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: 2–8 November, 2020

Summary of this week:

• Raspberry Pi announces Pi 400 $70 computer in a keyboard
• Election Day in the US
• Mr. Biden will apparently be President in January
• Extended vote counting remarkably favors one candidate
• Flips the election
• Apple big event coming 10 November
• California voters say that Uber drivers are contractors, not employees

Monday 2 November 2020

Raspberry Pi announces the Pi 400. It is a $70 (or $100 option with all the frills) computer in a keyboard. Connect the monitors and you are running a form of Linux.

Real news that isn't news: investment expert predicts bad economic times under Biden-proposed tax plan.

We have a new fence being erected around the White House in preparation for election day. I write again, I hope Biden is declared the winner on Wednesday. Otherwise, we will have riots with hundreds of deaths and much public property—paid for by you and me and all the public—damaged.

A proposal for "Universal Solar Time" in which the computers shift our clocks 10 minutes every month so that the sun is overhead at noon everyday of the year or something like that.

Tuesday 3 November 2020

It is election day in America. Everyone has predicted the outcome. I did so on this forum last week (I think it was last week). Let us all hope for a civil reaction from all of us.

Apple will have an event on November 10th with the probably announcement of some Apple Silicon computers. Note also that this is the week after the election, so some persons have decided to continue life after the election.

AWS updates its GPU-powered cloud computers. This year's models are 2.5 times as powerful as their predecessors.

The political and media reaction to the Wuhan virus has practically killed the American movie theater. The industry will rise again in a few years as we return to treating the exception as the exception and not the norm.

When hiring a lawyer, hire one who know which court to approach. Amazon warehouse workers hired the wrong lawyer.

Wednesday 4 November 2020

At 8:15 a.m. EST, it appears the President Trump will be re-elected. This is an "appearance" not a fact. Things could happen.

Let us pray for peace and safety.

Thursday 5 November 2020

At 6:00 a.m. EST, it appears that Mr. Biden will be president. Again, an appearance, not a fact. Votes appear from no where with an amazingly pro-Biden slant...all out of proportion to all other voting. Herds of lawyers have gathered.

Let's pray for peace and safety.

Friday 6 November 2020

Mr. Biden will be the next president. What is odd is that no one wants to say so.

Still recovering from a trip.

Saturday 7 November 2020

Learning from MIT via no-cost courses. You receive no credit, but can learn much.

Razer releases a new portable computer aimed at business users, not gamers.

The year of the virus has been a disaster for many businesses with Uber being one of the more famous. Business failures mean job losses and the inability to support a family. It's not the event, it's the reaction. Dr. Fauci continued to collect his paycheck as his recommendations spelled misery for tens of millions.

An in-depth look at AMD's line of Ryzen processors.

An in-depth review of the Playstation 5 from Sony. People love to play games—since the first Pong in the drugstore to this day.

This story hasn't been reported much: firearms sales have leaped this year. Look for more record-setting months in November and December.

Intel acqui-hires Cnvrg.io—an Israeli company that specializes in data science and machine learning.

In California, voters side with gig workers being contractors, not employees. This allows Uber et al to continue to operate there.

The Android operating system is 13 years old.

The TIOBE index of computer programming languages shows that Python has displaced Java at the #2 spot. C remains at the #1 spot.

Sunday 8 November 2020

Interesting to note as I read posts in various places from people I know about their feelings on this election. Some basically feel that Donald Trump hated them personally. That is surprising in some sense, but understandable in others.

Yet more on writer's block. This post posits that writer's block is when you are struggling to find your premise (see a couple of lines below on "premise").

Freelance work and working through the "I don't feel like it today."

Thoughts and experience on plagiarism by Johanna Rothman. Good reading.

More on plagiarism from Johanna Rothman. Is it too much trouble to precede a thought with, "I read something the other day by so-and-so or in such-and-such place" instead of repeating the idea as if you conceived it?

Obtaining freelance work by offering discounts to first-time customers. I may work.

Thoughts on the premise to a piece of writing. "That’s the situation that calls for someone to do something about it."

Four styles of writing: expository, descriptive, narrative, persuasive.

The hurdles of selling non-fiction works.