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: 21-27 July, 2025

Summary of this week:

• The Russians are still in Ukraine
• A new AI Action plan from Mr. Trump
• More AI everyday
• And these are the dog days of summer

Monday 21 July 2025

What a difference a year makes. At this time last year, Mr. Biden was clinging to his party's nomination for President. Mr. Trump was recovering quickly from a bullet wound. And then again, nothing has changed.

I also note that Russian forces (and North Korean forces as well) are still in Ukraine. Ask the experts what will happen? Are you kidding? The experts predicted that Russian forces would be in Kyiv in two weeks and this would be over. Since then, the experts have been wrong with every prediction. Find me the person who said Ukraine would stop the Russians and Mr. Putin would not withdraw and we would be here some three years later.

Nvidia's CUDA now runs on RISC-V. Prior, it only ran on x86 and ARM. This is a big boost for RISC in edge devices and even datacenters.

The American teen, going to AI for advice and companionship.

Yikes, big problem here as someone is hacking computers worldwide by exploiting Microsoft Sharepoint.

Use of the video podcast (as opposed to audi only) is surging in the market. Make your own TV talk show like Merv Griffin used to have.

Companies that use supervised learning for AI are hiring expert supervisors instead of $1-a-day folks to label cat and dog photos.

Study shows that chattering bot companies no longer show a disclaimer when a bot is giving medical advice.

Way back when, it was a big deal to go to a summer camp where they had computers! Nothing like that at home. Now we have summer camps where there are no computing devices: digital detox.

Meanwhile in Russia, they are mass producing an Iranian model of drone. It is a one-way weapon---basically a V1 weapon from WWII. It is inexpensive and effective. America is not at war and not learning. The drone gap is huge---not just the gap between Russia and America but the gap between Ukraine and America.

A box full of random stuff. Writing ideas.

Thoughts on following a writing conversation so that it becomes a paying job.

After a major rejection, what to do next.

You start a story and wonder what is next? That depends on where you started.

Viral story published. What's next? Are you prepared for success? We often aren't.

Related: what do you do after being given a writing award? Success and then...

Forget SEO search engine stuff, we now have GEO or Generative Engine Optimization. Writers have write in a way that these AI-based search engines will find and quote us.

The ultimate writing glossary or something like that.

Write that first draft. Go ahead, you have permission.

Doom and gloom about creative writing in the age of these chattering bots. Oh well, time will tell. Let's see what the number one bestseller is in five years.

Tuesday 22 July 2025

For some reason it is news that several tech companies are working to reduce errors in their systems.

Some of the hackers for Microsoft's Sharepoint appear to be working for the governors of China, a.k.a., the Communist Party of China. Note, security holes wouldn't be a bother if there were no ne'er-do-wells wanting to steal from other folks.

Rumors that Oracle will get the cloud computing contract if Paramount and Skydance merge as planned.

Keeping up with OpenAI's claims, Google claims that its Gemini also won big at the International Mathematical olympiad.

OpenAI claims 500million weekly active users of its ChatGPT. That is a large number---greater than the population of the United States.

Meanwhile in California---where regulators gotta' regulate---Tesla goes to court over false advertising of all things. Really? A company exaggerated its ads? Really?

Meanwhile in the UK, the governors are investing a billion pounds with OpenAI to grow AI infrastructure there. Let's review: California governors seek to punish tech job creators. UK governors seek to encourage tech job creators. Hmmm. Notice a pattern here?

Meanwhile in India, they are providing AI engineers to international companies, not just folks who answer the customer service 800 numbers. Good for India. Good for the world economy.

And now we have rumors of The Nerd Reich.

A cell one has one great almost never used advantage over an old landline. You can turn it off---easily. This was possible with the landline, but you had to disconnect it from the wall which took some doing.

More super-sized datacenters as Oracle and OpenAI announce their plans.

Debian says it will support the RISC-V family as an official processor for its Linux.

This is big news for somebody somewhere at some time, Microsoft has created a digital replica of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

Wednesday 23 July 2025

200,000+ pages of files related to the Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination are released. Again, this must be important to some people.

OpenAI works with some academics to study the economic effects of ChatGPT. I predict rosy reports. The trouble is the entire field is moving too fast for this kind of stud to be valid.

American big tech is closing its AI research labs in China.

