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: 15-21 December, 2025

Summary of this week:

• The Russians are still in Ukraine
• Our President announces US Tech Force
• More datacenters, more resources consumed
• And that means everyone else struggles to buy parts
• Welcome to the Trump-Kennedy Center

Monday 15 December 2025

The struggles of the rural volunteer fire department.

The current chattering bots predict the next word. That is good enough to remove the technical writer and the copywriter.

Remember iRobot and the Roomba vacuum cleaner? Yes, "remember?" The company is now gone.

MIT looks at the hyperbole of Sam Altman.

Pell grants are moving into shorter, credential programs, not just four-year college degrees. College is great. Don't major in left-handed puppetry at a $50,000-a-year private college.

Purdue University introduces an AI working competency graduation requirement.

Dean Wesley Smith on last year's writing challenge that he failed, yet he wrote 106 short stories which is more than most write in a lifetime.

Memoir: you aren't that person anymore.

Quoting: (1) Whenever something happens in your book, it needs to go in your scenes. (2) Your transitions exist to connect your scenes. They do this by making a point.

Learning to tell stories. Listen (or read) to people telling stories. Notice and try to imitate.

Tuesday 16 December 2025

Fascinating study of the geography of 8,800 data centers on earth. 7,000 of them are in areas that are "too hot," i.e., they require much cooling to operate instead of using naturally cool weather. Oh well.

Meanwhile in China, their Communist Party approves a couple of vehicle companies they own to self-drive. This is sort of a conflict of interest, but who is going to complain?

Meanwhile in Hollywood, the growing use of computers and automation has the entertainers arguing over how much is too much.

Meanwhile, somewhere beween the US and the UK, a September trade deal is halted as everyone seems to have a different opinion as to what was agreed.

The Allen Institute of AI releases the first fully open byte-level language models. Quoting: Byte-level language models operate directly on raw UTF-8 bytes, eliminating the need for a predefined vocabulary or tokenizer. This allows them to handle misspellings, rare languages, and unconventional text more reliably - key requirements for moderation, edge deployments, and multilingual applications.

The Ford Motor Company feels it knows enough about making batteries to start making big big batteries for datacenters.

Ford discontinues the E-150 (the electric version of the F-150 pickup truck).

The world of the Internet in 2025: we use it more, OpenAI and Starlink are quite popular.

And I thought everyone was buying lidar equipment.

Our current President announces the US Tech Force. The goal is to recruit an initial cohort of around 1,000 technologists who will be placed in agencies for two-year stints. It is meant to source the artificial intelligence talent the government needs to win the global AI race and modernize the government. People are supposed to come from Apple, et al. to government for two years and then go back. I hope this does some good. We need an infusion of competent people who can do basic tasks and get the government moving.

Some news on macOS 26.2.

More reports of Ukraine's innovative use of drones.

And even More reports of Ukraine's innovative use of drones.

With all this innovation in warfare, how is it that Ukraine is not winning? Someone please explain this to me.

Wednesday 17 December 2025

GAO report says, "More than 60% of the government's security clearance data last year was either inaccurate or incomplete." And these errors mean people, like me for example, are denied jobs.

Strong rumors that Apple will sell an iMac, that desktop all-in-one computer, with an M5 Max processor. My current iMac has an M1 processor. The leap would be...a leap.

Meanwhile in the Marshall Islands, out in the Pacific with a population of about 42,000, they have a new universal basic income program with $200 per quarter given.

We now have the Creative Coalition on AI to help the creators in the creative industries. I'm not sure what that is, but I think it has something to do with Hollywood.

Mr. Zuckerberg is all in on AI. A few years ago its was the metaverse. What's next?

Meanwhile in Shanghai, a few folks are happy this morning as their company's value jumped some 700% at IPO.

Start the day with Google telling you what is on your calendar and those meetings you agreed to attend via email.

These aren't tariffs, but they might as well be. Find ways to make successful people from other countries pay you.

Now this is amazing and useful. Pull one voice out of an audio recording via a text prompt.

Mozilla is trying to restore its economic fortunes with more AI in the Firefox browser. There was a time when Firefox was it. There was a time when... Netscape Navigator was really popular.

OpenAI has a new image generator.

