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: 13-19 May, 2024

Summary of this week:

• The Russians are still in Ukraine
• Israel-Gaza conflict continues
• OpenAI reveals GPT-4o (GPT-4 Omni)
• Google has a big event and announces everything AI
• US Senate unveils AI Road Map

Monday 13 May 2024

In response to the really crummy chatbots created by the New York City governors, a journalism professor makes a pretty good chatbot in little time.

OpenAI is to have a big event this week. An AI search engine is not coming (rumors), a a much improved user interface to ChatGPT is (rumored).

NoW we have BYOIA (Bring Your Own AI). Without their company's knowledge, folks are bringing their own AI tools to work and using them without permission.

Are Marines are seriously testing robot dogs that carry rifles. Of course it will work.

All these pretty northern lights mean solar storms that disable GPS. Some farm equipment in America depends on GPS to functon. Yikes.

More bad news for GPS: militaries disable GPS to keep their opponents' weapons from function. That also keeps civilian GPS from functioning.

The booming deepfake business brings a booming business in deepfake detectors.

Meanwhile in Europe, European regulators are set to fine Microsoft big money because that is what European regulators do.

Starting a blog? Need ideas? There are millions. Reminds me of my first English class in college---actually it was my only English class in college. It was composition or writing or something. We had to write in a journal notebook. Something everyday. I never had a lack of ideas.

A few ideas for starting a story.

Why one writer plots or uses an outline. It works for some of us some of the time. And many writers use outlines that would not be recognizable in any English class in high school or college.

Creating a story. Here is my tip: Read the Holy Bible. It has stories on every page. Grab any one of them and write a short story, novel, play, screenplay, etc.

Some days I stumble upon a gem: William Zinsser's article on writing a memoir. READ THIS! LIVE THIS!

Thoughts on the start of National Novel Writing Month. Great fun.

How to write a book. Simple really. You start writing on the first page and stop when you reach the last page. Well, that wasn't much help was it? The thing is, that advice frees many people to do it. Yes, that simple. That is what many people are seeking: something simple that tells them, "You can do this." Hey, those couple of sentences is a pretty good idea for a book.

I love this statement, "stop becoming a writer and just be a writer." I once told someone how I liked a laptop computer instead of an iPad because a laptop had a real keyboard. "Well, Dwayne," said the wise person, "that's because you're a writer."

Simple, just Google this phrase, "author interview writing process"

I like this idea: give a character in your fiction a different skill, e.g., someone who can install a new kitchen sink in five minutes or someone who can weld nuts and bolts together into sculpture.

Good post about tools to help the writer run their BUSINESS, not their art. If you want to pay your bills with your writing, you will be running a BUSINESS.

Tuesday 14 May 2024

When will Aple (Dell, Lenovo, et al) put cell phone connectivity in a laptop computer?

Thoughts on Google and being an AI company. Google has (1) a trillion users and (2) hundreds of apps that these users use all the time. Popping AI to them is easier than most companies.

A look at SpaceX's Starlink: they have over 5,000 satellites operating in orbit with 2.7million users. Most experts predicted a flop as others had tried in vain to make this idea work.

In startup companies, there are founders (the great idea) and their are employees (do the actual work to make it work). Sometimes early employees receive their just rewards, but that is rare.

During the day, we do things that are fun and not-fun. Too much not-fun brings a predictable result. Try to adjust.

Business is good at AMD as they hit record high market shares in x86 personal computers and datacenter servers.

Coming next week from Asus, a laptop with the PC AI tag using a Qualcomm processor (Arm instruction set).

In the good old days, the US and USSR woul hold summits to reduce the risk of nuclear war. Now the US and PRC hold summits to reduce the risk that AI will run out of control.

I'm not sure if I understand this, but Google has built something into the Chrome browser that checks ChatGPT answers against Wikipedia articles to ensure everything is okay.

Sam Altman of OpenAI does what all celebrity CEOs do: act like they are an expert on all things everywhere all the time.

Linux kernel 6.9 is released.

Reddit went public ownership in March and things are going well with users up 37%.

In the good old days, a search engine, e.g., Google would point you to web sites for content. Now the search engine summarizes everything (convenient for us) and we don't look at the web site (a commercial catastrophe for the web site).

