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 January, 2025

Summary of this week:

• The Russians are still in Ukraine
• Israel-Gaza conflict continues
• Will a different President have any visible influence on these two items?
• There is a temporary cease fire in the Israel-Gaza conflict
• In vain, Mr. Biden declares the Equal Rights Amendment is now part of the Constitution.
• TikTok is banned in America (at least for a day)

Monday 13 January 2025

Financial and political news seem to be taking precedence over technical news these past few weeks.

Competition in Kenya as Starlink access causes local ISPs to improve service and lower prices.

"Here comes Super AI." No matter that anyone knows that slang or what it means. Lots more hyperbole.

Meanwhile in the banking industry, we have dire predicts of AI replacing hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Meanwhile in the UK, the Prime Minister writes about their own path in AI while committing to spend big on national computing resources.

Meanwhile in Asia, Microsoft announces big price hikes on the 365 system. Paying for AI that you don't use?

Here is a broad overview of last week's Consumer Electronics Show. It is not about Consumers, but corporate announcements.

Here is another review of last week's CES. This one is of products that actually exist.

The article makes a good case for the middle manager. There are tasks that need to be accomplished in an office. Who is supposed to do them?

Thoughts on white space on the page or screen. I find it to be greatly undervalued.

Will the ascension of Nvidia lead to more Linux computers on the desktop? Possible. I don't see it. You still have to buy a monitor and all that stuff.

Thoughts on narration in story telling.

Tuesday 14 January 2025

This makes no sense, but whatever: given TikTok may be banned, Americans are moving to other services run by the Communist Party of China include one that is named "little red book." Those who don't read history...

Mr. Biden only has a week left in office, but his staff continues to push new regulations.

Mr. Biden expands the block on AI processors that China can buy.

A paper coming out of Nvidia disagrees with Mr. Biden's most-recent AI block.

Mr. Biden's staff creates the final rules banning smart cars connected to Russia and China.

Microsoft creates new AI platform and tools division.

Chainalysis acquires stealth AI agent security startup Alterya for over $100 million.

Meanwhile in Europe, the regulators are pausing to reconsider their extortion, uh, I mean, investigation into successful American companies.

Nvidia is trying to enter the health care market (where the real money is) with AI technologies.

I find this to be good news: the generation that is in their 20s is shunning alcohol.

Starbucks is changing its open-door policy. You have to buy something to sit in a Starbucks and use the bathroom. That all seems to make sense to me, but I am old and have an odd way of looking at things.

Some in the tech industry want to "free" social media from the billionaire$. Good, start your company, succeed, but don't make a billion $$$. Go for it.

It is now estimated that one in five of jobs listed on the Internet don't exist. Companies list these "ghost jobs" for many reasons, but don't hire anyone for them.

"Cost Avoidance" is the term used by companies that are buying AI software instead of hiring new employees. Folks, the word processor software saved companies and government agencies money by reducing the need for typists and such. AI is just more software that enhances productivity and reduces the need for some skills.

Gallup does some sort of annual survey on employee engagement. This past year ranked as the lowest in the last ten. I guess that means something.

Wednesday 15 January 2025

Our SEC sues Elon Musk. Well, this could be complicated as Mr. Musk of DOGE may then cut the SEC's budget in half. Interesting times. Such things happen during the last week of Mr. Biden's presidency. Lawfare unabated. I fear the coming reprisals. Mr. Biden's group set the precedent. That is bad for all of us.

China is rapidly growing its share of the world's DRAM marketplace.

Open AI, a company with money and wanting to mine content, puts money into Axios to fund local news websites.

More moves inside Meta to have more unregulated speech. See my blog post on Society Media. Folks want to stop misinformation, i.e., incorrect news stories. They, however, tend to forget how many errors occur and have occurred in the legacy media. The legacy media has also pushed much disinformation, i.e., deliberate deception.

Meta is in court. Many internal documents are being shown externally. It is not flattering.

Open AI adds Tasks to ChatGPT.

An announcement that should be regular practice, not news: Meta will layoff the lowest-performing 5% of employees and hire replacements hoping that the replacement perform better.

Wyze cameras now have a video-to-text feature to describe what is in view.

We can now run Doom inside a PDF file. There are less constructive ways to spend our time.

Microsoft cuts employees in its consulting business among other things to cut expenses.

Thursday 16 January 2025

For some reason, Mr. Trump is trying to keep TikTok in business in America. There is much to this story that is unknown to the rest of us.

Over 700,000 Americans join RedNote of "the little red book" in two days. Are the descendants of Chairman Mao getting any royalties here?

On October 14 of this year, Microsoft will stop supporting the Microsoft 365 apps on Windows 10. Hmm, that kitchen computer may have to go by Christmas this year.

Must see photos. Why just have an old gray box as a computer. These gaming machines are ... well, they are not just old gray boxes.

TSMC reports that 2024 was a big, big financial year for them.

Ndea is founded. It is to be a collection of very smart folks working on the next AI thing ten years or so down the road.

The Biden administration adds more Chinese companies to export restriction lists.

