WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net, technology and science news
by Alan Lenton
OK – we’re back after a brief rest! This week for your delight and edification we cover the effects of power cuts in the modern world, USB ‘C’ cable dangers, Surface Pro power cable dangers, a free Google account security check, the art of raising a creative child, a history of birth certificates, gravity waves (of course...) noxious VW emissions, Delft Blue plates, Harry Potter anime, and an exhibition of Leonardo Da Vinci’s gadgets. URLs point to a piece on building an ‘impossible’ clock, two new fusion reactors starting up, a look at the actual effects of net neutrality on investment in broadband, 360 deg virtual surreality, Amazon’s ‘Lumberyard’, and a nuclear bunker for sale. Phew!
So, let’s get moving then...
Shorts:
Here in the UK we had some pretty extensive flooding during the December rains. As usual, we were totally unprepared for it, and many people ended up in the dark as power supplies and distribution networks were hit. There was lots of complaining in the news, of course, but it wasn’t until I read the piece pointed to by the URL that the implications came home to me.
Fifty years ago in the UK, during a power cut you would lose the lights, and the TV if you had one. Heating wasn’t affected, neither was cooking or telephone communications and your transistor radio was available for information and entertainment. Your local pub could still pull a pint by candlelight and it was fun.
Nowadays, if the power goes, you lose virtually everything! How much more dependent, I wonder are we going to be in another 50 years?
http://www.rvs.uni-bielefeld.de/publications/Reports/KempLancasterPowerCuts201512V3.pdf
Eeek! Danger, Will Robinson! Here’s an important warning. A Google researcher had his laptop fried when he plugged in a Surjtech 3M USB A-to-C cable. It turned out that it had been incorrectly wired up. These cables were available on Amazon, but, it seems, that’s no longer the case. This isn’t going to do great things for the reputation of the company that manufactures the cables.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/03/surjtech_typec_usb_cable_problem/
It’s not just USB3 power cords that are causing problems. Microsoft is currently in the process of ‘calling in’ something like 2.25 million Surface Pro power cords for replacement because of reports of overheating and bursting into flames. Actually it’s not necessary to send back the old cord – Microsoft has said it will provide one AC power cord free of charge and that no proof of damage is required. People with more than one Surface device will need to submit a claim for each one.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/03/microsoft_surface_us_product_safety_commission/
Google is offering all its customers a free Google account security check. It takes about 30 seconds, to go through your account settings, and at the end you get some free storage. Definitely worth a few moments of your time to make sure your settings are all up to date!
https://security.google.com/settings/intro/security/secureaccount
Homework:
The New York Times has an interesting piece on raising a creative child. In two words – BACK OFF! It seems that the essence of creativity is unusual ways of thinking, and breadth of knowledge and experience. If you try and force a child who shows talent in one direction to intensively study (or practice) in that direction, you are in effect forcing them to think in conventional ways, thus denying them the opportunity to obtain a breadth of experience that would contribute to being creative, rather than just being very good at doing things the conventional way.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/opinion/sunday/how-to-raise-a-creative-child-step-one-back-off.html?_r=0
Atlas Obscura has an interesting piece about the history of the birth certificate. Like universal literacy it is relatively recent. Both are tied to the rise of mass conscript armies at the end of the 19th Century. After all how would you know who to conscript if you didn’t have records of births and deaths? It makes for interesting reading.
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-the-birth-certificate-became-a-ticket-to-society
Gravity waves – lots of excitement about those this week, following the LIGO announcement. If you are still wondering what they are and what all the fuss is about, here are three URLs to help you. The first is a fairly conventional report on the announcement, the second has a loop of the ‘sound’ of a gravity wave, but more importantly, scroll down a bit and you’ll find a short – three and a half minute – basic explanation of what gravity waves are (recommended). Finally, for a little light relief, take a look at xkcd’s irreverent take on gravity wave messages!
http://www.gizmag.com/gravity-waves-ligo-einstein-mit-caltech/41771/
http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/this-is-what-gravitational-waves-sound-like.html
http://xkcd.com/1642/
Geek Stuff:
In an interesting presentation to the 32nd Chaos Communication Congress (32C3) held at the end of December, Daniel Lange and Felix Domke gave a detailed look into the Volkswagen emissions scandal – from the technical side. Lange gave an overview of the industry, the testing regime, and the regulatory side in the first half, while Domke presented the results of his reverse-engineering effort on the code in the engine electronic control unit (ECU), as well as tests he ran on his own affected VW car. The presentation and accompanying slides [PDF] provide far more detail than has previously been available.
http://lwn.net/Articles/669116/
Are you into eating Dutch pancakes off those massive Delft Blue plates with pictures of landscapes? You know, the type that some people hang on their walls. Now you can be a geek -and- show your erudition – Deft Blue with pictures of nuclear power stations! Yes really. There are views of 19 different power stations. The site is in German, but Google translated it on the fly in my Chrome browser.
Take a look – show the world what a cultured and discerning geek you are!
https://atomteller.de/
OK all you Anime freaks, this is what you’ve all been waiting for! The official anime versions of the Harry Potter characters, newly licensed by Warner Bros Japan, so they are official. My fav? The Severus Snape one – wonderful...
http://kotaku.com/the-official-anime-versions-of-harry-potter-characters-1756569586
London:
If you are in London sometime between now and the beginning of September, then I think you might like to step into the Science Museum and take a look at their exhibition of Leonardo Da Vinci’s gadgets and plans. On show are 39 historical models, including weapons and flying machines, originally made in Milan back in 1952 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Leonardo’s birth. I think I definitely want to go and see this one.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/24/da_vinci_exhibition/
Scanner:
Building an impossible clock
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/01/pendulum-clock-john-harrison/424614/
Fusion reactor news
http://www.gizmag.com/wendelstein-7x-stellarator-hydrogen-plasma/41651/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/03/merkel_creates_hydrogen_plasma/
http://www.gizmag.com/china-fusion-reactor-plasma/41729/
Did Net Neutrality kill broadband investment like Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon said it would?
http://consumerist.com/2016/02/09/did-net-neutrality-kill-broadband-investment-like-comcast-att-verizon-said-it-would/
Walk inside a surrealist Salvador Dalí painting with this 360º virtual reality video
http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/walk-inside-a-salvador-dali-surrealist-painting-with-this-360o-virtual-reality-video.html
Amazon launches Lumberyard beta, a free gaming engine
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/10/amazon_launches_lumberyard_beta_free_cloud_gaming_engine/
https://aws.amazon.com/lumberyard/
For sale: One 236-bed nuclear bunker: spacious Northern Ireland pad, handy for emergencies
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/02/nuclear_bunker_sale/
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
14 February 2016
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.
