WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net, technology and science news
by Alan Lenton
Winding Down is just a teeny bit longer than usual this week, but I’m sure you’ll manage! For your edification we have stories on how to turn off Twitter’s latest brainwave, smartphone sales dropping in the US, stopping ISPs using your data without your permission, pictures of the Soyuz TMA-20M rocket, an analysis of the Ukrainian blackout hack, wine (something dear to my palate), solar storms, Hollywood tech clichés, ninjas wanted, and a set of night time birds-eye views of London. Phew. And as if that’s not enough there are ten exciting URLs – well some of them are exciting... Try stopping an AI enslaving everyone, or a history of electronic music. No? Then how about getting a writ for using the Klingon language? Can’t tempt you with that option? Maybe some more on the FBI/Apple affair, or a look at stats, perhaps, or even the real-world locations of 14 Sci-Fi dystopias? Hmm – still not satisfied. I guess that just leaves ransom ware, a 24 inch portable screen, the use of cell-phones, and a new type of de-icer.
There surely must be something you are interested in among that lot!
The reason for all the extra URLs is simple – it’s Easter next weekend, so there won’t be an issue next week. We will be back on April 3, so it’s only a one week break. See you then!
Shorts:
Seems like Twitter’s bright new, state of the art, shiny ‘algorithmic’ time-line feature is not proving popular with the masses, so here is a set of instructions, posted on G+ by Laurie Weinstein on how to turn it off.
“Here’s where to turn off Twitter’s new “algorithmic” time-line, that makes a hopeless non-chronological mess of the tweets you follow. Get to settings by clicking on your profile photo and then settings, then uncheck “Show me the best Tweets first.” That’s “best” as in “garbage we want you to see first.” Twitter will demand your password even for this simple change. How far Twitter has fallen.”
https://plus.google.com/+LaurenWeinstein/posts/GELCJP8AnBU
I see that the figures for smartphone sales in the last quarter of 2015 are now out. While over the year things went up, in the last quarter they went down in the US, a trend which is expected to continue for two reasons. First the market in the US is saturated – virtually everyone who wants a smart phone now has one. Second, more phones are coming to the market contract free, which is encouraging people to think about whether they really need a new phone every two years.
Like the PC market, the smart phones now available do everything most people want, so it’s only when something pegs out that phone owners look for something new. I guess it won’t be until VR in the consumer arena truly takes off that we will again get the sort of free for all market we’ve seen for the last half a dozen years. Incidentally, I’m just dying to see how Apple are going to make VR headsets look classy and cool to wear!
http://www.twice.com/news/statistics/why-north-american-smartphone-growth-slowing/60637
More news outlets than I expected picked up the story about the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposing new privacy rules that would force ISPs to get your permission before using and sharing your data (an opt-in). Of course, it’s only a proposal at this stage of the proceedings, but it’s interesting that this is on the cards. It shows a public awareness of the need to up the stakes on privacy which wouldn’t have happened before the Snowden revelations about the NSA data slurping. Indeed, what do you think the chances of a government bureaucracy like the FCC proposing to take a hard line on privacy would have been without that much increased public awareness?
In case you missed it, perhaps your pals left you stranded on Mars, for instance, here are URLs pointing to three of the stories about the proposal. Take your pick...
http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/c10739f7f8cc4848b0bb823b5d53baac/US--Broadband-Privacy
http://www.cnet.com/news/the-government-wants-to-safeguard-your-privacy-from-your-broadband-provider/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/11/fcc_extends_data_privacy_laws_to_isps/
Homework:
Here are some rather nice pictures of the massive Soyuz TMA-20M rocket carrying the latest batch of astronauts to the International Space Station. The sheer size of the beastie is stunning – see what you think.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/17/soyuz_baikonur/
http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/expedition-47-soyuz-rolls-out-in-preparation-for-launch
It started with a phishing email, and ended months later with nearly a quarter of a million Ukrainians losing their electric power. Now Information Week has an interesting piece on how it was done. ‘Who done it’ is another matter, but I can tell you, it definitely wasn’t the butler. Given the tensions in the area, and the sophistication of the attack, most people are pointing a finger in the direction of Moscow, but it’s impossible to pin the blame down in a way which would stand up in a court of law.
The article is an important one for those who want to get a feel for just how easy it is for hackers to sabotage industrial systems. It’s quite an easy read for a non-techie, but it does occasionally use initials which are not defined in the article. So here are a few definitions to save you having to look things up:
SCADA stands for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition. It’s a network system for the remote control and monitoring of large industrial set ups. Originally completely separate from the internet, over time it has tended to get linked up to the internet. This has happened both deliberately, for convenience, or accidentally by those who don’t have the skill to understand the dangers.
SANS is a US private, for profit, security company.
ICS-CERT stands for Industrial Control Systems – Cyber Emergency Response Team, and it’s part of the US Department of Homeland Security. Yes, the DHS do other things as well as harassing you at airports! CERT advisories are well respected in the networking security world.
