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: 2-8 July, 2018

Summary of this week:

• Dell may go public again
• Zuckerburg may be on his way out at Facebook
• Happy Birthday America, the 4th of July is this week
• American companies going overseas to hire (cheaper) AI talent
• IBM wins a big $$$ contract in Australia government
• Facebook labels the Declaration of Independence as hate speech
• Kids trapped by water in a cave in Thailand

Monday 2 July 2018

"It’s essential that we differentiate between things that remind us of fear and those that are actually risky. In our adult world, the most valuable activities are actually inconvenient, fraught with the fear of failure and apparently un-do-able."—Seth Godin

Strong rumors that Google will introduce a line of smartwatches this year.

Let's journey to Switzerland to Crypto-Valley.

Dell is swinging back to public from private ownership, again.

We may be about to see Mark Zuckerburg booted out of Facebook. The company is "important" to a lot of folks, and Zuckerburg is simply too immature, i.e., he's a "flake." (an old term, I know)

Our government has spent our tax money to tell us how to wash our hands. Isn't that a good use for our money? I vote no.

In yet another set of answers delivered to Congress, Facebook admits that it sold our data to other companies.

Strong rumors that Nvidia will have a major update to its GPU line aimed at gaming ... real soon now.

The big money tech companies go to community college to seek ready-made, low-salary employees.

Tuesday 3 July 2018

Comcast has already started throttling speeds and raising prices. But prices were to drop? Comcast needs to excuse or reason to raise prices, they just do it.

Social media posts in India spur mob violence and lynchings. What to do with this free speech there?

The FBI is now investigating Facebook. Please remember that lying to an FBI person is a felony...even lying about whether or not it is raining outside at the time. Speak carefully.

AT&T-Time Warner is raising its prices after the merger. Cost savings passed on to the consumer? Someone must have not heard correctly.

Strong rumors that Microsoft is about to release a $400 Surface tablet.

Some thoughts on a secret project at Microsoft to have a dual-screen, i.e., it folds in half, pocket-size tablet gadget.

ooops, Samsung has its wires crossed and is sending our photos to random strangers.

Yes, Google employees are reading our emails. They have been forever. This is cloud computing.

Anonymity reigns on Reddit. They don't want our personal information. It is too much trouble to manage our personal information.

At least for today...it is healthy to drink coffee. So I will drink a few extra cups today until they tell me that it is bad for me.

Crypto currency values have dropped. It isn't profitable to mine for them. Hence, the price of GPUs has fallen to near-normal levels.

It appears that Tesla has finally reached its production goals.

Wednesday 4 July 2018

Happy Birthday America.

The world is in chaos. Now Democrats want to reduce the size of the Federal government.

The headline says it all, worthy of a careful reading: The secret world of disabled gamers.

At least someone agrees with me: robotics and software will replace jobs. So what will the unemployed people do? Someone should try to answer the question.

Amazon opens another employee-less store. Jobs? Who needs a job?

American companies go overseas to find AI talent. Odd, I worked in AI off and on for 30 years. No one is calling me. Perhaps age has something to do with the discriminators.

oooops, it seems that all those promoters of electric-powered automobiles forgot that when there is a wreck there is a battery fire. And none of those promoters are around to deal with the consequences.

Research says: our phones aren't listening to what we say. Research also says that the research is quite limited on this question.

Seth Godin reframes Independence Day to Responsibility Day. Good, short read.

Censorship is alive and well in...Italy(?).

Tesla hit its production goal only because Elon Musk paced the production line yelling and screaming. This is micro managing in a good sense, good if you think that hitting the production goal is good.

News Flash (not): social media sites are designed so that we will like them and spend our time viewing and adding to them.

Slowly but surely...the drone show is replacing the fireworks show.

Thursday 5 July 2018

Amazon has found a way to deliver packages quickly to remote areas of India. Okay, no excuses to any government for failing to repeat the exercise.

Scattered here and there about in our Federal government are little pins of bright light—people who have found a way around the morass and are doing great things.

VW starts a car-sharing service in Germany.

Contrary to news reports, the US is not the only country that is "tough" on immigration. The Europeans are pulling information from all refugee phones to find evidence to bar them from entry.

Amazon is going to print a toy catalog and hand them out at Whole Foods this Christmas.

Facebook admits in court that it is a media publisher, not just a place where people chit chat. This contradicts all prior public claims.

Friday 6 July 2018

Of course those smart TVs are tracking what you watch and what you buy. That is what they are supposed to do. Privacy? Well, that's a subjective term.

IBM wins a $1billion contract with the government of Australia.

The not-so-secret notification from Apple that it won't use Intel modems in future iPhones.

The current director of the EPA is gone. He serves the example of every new administration that has someone coming from private industry and no one ever tells them that the rules are not the same.

Elon Musk is actually doing something smart for the kids trapped in the cave in Thailand. They have a technical plan and are working details on site.

Three YouTube stars suffer death per misadventure.

ooops, the Facebook software that is supposed to filter hate speech has labeled part of the Declaration of Independence as hate speech. Oh well, it's just software.

Even the big companies with armies of lawyers can't figure out and adhere to GDPR.

The far-away promise of sharing driver-less cars instead of owning the "family car." Maybe one day; maybe in some situations.

China Mobile: the world's largest cell phone network is run by the government of China and censors content even if you are using a phone in the US.

Saturday 7 July 2018

Sunday 8 July 2018

Steve Ditko, co-creator of Marvel Comics' Spiderman, is dead at 90.

Twitter has been suspending 1million accounts a day for several months as it tries to clean up years of neglect. I trust they are taking care with things like labeling the Declaration of Independence as hate speech.

Argentina's economy has degenerated to barter. Facebook is the place to go to start trades.

It seems that many artificial intelligence programs are artificial themselves as they are really low-paid persons doing the work.

It seems that last week was the hottest in the history of our planet. Hence, we are now in a planetary cooling period. Logic is a funny thing and can be downright irritating sometimes.

The original IBM PC keyboard was the best ever made. If you can get one, keep it. You will use it the rest of your life.

"It turns out that organizations and systems are more reliable, more efficient and more professional when they’re operated on principles that are actually true."—Seth Godin...he has a firm but all too rare grasp on the obvious.

“Don’t write to become famous or to make a lot of money. Write because you love it. Write because not writing for more than a few days feels like you have abandoned a puppy in a mineshaft. Save the puppy.”—Joe Beernink

I find this to be an excellent piece on the value of editing my own writing and what I need to be doing as my own editor.

Excellent method for reading and making notes so that we remember what we read.

It does help to "organize" to improve "creativity." This is all subjective of course, but there are some things that do help.

A few tips to help boost yourself as a freelance writer. Simply do great things that everyone can see. It might work out if you are lucky. And there are none of these things about luck = hard work. Hard work does not pay off most of the time.

How to build a business? Solve a problem.

Waiting for or making your BIG BREAK.