WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net and technology news
by Alan Lenton
This week we cover climbing Mount Everest, government snooping, mapping technology, Facebook, Microsoft, lost art, Alan Kay, verifying age online, virtual bagels, and, of course, giant mushrooms...
Furthermore, there won’t be an issue next week because I’ll be out of town, hopefully escaping the loony antics of the Olympic organizing committee. But never fear, Winding Down will be back with more tasty morsels to titillate your digital taste buds the following week, the 5th of August!
And now, ladies and gentlemen, Winding Down ...
Shorts:
The first thing I’d like to do in this issue, is to make a shameless plug for a geeks’ fund raising trip up Mount Everest, organized by Astrid Byro [Declaration of interest: she’s my step daughter] to raise funds for the Bletchley Park Trust and the UK’s National Museum of Computing. This isn’t her first trip. Last year she raised cash for the Trust, which looks after the site of the World War II ‘enigma’ code breakers, with solo trip up the aforementioned mountain. This year she plans to lead an expedition of geeks up to the base camp.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/19/astrid_everest_bletchley_park/
http://www.justgiving.com/Astrid-Byro-TNMOC
So who’s watching you? Well according to Google, Twitter, and the cell phone carriers, the government is. No massive surprises there, but what is worrying is the sheer scale of the spying that’s going on. The last available Google info is for June-December last year which reveals that the US authorities made over a third of the total requests for users personal data - covering over 12,000 accounts. India came next with 3,427 accounts, and then Germany with 2,027.
Twitter’s figures run from January through to the end of June this year. Once again the USA leads the way with requests for information on nearly a thousand accounts, followed by Japan with requests for a mere 147 accounts.
The real killer, though, is the report from the cellphone carriers that they received 1.3 million demands for subscriber information last year. Since this information came to light in a Congressional inquiry, I think that the figure is for the USA alone, although it’s not entirely clear from the article in the New York Times. That’s a pretty stunning figure, however you look at it.
On the bright side, the fact that these figures are available, means that someone -is- watching the watchers! I do wonder, though, in my more gloomy moments, just how long those who watch the watchers have before they are blindfolded and gagged by the watchers...
http://thenextweb.com/google/2012/06/18/google-government-takedown-requests-up-103-in-us-49-in-india-4-new-countries-on-transparency-report/
http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/userdatarequests/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/09/us/cell-carriers-see-uptick-in-requests-to-aid-surveillance.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss
http://markey.house.gov/content/letters-mobile-carriers-reagrding-use-cell-phone-tracking-law-enforcement
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/03/twitter_transparency_report/
http://blog.twitter.com/2012/07/twitter-transparency-report.html
Maps just got even better. Both Google and Apple have recently revealed new mapping technology - and both of them are working to allow their users to ‘fly’ over the map in 3D. The results are impressive, especially when you consider that the 3D maps are being rendered on relatively low powered devices like tablets, as well as the more powerful desktops.
Take a look at the URL, there are videos of both the Google and Apple offerings, so you can judge for yourselves which is best. The only thing I did find weird was that in the Apple video the audience oooh-ed and aaahh-ed and clapped all the ordinary things that were shown as well as the breakthrough stuff. Very strange, kinda devalues the applause for the genuinely good stuff.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/06/28/google-io-amazing-new-3d-maps_n_1633309.html
Bad news for Facebook. Figures show that it lost nearly two million users in the US over the last six months. Not the sort of thing investors want to hear at any time, but especially after the recent botched IPO. Is Facebook becoming last year’s trendy thing? I’d need to see a decline in European and US figures over a longer period to be convinced, although I have sneaking, and unsubstantiated, feeling that this might indeed be the case. In the meantime, though, the figure caused another drop in Facebook’s share price.
Perhaps some words from Jonathon Swift (he of ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ fame) might be relevant - though to be fair he was talking about bankers when he wrote them:
A baited banker thus desponds,
From his own hand foresees his fall,
They have his soul, who have his bonds;
‘Tis like the writing on the wall.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/18/facebook_user_growth_declines_stock_tanks/
http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/
Something very significant happened this week. Microsoft posted its first ever loss. In the 26 years it’s been a publicly traded company, it’s never posted a loss before. Is it the beginning of the end for Microsoft? Could be, but something the size of the Microsoft leviathan will not vanish any time soon, and who knows, they might do an IBM and come back in a different guise. I suspect Bill Gates got out just in time to avoid sullying his reputation. Perhaps Microsoft should also be keeping an eye out for writing on the wall!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/20/microsoft_posts_first_ever_loss/
And while we are on the topic of Microsoft, I had an odd experience the other day. I bought a new desktop machine a few months back to run Windows so I can write client software, given that most people out there run Windows in one form or another (and you’d be surprised how many still seem to be running the venerable Windows 98). Anyway, earlier this month I ran a bunch of patches for the operating system, and after innumerable resets - which I don’t get when I patch Linux stuff - I got back down to work.
Suddenly a window popped up offering me a choice of browsers to use. My first thought was that I’d been hacked, but investigation revealed it was a genuine Microsoft hit. I then remembered that as a European user I get a choice of browser as part of the deal Microsoft did with the EU in 2009. But why did they wait so many months before asking - it’s supposed to ask the first time you use the machine.
