WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net and technology news
by Alan Lenton
Well, it's not hot this week, it's raining. Humidity's still very high, but it's not hot. All the disadvantages, without any of the advantages.
I was fascinated to discover that London Underground has a tube (subway) station on the third floor of an office block. It's the training center for new employees and it has a complete mock-up of a station complete with all the appropriate noises - rumbling, whooshing, screeching, etc. I knew they had such a mock-up - an ex-girlfriend is a train driver on the underground, and she told me about it when she was doing her driver training. But I didn't realize it was on the third floor!
Anyway, here's some other news from the week to get your teeth into.
Shorts:
Those of you who like both history and fireworks will, I'm sure, find a recent piece on the npr web site fascinating. It seems that when the Van Allen radiation belts that surround the earth were discovered, the US military (and a little later the USSR military) decided to try and blow them up!
So, in the summer of 1962, the US exploded a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific, at a height of about 250 miles. The bomb, with the fascinating name of 'Starfish Prime', was about 100 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb.
The purpose of the experiment was a bit vague, but it did succeed in temporarily altering the shape of the Van Allen belts by extending them further out. It also caused the most fantastic aurora style fireworks display over a wide area of the Pacific, and gave a lot of people their first taste of the, then unknown, electro-magnetic pulse - as used in the James Bond film 'Goldeneye'. (Which also had the best chase sequence ever, but that's another story!)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128170775
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse
If you would like a little bit of light relief, and who doesn't, now-a-days, take a look at this blog. Author Scott (aka squid314) has been watching the old Babylon 5 sci-fi series, and finds its plot much more believable than those in the History Channel's Second World War Series. His look at the 'plot' for WWII had me snurfing my coffee, fortunately missing the keyboard.
Some of the extensive selection of comments are very funny too. I especially liked the one about the section of the plot about the US being led by a kindly old man in a wheelchair being a rip off from X-Men!
http://squid314.livejournal.com/275614.html?page=1
I haven't discussed the RIAA's legal campaign against alleged file sharers recently, but this week figures came to light on how well they are doing. So far, over the last three years the RIAA have spent around US$16,000,000 in legal and investigative expenses to recover about US$1,361,000. That means that they're only getting about 8.5% of the money they spend back. Not 8.5% profit, that's all the money they get back. In other words, the RIAA's business plan - sue your customers - is producing a 91.5% loss.
Perhaps you are wondering how they can support a loss of this scale. Ah well, it's all to do with their backers, the music business's accounting systems, not to mention the occasional bout of price fixing when they think the state attorneys aren't watching. Take a look at the second URL for a glimpse of why bands end up still in 'debt' to the big music companies, even if they sell a million copies of their album.
PS: In case you're wondering, Hollywood isn't any better - have a peek at why the latest Harry Potter movie is supposed to have 'lost' money, even though it grossed US$938 million. Check out the last URL.
http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2010/07/ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-riaa-
paid-its-lawyers.html
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100712/23482610186.shtml
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100708/02510310122.shtml
You know the way the government, the military, and their contractors, are always losing kit - especially laptops? Well the US Special Operations Command is going for broke (so to speak) on this issue. One of their contractors managed to have no less that 3,000 laptops stolen.
Thieves broke into the iGov offices in Virginia and proceeded to spend nine hours loading the laptop, and a bunch of other goodies into a couple of trucks and drove off into the sunset. iGov company officials are being tight lipped about the whole affair, as well they might. In the meantime, would anyone out there like to open a book on how long it is before the surveillance camera 'movie' which captured the entire heist, makes it into cult status on the net?
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2010/07/14/specops_robbery/
Over here in the UK, our criminal operations are a little different. For instance, only this last week a man was charged with breaking the 1835 Highways Act. What has this got to do with tech, I hear you cry. Well... the perp was driving on the pavement (sidewalk), and driving one of the execrable Segway two wheel widgetsy things. You may find it difficult to believe that a law passed 175 years ago could cover such things as Segways. However, it seems that some of our legislators were as clever as the framers of the US constitution when it came to future proofing.
The law says: "If any person shall wilfully ride upon any footpath or causeway by the side of any road made or set apart for the use or accommodation of foot passengers; or shall wilfully lead or drive any horse, ass, sheep, mule, swine, or cattle or carriage of any description, or any truck or sledge, upon any such footpath or causeway; or shall tether any horse, ass, mule, swine, or cattle, on any highway, so as to suffer or permit the tethered animal to be thereon"
I think 'carriage of any description' nails this one. Unfortunately the penalties prescribed don't include crushing of the offending 'carriage', or hanging the driver...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07/13/segway_charge/
There is, for once, some potentially good news on the privacy front. The FTC has written to the owners of the now bankrupt XY.com, a web site for gay teenagers. The site had promised that personal information will not be published. This means that if they do try and sell the information, to a new owner or third party, it could constitute a deceptive practice.
