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: 7-13 November, 2022

Summary of this week:

• The Russians are still in Ukraine
• Mid-term election day in the US
• Republicans win surprisingly few seats in Congress
• 120,000 folks move to Mastodon (sort of like Twitter)
• The crypto currency world is shaken with the fall of FTX and billion$$$ lost
• Elon Musk orders everyone at Twitter back to the office, now
• Twitter Blue lasts two days
• Worries that Twitter will vanish and so will troves of human history

Monday 7 November 2022

It appears that the governors of Qatar (hosts of the World Cup) have paid hackers to attach their European critics.

And we now have a well-formed international hacking-for-hire industry. Big risk, big pay checks.

A growing number of universities have committed to a human-centered approach to AI. Not sure what that means.

Some early efforts at robotics in restaurants shows that the technology is not yet profitable.

A look at HP's Victus line of gaming laptop computers.

Some history of Pokemon.

Thoughts on trying to have your story made into a movie.

Write some short stories. All of us. Let's do it.

Three thoughts about being a good writer, and none of the directly concern writing.

Thoughts on the first paragraph of a novel.

Watching lots of movies may be good to help you learn how to make movies. It may hurt your efforts at writing stories and novels.

If you are to write a story that spans "long" periods of time (subjective), please draw it on a timeline so the dates fit correctly.

Thoughts on writing the first draft. In non-fiction write for hire (documents at work), spend as little time and effort as possible. That way you won't be wed to the first draft and won't fuss too much when others rip it apart.

The amazing story of writer C.J. Petit who, when cancer hit him at age 66, began writing just to "keep my brain from turning to mush."

Tips on finding a place to stay for a couple of months anywhere in the world.

Write that novel. Forget about finding an agent and a publishers and a market niche (whatever that is), just bang on the keyboard or drag your pencil across paper in the evenings and write a novel.

Tuesday 8 November 2022

The one-more habit to daily discipline. Such things are worthwhile for some people.

Mastodon is one sort-of-a Twitter alternative. 120,000 folks have moved to it in the past couple of days of emTwitter. Still, just a drop in the ocean.

Strong rumors of major layoffs at Meta coming this week. Right after the election in the US. Why not before?

An essay on the in-between years in a career that span age 25 to 40 or something like that.

Palantir's business is booming, but the predictors predicted more. Hence, the stock price falls. Why is it than no one punishes the predictors?

Nvidia has a new processor that is better than before but "not good enough" so it can be sold to China.

Here is a review of Microsoft's Surface Laptop 5. New inside, same outside, and that is a fine upgrade.

I don't usually mention short-term sale prices, but these are really low. A 55" TV for under $200.

It is now layoff season. Odd how these waited until after election day in the US.

Wednesday 9 November 2022

Once again, we have the promise that non-programmers won't have to talk to those programmers any longer.

emTwitter laid off some of the wrong people and is now asking them to come back. Time to negotiate.

LG shows a new display technology that you can literally "stretch." Don't expect anything by this or next or next Christmas.

I like this fascinating history of Europe for 500 years or so in a video.

Good history on some of the early Expert Systems.

Nvidia shows there own text-to-image model called eDiffi.

Lockheed Martin now has a Blackhawk helicopter flying around with no human pilots on board (a no human passengers willing to fly without human pilots).

Sam Bankman-Fried was worth $15.6Billion (with a B). A couple days later, only $1Billion.

US election results dribble in. It appears that the Republicans flopped and didn't gain the normal let along the expected number of seats in Congress.

Several crypto currencies take big losses in value.

The layoffs begin at Meta. Mr. Zuckerburg admits to over optimism and hiring too many people.

Zoom tries to stay relevant after the pandemic by adding email and a calendar.

Tech companies cut 10,000 jobs in October 2022. More to come.

Google and Renault continue their partnership and push a new software-defined vehicle.

Meanwhile in France, solar panels are now required at parking lots. We hope they will only be used where they will work.

Disney+ continues to gain subscribers. This venture has far surpassed expectations.

Intel pushes the NUC (Next Unit of Computing) to bigger and bigger boxes with increased performance. This sort defeats the original purpose.

Thursday 10 November 2022

Explaining and experimenting with containers using only the Unix chroot command.

Several thousand grad students are surveyed. It isn't a great life. Maybe it was a bad choice.

This is still in early testing, but there is hope of a cancer treatment called FLASH radiotherapy. Super strong does in a super short flash.

Meanwhile in Australia, Alphabet's flying drones may soon be delivering DoorDash food.

Musings about emTwiter and verification and such.

Hackers are breaking into government systems worldwide via an old SharePoint problem.

Nvidia teams with Rescale, a new and small company, to simplify machine learning applications in the cloud.

I'll just quote the headline, " IBM debuts new quantum processor with 433 qubits."

Yet another cry for explainability in machine learning.

The crypto currency world shook this week as FTX fell to almost nothing.

