WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net and technology news
by Alan Lenton
This sample of a call centre conversation turned up on one of my lists recently, so I thought I'd share it with you, in lieu of moaning about the weather here in the UK...
"Are you ringing from the handset that has the problem?"
"Yes," I replied.
"And are you currently able to make voice calls from that handset?"
Duh!
Shorts:
One of the major stories this week has been about the fight between Amazon and Macmillan Publishing, which, for a few days, meant that Amazon stopped selling Macmillan books. Eventually, Amazon gave in, with the weird complaint that Macmillan had a 'monopoly' on the books it published...
I'm not going to go through the ins and outs of this dispute, but I thought that readers might like to read a few pieces by some authors affected by the dispute, to get views from those who actually write the books. And believe me, very few authors make much in the way of money out of the books they write! Also included in the URLs are stories about the start and the finish (for the time being) of the affair.
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/01/amazon-macmillan-an-
outsiders.html
http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/2010/01/31/why-my-books-are-no-longer-for-
sale-via-amazon/
http://gizmodo.com/5460203/the-apple+amazon-ebook-war-begins-amazon-
deletes-macmillan-books
http://www.physorg.com/news184223297.html
InfoWorld has an interesting piece on lobbying spending by hi-tech firms in the US. Microsoft came top spending US$5.85 million, Oracle came fourth spending US$4.39 million, Intel were fifth with US$3.89 million, and Google trailed behind at seventh with a mere US$3.22 million (but they are after all the new kid on the block when it comes to lobbying - I'm sure they will do better next year).
So, you may wonder, what do these companies have in common? Well, would it surprise you to find out that they've all faced anti-trust problems in the last year. No? I thought not. All told computer and internet companies spent a cool US$111 million lobbying last year. I guess that's one way to make friends and influence people...
http://www.infoworld.com/t/tech-industry-analysis/follow-techs-trail-money-in-
washington-014?page=0,0&source=IFWNLE_nlt_daily_2010-02-04
One piece of good news for Australians this week was that the Federal Court of Australia completely shredded the film industry's case again the country's third biggest internet provider iiNet. The film industry body, 'The Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft' (AFACT) had claimed that iiNet authorised copyright infringement on its network.
The most interesting part of the judgement was the common sense statement that "Copyright infringement occurred as result of use of BitTorrent, not the Internet. iiNet has no control over BitTorrent system and not responsible for BitTorrent system." The judge also stated that the "mere provision of access to internet is not the means to infringement".
Oh, and AFACT were ordered to pay iiNet's costs, reckoned to be about Australian $4 million.
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/166348,iinet-wins-film-industrys-case-torn-to-
shreds.aspx
Meanwhile, back in Europe, Ron Noble, the chief of Interpol, the international criminal intelligence agency, has questioned whether the rush by western governments to install body scanners at airports makes financial sense. Speaking at the annual Davos conference, he questioned the amount of money being poured into installing these machines, and questioned whether would be terrorists would use explosives that could be detected by this sort of equipment.
Not content with that, Noble took the opportunity to take a swipe at the use of no-fly lists, and pointed out that a much more serious problem is stolen passports. Currently, Interpol has a database of 11 million lost or stolen passports, which he maintains are being used by terrorists, war criminals, and drug traffickers. So, next time you are singled out for a body scan, remember, it's all useless, expensive security theatre, that doesn't make it any less like your aircraft will be blown up.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/29/interpol_davos/
CNN has an story which gives an indication of the way news will presented in the future. It's about a Taiwanese company called Next Media, who specialise in making animated editions of stories. The issue came to prominence with the Tiger Woods car crash, where animation was used to fill in the gaps.
The process involved lifting the details off photographs while actors in motion sensor suits go through the motions involved in the story. The details are them grafted on to the resulting cartoons to recreate the action.
I can see this becoming big in the future, although I suspect that the sequences will have to be made clearly cartoonish so that none of the real people involved can claim anything legal about faking their activities...