While this is a particularly sensitive case - many of the subscribers will be living with their parents and may not have told them that they are gay - it also sets a precedent for other attempts to sell off personal information. Keep your fingers crossed that this will be the case.
http://www.itworld.com/government/113719/ftc-warns-gay-youth-site-about-
sale-personal-data
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20010331-281.html?tag=nl.e703
Stealing credit card numbers has moved up the tech tree a little since the days of the TJX scam. It seems that throughout the US southeast, scammers are secretly installing skimmers inside the pumps at gas stations, after which the skimmed card details are transmitted to the scammers using Bluetooth radio transmitters.
There is apparently something of a crime wave involving gas stations going on, and the Secret Service are involved, as well as the sheriff's office and the local police. Given the short range of Bluetooth, it shouldn't difficult to track the receiving apparatus and wait for the perps to come and collect the booty. In the meantime, it seems that the police suspect the whole crime wave is being driven by one gang operating out of Miami. So, if you are driving around in the Southeast, be wary about sticking your card into a gas pump...
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/071310-gas-station-card-scam.html
?hpg1=bn
By the way, remember a month or so ago I told you that NewsCorp had started to make anyone who wanted to look at articles on the Times and Sunday Times site pay US$3 a week for the privilege? Murdoch is being very tight lipped about how many people are paying, but the word is that no one's paying to look. Even subscribers to the paper are not bothering with the site, even though they have free access to it. The implications are enormous, and I for one am delighted to see that the lessons are being learned at NewsCorp's owner Rupert Murdoch's expense. Take a look at the URL, it's got some fascinating insights in it.
http://www.newser.com/off-the-grid/post/502/whats-really-going-on-behind-
murdochs-paywall.html
Homework:
Did you know that investigation of the earth's history over the last 500 million years has indicated that mass extinctions occur every 27 million years. The figures have a confidence level of 99%.
The periodicity is a regular as clockwork, which rules out the theory that its caused by an invisible companion that orbits through the Oort cloud sending comets to crash into us. In 500 million years such a body's orbit would have been altered by the other stars the sun has passed near, changing the frequency with which it passes through the cloud.
The other main theory, that it's caused by the sun moving through different spiral arms of the Milky Way galaxy is also ruled out. If it were correct the extinctions would not have happened at exactly 27 million year intervals.
So what is it? No one seems to have much idea, although most people in the know would probably take bets on something internal since anything external wouldn't be so regular. Fortunately, since the last mass extinction was 'only' 11 million years ago, we've got around 16 million years to figure it out and do something about it!
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/25420/
The 'geek gestalt' site has a fascinating article on New York's Grand Central Station, including the secret underground platform for use by the president, a US$20 million jewel hidden in plain sight, and a lost and found department with an 80% success rate of returning lost items to their owners. Read it, and you'll never look at the station the same way again!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-20010203-52.html?tag=nl.e703
Geek Toys:
Suffering from wobbly tables? I've got just the solution for you. It's a little piece of silicone rubber called Wonkey! It looks like a key and fits on your keyring, but is wedge shaped in the thickness direction. When you get to a bar and sit down at a table with one leg shorter than the others, you can take the Wonkey off your keyring and wedge the table to be stable. No more folding beer mats to try and get the right thickness. Of course there is then the problem of remembering to take it back when you leave, after having had a number of beers...
http://www.lazyboneuk.com/products/Wonkey.html
Of course, it's often dark and dimly lit in bars and clubs, making it difficult to see, and you need to be a three armed Rama inhabitant to be able to hold the wedge, the table leg in position, and a torch. Well I also have a solution for those who are merely two-handed carbon units - the Hug LED Light. It's hands free, you can drape it round your neck, wrap it round your arm or wrist and set it for wide arc or spot-light. Nifty, I bet there will be a massive market for these gadgets from the network engineering fraternity.
http://gadget.brando.com/hug-led-light-wide-spot_p01430c040d001.html
Scanner:
London has a Tube (subway) station...on the third story of an office building
http://io9.com/5584429/london-has-a-tube-stationon-the-third-story-of-an-office-
building/gallery/
BioWare co-founder: Consoles are "The Past"
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/102064-BioWare-Co-Founder-
Consoles-Are-The-Past
Facebook apologizes for censoring doll's nipples
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20010205-71.html?tag=nl.e703
IBM employee sparks massive bank outage
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07/13/ibm_cops_to_massive_bank_failure/
Ambulance radios don't like the rain
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07/13/ambulance_radio_/
Acknowledgements
Thanks to readers Barb, Fi, and to Slashdot's daily newsletter for drawing my attention to material used in this issue.
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 Spamato spam filter...
Alan Lenton
alan@ibgames.com
18 July, 2010
Alan Lenton is an 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.
Past issues of Winding Down can be found at http://www.ibgames.net/alan/winding/index.html.
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