Winding Down
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net, technology, science and other news
by Alan Lenton
28 March 2021
Hmmmm... The clocks went forward here in the UK last night. When I came to look this morning a suspiciously large number of electric gadgets which are not supposed to be connected to the internet have automatically updated themselves. I’m going to have to look into what’s going on here...
This week we have a very mixed bunch. For starters there is an update on the long running HP/Autonomy trial, and then a couple of essays on computer security, and Starlink up and coming politics. Then we move on to airline woes, and a couple of items on the environment – green crabs and offshore wind turbines. Pictures features some of the best of the Icelandic volcano pictures, and the quote is from French philosopher Pierre-Henri Tavoillot. Scanner contains URLs taking you to material on changing water use in the lockdown, pollution in LA, the coffee supply chain, the relationship between tax, bureaucracy and democracy, Tesla and safety standards, a new telescope, and John Cleese’s take on the blockchain!
Next weekend (April 4) is Easter weekend, so no Winding Down then. After that, assuming I haven’t completely lost track of time, Winding Down will resume its regular weekly publication!
Have fun and stay safe,
Alan Lenton
Publishing schedule: No issue next week – 4 April. Next issue 11 April.
Credits: Thanks to readers Fi, and Barb for drawing my attention to material for Winding Down.
Updates:
Over the last six years or so I’ve occasionally reported on the progress of the trial involving Lynch, the former CEO of the firm Autonomy, and HP. HP bought Autonomy and now maintain they were conned by Autonomy and forced to write down its value from around US$11 billion to US$2 billion and some loose change. That trial in the High Court in London is nearly at an end and the judge’s ruling is due in the next two months.
The Register has a summary of the trial. Frankly I don’t think either side comes well out of this shambles, and neither does Autonomy’s accountants, Deloitte, who have been fined by their regulator for their role in the affair. I’ve been following the case with some fascination for several years now and it seems to me that regardless of who is deemed to be legally in the wrong, there was a massive failure to provide due diligence on the part of HP.
And of course, it’s a given that whoever loses this case will take it to the court of appeal...
https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/25/hpe_v_lynch_high_court_roundup/
Essays:
There’s an interesting piece in Network Computing by the CEO of Certes Networking, Paul German, suggesting that the digital security companies are focussed on the wrong thing. His point is that the focus on network protection, firewalls and the like, is not the key issue. In his view they should be focussed on protecting the data.
It’s an interesting point. Presumably if you can prevent people from accessing the data regardless of them having compromised the network, breaking into the network is not such a serious problem. Of course, protecting the data doesn’t just mean protecting it where it’s stored – such as a database – it has to be protected while in transit within the network, and even while someone is legitimately manipulating all or part of it.
I suspect what you really need is a holistic view of security – ie both data and network, and, of course, the people who are legitimately accessing and manipulating the data!
https://networkcomputing.co.uk/article.php?article_id=11208&Mag=Network
The launching of Elon Musk’s Starlink internet link satellites continues apace, but, as The Register points out, once the whole system is up and running global and national politics enters the system. Take for instance China, the government of which blocks things it doesn’t like with what is effectively a firewall at the Chinese border. Presumably it won’t let Starlink fly over its airspace.
But that’s not really a solution from the Chinese government point of view. Starlink links can be obtained as long as the line of sight is above 25 degrees to the ground, and you can get a good link – even though it’s around a thousand kilometres away! A thousand kilometres from China’s East coast, for instance, put you way out beyond Chinese territorial waters!
I think Elon Musk is going to be in for some ‘interesting times’ soon...
https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/15/starlink_china_crisis/
Airlines:
Airlines are having a really rough time at the moment. To give you some idea of just how rough, the drop in passenger numbers last year meant a drop in revenue of around US$510 billion – yes billion, not million. And, of course, the tendency for Boeing 737-MAX airliners to fly into the ground didn’t help.
Theoretically, things should get better over the next year as populations get vaccinated and populations are released from lockdown. But will it? People’s habits have changed as a result of the pandemic, and there is a lot less spare cash around. Add to that the sheer mega-unpleasantness of flying these days, especially long distance,
I think a lot of airlines are going to go to the wall.
https://techxplore.com/news/2021-02-pandemic-savages-airline-sector.html
Environment:
Things are not always what they seem in the natural world. Take for instance the European green crab. It’s an invasive species in some California estuaries. So it was decided to try a major cull of the beasties in one sample estuary. The cull was duly carried out and the results were eagerly awaited. Unfortunately, the results were definitely not what was confidently expected. In spite of the cull, the population of green crabs rose dramatically!
It turned out after some investigation that the mature crabs eat the young ones, so as soon as the mature opes were removed the conditions were ripe for a population explosion based on the young crabs!
https://phys.org/news/2021-03-eradicated-species-vengeance.html
And while we are on the subject of unforeseen circumstances, what about offshore wind turbines? The first generation is nearing the end of its useful life and needs to be decommissioned in the next few years, and it seems no one thought about that when they went up. Add to that the fact that the engineers who build and installed these monsters 20+ years ago are now retiring, and with them goes a loss of knowledge and expertise! There are about 300 due for decommissioning in 2025 and a further 1,600 in 2030.
https://techxplore.com/news/2021-02-ageing-offshore-turbines-stunt-growth.html
Pictures:
We had to wait 900 years for these pictures of Iceland’s latest erupting volcano, but I think it was worth the wait!
https://www.sciencealert.com/these-stunning-photos-reveal-iceland-eruption-900-years-in-the-making
Quotes:
For French philosopher Pierre-Henri Tavoillot, citizens who are so quick to criticize their leader ought to ask themselves, “In his place, what would I do?” In an interview with France Culture (https://worldcrunch.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=bf931133a7ae98b961f49dd17&id=db6fc6c923&e=c8be2ccc15), Tavoillot noted the extreme solitude of political leadership and the “tragic” nature of making decisions on behalf of the public: “In politics, the choice is never between a good and a bad decision, but between a bad and a worse one. If that choice existed, there would be no need for politics.”
Scanner:
How the UK’s first lockdown changed water habits – and risked shortages
https://theconversation.com/how-the-uks-first-lockdown-changed-water-habits-and-risked-shortages-152066
With drop in LA’s vehicular aerosol pollution, vegetation emerges as major source
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210323150822.htm
The silicon supply chain crunch is worrying. Now comes a critical concern: A coffee shortage
https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/25/coffee_shortage/
Like it or not, history shows that taxes and bureaucracy are cornerstones of democracy
https://phys.org/news/2021-02-history-taxes-bureaucracy-cornerstones-democracy.html
Federal investigators blast Tesla, call for stricter safety standards
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/03/federal-investigators-blast-tesla-call-for-stricter-safety-standads/
A telescope sunk into the world’s deepest lake has started the hunt for ‘Ghost Particles’
https://www.sciencealert.com/researchers-sink-a-telescope-in-the-world-s-deepest-lake-to-catch-ghost-particles
John Cleese ‘has a bridge to sell you’, suggests $69,346,250.50 price to top Beeple’s virtual art record
https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/22/john_cleese_non_fungible_token/
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
28 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.
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