Dwayne Phillips' Day Book

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.


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This week: 30 August to 5 September, 2021

Summary of this week:


Monday - Tuesday - Wednesday - Thursday - Friday - Saturday - Sunday


Monday 30 August 2021

Stronger rumors that the next iPhone will have satellite communications.

Those who have already "made it" welcome regulations as those prevent newcomers from "making it." This is why the established companies are in favor of privacy and other new regulations.

Dr. Fauci extends his expertise to education and school-age kids.

The case against pay cuts for people working from home.

Comparing today's Facebook to the ill-fated America Online of the 1990s.

Hurricane Ida swept through Louisiana last night. I have yet to hear from folks there this morning.

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Tuesday 31 August 2021

Plodding forward, but always forward, the rulers of Russia is moving its subjects away from American technologies.

Zoom continues to reap a financial bounty as the prolonged year of the virus drags on.

And now America has the US Digital Corps. If you have experience, you need not apply. I guess this is supposed to be the Peace Corps. Young tech talent goes to the wasteland that is the Federal government, shakes their heads in disbelief, toils for a couple of years, and then leaves knowing that the swamp won't ever change, but they gave it a good try.

The electric, autonomous taxis was going to save the world from something or other. Cancel that. It won't.

We are officially out of Afghanistan. Why educated people call this America's longest war is as silly as it is false. Will someone label that claim as misinformation or disinformation and ban these folks from something?

It seems that a lot of used solar panels are going to developing countries. They don't work well, but good enough.

Do business in China carefully. The ARM branch in China declares itself a new company, seizes all the intellectual property, and pays nothing. A great big theft blessed by the local governors.

We learn that Amazon practices "unregretted attrition." Rank all office workers, fire the bottom 6%. Repeat annually.

Google releases details on its algorithms that greatly increase the resolution of images.

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Wednesday 1 September 2021

Facebook admits to "accidentally" deleting posts about the 6 January events. Perhaps a refund is due, oh, wait, its free.

Following Apple's example, Google is developing its own processors for its Chromebooks and such.

Professional financial advisors have turned to the crowd on Reddit, Twitter, et al to know where the market is heading.

Apple's next Watch is hitting production problems.

Nvidia shows new tools and techniques to allow a person to train their own text-to-speech voice.

Google delays its return to the office until January.

This must be important as it is all over the Internet: LinkedIn is turning off its "Stories" feature after only a year.

The troubles of all this working from home. 1/4th of Executives have fired people for misbehaving on Zoom. Most Executives do not trust employees to be working while at home.

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Thursday 2 September 2021

I see what may be a ray of hope in our political life. There are several lower-level election campaigns in my community at this time. More and more of the candidates served in the military since 9/11. Both D and R. Such common service tends to lessen the childish chatter from politicians that have dominated the last 30 years. Perhaps it is a ray of hope.

Microsoft announces a big event for 22 September. Showing new Surface machines.

Docker has eliminated its free surface for larger businesses. Lone folks like me still use it free.

Got $60,000 and shoot 8K video for a living. RED has a new video camera for you. 35.4MegaPixel sensor.

Need more MegaPixels (don't we all?). Samsung has a 200-MegaPixel sensor for smartphones, I mean for

Amazon says it will hire 55,000 more office and tech persons in the next few months.

The lowly QR code is replacing service employees. "Scan the code" is the replacement for "may I help you?"

Meanwhile in California...a judge limits college admissions because all those students are bad for the environment.

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Friday 3 September 2021

Nic Chaillan resigns from the DoD. He did a lot of good. His style grated on some. Ultimately, he showed that good ideas won't carry the day. Mr. Chaillan wrote this article as he resigned.

Our US Digital Service has a new leader. Perhaps some good will come from this.

Amazon will put its label on a TV set.

Facebook evacuated a group of its Afghan employees. Good for them.

Floors that generate electric power: yes, there is untapped kinetic energy just about everywhere.

Amazon Web Services has (mostly unenforced) policies about what can be shown on the web sites using their cloud. Renewed interest in censorship has them scurrying to censor.

Aided (no doubt) by the Communist Party, China's SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation) will spend about $10Billion to build a new IC manufacturing plant near Shanghai. This is a direct challenge to Taiwan's TSMC.

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Saturday 4 September 2021

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Sunday 5 September 2021

I hope Major League Baseball is watching the US Open tennis tournament. No linesmen, no challenges, no fussing, no looking around, close calls, that's it, move on to the next point. Baseball: let the computers and camera call balls and strikes, the games will move much faster without all the theatrics at home plate. Also not in tennis the chair umpire still has plenty to do. In baseball, the home plate umpire will still have plenty to do

Notes on writing about the pandemic and avoiding lots of mistakes that we read in the newspapers daily.

I wrote a book. There. Done. Right? Maybe a second book? Maybe not.

How one writer simply kept at it for years before achieving what they wanted.

Thoughts on questions, answers, writers, and writing.

Stronger rumors that Apple is inching back towards the automobile market.

I like Seth Godin's brief post on writing and "writer's block."

Ivermectin: if a doctor prescribes it, that is fine, and it will work for you. If you consume the type made for horses, that will probably end badly. Same for all drugs that have both a form approved for humans and a form used on farm animals. It is odd that we have to write this. It is odd that some adults don't understand this. I guess there are all sorts of ways to get money and attention.

Naomi Osaka is an outstanding tennis player. She is also tired of playing tennis. Fine, walk away and do something else. Don't, however, expect a blue ribbon or something for growing tired of a lucrative job.

A look at IBM's new mainframe computer CPU. Yes, folks still build mainframe computers. They work quite well and perform jobs that others cannot.

Google acqui-hires Playspace to boost its group and team work tools.

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