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: 28 May-3 June, 2018

Summary of this week:

• Monday is Memorial Day in the US
• We already have lawsuits claiming US companies are not abiding by GDPR
• Nvidia reveals the HGX-2 cloud-server platform
• Qualcomm reveals the XR1 extended reality processor
• State Department to limit Chinese student visas
• OMB finds the rest of the Federal government ignoring cyber security
• Arm announces new processors for next year's smartphones
• Microsoft maybe will buy GitHub for $2Billion
• Apple opening a big office in North Carolina (?)

Monday 28 May 2018

The government of Vermont is the first to regulate Data Brokers in the US. Odd that it began in that state.

Give me a "smart" window air conditioner. Really? That will improve the world and those of us who live here? Again, smart people wasting their resources on problems that don't matter.

Intel, of all the companies that do this sort of thing, is being investigated for age discrimination in its recent layoffs. Age discrimination happens all the time, especially in hiring. No one seems to care that companies do this stuff.

Our government's "science" questions. Half of them are political, not scientific and based on theories, not repeatable experiments.

The Han Solo movie brings in less money than estimated. This is yet another example of the estimators being wrong. Replace the estimators, not the movie producers.

Microsoft is creating an algorithm to detect bias in algorithms. Can't make this up. Here is a tip: have a few wise persons look at the results of your algorithms.

Tuesday 29 May 2018

Remote controlled "drones" are beginning to become useful. This one promises to medivac injured persons. Something worthwhile in many situations.

NASA is busy measuring California's climate. Manned space travel? What is that? A classic case of a government bureaucracy losing its way.

Amazon delivers quickly—sometimes in just a few hours. In India, tiny stores on every street corner deliver in five minutes.

And more mini-businesses in China. This one builds movie theaters for you and a few friends. Go there, watch any movie you want from a streaming service in luxury that you don't have at home. And you don't have to stay home. There is some pleasure in going somewhere.

Ars Technica reviews the Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 convertible. Intel CPU plus AMD GPU makes a thin but high-performing package.

The current administration rescinds yet another rule established by the prior one. This time the  International Entrepreneur Rule. If you forego the hard work of making laws, the next fellow doesn't have to work hard to remove them.

Not content with regulating data worldwide, the EU now wants to ban plastic spoons, coffee stirrers, and straws.

The crypto-currency miners are racing to central Washington—home of the cheapest electric power in the US. The utilities normally build capacity slowly and cannot match the quick change in demand.

It only took one weekend for data privacy activists (who are these people?) to file suit against all the American tech firms over GDPR issues.

Wednesday 30 May 2018

HP had a better-than-expected financial quarter with growing sales of those incorrectly predicted ancient PCs. The estimators were wrong again, but none will be fired.

HP updates their Omen 15 gaming laptop with all the latest parts and pieces.

Nvidia reveals the  HGX-2 cloud-server platform. Sitting in computer centers, a.k.a., the cloud, it delivers petaflop compute power for AI and high-performance computing. 16 GPUs and high-speed data make it sizzle.

The Verge declares Huawei's MateBook X Pro to be the best laptop in the world today. Of course it is a rip off of the MacBook Pro, but it contains all the latest parts.

Playing leapfrog, Microsoft is now worth more than Google (Alphabet)—at least for a day.

Qualcomm releases the Snapdragon XR1 for extended reality or anything-reality on mobile devices.

I like Seth Godin's comments on how we teach mathematics in school.

Amazon is slowly expanding its Whole Foods discounts for Prime members. Virginia doesn't seem to be on the list yet.

Thursday 31 May 2018

Our Department of State is now limiting the visas of Chinese tech students.

A new challenge contest in satellite imagery analysis. I did this several decades ago—overhead, multi-spectral analysis—and am a little surprised at the lack of progress here.

Mary Meeker's annual Internet report is here. Smartphone sales have peaked and their prices continue to drop. Health care prices continue to rise...something wrong with that.

Strong rumors about Google improving its Pixel smartphones real soon now.

Our government investigates our government and finds that our government isn't protecting its information from our hackers.

Xiaomi releases its newest and best smartphone, the Mi 8. All the specs are better and it isn't very expensive at $420.

Asus builds a motherboard just for crypto-mining—it supports 20 GPUs at once. Flames and explosive sound affects optional (not).

