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: 8-14 March, 2021

Summary of this week:

• The next Raspberry Pi may have machine learning included
• Intel and Microsoft sponsored by DARPA to build better encryption
• Microsoft steps away from Intel and towards AMD in its Surface hardware
• In America, we print $1,900Billion and call it a stimulus bill

Monday 8 March 2021

Seth Godin has a reminder of the trade-off we take when we connect everything to achieve efficiency. If on thing breaks, everything breaks. This has always been known. It has not always been acknowledged.

Dr. Fauci tells us the same thing he told us last year. If he keeps repeating this, one year he will be correct.

Coming real soon now to the Raspberry Pi: Built-in machine learning. Just keep the price at $25.

Forward to the past: we have an open-source DOS.

A glowing report from an experiment with Universal Basic Income. The sample size was too small, and they didn't consider other over-riding factors.

Sigh. We are still letting folks publish and speak about experiments that are not repeatable (see universal basic income study above).

Tuesday 9 March 2021

DARPA sponsors Intel and Microsoft to build hardware and software to efficiently run Fully Homomorphic Encryption.

How to "attack" a state-of-the-art AI system with a Bic pen and a napkin. Really folks, it's that easy.

I don't like this one. I see problems at several levels: The CDC gives us permission to gather if we follow CDC instructions. Who empowered these citizens to rule over all other citizens?

SpaceX asks our FCC to use its Starlink constellation to beam broadband to trucks, boats, etc.

Researchers from Harvard and Nvidia claim a major breakthrough in genetic research.

Microsoft will offer AMD processors across its entire line of Surface hardware.

This may be the year that Intel's Thunderbolt interface takes away market space from USB. That has been predicted for almost ten years.

This must be important as it is all over the Internet: Tesla is selling some of its MegaPack battery units to Texas.

A small shift in time as YouTube stars are moving to their own sites. Recent events have shown that the big tech companies swing with the political winds, and you never know when you will be banished.

Wednesday 10 March 2021

Our nation has a new Chief Information Officer: Clare Martorana. She appears to have a background as a project manager.

The folks at Facebook show their ideas for AR/VR gear for the next ten years.

The Linux Foundation provides a new capability for secure signing of release materials. It is called Sigstore.

Welcome to the future. Samsung releases a 1 TeraByte SSD for $130. Amazing.

The year of the virus has been very good to Disney. They have 100million Disney+ subscribers already.

The governors of Russia and China announce intent to build a lunar station separate from NASA's.

We seem to be celebrating single-party rule. I think that is like a monopoly and one ring to rule them all and such.

The exodus from disease-germinating China hits a milestone as Apple iPhones are being built in India.

Another strange contradiction in our current president's administration. A foe of Amazon is coming to our FTC. Amazon has been a big friend to our current president.

Thursday 11 March 2021

News Flash (not): Traffic was lighter in 2020. I hope they didn't spend much money on that study.

Lou Ottens dies at 94. He invented the cassette tape and gave reel-to-reel music in a small package to all of us. The Sony Walkman came from that as did the iPod and music on everything.

Apple is building a silicon design center in Munich at a cost of over $1Billion.

Hidden in the $1,900Billion stimulus bill are a few kitchen sinks, a ton or two of pork, and a mere $1Billion so the government can buy more PCs from Dell. And we thought it was a big deal for Apple to spend a mere $1Billion in Munich.

Quarterly financial reports are rolling in. Again, anyone who had anything to do with stay-at-home had a great time in the year of the virus.

There was to be yet another undersea cable from California to Hong Kong. That ended due to ... well you know.

Adobe now has Photoshop now running directly on Apple Silicon.

We live in the world of the license plate reader. This was predictable and predicted.

Friday 12 March 2021

Build an AI web server for $100 using an Intel Neural Compute Stick and a Raspberry Pi.

The year of the virus has disrupted and accelerated much. Now Google is pushing to change job training with new certificates. The goal is to build a career without college.

