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: 18-24 September, 2023

Summary of this week:

• The Russians are still in Ukraine
• Google extends Bard to search local files, Gmails, and more
• Amazon has a hardware event (probably the last time they do this)
• Microsoft announces Windows CoPilot coming next week

Monday 18 September 2023

Meanwhile in the UK, the biggest broadcasters developed a platform to deliver live TV over the Internet.

Someone has a firm grasp on reality. ChatGPT won't replace software engineers after all.

Trying to keep track of the generations of the last 100 years and how to write about them and around them.

Clever writing memes.

Curiosity, I have to know what happens next.

The circumstances of life are not always conducive to writing. Find a way regardless.

The practice of loitering: waiting in the Safeway parking lot for something or someone to happen and then write about it. Notice, notice, notice.

Various thoughts on writing and being a writer. The two may not go hand in hand.

Some tips on how to use these AI services that make pictures and everything else that you can use in your business.

Tuesday 19 September 2023

Not much found in Internet viewing today. That is rare for a Tuesday.

This is a good piece on how profitable companies employ engineers as opposed to the Neanderthals.

emTwitter (Twitter or X) may soon to monthly fees to keep the bots from dominating conversations.

A review of everything at Apple in 2023.

Meanwhile at Microsoft, ooooooops, someone left the backdoor unlocked and exposed 38 Terabytes of sensitive data.

Also at Microsoft, good old Paint (38 years old and still good for crayon drawings) is receive more and more hi-tech-falootin features.

We hope this story goes away soon: a pilot ejects from a F-35. We can't find the plane.

Let's remember this lesson as we see established companies ask folks in Washington to regulate AI. The regulations keep new companies from competing with them.

Let's hope this is real news, not more science fiction: Joby Aviation will build hundreds of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft and put them in service in 2025.

Wednesday 20 September 2023

How to have ChatGPT create an application for you.

This article claims a 200-square-foot garden will sustain one person. I doubt that number as it is far too small.

Our DoD is working with Google to build a microscope that helps detect cancer. Sounds like a good idea, but not sure why the DoD is funding this.

Robots everywhere. Agility Robotics claims to have a factory that builds 10,000 humanoid robots per year. They will start real soon now.

This is one of the reasons why companies don't want to be taken to court by agents of our government: information that is supposed to be kept confidential won't be.

It's just a first step in a years-long process, but Neuralink is taking applications for brain-implants for paralysis victims.

OpenAI starts a Red Teaming Network. This is a contracted group of experts to break the systems and learn lessons.

The Linux Foundation starts the Unified Acceleration (UXL) Foundation. They want to make standards for programming hardware that accelerates performance. Things like GPU, FPGA, etc.

Google extends its chattering Bard to search Gmail, Docs, etc. locally. This works. Dropbox's Dash does similar things. Expect the same from Microsoft real soon now.

Google adds more double checking to Bard.

Part of the trade war with China is to prevent Chinese semiconductors to enter the US. Huawei has found yet another method of slipping through the blockade.

Amazon has a "Just Walk Out" system for cashier-less grocery stores. They have extended it to clothing stores. Let's see if any clothing store adopts it.

Google extends it Road Mapper program.

in the future we shall see this more often (I hope): chemicals created in zero gravity of orbit denied reentry to earth.

Long-term support for Linux kernels is dropping from six to two years.

Thursday 21 September 2023

I'll just quote the title, "How Microsoft does Quality Assurance (QA)"

Amazon is about to hold its last hardware gathering. Their Fire tablets are still the best value in computing. Perhaps they could expand that line.

Intel provides details on its Meteor Lake processor line coming in December.

Toyota shows its roadmap to becoming a viable EV car maker by 2030.

Combining physics equations with neural networks are enabling much better systems that generate images. Is that a good thing? Better fake images?

If you want AI to generate better essays, hire essayists and poets. That seems like too much common sense, but up to now it hasn't been done.

Amazon had a big hardware event yesterday. Here is one summary of the announcements.

GitHub expands the availability of CoPilot Chat.

Apple tried in vain to build modem chips for its phones. They are still using Qualcomm chips.

Everybody wants to hire cyber security personnel. There is a shortage of several million persons willing to do the jobs for the pay offered.

OpenAI is still learning how to prompt its own system to provide better answers. These are black boxes. The builders don't understand them.

Once again, our Federal government is spending billion$ on rural broadband service. Once again, it won't work. They are figuring enough fraud, waste, and abuse into the budget.

Thoughtful discourse on using these systems based on machine learning and how to get things done with them.