Put new AI processing in older datacenters? Won't work. The new processors pack far more pounds in each rack. The floors would collapse. Oh well, there are ways to do this.

What is causing unemployment? AI is not on the list.

The Sino-Soviet, ooops showing my age, the Russia-China balance of power has has clearly shifted in favor of China.

Got a 4.0 GPA in college? No one cares. 60% of students in any given class receive an A.

Volkswagen closes a plant in Germany. That is a first. Import restrictions and all that mean you just don't see German-made vehicles in America.

Software designs a single-board computer in a week. Little human brains used (except to write that software).

Ice in the Arctic is melting. This opens the Northwest Passage. Good. Or is this all bad?

Thursday 18 December 2025

Happy Holidays for Honda employees --- well, not really. All these datacenters are eating up supplies. Honda can't buy parts, so they close their factories for a while. Employees? Enjoy a few weeks off with no pay.

Meanwhile in the bureaucratic morass of Washington D.C., who works for whom? That is the question.

Oilfield service companies, e.g., Baker Hughes, Halliburton and SLB, are moving into the datacenter business by supplying power and cooling tech.

I am not sure I understand what I know about this...it appears that OpenAI now has an app store for OpenAI apps...or something like that.

This is a tragedy. The families are ... I don't know what to write. Teenage suicide across continents with Facebook in the middle.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gives YouTube exclusive broadcast rights from 2029 through 2033.

Another AI datacenter coming to Louisiana. Not a $30Billion one, but every little billion $$$ adds up.

There is a lot in the headline. OpenAI is booming in India with a much bigger market share than Google's Gemini. And, oh by the way, the population of India is about 4x of the USA.

Apple Park, that big round office building or as I call it "Pentagon West" is now full. Apple is spending a cool Billion $$$ on more office space in California.

Having nothing else to do these days and wanting to do something that is really easy, Democratic lawmakers investigate how much electricity datacenters use. This is easy as the announcements of new datacenters already say how much electricity they will use.

Meanwhile in California, a judge rules that Tesla sort of bragged a bit about its products. Gosh, who will they investigate next? McDonald's for saying their fries taste good?

Coming real soon now are these blended wing body airliners. They could have open play space in the middle. Something tells me that they will just put rows and rows of cramped seats.

The Starbucks College Achievement Plan (SCAP) program seems to be working. I don't see numbers and I don't see who does and does not qualify. Still, a big corporation should be able to go to a college and gain costs savings of, let's just say, 50% or something like that. Cut the nonsense. Colleges have priced themselves out of the market and need radical adjustments. Someone go to college Presidents and ask why the prices are grossly inflated. If it is government regulation, kill those regulations. This is ridiculous.

I like this story: catch the ne'er-do-wells because they can't type well.

Why is English easier to read? "The real transformation happened centuries ago in the 1500s and 1600s when Bible translators like William Tyndale and Thomas Cranmer developed a plain style built on logical syntax rather than the older rhythmic, periodic structures inherited from medieval prose."

U.S. video game hardware spending fell to its lowest November level in 20 years.

Friday 19 December 2025

It is now named the Trump Kennedy Center. I am sure this sends many people through the roof in anger. Let us not forget the transgressions of the Kennedy family. Tragic to say the least.

I'll quote part of the headline, "Samsung unveils the Exynos 2600, the world's first smartphone SoC built on a 2nm Gate-All-Around process" Excellent. Now put this chip in laptop computers.

This year's Defense Authorization Bill is now law. Lots of things inside it. Curbs on investments in China and such. And this bill is why the Dept of Defense largely stayed open while the rest of the government recently shut down.

And more angst with China regarding what processors Nvidia can send to China.

This is a fascinating ruling out of Pennsylvania. I doubt the US Supreme Court will agree with it.

Yet again improving optical character recognition. Does anyone else remember OCR-A and such almost 60 years ago? By the time the US Post Office was able to OCR envelopes and sort the mail, no one was using the mail. That is a notable problem-solving strategy: delay solutions until the problem goes away by itself.

OpenAI and money. These are arbitrarily large numbers.

