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: 6-12 June, 2022

Summary of this week:

• The Russia-Ukraine war continues
• Apple has a big event
• New M2 processor from Apple in two new laptops
• Small layoffs continue in the tech industry
• IBM and Microsoft pulling out of Russia completely
• Congress starts primetime TV hearings on our former President

Monday 6 June 2022

More information on Google's ban of deepfake research on its Colaboratory (Colab).

Predictions that something unusual will happen at Apple's event: it will be a long time before an announced computer is available to buy.

We worked from home just fine. Now the boss says, "Come back to the office," and people are saying, "No thank you."

Thoughts on how to use the comma. It makes a difference.

Writing, editing, researching, and all that. They are all parts of writing. And that is why I tell folks that, "Yes, I am writing another book."

Are you a "good" writer? If you are writing someting (anything) every day, you are a good writer.

It is important for a writer to separate themselves from their story. This is me. That is something I wrote or am writing. Every person. This is me. That is something I made or am making. Every baker bakes a bad cake. Every carpenter builds a bad book case.

I like this piece. It is another take on "omit needless words."

More thoughts on outlining a plot before writing and discovering the plot while writing. Do what works for you on any given day with any given piece of writing.

This article claims that you can write emails and earn a couple of thou$and a month.

I like this, "Whatever the reason, it's all too easy for us to spiral into negative thinking."

It usually works well when a writer speaks at writing conferences and other events.

A post on romance subgenres. Take the adjective and put it in front of any other genre. String any combination of two together in front of a genre. And so on.

Tuesday 7 June 2022

Apple's big event is this week. Here is one of many summaries of the keynote address. My highlight is the new laptop computers with a new M2 processor.

As usual, AnandTech provides the best in-depth technical review of Apple's new M2 processor.

More information on the updated MacBook Air. Lots of attention is being paid to the colors of the aluminum.

And more information on the updated MacBook Pro with 13" screen and the new M2 processor.

Given that we are still working from home via those ZoomerTeams meetings, Apple previews software that enables the FaceTime alternative to have group editing features.

And more ZoomerTeamingFaceTime improvements: coming real soon now Apple allows using the iPhone as a much better webcam. This can be done today with apps from other companies. Nice that Apple includes it.

We are moving semiconductor manufacturing back into the US. I like that. The companies, however, are struggling to hire people who will come to work.

In case you haven't noticed, US gas prices hit a new record high.

Is it AI or LPHI (low-paid human intelligence)? Careful as some companies are claiming AI while simply using humans.

3,300 workers in the UK start an experiment with the 100:80:100 model. This means 100 percent of the pay for 80 percent of the time in exchange for a commitment to maintaining 100 percent productivity. This is a full-paid but four-day workweek

Wednesday 8 June 2022

In a first, a large tanker ship sails across the Pacific without human intervention.

This is a long article on burnout and much of it points to our reaction to the virus.

GitLab, not GitHub, is losing money daily. It's losses, however, are lessening so folks seem optimistic.

Real news that isn't news: we can still trick autonomous vehicles into driving in circles.

Carnegie Mellon lab awarded Army contract in predictive maintenance.

Apple moves its XCode Cloud from beta to general availability.

IBM had already ceased operations in Russia. Now it stops paying its workers and ceases their employment. Hard times ahead for Russia if the west doesn't rebuild it. Hard times for Russia is not good news for anyone.

Tech companies ask that the children of H1-B visa holders be allowed simply to stay in the US without green cards etc. I like the idea of skilled folks staying in the US. Let's not be naive. Tech companies want more skilled folks so they can lower salaries.

Flying drone taxis as nearing actual use. No notes on how much these rides will cost.

Taco Bell opens a new place made for drive through. It is faster. It is Taco Bell. I like Taco Bell food. Many folks don't.

Microsoft winds down its operations in Russia.

And we have yet another expert from the commercial side move into the Federal government hoping to change culture that slows progress. Maybe, just maybe, just this one time it would work.

It appears that Python 3.11 does actually run faster than prior versions.

Thursday 9 June 2022

Uber and Waymo stop competing and start cooperating to bring autonomous trucking to the real world.

Real news that isn't news: Why do we play video games? For the same reasons we have always looked to entertainment. David played music to relieve the stress of kingship in Saul.

The Chinese are doing the boring behind-the-scenes work at the ITU to change how the IP works. Their efforts are all in their long-term interests.

Layoffs in the tech sector have been relatively small this year, but given that sector has been booming, any layoffs are significant.

And more bad news for jobs in the tech sector: Intel joins the group of companies that freezes hiring for a while.

It appears that Meta was developing a smartwatch. It also appears that they stopped the effort.

