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: 15-21 July, 2019

Summary of this week:

• The 50th Anniversary of the first moon landing
• Amazon works on a mobile version of Alexa
• Google employees leak evidence contrary to Congressional testimony
• Qualcomm updates Snapdragon midyear
• Google shouts that it is not working for China
• Trump to investigate DoD $10B JEDI contract
• Microsoft has a big financial quarter

Monday 15 July 2019

Another archive of old computer stuff in this copy of a Next catalog (anyone remember the Next computer?).

Real news that isn't news: Everyone is drowning in data, and we all waste half our time trying to swim out.

MS Word has been installed on 1Billion (that is with a B) Android devices. The definition of success has changed.

Who says government can't make a profit? The Florida DMV is selling driver's license information to private companies. I suppose this is legal, huh?

Rumblings in Silicon Valley as some of the high-paid tech workers are lending support to warehouse workers who want to strike on Amazon's Prime Day. I don't see them lending or giving money.

More rumblings in the valley as an ex-Google programmer is trying to help others band together to "keep tech ethical." "Ethical," of course, being subjective.

Peter Thiel (Palantir and Facebook) blasts Google and others for working with the government of China to keep its subjects in check. Most American firms jumped into their relationships with the Chinese government with little thought.

Amazon is supposedly working on a mobile robot version of Alexa. Perhaps it can assist the elderly and infirmed.

And more American tech firms jump into helping the government of China watch its subjects.

Tuesday 16 July 2019

Research into screen time for kids, depression, exercise, and all that. The results are still not in.

Qualcomm gives a rare mid-cycle boost to processing power of the Snapdragon.

Dish releases its airTV streaming gadget for your televisor.

The few conservative folks inside Silicon Valley, e.g., Google, have leaked evidence that shows the conspiracies about "fixing" search results are true.

It appears that Julian Assange had plenty to do to keep busy while in asylum or whatever we call it in London. His favorite hobby was lobbying, a.k.a., election meddling. And I still don't know the difference between meddling in an election and speaking your mind.

Intel provided some details on its neuromorphic computing system built for researchers who delve in learning algorithms.

We are now producing about 10,000 persons a year with a master's degree in data science or something related to it. Of course it is all fuzzy and subjective at this point.

Must-see video: The French demonstrate a "jet-powered flyboard." This is not a sci-fi movie computer generated thing. It actually flies.

Wednesday 17 July 2019

Not much time today for Internet viewing.

Facebook claims the Swiss will regulate its new cryptocurrency. No one told the Swiss. Digging a deeper hole.

After days of accusations of treason, Google shouts out that it is not building a search engine for the government of China.

A tale of two Facebooks continues. Can't the hotshots put themselves on an island somewhere and let the rest of us keep up with family and friends in peace?

Thursday 18 July 2019

Everyone is using FaceApp this week to make funny pictures. The Russians developed it. What could possibly go wrong?

Netflix has another good financial quarter.

IBM has a good financial quarter with the cloud business continuing to push upwards.

Our President is looking at the DoD's $10Billion cloud computing contract.

Next year's Consumer Electronics Show will allow sex toys again. And they continue to reduce the booth babe culture.

Researchers are moving closer to a blood test that will indicate coming dementia. No cure or treatment, just an indicator.

Airline uniforms are making employees sick. Add enough chemicals and this happens.

ooops, the Raspberry Pi has "advanced" (subjective term) to the point where it needs a fan to keep it from burning the hand.

European regulators investigate another successful American company so they can grab tens of billion$$$$$ in "fines." Why don't they just ask the company to build a park or something for $20Billion and put up a big sign?

HP updates its Z6 line of powerful workstations with all new components.

NASA, currently unable to put a person into space, impresses everyone by stitching together photos of the moon from a bygone era. If you can't do much of anything right, you might as well brag about your parents.

The opioid crisis: the legacy of our last president.

Microsoft alerts thousands of users that nation states have targeted them individually to meddle in elections or some such folderol.

Friday 19 July 2019

Toys R Us shows off their new store concept. Much smaller and much more like a playground.

Not too surprising: rural areas—with the least thought-requiring jobs—expected to be harder hit by automation.

The Amazon store without a cashier: huge resources have been spent on the idea.

Microsoft has a good financial quarter with (like everyone else) cloud computing growing the most. The cloud business is now bigger than the MS Office business for the first time.

The governors of Orlando have cancelled their face-recognition contract with Amazon after a year. Too many mistakes and cost overruns.

Google Glass has a future aiding autistic persons to understand the emotions expressed by other persons. Augmented reality. There are many good uses.

Saturday 20 July 2019

Yet another Booz Allen Hamilton employee is going to jail for stealing secret materials.

oooops, at least 62 major colleges are hacked. Fake accounts created with all sorts of mischief following.

The billion-dollar competition in the streaming video game market. Rich people want entertainment.

Hope: there are good people out here using the Internet. Some spend hours "cleaning" accounts of deceased persons.

Here is the Corvette 8.0. We used to be excited by such. Now we try to calculate the carbon footprint or some such.

Palantir, Amazon, and (the horror of it all) government service. When did it become bad to arrest persons who break the law?

Google creates a new art form on a 1.4 square mile canvas.

Somehow we calculate unemployment in the "tech" industry. It is now at 1.3 percent. Experts at this measure argue that this low figure is impossible to calculate.

The easy way to run around paywalls: the Chrome browser in incognito mode.

Sunday 21 July 2019

Lots of hoopla this week on the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing. NASA, however, continues to stumble. I used to joke that "at this rate, by the end of this decade we will put a person into space." I never expected that to be a challenge, but in less than six months the decade will end and NASA will NOT be able to put a person into space. This is a tragedy for America.

NASA boasts that the Orion crew capsule is ready to fly. They hope to have it orbit the moon—without any persons on board—in 12 months.

Someone hacks into a Russian company working for its government to find all the surveillance projects underway. Hmmm, this may be a new thing. Sort of a "turn about is fair play."

The State of New York has its own Green New Deal signed into law. Of course it is filled with nonsensical items that will never come to pass.

Whatever you do, don't tell someone "spinach is good for you" and accept payment for that. You would go to jail for practicing without a license. Folly.

Some of the benefits of joining a writing community. I published magazine articles and a couple of books before meeting other writers. Writing and publishing became easier afterwards. And, I don't know if my prior work did anything (encourage) for the other writers.

A list of magazines—some famous, some not—that pay at least $500 per piece. Good luck with these. They publish the famous.

Some ideas for email subject lines that you send to publishers.

One person's thoughts on the purpose of the paragraph. Move the writing forward one step in the right direction.

The source of ideas for some famous authors. Notice. Notice. Notice.

Thoughts on writing a memoir framed around the seven deadly sins and seven Christian virtues. Another take.

Ah, the English language. What great fun.

Three questions about the star of your story that you might answer before writing the first word.

Finding the words to put in your online writing so that readers will find your online writing. Look at Google Trends and other Google tools.

Wasted words? Perhaps, but anything written adds to your ability to write the next thing.

Removing other things so we can write and other things.

Answering moral questions for the characters in your writing.

The art, science, and NECESSITY of editing.