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.
Strong rumors that Apple will show a MacBook Air with an M4 processor in March.
X releases an AI tool to create ads and monitor ad performance.
Apple has a plan to add 20,000 manufacturing jobs in the US over a few years.
Meanwhile in China, Alibaba plans to spend $53Billion (with a B) on AI and its support.
I'll just quote the headline, "The Perfect Guide for Where to Submit Your Writing (Does Not Exist)"
Use the local Public(ly funded) Library to help promote your book.
The long-term view of trying to be a published author.
One writer's thoughts on the process of writing something long like a novel.
I'll just quote the headline, "How to Improve Your Chances of Getting Published"
Thoughts on skewing time for characters. It is fiction---all made up. Sure the writer can do this.
....Intel is launching its new Intel Xeon 6 processors. These have much better AI processing built in.
Some journalists are doing something positive instead of just sitting around complaining.
There is an unwritten rule among smart consultants that you only suggest things that improve a situation by 10%---no more. If you suggest something simple that will increase productivity by 50%, you have embarrassed the current persons because they are managing a grossly ineffective and inefficient operation. Mr. Musk et al are basically consultants trying to improve operations in the Executive Branch of our Federal government. These consultants, however, are breaking the unwritten rule and suggesting improvements that are so simple and effective as to embarrass the current operations persons. Hence, loud cries of angst are present.
Companies sue Google because Google search results don't point to those companies.
There is a phrase among some tech persons: move fast, break things, rebuild. This is what Mr. Musk and DOGE are doing. I am astounded that some adults don't know this and are surprised by it. "But, this government and government is different." I heard that denial for decades. I find it far less true than most entrenched government employees.
.....Here is yet another story of the new tech industry: physical bodyguards.
Valve's Steam Deck has been on the market for three years and is dominating handheld PC gaming.
Ominous clouds in the corporate world. Hiring slows; layoffs rise, and AI come in the door.
OpenAI moves some of its top-performing models to lower-fee subscriptions. Better for the consumer.
Meanwhile on planet earth, Internet censorship is alive and well.
Meanwhile in America, half of us are worried that AI will replace us at work.
Microsoft has a problem at GitHub as private repositories aren't so private.
Folks at MIT create "The AI Hype Index."
Surveillance tech is awaiting the white collar folks returning to the office.
Must-see video of a robot doing a front flip. This is some kind of first.
.....Layoffs begin in the Executive Branch of our Federal government. All these people were offered early outs with seven months' pay. They were warned of layoffs, but swore to "hold the line." Goodbye. Times change.
Quoting: The Trump administration has taken steps to make adherence to the president's policies the most critical element of performance reviews for federal senior executives. If you work for a company and the company hires a new boss, you work for that new boss. This is not anything new or special. Work or resign.
Nvidia reports yet another booming financial quarter. They are printing money there.
Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post. He announced a new editorial policy. Old hand quit. Times change. This article states that the Post had both liberal and conservative editorials. Ha! The slant to the left was obvious. Times change.
Meanwhile in China, there is a big push from the Communist Party to put AI in the workplace everywhere. This AI is known as supervised learning. The supervisors in China are the Communist Party. This is a simple way to keep the party in control.
The rulers in North Korea continue to do what they do best: steal money.
Quoting: Microsoft Corp. today expanded its Phi line of open-source language models
IBM also releases new AI models.
Microsoft et al ask Mr. Trump to allow them to export more technology to friendly nations.
Amazon claims new technology in the quantum computing area.
There is much talk about a Gold Card Visa for $5million. I like the idea. If you want to come here, show that you are good for us. I guess I am too old for much of this discussion. I was taught the America allowed the educated and skilled into America as they would improve our position in the world. Perhaps that idea is outdated.
Something to note about recent layoffs in the Executive Branch of the Federal government. Power has long been associated with the number of people "under" you in government. Mr. Trump is reducing that number significantly. So, he is reducing his power. And folks are mad at him for reducing his power. Perhaps folks would be mad at him regardless of what he did.
.....And OpenAI rolls out the new model a piece at a time because it is "out of GPUs."
Microsoft (finally) releases a CoPilot version for MacOS.
Strong rumors that Meta will have its own standalone AI tool chattering bot.
Meta updates its Aria smart glasses, which are intended for researchers only.
AMD promises its newest GPUs will be shipped next week.
A firm grasp of the obvious: someone understands software maintenance. I find that few do.
A little new information is released from the Jeffrey Epstein files. Shudders heard round the world.
.....Meanwhile at Google, 60-hours-a-week is the sweet spot for programmers and engineers. At first this is silly, but I can see a split day. Twelve hours in the office, work hard for four, coast for four and sit in mindless meetings and thought discussion, and after that break, work hard for four. Sprint, coast, sprint. If commuting wasn't stressful or taxing, that could work.
The end of an era as Microsoft shuts down Skype. Lync preceded it and Teams succeeded it.
Where the money is: fraud and scams. So of course, the ne'er-do-wells use the new AI tools.
And the real-time tools to reduce accents is being used. I like that. In my old age and failing hearing, I don't understand accents as well as I used to. That is my problem, and these tools help me.
The guy who started Oculus has a new company called Sesame, and they are building AR glasses.
Fear and loathing at the Voice of America. Times change. This is part of the Executive Branch of government headed by the President. Perhaps in the future, Congress will push to have agencies in the Congressional branch.
Meanwhile at Alphabet, researchers are pushing advances in transmitting data via light.
This research indicates that US workers are using generative AI and producing more in less time.
Much is being made of a sharp disagreement between Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump represents the American taxpayers who have sent $100Billion plus to Ukraine. Mr. Zelensky represents an ineffective army and air force that expends munitions at an unprecedented rate. There is much to be gained and lost here. The next round of negotiations will come.
.....I'll just quote this: The economy is built on the idea that expertise is scarce and expensive. AI is about to make it abundant and practically free. An interesting prediction. Of course someone will have the expertise to discuss when and where to deploy AI.
And DOGE asks Federal employees to send in their "what I did last week" emails every week. If you don't like Mr. Musk, you don't like anything he does. Let's, however, consider the management side of this. The first round was to find mistakes in the email database, and there are tens of thousands of them. Now that we know who is actually alive and has an active email address, let's manage some work. Gather all the tasks completed, analyze them, and find efficiencies. Hence the "E" in "DOGE." This is a radical concept as finding efficiencies is a foreign concept in most government offices. I know, I sat in government offices for 28 years and more.
The woes of Appalachia are unending. Generations of Federal aid failed.
We learn that the US research station in the Antarctic has been affected by DOGE cuts to completely unrelated agencies. This is one of the tricks used inside the Executive branch. To become more valuable and less susceptible to cuts, attach yourself even in the smallest ways to as many other agencies as you can. Consider the Stennis Space Facility in Mississippi. You can consider many other facilities. Once intended for just NASA, it now houses dozens of offices of dozens of agencies. Try to close the Stennis facility and dozens of agencies will cry to Congress. It is impervious to budget cuts. This happens everywhere. Try to cut my office, and I will have a dozen other offices run to you telling you how my office is essential to them. Simple mechanisms of survival in any bureaucracy.
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