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: 17-23 October, 2022

Summary of this week:

• The Russians are still in Ukraine
• Google releases KataOS
• Apple updates all its iPads
• Cadillac and Rolls Royce introduce $300K $400K EVs

Monday 17 October 2022

Not much Internet viewing today.

One writer and writing instructor considers the use of AI to draw pictures and maybe write content.

Little tricks one writer uses to shift from staring into space to writing.

Have a story, but where do you start? Anywhere.

Basic information on rates paid for writing articles.

This is a piece about writing a business plan as a writer. If you want to earn your keep, you need something like this.

Note to creators: patience is everything.

Tuesday 18 October 2022

And now we have text-to-3D-model. I am waiting for text-to-pancakes and text-to-pizza.

Developing technology for self-driving cars seems to be a bad business as stock prices of those companies drop and drop and drop.

Microsoft joins the ranks of big tech companies that are cutting jobs.

Got $300,000? Get this electric car from Cadillac.

SpaceX succeeded in becoming the most-used taxi to space and back.

More reports that ultra-processed foods are really bad for us. Go to the store, buy meat and plants, bring them home, and cook them. It is unfortunate that many cannot do this.

Nvidia's founders donate $50Million to Oregon State University. Finally, someone gives to OSU to match all the Nike money doing to Oregon.

Wednesday 19 October 2022

This interview presents a case for more symbolic AI to help the machine learning area. Supervised learning has its limitations.

Don't look know, but the most popular app in the world has teens saying nice things about each other.

Google releases KataOS, an operating system that is supposed to be secure and run on embedded devices.

I'll just quote, "Here are 4 Applied AI Project Ideas that You Can Code Right Now"

I like this essay on the concept of software and engineering.

The load of technical debt and how it becomes heavier in tough economic times.

And I like this essay on how open-source software development is influencing the video game industry.

Some 50 years ago, Weinberg wrote The Psychology of Computer Programming. This essay echoes the lessons first described in that book.

Yet another description of a "data fabric."

Apple updates its iPad Pro lineup with better processors and some enhancements to the software that will be here real soon now.

Apple also updates its lowest-price iPad with new features and a 33% price increase. Yikes!

And Apple greatly updates the detachable keyboard system for the updated iPad.

The Open Computer Project creates a specification of a hardware Root of Trust.

Not to be outdone by Cadillac's $300K electric Vehicle, Rolls Royce has a $400K electric vehicle.

A combination of our reaction to the virus and the new President's policies lead to a very rough 2023 for basic folks.

Signs of good things on the horizon: McDonald's is testing the idea of selling Crispy Creme donuts.

Thursday 20 October 2022

GitHub improves(?) its personal access tokens to allow fine-grained controls. I never understood why they introduced personal access tokens at all.

This story must be important as it is all over the Internet: DuckDuckGo's new browser for Mac is open to all for beta testing.

Adobe adds new features to its entire suite of software.

Anaconda increases its offerings with new notebooks and training.

Here is a collection of guidelines for creating a dashboard of information.

Google announces Android 13.

A Dutch company called ASML makes machines that make semiconductor chips. They see the US export restrictions on China as having a limited influence on the worldwide market.

The back and forth of performance specs continues with USB and Thunderbolt.

The big American Internet providers are caught charging the same price for higher and slower access speeds. The slower access speeds occur in poorer neighborhoods. That makes technical sense as poorer neighborhoods have older, lower-quality wiring. What doesn't make sense is the same price charged for both neighborhoods. Lower speeds should equal lower $$$.

A look at how Meta's speech translator works with spoken languages that have no written record.

Starlink shows its airplane service for satellite broadband access.

Give a customer a camera, and it seems that customers become ogres and order delivery workers to do unreasonable things and complain when they don't obey.

Angst over the the entry-level iPad with its 36% price increase. Apple just priced itself out of the market.

Firefox version 106 is now available.