OpenAI has a big event and shows GPT-4 Omni or GPT-4o.

Our President raises tariffs on Chinese products that threaten manufacturing in parts of the US where our President needs votes this November. The political vote part of this sentence came from the Financial Times article. This is an election year.

Meanwhile in Germany, companies are incorporating AI into just about anything and everything, but don't see any payoffs for years to come.

The CEO of YouTube wants the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences to recognize made-for-YouTube videos for Emmy Awards. This all comes down to membership in this or that union in Hollywood.

A deeper look at the new iPad Pro with M4 super processors. Can I connect a keyboard and mouse and run Unbuntu Linux? That's what I want to do.

Wednesday 15 May 2024

This is a good article about technical writing. The topic of the article is something else, but good comments on the general subject. Emotion is not involved in technical writing either from the writer or the reader. This is information.

Whhoosh! The head of AWS steps down. There was only one head of AWS since its inception. They second person only lasted a few months and now he is out.

Companies knew that by ordering people back to the office after the pandemic would cost them some employees. The big companies greatly underestimated how many employees would leave for other places.

Research shows that using the Internet makes us happier. Not sure who paid for the research, but I think it has something to do with online advertisers.

Intel's Aurora super-duper-duper computer becomes only the sceond such machine to break the exascale barrier.

In an election year, our President sends $120million to Bloomington, Minnesota.

Eric Schmidt, for CEO of Google and also chairman of the National Security Commission for Artificial Intelligence, says we need a program like the one that took us to the moon in the 1960s this time for AI. Big Big AI.

The governors of China are telling their big tech firms to stop buying Nvidia GPUs and shift to locally made ones. The is the ancient strategy of China. Wait long enough and things will work out. The question is, "Will that proven strategy work in this short-term situation?"

Our Senate publishes a 31-page Road Map for AI in America. Lots of regulations proposed as well as $32Billion in tax payers' money to fund a profitable business.

Google had a big event and announced lots of new products. Here is one summary.

Google shows Gemini 1.5 Pro. It can take in two million tokens, i.e., it can analyze twice as much information as any other commercial AI system.

And Google has a Gemini Flash that is lighter to run.

Google shows Project Astra which hints at everything a pair of smart glasses would need.

The folks behind Raspberry Pi push an IPO in London. This little education project has blossomed beyond imagination.

AWS to have a "sovereign cloud" that somehow guarantees to store data of Europeans in European data centers.

Thursday 16 May 2024

At this moment, salaries for folks who can spell AI are really good.

Speaking of really good salaries, there is a boom in drugs that cause weight loss. Cure for cancer? Who needs that when we have drugs that allow gluttony.

ChatGPT from OpenAI is now an app for Mac users. I guess this makes sense.

This story must be important as it is all over the Internet: one of the founders who is the chief scientist at OpenAI leaves the company to pursue other interests.

Intel introduces Thunderbolt Share: a new Intel specification that connects two PCs via a cable. It brings 40GigaBitsPerSecond transfer rates. Move files and control other PCs.

OnlyFans chatter: undercover journalist shows how low-paid folks fake the conversations. Its just a phony lonely hearts club.

Connecticut and Colorado are "leading the way" (if you call this leadership) in AI regulating. Truing to "fight the lobbyists of big tech." Yes, we don't want new technology to be more competitive, huh?

Two good stories about expanding computing for those whose muscles and such don't work well.

Microsoft shows the Proteus Controller for Xbox. It is a set of snap-together parts so that a person can configure a wireless controller to fit their hands.

Apple puts eye-tracking software in new iPhones and iPads. You can control these devices with only your eyes. Hand and fingers are not necessary. It is about time.

Microsoft has several hundred persons working in China on AI. Microsoft is asking them to move to other countries so the US government will allow them to continue to work on AI. Trade wars are a double-edged sword. You cut ties and influence with other countries. Countries tied by trade don't bomb each other.

I find it interesting that MIT publishes these two stories next to one another. Do they get it?

Tree rings tells us the temperature of the earth 2,000 years ago. Just can't argue with that.(?)

Research journals are retracting stories as someone learns that much of this is faked. Just can't argue with that.(?) Uh, wait a minute.

