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: 21-27 October, 2019

Summary of this week:

• Pentagon awards $10Billion cloud computing to Microsoft NOT Amazon
• Nvidia continues to move into supercomputing
• Facebook being investigated by 47 states
• McDonald's hopes AI will speed the drive thru
• Microsoft continues to make cash in cloud computing

Monday 21 October 2019

It appears that persons are still writing apps that listen in to us via those Alexa and whatever other microphones we are putting in our lives.

Candidates for President blast Mr. Zuckerburg for comments on free speech. Candidates for President also recognize the success and power of Mr. Zuckerburg.

In record numbers, colleges are dropping requirements for SAT and ACT tests. The pendulum has swung to one side. Give it a generation or two to swing back. The success of the tests brought us news we didn't want to hear, so we are killing them (for now).

Tuesday 22 October 2019

Fooling systems that are run by machine learning and such is quit simple as recent examples illustrate.

Microsoft works with chips makers in a program called Secured-core PCs. They are supposed to stop firmware-level attacks.

Facebook decides who has a voice in America and who doesn't. Interesting that we have come to something like this, the land of the free speech and all that.

Nvidia continues to move into the supercomputing market and is selling to big users like Walmart (and Walmart is on the leading edge of supercomputing and big big data).

It appears to be easy to write "fake apps" (why is everything "fake" these days?) that listen to our home conversations through all those microphones from Google Facebook Amazon Apple that we put in our living rooms.

Bad finance: WeWork cannot layoff its employees because it doesn't have the money to pay severance packages.

Wednesday 23 October 2019

Our US Air Force now has an anti-drone laser.

Organic farming brings some benefits, but it requires more land for the same food and is worse for climate change.

The practice of paying for music makes a comeback as music streaming dipped a few years ago, but is climbing now.

Firefox 70 is here.

And Chrome 78 is here.

Software that watches job candidates during their interviews and rates their .... well we aren't sure what it rates, but it "helps" companies decide who to hire.

Forty-seven states are investigating Facebook for antitrust violations. Chasing the money.

Thursday 24 October 2019

McDonald's buys a few companies in hopes that AI will speed the drive thru lanes.

Google has an internal tool to manage calendars and meeting rooms. Some employees see it as a tool to "spy on" employees that are protesting company policies and contracts.

Facebook to add a News tab this week so that we can stay in Facebook and read all the real news we want.

More people are walking and riding bicycles, and they are being killed by people in cars. Death rates are the highest in decades.

It appears that Foxconn isn't going to hire people to work at vacant "Innovation Centers" in Wisconsin.

Microsoft continues to roll in the cash from cloud computing, and LinkedIn is also making money for Microsoft. The Surface business struggled.

Google claims a breakthrough in quantum computing. Others in the field doubt the claims.

We have the 6 73 rule where 6% of the people account for 73% of the political tweets on Twitter.

This is what we should be doing in technology. A paralyzed person now writes with pen and paper via thoughts that are interpreted by a computer and implemented by a robotic hand.

Friday 25 October 2019

No Internet viewing today as instead I had breakfast with some fine gentlemen.

Saturday 26 October 2019

Researchers find racial bias in algorithms used by insurance companies and health care providers. The bias isn't "what race are you?," but uses other factors that are known to slant answers.

The BBC mirrors its content on the dark web accessible only via Tor. This will help persons in censored countries to access news from the west.

Tesla shows the third version of its solar energy roof tiles. Improvements from prior versions convince me that I should wait another ten years before using something like this.

"Everything worth doing has a hard part. If it didn’t, it would have been done already."—Seth Godin. A firm grasp of the obvious, but few seem to have such.

Amazon shipping costs rise 46% with the promise of one-day delivery. And, by the way, Amazon has delivered late on the last few items I have ordered.

Yet another well-meaning elected representative has a plan to bribe consumers to buy things we don't want.

The UAW ends its strike and signs a deal with GM.

Intel shows a new architecture that promises more processing power at much lower levels of electrical power.

Our Army reports that climate change will wipe us all out by mid century.

The big cell phone carriers all commit to implementing RCS (rich communication services) as a replacement to SMS (short messaging service or text messages as we know them today).

ooops records for 7.5million Adobe Creative Cloud users are left out in the open.

Intel has a record financial quarter based on growth in data centers, i.e., cloud computing.

Looking forward at technology trends in 2020.

Sunday 27 October 2019

Now that our Pentagon has chosen Microsoft over Amazon for the $10Billion cloud computing contract, everyone is coming out of the woodwork claiming that our President interfered with a legal and ethical competition. And this just in: pixie dust causes deer to fly and pool a sleigh all over the world on Christmas Eve. Those involved in government contracting understand. It is actually a good decision for the taxpayers as Amazon already has a huge government contract in this area. Awarding this one to Amazon as well would have the taxpayers supporting a monopoly. See, for example, how we already do this with Microsoft Office. Enough editorial.

Here are the seven most-requested programming languages by employers. Somehow, SQL—which isn't a programming language—is at the top of the list.

Over two million California residents are without power due to wildfires and state incompetence.

Some examples of good writing and a big example of massacring the English language—particularities? Is that a word?

Let's write a good sentence (rare these days). Nice infographic on the topic.

Manipulation and writing fiction. On some level, they are one and the same.

Story structures to use and reuse.

Ten Rules from A.L. Kennedy: remember that you love writing.

Writing memoirs and a flashbulb memory: According to Wikipedia: ‘A flashbulb memory is a highly detailed, exceptionally vivid ‘snapshot’ of the moment and circumstances in which a piece of surprising and consequential (or emotionally arousing) news was heard.’