This week all was revealed. It seems that the EU regulator has now discovered that, although the agreement was legally binding, Microsoft hasn’t been displaying the screen since February of last year, due to a ‘technical error’. Well, it looks like that ‘technical error’ may result in a fine of up to US$7 billion. Ouch! that will make quite a dent in the next year’s profit and loss account...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/19/eu_competition_fine/
Ever wondered who clicks those ‘Like’ adverts on Facebook? Well, recently the BBC set out to investigate. They set up a wholly imaginary business called VirtualBagel, with ads designed to get people to ‘like’ it. The ads were targeted at users across the US, UK and a number of middle eastern and African countries. In 24 hours the site garnered over 1,600 likes. Not bad. Except that virtually all of the likes came from Egypt, Indonesia, and the Philippines!
Oooops! Something of a blow for Facebook’s business model which features likes somewhat centrally. On the other hand, of course, virtual bagels have a very low calorie count...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18822971
Homework:
Dr Dobb’s journal has an interesting interview with computing luminary Alan Kay, whose ideas on computing, especially the Dynabook, prefigured many of the advances that have made computing available to everyone. Alan Kay has opinions. No, actually, he has OPINIONS, which is one of the things that makes the interview so interesting. Some of the later things in the interview may be too technical for non-programmers, but there is plenty of material for the non-techie interested in computing history, art and music. The only thing that puzzled me was that the interviewer seemed to think it a big deal that Kay read more than 100 books before he started first grade. Quite a few people I know, myself included, had read large numbers of books before starting school. Whether or not this was the case depended on how into books your parents (especially your mother) were, not on your intrinsic ability!
Still, well worth a read. Recommended.
http://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/interview-with-alan-kay/240003442?pgno=1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Kay
And now for a museum you can visit online. It’s the Gallery of Lost Art. And how do you know what lost art looks like? Well it wasn’t always lost, and some of it was only ever designed to be temporary, so the museum has reconstructed the stories of these lost pieces. So, if you ever wanted to know about Marcel Duchamp’s ‘Fountain 1917’, the very first ‘ready made’ piece of art, or the legendary ‘Tatlin Tower’ of 1919 - Lenin, not the world’s greatest art critic, commented that the tower looked like they’d forgotten to take down the scaffolding - this is the place to visit. A fascinating site, with a great, and appropriate, sound track!
http://galleryoflostart.com/#/4,1
The New York Time recently ran an interesting article on verifying people’s ages online. It turns out that it’s much more difficult to do so correctly than most people realize. I know, I know, all sorts of porn and gambling sites verify ages before they let people in. Actually they don’t. They’re covering their collective asses (well, not literally in the case of porn). In the trade, what they are doing is known as ‘making a good faith effort’. It’s not actually good faith, they know it doesn’t work and they don’t care, but if anything goes wrong they can show in court that they ‘tried’.
A surprisingly large number of organizations have tried to come up with ways of verifying age, but no one has yet succeeded. And age problems work both ways - under age children pretending to be grown ups, and adults pretending to be much younger than they really are. No one is getting anywhere fast with what is, in truth, an online substitute for parents looking after their children.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/18/technology/verifying-ages-online-is-a-daunting-task-even-for-experts.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all
http://xkcd.com/1083/
Geek Stuff:
Anyone out there played Morrowind? Always to my mind the best of the Elder Scrolls games, although being dumped in the middle of nowhere with the weather rainy 90% of the time can be a bit of a shock to the system! Anyway, I digress. What I wanted to draw your attention to is those weird trees in the game that look like gigantic mushrooms. It seems that they aren’t merely a figment of the demented imagination of some graphic artist. They, or something like them, used to exist on Earth some 400 million years ago, co-existing with giant scorpions and massive millipedes. And how do we know this? Because archaeologists keep finding the fossils of them all over the world!
So, next time you find something nasty looking and creepy in a computer game, don’t assume that it could never have existed...
http://supernovacondensate.net/2012/07/15/mushroom-mushroom/
Finally, Scientific American magazine is showing a whole bunch of photos from their ‘Science is Beautiful’ competition. Take a look - some of them are really gorgeous.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=science-is-beautiful-contest&WT.mc_id=SA_CAT_TECH_20120703
Scanner: Other stories
Jury: forgetting to log off gives “tacit authorization” for snoopin
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/07/jury-forgetting-to-log-off-gives-tacit-authorization-for-snooping/
Keeping you safe, citizen: fingerprint scanner works from 20 feet
http://dvice.com/archives/2012/06/keeping-you-saf.php
Online identity theft up 200% since 2010
http://www.zdnet.com/online-identity-theft-up-200-since-2010-7000001170/
Wikipedia failing to recruit any new admins: fears that nerditor community may have heard of girls
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/18/wiki_admins_dwindle/
Study: Users prefer Google+ over Facebook
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/17/google_plus_users_more_satisfied/
Acknowledgements
Thanks to readers Barb and Fi 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
22 July 2012
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.