Consultant firm McKinsey stops consulting on AI in China.

Where the AI money goes: lobbying Washington D.C.

Texas Instruments reports a good financial quarter. A come back.

A survey of Google use shows the obvious: when a long AI-generated explanation is given, people click through far less.

This is stupid: media and FBI reveal that North Koreans lying about who they are like Minions (from Despicable Me). Now that everyone knows this intelligence, they can change their patterns and evade detection. Stupid.

Research paper from Anthropic about subliminal learning in LLMs. Perhaps a bit too much human psychology for linear algebra equations.

Microsoft releases the Surface Laptop 7 with 5G at $1,799. Built with Intel inside.

Mistral releases a study on the environmental (power and water) effects of the current type of AI.

AMD releases an AI model that will run on its Ryzen AI laptops.

Microsoft claims to have recruited more than 20 artificial intelligence employees from Google's DeepMind research division.

Quoting, "Nvidia rival Hailo on Tuesday announced the general availability of its second-generation AI accelerator chip." Hailo's speciality is small processors for edge applications.

More NASA employees are leaving. When was the last time you heard someone (outside of government) say, "That NASA is a top-notch agency. They do great stuff effectively and efficiently."

I like Seth Godin's thoughts on luck in life.

Must see video of an earthquake in action.

People on the fringe don't believe they are on the fringe. We all think everyone thinks like us.

Work 32 hours and receive 40 hours pay. Of course people are happier. No duh.

Thursday 24 July 2025

Think it's easy to build and operate robotaxis? In America? Think again.

It appears that the processors made at the TSMC plants in Arizona will cost more than those made in Taiwan.

AI slop is filling up Pinterest.

Lovable is, for one thing, an AI coding company from Sweden. Big sales, very fast.

Like to cook? Want to run a business? Go to YouTube.

Meanwhile in China, video games aimed at women have exploded.

Also from China, Qianfan is trying to operate a constellation of broadband satellites for Internet. Not doing so well.

Meanwhile at our Food and Drug Administration, taxpayers' dollars bought an AI tool that just doesn't work right.

ServiceNow reports a good financial quarter.

Our current President calls from common sense (something without a commonly accepted definition) for AI fees on copyrighted materials and the like.

Google claims 450million monthly active users for its Gemini tool.

The Nintendo Switch 2 lays claim to the fastest selling game device in history (next to the family dinner table). They sold 1.6million units in the first month. Perhaps they did surpase sales of the card table.

Our current President releases a new AI Action Plan to "Removing Barriers to American Leadership in AI." Vastly different from the plans released by our prior President.

The AI Action Plan is found here.

More on AI and our current President who vows to vet AI model for political bias. Once again, do we want AI to artificially represent a person or to give correct answers instead?

More commentary on this from Wired Magazine.

Alphabet reports a good financial quarter from Google's Cloud Platform.

Here's a report from 404 about the effects of Google's AI search and how it has changed everything from the good old Google Search.

Mr. Musk teases a less-expensive Tesla.

How much more would you pay to buy an American-made laptop? 20%?

It appears that some competitive cyclists are hiding little motors in their bicycles.

Friday 25 July 2025

Limited Internet viewing today.

As a counter to Mr. Trump's AI Action Plan, here is the People's AI Action Plan.

Google's latest Gemini promises AI answers at a lower price.

Sam Altman warns of job losses due to AI. Not sure if this is a threat or a promise, but he believes the customer service line will be replaced. No Tier 1, 2, 3 but one chattering bot that answers all questions. I like that idea.

AI slop is overwhelming the NIH with research proposals. Too bad as that prevents real persons with real ideas from having a hearing.

Better late than never: Tesla enters the auto market in India.

Folks in Nigeria had a plan to be the next India with job outsourcing. Then came AI and tougher immigration.

Let's get practical with AI and stop fussing about LLMs and how to spoof them with ten thousand repeated prompts and other such mental exercises that lead to nothing.

Saturday 26 July 2025

Many more posts for a Saturday as I am trying to catch up from yesterday.

Meanwhile in China, a company has a humanoid robot at just under $6,000.

Tesla is way behind it production goals for a humanoid robot.

China's Premier, Mr. Li Qiang, proposes an international body to regulate AI (which would allow China to cheat while everyone else obeys the rules).

