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: 17-23 September, 2018

Summary of this week:

• Microsoft Managed Devices service begins
• Apple releases iOS12
• Linus Torvalds apologizes for years of being a jerk
• SpaceX announces the gazillionaire who will fly around the moon
• Sony to bring back the PlayStation
• Amazon introduces new gadgets for the home

Monday 17 September 2018

Microsoft Managed Desktop (MMD) launches today. Your business pays a fee; Microsoft delivers Windows 10 hardware and manages it for you.

Apple released iOS12 today.

Linus Torvalds apologizes for being Linus Torvalds. He is stepping away to get better. I have to wonder what will be revealed that explains this.

Another rich tech person buys another old media franchise for fun. This time its Marc Benioff buying Time Magazine.

People are racing to find where the government of China is re-educating Uighurs and Kazakhs in far western China. And American tech companies and other celebrities race for money for and from the same government.

An unusual but excellent post from Seth Godin with links to four articles he wrote on how to better conduct meetings of different types.

ooops, Amazon employees—mostly in China—are caught taking bribes to remove negative product reviews.

Tuesday 18 September 2018

Struggling this morning. Up too early and forgot my reading glasses, so could be some typos here.

SpaceX to fly a super-rich Japanese person around the moon and back. Games of the rich. The space progrram takes a giant leap backwards.

Apple releases watchOS 5.

What happened to what we once called "television?" Their annual awards go to ... Netflix?

Citing interstate commerce—which has always taken precedence—our head of the Federal Communications Commission says California's attempt to usurp it will be ruled illegal.

Former employees file suit against IBM for age discrimination. Maybe someone will win one of these and the practice will slow a bit.

Some sanity in Europe: they will stop changing the time twice a year with the shift to daylight and standard and whatever they call it time.

And now we have the 9.9%. I think I am one of these, but not sure. Some now see it as wrong to have tried hard all along the way.

Wednesday 19 September 2018

Firefox Reality: Mozilla releases a browser to work with Virtual reality headsets.

ooops, Facebook is running ads for other companies...Men Only...Women Only...this appears to be against the law.

The Semi Public group: consultant Jerry Weinberg was a master at organizing these things.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we had this: the honest job interview.

It appears that running a Linux shell window inside Windows 10 just became much easier.

And some studies show that a six-hour workday is just as productive as an eight-hour day. Of course it is, and many of us have known this for decades. Don't hold your breath as it isn't coming.

A closer look at the newly updated Apple Watch.

Sony will bring back the 25-year-old PlayStation. Fun and remembering.

Thursday 20 September 2018

Amazon has an ambitious plan (what other kind would they have?) to open 3,000 stores without cashiers in the next few years.

The EU goes after more money from successful American companies. Amazon is the target in the latest escapade.

Font wars: Times Newer Roman (not Times New Roman) is a new font (don't we have enough already?) that is just a little wider so the essays of college students occupy more pages. Clever.

Evernote has layoffs and not many new customers. It is a good, useful product, but it appears that the company is poorly managed.

Some thoughts on how AI—and its removal of jobs—will hurt the poorer nations first and most.

Lime claims 11.5Million bike and scooter rides in cities around the world. The rate of growth has yet to hit the bend in the curve.

Friday 21 September 2018

The New Yorker has a long article on Linus Torvalds and his decision to step back a while and work on his social skills.

We cross another milestone as online ads account for half the money.

Amazon quietly holds a big event and shows a bunch of new devices for the home. Alexa everywhere with better sound, video, and basic devices like a wall clock and a microwave oven.

Amazon is using the honeypot scheme to find drivers who steal packages.

Facebook won't offer political campaigns as much support as in the past. They are finally backing away from money.

Censorship lives on in China as Twitch is blocked.

Oh the email trail...Google employees caught discussing ways to manipulate search research to hamper the current President's policies.

Saturday 22 September 2018

There is someone who thinks free speech is free speech.

Telltale Games lays off 90% of its employees.

Tales of horrible working conditions for Amazon delivery drivers.

Some analysts predict that 5G technology will bring in the Internet of Things. Let's hope the makers consider security.

The different plans and packages of commercial space flights for the rich.

Predictions of a Chinese Internet and an American Internet.

Intel releases a new SSD with 1.5TeraBytes of storage. I guess someone needs this.

Liars and statistics...Cornell professor resigns as JAMA pulls back diet papers amid a bunch of discovery that all the numbers were cooked and all that stuff.

Sunday 23 September 2018

NOAA discovers an 85-mile-long reef off the Carolina coast. How did we miss something so big? I guess we don't know as much about our planet as we thought. Extrapolate that one for a while.

Comcast buys the UK entertainment company Sky.

We learn why the New Mexico observatory was closed: crimes were committed by a janitor using the WiFi etc.

"Computers can solve your problem. You may not like the answer"—what genius finally figured out this bit of advice? Of course this is the case. It has always been this way. See, e.g., the movie Desk Set.

Security tip: When you close a business or other organization, remove the computers and erase the disk drives.

Look at the photos of a new McDonald's store. They forgot their beginnings. The tables and chairs have sharp edges. Kids will run into these edges. Ouch.

How one writers creates a place and time to write and then writes. As usual, try some of these. Use what works for you.

Some tips—some I like—about having a good freelance writing career.

The concept of writing as therapy. Of course it works.

A post about writing tools that gives it to you straight: just write better.

A look at the $1,200 new Nvidia graphics card. No, it isn't a good value as no other hardware will do what it does. In a couple of years...

Stay-at-home writing mothers. Yes, they "find the time."

The perils of market for the freelance writer. You gotta' do some of it.

"Years ago, all an author had to do was..." Perhaps that was not A L L  a writer had to do. How we often mis-remember stuff.

If you share what you write, persons with criticize you. Some things to do here. Also, they are criticizing what you wrote, not you.

"Above all things, the scenario writer should keep alive. Just keep yourself with lively, laughing, thinking people, think about things yourself, and cultivate a respect for new ideas of any kind. Take care of these small ideas and the big plots will take care of themselves."—Anita Loos