Oooops, a not-so-micro micrometeoroid hits NASA's new powerful space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope.

Heat waves will soon have names. What's next? Naming lightning? Let's give things names, that way we can act like they have intelligence and are attacking us on purpose. Whoa is us.

This has been in the news all week. A small (only 12 patients) study shows something that always beats cancer. We can hope. We can also proceed with caution and wisdom.

Friday 10 June 2022

Meta is being sued because it makes its product so that people want to use it products. I guess Coca-Cola will be sued next.

Microsoft announces several HR changes that bring it in compliance with new regulations and, more importantly, new expectations of employees.

As long as we have petroleum powered engines, we will need ignition. Here is a new system that may replace the spark plug.

Quietly but surely, Apple has sort of become a bank.

TikTok is a company from China steeped in the culture of China and the Communist Party of China. TikTok is opening offices around the world. Employees at these offices are learning that they don't like the culture of the Communist Party of China.

Real news that isn't news: companies spend money to show opposition to possible laws that will hurt them.

Dell upgrades the XPS 13. This is probably the most-desired laptop in America today. This is the age where "no one is fired for buying Dell."

Google claims to have put machine learning into its next version of the Chrome browser. It will not allow phishing sites and other ne'er-do-well sites.

All the world wants semiconductors. The manufacturers are short of factory equipment. The companies did not invest five years ago and they are all suffering for that inaction.

AnandTech examines AMD's GPU architecture.

Google releases a tool it calls Dynamic World that shows land cover of the earth in near real time.

Rumors of Apple laptop computers in the coming couple of years.

This is an article on the Cessna model 172 civilian aircraft. My father flew one of these. In my younger days we were able to ride with him. It was a great experience.

One of our generals credits satellite Internet access with defeating Putin in Ukraine.

And in other news, US politicians arrange for hours and hours of primetime television to talk and talk. Some of us just continue to watch Hallmark movies.

Thoughts on Linux desktop and any desktop operating system as the world moves back to the central computer.

Our President strives to put electric vehicle charging stations every 50 miles along our Interstate highways. Us taxpayers will pay for it.

Saturday 11 June 2022

Google updates its cloud-based AI and machine learning tools.

MIT's CSAIL finds a security hole in Apple's M1 processor.

Another reminder that the folks at Bentonville, Arkansas are and have been at the leading edge of data, big data, bigger data, bigger data science, and artificial intelligence.

Meta will cut the money it pays to newspapers for news. Newspapers need to go to a non-profit model of operating.

Some tech companies are still hiring technical talent. The overall trend, however, is back to reality.

People are going nuts over software that turns text into images. "Draw me a frog holding a Starbucks cup." Surely there are better things for talented technologists to do.

More news on the value of satellite Internet terminals in Ukraine. Look at the prior post. Tech companies can build pickup trucks with satellite Internet terminals, portable power, etc. and take them to disaster areas. Just a thought.

A closer look at this years XPS 15 from Dell. It is the better laptop computer that causes everyone with a black plastic Dell or whatever to stop working at the coffee shop, look across the room, sigh, then go back to the boring stuff.

Meanwhile in Britain: Popeyes fried chicken opens a restaurant. Many more to come.

Sunday 12 June 2022

We have a report of some research that may be an early warning of Alzheimer's.

The U.S. Digital Corps begins in earnest. Call me in five years and let me know about the progress.

Our Dept of Defense has contracted a Virginia company to build the United States' first electricity-generating, portable nuclear microreactor.

The biggest topic as this last week's RSA Conference was the Russia-Ukraine war and how Ukraine has successfully defended itself.

And now we have digital empathy: the ability for otherwise disconnected systems to recognize and understand each other's needs, just as two human beings might display empathy by recognizing the perspective of a fellow person.

This is a long essay on crypto currencies and such written by an expert. Recommended reading.

How Putin controls the news in Russia. Russians are not stupid people. Still, this is an excellent lesson in how repeated messages become reality. It is easy for Americans to see this lesson from Russia. It seems quite difficult for many Americans to see this same lesson occurring in America.

Citizens dressed in riot gear were arrested in Utah. Citizens dressed in riot gear were featured in news stories in our recent past. Both groups dressed the same with one arrested and the other featured as heroes. Of course this is hypocritical. And this type of thing is bad for all of us.

Japan demonstrates deep-sea turbines that generate power. Japan doesn't have the US Environmental Protection Agency requiring decades of environmental impact studies.

If you work with computers, stop and look at this. The Computer History Museum has found and restored videos from a 1976 conference on the first 25 years of computing. This is akin to videos of the constitutional convention of 1787.

The autonomous farm tractor. Saving labor is one thing. THE BIG THING is collecting data.