WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week’s net, technology and science news
by Alan Lenton
Another week, another Winding Down. This time we have for your weekend reading a truly mixed selection: D&D, an Android security app, Apple payments, watchdogs, and a new court case, NSA snooping, mobile phones and warrants, Bing blunders, HP and Windows 7, the Wello WaterWheel, library destruction in Canada, and the 3Doodler. URLs will take you to items on the Target heist, the Rosetta probe, the world’s 25 worst passwords, a new supernova, cooling with carbon nanotubes, and TDoS attacks on emergency services.
Phew! Well – let’s get started, then...
Shorts:
Important things first. Happy 40th Birthday to Dungeons & Dragons (aka D&D). I’m sure it was single-handedly responsible for the rise of the weekend takeout pizza trade in the USA. I’m also pretty certain that a large number of my readers, who probably haven’t played it for years, have fond memories of their party (fighter, wizard, half-elf ranger and cleric who was the long suffering girlfriend of one of the party members) rolling the dreaded D20 dice.
My top creation as a GM – a +5 bohemian earspoon of armor penetration. Sadly the +4 trousers of golfing and the legendary +8 Asparagus Spear of Destiny didn’t go down quite as well with the players after they’d fought their way through innumerable dragons, hydra, and the like. Ah well, such is life...
http://www.infoworld.com/t/cringely/happy-40th-anniversary-dungeons-dragons-all-your-grateful-geeks-234912?page=0,0&source=IFWNLE_nlt_blogs_2014-01-24
On a more serious note, The Register has a piece on a new Android app which will watch and manage other apps. SnoopWall is designed to block eavesdropping, protect the camera, microphone, GPS, Bluetooth, NFC, WiFi and “other high-risk data ports”. Excellent idea – my only question is the same one the Roman poet Juvenal asked – ‘Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?’
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/07/app_to_manage_android_app_permissions/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quis_custodiet_ipsos_custodes%3F
Ah yes – our old friends Apple have been in the news recently. For a start they’ve come to a deal with the FTC over the in-app purchases on kids apps, and have agreed to refund at least US$32.5 million and change their billing practices to ask for consent from the consumers before charging them. OK, that’s only seven hours profit, and will probably just be thought of as part of the cost of doing business, but I guess it’s a start. Personally, I’ve always thought that fines on businesses should be in the form of whichever is the greater of a set amount or a set percentage of their annual profits or better still, all of the money they’ve got stashed overseas!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57617270-37/apple-to-refund-at-least-$32.5m-for-kids-in-app-purchases/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/15/ftc_apple_in_app_purchases_settlement/
Still on the subject of Apple, I mentioned in a previous issue that Apple are complaining about the watchdog appointed to keep an eye on them by the court as part of the e-books settlement. Well they did take the matter back to court and were told in no uncertain terms to stop moaning and go away. The judge in the case indicated that Apple’s objections show just why it is that they need a monitor to keep an eye on them!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/14/apple_antitrust_monitor_stays/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/17/apple_ebook_cote_opinion/
And in an entirely different state – Massachusetts – three customers are suing Apple under state law claiming that Apple collected their Zip codes and then sold that personal information to third parties. The case related to Apple asking customers for their Zip codes when they purchase goods in Apple stores. If this is successful, then you can bet your bottom dollar that there are going to be far more than just three people lining up to get their hands on Apple’s stash of greenbacks. More on this case as it proceeds in court.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/17/apple_sued_for_meeelions_over_customer_data_collection/
Moving on to other things, I was waiting for the NSA snooping furore to die down a bit before commenting, but that doesn’t seem to be likely in the foreseeable future, so I thought I’d direct you to a piece on the issue by everyone’s favourite security guru Bruce Schneier. Actually, he’s probably not a favourite with the US National Security Agency...
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/01/how-the-nsa-threatens-national-security/282822/
And while we are on the subject of security, there is an interesting case coming up in the US Supreme Court on April. At stake is the question of whether or not the police will need to a warrant to search the mobile phones of people they have arrested.