A North Korean laptop farm. The low person got sent to jail. The North Koreans? Laughing all the way to the bank. A travesty.

Here is the woman's story. Do you have to be a lawyer specializing in international relations to protect yourself? She was just trying to make a living in a rundown RV house trailer. Not even a single wide! Come on, cut her some slack. Use her connections to catch the real criminals.

Our Dept of Treasury "sanctions" three North Korean officials. Wow, that hurts (not).

And in the UK, websites are required to verify the age of users. Good luck with that one. Perhaps they can accomplish this in the UK where they don't have a Bill of Rights.

Some jobs for recent college grads: training AI systems, i.e., doing the supervised part of supervised learning. It's a job with a paycheck. And some companies are trying harder than $1-a-day for similar work.

Palantir enters the top 20 most valuable companies.

The comings and goings of AI specialists at the big tech companies...you need a deck of bubble gum cards.

Our National Highway Traffic Safety Administration concludes a 14-month study in crashes of self-driving cars. Government waste. This took so long that everyone had moved several generations past what was being investigated. Things move fast; government doesn't. No wonder government employees are losing their jobs. Someone didn't get the memo.

Quoting, "The San Francisco-based Internet Archive now has federal depository status, joining a network of over 1,100 libraries that archive government documents and make them accessible to the public" This is a bureaucratic move that is A BIG DEAL! It gives privileges and protection to the Archive. I like this.

Early looks at the yet-to-be-released GPT-5 claim that it writes software better...or something.

And now for $40 a month, a programmer can use something called Bugbot to find errors in software.

And Google is "testing" a tool that will write software for little web apps.

Job listings for entry-level recent college graduates have dropped. Is AI the reason? No evidence of that so far. My opinion is that companies are "tightening their belts" and trying to be efficient and productive.

Intel plans to cut its workforce by 15% this year. Tightening the belt.

Intel spins off another couple of divisions to be independent companies. Do this enough and someone will hit it really big.

Nvidia ships second-class processors to China to avoid trade restrictions. In China, they "repair" the processors to boost their performance beyond what is allowed. Yet another way around the laws. See item above where China wants international regulations on AI so it can cheat.

More evidence that these trade restrictions on Nvidia and sending its processors to China just don't work.

Someone finally understands the situation. We are in the early phase of "AI" (whatever that is these days). We are in change. There is a long period in the change process that is messy.

Quoting, "Google on Thursday is launching a new AI-powered feature called Web Guide for organizing Google Search results."

Walmart had too many different AI systems to help shoppers. Consolidation.

An early look at macOS 26 or Tahoe.

Sunday 27 July 2025

Note that doctors are now using hallucinogens for this and that. Caution folks.

Sigh. It seems that people are having to work more at work to earn their pay. Many are decrying this as some sort of ill.

Flying over Europe in an E-3A Sentry AWACS and watching the Russia-Ukraine war.

A no duh moment! To prompt a chattering bot you need to write well. So to write well, you need to write well.

The only companies that could handle the high training costs (of an AI model) were OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta. Truth. And governments cannot afford it either. Yet, job descriptions want data scientists to have five years experience building models. Huh?

Ukraine has become a test lab for NATO. Hear that Ukrainians? The objective is not to win and end the war but to continue it so everyone else benefits.

There are ways to "store energy" other than chemical batteries. Google invests in some.

Part of this week's AI Action Plan is to quickly build new nuclear power plants to power datacenters. Build things for a change.

Students at Stanford Graduate School of Business complain that they aren't getting what they pay for. This is not a first, but is rare: students complaining about education lacking. "No class today," is usually met with cheers, not now. Pay $250,000 in tuition at Stanford and you expect to be challenged and learn.

Mercedes has moved the testing of solid-state batteries from the lab to the road.

I don't often bash an articile, but I'm bashing this one. Trying to advise parents of new college students on what to buy, the article basically says, "buy an Apple computer or buy the most expensive Microsoft computer or the most expensive Chromebook." Not fit for consumption.

Angst at Microsoft where they are making record profits, investing record $$$ in the company, and laying off thousands of people. It all makes business sense until you are one of the persons now unemployed and still trying to pay the bills at home.

There are so many Federal regulations (several hundred thousand) that no one can read them all and decide what to remove. Software and the computer, however, can do this tedious task.