

Wednesday 11 April 2018

I have a surprisingly long list of stuff today.

Hacking on YouTube defaces and removes many popular music videos.

Zuckerburg appears before Congress—part 1: "Ask my staff about that."

And one Senator actually asked political questions of Zuckerburg.

Note the photo of Zuckerburg before Congress. Is this a hearing or a happy hour lunch for the gang?

And in case you want to read a lot of nothing...the complete transcript.

Mark Zuckerburg sat on a booster cushion for his Congressional appearance. I don't know what to think about that one. Couldn't they find an appropriate chair? An better desk? Were they attempting to humiliate him? Is he that scrawny?

The question of monopoly, Facebook, regulation, anti-trust.

Facebook's stock rose sharply during Zuckerburg's appearance before Congress. He made $Billions on TV. Any publicity is good publicity.

The one thing EVERYONE on the Internet is talking about regarding Zuckerburg is that he told us Facebook doesn't listen in to our microphones. Why is that one on top of the list?

Reddit bans about 1,000 Russian troll accounts.

Apple, the movie-producing chunk of it, is to make a series based on Isaac Asimov’s Foundation books.

"Big tech, with its reverence for disruption and its West Coast elites, is a perfect foil for both." Well, at least one writer seems to understand what is happening.

System76—maker of good Linux-only computers—is moving manufacturing from China to Colorado.

It comes as no surprise (to me) that emergency alert systems across the US are easy to hack. Turn on the sirens, folks.

Put sleepers in big airliners. No, that won't happen for the rest of us...EVER.

Thursday 12 April 2018

Our FDA approves the first software tool that diagnoses eye conditions without a specialist. Yes, you still go to the doctor, but a general one.

Mozilla reports on the "health" of the Internet. Many countries use it simply to control their subjects.

At least Zuckerburg avoided the mistakes of prior, young tech CEOs. He was coached and coached so that he bored everyone. And, by they way, he had given money to all those questioning him in prior campaigns.

The adult approach that Reddit has to speech and freedom thereof. No vulgar language, but you are free to disagree. Again, an adult approach.

Images of the new look coming to gmail. I guess some people think hard about these things.

The data we give Facebook in exchange for a free service.

Lip-reading technology reversed can make videos of a person saying anything you want them to say. The inventor warns about this "getting into the wrong hands." Don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see.

Not all tech gadgets work in the marketplace. Snap will release another version of its Spectacles after the first version flopped.

Not all tech gadgets work in the marketplace. Apple is reducing factory orders because its HomePod is selling.

Google sort of releases some information on the Fuchsia operating system.

Friday 13 April 2018

Some advances in lidar technology. It still isn't at the price point auto consumers want.

What does a Lyft driver make? Finding the answer isn't trivial.

A Federal judge rules that UberBlack drivers are not employees. This is a big victory for Uber and other companies who profit from workers in the gig economy.

The coming Department of Defense cloud computing contract. Intense competition, but do the companies want to win and spark a revolt of West Coast employees? This is a new one in many respects. Of course Google wants to win. Its West Coast employees, however, don't want to be associated with what they see as a killing machine.

Clean up your mess when you're through; and don't leave your borrowed scooter cluttering the sidewalks of San Francisco.

News Flash (not): up all hours of the night into the morning shortens your life. I don't know why it took a study for some persons to understand this. Of course, if you like this lifestyle, you won't change because of this little report.

Tesla and our National Transportation Safety Board squabble over the release of information in a crash investigation. Both claim the other is doing wrong. The NTSB, being part of the government, pushes Tesla out of the investigation. Tesla appeals to Congress (where they put campaign money). Isn't this all fun?

The credit card signature is ending this month. There goes another American tradition.

Google has developed technology to isolate voices in a crowd. You have to point a camera at the persons in the crowd. This could greatly improve hearing aids. It could also improve surveillance.

Saturday 14 April 2018

Will the Facebook news ever end? Will it ever begin? So far, we just get the usual blah blah blah.

How we all simple sailed past the Terms of Service and gave away our data to Facebook and just about everyone else. The lurkers and late adapters won this time.

Walmart is buying FlipKart and moving into India in the order-and-delivery business.

This time at least, Facebook is the fall guy for all of Silicon Valley, which rides simply on advertising dollars.

File under #theyhaventlearnedtheirlessonyet...Facebook is using software to predict what where we will shop next and then selling that to advertisers.

Googler predicts, "Universal Basic Income to be worldwide by the end of the 2030s." And what will happen two generations after that?

New technique creates a 3D model of a person with only a few seconds of video.

Sunday 15 April 2018

Some commentary of Zuckerburg's appearance in Washington. Mostly boring. Bad questioning, evasive answers. Boring.

The architects of the Internet regret what it has become to many. These guys were idealist. They didn't know the wrong people and what the wrong people do. They didn't know why people slow down to look at an accident on the freeway. The created something that a few people could easily spoil. They didn't know how to deal with the spoilers.

Facebook delves deeper into censorship.

How the tech industry  simply has few women working in it. Are guys pushing gals out? Are gals simply not interested in that type of work? This is complicated, but this remains a problem. The numbers are too much for it to be accidental.

Elon Musk blames too many robots for lack of manufacturing capacity at Tesla.

Talk to Books: a recent Google experiment in AI. Interesting take on the idea of searching a book.

No$talgia reigns in the marketplace: Sega to release an new small version of its old game console with all the old games.

Despite all the press and such, Agile practices really are not prevalent in the software industry.

McDonalds is chasing, and gaining, Starbucks in the area of mobile app ordering and payment.

"How to give a five-minute presentation...Give a four-minute presentation and take your time."—Seth Godin

“I can’t call these things social networks anymore — I call them behavior modification empires.”

I like these ideas on writing a scene, the location, objects, timing.

Researching and writing...and then you discover something new which requires more researching and writing...and one day you finish.

Writers and those who critique the writing. Such friends are, well, "friends" is a good although maybe not adequate word.

"The best ideas still can (and frequently do) come to us the old-fashioned way: through experiences and observations."

Think small. I have heard it put a little differently as, "Don't try so hard." Something for writers.

Looking for clients? Eat lunch...for a long time.

Marketing. Yikes. Yes, writers and all others trying to make a living on their own have to do it.

Creating a bunch of products to sell on your blog.