The lower courts have produced contradictory rulings on this issue, which is one of the reasons why the Supreme Court needs to come up with a ruling. Whatever it decides there are going to be a lot of dissatisfied people in this case, but I guess the judges must be used to that.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/17/supreme_court_to_rule_on_phone_searches/
Oh dear. Bing maps have done an Apple. Oracle’s UK HQ is down as “Elvis Impersonators UK & Worldwide”, and Microsoft UK’s base is “Thames Valley Park Nursery”. Classic, absolutely classic.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/23/bing_labels_oracles_uk_hq_elvis_impersonators_uk_nd_worldwide/
Finally some good news for people whose old PCs are clapping out. You no longer -have- to buy a Windows 8 machine – HP have extended their option to buy Windows 7 machines. I’m not exactly enamoured of HP machines, but frankly, I’m even less enamoured of Windows 8. Also given the dire state of the PC business, this can only lead to other sellers following HP’s lead. Way to go!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/20/windows_7_gets_the_xp_treatment_as_users_demand_out_of_upgrade/
Homework:
Photographs taken in developing countries frequently feature images of women carrying large heavy pots of water, from the nearest well or river, back for cooking, washing and drinking. It’s hard, tiring work, and one of the key reasons that make it difficult for school-aged daughters to get education.
Now a group called Wello, working with residents of a village in Rajasthan, India, have come up with a possible solution in the form of a hollow wheel that can be filled with water and then rolled along the ground back to the home. They describe it as follows: “The WaterWheel can be used to ferry clean water from a community tap to the home, used to collect rainwater during the wet season, to collect water from an open source during the dry season, or used to travel longer distances to reach a safe water sources when other options are unavailable.”
Ingenious and hopeful. And, since its design was based on discussions with the very people who will use it, something that will actually be used.
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-waterwheel-solution-ease-heavy.html#nwlt
The philistines have been rampaging through the corridors of the Fisheries and Oceans Canada libraries throwing out vast amounts of stuff, without even making an attempt to digitize it. The idiots don’t seem to understand that older studies are needed to figure out what is changing when newer studies are done. Budget cuts, so they claim, as they fill dumpers with irretrievable material.
Is that a copy of ‘Fahrenheit 451’ I see before me?
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/01/12/thats_no_way_to_treat_a_library_scientists_say.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451
For Geeks:
Hmmm... I’m not sure about this toy – if it works it might be interesting, useful even... it’s called the 3Doodler, and it’s described as a 3D drawing pen. Mainly it looks from the pictures like a device for creating plastic spaghetti. I suspect what we have here is an answer looking for a problem to solve. Take a look and see what you think.
http://www.gizmag.com/hands-on-3doodler/30430/
Scanner: Other stories
Target’s database raided, 70 million US shoppers at risk of ID theft
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/10/target_personal_information_breach_70_million/
ESA rejoices as comet-chasing Rosetta probe wakes from 3-year nap
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/20/relief_as_rosetta_spacecraft_finally_awakes_after_three_year_nap/
The 25 worst passwords of 2013: ‘password’ gets dethroned
http://www.infoworld.com/d/security/the-25-worst-passwords-of-2013-password-gets-dethroned-234590
Amateurs find the ‘holy grail’ supernova – right on our doorstep
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/supernova-erupts-in-nearby-galaxy/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/22/amateurs_tag_new_supernova/
http://supernovacondensate.net/2014/01/23/supernova-supernova-supernova/
Researchers cool microprocessors with carbon nanotubes
http://www.33rdsquare.com/2014/01/researchers-cool-microprocessors-with.html#more
TDoS extortionists jam phone lines of public services, including hospitals
http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2014/01/22/tdos-extortionists-jam-phone-lines-of-public-services-including-hospitals/
Acknowledgements
Thanks to readers Asti, Barb and Fi for drawing my attention to material for Winding Down.
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
26 January 2014
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.
