WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net and technology news
by Alan Lenton
Hold the front page! News is coming in of a hack in the North Pole computers of Santa. A tight lipped elf refused to comment on rumors swirling round that the nice/naughty list had been compromised, and that a list of naughty children was available for a fee on certain underground ToyTown sites. Meanwhile, more about naughty and nice lists here <http://xkcd.com/838/>.
By the way, this week I got my first spam offering me a share of the late Colonel Gaddafi's hidden stash worth US$5.2 billion. I was impressed. When I was young, African dictators were only worth a few paltry millions. Such, I guess is inflation. I think I'll file it with the e-mails offering me a cut of the Taliban war chest, Sadam Hussein's stash, assorted Swiss bank accounts, and various left over Nigerian government funds...
Well, as you can see, I'm back from being ill - at least for a week or so before the Christmas hols cut in. It's not quite as long as usual, but, of course, the quality remains unmatched in the annals of amateur newsletters. It's all hand crafted by real humans, no droids at work in this newsletter!
So, as Shakespeare once said, "Lay on, Macduff, And damn'd be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough!'"*
Shorts:
Stories of government bodies losing computers - especially laptops - are two a penny. NASA, however goes one further and loses samples of materials collected from outer space. In the last 40 years NASA has lost no less that 500 chunks of moon rock, meteorite, comet and assorted other material sent out on loan and not returned, or returned and subsequently missing.
Part of the problem is that NASA has an extensive loan program, and this is as it should be since there is nothing worse than obtaining these sort of samples and hording them (incidentally, to put it in context, NASA has lent out more than 26,000 samples in the last 40 years). Several months ago I went to an exhibition at the Greenwich Observatory in London. A couple of us arrived early for a lecture given by a lady who was a lunar geologist (great job title) based in Houston. She had some samples similar to the ones shown in the picture with the URL, and we were allowed to handle them. Totally awesome to be holding something that had been brought back from the Moon.
The truth is that the real problem is not lending material out, but the book keeping needed to track loans that can last for years, if not decades - a bit like some of the books I've lent people. Once that problem is solved, NASA will, hopefully, be able to continue its loan program without losing a piece of its precious material every month.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/12/09/science-missing-space-samples-nasa.html
Here's a little bit of cheer for the computer programmers among my readers. The threat of out-sourcing seems to hang over our heads like a +4 cloud of doom, but, as the two articles whose URLs are given at the end of this piece show, there is always space for good programmers, even if it's only rewriting the outsourced programs from scratch so they work! I can back up that from personal experience. A few years ago, the company I worked for outsourced a chunk of its coding to an Indian firm. The stuff that came back was kiddie Java - the sort of stuff I would expect to see from a teenager starting to learn from a 'for dummies' book. Any professional programmer I know could have knocked up quality code to do the job in a tenth of the time the outsourcers billed for it and the hourly rate would have only been two to three times as much.
http://blog.jpl-consulting.com/2011/12/why-i-will-never-feel-threatened-by-programmers-in-india/
http://www.itworld.com/software/230423/does-outsourcing-programming-india-really-save-money
And talking of programmers, there is an absolutely fascinating article in Forbes magazine entitled, 'The Rise of Developeronomics'. Basically, it looks at the nature of modern industry in the light of the well-known comment that computers are so pervasive that every company is, or is becoming, a software company. There are some interesting insights in the article, though the tone is rather apocalyptic. I was particularly taken with the idea that the problems of the cartography, movie, music, news, publishing and restaurant retail industries are a function of their failure to understand how to use their accumulated data as a weapon to fight the likes of Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Facebook. Well worth a read, whether you are formally in the software business or not.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/venkateshrao/2011/12/05/the-rise-of-developeronomics/
Homework:
This looks like it could be an important break through - a new disinfection technique that could revolutionize room cleaning in hospitals. According to the article some 100,000 people die in North America every year from infections acquired in hospitals. Taking its cue from how your body's immune system kills germs, the technique involves pumping a mixture of ozone and hydrogen peroxide vapor into the room (presumably after removing any patients). The technique sterilizes everything - floors, walls, drapes, mattresses, chairs and other surfaces. Apart from hospitals, one of the more interesting uses is to disinfect cruise ships after an infection outbreak. It's an interesting idea, and anything that promises to cut needless deaths deserves to go forward.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111209105703.htm
Geek Topics:
I guess most of you have seen M C Esher's 'Relativity' picture at some time or another. It's the one with people walking up staircases at impossible angles. The picture can make your head ache if you look at it and try to figure out what's going on for too long. Lego to the rescue! Two Lego fans have recreated the scene depicted in 'Relativity' using the plastic bricks. It's impressive, to say the least, and I'm amazed by just how faithful they've been to the original. Take a look - it's very cool!
http://www.andrewlipson.com/escher/relativity.html
For those of you expecting a white Christmas, and who want to put a little oomph into your snowballs, Hammacher Schlemmer have just the thing - a snowball slingshot! Looks pretty good to me. Incidentally, those of you who like something a little, how shall I put it, warmer, might like to take a peek at the double barreled pump-action marshmallow shooter from the same supplier...
http://www.hammacher.com/Product/81342?promo=search
Now here is a real Christmas gift for geek gamers - the Octane 120 Pro Beer Arcade. Yep, it's an arcade style racing game system with its own beer dispenser. It holds two five gallon kegs of beer (for the numerically challenged, that's 80 pints), and I'm assured that it doesn't have a built in 'Driving Under the Influence' stop and search simulation. On the downside, there is no built in caffeine drip, but I guess you can't have everything...
http://www.gizmag.com/octane-120-pro-beer-arcade/20709/
Scanner:
The perils of spaceflight prediction
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1981/1
Supercharged 60mph mobility scooter seized by Doncaster council
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/884172-supercharged-60mph-mobility-scooter-seized-by-council
Breakfast of losers and the ghosts of Christmas gifts past
http://www.silicon.com/technology/software/2011/12/09/the-weekly-round-up-breakfast-of-losers-and-the-ghosts-of-christmas-gifts-past-39748313/
Email obsession 'will impact Christmas holidays'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16075103
GCHQ code-breaking challenge cracked by Google search
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/12/03/gchq_code_crack_compo_snafu/
* Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 8
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
11 December, 2011
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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