Fed2 Star - the newsletter for the space trading game Federation 2

The weekly newsletter for Fed2
by ibgames

EARTHDATE: December 20, 2015

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WINDING DOWN

An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net, technology and science news
by Alan Lenton

This is the last Winding Down of the year, so I’ve tried to keep it (mostly) light hearted an cheerful. I’ve saved all the doom and gloom for the first issue of next year, which will be on the 10th of January. That gives me a whole two weeks off!

Have a nice Christmas, and a prosperous new year.


You’ve never heard anything like it! Try this UK weather forecast – the presenter manages to get in 12 Star Wars puns in a mere 40 seconds. Magnificent!
http://mashable.com/2015/12/17/weather-star-wars-puns/

And talking of Star Wars, would you like to know how they designed the original look and feel (and sound) in the first Star Wars? They were on a really tight budget, so they used bits of old jet engines, motorcycling gear, and sound effect techniques developed for the early Dr Who series. Read the details in a fascinating article from ‘The Register’.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/12/15/star_wars_unsung_heroes/

Someone who’s having a very happy Christmas is Volkswagen’s former CEO, Martin Winterkorn, who resigned over the emissions scandal. It turns out that Volkswagen are still paying him! And it looks like they will be continuing to pay him, even though he’s resigned, until the end of 2016. His annual salary is 1.6 million Euros. I’m clearly in the wrong business, if I resign the company I work for stops paying me!
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/business/volkswagens-former-ceo-martin-winterkorn-to-draw-salary-until-december-2016-sources/articleshow/50225628.cms

US$52 billion – that’s how much the latest EU regulation on mobile phone roaming charges is estimated to be going to save people who have a mobile phone, and use it elsewhere in the EU. It’s not actually coming in for another year, but it’s still great news. Most of the mobile operators are owned by multinationals, anyway. So for them the extra charges for using your mobile outside the country it’s registered in was just cream on the jam, on the butter, on the cake!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/12/15/eu_roaming_rules_to_save_customers_billions/

Going back to Star Wars, again... You want to build light sabre? Take a look at the URL, not just a discussion of the principles, but also an interesting short video on the subject!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/12/15/how_to_build_a_lightsabre/

Great news of an outbreak of common sense. In the aftermath of the recent terror attacks, France has ruled out introducing Wi-Fi and Tor restrictions (Tor is an anonymising network). Given the miserable news of the vast increase in western governments legislating to make it easier for both hackers and themselves to spy on their citizens, the attitude of the French can only be welcome news.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/12/11/no_wifi_tor_restrictions_after_france_terror_attack/

There’s good news of a revolutionary new type of treatment for steel that makes it much stronger. It’s currently being tested by a number of car manufacturers, who are looking at the possibility of using it to make the vehicle bodywork lighter. That’s good news all round – less steel means costs go down for the manufacturer, and lighter car bodies means they use less gas. Cheers!
http://www.gizmag.com/flash-bainite-automotive-testing/40774/

Looks like Elon Musk’s hyperloop transport concept is starting to go places (so to speak). A number of startup companies are building test tracks to get real data on the idea. Just what’s needed to move the idea from the realm of pure concept into that of practicality. It’ll be interesting to see what the outcome is.
http://www.gizmag.com/hyperloop-technologies-high-speed/40813/

If you appreciate craftsmanship you need to have a look at this video. It’s of a Kutani ceramics painter at work – and the work is exquisite.
http://www.spoon-tamago.com/2015/12/04/the-masterful-craftsmanship-of-a-kutani-ceramics-painter/

Fans of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, a story parodied by everyone from Blackadder to the Muppets, might care to look at this piece in ‘The Londonist’ which tries to work out, from clues in the actual story, where it was that Ebenezer Scrooge lived. Incidentally the story is so popular that it has never been out of print since it was published on 19 December 1843 – that’s 172 years!
http://londonist.com/2014/12/the-london-of-ebenezer-scrooge

Well – that’s all for 2015, folk! Thank you for following Winding Down over the last year...

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
20 December 2015

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/index.html.

Past issues of Winding Down can be found at http://www.ibgames.net/alan/winding/index.html.

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