Winding Down
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net, technology, science and other news
by Alan Lenton
7 March 2021
Things are starting to calm down a bit, and the COVID-19 generated problems are mostly sorted out (I hope). Apart from the internet/pay for links stuff, there hasn’t been a lot of techie type news over the last few weeks. I think people are waiting for the lockdown to lift before they start anything new.
That being the case this issue is a bit more varied than usual, but hopefully people will find something that amuses them in the selection I’ve provided.
Have fun and stay safe,
Alan Lenton
Publishing schedule: Erratic...
Credits: Thanks to readers Fi, and Barb for drawing my attention to material for Winding Down.
Updates:
Our old friends Boeing found themselves in the news again at the end of last month when bits of engine started falling off their planes while they were in flight. Fortunately no one was hurt, either on the planes, which got back onto the ground safely, or by the falling debris.
Incidentally, a number of airlines have started flying their Boeing 737-Max aircraft on regular routes again. The planes are being given different designations, presumably to hide their identity, so don’t be afraid to ask awkward questions if you have to fly in the near future.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-56163403
https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/22/planespotters_weekends_turn_traumatic_as/
And while we are on the subject of Boeing, I note that the US Federal Aviation Administration has fined Boeing a total of US$6.6 million for a bunch of breaches of regulatory and safety obligations. Sounds to me like a mild tap on the wrist when you consider the deaths that resulted from the transgressions, and how much money Boeing made from the sale of the aircraft...
https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/02/26/21/us-agency-fines-boeing-66-million-over-regulatory-lapses
Moving on, I note that SolarWinds top executives are blaming an unnamed intern for the massive breach of security recently. How on earth anyone in the company, let alone a mere intern, could create the password ‘solarwinds123’ without triggering an immediate rejection and a security alert, I really don’t know.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/26/politics/solarwinds123-password-intern/index.html
Essays:
Did you know that fake news has a history dating back to at least ancient Greece? It certainly hadn’t occurred to me until I read about it in an essay on ‘The Conversation’. It should have clicked for me since I read the book they are referring to – Thucydides ‘History of the Peloponnesian War’ – while I was doing Physics at university. It seem that the Athens town square was a mass of misinformation. Not quite as many people involved as there are on the internet, of course, but a significant chunk of the Athenian voting population.
Take a look at the essay – it’s very readable.
https://theconversation.com/fake-news-was-a-thing-long-before-donald-trump-just-ask-the-ancient-greeks-155867
On a much more technical topic, New Left Review’s Sidecar blog has an interesting piece about the history of text encoding standards from the start of the telegraph to the modern Unicode standard. I note that the author doesn’t cover the encoding used for Indian smoke signals...
https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/the-mojibake
Health:
I see that there are reports of a breakthrough in producing a male contraceptive pill. I guess the people involved reckon that this is worth a lot of money in the future. I think not. I can’t think of a single woman I’ve known who would trust a man who says he is on a male contraceptive pill! And rightly so...
https://newatlas.com/medical/triptonide-male-contraceptive-pill/
History:
You may not have heard of it, but last month was the 79th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of the Canadian city of Winnipeg. Fascinating – take a look for yourself!
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/rare-photos-from-if-day-the-time-winnipeg-staged-a-full-scale-nazi-invasion-of-itself
Music:
Science Alert has an interesting report on a paper looking at why it is that people tend to prefer the music that was in vogue when they were teenagers. I doubt if anyone is surprised by that revelation. What’s interesting though is that it’s already known that people tend to disproportionately recall memories from when they were between 10 and 30 years old.
A few songs – like The Eagles ‘Hotel California’ – were found to transcend the time and be popular whatever age it was when you heard them. I guess that’s because...
‘You can check-out any time you like
But you can never leave!’
https://www.sciencealert.com/there-s-a-reason-we-prefer-rocking-out-to-music-from-our-youth
Pictures:
Bit of a dearth of decent pictures at the moment. I suppose it’s inevitable with the restrictions on flying around to exotic locations. If you like underwater photography, though, you might like to take a look at some of the entries for the Underwater Photographer of the Year Awards.
https://newatlas.com/photography/winners-2021-underwater-photographer-year-awards-gallery/
Quotes:
“Hearing the much missed sound of laughter with friends once more will be an important step in the recovery for both people and communities.”
Thomas Thurnell-Read
Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Loughborough University
https://theconversation.com/british-people-are-really-missing-the-pub-heres-why-154585
Scanner:
Smartphones are becoming like white goods, says analyst, with users only upgrading when their handsets break
https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/25/smartphones_are_becoming_like_white/
The Earliest Bank of England note
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/museum/blog/our-earliest-bank-of-england-note
Nostalgia – Cab Ride – an 8-bit train simulator!
https://powersaurus.itch.io/cab-ride
Cat on a fast train roof holds up London to Manchester service
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/mar/04/cat-on-a-fast-train-roof-holds-up-london-to-manchester-service
Mobile World Congress to run this year’s Barcelona event in June with 50,000 attendees...
https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/18/mobile_world_congress/
Mating toads force road closure in Ham, Richmond, London
https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2021/03/02/mating-toads-closes-road-in-ham-richmond/
US govt drops challenge to California’s net neutrality law, signals shift to once again safeguard connections
https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/09/net_neutrality_fcc/
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
7 March 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.
If you have any questions or comments about the articles on my web site, click here to send me email.