The California state Senate acts like it is the FCC and decides to regulate the Internet. Of course this will all eventually be declared null and void, but it makes for good press.

Amazon distributes new Prime stuff for Whole Foods employees to wear. They are trying to make it look cool to be a grocery store clerk.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is trying to repair the company's image. He had a good commercial on TV last night and is speaking with the right people in the right forums.

Walmart is now offering to basically pay for college for its employees. There are limitations etc., but this is a good deal for employees. Good for Walmart.

Intel releases its line of Optane DIMMs with one module holding 512GigaBytes.

The most-visited sites in the US: Google, YouTube, Reddit, Facebook, and Amazon. Reddit just passed Facebook.

A highly trained neural network is now better at detecting skin cancer than highly trained persons. This is not a surprise.

Friday 1 June 2018

Microsoft, Apple, and others develop an new standard for braille displays.

For the first time since its founding, Canon has no film cameras to sell.

What is Facebook? American teens flock to YouTube.

The Russian government now wants Mark Zuckerburg to come testify to them. Popular guy that Zuckerburg.

Court documents charge that ZTE was created for intelligence-gathering reasons and has been engaged in extensive bribery.

The non-tech, have-nots in San Francisco protest against the other guys. They have real problems in that city caused by rising salaries of a few and grossly inflated housing costs.

Google, AI, a DoD contract, and all the fallout. It seems that many Google employees want to distance themselves from being Americans. This is the epitome of the post-national, or whatever we call it, rich folk.

Arm announces new processors for next year's smartphones. More performance, less electric power, lower cost, and everything else better.

Saturday 2 June 2018

Work from home? Move to Vermont. They will pay you $10,000 to live there and continue to work from  home.

Strong rumors that Microsoft will buy GitHub for $2Billion (with a B).

Google quietly steps out of the tablet-selling business.

ooops, thousands of organizations are using Google Groups in a non-secure manner. Too bad if we are on someone's list.

And Google quietly (almost quietly) backs out of its contract with our Dept of Defense for analyzing drone footage. Some spinoff from Google will pick this up (my prediction).

The Obama US Digital Service lives on in the Trump administration. I doubt the validity of the outfit. That comes from 28 years inside our Federal government. They are an arrogant all-star team that is too closely tied to politics and ensuring that political projects succeed instead of the general welfare of US citizens. But, what do I know?

This story must be important as it is all over the Internet: Instagram reveals its algorithm. Nothing really to see here.

Facebook to remove Trending Topics next week. They have a "better" way to show us the news.

Okay, let's get silly—buy this $34,000 three-wheel electric car that has style and style and style. The Nobe 100.

Strong rumors about next week's big event from Apple: don't expect any new device news.

macOS 10.13.5 is now here.

Sunday 3 June 2018

ooops, Google is back selling Android tablets. They said a software glitch removed tablets for one day.

Well, someone understands the charm and appeal of the original Star Wars characters. In the first Star Wars, the three stars had no clue what they were doing. They bumbled and stumbled along and fell into a trash compactor. The next set of films had these expert Jedi casually waltzing through impossible situations without breaking a sweat. BORING. The Han Solo film repeats the mistake.

Possible blood pressure benefits from intermittent fasting.

Outside of Silicon Valley, even in parts of real America, startup companies are opening satellite offices where the cost of living is lower and plenty of smart people already live.

We are not answering the phone any longer. 90% of calls are junk from machines and persons we don't want to talk to anyways.

Emacs version 26.1 is released.

Everyone on the Internet is buzzing about the next macOS having a "dark mode." Really? Who cares?

A look back at 1993 and the original Doom video game. Fond memories for me and the only video game I ever played.

Strong, strong rumors that Apple will open a big building in North Carolina's Research Triangle. How did southern Virginia not get this one?

Cliches: when drafting, write them. When editing, well, edit them.

I like this piece about the drafting and scribbling parts of writing. We see the finished version of other writers' work, not all the mess they go through during the dark hours.

The myth of writer's block and what the condition actually means to one successful writer.

The concept of the theme in a story.

If you are going to write and send your writing to companies that publish your writing...you will write with Microsoft Word. It isn't bad.

Blow stuff up. Do something completely different. Pick up the charred remains.

Yes, knowing something about the ending helps the writer chart a path towards it.

Talking yourself out of being lazy and fearful.

Writing freelance? Want more money? Charge more money. Here are some ideas on how to do this.