Here is an obvious but little-used strategy for hiring tech talent these days: hire folks right after college graduation.

A group of highly successful authors joins a lawsuit against OpenAI for using their works to training ChatGPT without permission or pay.

OpenAI gives an early look at DALL-E 3, the the latest image generation tool. This one ties in with ChatGPT so we can meander on and on in the description of the image we want.

Amazon promises to supercharge Alexa with AI real soon now.

Meanwhile in France, someone finds a massive deposit of hydrogen. We know little about our earth (except the temperature to within a tenth of a degree 10000 years ago (not)).

SpaceX continues to break records in number of launches and reuse of rockets. They landed the first stage on a barge at sea in the dark. Folks, that is difficult.

Friday 22 September 2023

Facebook changed its logo, slightly. I guess someone thought a darker blue was essential.

Let's recall idempotency. Yes, we probably don't remember it if we ever learned it, but it is important.

Some predictions of how large language models will be with us in four years and how we will use them.

One programmer switched to a MacBook with an M1 processor and loves it. I have a MacBook Air with an M1 processor. The performance improvement is quite noticeable.

Thoughts on removing dashboards and instead analyzing situations and drawing conclusions.

The concept of managing personal energy instead of managing time. Do tough jobs when you naturally feel better. Learn when that is.

A good tutorial on generative AI.

The concept of scaling up change. A few people have a great experience and change. Why can't we do the same with a few thousand people?

I guess we are in an international large language model arms race. The US has 50% of them and the Chinese 40%. Is anyone else in this race?

Microsoft has an event and announces hardware and software. Windows CoPilot is here now. Relearn how to do everything. We hope it makes things better.

I'll quote Forbes, "Tether Group, the crypto company behind the $86.5 billion stablecoin Tether, just spent some $420 million on 10,000 H100 GPUs..."

Given today's tech, it is much easier to write many more books in much less time. Amazon now limits three self-published books per day.

The great caper is over. MGM resorts turns its computers back on after a week of being down due to hackers.

Well, why not? Parents send their kids away to college and hire a "professional mom" to help the kid with cleaning, changing sheets, and generally patting them on the head.

Here is a robot thing to send into burning buildings to find people. Good use of technology.

Saturday 23 September 2023

The case for Open-Source AI.

A tutorial on engineering metrics.

How much would it cost to develop the miracle fat burning pill? What would be the market for such?

Not so miraculous is a projector that uses any surface (flat or not) as a screen. Amazon is rumored to be working on this.

In case you haven't noticed, this year's NFL Package (watch any game from anywhere) is owned by Apple.

Having nothing else to do, a group of folks attend the Google trial daily and tell everyone what they think about what they see.

Having nothing else to do, folks at the White House are figuring out how to regulate how many computers we can rent and buy.

Meanwhile at Microsoft, the sales of computing hardware go up and down and most recently way down.

The folks at SpaceX learn that satellite to cellphone service isn't that easy to do.

These numbers are higher than I realized: six years ago 700 companies marketed smartphones. Today there are 250.

A little late, but Android now lets us use smartphones as webcams.

Real news that isn't news: European regulators fine a successful American company several hundred million$.

Some scientists live in remote locations for long periods of time. They are like astronauts on Mars. Hence, they gather and share experiences for space exploration. BOREDOM dominates the conversation.

Sunday 24 September 2023

How to build a super-duper computer at home with several high-powered GPUs. My hint: just go buy one from Lambda Labs. They work right out of the box.

NYPD will soon use a "robot" to patrol a subway station. It is little more than a rolling blob with webcams on it. Expensive nothing.

After 25 years, Netflix will stop mailing movies on DVDs this week.

Research into misinformation is slowly being stopped due to cuts in funds. I have read many reports from such research. It is all subjective and mostly biased. That's too bad as there is much that could be learned.

It appears that the hackers who closed the casinos were a bunch of teenagers and near teenagers. These are the hacktivists. Don't upset them.

Always seeking ways to find other persons' money, we have a new law requiring companies to report ticket sales that are "too high." Thus, they can grab you if you bought a ticket and sold it for a profit.

Someone has a grasp on reality: Donald Trump may be elected president in 2024. Why not? The prices of gas, groceries, etc. are much higher and they will not go down. People see that.

This is a candid review of current tablet computers. A good read.

People are quitting their jobs instead of returning to the office. This is a local discussion. For some persons, being at home is required.

A new study shows that this stuff about the ozone layer and everything else on earth is beyond our comprehension. Let's take care with what we do to "fix" the planet.