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 April, 2021

Summary of this week:

• IBM has a good financial quarter
• Fitbit tries a fashionable gadget
• Microsoft to build datacenter in Malaysia
• Apple has a big event where color returns to desktop computers
• xxx

Monday 19 April 2021

Major news all across the Internet is the crash of a Tesla that killed two occupants. No human was at the wheel. And it took rescue crews four hours to extinguish the battery fire.

Some history: it was 2007, and before the iPad there was the netbook.

India reaches 15million COVID cases yet only half the deaths as the US. Of course these numbers are all bologna.

Somehow the $1.9Trillion plan is now a $2.3Trillion plan. That is 400 billion dollars. That is a 21% increase.

Bitcoin mining: it is power hungry and, at least for the time being, quite profitable.

It is Monday, not much news, but the Internet is going crazy over this Audi electric car.

Tuesday 20 April 2021

We learn a little more about the blood clots caused by COVID vaccines.

As in "1984" we erase reality by changing language.

Apple has a big event today, 1 p.m. EDT.

An in-depth report on the invasion of techies into the Lake Tahoe region.

And Facebook announces that its employees can work from home permanently. Movement of high-paid, work-from-anywhere coming real soon now.

When one person moves into your community, your community changes. That is life. Choose to make it better.

Microsoft's Xbox Cloud Gaming (xCloud) comes to iOS and PC this week.

IBM has a good financial quarter.

FitBit attempts to move into fashion.

Microsoft will build a $1billion data center in Malaysia.

The land-grant universities in America have lost their way. Created on public lands to enable the public to send their kids to college, these have become something entirely different.

Microsoft announces Visual Studio 2022 which will be on computers real soon now (maybe summer 2021).

Wednesday 21 April 2021

Apple held their big event yesterday. Here is one summary. Hey, the iMacs now come in colors.

Here is another summary of the Apple event.

For the record, a jury in Minnesota convicts a policeman involved in the death of George Floyd. I am not sure about the legalities, but how can you be convicted of three murders when one person dies? And lest we forget, "The city of Minneapolis has agreed to pay an unprecedented $27 million to the family of George Floyd."

One outcome of the year of the virus is home computer makers are putting better cameras and microphones in the machines so we can have better Zoomer Teams.

Our Federal Trade Commission is now a self-proclaimed expert in machine learning and AI.

The prolonged year of the virus continues to bring financial success to Netflix.

An in-depth look at the hacking army of North Korea. The job? Steal money, plain and simple.

The prolonged year of the virus has been very good for smartphone sales.

Strong rumors that Microsoft will launch a Cloud PC service this summer.

Children playing chess seems to benefit them. Chess, like all games, is a simulation. Running simulations, "living" with the results, and then running more simulations is quite a good exercise.

Thursday 22 April 2021

According to Apple, sales of the Apple Silicon Macs are higher than their Intel-powered Macs. The recent showing of the colorful iMacs will hasten that trend.

It appears we have rampant fraud in online advertising.

The desire for better software to match the good hardware of the iPad.

Dish and Amazon partner to build a 5G network. Amazon's Web Services will be the computing backbone for the Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) Dish will use.

For the record, this week we saw a group of the richest European Football Clubs create a Super League. Then we saw it collapse within 48 hours. Good trivia question one day.

It appears that we have passed the peak in daily vaccinations in the US. Those who dearly wanted it have received it. Now we are at the point where we will have it at the local pharmacy when it is there. This trend is predictable and predicted.

An example of a self-defeating investigation. Using Facebook posts to identify suspects shows that pre-trial publicity prevents a fair trial. Since the photos are on an internationally available channel, there is no place on earth that has not been unduly influenced. Hmmm, had anyone thought of that one?

Microsoft's Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) takes another step as it allows Linux GUI applications for some.

It appears that a few persons in the US Postal Service are monitoring social media for upcoming protests and then marking the information as Law Enforcement Sensitive.

There appears to be some relationship between not sleeping and dementia.

Friday 23 April 2021

The prolonged year of the virus wasn't good for Intel.

The prolonged year of the virus was very good for Snap.

News and weather come to the Windows 10 taskbar.

This week's Apple event makes it easier than ever for Apple to put MacOs on the iPad. We are waiting for someone to do this on their own and tell the rest of us how.

Our President is proposing new taxes. Markets react in a predictable and predicted manner. The rest of us will simply pay more for everything.

This story goes around and around. Code.org is now supported by the major tech companies. They want to teach Java to high school kids (a language that is on it way out). I support education. Let's not be naive. More programmers means the companies can lower salaries.

Saturday 24 April 2021

This xkcd comic summarizes the literal following of CDC guidelines and all the folly that ensues.

Deeper thoughts on Apple's M1 processor in iPads and everything else. Part of the thought is that Apple was over-pricing under-performing systems for years.

How do you grow a big tech company bigger? Acqui-hires. Buy companies and their talent.

Off the coast of the UK, we have the world's largest tidal power generator. Impressive, but still an experiment. There is much improving to go.

Stupidity reigns. Postmasters in the UK were sent to jail because software errors indicated they stole money when they didn't.

Coming real soon now from Microsoft is Office 2021 for the Mac.

The rich get, well, more benefits. Apple will have COVID vaccinations for their employees at their offices.

The one-shot-and-you're-done Johnson&Johnson vaccine is returning with increased notes about blood clots.

"This circus of incompetence and dishonesty is the real issue with the death penalty."---Paul Graham

"We're better than them," is a competition slogan. That's very different from, "things could be better,"---Seth Godin

A firm grasp of the obvious which is all too rare, " The constitutional protections enjoyed by U.S. citizens empower and encourage everyday Americans to discover, record, expose and distribute evidence of governmental malfeasance. This freedom to publicize crimes committed by state actors creates the possibility of improving policing and making the administration of justice more sensitive, effective and responsive."

Disney robotics and just plain fun entertainment.

Our FAA nows allows us to fly drones over people. Here come the deliveries. Well, maybe not for a while.

Sunday 25 April 2021

Our current President's "America First" attitude with vaccine supplies draws media praise while our prior President drew criticism for the same attitude. Predictable and predicted.

Twitter joins the censorship in India.

American entertainment companies are making shows tailored to overseas audiences.

The really, really rich are leaving India for temporary haven away from COVID panic. They are landing in foreign countries just before travel bans.

Richard Stallman and honorary doctorates.

For the record, SpaceX reuses a booster and puts several persons aboard the International Space Station.

How one writer is moving into outlining with colors on the screen.

Ignore the title, this is an excellent post on making money as a writer.

More tips for writers. Scan posts like these. There are gems for some of us.

"First Principles" of earning a living as a writer.

If you want to write as a source of regular income, there are many parts to writing that are not "writing the words on paper."

This is a good but not oft-used technique: write something as bad as you can, then work on it.

A few exercises to help the writer write.