Brian Gongol
March 27, 2016
An interesting meditation on the modern rat race
One thing that may be happening without sufficient attention is that the forces that cause the white-collar classes to work exceptional numbers of hours and to spend much of their free time in activities that also pass as career networking may also be the forces that serve to pull apart important civic organizations. It seems hard to find people with valuable skills who have the time and inclination to support civic institutions with their time and talents -- especially if they're spending time doing things like toting kids around to league sports.
Chinese tech giant thinks it can predict when crowds will turn dangerous
The government authorities probably don't mind if Baidu keeps up this kind of work
Apple cuts prices on iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watch
They're still higher than comparable products in the same class, but the company certainly appears to be trying to get more consumers in the door of the Apple ecosystem. The iPhone SE clocks in at $399, the new iPad Pro 9.7" costs $599, and the entry-level Apple Watch is now $299.
"Scientists slowly reintroducing small group of normal, well-adjusted humans into society"
The Onion lands another smashing satire. It's just close enough to reality to be disturbing.
Nintendo wants its own social network to catch on
Miitomo involves "Mii" avatars who go out and live a virtual life for you, "interacting" with those of your friends
March 26, 2016
Wrong-way driver crashes into police transport on I-80
Two police officers, one prisoner, and the opposing driver were all killed
Low oil prices are making the near-circumnavigation of Africa cheaper than the Suez Canal
Canal passage fees are higher than the cost for extra fuel in some cases
Microsoft introduces $22,000, 84" touchscreen TV
A little bigger than the Surface
Study: Adults ages 19 to 32 use social media for 61 minutes a day
What in the world is that time displacing? It's not all just "found" time that was otherwise spent in line at the grocery store -- it's coming from the time budget for something else. And the authors found that high levels of use were correlated with symptoms of depression. Correlation isn't necessarily causation, but it is a relationship that is cause for concern and further analysis.
Microsoft doesn't want to buy Yahoo, but...
...the company might help some other party to buy it out. Microsoft apparently makes decent money from its partnership with Yahoo and doesn't want to kill a productive arrangement.
Netflix now throttles video to Verizon and AT&T wireless networks
As long as data limits remain both low and in effect, video streaming over wireless networks is going to be a source of conflict. This is (probably) just a short-term ploy by Netflix, but one that may be enough to tweak some of the wireless carriers into raising data limits. It certainly isn't leading to good feelings.
March 25, 2016
Speaker Paul Ryan as the unity candidate for the GOP?
He's needed -- badly -- as the Speaker of the House, virtually no mater who gets elected in 2016, and it's hard to think of anyone better to fill his current role
Microsoft releases chat bot and everything goes off the rails
We can't have nice things, in part, because people can't seem to resist digital vandalism. Microsoft tried to launch "Tay", but unfortunately it would appear that exposing it to social media only turned it into an idiot.
Build an Alexa device with Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi is a super-cheap computer processor, and Amazon is giving out instructions to make something of it
Husband and wife each get cancer twice -- at the same time
Stunningly terrible misfortune
Intel is going to start foot-dragging on Moore's Law
The perpetually high rate of improvement in chip power is going to ease back a bit
March 24, 2016
Secretary Hillary Clinton knew her e-mail server arrangement was problematic
An FOIA request by a group hostile to her finds emails from February 2009 that appear to acknowledge her recognition that her BlackBerry and e-mail use were going to raise questions
TV station takes on local newspaper directly in Cincinnati
If physically getting the news on a dead tree is no longer a defining characteristic for a news organization, then the rivalry could severely disrupt the classic monopoly model enjoyed by major metropolitan newspapers
Arriving in stores next week (3/31), it shares a chip with the iPhone 6S, has a 12-megapixel camera, and is in a relatively compact 4" size. $400 for the 16 Gb entry-level edition.
Activist group tries takeover of Yahoo board of directors
Starboard Value LP is launching a proxy fight. With just 1.7% of the company's stock, they don't have enough to call the shots, but in their letter to shareholders, they indict the current board and management for failing to turn around the company operationally or get it sold.
Rockefeller interests sell the last of their Exxon stock
Very few family businesses survive intact, it would seem
March 23, 2016
A not-insignificant number of Americans are trying to get a functional illiterate elected President
Donald Trump's session with the editorial board of the Washington Post is a stunning example of word salad. It's understandable that lots of people are angry at the political system, but working for his election is like trying to get Ronald McDonald hired as the executive chef at a French restaurant because you don't like their pastries.
Corn is one of Iowa's greatest products
The "most interesting man in the world" is retiring
Only the actor. Dos Equis is planning to reboot the campaign.
Once you see what's wrong, you won't be able to un-see it
Strong-man tactics on the local political scale
TV reporter gets kicked out of city hall for asking uncomfortable questions
March 22, 2016
Macro-scale factors making voters angry worldwide
The middle classes are feeling discontent
Army and Marine Corps argue that budget cuts are causing fatal crashes
Marine commandant: "[W]e don't have enough airplanes to meet the training requirements for the entire force"
Toyota says automatic brakes will be standard by 2017
Well ahead of the voluntary mutual pact to have them on all new US cars by 2022
Starve the clown of attention and he withers
The symbiosis between Donald Trump and the news media is very bad for civilization, even if it's "good" TV
EFF argues that there's no room for compromise on data encryption
The privacy-rights group argues there's no alternative to the mathematics of absolutism when it comes to encryption
March 21, 2016
Fun fact: Countries with short election cycles are just in perpetual campaign mode
It doesn't matter if the cycle is only 15 weeks long; the campaign process is continuous
A catalog of Donald Trump's business failures
He is more hype-man than legitimate business success
Work may be more dangerous than previously thought
OSHA changed measurement and reporting requirements and it turns out more people are getting hurt on the job than the old data suggested
But no real revolutions at the latest product launch
Good kid, bad kid, future economist
Honestly? Raising the future economist may be the best move of all.