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: 11-17 November, 2019

Summary of this week:

• Veteran's Day in America (Armistice Day)
• Jeff Bezos wants to buy an NFL team
• Amazon plans a new grocery store in California
• SpaceX launches 60 more Starlink satellites
• Apple releases new MacBook Pro
• Apple shows new Mac Pro
• Motorola has a practical, folding smartphone

Monday 11 November 2019

80% of GitHub contributions are coming from outside the US. See above, computing and telecommunication costs are so low that folks everywhere—and I mean EVERYWHERE—are programming.

Gaming stars love competition. Twitch, which made most of them famous, doesn't as many stars are leaving for more money on other platforms.

Headline says it all, "Bring Back the Replaceable Laptop Battery" I need a new battery on my old MacBook Air, but they want me to buy a new computer instead.

Tuesday 12 November 2019

Amazon to open yet another new grocery store in California. There is money in food. Profit margins, however, are low.

Voters in Seattle reject Amazon-backed candidates in local elections. Prospects of tax hikes on Amazon are high. Will they leave town?

Law enforcement groups share information and resources. They have for decades. Now it appears to be a bad thing in the eyes of some.

Jeff Bezos, worth about 50 to 100 billion $$$, wants to spend 4 or 5 of those billion$ and be an NFL owner.

SpaceX launched another 60 Starlink satellites to boost its constellation.

Google has partnered with the 2nd largest health network in the US. They are gathering massive amounts of data to create helpful software. They are also gaining access to medical records with the permission of the individual persons.

IBM reports on its use of 200,000 Apple computers. They are quite happy with the Apple products. Lower total cost of ownership, happier employees, more productivity.

Wednesday 13 November 2019

Strong rumors that Apple will release a new MacBook Pro today. 16" screen and other new parts for about $2,400.

Facebook Pay is here. It allows users of Facebook systems to send money to one another.

Intel shows its new evolution of the Movidius processor for computer vision. It gives 10x performance over the prior version.

One of our Federal courts rules that we cannot search our phones and other gadgets at our borders without reasonable suspicion. Sometimes we have to protect ourselves from ourselves.

Disney Plus goes online and has a few troubles on the opening day.

....

Thursday 14 November 2019

Disney Plus claims 10million subscribers on its first day. The definition of success has changed.

Netflix brings Nickleodeon into its programming lineup.

Stanford researchers publish the results of the 400,000-person study of the Apple Watch and heart monitoring.

Black Friday shopping has begun. Walmart, among others, is offering deals on tablets, TVs, and other wonderful things.

More detail on how health websites are sharing data with Google, Facebook, Amazon, et al without persons knowing or permitting it.

As rumored, Apple releases a MacBook Pro with a 16" screen and all the other expected improvements. It will set you back $2,399 for the base model.

GitHub to put massive archive of source code in a cave in northern Norway.

Facebook claims to have removed 10s of millions of posts in the last six months—most of which were identified by its clever software.

Motorola scoops the world with what appears to be a practical, working smartphone which folds in half. $1,500 isn't cheap.

Apple shows the new Mac Pro under-the-desk super-duper computer which starts at $6,000. Power users are enthusiastic.

GitHub is having its big annual event. Protestors, who don't like the American company doing business with the American government, abound. The wrong person was elected President a few years back. Now it is bad to be "patriotic."

The Chromebook (Google) continues to grow in the education market, i.e., our public schools. Apple's head of marketing says those kids are being cheated of a good education. Everyone has a vested interest, beware.

Human transcription of audio is being done by persons who are paid...well, just barely paid.

Friday 15 November 2019

A look into the world of deepfake videos and how easily they are made. They are becoming more difficult to detect as artists, trained in deception, are making them.

The Knightscope "robots" (basically rolling camera platforms) and what they collect in the public space. What could possibly go wrong?

Nvidia has a less-than-expected financial quarter. That shows that gaming and other pursuits will take a small dip in the near future.

Apple releases a new research app for the Watch and invites us to join in health studies.

Real news that isn't news: Amazon protests the award of the DoD cloud computing contract to Microsoft.

Another Silicon Valley company tries to have employees live elsewhere and telecommute. The area is expensive $$$, but people want to be there. It gives them the ability to hop jobs.

Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia) has created a social network (WT:Social) that has no ads and exists on donations.

Saturday 16 November 2019

Intractable algortihms: Facebook has done breakthrough work in processing languages and across different languages, but has hit the limits of processing power.

Apple fixes its keyboard problems on portable computers by going back a couple of generations to something that worked before it was "improved."

Speaking of fixing something that already works, Disney+ "fixed" the aspect ratio of old Simpsons episodes, but is now working on an "un-fix."

In the updated MacBook Pro, Apple is shifting back to listening to customers. The thinner and lighter machines had bad keyboards, became hot to the touch, and simply didn't do what they wanted to do. Function returns.

Let's have some perspective: Apple is worth more than the entire US energy industry. Let that sink in a while.

A company is picking one person to binge-watch the Hallmark Christmas movies and receive $1,000. There are plenty of folks who do this anyways.

Headline says it all, "EA just delivered the best 'Star Wars' game in a decade"

"Joker" becomes the first R-rated movie to haul in $1Billion at the box office. Let us see what we reaping from sowing such.

I find Seth Godin's thoughts on the classroom lecture interesting. He has good ideas, but...

Sunday 17 November 2019

The new economy: Roundup, Montana home of 1,700 persons and 150 million square feet of warehouse space. Small companies that prepare shipments for the big companies.

Someone shows the next evolution of the Intel NUC. More powerful processors and all that. Are we moving too far from the original concept?

Researchers find medical benefits of switching from cigarettes to vaping.

Smart TVs were a good idea, but to keep up with changes in streaming services we have to buy a new TV every two years, and that doesn't fit with American buying habits, yet.

It appears that after 80 years in hiding, the Tasmanian tiger is not extinct. This shows, once again, that we don't understand everything we know about life on planet earth.

Trying to predict the future of Apple or the future of personal technology.

Where the money is: Disney+ (or is it Disney plus??) accounts have already been hacked and put on sale.

Studies by an education organization show that US workers need more education. Vested interest.

Considering the point of pointless meetings. We want to feel better, so we gather with our friends.

Organ "donations" and murder in China. This is awful.

Half of all anti-vaccine ads on Facebook are traced to one person: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (yes, that Kennedy family).

If you are new to writing a novel and like the rest of us (not geniuses), here are some tips to help you start.

A simple exercise to help notice good writing and start emulating good writing. The point of the exercise is the NOTICING.

A few prompts for memoir writing.

The benefits to a writer of some travel. This piece lists the usual places, and they cost a lot of money. Travel to the other side of town on foot. Walk there. Amazing what you will learn.

Moving from writer to marketer. When the writing is done, we have to sell it.

Now is the time to tell clients that your freelance rates go up in January.

How one blogger has earned a good living.

Four items for writers who travel frequently and often with little advance notice.

It is the time of year where blog posts discuss the gifts you should give your favorite whatever. Here is a list for writers.