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: 22-28 May, 2023

Summary of this week:

• The Russians are still in Ukraine
• Everyone at Apple is working on the AR/VR headset
• Intel shows plan for an AI processor due in 2025
• Microsoft announces a slew of new AI systems

Monday 22 May 2023

It appears that many low-cost phones and TVs are loaded with malware at the factory.

The University of Bristol, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Nvidia are building a super-duper computer for research work.

Speaking of super-duper computers, AMD processors now power 121 of the fastest 500 computers in the world.

For Bible historians, a Hebrew bible penned in 900 A.D. that was missing for 600 years was sold at auction for $38million.

The Microbit computer is being given to schools in the UK so kids can learn some programming and math skills. Good on them.

Bill Gates speaks at Northern Arizona University and lauds their affordable education programs. Stanford is great (for some things), but you can't get in and can't afford it.

Real news that isn't news: European regulators fine a successful American company $1.3Billion for something or other. It's just about the money.

The "MacGuffin" and writing fiction. I guess I've never figured out the appear of that idea.

Copywriting and getting a nice paycheck.

Probing questions that can improve fiction writing. Why am I writing this? Why would anyone read it?

Always expect an unexpected success.

Tuesday 23 May 2023

Everybody who is a somebody at Apple is pitching in on the AR/VR/anything-R headset.

This is a pretty good essay on the sources of great ideas.

Apple provides insight into its App Store. How many years did it take for this to happen?

Ozempic, a drug made for weight loss, seems to help folks fight the urge to indulge in lots of things. This may be something that fights all addictions. Is that a good idea?

A good explanation of large language models.

Now that some of the hyperventilating is over, folks are thinking about how to use these chattering AIs in schools.

"But it really hurts now." To date, we cannot measure the pain in another person. There are some signs that we may be able to do that real soon now.

Real news that isn't news: software that labels photographs still has errors in it.

Executives at OpenAI, a company that has already "made it," want heavy regulations to prevent competition from "making it."

Meta shows how its language models can "understand" a thousand different human languages.

Intel shows it strategy to introduce a processor for AI in 2025.

SpaceX continues to launch people into orbit and to the space station. NASA is along for the ride as government-managed rockets ... flop.

ooooops, UC Berkeley seems to have forgotten to tell the authorities about a $220Million project with the Communist Party of China.

Wednesday 24 May 2023

Price comparisons of all the cloud GPU offerings from the major cloud services companies.

Someone faked an image of an explosion near the Pentagon. The markets panicked. I guess some folks are just plain gullible and will believe anything.

This is a good description of transformers and self-attention with pointers to oter good descriptions.

One's company's experience with work-from-anywhere and return-to-the-office. There are situations where everyone in the same room at the same time is essential.

Researchers at Stanford have created a powder that, when sprinkled in water, makes foul water potable in seconds. Then you remove the powder before drinking. This has possibilities, but what could possibly go wrong?

Researchers at Columbia University have greatly improved the ability of their robotics hand to "feel" the objects it handles.

Grievous vexation at Amazon's offices in Seattle as employees plan a walk out later this month. Someone failed to listen to someone else. Tensions rose. People still didn't listen, and now there is a complete breakdown.

Microsoft had a big event yesterday. Here is one summary. Lots of AI coming into products real soon now.

Windows 11 and Microsoft finally support basic compressed file formats.

I'll quote the headline and look into this in detail later, "Microsoft launches Fabric, a new end-to-end data and analytics platform"

Microsoft announces Azure AI Studio. Users can build a system that works over their own private data.

One more Microsoft announcement, Dev Box cloud-powered workstations will be available to everyone in July.

160 years after the second Opium War, we are about to have a third as the Chinese are selling fentanyl ingredients for cyrpto coins.

Jensen Huang of Nvidia gets it; regulators in Washington D.C. don't. Putting a blanket embargo on chips to China hurts US companies and helps China. Doing this correctly requires more smarts and hard work---thinks in short supply in our nation's capital.

The American digital nomads (work from anywhere) go to the rest of world. The money is nice, but the locals soon cannot live and eat in their own homes. The same thing has happened in America as folks from the expensive big cities moved out to the small towns. Real estate prices boomed. The kids of the locals cannot afford to live in their own neighborhoods.

Amazon boosts its Fire tablets, the best value in computing, into more expensive markets with the Fire Max 11.

Apple partners with Broadcomm to bring more 5G components to its systems.

Thursday 25 May 2023

AMD shows new processors for Chromebooks that will greatly extend the time we can use a system on a battery charge.

Just quote the headline, "Sony says it sold 600,000 PS VR 2 units in six weeks"

Google's Bard now provides images as results to questions.

In a remarkable and infrequent burst of common sense, the managers at Ford decide to keep AM radios in their vehicles.

Grievous vexation inside Microsoft. The big tech companies cut back on jobs and rewards this year. Their employees are used to a fantasy world. Reality hurts.