If the Internet Archive is not enough, we now have Discmaster. The new service has converted files from long lost formats to ones that will work in most browsers.

Friday 21 October 2022

No Internet viewing today.>/p .....
Email me at d.phillips@computer.org
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Saturday 22 October 2022

Yet another post that shows people like being in the office with co-workers. It is the commute that pushes people towards stay-at-home work.

Some ideas on writing error messages. Old story told to me by deceased author and consultant Jerry Weinberg. A boy wants to grow up and write things that millions of people read and are bring them terror. He became an error-message writer for Microsoft (or some other big tech company).

Glaciers melt, old viruses (to which we have no immunity) pop out of them. This is an old science fiction plot, but some start to believe it will happen.

People who teach languages are starting to reconsider how to do it based on what AI is doing. People who teach languages may soon all be unemployed based on what AI is doing.

The ethics of working two jobs. If you can do it, do it. Decades ago, I knew people who worked two full-time jobs. They weren't stealing from anyone. They worked really hard. Lying? An employer cannot ask what I do in my spare time.

I choose what you call me. Wait. How about I choose what I call me, and you choose what you call me. Right? Wrong? How about I choose not to call you at all?

Microsoft continues to update its Windows Subsystem for Android.

Researchers are testing the advertising claims of social media companies regarding censorship. Really? I hope they don't spend too much money to determine that most ads aren't quite true.

Can we create something between full-time and part-time employee? Probably, but I doubt legislaturers and regulators can.

And now we can "talk to dead people." Software mimics the sound of a voice. Software mimics how someone would respond to simple questions. Is this mimicry a conversation? Nope.

Anandtech takes an in-depth look at Intel's 13th generation of processors.

At least one writer agrees with me that the most important company in the world is TSMC or The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.

Royal Caribbean breaks their own record for world's largest cruise ship. Just build a 500-acre barge and put Disneyworld on it.

News Flash (not): Democrats in Congress don't like Donald Trump.

I wonder if anyone in the UK still understands the idea of commerce as Amazon is being sued for promoting its products.

OpenBSD 7.2 is released.

Google worked with Purdue Univ and others to build the Graph for Understanding Artifact Composition (GUAC). The hope is to understand software supply chains and provide some sort of security assurances.

Sunday 23 October 2022

Given the right measurements and enough of them, pattern matching algorithms can "detect" autism in infants and toddlers.

Google adds new features to its Android Messages software.

Canonical releases Ubuntu 22.10 right on time.

Half of Americans "fake" sick days. It appears that someone must do something about this. I am not sure why this issue has bubbled to the top of the list.

IBM introduces its Artificial Intelligence Unit (AIU). "The AIU is a full system-on-chip board that can plug into servers via an industry-standard PCIe interface."

Oracle brings Nvidia into its cloud computing offerings to boost its artificial intelligence services.

An essay on how cloud computing is nice, but failing us so far. Perhaps one day...

Another good essay on cloud computing, "Renting computers is (mostly) a bad deal for medium-sized companies like ours with stable growth. The savings promised in reduced complexity never materialized."

TikTok sinks to the depths that some have predicted as it is used to track people who are citizens of another country. There are no national borders.

Some human aid to software algorithms appears in RLHF - Reinforcement Learning from Human Preferences.

Once again, we gave the good news that American companies aren't very good at censorship. We continue to have problems as some American companies try to censor speech and favor one or more sides over others. has Gmail, a no-cost service, become so widespread that it is the same as the public park where free speech is guaranteed by the Constitution?

TEXT

Yet another call to Mark Zuckerburg to drop the silly metaverse notion and try to save Facebook before it is too late.

Meanwhile in China, Xi Jinping gains a third term as China's president. He now ranks up (or down) there with Mao.

Left behind: the shift to remote work means that shuttle drivers, janitors, cafeteria worker, et al are losing their jobs. Those at the bottom suffer as those at the top have our luxury choices.