Microsoft increases the capabilities of CoPilot on Windows in its no-cost tier.

Blue Origin succeeds in using its heavy lift New Glenn rocket to achieve earth orbit.

We have hints that the Ukrainians are "fighting like the West." It is certainly overdue and, as of this time, has not greatly influenced the war.

Google, like Microsoft mentioned above, is moving its AI capabilities around in its apps. They offer more at the no-cost tier.

Bad economic news. Jobs are becoming scarce. Even Harvard MBA holders are seeing fewer jobs.

Friday 17 January 2025

I like this piece on the hype of AI agents. We just aren't there, yet. Maybe next year or next decade or something.

Oops The school records of 60million students in the USA were leaked. Gosh. You know, there is one sure way to not have these leaks. I suppose it is too obvious to implement.

Here is more information on how Microsoft is bringing its AI features to the office apps. I think it is a good thing. The boost in productivity is BIG. $3 a month fee is pretty mild. Folks, we went to word processors and spreadsheets and PowerPoint because we could accomplish more in less time. This is the same thing.

No elections and no Olympics this year. Ad dollars will drop accordingly.

Here is a No Duh moment: the use of TikTiok spreads the bologna that the Communist Party of China is a bunch of nice folks.

We have reports that the folks at the Washington Post will try to write stories that Americans will read.

I'll just quote the headline: Inside the U.K.'s Bold Experiment in AI Safety

Google intends to ignore new EU regulations on "fact checking."

America's school children are learning how to using these chattering bots on their homework. I find that good news as the kids are LEARNING and I think that is the purpose of school.

Got $5,300? Get the new Leica SL3-S camera.

SpaceX had another test launch of the Starship above the super heavy booster. Some success and some failure.

It is not good to be a North Korean soldier assigned to the war in Ukraine.

Google claims that using AI tools cut its code migration time in half.

This report claims that PC gaming has been bigger than console gaming and been that way for over ten years.

Saturday 18 January 2025

Mr. Biden declares the Equal Rights Amendment in effect. Folly and desperation in the last hours. A shame.

Our Supreme Court upholds the law banning TikTok.

This is a new one: a company "threatens" to obey the law.

Yet another multi-million$ award against a legacy media company.

Our Federal Trade Commission investigates Microsoft's investments into OpenAI. Such actions will cease next week as a new President is in town.

OpenAI releases a model to work with stem cell research and increasing the lifespan of humans. How about dementia?

As we usher in a new President, we note that a study by National Public Radio (not a bastion of conservative thought) shows that grocery prices increased 25% during the Biden presidency. And some folks were surprised by the election.

The Trump inauguration is moving indoors due to bitter weather. Ronald Reagan did the same for his 1985 inauguration.

Must see video: a little meteorite hits a patio in view of a Ring camera. Such hits happen all the time, but it is rare that anyone sees them and unprecedented that a video camera recorded it.

I love this post as it actually uses the word irony. TikTok users are moving to The Little Red Book Chinese app. The Communist Party of China doesn't like that as all the Americans will influence all the Chinese subjects who use the app.

Microsoft research confirms the obvious: these LLM AI systems will never be fully secure. Infinite testing would be required. Companies aren't going to spend the money on 50% testing let alone infinite.

I hope they didn't spend much time on this No Duh study. Disasters with homes create their own fuel for disasters with homes. Hence, the trailer park and the tornado disaster. No Duh.

Sunday 19 January 2025

"Sorry, TikTok isn't available right now A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!"

From Slate on the TikTok saga, "What we've learned here is that our lawmakers are as spineless and skittish as everyone suspects them to be, backing down from tackling a supposedly sketchy app they frequently screeched about (often for good reason) over the past five years."

Well, who would have guessed that Americans would jump from one Chinese app to another CCP app? How about everyone who considers these things?

A look at Red Note or The Little Red Book: it is one of the Chinese apps that profited mightily this week.

Looking back and forward on the effect of The CHIPS Act. Lots of money floating about.

TikTok is owned by a company named ByteDance. Several other ByteDance apps have been pulled from Americans. This is all great folly. It shows that international companies are far more flexible and agile than national legislatures.

Worries about Federal budget cuts and the loss of climate change data. If it is important, let private billionaires and millionaires fund it. We certainly have enough rich people to do so, right?

And now we have "career catfishing" in which a person accepts a new job, but doesn't show up for work on the first day or so (without notice). Fascinating.

Related to "career catfishing" is another aspect. I live in Virginia. Virginia is an employment-at-will state, which means that employers can fire employees at any time with non prior notice, for any reason, or for no reason. A job can end today at any time. In addition, a job offer means little as a person can begin a job at 9 a.m. and lose that job at 9:01 a.m. As part of the Virginia law, a person can quit a job right now with no prior notice.

ELIZA was the world's first chattering bot some 60 years ago. Someone resurrected it.

These are example of simply incompetent or stupid public employees working in law enforcement.

NATO to deploy unmanned undersea vehicles to protect undersea cables.

The PAN(dem)IC is over. Get back to work.