Some all-terrain powered "wheel chairs" are for rent at several state parks around the country. These are tracked vehicles that provide mobility in the outdoors to those whose legs have failed them.

Microsoft now allows combining your Apple iPhone photos with Microsoft's own Photos library in Windows 11.

Win a lot, lose a lot. We new have some companies that have lost a Trillion $$$, but are still healthy and profitable.

Experiments at GitHub may allow programmers to code by speaking, now more typing.

Real news that isn't news: government employees who have expertise in crypto technology are leaving their low-pay and poorly managed jobs for jobs in private industry.

Elon Musk to emTwitter employees: everyone back in the office now.

Intel releases processors for high-performance computing and data centers. They are the Xeon CPU Max Series and the Intel Data Center GPU Max Series.

This is the definition of irony: President Joe Biden wants to look at the relationship Elon Musk has with foreign countries.

Tesla is officially a car company as they have to recall 40,000 cars.

I suppose this idea makes sense to some people. Our Federal governors have created a program where companies can buy carbon offsets and the money goes to build new power plants in other countries.

Friday 11 November 2022

One programmer's story of writing great and useful and used software that doesn't make you any money.

Thoughts on layoffs and yet staffing shortages. We don't pay some people what they are worth and we over pay others.

Here is the GitHub page for Podman. It is a GUI for working with Docker and Kubernetes.

I'll just quote the headling, "Project Eleven: Google is quietly working on a wearable device for preteens as it chases a surging number of younger tech users"

GitHub held their Universe 2022 last week. This post contains highlights. A bit heavy on the marketing, but informative.

Alphabet is working on seagrass to reverse climate change. Let's hope they keep their experiments from running amok.

Elon Musk tells all about how we can pay for using emTwitter.

Here is an enjoyable essay on why laying off tech workers is a bad idea.

AMD releases its newest processor family for servers. They call them Genoa processors.

Amazon shows its latest robotic arm to be used in warehouses. We hope it will help persons at work instead of replacing them.

Amazon improves its flying drone in its efforts at individual package delivery via the air.

Put this under products that no one needs: a one-inch TV for squinting at a tiny picture.

Gain a lot, gain a lot more as Apple's value rises $191Billion in one day. That is billion with a "B."

This story must be important as it is all over the Internet: divers looking for stuff in the Bermuda Triangle find some wreckage of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger.

WeWork is closing 40 more locations. People haven't adjusted to co-work locations in the work-from-anywhere world.

Saturday 12 November 2022

This is the GitHub repository for Dagger. This supposedly allows a person to create a CI/CD system using the same programming language used in their application.

Why all the new products look just like the old product. This essay calls it "blanding."

This article claims that gene editing can create personal treatments for cancer. Is this the miracle cure or a line from the standard dystopian SciFy story?

This story must be important as it is all over the Internet: NASA tested a heat shield as it re-entered the atmosphere. It sort of looked like a flying saucer.

One analysis of the big Meta layoffs. Meta kept people on the payroll after the research projects they worked were over.

This is a good essay on problem solving. It goes back to basics of having only one variable in a series of experiments. It appears that many folks never learned basics of science.

Hey Alexa, why weren't you ever profitable?

These airplane designs all look good on the drawing board. Let's see if we ever see any at an airport.

If Twitter goes bankrupt, much of recent human history is wiped out? I doubt it.

Some details on the job cuts at Meta. Lots of fluff that should never have happened.

Something called "Twitter Blue" lasted two days and was pulled. I guess I never knew it, so I won't miss it.

Tesla pushes for its charging system to become the North American standard. Let the bribes...uh er, the lobbying, uh er...the technical reviews begin.

VolksWagen builds a "captain's chair" that moves 12 mph and has all sorts of gadgets. Of course it is a stunt, but it shows what can be built to provide mobility to the disabled.

Microsoft's Flight Simulator is now 40 years old. They bring in 12 new aircraft like helicopters and gliders.

Microsoft to spend $1Billion (with a B) in North Carolina on data centers. Where are the governors of Virginia in all this. Why didn't we get this lucrative deal?

Sunday 13 November 2022

Thoughts on the many aspects of tech layoffs and what may happen next.

FTX flee the Bahamas for Hong Kong and other international ports. Sounds like a James Bond movie.

A long essay on Twitter, comedy clubs, the town square and the various forms of speech that inhabit each. "Adult only" clubs are not Twitter. Twitter is not the town square where we give speeches.

German technology to the rescue in the form of drones. Quantum-Systems is the leading maker of drones in Europe and is trying to compete with state-sponsored companies in Russia and China.

The appeal of the super yacht. Money, money, money brings some pleasure.

Shufflecake: a new tool to hide information on a computer where others cannot find it. Also a great name for a product.

Out EPA introduces "common sense" standards requiring everyone to fix every leaky pipe in the country. I suppose we have redefined "common sense." The Big Pipe Repair lobby has won a big victory.