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: 2-8 March, 2026

Summary of this week:

• The Russians are still in Ukraine
• US and Israel still battle Iran
• Anthropic goes back and forth with our government
• Apple updates its computers
• Apple has the long-rumored MacBook Neo at $599
• Daylight Savings Time begins in the US, lose an hour of sleep

Monday 2 March 2026

Per this story, I am elite in the use of the current AI systems. Folks, I did a PhD dissertation 40 years ago in AI (computer vision).

Meanwhile in China, some of the procurements of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), are public. Note, the PLA is not the army of China. It is the military wing of the Communist Party of China. Yes, that makes it like the SS was the military wing of the Nazi Party.

Mobile World Congress MWC is this week, so expect plenty of new products.

Qualcomm shows a new processor for smart watches.

The value of textbook knowledge is fading. So what if you know facts. I can look up a million facts in a second with a chattering bot. Tacit knowledge born of experience is now more valuable $$$.

In case you haven't noticed, there is a war on in the Middle East. An AWS datacenter was hit with stuff.

Kiss and tell stories come out of the DoD-Anthropic talks.

This sums it up pretty well. Here comes 6G mobile tech. When will we ever get 5G?

We pass some sort of threshold as podcast listeners now outnumber those listening to AM/FM talk radio.

Thoughts on Writing at the Intersection of Fear, Politics and Responsibility

I love this writing question: are you clarifying, i.e., bring clarity? Are you explaining yourself too much? My test would be which is shorter?

The secret of getting ahead is getting started. - Mark Twain

An updated look at vanity publishing. It used to be simple: I send the publisher my manuscript and $500 (one example). They publish my book. I feel God. I give a copy of my book to my mother and a few others. Everyone is happy.

Practical advice for writers who have to deal with a publisher. PRACTICAL ADVICE.

Time Management (quoting): The truth about time management is that it's not actually about time; it's about other skills like choosing priorities and setting goals. 

The Big Mistake That Keeps Writers From Finishing a Novel ... Seeking feedback or critique on details while drafting. Seek advice that pertains to where you are in the writing. Stay focused.

Tuesday 3 March 2026

Thoughts on the quest for the general-purpose humanoid robot. It is just a tough problem.

Something here about the third era of software development. I think they missed a few eras, but young folks don't seem to know or care about history. Quote: Cursor is no longer primarily about writing code. It is about helping developers build the factory that creates their software.

This is more of a side note: build agents on CloudFlare. This may become something big. Maybe not.

More angst about Anthropic and national defense. Again, this is a clash of personalities pushing and shoving to see who can push and shove the most.

Every other story this morning is about Sam Altman assuring everyone that while OpenAI works in national security they only do good things. Almost all problems are solved by hiring good, smart people.

Federal agencies are switching from Anthropic to OpenAI.

Meanwhile in Iran, Internet use falls to 1% of normal. Folks are trying to circumvent the governors' censorship.

The fighting over Iran is actual fighting with US pilots going down and US personnel dying in Iranian missile strikes.

Apple updates the iPad Air with an M4 processor.

Apple shows a 17e iPhone. The price comes down a bit.

Some thoughtful commentary on Anthropic and our DoD. Still, plenty of ignorance (Yes, the NSA is part of the DoD. Just check Wikipedia, good grief.) And their is no such thing as "the NSA does this and that." This and that are done by people who work at the NSA. Some of them are, well, not the sharpest nails in the box or some such cliche.

Wednesday 4 March 2026

This is all quite simple. If our DoD bans use of Anthropic systems, Anthropic collapses. Nvidia, Intel, AMD cannot sell or rent processors to Anthropic. With six degrees of separation and all that, 90% of the companies in America cannot buy from or sell to Anthropic. Anthropic is essentially banned from the American marketplace. The end.

The CEO of Anthropic claims that employees don't leave because Anthropic is more pure (not his words) than other companies.

Strong rumors that OpenAI is working on a service like GitHub.

Quoting: The document shows in stark terms the power, and potential risk, of online advertising data and how it can be leveraged by government agencies for surveillance purposes. So law enforcement is using readily available information to find criminals. Somehow this is bad. Okay, if there are bad people working in law enforcement, this is bad. If, however, there are bad people working in law enforcement, that is a fundamental problem to be addressed quickly.

Intel shows a new CPU that will be on the market this year.

Apple shows new M5 processors.

Apple puts the new M5 processors in the MacBook Pro.

Apple does the same with the MacBook Air. And here I sit with a MacBook Air with an M1 processor.

Fussing about this office and that office as LibreOffice claims a better user interface than Microsoft.

Real news that isn't news: NASA has more delays.

This was once called Camera Intelligence or CAMINT. Little know, but often used.

Thursday 5 March 2026

More commentary on the Anthropic-DoD saga. I predict by the 4th of July this will all be resolved and forgotten.

We can't get to the moon (NASA can't get a person off the Florida beach), but companies are building machines to dig Helium from the surface of the moon.

AI is writing so much code, no one can read it all. Well, good luck.

I have dealt with this my entire career: simple and useful things don't attract notice and promotions.

A deeper look at Apple's new M5 Pro and M5 Max processors. There is more than the name that is different.

Is it okay to simulate text or advice from a person withtout their permission? It is just mimicry, and mimicry is where these chattering bots excel.

Drones, drones, and more drones. Is the pendulum swinging too far in one direction? Probably.

