WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week’s net, technology and science news
by Alan Lenton
Small, but perfectly formed, and packed with things for you to look at this week. A special crypto currency that might have been designed for my editor, some amazing pictures, a patent troll zapped with costs, Supreme Court comes down heavily on Aereo, Supreme Court confirms the privacy of smart phones, House of Representative girds loins over mass surveillance by NSA, drugs by drone in a Dublin prison, Linus Torvalds on coding for everyone, Lego LOTR, and the Amazon Fire Phone. Want more? There are URLs pointing to poorly anonymised cab logs, HP and memristors, cable company lies, sky cars, NASA Star Trek designs, and finally PayPal authentication broken.
Well, after a week’s break, welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends!
Shorts:
You’ve heard of Bitcoin. You may even have even lost some of them in the Mt Gox fiasco. Never fear, for now we bring you the ultimate in chocolate crypto-currency – Bitecoins! The advert from Cybercandy came through just as we were starting to write this week’s Winding Down, so we felt we had to share it. Rest assured, no one is going to hack into this currency!
https://www.cybercandy.co.uk/emailmarketer/display.php?M=652878&C=198540cc949df2b56dd21f756adfad77&L=26&N=64
Distractify have a reputation for being able to produce interesting web pages to distract you from your real work, but their recent set of pictures from the past is both eclectic and stunning. Want to see a picture of Bill Gates’ mug shot for driving without a license? Cameramen recording the lion roar for the MGM logo? A young Osama Bin Laden with his family in Sweden during the 1970s? The US-built ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), one of the first computers ever made? Hitler as the best man in Joseph Goebbels wedding (he’s the one with the moustache in the second row)? But, my favourite has got to be the picture of William Harley and Arthur Davidson, the founders of Harley Davidson Motorcycles in 1914, with their hand built bikes!
http://news.distractify.com/culture/x-history-photos/?v=1
You might also like to take a look at some really spectacular landscapes on the same site:
http://news.distractify.com/people/amazing/breathtaking-sights/
And an amazing astronaut photograph of two loops in the Colorado River taken from the ISS:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=83875&src=eoa-iotd
OK – to serious business... US Court business to be exact. Patent troll ‘Lumen View’ became the first to be hammered for damages when its attempt to extract a nuisance settlement from ‘Find the Best’ ended up in court. The rules changed recently, because in the past you couldn’t get damages even if you won a case against a patent troll. Hopefully this will be the beginning of the end for this vile breed of patent trolls preying on innocent companies.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/06/its-payback-time-as-findthebest-wrests-legal-fees-from-patent-troll/
And then, there’s US Supreme Court business... First, the US Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Aereo, a 2-year-old startup that relies on tiny antennas to stream broadcast television over the Internet, is illegal. Basically it’s got to pay copyright fees to the broadcasters for rebroadcasting their transmissions. Not really surprising. I’m not really sure why they thought they could get away with it.
Finally, there is the most important privacy ruling so far this century – the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the police need warrants to search the cell phones of people they arrest. The police aren’t going to like it, but they’ll just have to work within the decision. The decision is impressive, since it displays a thorough understanding of the social impact of technology in the 21st Century.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/26/us/supreme-court-cellphones-search-privacy.html
http://www.cnet.com/news/supreme-court-cell-phones-protected-from-warrantless-searches/
http://www.npr.org/2014/06/25/325608295/high-court-ruling-on-search-warrants-is-broader-than-cellphones?ft=1&f=1001
Meanwhile, another branch of the US government has also been taking action on the privacy front. The House of Representatives has voted to approve an amendment to the 2015 Department of Defense Appropriations Act (H.R. 4870) to prevent warrantless collection of data from government databases as well as the tampering with equipment for surveillance. The amendment declares that no funds in the budget can be used for mass data collection under ‘Section 702’ of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act . This is the provision under which the NSA’s mass surveillance and equipment ‘back door’ programs have been justified.
Of course the whole bill, as amended, will still have to be voted on by the House, and then it will have to go to the Senate, and finally to the president to sign. It could fail at any of these points, and if it does, then it’s going to be up to the electorate to make their displeasure felt at the elections in which those who opposed the measure are standing...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/20/congress_passes_crackdown_on_nsa_surveillance/
And while we are on the topic of hi tech laura’n’order, I see that a quadcopter drone loaded to the gills with narcotics crashed in Dublin’s Wheatfield Prison while trying to deliver its cargo to the inmates. An impressive use of modern technology, but then the crooks always seem to be ahead of good guys when it comes to hi tech innovations (except in James Bond movies, of course).
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/26/irish_drone_delivery/
Homework:
I don’t always agree with Linus Torvalds, Linux head honcho, but I certainly agree with his latest controversial statement. In an interview with ‘Business Insider’ he said, “I actually don’t believe that everybody should necessarily try to learn to code. I think it’s reasonably specialized, and nobody really expects most people to have to do it. It’s not like knowing how to read and write and do basic math.”
Absolutely spot on, and while we are on the subject, other than the basic necessities to live in a western society, I don’t think anyone should be forced to take subjects for which they have no aptitude at school. On the other hand they need a chance to find out what they do have an aptitude for. That means not only providing sports opportunities, but, for instance, proper labs in the schools for science and technical subjects.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/09/torvalds_no_mandatory_coding_education/
For Geeks:
OK, geeks and geeklings, here, courtesy of 150,000 LEGO bricks and 2,000 miniature figurines, is a reconstruction of the Helm’s Deep battle scene from the film Lord of the Rings. Stunning! It took a year of preparation, and 6 months to build. Phew!
http://news.distractify.com/geek/helms-deep-lego/
My Galaxy Note 1 smartphone contract comes to an end early next month. Top contender for a replacement has got to be the new Amazon Fire Phone. I will certainly wait for it to be available on this side of the pond before I make up my mind. I use Amazon extensively, and I guess I qualify as one of the ‘Prime’ customers that the phone is aimed at. Certainly the idea of a phone that comes with a set of apps that match my potential usage, rather than a bunch of apps that I have no use for, but can’t remove, appeals to me.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/18/technology/mobile/amazon-smartphone/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
Scanner:
Poorly anonymised logs reveal NYC cab drivers’ detailed whereabouts
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/06/poorly-anonymized-logs-reveal-nyc-cab-drivers-detailed-whereabouts/
HP starts a memristor-based program to launch ... THE MACHINE
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/11/hp_memristor_the_machine/
Five absurd lies cable companies are feeding you right now
http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/5-absurd-cable-company-excuses-killing-internet/
Sky cars to be built in Tel Aviv
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27995437
Engage warp drive! NASA reveals latest designs for a Star Trek-style spacecraft that could make interstellar travel a reality
(Note: One of the problems with the Alcubierre drive referred to in the article is that the energy released when it arrives would fry the destination planet! – AL)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2655105/Engage-warp-drive-Nasa-reveals-latest-designs-Star-Trek-style-spacecraft-make-interstellar-travel-reality.html
PayPal two-factor authentication broken
http://www.darkreading.com/mobile/paypal-two-factor-authentication-broken/d/d-id/1278840
Acknowledgements
Thanks to readers Barb, Fi and Lois 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
28 June 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/index.html.
Past issues of Winding Down can be found at http://www.ibgames.net/alan/winding/index.html.