Friday 17 May 2024

Want to write a significant piece of software? Here are some ideas.

Is this project still maintained? This piece makes light of the question, but it is a key one when searching for an open-source tool to use.

We're from the government and we're here to help. Our National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) gets on the job of investigating all these companies trying to build self-driving cars.

And here come the cancer vaccines. I trust these folks know what they are doing as, "What could possible go wrong?"

Fear and loathing at Tesla with the hiring, firing, hiring super charger team.

Netflix and the NFL: well, I guess we needed yet another network or streamer or something to show games. Big money talks big.

More reason to spend the money on a new iPad Pro is that the new keyboard is really good. Rats. I need fewer reasons.

Airbus shows a prototype "half plane half helicopter" aiming for VTOL and speed in flight in something that isn't as complex as what the US military has.

AT&T tries to compete with StarLink for broadband service directly to cell phones.

Remember all those commitments from big tech to be carbon neutral. Well...all these new AI data centers seem to have smothered that idea.

Remember the blockchain and crypto currency was secure? To MIT students break everything and steal $25 Million in 12 seconds.

Toshiba cuts 4,000 jobs in Japan.

So much for stopping imports from China: tens of thousands of cars bought in America every year are built in China.

Meanwhile in Ukraine and Russia, the Ukrainians are using old small aircraft as explosive-laden drones. I wrote a short story predicting this 15 years ago and I wasn't the first to think of this.

Real news that isn't news: if you give enough "malicious" commands to Siri and the like, they will behave badly.

Paying customers of ChatGPT can now import a few of their own files for analysis. It is something, not what I want, but a step.

OpenAI and Reddit partner to share data and access.

TikTok is pushing towards 60-minute videos.

Saturday 18 May 2024

Sorry folks, we burn fossil fuels because they work. An alternative for airliners is not in sight.

In "it was impossible till someone did it," two college students hack into a super secure Internet-connect laundromat system to get free laundry forever. They have told the company about the security hole.

Dr. Robert H. Dennard passed away last month at age 91. He invented the dynamic random access memory (DRAM). The rest is history.

Canada's intel chief warns that all TikTok stuff goes to the governors of China, a.k.a., the Communist Party of China.

Folks are leasing data centers before the builder break ground.

Non-disclosure agreements for employment were just outlawed in the US. OpenAI has strict agreements for resigning. Seems this is against the law, but...

So we face this situation, a for-profit company provides services to consumers for no $$$. The company uses the information the non-paying $$$ customers provide to make money. Everyone screams about that.

European regulators "warn" Microsoft that they could face a big fine if they don't please the European regulator$.

Apple finds a way to please (for now) European regulators regarding browser building and such.

2023 was a good year for good old censorship as we had a record-number of Internet shutdowns worldwide. Governors looking bad? Simple cure is have the government-run telecommunications agency turn off the Internet.

Meanwhile somewhere in the world, groups we don't like are using AI to create news videos super fast and broadcast everywhere in every language. Efficient use of new technology quickly adapted by smaller and more agile groups.

And Gannet is using new tools. It is using AI to generate quick summaries of news articles to paste at the top of old-fashioned articles written by persons.

Sunday 19 May 2024

During my short drive to Starbucks this morning, the radio program had an interview with a person who talked about changes in school lunches moving away from this (bad for you) and towards that (better for you). When did the publicly funded schools in America become food distribution centers and not centers for learning? When did we vote to do that? I don't remember that.

Good and bad news: tech companies are building cuddly robots to aid in the care of dementia sufferers. The bad news is this isn't helping to stop or reverse dementia.

This piece argues that the tech behind generative AI continues to advance.

Meanwhile in China, they are doing something smart in that they are selling "AI in a box" to companies. Hardware and software in a package that allows running AI on a company's data.

It seems that websites are disappearing from the Internet as folks decide it isn't worth the effort. Simple business decisions.

Now we have the Magnificent Seven: The Magnificent Seven companies include Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla.

The writer of this piece doesn't seem to understand how government works in America. Local governments did not build a fiber-optic network. Taxes paid by the public did it.

And now we have "openwashing." This is when a company washes itself squeaky clean by claiming to push its products to open source when they really aren't.