WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net and technology news
by Alan Lenton
Hurray! Managed to get Winding Down out on two consecutive weeks. Recently its schedule has been so erratic that I suspect a lot of people were wondering whether it had just vanished forever, like so many things on the net. I confess to a certain amount of slacking recently - mainly because I slipped an old disk of Morrowind into my computer recently... Purely, you understand to test that my recently bought kit worked with older games. I’d forgotten just how good and addictive Morrowind is. I think it’s still my favorite of all the Elder Scrolls games.
But I did manage to tear myself away long enough to pen you this week’s missive...
Shorts:
Well, we finally know just how much our internet privacy is reckoned to be worth - a box of chips (crisps to my UK readers)! That’s what you can buy with the $25 voucher Google is handing out to anyone who signs up to be fully tracked via a browser insert. I’m amazed at how many people there are out there prepared to hand over their online privacy for a box of chips. So many in fact that Google was overwhelmed on the first day, and had to put recruitment on hold temporarily. I guess there must be a lot of people out there desperate for chips!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/09/google_screenwise/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sensations-Thai-Sweet-Chilli-32/dp/B000SCUF32/ref=sr_1_52?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1328802151&sr=1-52
And while we are on the subject of privacy, I have to say that I just creased up with laughter when I read skipity.com’s privacy policy. It contains such gems as ‘If we can use any of your details to legally make a profit, we probably will.’ Or how about, ‘Please email us to tell us some of your secrets. We may, at our sole discretion (or lack thereof), broadcast, reveal, sell, manipulate, or otherwise use these secrets, or any information we collect to our benefit whenever, wherever, and however we choose.’
My favorite, though, was, ‘By using any of our services, you grant us permission to surgically implant a tracking microchip of our choosing in your body and sell all collected information to the highest bidder... and to all other bidders. You also agree to regular updates and reinstalls of said device entirely at our discretion for up to 50 years after the end of your natural life.’
I detect a clear understanding of the modern capitalist imperative here...
http://www.skipity.com/privacy.htm
I see that research coming out of Cornell University suggests that people aren’t smart enough to make democracy work, because they are not good enough at judging the competence of ourselves and other people. An interesting theory. However, in democracy’s defense, I can only quote Winston Churchill, who in his time had tried out nearly every mainstream party in the UK: ‘Democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.’ It may be that the researchers aren’t smart enough to understand this...
http://news.yahoo.com/people-arent-smart-enough-democracy-flourish-scientists-185601411.html
Most of you probably don’t know that Google has a bounty system for rewarding people who find and report bugs in its software. This week it happily paid out it’s US$60,000 top prize to Sergey Glazunov, who used a bunch of bugs (cough, cough, features) in Google’s Chrome browser to gain control of a Windows 7 system! Google was delighted to get this report, and had no difficulty paying out top whack for the info. I can think of any number of companies who would be less than delighted by such activity, which makes it all the more kudos to Google for taking dealing with security bugs so seriously. Ten house points and a gold star for Google on this one.
http://www.infoworld.com/t/application-security/google-just-got-pwned-and-its-happy-about-it-188252?source=IFWNLE_nlt_blogs_2012-03-08
So, tell me, how would you go about stealing the plans of a new French-British drone aircraft? Break into a high security development center? Hack into the developers’ computers? You’re all doing it the hard way - in this case the thieves just lifted the briefcase of a high level French executive while he was buying a Eurostar ticket, and made off with a complete set of plans! Red faces all round at French defense contractor Dassault Aviation. Zut alors!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/24/drone_doc_theft_security_flap/
Ever wondered what happened to your old tweets on Twitter? Well, I can tell you - they are being sold off to interested parties. Last year two social data research companies did a deal with Twitter to access the site’s “fire hose” of public tweets. Now they are ready to make some hard cash out of the data mined. One of the companies, Gnip sells tweet data going back 30 days, while the other, Data Sift purveys up to two years worth of tweets.
So, what did you publicly tweet in the last two years, that you now wish you hadn’t? Remember: a tweet is for life, not just for a day.
http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/news/gnip-and-datasift-begin-selling-archived-and-analysed-tweets-64339
Finally, in this section, I want to talk about domestic smoke alarms... Actually, I want to -rant- about the uselessness of domestic smoke alarms! Our new apartment, like all others in the block, is fitted with a smoke alarm. It, like all other smoke alarms I’ve ever come across, is probably the worst designed piece of technology I’ve ever has the misfortune to be afflicted with. It’s not that it doesn’t work - far from it. You only have to wave a piece of bread in the direction of the toaster to set it off.
These beasts are not properly designed to cope with real homes. False positives are just nearly as bad as failures to go off when there is a real fire. As I type this there is an advert on the radio from the London Fire Brigade urging people to get smoke alarms fitted. The money would be much better spent on finding out why people don’t fit alarms, and why virtually everyone I know who does have one fitted disables it. In this day and age it should be technically possible to design something that is capable of distinguishing between a real fire and cooking bacon under the grill.
