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: 19–25 October, 2020

Summary of this week:

• Dept of Justice charges Google with antitrust violations
• Windows apps now run on Chromebooks
• Facebook open sources a new language model
• Tech companies continue to prosper in the year of the virus
• HPE to build supercomputer in Finland

Monday 19 October 2020

How researchers are using AI techniques to develop the next generation of batteries.

Microsoft and others are working to cleanup the plastic in the oceans.

You have people who were hired to commute and work in a central building. You tell them to stay home—something they did not choose. The result is predictable and was predicted. People are tired of being told what to do.

Yet another small-scale guaranteed income study begins in California. Perhaps what we learn from all these little studies will amount to something.

Tuesday 20 October 2020

Google Cloud releases Lending DocAI. This will speed the processing of loan applications.

In a largely symbolic move, i.e., no one goes to jail, our Dept of Justice releases charges on six Russian GRU agents for destructive cyber attacks.

IBM had another good financial quarter "in the cloud."

The year of the virus has been good to technology companies as they now account for 40% of the S&P 500. Apple alone (value $2Trillion) is 7% of the market.

Got $87,000? Get LG's TV that rolls up into its box.

The year of the virus has destroyed movie theaters, so AMC is renting a theater and a movie for as low as $99.

Raspberry Pi releases Compute Module 4. These are more classical single-board computers meant to go inside products instead of being stand-alone computers. $25 gets you rolling.

Wednesday 21 October 2020

Microsoft moves further into data movement and storage with Azure Space Initiative and Azure Modular Datacenter.

Now on Chromebooks: Microsoft Windows and all the software that comes with it. You "just" have to run Parallels on the Chromebook and a little of this and that and there you  have it.

The year of the virus continues to be good for many technology companies.

Netflix continues to prosper with a good financial quarter.

Snap, although not yet profitable, has a much better than expected financial quarter.

Intel has one of its Movidius Myriad 2 Vision Processing Units on a tiny satellite called PhiSat-1. This puts computer vision capability in orbit so that the satellite only captures images that are worth capturing and sending back to earth.

The Swedes ban Chinese companies from 5G systems. Some people are learning that Chinese companies are closely tied to the Communist Party of China and its practices.

People want to be with other people. Those regulating behavior in the year of the virus can't seem to understand that.

After all this time we discover that an organ has been hiding in our throats. Yet we know the temperature of the earth to a tenth of a degree 10,000 years ago.

Thursday 22 October 2020

HPE is on contract to build a supercomputer in Finland for $160million.

Amazon extends its grocery pickup at Whole Foods for Prime members.

Real soon now, Boston Dynamics will start selling robotic arms for its Spot, four-legged, $75,000 robots.

“That’s not what I meant, but that must be what you heard, how do we fix this? Will you help me make things right again?”—Seth Godin 

This must be important as it is all over the Internet: Quibi is shutting down.

It appears that some "Google technology" will be used to help secure "the wall" on the US-Mexico border.

Friday 23 October 2020

No Internet viewing today.

Saturday 24 October 2020

Intel has a mixed financial quarter—better than expected in some areas, but not so good in others.

It appears that Microsoft and others are quite proud of a table in a document that they released. It is all related to cyber security. Now, when we have a failure, we can say, "Look at cell A9. That was the problem!" I suppose this is value to some people.

Yet another survey of users of computer programming languages shows that JavaScript remains the world's most popular computer programming language.

Everyone should have a hobby: this guy's hobby is to create a web site that shows all the McDonald's and if their ice cream machine is working or broken. See McBroken dot com.

This year is the 100th anniversary of the Theremin. Moog has a special edition model.

"There are thirty people over there who are just waiting for you to help connect them, lead them or make things better. But if you’re still defending the stuck project over here, the one you put so much into, you won’t be able to show up for them."—Seth Godin, "The thing about sunk costs"

Places to retire outside the US. Various reasons, but mostly people looking for something different that they call "better."

An excellent example of a true statement that has no meaning: Universal mask-wearing could save 130,000 US lives before March. The key word is "could." They didn't write "will" or "would."

We may be returning to the re-usable, deposit containers. Remember the day of returning all the glass Coke bottles?

Nvidia has cancelled the release of several high-end graphics processing cards that were slated for this December.

Now we have the first 3,200 MegaPixel images.

Sunday 25 October 2020

I don't know whether to praise this effort or shrug it off as misguided and wasted: one writer's tale of spending 20 years to "publish" her story. Just publish the thing yourself and move on to the next thing.

The science fiction future sneaks up on us: a 3TeraByte external disk drive that fits in a pocket for only $70.

Looking at the weaknesses of the Python programming language.

Dealing with cults: talk to each person as a person. Learn their aspirations. Work with them to show others who agree. The fanatics move on.