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: 4-10 June, 2018

Summary of this week:

• Anthony Bourdain dies of suicide at 61
• Nvidia greatly boosts its robotics platform...Isaac
• Apple WWDC big event, all software announcements
• Computex is also this week
• UC Berkeley releases largest data set ever, this is aimed at self-driving vehicles
• Microsoft puts a working data center 100 feet under the ocean

Monday 4 June 2018

NVIDIA's Isaac robotics platform: more power in less size and built specifically to drive robots into the next generation. Nvidia is solid gold right now.

The rumors are stronger than ever that Microsoft will buy GitHub...announcement coming today.

Believe it or  not...smartphones aren't dead. Sales rebound a little.

It appears that Facebook gave special access to our data to hardware makers...for a small fee, of course $$$.

Someone finds a practical use for the GDPR...it helps us fall asleep.

DNA and privacy. It appears that purveyors of the former disregarded the latter.

Tuesday 5 June 2018

Another summary here.

Of course the folks at Apple take advantage of the gathering to mumble a little left-handed compliments on privacy and Facebook.

Computex is also this week and it brings many announcements from companies.

Qualcomm releases the Snapdragon 850 for a Windows 10 computer that is "always on." Maybe it will work this year.

The State of Washington sues Google and Facebook for violating state campaign ad laws.

The new Asus Zenbook S: It is thin and meets military standards for durability.

Asus and Lenovo are teasing portable computers that have two screens with the second screen "replacing" the keyboard. Interesting. Finally, someone is trying something different.

Intel shows a 28-core processor that will be in machines real soon now.

macOS Mojave. All the new stuff that I didn't know I needed and maybe I don't need. I don't want my screen to turn dark.

Microsoft does buy GitHub. The surprise is the price—$7.5Billion. All the rumors for for a measly $2Billion.

Tesla is painfully discovering that there is a big difference between designing and manufacturing cars.

Wednesday 6 June 2018

A new feature in iOS allows the AirPods to be used a low-cost hearing aids. I am sure they will aid hearing for those of us who need it, but also sure that the hearing-aid industry will pooh pooh this.

Officials at the White House promise to release publicly owned data to help AI research. No details, yet.

GitLab, trying not to be overshadowed by GitHub/Microsoft, now offers free high-services to open-source projects and schools.

It appears that Facebook has been sharing our data with companies linked to the Communist Party of China.

UC Berkeley releases a massive set of data to aid self-driving car builders. This is the largest data set on any subject ever released.

AMD releases a 32-core processor called Threadripper. Cool name.

And AMD shows the world's first 7nm GPU.

Linux 4.17 is released.

Intelligent Elecontronics, a.k.a., Intel, turns 50 years old.

Apple moves away from OpenGL and OpenCL.

Disney will lose $50Million on the Han Solo movie. If you make a lousy movie, people won't come to see it.

Thursday 7 June 2018

The Amazon Echo Look camera system is now on sale to everyone. Previously  it was invite only.

Facebook is buying news programs from more traditional networks.

Microsoft's Project Natick progresses. They put a relatively small data center in a vessel and put that 100 feet under the sea.

And with all this "renewable" energy, we have real gains in the availability and efficiency of small, modular nuclear reactors.

Kittyhawk has what is sort of a flying car. Of course it is just in the stunt stage. A rich guy can fly one in a controlled area for 15 minutes and have fun.

Yet another example of how economic well being has ruined the housing market in San Francisco.

News Flash (not): social media photos of neighborhoods indicates the cultural health and well being of residents. Yes, someone studied this.

I like this study comparing those of us who "go to the office" to work and those who work from home. Good points.

It appears that the government of China is engaging in similar sonic attacks on American diplomats that the government of Cuba used. It is all a part of eavesdropping equipment that is poorly built.

Friday 8 June 2018

In the UK, Amazon gains right to stream Premiere League games in 2019.

New from Amazon, merge the Alexa with a Fire TV and we have the Amazon Fire TV Cube.

Ooops, a cute little bug, a.k.a., a human error, in software had 14Million Facebook users posting public instead of private.

Facebook makes it easier for us to watch others playing simulations. This is also known as watching other play video games.

Sword: it looks like a smartphone case, but it is actually a scanner that locates concealed weapons. I guess this is legal...scanning everyone in the restaurant, huh?

Play video games seriously? Must have this MSI monitor that uses the Nvidia Gsynch and everything else.

The economy is improving. People are moving from gig-economy "jobs" to real jobs.

America has reached an unprecedented point: there are more open jobs than unemployed persons. This is true if you count "unemployed" the way you want. Many unemployed persons are not counted as such.

Once again, European governments will extract a billion $ from a successful American company. This time it is Google.

Saturday 9 June 2018

Chef, writer, and TV producer Anthony Bourdain died of suicide at 61. I enjoyed his programs and his writing. He was an excellent writer.

I don't recommend Bourdain's lifestyle. I certainly don't approve of his choice of death. I don't know what was happening in his life to bring this. I also cannot pretend that his death does not affect me—it does. I am not sure why, but I am pondering all this much more than usual.

Write like no one’s reading. “The absolute certainty that no one was ever going to care about or buy or read 'Kitchen Confidential' was what allowed me to write it. I didn’t have to think about what people expected. I didn’t care. As a result, I was able to write this book quickly and without tormenting myself.”—Anthony Bourdain

Pardon the crass language, but good words—especially about writing—from Anthony Bourdain.

The US government builds a supercomputer than leapfrog's the supercomputer built by the Chinese government. The idea that we would be leapfrogging China in technology is awful. The Chinese have done an excellent job of stealing intellectual property worldwide for the past generation.

Ex-Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix appears before the British Parliament to tell a story that disagrees with scorned CA employees. There is more than one side to the story. CA is the world's second-leading scapegoat at this time.

Facebook remains the world's biggest scapegoat as it is caught selling our information to companies  for their profit.

After 20 years, Yahoo Messenger is shutting down in July.

A look at Infosys—The India-based world power in IT services. It supplies almost all the H-1B visa persons that US tech companies hire at below-market rates.

Microsoft buys Github: mixed reaction from "the developer community" (what is that?). The Linux Foundation says it is a good thing.

The Fog Harp: a simple variation of fog harvesters triples the amount of water captured. This is really good news for coastal areas that lack potable water.

Here is a good list of resources from O'Reilly on the subject of artificial intelligence.

A review of the actually important things coming out of this week's WWDC.

Sunday 10 June 2018

Gigabyte shows two new laptops for lower-cost gaming. 15 and 17-inch screens.

Got a lot of room for a gaming monitor? Asus shows a new 49", curved, ultra-wide super-duper model.

Cooler Master releases a mechanical keyboard this is thin and small for travel.

Revenue from video—all "channels" especially Netflix et al—is climbing and climbing.

Everybody is buying facial recognition software for "security," i.e., "We tried to do something, so don't sue us." Much of the current offerings aren't worth anything.

American companies continue to do business with immoral and illegal manufacturers in China. Amazon is one of the latest to be caught.

How the Internet works: half-a-million miles of undersea cables.

At least someone agrees with me in that what many people call "agile development" today is the same old stuff but with slicker PowerPoint presentations.

The strive for imperfection in writing.

Setting grand goals for a writer often provides too much time and invites procrastination and all that writer's block.

Write a novel in 100 days. Actually, half that time is plenty. Seat in chair, hands on keyboard. Bleed daily.

Make the reader care and keep the reader clueless.

How Charles Dickens helped change the world of his time. How any writer can do the same.