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: 25-31 October, 2021
It is Monday. Little news. Some interesting articles about Databricks and digital nomads.
A look at Databricks (now worth $28Billion) and how they grew with a college professor as CEO.
Reasonable rumors about Apple's next MacBook Air coming in the middle of 2022.
Digital nomads are working to speed the decline of the nation state. They have some pleasant ideas about international travel, but want nations to simply give them benefits at no cost.
Singing the praises of the updated Apple iPad for $329. I use a prior generation of this and am quite happy with it. It doesn't match the value of the Amazon Fire tablets and the smart keyboard costs too much, but still, a good value for an Apple.
It seems that some writers suffer "burnout." I suppose that is similar to fatigue? Not sure.
The quest for global citizenship. Such searchers seem to not understand the concept of "citizen."
Note to adults: we are no longer children. There is no law stating we must read from beginning to end. There is no similar law stating we must write from beginning to end.
Push beyond your current self. But how far a leap? Expectations and candor are important.
....An in-depth look at macOS 12 Monterey.
Now for all non-paying users, Zoom has captions in the meetings.
Samsung updates its laptop computers with the newer Intel processors.
Hands-on testing of the new Apple laptops computers.
Nigeria releases the eNaira, a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
Tesla just reach $1Trillion (with a Tr) in value.
Blue Origin wants to build a commercial space station.
We all stayed home during the year of the virus, but CO2 reached new highs by some measures. Of course none of this makes any sense, but nonsense seems to dominate "science" these days.
.....The prolonged year of the virus continues to be real real good for online tech.
AWS offers new processors for AI and machine learning from Intel-owned Habana Labs.
Adobe opens Photoshop to the web ... just a little. Others can comment but not photo edit.
Amazon opens a quantum computing center at Caltech.
Microsoft is working on a lower-priced laptop to compete with Chromebooks in schools. Here in Fairfax County Virginia, my grandkids are using Dell laptops, Windows 10, and mostly Google software apps.
Qualcomm has new processors that bring better 5G performance to lower-priced smartphones.
Elon Musk, tax-and-spend, and unrealized capital gains taxes. It is good to succeed, but not succeed too much. And those words are all subjective.
.....Shortages of goods. Ports open 24/7, but not enough truck drivers. We chose to shutdown as our reaction to the virus. We knew what we were doing, right?
Content beats platform. Successful award-winning Hollywood writers still use MS-DOS. Note the cyber security. MS-DOS cannot connect to the Internet, so no one can hack and steal.
Our Department of State is creating its own Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy.
Generative AI moves in as GitHub reports 1/3rd of new code on its site is created by AI.
Where the money is: Decentralized Finance is hot. There is lot's of money there to be stolen.
Intel's 12th generation of processors are here.
Google updates Android 12 to 12L in only one week.
Want to drive for Uber? You will become a taxi driver. Uber is buying 50,000 Tesla cars that it will rent to its drivers.
Alienware's new PCs will use Intel's new 12th generation processors.
Microsoft trails Apple as the world's most valued company. The gap is closing.
McDonald's keeps working on making the drive thru lanes faster. It has now sold its tech division to IBM and signed a deal with IBM to work on this.
.....Facebook remains Facebook. The corporation is now called Meta.
Amazon and Apple had "disappointing" financial quarters with their growth only in the 20% to 30% range.
An in-depth review of the latest offerings from Raspberry Pi.
Meta, a.k.a., Facebook pushes its way into virtual reality products.
Meta also announces an augmented reality project and product.
Our CDC now says that immunocompromised people may need a fourth shot.
China claims to have a new quantum computer that is a million times faster than prior models. Someone must as, "Does it have a USB port?"
Microsoft expands its offer to upgrade to Windows 11. Watch for the offer to pop up on the screen.
AnandTech takes a very detailed look at Apple's new M1 processors.
.....More supply shortages. This is great news! The demand for products and the money to buy them is high---higher than the factories can produce. This also shows how much money people kept in their wallets by not commuting during the year of the virus. That commuting money is now aimed at products.
Americans under age 50 play video games more than we watch TV. A new era.
And now we have something called the Delta Plus -AY.4.2- variant of the virus from China. You cannot make up this stuff.
Some analysis shows that the great labor shortage is the usual hyperventilating by news media in an attempt to raise ad revenue. After the year of the virus, folks are taking time to return to a normal.
A big item in the news today is the class-action law suit that may be settled by paying $450,000 each to immigrants. All unnecessary. Folks are not thinking this one through. If it holds, in the future when a person commits a crime and goes to prison, the family will be paid large amounts of money because the person committed a crime and was held responsible. That is the principle here. Persons committed a crime, suffered bad consequence (really bad consequences), and the children of the person were paid money because of the trauma suffered.
I like this article. It discusses the differences among the rural and urban lives. "The life experiences of people in rural and urban areas are worlds apart, and politicians have exploited this divergence."
The US and Taiwan are working on lowering the risk in the supply chain. This bodes well for the residents of the island of Formosa. Will, however, the Biden administration put its Navy where its mouth is?
A glowing review of the new Apple portable computers. Yeah, but they cost a lot.
Micro$oft is now the world's most valuable company as it just passes Apple.
It seems that Zuckerburg's Meta is far behind other companies in VR AR xR products. And it seems that everyone is using "Meta" as if the name was ten years old.
1,000 schools were disrupted this year because the school districts implemented online learning poorly. Yes, ne'er-do-wells hacked; that is wrong. School districts (and their elected leaders) must do better.
Our Intelligence Community concludes that the governors of China are largely innocent regarding the virus. Our IC has been remarkably wrong in the recent past.
NASA requests volunteers to help label images for its machine learning that drives it Mars rover. Let the games begin, i.e., what could possible go wrong?
I hope this comes to fruition. Engineers have built an electric motor that is smaller and lighter and delivers more power.
.....Apple moves further away from the Intel processors by dropping the 21" iMac from its store."
The most-desired item from the hotest company in the world (Apple) is a $19 polishing cloth. We are an odd lot.
Consumers goods sales are way way up. We can't stop buying stuff. The virus? We don't know.
Angst continues on the airlines and in public spaces. We knew what we were doing when we decided to stay in our homes for a year. Right?
.....