WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week’s net, technology and science news
by Alan Lenton
An interesting miscellany of pieces this week - Tidbinbilla, EFF on data protect scores (Sonic.net, Apple, Google, Twitter, AT&T, Verizon, Microsoft and MySpace), Nokia’s Asha 501 smartphone, Tor on DRM-free e-books, Ray Harryhausen, Quantum Shorts, a Space Auction, tequila and diamonds. URLs include mobile phone profits for Apple and Samsung, sapphire iPhone screens, and Tesla electric car manufacturer reporting profits.
Advance notice - I know you all keep details of Winding Down publication schedules in your smartphones - there will be no issue on 26th May. Normally I take time off Winding Down when I am doing other things that take me out of town, but this time I plan to actually take the weekend, which is a UK bank (public) holiday, off completely!
So, on with the show...
Shorts:
I was going to draw your attention to an opportunity to watch the new 34 meter antenna dish being lifted into place at Australia’s Tidbinbilla Deep Space Communications Complex. Unfortunately, those efficient Aussie engineers managed to do it in one, and now have the dish mounted on the top of its tower. It’s still worth taking a look though. The Register article has a picture of the dish on the ground next to the tower, while the two cam pictures show the dish as it is now, in place on the top of the tower. I couldn’t find a video of the lifting process, unfortunately. If anyone finds one, let me know the details and I’ll include the URL in the next issue.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/06/dont_drop_the_dish/
http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn/images/realtime/latestC1.jpg
http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn/images/realtime/latestC2.jpg
The Electronic Frontier Foundation published its annual report on data protection at the start of this month, awarding some of the biggest names on the net between zero and six gold stars for how well they defended the personal data they hold on individuals. The results were pretty predictable, with the likes of Apple, AT&T, Verizon and MySpace trailing along at the bottom, and Google and Twitter up there near or at the top. Twitter surprised me, but apparently they are pretty hot when it comes to protecting their users. Frankly, I had no idea that MySpace were still around...
The best ISP to protect your privacy was the West Coast’s Sonic.net, who were right up at the top with Twitter. Both Google and Microsoft got a mention for their sterling work in raising general awareness of National Security Letters - US government-issued investigatory orders with a gagging clause that can be enforced without judicial oversight. Well done guys!
http://www.androidguys.com/2013/05/01/electronic-frontier-foundation-shows-google-fights-for-user-privacy-than-apple-others/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/01/eff_data_privacy_report/
https://www.eff.org/who-has-your-back-2013
And talking of Apple, it seems that the encryption on their recent models of iPhones is good enough to stymie most police forces, who are consequently force to go cap in hand to Apple to break the encryption on phones seized during arrests. In fact, Apple are now getting so many requests for help, that there is a waiting list! Both Apple and Google can break into encrypted material on their phones, though Google does it in a way that means the user is notified of the compromise. The real issue, though, is whether these requests from law officers for assistance, are subject to judicial oversight or not.
As an aside, you might like to note some figures provided by Elcomsoft. They claim their iOS Forensic Toolkit can perform a brute force crack of iOS 4 and iOS 5 four digit passwords in between 20 and 40 minutes. Other estimates suggest that the times are 22 hours for a six digit PIN, two and a half years for a 9 digit PIN, and 25 years for a 10 digit PIN. Size does matter!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57583843-38/apple-deluged-by-police-demands-to-decrypt-iphones/
A smartphone for US$99? Yes really. That’s the price point for the new Nokia Asha 501. It seems that while everyone else is going to bigger phones, Nokia have opted to get smaller, and with a three inch screen, you don’t get much smaller - or lighter at 91 grams. At roughly four inches by two and a half inches, and less than half an inch thick, it packs in a lot of power, although, of course not as much as the high guys, like my Samsung Note 1.
