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: 13-19 September, 2021

Summary of this week:

• No one seems to understand the ruling in the Apple-Epic court case
• Vaccine mandates abound, here come the lawyers
• Easier to use deepfake websites
• Apple updates iPhones, Watches, and iPads
• Sir Clive Sinclair dies at 81
• Censorship thrives in China
• SpaceX sends four civilians into orbit

Monday 13 September 2021

GPT-3 has 175Billion (with a B) parameters. GPT-4 will have 100Trillion (with a Tr) parameters. Only the well-funded should play in this game.

It is a good time to be a Federal contractor in the AI arena.

Our Federal government establishes a National AI Advisory Committee.

Deepfakes technology becomes much easier to use.

Strong rumors about what we will see in new iPhones and Watch from Apple this week.

We hear murmors that a new type of magnet will allow for actual fusion energy.

Wired Magazine attempts to explain "zero trust" in cybersecurity.

Some members of Congress want to pack back their Union supporters. US consumers in general would suffer. Politics.

I like Seth Godin's thoughts on wasting persons' time. If we require everyone to be in one place at one time, let's make it good.

Employees at DeepMind have "secretly plotted" to break away from Google and thereby control the technology that Google paid them to develop. It's mine. I want it.

Right on time: we have concerns about RayBan/Facebook glasses with cameras and privacy.

Here comes the Civilian Climate Corps. Well, if we hire Americans to do good things in America, there are worse things to do.

Our schools collect all sorts of information about our children. And our schools do not protect that data.

More Americans are attending colleges than ever before. The news is that colleges are now 60/40 women to men. Biggest gap in that direction ever.

Tuesday 14 September 2021

Zoom adds more features including live translations, better transcriptions, and better whiteboards.

Delivery workers: low pay and crime. This is a difficult way to earn money.

Asian government fines (too) successful American company.

Amazon updates the user interface on its newer Kindle models.

HP shows a powerful new portable computer with a $4,700 price tag.

Let's go with a quote, "research focused more narrowly on the years since 2016 suggests that widespread use of the major platforms (Facebook) has exacerbated partisan hatred."

Members of our Congress attempt to figure out how to tax increases in wealth. Of course taking the wealth would greatly reduce its value which would greatly reduce the revenue Congress attempts to gain which would greatly reduce...perhaps this is simply a bad idea by folks who fail to think through systems.

Facebook releases new data-compression technology they call "Superpack."

IT companies continue to complain that they have good jobs but not enough qualified persons are applying for them.

An Nvidia server was not secured and folks who crave this type of thing found a list of games coming to the PC world.

Continuing rumors that Apple will release new powerful laptop computers with next-generation Apple processors.

Let's quote this story: Japan-based Nissin Foods is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its Cup Noodle instant noodle soup this month by selling four flavors of ramen-flavored carbonated soda.

Wednesday 15 September 2021

Apple held an event to announce new iPhones, Watches, and iPads. Here is one summary of the event.

The far right hacks into the not-as-far right's web site hoster, Epik and Anonymous tangle.

Recent departures of top engineers has slowed Apple's progress in designing its own processors. Apple is losing its top talent to newer more aggressive firms.

Amazon is moving into the health care market. It finds Google, Microsoft, and Walmart already there.

New research shows a link between eye illness and dementia.

New techniques drastically reduce the computing resources required to map genomes.

Thursday 16 September 2021

Colleges are using more algorithms for admissions. One result is that they are also reducing scholarships.

Microsoft is removing the requirement for a password. No celebrations yet though. You would replace the password with Microsoft Authenticator app, Windows Hello, a security key, or an SMS / email verification code instead of a password.

Africa's crypto market has exploded and grown 1,200% from July 2021 to June 2021.

The US enters a tech agreement with Australia and the UK. It involves AI for one thing.

SpaceX sends four non-professional astronauts into orbit.

A study by Microsoft shows that we are working 10% longer hours during the stay-at-home pandemic.

Trying to incorporate the sense of smell in electronics. It would be a huge advance in early detection of illness.

In Germany, we see the first use of tele-driving. A person remotely controlling a car from a distance. There are good economic cases for this.

Friday 17 September 2021

Sir Clive Sinclair dies at 81. He was a pioneer in early personal computing.

Is it open-source intelligence or warrantless surveillance? Non-profit groups are helping law enforcement catch people who need to be caught, but...

Meanwhile in China, censorship lives on. In this case, got to remove pessimistic economic reports.

And more serious censorship in this example of how the Chinese Communist Party erases famous persons.

Still in China, the governors are hunting the crypto miners. They leave no stone unturned.

Telegram, with end-to-end encryption, has become the messaging system of choice for ne'er-do-wells.

More benchmark reports on the new A15 processor from Apple.

Where the money is: fake shot record cards.

In a few test markets, Walmart will be delivering goods by autonomous vehicles real soon now.

Alphabet has made real-world advances in laser data communications.

Saturday 18 September 2021

When you do business in Russia, you do what the Russian government tells you to do. I guess.

GitLab is filing for an IPO. They lose $3Million each week, but some see them becoming profitable some day.

Google pushing to more "free" television for its Chromecast. It is the content.

One possible good outcome of the pandemic is that corporations are considering where they buy their parts. China, with its frequent homemade viruses, is not a reliable partner.

Apple is the example in this story, but did you ever think that in America we would routinely test employees' health before we let them in the door?

Rolls Royce flies an electric-powered airplane for 15 minutes. It is a start.

Hacking Disney to jump to the front of the line. Hidden in this story is that enough customers have returned to Disney to make this worth the effort.

Amazon bans 600 Chinese brands for phony reviews.

Once again we see how the simplest things defeat the most complex and expensive computing and "artificial intelligence."

This story has been buzzing about the Internet all week. GM is telling its car owners to park far away from other cars in case your car bursts into flames. Hmmm. Buy that car?

Sunday 19 September 2021

Excellent post from Seth Godin on the unusable to downright disrespectful things that technologists put in technology. (the password is X5LMFP478DRYTHQY)

Hyundai is using the Boston Dynamics robot dog on safety patrols. Security is part of it, and inspection of machinery is another. Plus it's just cool.

Our schools are full of Linux desktop computers. We call them Chromebooks.

Facebook, rewarding outrage, ad dollars, and all that. Yes, the folks who decide things at Facebook are motivated by higher profits. This comes as a surprise to some adults. Those adults cause me to wonder.