WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net, technology and science news
by Alan Lenton
Over the last few weeks, what with one thing and another, I’ve collected a lot of URLs for stories that I didn’t have time/space to cover. Looking through them I realized that there were a couple of issues that were important enough to generate a whole host of links – in particular, climate change, car system hacking, and Windows 10 since going live. I’ve included a bunch of URLs on each of them, but I don’t suggest you read them all – just pick out the one or two that look most interesting.
Finally, to lighten things up, I’ve also included some stuff on London for visitors, and a gorgeous new picture of the Earth from space. Enjoy!
Now, take a deep breath...
Shorts:
It’s been a bad summer for auto manufacturers. First of all Ford recalled 400,000 cars to fix a software bug, then Toyota recalled 625,000 cars. That was bad enough, but next came reports of a hack that allowed hackers to take over a jeep and drive it into a ditch. Chrysler rapidly recalled 1.4 million cars as a result. Eventually, it turned out that you can hack some car systems via DAB radio signals. At this rate, the time will come when, if you get stuck in a traffic jam, you’ll be able to make all the cars holding you up drive into ditches, so you can zoom through!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/08/ford_car_software_recall_analysis/
http://www.techienews.co.uk/9737266/toyota-recalls-625000-hybrid-vehicles-software-glitch/
http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/07/fiat-chrysler-connected-car-bug-lets-hackers-take-over-jeep-remotely/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/21/jeep_patch/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/24/car_hacking_analysis/
http://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities---threats/chrysler-recalls-14-million-vehicles-after-jeep-hacking-demo-/d/d-id/1321463
http://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities---threats/the-summer-of-car-hacks-continues/d/d-id/1321750
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/24/car_hacking_using_dab/
Homework:
‘Climate Change’ is getting even more complicated these days. It seems the Sun is heading for a Maunder Minimum, which caused the cold spell in Victorian times. It’s also been revealed that arctic sea ice increased by 41% in 2013, and there are hot spots under the Antarctic ice, which may (or may not) be why the glaciers in some areas are slipping into the sea. Then there is evidence from ice cores that suggests a link between climate change and large volcanic eruptions. Phew! Oh, and there appears to be some evidence that abrupt climate change seriously affected some of the earliest civilizations in the ‘Fertile Crescent’ in the Middle East...
Let’s face it, climate change is far more complicated than many of those who originally pushed it are willing to admit. My advice? Keep an open mind.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/mini-ice-age-coming-in-next-fifteen-years-new-model-of-the-suns-cycle-shows-10382400.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/11733369/Earth-heading-for-mini-ice-age-within-15-years.html
http://www.scientificcomputing.com/news/2015/07/suns-irregular-heartbeat-driven-double-dynamo
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/13/mathematician_predicts_sun_to_go_
quiet_for_ten_years_from_2030/
http://www.techienews.co.uk/9737671/arctic-sea-ice-volume-bounced-by-41-in-2013/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/13/geothermal_heat_from_planets_core_is_
melting_the_west_antarctic_ice/
http://www.techienews.co.uk/9736585/link-volcanic-eruptions-climate-change-unearthed-ice-cores/
http://www.techienews.co.uk/9737936/abrupt-climate-change-affect-earliest-civilizations-middle-east/
Geek Stuff:
Windows 10, the story so far... Well as predicted, forced updates are causing problems with continual rebooting halfway through an update on some computers. There is also a lot of concern about the new terms and conditions which are, to say the least, privacy busting. Add that to worries about exactly what information Windows 10 is sending off to Microsoft servers, and the discovery that Windows 10 is hijacking your search engine preferences and sending stuff off to Bing whether you want it to or not, and you can see why some people are getting very twitchy. I’m not yet regretting my decision to wait and see before I upgrade...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/08/11/windows_10_download_bricks_pcs_kb3081424/
http://cohornlaw.com/what-attorneys-and-their-clients-need-to-know-about-windows-10-and-microsofts-new-privacy-policies/
http://localghost.org/posts/a-traffic-analysis-of-windows-10
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/even-when-told-not-to-windows-10-just-cant-stop-talking-to-microsoft/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/08/11/firefox_cortana_search_feature/
London:
If you are in London over the summer hols, here are a few things worth going to see:
For the more geeky among you take a trip to the Brunel Museum in East London which is housed in the old Engine House of the first tunnel under the Thames, completed in 1842. It was started by Marc Brunel and completed by his more famous son, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The tunnel took so long to build that The Times newspaper christened it ‘the old bore’.
Incidentally, if you are in that part of town, it’s worth going a bit further down the Thames to see the Thames barrier – a classic piece of engineering often described as one of the modern wonders of the world...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/05/04/geeks_guide_brunel_museum/
Also in that area is the ‘tall ships’ festival at Greenwich over the last weekend in August. If you want to tour a couple of the remaining ocean going sailing ships, this is your chance, and while you are in Greenwich you can visit the clipper ship ‘Cutty Sark’, which was, in its time, one of the fastest sailing ships in the world.
http://londonist.com/2015/08/ahoy-london-s-tall-ships-festival-returns
Finally while you are in Greenwich you can go over to the Royal Observatory and stand on the Prime Meridian – or perhaps not. It turns out that that there was an error in the original measurement using a telescope, which has become obvious with GPS. So, you either stand on the original line, or walk 111 yards east and stand astride the GPS prime meridian!
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/greenwich-royal-observatory-how-the-prime-meridian-line-is-actually-100-metres-away-from-where-it-was-believed-to-be-10452386.html
Scanner:
An EPIC New View of Earth
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=86257&src=eoa-iotd
Acknowledgements
Thanks to readers 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
16 August 2015
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.
