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: 6-11 February, 2023

Summary of this week:

• The Russians are still in Ukraine
• Google introduces Bard, it's advanced chat software
• Microsoft shows a new Bing using GPT
• And everyone continues to moan about all this rapid change
• And now we are shooting down all balloons everywhere
• Earthquake in Turkey with a death toll over 20,000

Monday 6 February 2023

Growing rumors that Apple will have a more luxurious iPhone with a higher price in 2024.

Dell continues to cut jobs. The days of everyone buying laptop computers as a reaction to the virus are over.

Cities in the US are expanding the surveillance state, and no one seems to know if any of this works.

Bill Gates thinks we need a gazzilion miles of new high-power lines to move electricity from where it is generated to where it is needed. Bill could pay for much of this, but wants everyone else to.

For 16 straight years, Apple is a the top of Forbes' annual list of the World's Most Admired Companies.

Let's begin with a few posts on creating an outline or a plan before writing.

This post is about scene outlines.

This is about a book map. Putting sticky notes on the wall is a great technique. I highly recommend it. Few do this with today's computers, but the walls work best.

Some tips for writing content for businesses.

One author's experiences with working with a small publisher.

Tuesday 7 February 2023

A review of scaling laws in AI research.

DeepMind has a new technique that could double the speed of deploying and using large language models.

You create software that imitates someone's voice. What could possibly go wrong?

The founder of The Markup shares "lessons I learned building a newsroom that integrated engineers with journalists and sought to use a new model for accountability journalism: the scientific method."

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism starts a project to work with smaller communities on investigations. We hope this doesn't become the standard political fray.

This is not news: AI built to detect AI often fails in spectacular fashion.

Unemployment with big tech is up up up while unemployment in general is down. Here is an analysis.

Watching today as Microsoft is expected to announce its working with OpenAi and its Bing search.

From Google, we have Bard. This is their rendition of state-of-the-art chat.

Meanwhile in Moscow, there are 217,000 surveillance cameras, which makes the city the 7th most watched in Russia. Life isn't safer. More bad than good comes. And this is also happening in America.

Wanna' make some money? Apply for government grants to research how to turn animal manure into energy. Next up, human manure. Predictable and predicted.

AMC theaters are about to split seating into three classes and charge different amounts depending on how well you can see the screen.

Wednesday 8 February 2023

Notes from Slack developers on how they created a secure version of Slack for government agencies.

Fascinating method of building medium-rise buildings by building floors on the group and lifting them straight up around the building spine.

A little more information on the strap-on "shoes" that double walking speed. Perhaps someone can use this technology to increase the mobility of those folks whose legs and backs have failed them.

Microsoft announces what everyone expected: we have a new Bing using GPT.

In some sort of a milestone, the Nintendo Switch is now the 3rd best-selling game machine of all time.

Zoom cuts 15% of its workforce (1,300 persons).

Microsoft will release some of the technology behind ChatGPT to "large companies" to develop their own systems. Not sure how large a company needs to be.

Meta is "flattening" is org chart and telling mid-level managers to go back to coding or leave.

The rulers of Saudi Arabia are trying to move from oil to computing.

Micro vibrations are here. They move air, which could replace fans to cool all sorts of devices.

The inherent problems of floating-point numbers in computers. Someone has a firm grasp of the obvious. That is rare.

Thursday 9 February 2023

I love this article about how we are't drowning in data. We just don't know what we are doing. Old song, 99th verse.

A few people already have access to the new Bing AI-based search. The rest of us are waiting and waiting and

Recent big-tech layoffs---a shocking first for many involved---lead to questioning the idea of one employer. Perhaps freelance jobs for programmers will dominate the industry.

New to Google Maps is an Immersive View. It seems like you are flying above and around places with photographs not just drawings.

Google released Android 14 developer preview.

Since Mr. Musk bought Twitter, there has been several million people using other platforms that are more confederated than concentrated.

More tech layoffs as Disney cuts 7.000 jobs. US job count is up while well-paying tech jobs are down, down, down.

What will they think of next for cruise ships? $75,000-a-week townhouse for young families. Where are they finding these young families who can afford this?

This story must be important as it is all over the Internet: Google's Bard preview showed a wrong answer to a search question.

Our current President calls for anti-trust laws aimed at our too-successful tech companies.

I find it amazing that a group of smart persons would have such a foolish idea: shoot moon dust into space to block some sunlight and cool the earth.

Friday 10 February 2023

Coming out of our reaction to a virus, a.k.a., the pandemic, the developer conference has gone kaput. All those side conversations and networking seem to have been overrated.

This is a good review of what the big players in tech are saying they will do in generative software systems. These are systems that create or generate new material. It is clever mimicry.

We have plenty of new rockets blasting off this year. That is a prediction of the future. We usually predict the future badly. Carbon footprint? What is the carbon footprint of launching a satellite that will measure the carbon footprint of satellite launches? Is that a recursive punishment or something?

If you pay for Twitter Blue, you know have 4,000 characters to Tweet. This is a long tweet or a short book or something.

I like this little essay on doing research with an emphasis on AI.

Commercially successful writers write a bit of advice to those who aspire to be the same.

The benefits of a book writing club for those who write books.

Original thinking on prosthetics: Why five fingers? Why not two or seven? Why two hands? Why not three?

Here is a financial analysis of Microsoft, Google, et al using machine learning in search. There is no free lunch.

A few of the cultural and somewhat technical problems facing these search engines and essay writing software.

Watch out folks: Chick-fil-A has a fried cauliflower sandwich in some test markets.

Thoughts on grading and related topics. Does a student fail a test or did the teacher fail to teach? This is more about who has the power than anything else.

Saturday 11 February 2023

In only 60 lines of Python, we build a GPT. Well, sort of as each line calls a million other things.

After a few thousand years, we come back to something old again. The ability to ask the right question is the best job of the near future.

How success led to failure at Google with the AI technologies. They were ahead, but didn't want to look foolish deploying experiments. Then we learned that we were okay with experiments.

A good essay considering what ChatGPT can do today and will evolve to next month. This is not a ten-year path to something good. Something good is already here.

Background artists awake to find software taking their jobs.

Qualcomm shows a new 5G model chip for mid-tier applications. Smaller, lighter, less power consumption, and more performance.

LG has built a 272-inch television. Not for the home (sorry, some homes and homeowners would buy this), no price is given.

Thoughts on how Apple has avoided layoffs this year. Apple managers didn't panic and hire too many people as a reaction to the virus.

Continuing with more panic in reaction to the virus: processor chips experience the biggest decline in sales in 30 years. Panic buying provided a mountain peak from which this great fall occurred.

About 70% of the books published between 1923 and 1964 are now in the public domain. That a lotta' books.

Sunday 12 February 2023

Here is a pleasant-enough opinion piece on AI from a social (not technical) commentator.

In case we haven't noticed, this ChatGPT and such fury and race has all occurred in an environment free from regulation. Low regulation, high innovation. Perhaps we have something here.

This looks promising: use machine learning (mimicry) to create questions for much-simpler software that brings answers just as good as highly complex software. This means anyone can do this ChatGPT stuff.

Meanwhile in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., (my neighborhood) folks are complaining about all those data centers everywhere. That's the same folks who use the data stored and moved through those data centers they despise.

Note to everyone: if you are flying anything in North America, ensure the authorities know it is you. We are now shooting at anything that looks suspicious.

Several American universities are applying for permits to have micro nuclear reactors on campus.