Winding Down
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net, technology, science and other news
by Alan Lenton
6 December 2020
Quite a lot in this week’s edition of Winding Down. Update looks at our old friend the Boeing 737 Max, and also PayPal’s cryptocurrency activity. Then there is material on a satellite launching drone, an unusual airline, DPU cards (read it to find out what they are), essays feature video games and also the fantasy novel genre, and there’s a bit about hacking and real world destruction.
Pictures carries a rather nice, if conventional, landscape of a volcano, a meteor in the southern skies, drone footage of the Arecibo final collapse, and an infinite number of pictures, not to mention hotel rooms!
Finally, Scanner has URLs pointing to suspicious Google/Android data flows, a mega NASA rocket, a new neutrino type, IETF funding, the Dark Web, black holes v. Fuzzballs, and finally, because it was such a cool name, Epistemic Exhaustion!
Stay safe!
Alan Lenton
Publishing schedule: Christmas Hols – No issues on 27 December 2020 and 3 January 2021
Credits: Thanks to readers Fi and Barb, for drawing my attention to material for Winding Down.
Updates:
I note that the EU aviation safety regulator is not taking the word of the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that the software fix for the Boeing 737 Max makes it safe to fly. Hardly surprising really when you consider that it was the FAA that certified that the original version was safe to fly!
Once upon a time the US FAA certification was the gold standard of proof that an aircraft model was safe to fly. How times have changed...
https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/20/eu_737_max/
In the meantime the airlines are working hard to make sure that when the regulator lets them fly 737 Maxes again, the passengers don’t know that its a Max, because the name has been changed! For airlines the main reason for buying the model is that it is cheaper to run. Assuming, of course, that they are not flying into the ground...
Oh, and by the way Boeing has so far sold 350 of these aircraft to the airlines, so I don’t think any of the airlines are just going to write them off!
https://boingboing.net/2020/11/24/how-to-tell-if-youre-flying-on-a-boeing-max-737.html
If you want an overview of the whole 737 Max shambles, which, remember, 346 people paid for with their lives, take a look at this piece from the excellent ‘Conversation’ web site.
https://theconversation.com/boeing-737-max-why-was-it-grounded-what-has-been-fixed-and-is-it-enough-150688
Turning to other matters, I recently pointed out that PayPal’s introduction of cryptocurrency trading had definite limits on what you can do with your currency on PayPal. It seems that the first person has already fallen foul of the rules. The account has been permanently banned and an 180 day hold has been put on the funds involved.
PayPal believe that the account was used for cryptocurrency trading because of the frequency with which it was being used. So, if you are using PayPal to hold your crypto funds, think very carefully, before first!
https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/news/paypal-bans-user-for-trading-cryptocurrencies/ [via ADVFN newsletter]
Aerospace:
I don’t know about you, but I always think of drone aircraft as small things. Not exactly toys, but certainly not big. So, it was something of a shock when I clicked on a story about a drone designed to launch satellites into space from the mid-air.
The beast is 80 feet long, 18 feet tall, and has a wingspan of 60 feet. So not your average drone, then! It’s an interesting take on how you launch satellites, competing with the likes of Rocket Lab, Space X, and Virgin Orbit. Apparently a fleet of them could put a payload into orbit every three hours if the idea takes off (so to speak).
I think it’s a rather nifty idea, I hope that it comes off.
https://newatlas.com/space/worlds-biggest-drone-ravn-x-launch-space/
Airlines:
CNN has a really interesting piece about an airline called Jet Test and Transport. It’s a global airline which only flies one way trips and doesn’t carry passengers or cargo! That sound really weird until you realise that they only fly planes from where they have landed to where they are needed, or to storage facilities and the like.
Basically they are in the business of ferrying aircraft. I had never thought about it before, But it’s an obvious requirement in retrospect!.
It seems that with the massive reduction in travel caused by the pandemic, they have no shortage of business at the moment!
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/ferry-flights-jet-test-transport/index.html
Computers:
The Register has an interesting piece about DPU’s. Never heard of them? Neither had I. It turn turns out that, logically enough, they are the network equivalent of CPUs and GPU’s. The ‘D’ stands for ‘Data’ and they are designed to speed up networking in a way analogous to that of GPUs speeding up graphics work.