Smoke alarms are a great idea, they just aren’t up to the job in their present form. But until an alarm that doesn’t give false positives every time you cook is available, and it can be installed in a place where older and less agile people can get at it to replace the battery, the Fire Department will be fighting a losing battle.
Homework:
Remember the kerfuffle over the claim in the 2009 report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that all the glaciers in the Himalayas would have melted by 2035? The figure was widely reported, and used tout the seriousness of climate change. Until, that is it was discovered that there was a typographic error in the report - the date should have been 2350. The typist has my sympathy - I know from experience how easy it is to transpose digits in numbers. Should have been picked up by the author when proof reading it though.
But I digress. It now turns out that even the 2350 figure was, how shall I put it, less than accurate. In fact it seems that far from the 50 billion tons of meltwater not being replaced by snow each year in the Himalayas, on which the report was predicated, the total size of the glaciers has remained more or less constant for the last decade.
How could a mistake like this happen? Quite easily, really. The estimate was based on the observed figures for the lower, easier to reach glaciers, and scaled up to account for the higher more inaccessible glaciers. However, once you look at the information produced by the Grace (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellites, it becomes clear that the higher glaciers are not actually losing ice at all.
So does this mean science is failing, or is wrong? Absolutely not. Quite to the contrary. It shows that science is working properly. As new, and better, methods of measurement become available, the experimental basis for theories is re-examined and the theories are either discarded, amended, or reinforced as appropriate. In fact good science should always be looking for ways to disprove existing theories. Of course, it isn’t easy to come out against the perceived wisdom, but that’s why experiments should always be repeatable by other people, and the original data on which a theory is based should always be available.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/feb/08/glaciers-mountains?intcmp=122
http://www.csr.utexas.edu/grace/
Last month the 131-year old Eastman Kodak company filed for bankruptcy protection. Sounds like a story we’ve all heard so many times about dinosaur companies not being able to understand and make the change in the brave new world of the digital economy. Actually, it’s not like that at all. IEEE’s Spectrum magazine has a fascinating piece on the company that reveals it was actually a leader in the field of digital photography, picture sharing sites and all the other things that could have come together to save it. Well worth taking a look. It just goes to show how hard innovation is.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/podcast/at-work/innovation/innovation-is-hard
There is some interesting stuff coming out of the Tampere University of Technology’s Department of Biomedical Engineering. It seems that they have come up with a new type of artificial bone joint that triggers the body into producing new fibrous tissue to replace that damaged by arthritis. Eventually, the fibrous tissue entirely replaces the artificial joint’s polylactide copolymer, leaving a new joint made from the body’s own cells. At the moment the implant is suitable for small finger and toe joints, but, hopefully, this will be extended over time to include bigger joints.
http://www.gizmag.com/regjoint-biodegradable-joint-implant/21655/
Geek Stuff:
OK, this isn’t hi-tech, but I couldn’t resist telling you about it. A mystery knitter (that’s knitting as in making things from wool) left an amazing set of Olympic games themed figurines on the sea front railings in the UK town of Saltburn-by-the-Sea. Take a look - it’s a massive project, and no one knows whodunit! The latter point is probably a wise move on the part of the knitter. Based on past observation, I’d say there was a better than even chance the UK’s Olympic committee would sue him or her for using the logo without permission.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/howaboutthat/9128385/London-2012-mystery-knitter-leaves-Olympics-themed-knitted-figures-on-pier.html?frame=2161025
I’ve been keeping an eye on the costs of 3D printers, but they have been way out of my affordable price range - until now. The MakiBox A6, at US$300 a pop may well be the printer that introduces 3D printing to the masses. It’s a rather vile greeny-yellow color, but don’t let that put you off, and it uses open source software compatible with Windows, Linux, and the Mac. It comes as a kit, but the review claims that it’s as easy to put together as IKEA furniture! Hmmm - make of that what you will... The plastic it uses is about US$20 a Kg and it can build objects up to 5.9” x 4.3” x 4.3” in size. This is something I plan to keep an eye on for future use.
http://www.gizmag.com/makibox-a6-3d-printer/21713/
Scanner: Other stories
The true, tragic cost of British wind power
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/07/wind_power_how_much/
Potential employers, colleges asking for Facebook passwords
http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2012/03/potential-employers-colleges-asking.html
Anonymous, decentralized and uncensored file-sharing is booming
https://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-decentralized-and-uncensored-file-sharing-is-booming-120302/
The funniest signs on the London Underground
http://www.lbc.co.uk/the-funniest-signs-on-the-tube-51918/album/the_funniest_signs_on_the_tube/1624
Acknowledgements
Thanks to readers Barb, Fi, and to Slashdot's daily newsletter for drawing my attention to material used in this issue.
Please send suggestions for stories to alan@ibgames.com and include the words Winding Down in the subject line, unless you want your deathless prose gobbled up by my voracious Spamato spam filter...
Alan Lenton
alan@ibgames.com
11 March 2012
Alan Lenton is an on-line games designer, programmer and sociologist, the order of which depends on what he is currently working on! His web site is at http://www.ibgames.net/alan.
Past issues of Winding Down can be found at http://www.ibgames.net/alan/winding/index.html.
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