Looking for greener pastures, tech graduates are trying to find jobs in finance.

Money for something: most remote workers will trade salary for the privilege of working from home. This is a personal and person-by-person item. A person's home life determines that it is worth a lot or a little to work from home and work flexible hours.

Not having much else to do, folks at the White House are surveying Americans on how AI is affecting their jobs.

Well this is inconvenient and embarrassing. Everyone's (and I mean everyone's) Microsoft Surface Pro X laptop camera just stopped working this week.

One writer tries Sudowrite and learns that this tool actually does write and edit and suggest and all that stuff.

A review of two new less-than-$500 GPUs. Of course they work and work better than prior generations. We just want more.

Paralyzed from the waist down, this man can now walk again. This is amazing. This is what we should be doing in technology...not answering trivia questions.

I'm not sure what to think of this one. It appears that the Internet has been taken over by puritans.

Friday 26 May 2023

The angst continues in the big tech companies. More layoffs and fewer reward$ for those who still have jobs. The AI revolution is one of the culprits. Bidenomics is another with higher interest rates. Interest rates indicate the value of money. Money is more valuable in this economy, so company managers are less likely to share it with company employees.

The third round of layoffs at Meta begins.

Meanwhile at Microsoft, instead of giving reward$ to current employees, the managers are investing in new employees and that new-fangled AI stuff.

Here is yet another story about a group of teenagers (that pesky lot) who did some remarkable but not unique things with computers and the Internet. Don't worry about terrorists; worry about loners living with their (grand)parents.

Rumors about the next release of iOS says the iPhone will also be used as a kitchen display or something.

Someone agrees with my blog post this week about ChatGPT et al. It is a productivity booster to folks interested in being more productive. Most folks, however, aren't interested in such.

Sam Altman of OpenAI continues his world tour as our latest celebrity CEO. What's next? Commercials for Snickers bars?

Acer shows two new laptop computers with higher performance. Once is for playing video games while the other is for making movies.

A look at the state-of-the-practice in handheld video game devices.

Google continues to slowly roll out AI-aided search.

Good news! Restaurants are bringing back menus that they give you and you can read. QR codes? Gone.

Our Supreme Court rules that just because my front law in wet after it rains, my wet front lawn is not a waterway. This seems to have sent some folks into fits of rage.

The war in Europe has sent energy costs up, up, up. The German economy falls into a recession.

Saturday 27 May 2023

A long essay on Microsoft, Windows, AI, and a changing future.

An essay on "expectations debt" or how success often leads to failure.

This is an excellent resource with links to tutorials, research, and business outlooks of AI.

This is an optimistic look at the near future of manned space flight and putting people on the moon again.

Microsoft makes its Azure distribution of Linux generally available. Yes, Microsoft has and has had for years its own version of Linux.

Some background information on Nvidia's H100 processor. At $40,000, this processor is not for the faint of heart or the small of wallet. The AI boom made it hot and boosted Nvidia's value$$$.

I've wondered about this. We are on the national Do Not Call list, but we receive lots of calls. Perhaps the FBI is chasing ghosts instead of investigating persons who blatantly violate the law? We wonder.

A leak from an employee shows thousands of safety violations with Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) system.

"It's the algorithm" has been the cry of companies to unhappy users. Bluesky claims it will let users choose their own algorithm.

According to someone, the Tesla Model Y is the world's best-selling car. Average price: $50,000. We must all be really rich.

"A stupid waste of time." Yes, that about sums up much of what happens in Washington D.C. with the Legislative and Executive branches of our government.

This is a little story that deserves lots of attention: the help desk decided to unionize. The company replaced them all with AI chatbot things. Folks, much of what passes for "work" isn't worth doing. I can write backwards in both directions with both hands. So what? No one will pay me a penny for that "skill." There are many skills that used to garner some wages from some companies. They are no longer wanted. Be careful with how you push those who pay you money.

Facts have a way of clobbering theories. Physics clobbers wishes. Amazon steps away from some of its climate pledges.

No one ever accused our government of being at the forefront of anything. We are finally auctioning light houses because they are no longer needed.

I like this one: a map of the world with the size of the country based on population. India replaces China as #1.

Sunday 28 May 2023

Stock markets are rising, but based on the value of half a dozen companies alone.

In a continuity-of-government move, half of our US Senators are issued satellite phones.

How the work-from-anywhere folks are moving around the world and ruining local economies.

Python 3.12 is released.

In addition to all that new AI stuff, Microsoft also announced big improvements to Windows 11.

Someone agrees with me that AI should be run on local machines instead of in the cloud.

Images created by software: they are everywhere. No need to hire a photographer or a model or makeup artists or any others.

Here is a look at Pi AI from a company called Inflection. It is supposed to be much friendlier. Let's talk. Are counselors about to lose their jobs?

Adobe's Photoshop keeps up with the fake image movement by having the software create parts of an image that don't really exist.