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.
On and on and on again of why you just cannot manufacture things in America any longer.
The crypto-currency world is alive and well.
And now we have "slopsquatting." This has something to do with hacking past cyber security using code generated by AI and a combination of half-a-dozen other things.
I like Seth Godin's comments about discussions, arguments, toddlers, and tantrums.
Thoughts on Microsoft's thoughts and re-thinking of AI plans.
FreeDOS version 1.4 has been released. Lots of good information on this project.
Thoughts and experiences from screenwriting.
Current tools for freelance tech writers.
Thoughts on the unexpected and techniques of surprising the reader.
....Riley Nork of Pirate Wires asks a great question: how much of the AI we see today is literally just underpaid Filipinos?
OpenAI releases a new set of LLMs aimed at computer programming.
Meta succeeded too much and is now in court with our FTC.
AMD now has a 2nm process chip and AMD has more production in the US.
TSMC chows a new manufacturing technology.
Nvidia commits $500Billion to US manufacturing.
The AI discussion moves to India where they export IT expertise. Will AI take these jobs?
This story has been making the rounds the past week. Crosswalk machines tell people to walk or not walk. Someone hacked some of the systems and use the voice of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerburg. This is quite humorous to some folks. I don't know that it is dangerous or anything, but it shows that public systems are easily hacked.
.....I like Mike Solana's (Pirate Wires) commentary on ADHD and amphetamines, "There's no known biological basis for ADHD because inability to care about school is not an actual disease."
Thoughts on Role-Based Access Controls and their new role.
A look at China's domestic solution for AI acceleration from Huawei.
Meanwhile at OpenAI, strong rumors that they are building their own society media platform.
This report has some intrigue on several levels. First, NPR (money comes from taxpayers) is reporting this. NPR could lose funding for this. Second, an insider leaks bad news about DOGE. More fuel to burn down the NLRB bureaucracy for security lapses. Finally, DOGE is part of the executive branch and has access to executive branch data like NLRB. Much of the fussing about DOGE and access to data comes from the idea that each agency can hide its data from all other agencies. The walls of secrecy allow for redundant and wasteful spending. DOGE is highlighting these practices that protect inefficiency.
The folks at MIT look at vibe coding.
And speaking of mental activity, it appears the their is a correlation between older people using smartphones and older people not declining mentally. Correlation does not necessarily mean causation. Still mental exercise seems to help mental ability.
Apple drops support for Mac Mini computers that use Intel processors.
.....Where the money is going: 58% of venture capital funds is going to AI startups.
And the money continues to roll into TSMC.
Our current President adds more limits to what kinds of computer technology can be sold to China.
OpenAI releases yet more models. The newest ones are called o3 and o4-mini. My mind cannot keep track of these things and these names. Surely they can do better product releases and marketing.
OpenAI also releases Codex CLI. It will, "integrate OpenAI's models, eventually including o3 and o4-mini, with the clients that process code and computer commands, otherwise known as command-line interfaces." I am old enough to like the command-line interface.
Strong rumors that our current President will end the IRS Direct File program created by our prior President. I am torn on this one. Filing Federal income tax costs too much money (more in time than software). I also believe that government should not "compete" with private industry. In an open competition, government would lose. So politicians pour taxpayers' money into the "competition" so that the program is "free." Bad situation all around. How about tax reform? Naw, too obvious.
Microsoft has a new computer use feature for Copilot Studio. This will allow the software to use software from other places to accomplish tasks. I guess this is part of "agentic software" or some such slang.
Here is a review of Nvidia's new 5060 graphics processing cards.
If you can't beat 'em, give to 'em or something like that. Tired of AI systems crawling through Wikipedia and slowing everything, the folks at Wikipedia create a dataset of its contents, put that on Kaggle, and let AI companies use that for training.
.....It appears that OpenAI's new o3 is pretty good at geolocating things in photographs.
OpenAI offers Flex pricing: slower processing at lower prices.
