WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net, technology and science news
by Alan Lenton
Right! This week we have material on a Google plan to hide parts of URLs in its Chrome browser, a piece on blockchains, the ultimate in knitting (yes, really), a picture of clouds and lightning, some videos on the topic of paper aeroplanes, and an update (such as it is) on the Google/Mastercard affair. URLs point to material on non-emerging technology, Deepfakes, immortality, attempts to make ISPs into copyright cops, the largest aircraft ever built, a Microsoft blunder, open source Tesla security, and the California privacy law.
This week here at the Winding Down Corporate HQ we have a family get together, which included the transforming of my study into a guest bedroom, so perhaps you’ll understand why Winding Down is a little more sparse than usual! Incidentally, next week is the regular once a month week off, so there will be no Winding Down, but as a famous cyborg once said, “I’ll be back!” On 23 September, to be precise...
Shorts:
I gather Google have embarked in a new scheme to have the Chrome browser hide parts of the URL in the bar, hidden so you can’t see the full URL. (I moved over to Firefox six months or so ago so I haven’t actually seen it). Regardless, I consider this move to be incredibly dangerous, since it means you can’t check that you really are where you thought you were online. What Google think they are playing at, I have no idea.
However, it is possible to stop your browser doing this and revert to the full display of URLs, but, being Google you would need a PhD in Computing Science to discover it for yourself. Fortunately, there is a very clear, blow by blow, account of what you need to do on Lauren Weinstein’s blog. If you are still using Chrome I’d urge you to use it to change your browser settings.
Sadly, the truth is that in the last few years Google have moved from being an enabler of good things to being a typical multinational with all that that implies.
https://lauren.vortex.com/2018/09/07/heres-how-to-disable-google-chromes-confusing-new-url-hiding-scheme
Homework:
I’m sure most of you will have heard of Bitcoin and the blockchain by now. Indeed, some companies have even discovered that they can jack up the perceived value of their shares by changing their name to include the word ‘blockchain’. Expect to hear such gems as ‘The Blockchain Cup Cake Corporation’ in the not too distant future! Even where names are not being changed, senior executives are champing at the bit to have a ‘blockchain project’ under way, whether they need it or not – and most often they don’t.
From what I know of the readers of this digital rag, I’m sure that you will want to prevent your company from going bust by blowing vast amounts of money on a useless bug-ridden blockchain project... So, it was with interest that I read an excellent piece called ‘Avoiding the pointless blockchain project’.
The author starts from a slightly different position than the normal assumption that the blockchain is a ledger. It may be used as a ledger, but at the bottom it is a distributed database. You know, it’s like a replacement for your SQL relational database. The critical question is whether you -need- to replace your existing database? After all, the big SQL databases from the likes Oracle and IBM have been around for multiple decades. Most of the bugs were fixed years ago, and the thing is stable and works. Why would you want to replace all those decades of solid code with newly written stuff that’s only been around for a year or so? (OK. Hating Oracle is a valid reason, but it’s not a -sufficient- reason...)
So if you, or your company, are toying with the idea of blockchain project, them I would urge you to read this superb article that puts it all into perspective and gives you a set of questions to answer in the affirmative before you undertake betting your shirt on a blockchain. I know things like blockchain are to geeks like catnip is to a cat, but stop and read this article first. Here’s the URL:
https://www.multichain.com/blog/2015/11/avoiding-pointless-blockchain-project
Geek Stuff:
I’m sure that knitting is not normally considered to be a geek occupation, but how about hacking a knitting machine to make a star map? Yes really. Software engineer Sarah Spencer used a Raspberry Pi, an Arduino compatible board, Python and a PHP/MySQL web interface to hack the machine. Go and have a look at the URL – the result is impressive!
https://www.sciencealert.com/software-engineer-sarah-spencer-heart-of-pluto-knitting-machine-night-sky-map
Pictures:
This week’s picture is an amazing one of a gigantic Cumulonimbus cloud over Tokyo, complete with a lightning strike. A classic picture!
http://www.spoon-tamago.com/2018/08/27/cumulonimbus-cloud-over-tokyo/
And for those of you who just -love- to make paper aeroplanes, here are two videos from a world expert, that will enable your paper planes to outfly everyone else’s!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?CMPID=ene090618&v=SfquWcLHrKc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDiC9iMcWTc
Scanner:
Gartner’s great vanishing: Some of 2017’s emerging techs just disappeared
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/08/20/gartners_great_vanishing_every_2017_
emerging_tech_trend_has_disappeared/
Researchers explain a really simple way to tell if a video is a ‘Deepfake’
https://www.sciencealert.com/researchers-explain-a-really-simple-way-to-tell-if-a-video-is-a-deepfake
On going on and on and on (reflections on immortality)
https://aeon.co/essays/theres-a-big-problem-with-immortality-it-goes-on-and-on
Texas ISP slams music biz for trying to turn it into a ‘copyright cop’
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/08/21/texas_isp_copyright_police/
The largest aircraft ever built will soon launch rockets into space
https://hackaday.com/2018/08/29/stratolaunch-announces-carrier-aircraft-with-largest-wingspan-ever/
Your Phone prematurely ejected, Skype texting on the way, and 900 more years of Windows [See Microsoft blunder at end of article! – AL]
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/08/20/microsoft_messaging_round_up/
Why critics who bash Musk’s open source Tesla security project are wrong
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/why-critics-who-bash-musks-open-source-tesla-security-project-are-wrong/
Big Tech turns saboteur to cripple new California privacy law in private
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/08/21/ca_privacy_law_sabotage/
Quote for the week:
Seen on a T-Shirt while travelling on the tube (the London subway for my American readers) this week:
The Universe is made up of:
Protons
Electrons
And morons
Coda:
Last week I promised an update on the Google/Mastercard affair, but to be honest there seems to be a suspicious dearth of information, other than it definitely exists. This article was the best I could find on it.
https://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/computers/item/29967-google-ties-into-mastercard-data-amazon-looks-to-snare-advertising
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
9 September 9018
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.
