Winding Down
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net, technology, science and other news
by Alan Lenton
14 February 2021
Well, things seen to have calmed down enough for me to get back to producing Winding Down on a weekly basis (famous last words...). This week we are playing catchup! Essays starts with a piece on Tesla and Bitcoin, moving on to lockdown and its likely effects on freelancing. Computing looks at the stupidest computer I ever came across, while the pandemic section looks at the possibilities for a ‘vaccine passport’.
Space covers meteor watching and missions to Mars, while we have some interesting pictures gathered over the last few weeks. They cover snow art, paper models of early personal computers, and two videos, one speeded up plate tectonics, and the other slowed down to show things that can happen in the time it takes to blink.
The quote’s from Linus Torvalds, and Scanner covers CentOS, US virus tracking, Clearview AI, Azure/Ubuntu, a Faraday fabric, a dead teacher, NASA art, and Australia’s proposed new media code.
And now I’ll leave you to it, since my computer is about to print out the last dozen or so of the Nine Billion Names of God...
Have fun, but stay safe!
Alan Lenton
Publishing schedule: Erratic...
Credits: Thanks to readers Fi, and Barb for drawing my attention to material for Winding Down.
Essays:
One of the most interesting things that has happened over the last period is Tesla’s announcement that it has invested US$1.5 billion in Bitcoin. There’s a lot of articles around trying to figure out why, and what the implications are. An essay in The Conversation looks at the implications for the stock market if other large companies start to take the same route.
https://theconversation.com/bitcoin-why-a-wave-of-huge-companies-like-tesla-rushing-to-invest-could-derail-the-stock-market-154966
World Crunch has an interesting piece about the likely effects of the lockdowns for freelancing and the shape of work generally. They make some interested points covering a wider field than most essays on this subject. Unfortunately, I can only recommend this article for those with 20/20 or similar vision, since Crunch chose ‘style’ over legibility for the font. It’s one of those ultra thin fonts that have become trendy recently.
https://worldcrunch.com/work-in-progress-1/work-in-progress-the-freelancing-changes-afoot
Computers and Computing:
Want to see one of the most ludicrous laptops ever to be produced? How about a seven screen laptop? The mind boggles, looking at the size and weight of the thing, and taking into account the fact that you also need a slew of charged batteries to feed its voracious appetite (they last less an hour each), I’m reminded of those woodcut pictures of European explorers in the African jungle. The ones with the explorer trailed by porters with the luggage slung from poles! Not nice.
https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/09/seven_screen_laptop_expanscape_uk/
The Pandemic:
I see that Microsoft, Salesforce, and Oracle are backing a plan to develop a digital Covid ‘Vaccination’ passport. Would you trust that lot with your information? I might just about trust Microsoft, though I have my doubts. Salesforce? No, I don’t think so. And as for Oracle, not a-cat-in-hell’s chance. I regard the inclusion of the Mayo Clinic in the list as a sign of sanity, but not enough to make me tempted.
I’ll be watching the development of this carefully, because I think it’s the sort of thing that’s likely to be needed. Incidentally, what’s wrong with having your doctor stamp your real passport just like immigration do, on entry to a country?
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/14/microsoft-salesforce-and-oracle-working-on-covid-vaccination-passport.html
Space:
ScienceAlert has a useful piece for meteor watchers, detailing whereabouts the best views for the major showers are in the coming year. It also shows you where to look in the sky for these showers of comet fragments, most of which will be too small to make it through to the ground.
https://www.sciencealert.com/your-guide-to-some-of-the-best-meteor-showers-for-2021
And then there is Mars... The Space Review has a useful piece on the future of Mars exploration and the possibility of human missions. One thing that’s always puzzled me is why we are only planning to send people to places where they will have to live underground... I’m sure there must be somewhere in the solar system where we could live under transparent domes on the surface.
I don’t really want to see the morlocks win the space race!
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4086/1
Pictures:
The first set of pictures are for people who, like myself, are relics from the days of the 8-bit and 16-bit home computer boom in the 1980’s. It’s models of the computers made from card and papers! I was pleased to see both the Commode 64 and the Atari ST there – those were the first two computers I ever owned...
http://rockybergen.com/papercraft
Next is some ephemeral ice/snow art from Finland where an artist with help from 11 volunteers created a massive snow pattern using only rope and snowshoes to lay the 525ft wide pattern. Impressive!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56024213
Next we move on to have a look at the movement of plate tectonics – speeded up. It’s a nice little video – watching the continents appear in the shape, size, and position they occupy today is fascinating. Though ironically I wish it were possible to slow the video down as well!
https://www.sciencealert.com/watch-a-billion-years-of-tectonic-plate-movements-in-just-40-seconds
Ironically, after a video speeding things up, we have one that slows things down. Don’t blink or you’ll miss it! This video is about things that can happen in the time it takes you to blink! For instance, across the whole universe 15,000 stars will be born...
Fascinating, entertaining, informative, and educational.
https://boingboing.net/2021/02/12/what-else-happens-in-the-blink-of-an-eye.html
Quotes:
“It’s kind of a more violent and hands-on team-oriented version of the traditional egg-and-spoon race, and involves a lot of standing around, apparently waiting for the next commercial to come on.”
Linus Torvald’s explanation of the Super Bowl LV
Scanner:
The killing of CentOS Linux: ‘The CentOS board doesn’t get to decide what Red Hat engineering teams do’
https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/26/killing_centos/
Why the U.S. is struggling to track coronavirus variants
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-us-struggling-track-coronavirus-variants-180976984/
Canada probe concludes Clearview AI breached privacy laws
https://techxplore.com/news/2021-02-canada-probe-clearview-ai-breached.html
Dev creeped out after he fired up Ubuntu VM on Azure, was immediately approached by Canonical sales rep
https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/11/microsoft_azure_ubuntu_data_sharing/
Experimental “Faraday fabric” blocks almost all electromagnetic waves
https://newatlas.com/materials/faraday-fabric-mxene-blocks-electromagnetic-waves/
We regret to inform you the professor teaching your online course is already dead...
https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/27/online_prof/
Book Review: The Art of NASA: The Illustrations that Sold the Missions
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4083/1
Australia’s proposed media code could break the world wide web, says the man who invented it
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/jan/20/australias-proposed-media-code-could-break-the-world-wide-web-says-the-man-who-invented-it
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
14 February 2021
Alan Lenton is a retired 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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