I think that in the near future these little beasts are going to be at least as important as GPUs have become in their niche, so here’s a piece giving you the full story.
https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/25/smartnic_dpu/
Essays:
The first story I’d like to draw your attention to is a piece on video games hatred by older people. Obviously, as the author/programmer of one of the earliest online computer games, this is an issue dear to my heart! As the author points out, “In fact, there is no sound scientific basis to believe that video game addiction exists as a psychiatric condition.” His take is a well argued case that it’s merely part of the general suspicion of youthful activities that frequently occurs in older people! See what you think.
https://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2020/11/17/video-games-might-actually-be-good-for-you
The other essay I’d like to draw your attention to this week is a fascinating essay about the work and legacy of the English Department at the University of Oxford, one of the UK’s elite institutions. Don’t touch that off switch! We are talking about no less than J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis!
I’m sure that like most people of my and succeeding generations, you are familiar with the worlds of Middle Earth and/or Narnia. But, like me you may not have realized just how they grew out of the work of an elite department in a prestigious university to become the foundation of a major genre of children’s literature and the adult fantasy genre.
So, take a look – I think you’ll find it interesting!
https://aeon.co/essays/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-oxford-school-of-fantasy-literature
Security:
Wired has a very worrying piece about the real world damage to physical infrastructure that hacked code can do. Most people think of hacking damage in terms of lost or destroyed data, but this is real world stuff.
In 2007 a secret experiment was run at the Idaho National Laboratory. The result? Thirty lines of code uploaded into the right place were all that was needed to completely destroy a 27 ton generator beyond repair. And it took only a few seconds. You can read the whole story in the article. Definitely not good.
https://www.wired.com/story/how-30-lines-of-code-blew-up-27-ton-generator/
Pictures:
Our first picture is a classic landscape of the volcano Mount Bromo at sunrise.
https://photocontest.smithsonianmag.com/photocontest/detail/sunrise-at-mt-bromo/
The second is a video of a green meteor crossing the sky at night and exploding. The video is taken from a ship near the coast of Tasmania.
https://www.sciencealert.com/watch-a-meteor-flame-and-crumble-as-it-falls-over-the-tasman-sea
In case you haven’t seen the sad pictures of the final destruction of the legendary Arecibo radio telescope collapse here they are. Taken by drones involved in examining the structure at the time, they show the final denouement. Sigh...
https://boingboing.net/2020/12/03/watch-drone-footage-of-arecibo-collapse.html
And finally, three rather unusual pictures that zoom in. They have a problem though, because they run for an infinite time... Fortunately, I suspect that there are an infinite number of infinities available, so you should be OK! And while we are playing around with infinities, you might like to check in to the Hilbert Hotel – it always has room for another guest, even when it’s completely full!
https://zoomquilt.org
http://zoomquilt2.com
http://arkadia.xyz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert’s_paradox_of_the_Grand_Hotel
Quotes:
“‘Don’t worry, we updated the software.’ – There is no modern statement less reassuring.”
Clive Thompson talking about the thought of flying in a Boeing 737 Max.
https://boingboing.net/2020/11/24/how-to-tell-if-youre-flying-on-a-boeing-max-737.html
Scanner:
New lawsuit: Why do Android phones mysteriously exchange 260MB a month with Google via cellular data when they’re not even in use?
https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/14/google_android_data_allowance/
NASA’s new ‘megarocket’ set for critical tests
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-54927173
Neutrino detector finds new type of “ghost particle” from the Sun
https://newatlas.com/physics/borexino-cno-neutrino-detected-sun/
Internet Society puts its money where its mouth is with additional IETF funding
https://www.theregister.com/2020/12/03/internet_society_ietf/
Only a small fraction of the Dark Web is being used for hidden activity, study finds
https://www.sciencealert.com/only-a-small-fraction-of-the-dark-web-is-being-used-for-hidden-activity-study-finds
Black holes may not exist, but fuzzballs might, wild theory suggests
https://www.space.com/string-theory-fuzzballs-are-black-holes
Fatigued by the news? You might have ‘Epistemic Exhaustion’ [I couldn’t resist this one – if only for the name! – AL]
https://www.sciencealert.com/too-tired-to-read-the-news-you-might-have-epistemic-exhaustion
Footnote:
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
6 December 2020
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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