Winding Down
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net, technology, science and other news
by Alan Lenton
12 March 2023
OK! So what happen to Winding down for the last month? The answer is simple – one of the fans went in my lap top. Not difficult to fix you might think. Fans are ten a penny. But this is a high powered lap top which can produce a lot of heat, so I wanted the correct fan from the original manufacturer. That was when I got an inkling about the supply chain troubles which manufacturers have been complaining about. Eventually the repair shop located one in Germany but the supplier wasn’t planning to send it over until later the following week. When it arrived, the people working on it decided they would give it a proper soak test – two days continuously at top speed.
Fortunately it passed, and Winding Down is back in business, albeit with a massive backlog...
Enjoy!
Alan Lenton
Publishing schedule: Next issue 19 March 19
Credits: Thanks to Fi for editing, correcting errors, etc.
Late breaking:
As we go to press the tech oriented news is full of news about the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) crash. And so it should be. An awful lot of tech start-ups all over the world bank with the SVB.
It started with a conversation on Wednesday evening with an article about SVB’s plan to launch a $2.25 billion share sale, and an agreement by General Atlantic, who describe themselves as a global growth equity investor, to buy 500 million of the bank’s common shares. By the following morning it was all over the web. From there it was all downhill
As its name would imply it has financial links with a large number of start-ups, not just in Silicon Valley, but elsewhere in the USA and the rest of the world, such as the UK and China.
This isn’t going to go away any time soon. So, keep an eye on the update section in the weeks to come!
https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/10/silicon-valley-bank-founders-reactions/
https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/10/uncertainty-stands-around-multi-billion-usdc-empire-as-issuer-circle-held-reserves-at-silicon-valley-bank/
https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/10/silicon-valley-banks-debacle-panics-chinas-tech-industry/
Essays:
The Register has an interesting essay on why ChatGPT should be considered a malevolent AI, and why it should be destroyed! I was a little cynical when I read the title, but persevered. I’m glad I did . Not just for the general discussion on ChatGPT and the legendary Hal 9000 computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey, but because of the author’s results of using ChatGPT for the first time.
First it told him he was dead!
Then when he queried this it faked an obituary complete with details of papers he had published.
This is terrible – the obituary was published and seen by friends and colleagues who thought it was real! This is bad enough, but can you imagine what would happen if this happened to someone who wasn’t a researcher? Or someone who had some sort of mental problems?
Clearly this program as it stands is not acceptable for public use. Whether it can be made acceptable is another matter entirely.
https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/02/chatgpt_considered_harmful/
In the meantime to cheer yourself up here is a story from the legendary Verity Stob explaining how Hal 9000 came to be able to lip read.
https://www.theregister.com/2017/11/28/2001_a_stob_odyssey/
The other thing I have for you this week is a video – effectively an audio visual essay/lecture on Scientific Method by Richard Feynman. It only takes ten minutes and it’s brilliant. (Note for Brits: I had to listen to it a couple of times because of the accent. US readers should have no problems!) Highly recommended.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYPapE-3FRw
Chemistry/Cosmology/Astronomy
Somehow I missed this nearly a year ago, but I think that it is important enough to mention now. It seems that all the bases for DNA and RNA have now been found in meteorites. What does this mean? It means that all the ingredients for life have now been found in meteorites. (Belated thanks to Andrew for pointing this out!)
This is real science, and to mis-phrase the sci-fi texts – ‘we may not be alone’! Well worth a read...
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/all-of-the-bases-in-dna-and-rna-have-now-been-found-in-meteorites
Space:
Space X’s Starlink Satellites cause 1,600 near crashes (yes – one thousand six hundred!) in orbit every week. That means they are responsible for nearly half of the near collisions in orbit. Of course a lot of those near crashes are between two SpaceX satellites. If we take those out of the equation we are still talking about 500 a week. And Starlink to Starlink crashes are still important, because the resulting debris would potentially affect all satellites in similar orbits.
And it can only get worse, because at the moment Starlink has only (only!!!) 1,735 satellites in orbit, but it has plans for thousands more.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-starlink-satellites-crashes-orbit Note: Includes both audio and written material)
https://www.space.com/spacex-celebrates-2022-61-launches
Pictures:
A stack of them built up while we were away:
1. A fantastic picture of a seal displaying what I always thought were exclusively human characteristics as it basks in the sunshine!
https://photocontest.smithsonianmag.com/photocontest/detail/a-carefree-seal/
2. Antarctica: I always find pictures of Antarctica fascinating. It’s probably the most difficult terrain in the world – severe cold, violent wind and snow and movable ice. Smithsonian Mag have a selection of pictures from Antarctic expeditions undertaken in the early 20th Century. Fascinating stuff!
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/see-the-newly-digitized-photos-from-20th-century-antarctic-expeditions-180981700/
3. I’d also like to draw your attention to a story in both pictures and words in Atlas Obscura. It’s about the shepherds of Georgia’s Caucasus Mountains who drive their sheep across the mountains in the summer to the high summer pastures and back again in the autumn. This is over some of the most rugged mountains in the world! (Note you need to scroll down to see some of the pictures, but the story is fascinating too...)
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/transhumance-tusheti-georgia-shepherds
4. Something a little hotter for our last picture. Actually it’s a video of the sun. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has released an hour-long time-lapse video that shows 133 days of the Sun’s life. I haven’t seen all of it yet, but what I have seen is really amazing!
https://www.sciencealert.com/amazing-nasa-video-squeezes-over-100-days-on-the-sun-into-1-hour
Quotes:
“Middle-earth Enterprises has once again put forth its power against the forces of darkness – this time, a two-man rubbish clearance outfit in Brighton that called itself ‘The Lord of the Bins’. Both the name and the company slogan ‘One ring to remove it all’ are frowned on by m’learned friends as ‘highly similar to the Lord of the Rings’ and ‘an infringement of our client’s trademark rights’. (Guardian, 4 February) Which will not be challenged in court because the bin men can’t afford it.”
Ansible Magazine® 428, March 2023
Scanner:
A large scanner this week – just some of the stories you may have missed while Winding Down was off the web. Don’t be put off by the size – you probably know most of the stories already.
Defeating Digital Viruses: Lessons from the Pandemic (Online and in person lecture at Gresham College London)
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/digital-pandemic
Twitter to end free access to its API in Elon Musk’s latest monetization push
https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/01/twitter-to-end-free-access-to-its-api/
Experts warn of steep increase in Java costs under changes to Oracle license regime
https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/27/oracle_java_licensing_change/
Hobby club’s missing balloon feared shot down by USAF
https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/aircraft-propulsion/hobby-clubs-missing-balloon-feared-shot-down-usaf
A nightmare face is haunting AI art, and there’s a reason we shouldn’t look away
https://www.sciencealert.com/a-nightmare-face-is-haunting-ai-art-and-theres-a-reason-we-shouldnt-look-away
The rise of corporate landlords: how they are swallowing city centres like Manchester one block of flats at a time
https://theconversation.com/the-rise-of-corporate-landlords-how-they-are-swallowing-city-centres-like-manchester-one-block-of-flats-at-a-time-198804
To the Moon? Emojis can be financial advice, says judge
https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/27/emoji_financial_advice
Japan appears to have thousands more islands than it ever realized
https://www.sciencealert.com/japan-appears-to-have-thousands-more-islands-than-it-ever-realized
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
12 March 2023
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.