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: 30 September - 6 October, 2019

Summary of this week:

• California passes law allowing college athletes to earn money
• WeWork postpones its IPO
• SpaceX shows its rocket ship to Mars
• UPS is certified by FAA to fly drones commercially
• Microsoft has their big hardware event

Monday 30 September 2019

SpaceX shows its rocket ship to Mars, and it looks like something right out of a 1950s low-grade movie.

Our Dept of State is investigating a former Secretary of State (of a well-known name) for mishandling classified information via email. Is all this taxpayers' money worth proving a point? I suppose it is to some.

Cheap chocolate: there are many victims in this. There are many opportunities as well. If we don't buy the cheap chocolate, many will have zero income instead of low income. Is that better for them? The questions are easier to ask than to answer.

In California, Tesla is found guilty of violating the National Labor Relations Act in "union busting" attempts. It is one thing to break all the rules when the rules regard business process. It is another to break all the rules when the rules are statues of law.

The Jeffrey Epstein-MIT fallout continues to fall out in the life of Richard Stallman.

Microsoft has created a series of videos that teach Python programming. Free to view on YouTube.

Tuesday 1 October 2019

Stronger rumors about Microsoft's hardware event this week.

WeWork is postponing its IPO. New information has brought too much bad news to proceed at this time.

It won't become law for three years, but California will allow college athletes to earn money. Here come the lawyers as this goes against NCAA rules. If the NCAA doesn't change, it will probably cease to exist.

Google is putting some touch-controlled computers in Levi's jackets so we can answer our phone while it is still in our pocket. This is kind of silly, but perhaps lessons learned here will help the disabled.

Waymo (Alphabet (Google)) teams with AAA to create safety training for schools regarding autonomous vehicles.

Uber evolves its services to have all transportation of goods as well as persons in one place.

It appears that we don't know as much about planets and where and how they exist as we thought.

The city of Baltimore has a few problems with its IT department. Of course the city's governors are supposed to oversee such non-performers and make corrections. In government, everyone has a supervisor. If someone isn't performing for long periods of time, it is the supervisor's fault.

Wednesday 2 October 2019

Zuckerburg reassures Facebook employees that they are working quietly with regulators to ensure that their cryptocurrency thing-a-ma-bob Libra will work.

Our government-operated schools across the land are being hit with ransomware attacks (the successful kind).

In drone news (and I guess we'll have to start tracking such), Skydio releases its 2nd-generation drone that is a leap beyond last year's in performance and price ($999).

Microsoft's Windows 10 now forces us to login with MS. I know this as I had to do it with a new computer my brother has. Why does it take an hour to turn on a new computer?

Intel cuts the price of its processors aimed at high-end desktop computers—in half! Thank you AMD and competition.

The plight of the workers at Amazon warehouses...it isn't good, and it sure looks bad for the richest man in the world to be so miserly.

UPS becomes the first company certified by our FAA to fly drones commercially, i.e., they have their own "airline."

The Bundesliga moves from Fox to ESPN next year.

Facebook continues to tweak its "fact checking" policies. Again, just say, "We are here so you can post stuff at no charge. We can delete your stuff anytime we want."

Thursday 3 October 2019

Microsoft had their big Surface hardware event yesterday. Here is one summary.

Google announces Action Blocks to help string common tasks together. This tool is aimed at persons with disabilities who otherwise cannot use smartphones.

How our immigration officials shifted to big data to reduce mass arrests and hone in on one or two persons.

Stop reading the news on Facebook. Watch the Hallmark Channel more. Be happier. Research agrees.

Revenge of the Walkers (sort of): a Florida man is caught on video cutting the brake lines on those little green rent-a-'lectric scooters.

Uber launches Uber Works to help part-time workers find part-time work doing more than driving.

Oh, never mind: years of advice to eat less red meat was based on bad science, and, uh, er, well let's just carry on as we were. Any more bad science out there waiting to be found?

It appears that most of this plastic floating in oceans comes from trash thrown overboard from merchant ships.

Friday 4 October 2019

No Internet viewing today.

Saturday 5 October 2019

The governors of France are starting a nationwide facial-recognition ID program. What could possible go wrong?

HP Inc. to cut thousands of jobs—16% of its workforce.

How regulation is stalling the creation of wealth in Europe, and how a few are trying to return to a day when people kept the fruits of their labor.

If you pickup a friend at the airport and they give you a few dollars for gas, you won't be able to do that at LAX anymore.

Disturbing video from AAA shows cars that are supposed to stop themselves are running over pedestrians. Pedestrian deaths are up in America due to who knows what.

Seth Godin has a firm grasp on the obvious absurdity that we call physical and cyber security. I wish there were more like him.

Our government uses software from Palantir to arrest immigrants. Our government also uses software from...gosh, this won't fit in 144 characters of 144 pages either.

The value of a written vice face-to-face interview. Take care in doing these are some are asking you to work for them for no pay and they steal your ideas.

On average (what could go wrong here?) two-thumb "typists" on mobile phones are 80% as good as typists on full keyboards. Practice brings speed. I'm not inclined to practice the technique.

The governors in Hong Kong are banning masks and face paint...and Halloween is just around the corner. Of course this is all an effort to prevent the subjects from hiding from facial recognition and the like.

Got a big house? Get a 292-inch television from Samsung.

Sunday 6 October 2019

It appears that Tim Cook successfully tip-toed through the minefield of influencing our current President without incurring backlash from everyone else.

Some insight into Cambridge Analytica and disinformation campaigns. The techniques are old and have been used many times. They found a way to exploit Facebook and other popular social media platforms.

McDonald's is pushing to reduce the time we are stuck in the drive-thru (crawl-thru) lanes. They have bought some technology companies as part of this.

A theory of ancient aliens planting surveillance systems on nearby space rocks to watch us.

"The moral, I think, is to write or draw, or paint, or whatever you do, your way. There's no guarantee it'll pay off, but at least you'll enjoy yourself."—Jurgen Wolff

NaNoWriMo is coming. Lots of prep posts out there this month. Here is one.

One writer's method for writing a story. Good, practical advice for letting the story develop and then recording it on paper.

And another writer's practical tips. Work. Time is available. Avoid distractions.

About using Grammarly in the Chrome browser to help edit social media and other writing.

Proofreading for money. This is an old way for writers to earn money and it is still viable.