WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net, technology and science news
by Alan Lenton
Well, the view from the Winding Down bunker (wind and rain) indicates that summer is over. Summer was two days at the start of last week. In other words, slightly better than last year. So, we hunkered down to bring you news from around the network, and came up with material on the CIA’s UFO documents, WikiLeaks dangers, the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, vote hacking, Scotland Yard super recognizers, the world’s largest aircraft takes off, Citigroup fined US$7 million, and downloadable Fin de Siècle posters. URLs in the Scanner section will take you to articles on cloud security troubles, thought crime, tracking online via battery status, a near nuclear war in 1967, the Veterans Admin starts medical device security certs, the digital divide, and some surprising results on internet trolls.
That little lot should keep you going for a while!
Shorts:
UFOs – Unidentified Flying Objects. Most people either think they exist, or that people who think they exist are mad. And never the twain shall meet...
Well, here’s something for both sides in the affair. (I hesitate to call it a debate.) The CIA have recently put hundreds of declassified documents about UFO sightings online. They’ve also added some tips for how to investigate UFOs.
The documents were declassified quite a long time ago, but now, for the first time, they are easily available thanks to the magic of the internet. Take a look. You never know, they might change your mind!
http://www.openculture.com/2016/08/cia-puts-hundreds-of-declassified-documents-about-ufo-sightings-online.html
Sad to say, WikiLeaks seems to be steadily deteriorating these days. And I’m not just talking about its politics. There are serious technical problems with its output. One of the latest things it put out is the second part of a dump of emails from Turkey’s ruling political party (the AKP). It doesn’t seem to have been properly checked before being opened to the public, because the dump contains no less than 80 different variants of malware, according to anti-virus expert Vesselin Bontchev.
If you need to look at this collection for some reason, then take care, maybe run it on a different computer which can be wiped afterwards, or try using secondary sources instead.
http://gizmodo.com/wikileaks-published-dozens-of-malware-links-in-email-du-1785293372
Homework:
This is the third, and the last of the pieces telling you about some of the marvels of engineering that were part of the UK’s industrial revolution. This one is not for the faint of heart!
Question: what do you do when the canal you are building has to cross a river valley 126 feet lower than the canal level?
This was exactly the problem that faced the great engineer Thomas Telford and the canal builder William Jessop in 1795, when they were building the Llangollen Canal. The result is considered by many to be one of Telford’s greatest masterpieces. An elegant soaring aqueduct 19 spans wide and 126 feet high, the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, was the result – described by contemporaries as ‘the stream in the sky’.
I’ve been across it, and it really is stunning. It helps if, unlike me, you have a head for heights. One side has the tow path, which is fenced in, the other side has nothing – except a 126 ft drop to the River Dee below. I was driving the boat at the time and the controls were on the same side as the drop.
The real genius of the aqueduct, though is the fact that although the piers and arches are of masonry (hollow to keep the whole thing light, by the way), the canal is actually running through a channel made of ‘U’ shaped cast iron sections. Truly one of the finest creations of the Industrial revolution!
https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/enjoy-the-waterways/museums-and-attractions/pontcysyllte-aqueduct-and-trevor-basin-visitor-centre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontcysyllte_Aqueduct
https://www.llangollen.com/pontcysyllte/pontcysyllte14.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Under_Pontcysyllte.jpg
There’s an interesting piece by security guru Bruce Schneier about the possibility of Russian hacking of voting machines in the forthcoming US presidential elections. For years now security people have been warning about the dangers of hacking related to voting machines and internet voting, but none of the officials responsible seem to be interested in doing anything more than to cover their backs by asking the machine vendors to confirm their products are secure.
So, how many vendors do you think are going to say, “Of course not, we know nothing about digital security, and our machines are wide open to hacking”?
Who the US citizenry elect as their president is none of my business, any more than it was Obama’s business to lecture UK citizens about staying in the European Union. It would, however be nice to be able to feel sure that the elected wasn’t put there by another country...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/07/27/by-november-russian-hackers-could-target-voting-machines/?utm_term=.6c5b4ccf469e
The New Statesman magazine has a fascinating piece about a special unit of London’s Scotland Yard police HQ. It seems that some time ago it was realised that some people are not just better at recognising faces, but are very much better at doing so. A group of them have been looking at CCTV footage to identify serial offenders, as well as high profile crimes. The results of their identifications massively exceed anything achievable digitally. Have a look at the article – it’s an amazing story!
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2016/08/super-recognisers-scotland-yard
Geek Stuff:
This week the world’s largest aircraft took to the air for its maiden flight in England. It’s the Airlander 10. It’s an interesting hybrid of airship and airplane. It uses its engines and conventional aerodynamic lift to take off, and then helium to keep it aloft once it’s up there. With an airborne duration of five days (two weeks if it’s unmanned), it has potential for some interesting uses.
Indeed, it was originally a project of the US Army, but the project was scrapped in 2013. I’m not surprised. It’s not exactly speedy, and at 302 x 143 x 85 ft it would be difficult to miss if you were trying to shoot it down! This flight was its first test flight, but given that it was successful, I suspect we will be seeing more of it soon.
http://newatlas.com/airlander-10-first-flight/44956/
Be thankful you aren’t a techie working for Citigroup. It just got fined US$7 million by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), for false reporting. It seems that some years ago some of the data they are supposed to report to their regulator (the SEC) got classified as being test data, and so has been missing from their reports for the last 15 years.
The SEC was not amused, hence the fine. Whoever made the original mistake is probably long gone, but blame travels down the line, and I would guess everyone is keeping their heads down...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/13/coding_error_costs_citigroup_7m/
Pictures:
If you are a fan of those wonderful posters produced at the end of the 19th Century (aka Fin de Siècle) by the likes of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, then you will want to take a look at a piece by Open Culture about 1,800 free to download Posters from that period.
A must for student dorm walls!
http://www.openculture.com/2016/03/download-1800-fin-de-siecle-french-posters-prints-in-high-resolution.html
Scanner:
Trouble in the Cloud: More than half of organizations using it are facing security woes
http://www.darkreading.com/cloud/trouble-in-the-cloud-more-than-half-of-organizations-facing-security-woes/d/d-id/1326605
London cops waste £2.1m on thought crime unit – and they want volunteer informers
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/15/met_police_wastes_2_1m_online_hate_crime_hub/
Your battery status is being used to track you online
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/02/battery-status-indicators-tracking-online
How a weather forecast in 1967 stopped nuclear war
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/10/1967_weather_forecast_stopped_nuclear_war/
Veterans Administration adopts UL Security Certification Program for medical devices
http://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities---threats/veterans-administration-adopts-ul-security-certification-program-for-medical-devices/d/d-id/1325968
The term ‘Digital Divide’ doesn’t work anymore
https://psmag.com/the-term-digital-divide-doesn-t-work-anymore-be01a9cbef11#.dkf64ynr2
Internet trolls are even more hostile when they’re using their real names, a study finds
http://qz.com/741933/internet-trolls-are-even-more-hostile-when-theyre-using-their-real-names-a-study-finds/
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
21 August 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.