So, now you are ready to go, here’s the URL:
http://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities---threats/lessons-from-the-ukraine-electric-grid-hack/d/d-id/1324743
OK – this has nothing to do with techie stuff, but I thought you might like read this piece about the way in which wine is presented makes it taste different. it’s a sort of psychology experiment anyone can indulge in. This is especially useful if you have to deal with a wine snob on a regular basis! SO, keep the red food colouring handy...
https://medium.com/life-learning/the-3-wine-studies-that-changed-my-life-e49b60ca76de#.28zyhgxsj
Returning to ‘real’ techie stuff, if you’re not too drunk to continue, I thought I’d draw your attention to an excellent article by Jeff Foust in ‘The Space Review’. Jeff frequently writes interesting articles, and this one is a serious look at the issue of space weather, and the strategies (or lack of them) to deal with it. I guess some of you might not have heard of the term before, but what it refers to is the environment through which the planet and its atmosphere move. It’s not just a vacuum out there, there is all sorts of sorts of radiation, not to mention fast (and not so fast) moving charged particles.
The sun is not constant, sometimes explosions , usually caused by disruptions to its magnetic field, blow off large chunks of electrically charged matter. It’s events like this if they hit the Earth’s atmosphere that cause, among other things, the really spectacular aurorae visible at low latitudes. These events are called solar storms, and if they are big enough, they can be really deadly for satellites, since satellites are outside the Earth’s sheltering atmosphere.
Indeed, if the storm is big enough, it will even have an effect on electrical machinery on Earth. In the last really, really big storm in 1859 currents large enough to give operators shocks were induced in telegraph cables by the storm! Fortunately, most of the big storms don’t hit us – we are really quite a small target when you think about it. In order to hit us the storm will have to be blown off the sun exactly in the direction of where the Earth is going to be in the several days’ time it takes the storm to reach us. However, although the chances may be small they are not negligible.
So what are we going to do – a storm as powerful as the 1859 one could easily blow out all the GPS system, for instance. (I note that the US navy has now started making sure its navigators know how to work out where they are with a sextant and an accurate timepiece – no electricity used there.) How do we deal with this sort of thing? We don’t really know yet, the discussion has only started. So, if you want to get in on the ground level, so to speak, on this debate, Jeff’s article is a good intro to start with.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2938/1
Geek Stuff:
Here’s something to keep you amused over the Easter Break – a selection of eight of the worst Hollywood movie clichés! The two that always make me laugh are the idea of ‘instant hacking’ – the hero gets into a computer he or she has never seen before in seconds, and then there are the computers that catch fire because of a virus. While I have known of a laptop that caught fire, that was in very early days, before viruses were at all common, and frankly I can’t imagine any way in which the computer could be set on fire by a virus...
http://www.infoworld.com/article/3044799/application-development/8-horrifying-hollywood-computing-cliches.html
This is for all you heroes of ninja computer games out there. It’s time to make good on the boasts! A Japanese prefecture is looking for six full-time ninjas to help with tourism efforts. Yea! Go for it...
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/you-still-have-time-to-apply-to-be-a-fulltime-ninja-in-japan
London:
I’d like to show you a really cool set of ‘bird’s eye’ pictures of London at night put together by a bunch of urban explorers. I think they are superb, even though I really don’t like heights, even pictures of heights, normally. These, though are such works of art that I can overcome my normal dislike of such thing to admire the view!
http://mashable.com/2016/03/15/london-skyline-photos/#O6Ml.7io4OqD
Scanner:
How exactly do you rein in a wildly powerful AI before it enslaves us all?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/04/controlling_smart_ai_systems/
The history of electronic music in 476 tracks (1937-2001)
http://www.openculture.com/2016/03/the-history-of-electronic-music-in-476-tracks-1937-2001.html
Paramount says ‘Star Trek’ fan film’s use of the Klingon language violates copyright
http://www.engadget.com/2016/03/14/paramount-star-trek-fan-film-lawsuit-details/
How one little number erodes trust in science: statisticians say it’s time to end the cult of “statistical significance.”
http://www.psmag.com/health-and-behavior/how-one-little-number-erodes-trust-in-science
Former US anti-terror chief tears into FBI over iPhone unlocking case
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/14/former_counterterrorism_chief_tears_into_fbi/
The real-world locations of 14 Sci-Fi dystopias
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-real-world-locations-used-in-fourteen-film-dystopias
Millions menaced as ransom ware-smuggling ads pollute top websites
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/15/massive_us_malvertising_campaign/
Puts a 24-inch display in your back pocket
http://www.gizmag.com/spud-pop-up-screen/42350/
How do we use cell phones? [A set of nice infographics – AL]
http://www.33rdsquare.com/2016/03/how-do-we-use-cell-phones.html
End of de-icer: spray-on coating could ice-proof cars forever
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/12191326/End-of-de-icer-spray-on-coating-could-ice-proof-cars-forever.html
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
20 March 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.
