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.
Just add another camera, another computer, another microphone, and no, those things won't stop morons. Solution? Put a guy with a big dog and a baseball bat at the door. That is a pretty good start, costs much less, and solves 90% of the problem.
Some adults thought that other adults would not invade their neighbors. That was so 20th century and was gone. Sometimes I wonder about some of us.
Our President and his staff trade insults with Jeff Bezos. Mr. Bezos owns and operates the Washington Post, which is one of the prime promoters of Mr. Biden. We are a strange lot.
It is amazing how complicated we can make a flat horizontal surface.
Some thoughts on writing books that sell. One author's ideas worked well for him.
Improving writing by reading good writing.
More encouragement to use a journal. That is a practice I recommend for everyone.
Travelling and travelling and writing and writing---one writer's experience.
The viewpoints of another writer. The first thing mentioned is discipline.
One technical writer's experiences with explaining data science and related topics.
Various occupations of writers who earn some money writing.
What do I write today? Take a walk. Watch a bird fly. Sleep. Aha, three topics already. Next?
....Facebook turns lean and mean and threatens to fire those who don't perform.
Producing jet fuel from soil bacteria. Of course this is just an experimental stunt. Will it scale?
The drought continues out west. Too many people wanting too little fresh water. And big data centers use large amounts of water.
Various ways to use an iMac as a monitor.
.....Meanwhile in China, a hacker grabs data on a billion Chinese subjects.
Today, the rich and famous gather at Sun Valley 2022. It is a "summer camp for billionaires."
It appears that we reach a milestone this year where spending on cloud computing passes spending for on-premises computing. We are renting more than buying.
It is a terrible shame to see what has become of Chicago.
There are those who are trying to cut the energy gobbling rampant in AI research.
The big three of cloud computing---Amazon, Microsoft, and Google---continue to dominate. Call them the three stooges or three musketeers or three blind mice or something. Perhaps even the three wise men.
NASA, well, they flop again. The CAPSTONE satellite headed for the moon has "gone dark" with no communication with NASA.
Attention Amazon Prime Members (I am one): we now get free GrubHub+ service.
Subway is drifting from have-your-sandwich-with-the-toppings-you-want to just-pick-#2-and-have-it-the-way-it-is. Just make 'em at dawn, wrap 'em in plastic, and put 'em on the counter.
Meanwhile in Switzerland, a giant "water battery" is operating after 14 years of construction. There is one of these just outside Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Meanwhile in Finland, we have a working "sand battery." Sand heats and holds heat efficiently. Use solar and wind power to heat the sand and, months later, pull the heat to homes.
And finally, more dogs mean less crime.
.....Well meaning, but just plain...silly. What's next? Government employees who eat food are not allowed to work on food regulation? Government employees who have electricity in their homes are not allowed to ... Government employees who wear clothes are not allowed to ...
Samsung rolled in the money during the pandemic, and that continues.
After a day, NASA re-establishes contact with the CAPSTONE satellite headed towards the moon.
Apple's new MacBook Air with M2 will be in our hands next week. Order this Friday.
Walmart extends home grocery delivery to where they will put the goods in our fridge.
.....Starlink extends its satellite internet service to yachts. Small fee, $5,000 a month.
Our Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is hiring tech talent to start its efforts at investigating finance woes. Good luck with government hiring regulations and abuse of such with waivers.
System76 updates one of its Linux laptops with new Intel processors and a 2.5lb package.
.....Another sign that the pandemic crunch on supplies may be over as computer memory prices are falling.
Sebastian Raschka collects 170 of his video lectures on AI and ML.
Perhaps, maybe, just maybe, we will be able to recycle materials in old solar panels.
Our President continues to stumble his way through short speeches. That is bad for all of us. I find it noteworthy that those standing on stage with him keep a straight face and act as if nothing is happening. Quoting an old movie, "Are all you people on dope?"
When political party A was in power, political party B hollered about privacy and abuse of data. Now that political party B has some part, political party A is hollering about privacy and abuse of data. We are an odd lot. Who we are is far more important than what we think. That is a bad thing for all of us.
.....Not much happening today.
And now we have computing superclouds.
And now we have the "super app." Seems to be the Walmart of software. One thing does everything.
oooooooops Ford recalls 100,000 hybrid electric vehicles because the batteries may catch on fire.
College essentials: it is nice to see that a notebook and pen are on the list.
.....