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: 24-30 January, 2022

Summary of this week:

• Nvidia won't buy ARM after all
• Intel wins an appeal in a European court
• Pandemic prosperity continues as quarterly financial reports arrive
• Meta builds its own AI Supercomputer
• Wordle continues to dominate the world of simple games we play

Monday 24 January 2022

We are all using cloud computing, and those cloud computing data centers are using electricity. This comes as a surprise to some people. We thought this through, right?

Rumors that Apple will introduce many new products this year.

Thoughts on a tech bubble or balloon or something. When will the prices of tech stocks stop climbing?

Notes on the business (essential) side of freelance writing.

Here are 99 blog post ideas. Read 'em and use 'em.

Beware of scams for writers. Beware of "just do this test." Those are often jobs that the scam artist is paid to do so he has you do it for him.

Proofreading tools for writers.

Thoughts on Flash Fiction or really short short stories.

Writing amid distraction. The tension is that distractions often bring better ideas for writing.

You can't learn to manage character voice, build tension, or use concrete details through repetition. Everything in writing connects to everything else, so even if you're writing a number of similar sorts of scenes, each scene has a different contribution to make to your story. You can't write the same scene twice.

The "Task Map." It is a simple diagram (write it on the refrigerator with a white board marker) that helps keep you moving in a desired direction even if you take a few weeks off.

We go back to tips on making money as a writer.

Tuesday 25 January 2022

Meta builds its own AI supercomputer and claims it will be the world's fastest real soon now.

Pandemic prosperity continues for IBM with yet another good financial quarter.

Freelance hackers side with Ukraine and hack railroad systems to slow the movement of Russian forces. We have a new era where small groups anywhere can participate in anything by hacking anything.

The Saudi governors are buying eSports companies.

Coming in 2023 (or some time after) is WiFi 7 with really, really, really fast data.

The "price on the street" for graphics cards is slowly dropping. Does anyone actually buy a top-of-the-line graphics card "on the street?"

Watch out American suburbia, here come the cashier-less AmazonGo stores.

Americans are slowing moving from Amazon to Google Shopping.

This is why we can't have nice things. Someone on Twitter was ruining Wordle play by telling people the answers.

The Linux Foundation starts new certificates related to open-source software development.

Wednesday 26 January 2022

Macaw is an AI model from the Allen Institute for AI (AI2) that performs as well as GPT-3 at one-tenth the size.

Here is an excellent video on the speed and size of the cloud from the Tonga eruption. The cloud expanded at 350 miles per hour.

Wordle must be popular with those folks who love to work with data and software as here is yet another article on how to play the game based on simulations and numbers.

More pandemic prosperity as businesses are pouring money into cloud computing.

ooops, someone finds a way to hack into Mac computers and control the webcam.

Modified headline: Apple's AirTag uncovers a (formerly) secret German intelligence agency.

It appears the Nvidia will NOT buy ARM after all.

Pandemic prosperity continues for Microsoft with yet another excellent financial quarter.

Microsoft Teams (maligned as not being as good as Zoom) now has 270million monthly active users.

This is NEWS: a high European court rules in favor of an American company and overturns a prior court ruling.

Microsoft is struggling to make its HoloLens work for our Army. There is $22Billion at stake here.

The Scholastic Aptitude Test will go computer only (no pencil and paper) in 2024. I trust they have secured this system.

Thursday 27 January 2022

Top government executives at the White House have their final zero trust strategy.

Pandemic prosperity continues for Samsung.

Say goodbye to the Square gadget attached to an iPhone. New tech will allow payments without it.

Disney+ to expand to 42 more countries this summer. Here comes the $$$

Where the money is: criminals use crypto currency to launder $8.6Billion (with a B) this past year.

The Internet in North Korea (what little they allow) goes down again.

I love this comic as it places one conspiracy theory inside another.

Friday 28 January 2022

oooops, a researchers takes control of 25 Tesla cars around the world.

Once again, people working in our government have good intentions but their actions bring the opposite of what they intended.

More pandemic prosperity at Intel.

Coming real soon now, Android apps on Windows 11.

Intel, Dell, and the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) have united to spread AI education and labs to community colleges across the US.

Pandemic prosperity for Apple as they have yet another record financial quarter. Apple is making $2.5Billion PROFIT every week.

Want good benefits? Get a job at Google.

SpaceX plans to have one space launch per week this year.

Saturday 29 January 2022

A personal look at the "great resignation" of the past year. Turnover costs $$$. It appears that many "managers" forgot this.

MacOS 12 now using Python 3 instead of Python 2.

Our FAA "reaches a deal" with Verizon and AT&T about turning on 5G services near airports.

How many COVID shots do we need? Four? Fourteen? How much tax payers' money will be spent?

Amazing Science (or something): We now know how many billion years ago there were rivers of flowing water on Mars. Gosh, we are so smart.

Notes on the success of Apple's own processors in the workplace.

It appears that Google will make a major push on Android tablets in the coming year or so.

Sunday 30 January 2022

The (hi)story of bringing captions to television for those hard of hearing. We still don't have this in movie theaters, but AR glasses could do it. We are waiting $$$.

At $250 (list price, good luck) Nvidia's RTX 3050 performs beyond its price.

Our Federal government finds yet another Billion $$$ for rural broadband.

In Boston, restaurants are being smashed by COVID rules. Meanwhile, grocery stores and hardware stores are fine. Unequal application of the law...seems illegal.