Google releases Gemini Flash 2.5. Again, these AI companies need to work on product names.
Meta blocks Apple Intelligence in its iOS app.
A look at Framework's latest laptop computer. Take it apart, modify it, reassemble it.
Google offers college students free use of much of its AI systems. Watch out college professors.
.....A judge rules that "tower dumps" violate the US Constitution. A tower dump is when law enforcement requests all data from the owner of a cell phone tower. That provides location data for thousands of persons. The vast majority of those persons are not suspects of investigation, but their private information is collected and held by the state.
Angst and court battles over reduction in force at our Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB has been in court before. DOGE has been in court before. Given the political climate, it is difficult to tell who is abiding by what.
OpenAI admits that their new o3 and o4 models make more mistakes (I won't repeat the "h" word).
Predictable and predicted: these tariffs and blockades and such always push isolated countries to develop their own capabilities. This has occurred before and will occur again. It is a tricky balancing act that is rarely performed well.
It appears that Tim Cook of Apple is better than most at the tricky balancing act.
All these trade wars are hurting the talent export industries of India more than anyone.
Times change and so do opinions. COVID this and COVID that.
It seems that the reaction to the Blue Origin flight of women into the outer reaches of earth's atmosphere has been far greater than the event. There are cries that the entire thing was faked. Gosh. Surely there are more important things for thinking persons to think about?
The private jets of rich athletes. If you have to ask the price, you cannot afford them. Far more practical are high-end propeller-driven aircraft with much greater range and much higher number of runways they can use.
Take care with the words you use. This is especially true when talking with ignorant people. Politics and politicians tens to cause people to stop thinking. Mr. Vance used the word "peasants." In political science, that is the correct word to describe most of the persons living in China. Also, in China, that is the English word used by the Chinese to describe farmers and others who live in rural areas.
The most-cited papers of this century.
Oops. Lots of retractions of peer-reviewed scientific research papers. Well, this is done by imperfect people. Still, that is a lot of mistakes and some folks run wild with theories of money.
This study concludes that half of office workers use AI tools. Most of that is not approved by anyone. Just get the job done and don't tell your boss. I guess that is what is happening.
People love older Apple computer hardware (I have a couple of older Macs in my house).
.....Meanwhile in China, robots "run" alongside humans in a half marathon. Nice stunt.
Here is another perspective on the robots in the half marathon. Of course there were technical problems. I guess testing is some sort of a lost art.
Also in China, Huawei shows a new AI processor that supposedly rivals the performance of Nvidia's.
Here is a review of OpenAI's latest LLMs.
Several reactions to politics in the past couple of days in my personal life have led me to question if someone put something in the water. I go back to a question I asked years ago, "Will America ever forgive the Democratic Party for nominating Hillary Clinton?" Ms. Clinton was despised by half the voters in America before any campaigning. It would have been easy to nominate a candidate that would win against Mr. Trump and we would have had far less polarization the last ten years. Why did the Democrats do what they did? Once again, every morning the Democrats awaken, slap their forehead and ask, "We couldn't nominate a candidate to beat this guy?" And once again, every morning Republicans awaken, slap their foreheads and sigh, "I thought we won the election." Just some random thoughts from an interested observer.
Here comes surge pricing to the robo taxis.
This person survives on $1,700 a month Social Security and free parking for her little trailer RV.
An American company finally wins approval from our FDA for part of its brain implant. This is the regulatory state impeding efforts to restore disabled bodies. If this company had gone offshore, they would have already performed years of experiments with volunteers and advanced far beyond where they are today. Again, people would volunteer to do these things.
This is a story of a remarkable high school student and the study of the stars. The greater story here is of what can be done with computing power that is so inexpensive that millions of teenagers can access it and experiment. Someone is going to hit on something like this. Someone is going to hit on a medical breakthrough. Someone is going to hit on something that old folks like me cannot imagine. Inexpensive computing power and the freedom to use it.
.....