YouTube blocks a few channels that used AI to create fake film trailers. I liked watching those. Of course I knew they weren't true, but they were entertaining. Reading about Hillary Clinton's alien baby was also good fun entertainment.

Now we have Alexa+. Do we have to say, "Alexa plus, play 70s music?"

A couple dozen tech companies, including all the easily recognized names, join the US Genesis Project for AI.

Rivian updates the software in many of its vehicles for hands-free driving. Well, it won't take you anywhere, but it is a big step forward. Fancy tech? These things will be a wonderful blessing to those who cannot drive because of physical limits. Take an elderly person to the grocery store or bingo and such especially after dark.

Chainalysis, always listen to what they say, reports that the army in North Korea continues to do what it does best...steal money.

Oh, by the way, mass killings in the US are at their lowest in 20 years. Many don't want to hear the numbers as the numbers are emotional. Yes, there are travesties committed in America. They are terrible. We still have ne'er-do-wells living here. Still, let's try to unite on purpose.

Our current President eases restrictions on research of marijuana as a medicine. This is simple, if the aroma from burning leaves is a good medicine, let's use it. We will, however, require a real doctor to write a real prescription.

Here is a self-defeating concept. Swearing increases physical strength, so swear. Swearing is the saying of unacceptable words and phrases. If we accept them to increase physical strength, they are no longer swearing. Hmm.

We conclude that artificial intelligence is drinking water. Let's ponder that one for a while.

Saturday 20 December 2025

Limited Internet viewing today. Try to make up for it tomorrow.

Datacenters and water. Well, they use 8% of the water used by golf courses. What? Huh? But the mainstream media said...

The Wall Street Journal looks at NeurIPS. It was never covered by the Wall Street Journal back in the day.

How a super sized tech company buys a farm and builds a $10Billion datacenter on inexpensive stuff.

The government of the state of California extracts $50million from Meta. That is a $50million tax to do business in California. Meta probably feels it is worth it.

TechDirt dislikes the TikTok deal as ownership shifts from the Communist Party of China to Mr. Trump's friends.

More, smaller nuclear power plants? The Defense Authorization Act seems to point in that direction.

Sunday 21 December 2025

This story goes around and around. The CHIPS ACT, remember that one?, funded this SMART USA thing at $285million (a pittance these days). Well, enough is enough. Funding is gone. Reconsider the story this way: US taxpayers give $285million to a think tank. Someone finally stops this.

We learn that Waymo's self-driving cars don't work when a blackout turns off all the traffic signals.

Basics in business: here is a story about a guy at Google who moved Gemini from 350million to 650million monthly active users in six month. Some persons are just better at a job than other persons. Your current person is fine, but would another person be great? Again, this is basic business.

Musing about the humanoid robot. Folks, our shape (two arms, two legs, torso, head) is just about the worse possible shape for many tasks.

Got a Mac computer and need a monitor? Wired looks at the marketplace. $300 buys a good Dell monitor. That is an amazingly low price to some of us old folks.

Good thought from Seth Godin: The challenge is picking something the world will need then. And the hard part is patiently and persistently sticking with it despite the fact that it's not on everyone's agenda (yet).

Another excellent one from Seth Godin: UYBJ or Use Your Best Judgement, Extraordinary organizations have this is as their employee handbook. Let's go up a couple notes to the one about the guy at Google who is simply better at the job than the predecessors. Don't hire "good people," hire "better people." It is difficult to wave goodbye to good people, sometimes that is the right move.

Let us mention the Trump-Kennedy Center or whatever we call it. This national cultural arts center has a complex funding arrangement. About 20% of its annual money is from the American taxpayer. Yes, if you live in Wyoming, thank you for your money and you will never receive any benefit from it. And then there is the matter of paying back the American taxpayer for construction cost and the rent from 60 years of sitting on prime real estate and all that. Nope. Never expect any refunds. The cost would sink that place into the river by which it sits, hence the term river-front property. Culture and art are nice. They are also subjective with beauty being in the eye of the beholder. And folks, my eye finds little beauty in the activities of the place. That's just my personal problem. So, thank you America for building and maintaining this place. It was named for President Kennedy right after his death before we learned of the troubles in the personal lives of the Kennedys. And now we tack on the name of President Trump while he is still in office. That is problematic as well.