Winding Down
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net, technology, science and other news
by Alan Lenton
7 August 2022
Apologies for there being no Winding Down last week – I just had too much on sorting out a house move. That will take place (probably) over the next couple of weekends, so there won’t be an issue for either of those dates (August 14 and 21). The following weekend is a holiday here in the UK, so there probably won’t be an issue that week either.
To make up for it we have a slightly bigger than usual issue today containing material on Twitter v Musk, and Apple v the French in updates. Essays draws your attention to material on conspiracies, and on data centre workers. There is a new section on books which recommends one on a key internet figure, and one on how what’s going on in the USA at the moment relates to history.
There is a piece on persistent memory, and one about power shortage in West London. There are more pictures than usual – astronomy, the moon over a castle, and potentially 568 postcards....
The quote is from Einstein and there are eight scanner pieces on various topics.
Enjoy!
Alan Lenton
Publishing schedule: See above
Credits: Thanks to Fi Craig for drawing my attention to material for Winding Down and for editing it for spelling, grammar, etc.
Updates:
The much awaited legal showdown between Twitter and Elon Musk is due to start on 17 October. I don’t think you need put it in your diary – the reporting will be everywhere! It’s scheduled to last for a mere five days, but I suspect that will turn out to be just for a start...
https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/29/twitter_musk_trial/
In the meantime Apple is being sued by the French media over the App store. The plaintiffs claim that Apple’s Store rules violate anti-trust laws and stifle competition. The interesting thing about this suit is that it is being filed in California – Apple’s home state – on the grounds that Apple is causing problems for French app developers in violation of the anti-trust rules of its home country. That an interesting take on the situation. I await the outcome with some interest, to see if it opens the floodgates!
https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/02/apple_app_monopoly/
Essays:
Science alert has an interesting piece on some research which seems to show that ‘Conspiracy Theories’ are not, in fact, on the increase! Well that certainly surprised me, but they do make a reasonable case for the fact that conspiracy theories have always been there, but what they consist of is changing. This is in spite of the rise of the internet, which is why I, for one, was assuming an increase. I guess the point is that it just makes the conspiracies more visible, rather than increasing the number of people who believe in them.
https://www.sciencealert.com/belief-in-conspiracy-theories-may-not-actually-be-increasing-after-all
I mentioned earlier the dispute between Twitter and Musk. If you’re following it you might also like to take a look at an essay in The Conversation, suggesting that both sides should try to re-negotiate the deal. This, the author thinks, would be the best way to help the shareholders who are the ones really suffering from the fallout of this feud.
https://theconversation.com/shareholders-are-suffering-most-from-elon-musks-twitter-feud-heres-why-both-sides-must-renegotiate-the-deal-187360
And finally, Aeon has a really interesting little essay looking at the work of what it calls the “The People of the Cloud” – those who work in the data centres. I can confirm that the article is accurate, because my late wife, Barbara, used to work in a very large New York data centre and she could spot incipient server problems merely by walking down the isles listening to the ambient noise!
Fascinating stuff!
https://aeon.co/essays/downtime-is-not-an-option-meet-the-stewards-of-the-cloud
Books:
I met a young lady at a street party recently, who turned out to be a Rust network programmer. We got talking shop and she loaned me a book about how the internet was speeded up by Akamai using algorithms developed by its founder Danny Lewin. Danny was one of the first victims of the 9-11 terrorist plane hijacking. The book is a fascinating look at the life of Danny. A must read.
The book is called ‘No better time’ and it is by Molly Knight Raskin.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/No-Better-Time-Remarkable-Transformed/dp/0306821664/ref=sr_1_1
One of the problems in having been married to an American, is that people keep asking me what is going on with American politics. Well, it’s a long story, with a history reaching back to the colonisation of the state by what were eleven different nations, each with it’s own culture and traditions.
Rather than try and tell it in two paragraphs (or even eleven paragraphs) I’m going to recommend a book called ‘American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America’ by Colin Woodard. It is a fascinating read about how different groupings with very different cultures and history colonised the different areas of the country we now call The United States of America’.
Believe me, once you know the history, it all starts to make sense!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/American-Nations-History-Regional-Cultures/dp/0143122029/ref=sr_1_1
Computing:
Recently Intel announced that it was ending its line of Optaine products. I confess that it didn’t really mean that much to me until I came across a piece in The Register which actually explained the significance of the product. Basically, the product represented a new level of persistent memory which could, potentially, help overcome a number of problems/bottlenecks.
I recommend reading The Register version because it explains the whole issue in terms of the development of computers from the 1960s. It is the background you need to understand the potential of this persistent memory.
https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/01/optane_intel_cancellation/
https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/02/kioxia_everspin_persistent_memory/
Power:
I live in West London, and I’ve been involved in cooperative housing there for around 30 years. Like many major urban areas we have a housing crisis. There isn’t enough housing, and more needs to be built. But it seems that’s not possible. And why not? Because they’ve built so many data centres in this area that the local electricity network is full (or will be full when the new stuff comes online) and there is no capacity left to support housing.
And how long will it take to upgrade the network and supply? About ten years – and that’s if they start now, which is not likely.
I suspect this is not an isolated thing. It just happens to have surfaced now in this area it’s a harbinger of things to come...
http://www.chiswickw4.com/default.asp?section=info&page=conelectricitygrid001.htm
Pictures:
JSTOR Daily has an article using picture postcards to show the changing face – and culture, if it comes to that – of southern California. It’s worth reading through the commentary for the pictures in the article, and there is a link to the whole collection, which is on line.
https://daily.jstor.org/the-changing-face-of-southern-california/ [The article]
https://www.jstor.org/site/loyola-marymount/changing-face-of-southern-california/?searchkey=1659859881763 [The entire collection – all 586 postcards!]
If you would like something a bit more ‘techie’ try this picture of the astronomy group known as Stephan’s Quintet.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220718.html
Or even a brilliant picture of the full moon over a Slovakian castle!
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220715.html
Quotes:
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
Albert Einstein
Scanner:
Cryptocurrency slump has flooded the market with Rolex and Patek [Smirk -AL ]
https://www.business-standard.com/article/international/cryptocurrency-slump-has-flooded-the-market-with-rolex-and-patek-122073000036_1.html
The little book about OS development [spotted on the ACCU-general mailing list – AL]
http://littleosbook.github.io
Physicists find the ‘missing link’ that could provide quantum internet technology
https://www.sciencealert.com/physicists-find-the-missing-link-that-could-provide-quantum-internet-technology
Google’s efforts to identify and counter spyware
https://blog.google/threat-analysis-group/googles-efforts-to-identify-and-counter-spyware/
AI inventors may find it difficult to patent their tech under today’s laws
https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/09/ai_patent_feature_1/
https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/02/ai_patent_reform/
We can build a real, traversable wormhole … if the universe has extra dimensions
https://www.space.com/build-wormhole-using-extra-tiny-dimensions
Earth sets record for the shortest day [Coders – make sure your time stuff can cope with negative leap seconds some time in the future – AL]
https://www.space.com/earth-rotation-record-shortest-day
Surprise! The metaverse is going to suck for privacy
https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/29/metaverse_privacy_study/
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 August 2022
Alan Lenton is a retired on-line games designer, programmer and sociologist (among other things), 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.