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: 1-7 June, 2020

Summary of this week:

• SpaceX capsule docks with the ISS
• Rioting in America—that dominates the news this week
• Uber rides down 70%—a general indicator of the shutdown economy

Monday 1 June 2020

President Trump and Mr. Zuckerburg have an amenable telephone chat. Funny how all these social media stars settle things with an old fashioned telephone call.

Walmart has been using software to detect theft in its stores. Employees have been telling managers that the software doesn't work. This has been occurring for several years.

We can have only one crisis at a time. We have switched from the Kobe Bryant death to Wuhan virus to now George Floyd and police violence. Sigh.

All of a sudden, all the famous tech leaders are concerned about police actions in America. Even donating money to groups that try to train police officers.

We have all gone terribly wrong in how WE recruit and train law enforcement. This is US doing this to US.

Are we augmenting disabled persons with technology or trying to create a new species? This is a centuries-old question.

You can do all the high-tech innovation and retail store fancy design you want. If a few people assault your store with a handful of bricks, well, there you have it.

Tuesday 2 June 2020

Demonstrating once again that all publicity is good publicity, Twitter's recent fussing with our President is good for their business.

At a time when the prices of computer memory continue to fall, Apple doubles the price of more memory in its MacBook Pro line.

Mr. Zuckerburg gives $10million to a charity that does something about racial something or other. Who are these charities? What do they do?

Right after opening retail stores, Apple closes them as we lurch from one crisis to another.

Tech layoffs highlight that Uber et al. are simply losing money everyday and no matter how popular, they are bad businesses.

Bias in AI research. No one can clarify the issue as "bias" is subjective. The entire exercise is to discriminate among choices without discriminating.

Want to buy pepper spray? Might as well try trading your excess toilet paper for it.

According to some measures and measure-ers...renewable energy production goes ahead of coal in the US. Lest we forget, we have used moving water (a renewable) for about 30 centuries.

Wednesday 3 June 2020

The big business this week is in apps that are police scanners. Everyone wants to know where the police are. Good or bad.

When did we anoint Facebook to be the moral compass of America? Two stories. One here. One here.

I learn that yesterday was Blackout Tuesday. I was supposed to learn something yesterday.

Sega releases a really small version of its Game Gear handheld that failed to unseat the GameBoy long ago.

HP updates its gaming laptops.

The latest stars of Twitch are computer programmers who discuss what they are doing as the write programs. Well, there are far less-valuable ways to spend your time.

Firefox 77 is released.

"We will switch to online classes," said the optimistic but ignorant university administrator.

More news that isn't new: The Chinese governors stalled the release of information about their virus that eventually spread across the globe.

The programming language Rust finally enters the top 20 of the Tiobe survey of programming languages.

Someone has sued Google for $5Billion (with a B) for some sort of privacy violation.

Protestors and law enforcement. We know better, but we still do things that bring the opposite result of what we want. Just sit down and have a cup of coffee and a donut. Silly, but it works much better.

Thursday 4 June 2020

And for what it's worth. Just about everyone is on camera when in a city.

Where the money is: stealing crypto currency was a billion-dollar business last year.

As a general indicator of the state of the economy in the year of the virus, Uber rides are down 70%. No one is going anywhere and doing anything economically. I have to wonder about the motives of those who told everyone that is wasn't safe to leave their homes and engage in commerce, i.e., the lives of others. Stay at home, flatten the curve, and ensure that your neighbor loses their job and becomes destitute. The government will take care of them. Well, the government is us. I haven't heard any calls to triple Federal, state, and local income taxes this year to help flatten the curve.

A call for the big tech companies to end their contracts with law enforcement. The irrational calls indicate the angst. Of course federal, state, and local law enforcement will continue to use Windows from Microsoft or MacOS from Apple or Linux from those companies.

Things look bad at Amazon as workers lose a $2/hour raise as Mr. Bezos' worth tops $150Billion.

Amazon warehouse workers sue the company for unsafe working conditions.

And then it stops being funny...persons are setting razor blade traps on 5G systems to harm technicians who arrive to repair damage.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson says that the UK will take in about 3million persons from Hong Kong if the PRC forces malevolent rule. This would be an economic boon for the UK.

Friday 5 June 2020

Medium.com announces a Newsletter feature so that writers can create their own without leaving the Medium platform.

Amazon and Slack partner with Amazon buying Slack licenses for all its employees and Slack using AWS for its computing.

A study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety concludes that self-driving cars won't be much safer. (1) The reporters are biased in that removal of accidents removes their entire industry. (2) They focus on self-driving cars instead of communicating cars—long known to be the better answer.

Tim Cook on racism. These "-isms" to eliminate isms are problematic. Proceed with caution, and it doesn't hurt to put lots of your money where your mouth is.

Want to buy a new laptop computer? Good luck as many others do as well and supply has been reduced.

This must be important as it is all over the Internet: Facebook has a feature that allows moving photos to Google Photos.

A LinkedIn town hall meeting shows that educated persons have different ideas, many of which differ from the media themes of the day. If we are to have discussions, we are to have discussions. If we want parroting, we aren't having discussions.

SpaceX launched 60 more satellites of its Starlink constellation. That brings the total to 480. It was also the second Falcon 9 launch in four days.

GM joins the race to make electric-powered vans for businesses.

Saturday 6 June 2020

Odd thing when you ask people for their opinions, they often give you their opinions.

Satya Nadella, who is the epitome of diversity in America, makes some statement about diversity at Microsoft. Take care when discriminating to end discrimination.

Odd co-incidental occurrence: driving is at an all-time low with the pandemic shutdown, but CO2 levels are at an all-time high.

Calls for a voluntary American Service Corps supported by the capabilities and money of big tech.

Americans are gargling with chlorine (bleach). Not a surprise given the-end-is-nigh shouts from "experts."

Sunday 7 June 2020

Foxes that live in the suburbs—like in my neighborhood—tend to domesticate themselves after a few generations.

We tend to become what we hate. This is just one story that states how George Floyd was "murdered." Hence, we have tried and convicted the accused already. What is to become of us.

Headline says it all, "The Results Are In for Remote Learning: It Didn’t Work" This from the Wall Street Journal, a fairly reputable outlet. Where are the tax rebates? We paid for public education, but didn't receive it as panicked governors cancelled education.

The story must be important as it is all over the Internet: If you buy an Apple product with an Apple Card, you get to make monthly payments. I think that is what a regular credit card does.

TCL will be selling Android-powered TVs along side their line of Roku-powered TVs.

Memories and memoir.

Anecdotal writing and fiction. It doesn't work well.

The author's mission statement or the answer to, "Why do I write?" If a writer finds a brief and clear answer to that, they may writer "better" in one way or another.

Is it selfish to continue to write this week as the world burns? Someone please tell me when the world hasn't been burning. No, not then either, you have to think of another example.

"It's not about the setback, it's about the (writing) comeback"