Netflix, after having a big financial gains in the year of the virus, is trying to slow the sharing of passwords.

Gogo cites a chip shortage for delaying the introduction of 5G on commercial airliners. Have to wait till 2022.

Publisher Tim O'Reilly calls for "data as a common resource" instead of how the big tech companies use data today.

Time on your hands? Build a little fake fish tank and have a Raspberry Pi run the fish tank screen saver.

Some of our US Senators again introduce a bill to act like the Western hemisphere is farther west (or is it east?) than it actually is.

While raking in pile$ during the year of the virus, Amazon is opening its own grocery stores called "Amazon Fresh."

Nvidia built a recent graphic processor so that it could not be used for cryptomining. Where there is money, there is a way. Cryptominers found a way to un=built the processor and use it for mining.

Saturday 13 March 2021

Some of us have been able to work from home and still receive paychecks in the year of the virus. This added days to our lives by not commuting. Well, what did you do with your extra days?

Our reaction to the Wuhan virus has been to further divide the rich from the poor. We chose this path. There were alternatives.

Headline says it all: Amazon Won't Sell Books Framing LGBTQ+ Identities as Mental Illnesses I guess they won't sell any of the medical books from the medical experts of the last...well, the last forever.

Researchers at Facebook announce a new project to Learn from Videos. Odd that they announce the obvious.

Yet another outcome of our reaction in the year of the virus is that Qualcomm cannot meet the demand for its processors for smartphones. Predictable and predicted.

Amazon's Simple Storage Service S3 is 15 years old. That practically started cloud computing and put Amazon on the road to profit.

This story must be important as it is all over the Internet: Apple discontinues the HomePod and will instead build the mini version.

This may surprise some: atheists highly favor vaccines while 2/3s Protestant Christians favor them. Some folks only believe in the natural sciences while some folks' beliefs go beyond. Who has the imagination? Who is close minded?

Google Chrome 89 is released.

The year of the virus is great far all stay-at-home activities: Sony's PS5 is the fastest selling chunk of hardware in US history.

Trying to understand the past, UK researcher believe they have a better 3D model of the ancient Greek Antikythera Mechanism. We really don't know what we knew a few thousand years ago.

Adaptive Cruise Control is more efficient. Uh, er, that means that it makes cars go faster than the speed limits. Hmmmmm. Perhaps the speed limits are wrong.

Sunday 14 March 2021

Researchers find a new way to detect faked photos. Then they publish the secret so that fakers can alter their methods. Smart enough to create a good method, stupid enough to blab about it.

We step into the world of the Non Fungible Token (NFT). Would it be possible to create a name any worse than that?

Everyone seems to boast of their "contactless" this and that. Yet another folly in our reaction to the virus. Before 2020, we told people they needed human contact. And told people to use soap, not bleach, and the list goes on.

Pushing, pulling, tugging, and such on who has vaccines, who is hoarding, who is sharing and on.

Work from home. Move to a less-expensive place. Companies cancel commercial leases in San Francisco.

A call to abolish Daylight Savings Time. It doesn't do what advocates claimed. The switch twice a year hurt people.

The concept of discipline in creative writing.

The moment of inspiration is followed by the blues. This is common. The moment passes, and it takes effort to keep it.

Thoughts on the book-a-year novel writer.

A professional editor costs $$$, but is often worth the expense.

It can be fill-in-the-blank-with-good-and-bad to write a book. Do we treasure that or just get through it?

The idea of the newsletter has returned. Is it better than a blog for a writer? Here are some tips.

Coming real soon now is LinkedIn Marketplace where writers can connect with those wanting to pay writers.

Tips on productivity for writers. Don't waste time on time wasting things.

In our Congress at this time is the PRO Act, or the Protecting the Right to Organize Act. That will be good for some folks, but not so good if you are a freelancer and especially a writer. Hollywood et al exist on freelance writers and freelance everything. Much of professional sports is freelance work. The list goes on. Perhaps some in Congress are considering such.

Simple thoughts on writing simply.