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: 4–10 January, 2021

Summary of this week:

• Here comes the Alphabet Workers Union to Google
• GPU prices rising as fast as Bitcoin prices
• Dell has new monitors
• Mr. Biden is confirmed confirmed as our next President
• Georgia provides Mr. Biden with control of both houses of Congress
• People "break into" the Capitol Building

Monday 4 January 2021

Today is the day that the world resumes spinning on its axis.

A Tesla (sort of) drives itself from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

Archeologists dip their toe into big data and digitization.

It appears there are big campaigns in India to teach all kids how to program computers. "If you love your kids, you'll..." kind of stuff. Computer programming is writing a series of tasks in a simple language so that a machine can execute them. There is some good in learning to think logically. Some persons have made fortunes by controlling machines.

The evidence suggests that big spending on digital marketing has little affect on business results. That bodes ill for tech companies that live on ad dollars.

Tuesday 5 January 2021

Teledyne acqui-hires FLIR for $8Billion.

Here come the lower-priced 5G smartphones. Qualcomm's latest lower-priced processor will power them.

Unions are coming to Google with the Alphabet Workers Union. I hope these folks understand what they are doing, but I have my doubts.

Where is Jack Ma? He hasn't been seen in public in a few months.

Epic Games buys a huge old mall and will convert it into office space. And I thought everyone was going to work from home for the rest of time.

A look at how rumors spread and folks tell tales and all that.

Wednesday 6 January 2021

Our central government formally blames Russia for the SolarWinds event. This is a symbolic gesture that holds no legal sway.

OpenAI extendes GPT-3 to combine text and imagery for better understanding of both.

Dell releases several new ultrawide monitors.

Dell's new laptops have a shutter on the camera. It is supposed to remain closed if you are not using it. This prevents some folks from spying on us when we are not suspecting it.

Bose releases new earbuds that don't fit in our ears.

For the first time, Amazon has purchased instead of leased aircraft to deliver cargo.

Bitcoin is at an all-time high. The crypto miners return, and their demand for graphics card returns with them. Up go the prices of graphics cards.

Thursday 7 January 2021

In Georgia, Democrats win both Senate seats in a runoff election. Of course there were large amounts of mail in ballots. The next President's party will control both houses of Congress. Let us see if they can deal with the expectations. President Obama's Congress couldn't.

It appears that once you had the coronavirus, you have a long-term immunity. So perhaps the otherwise healthy should have tried to acquire the two-day sickness and spread that herd immunity.

The Holiday shopping season in the year of the virus was very good to Apple's App store.

Intel updates its RealSense technology with RealSense ID. Yes, it is facial recognition, but in this case a person chooses to use it for their front door or other personal devices.

The social media companies suspended the President's accounts during the "rioting." When did we decide that these folks were the holders of truth?

Several major tech companies pledge billion$ to build affordable housing in areas where they have boosted high-salary employment.

A recent survey shows that many of us would like to continue working from home after the year of the virus ends.

Another source confirms that the year of the virus was very good for video games.

Friday 8 January 2021

The Wi-Fi Alliance is now certifying 6E products. Expect to see them this year. Higher data rates, better all-around performance.

Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoS) carries on in the aftermath of WikiLeaks. Activists? Terrorists? Opinions differ. Sound familiar?

Facebook plunges into politics. That is probably a bad idea. I expect the Republicans to regain control of the Senate and maybe even the House in two years. Congressional losses two years into a Presidential term are the norm.

The year of the virus has been V E R Y  G O O D  to Elon Musk as he gained $150Billion in wealth. He will soon surpass Mr. Bezos as the wealthiest person on the planet. I hope he finds plenty of good he can do with that wealth.

Sony announces new televisor sets for 2021. No longer one of the largest makers of such, Sony still sits at the high end of the market.

Boeing is paying $2.5Billion to settle in its 737 fiasco.

Gun sales in America rose 60% in 2020. That is an indicator of uncertainty.

Saturday 9 January 2021

The Consumer Electronics Show is next week—online only. Some predictions.

It appears that all the social media companies want to ban the current President of the United States. "but what if" questions abound. This is just one link, but there are hundreds of stories in, around, and about the topic.

JLab Audio makes little speakers that clip onto the frames of the glasses we are already wearing. Bose et al have products with sound built into their own glasses.

The reports are very early, but one of those recently re-certified Boeing 737s is missing after takeoff in Jakarta.

Several (or more) portable computers were stolen from the Capitol Building this week. We enter the discussion of "whistle blower" or "terrorist."

Intel is discussing having TSMC and Samsung fabricate some of its chip designs.

A stroke of genius? Mr. Trump has himself removed from Facebook et al. Then he forms his own website for his commentary and sells advertising space. There will be millions of persons viewing, so the ad dollar$ will be huge.

Sunday 10 January 2021

In real news, the 737 that crashed in Indonesia was not of the type that was recently re-certified. Still, about 100 persons perished.

More on banning the President from social media and the many possible outcomes. Quick, decisive action in the political arena often brings about a result that is opposite of what was intended.

Some considered thoughts on Section 230 and who is responsible for what is written on the Internet.

CES 2021 is this week, and the announcements of new products are already coming.

Apple and Google remove the Parler app for lack of moderation. They keep Facebook and Twitter for lack of moderation. Am I missing something here? Fascinating times.

Lenovo shows its new line of portable computers.

An odd-sounding goal, as a writer, seek 100 rejection letters this year. To receive that many means you are putting great effort in marketing, and that is a good thing.

Often writing the first word is the most difficult. Here are some tips.

Trying to earn more money as a writer this year. Write more and market much much  more.

Thoughts on critique.

"Successful" book authors write "what I wished I had known."

Yet another post on "Now that 2020 is behind us." Really folks? Its just an arbitrary date.

Thoughts on risk from a person who doesn't seem to know the definition of the word. Sigh.

Thoughts on asking for money for your writing. How  much?