Still it has possibilities. If I could buy a decent tablet with a proper filing system and which could function as a proper computer, rather than a device for running useless trivial apps, the Asha 501 would be very high on my list for a new smartphone to go with it! Take a look and see what you think. Maybe this will be enough to rescue Nokia from the disaster of their Windows Metro (or whatever they call it now) deal with Microsoft...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/nokia/10046210/Nokia-Asha-501-the-smartest-featurephone.html
http://www.nokia.com/gb-en/phones/phone/asha501/specifications/
Well, the tests are over and the figures are in, and the debate should be over (but it isn’t). One year ago, book publisher Tor UK announced that its e-book list would be DRM free from now on. The results for that first year are now in. As the blog states, “... we’ve seen no discernible increase in piracy on any of our titles, despite them being DRM-free for nearly a year.”
They summarized the effect of the move as follows: “The move has been a hugely positive one for us, it’s helped establish Tor and Tor UK as an imprint that listens to its readers and authors when they approach us with a mutual concern—and for that we’ve gained an amazing amount of support and loyalty from the community. And a year on we’re still pleased that we took this step with the imprint and continue to publish all of Tor UK’s titles DRM-free.”
So there you have it - an entirely positive reaction from both Tor, their authors and their readers. If the big publishers continue down the route of DRM, I foresee a time when authors will choose smaller publishers so that their work gets a wider exposure to the public!
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/04/tor-books-uk-drm-free-one-year-later
Homework:
So we say farewell to the legendary Ray Harryhausen, the master of stop-motion animation, who died this week. For my younger readers, you need to know that before CGI there was stop-motion animation. As a kid I remember watching ‘Jason and the Argonauts’ and being blown away by the sowing of the dragons teeth sequence and the fight between the Argonauts and the skeletons. I haven’t seen it for years, but I’m reliably told that it compares very favorably to its CGI equivalent.
If you want to get some idea of his work, take a look at the video of the battle with the Medusa from ‘Clash of the Titans’ in The Register obituary.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/07/ray_harryhausen_obituary/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF_Fi7x93PY (Stop Press: just found a skeleton fight two minute extract on YouTube)
This is a bit late, but I just discovered Quantum Shorts 2012, and I’m going to tell you about it anyway. It’s a competition to produce a short (about 3 min) movie illustrating aspects of quantum mechanics. And it attracted some amazing movies. My favorite is the runner up ‘Alice in Quantumland’. Wonderful!
http://shorts.quantumlah.org/
http://shorts.quantumlah.org/alice-in-quantumland/
For Geeks:
Attention all West Coast geeks! Did you know that you can make diamonds out of tequila? No? Neither did I until I read about some research at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, which has done just that. It seems that vapor from 80% proof tequila blanco when applied to a substrate of stainless steel or silicon, given you a diamond film...
I’d hate to discourage such intrepid research, but that sound to me like a waste of good tequila! On the other hand I wouldn’t be surprised if the researchers turn out to be in the running for an Ig Nobel prize <
(http://www.improbable.com/ig/) in the not too distant future!
http://supernovacondensate.net/2013/04/14/tequila-diamonds/
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0806/0806.1485.pdf
Calling all space geeks - RR Auction are holding an on-line auction for around 800 pieces of Space Age memorabilia, like the strip of paper recording Neil Armstrong’s EKG as he took the first step on the Moon, and the Apollo 9 EVA checklist. Nice stuff - some of it is a little obscure - but I suspect the US flag flown on Apollo 10, signed by the crew will be a very popular item.
http://www.gizmag.com/aerospace-memorabilia-auction/27409/
http://www.rrauction.com/preview_gallery.cfm?Category=63
Scanner: Other stories
Apple and Samsung tighten chokehold on mobile profits as others’ hope fades
http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/apple-and-samsung-tighten-chokehold-mobile-profits-others-hope-fades-218214?page=0,0&source=IFWNLE_nlt_blogs_2013-05-09
Why next iPhone screen could be made of sapphire
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/02/gorilla_glass_ipads/
Start Ups - The Exit Trap
http://www.cringely.com/2013/05/07/the-exit-trap/
Tesla earns first profit, Model S wins ‘99% perfect’ rating
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/09/tesla_first_profit_consumer_results_record/
Acknowledgements
Thanks to readers Barb and Fi for drawing my attention to material for Winding Down.
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 Thunderbird spam filter...
Alan Lenton
alan@ibgames.com
12 May 2013
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.