It appears that our armed forces are using higher technology tools to manage information in the current conflict. And don't think for a minute that the Iranians and others are outmatched in this area. They are not. No one is.

Forget all this broo-ha-ha about the DoD and such. OpenAI is growing its income.

Good news as these companies releasing AI models are working smarter, not harder.

It appears that ChatGPT Health performs poorly at least half the time if not more.

Maybe cooled heads will prevail in the Anthropic-DoD spat.

More on the cooler heads prevailing here.

There is much in the news about our Dept of Defense spying on Americans in America. Folks, that is illegal. That is the job of US law enforcement. If someone in the DoD is watching Americans in America, that person goes to jail. Hire good, smart people and the problems disappear.

Big tech pledges to generate its own power for its datacenters. Of course someone will complain that this extra power comes at the cost of something else that is sacred. They are just trying to keep local utility bills down. I guess that is wrong.

Broadcom reports a big financial quarter.

The MacBook Neo: this isn't a full performance test, but it gives ballpark figures. The iPhone processor running the laptop works better than the M1 processor on which I am banging out this quirky comments.

This review says the keyboard isn't good on the Neo. That would be a killer for me. This is, however, one person's opinion.

Finally, we have permission to build a new nuclear reactor. It's about time. Actually, very late.

Ah, we spring forward an hour this Saturday night. Yes, you can ease into it a quarter hour at a time. Why not? This is all silliness and should be stopped. Stick to standard time.

Friday 6 March 2026

No Internet viewing today.

Saturday 7 March 2026

I love this piece on when and how to apply the current versions of AI. Simple rules to decide what is a good use case for AI.

Here is another piece that gives me a headache, but I cannot ignore it.

Here is, One CLI for all of Google Workspace, built for humans and AI agents.

And more CLI programming for agents and such.

Working really hard to run around the trade restrictions with China. Private companies on both sides are succeeding at outsmarting both governments. Not a big challenge, but something to do.

Job loss in the tech industry is real. Companies hired too much. I guess there is a big strategy here. Pump up the industry. Convince kids to get degrees in your field, hire lots of them, and only keep what you need. Perhaps I give them too much credit.

This story won't go away. More contract language for government agencies using AI. Lawful use for the DoD means waging war. Lawful use for the DoD does not mean spying on Americans in America. I guess there is something else to this.

And yet another opinion. There is something in the US Constitution about "the common defense" or something. I tend to forget these things. It seems many others have this habit.

Meanwhile in India, everyone is buying personal computers.

Nintendo of America wants a refund on all those import tariffs it paid.

One insider's view of the Anthropic-DoD negotiations. Anthropic denies it all.

Marvell (with two L not one like the comics company) makes semiconductors and business is very good.

Mozilla says Anthropic's software found errors in Mozilla's software. And found more faster than anyone else. Of course it did, the software runs 24 hours a day and never tires.

The lawyers at big tech think they have found a loophole in the DoD ruling of supply chain risk. We shall see.

In many of these AI advances, I see the same old thing. When an event occurs, do this or that. We've been doing that in software for ... let's see, since someone made a machine that could run instructions. And this is all new and groundbreaking?

And in all this AI Agent stuff, people have discovered the command line interface. Yet another trip back to the basics. I guess old people, like me, who lived through many of these things recognize them in our fading memories. Really folks?

GPT-5.4 is here.

More on GPT-5.4.

This may be a new one in the data and AI age: target a company's datacenter because that company does business with the government of your enemy.

AWS shows a new healthcare office automation tool. Good. If it cuts the cost of all the government forms we pushed onto doctors, good.

Back to personal computers. The MacBook Neo runs MacOS and such. At $599, it is in the price range of all those PCs from Dell. And folks dislike the Windows 10 and Windows 11 thing happening right now.

I like Seth Godin's comments on imagination and how we extinguish it in our school system.

Sunday 8 March 2026

On the state of the current chatbot AI, We're experiencing a similar creative destruction currently (similar to what happened when the electronic spreadsheet appeared). Lots of what we knew is being destroyed before our eyes and new opportunities are being born.

More musings on the current AI with emphasis on writing: Costless sacrifice is not sacrifice. And we, like the Gods, demand sacrifice. Here's the hard thing about easy things: if everyone can do something, there's no advantage to doing it, but you still have to do it anyway just to keep up.

Some folks in Congress attempt to make NASA move quickly. Good luck with that. There are things that work. Few, however, are willing to do them.

Some businesses learn that the Middle East is not a stable place for business.

I struggle to believe the ignorance in these pieces. I think people are exaggerating their ignorance. Law enforcement can surveil Americans in America with a court order. If a few people in this or that DoD agency did this in the past, that was illegal. And everyone who works in those agencies knows it. They sign documents every year acknowledging it.

Here come the robots for the repetitive physical work. Nothing new here. Just a different package.

Just quoting the headline: The bootcamp era is over. Companies are chasing elite college grads again. When there is a shortage, anyone will do. When there is a surplus? Different situation.

And here in America, we lost an hour of sleep to go to Daylight Savings Time. The benefit? I have no idea if there is one.

Seagate ships 44 TeraByte (with a T E R A) spinning disks. And the experts predicted spinning disks would go away several decades ago.

Meanwhile in Africa, lead-acid batteries are used to store energy. Recycle them? Just dump them in the river and let the lead seep into the water system.

Here is a new security hole in automobiles. Our tires have these pressure sensors that transmit data over radio. And yes, the ne'er-do-wells can listen in and know where we are.