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/01/30/taiwan.animated.news/
Homework:
I think it's worth drawing your attention to something that I feel has the potential to change a great deal in the high tech world. It's a film, from a company called Displax, which has the potential to turn anything it's stuck onto into a touchscreen device. And if the 'thing' you want to stick it to is less than 15mm thick (about 2/3 of an inch) it can be stuck to the back and still work. It can also be stuck on curved objects (think about a school geography globe linked to mapping software) and comes in rectangular sheets up to a massive three meters (about 10 feet) across the diagonal!
It also, apparently, works if you blow on it. I'm not sure though if that is a good idea in these days of flu pandemic alerts. Furthermore, the large size supports up to 65 fingers all touching it at once.
Yes I wondered about beasts with 65 fingers too. Now, where did I put that picture of Cthulu...
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/31188/displax-touchscreen-polymer-film-debuts
This isn't really high-tech, but I though some of you might be interested in knowing that the BBC run free language courses on their web site. Among the languages covered are French, Spanish, Greek, Chinese, German, Italian and Portuguese. And, if you are a teacher, there is information of available resources. So if you've always wanted learn, now's your chance for no cost - it even includes English. :)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/
And while we are talking about the BBC, there's a couple of interesting videos about codebreaking at Bletchley Park during the Second World War. Both of the videos are talks by people involved, and there won't be many more of these, since most of those who did the code cracking, and built the world's first electronic computer, are now dead, and the rest are in their 80s and 90s.
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8492762.stm
Those of you who read James Watson's account of the discovery of DNA's famous double helix structure (the original version, not later somewhat toned down editions) will know that the path to scientific discovery is seldom as straight and obvious as it appears in the textbooks. Most of the time the experiments fail and don't even get published. Sometimes, though, those failures in themselves lead to completely unexpected understandings.
Enter a new online journal, dedicated to publishing these sort of results - 'The Journal of Serendipitous and Unexpected Results'. In its defense I can only reproduce a quote from the legendary Isaac Asimov, "The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘ Eureka!’, but ‘That’s funny…’"
http://bytesizebio.net/index.php/2010/01/31/jsur-yes-sir/
Scientific American has an interesting, and fairly even handed, article on growing genetically modified eucalyptus trees in southeastern USA. Eucalyptus grows extremely fast (about two years to reach over 50 feet in height), but the worry is that it could become invasive and threaten the native trees.
The genetically engineered trees have two main changes - one to make them more resistant to frost, and one to stop them reproducing. The question is whether the genetic change to stop them producing pollen will work well enough (it's not 100% foolproof) to be effective when (say) there are ten million acres of the trees around. Just to worry opponents even more the hand of our old friend Monsanto can be spotted in the background...
Still, something is going to have to be done if the US is serious about a move to using a lot more bio-fuel in the future. This is one of those things where there is no absolute assurance, and the risks will have to be balanced against the gains. The problem lies in finding an expert who is demonstratively unbiased to provide the basis for that sort of judgement. I wish the powers-that-be the best of luck in finding someone!
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=eucalyptus-genetically-
modified-pine-tree-southwest-forest&page=4
Geek Toys:
I've had my eye on what's happening in the field of 3-D printers for a while, and now they are finally coming down in price to the level where they are affordable by entities other than large, well-heeled corporations. Full commercial versions still cost thousands of dollars, but with a combination of a hardware kit and the open source Blender software it's possible to build your own printer for around US$750. The US$750 price tag is still a little on the high side for ordinary people while we are in recession, but this is very reminiscent of the start of the personal computer revolution. The first personal computers were kits which you bought and soldered together - that's how I got my first computer (and my first personal transistor radio, if it comes to that).
To be truthful, unlike when I aspired to my first computer, I'm not sure what I would do with a 3-D printer, but that doesn't stop me wanting one!*
http://www.physorg.com/news184526761.html
Here's a device to annoy the politically correct with - a mobile phone with a built in cigarette lighter! It's from on-line gadget retailer Chinavision, it's called the 'Machismo', and it also features the now obligatory camera. Rumour has it that they are going to be available in packs of 20...
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2010/02/04/machismo_smoking_phone/
Now here's a toy we can all appreciate - a piece of home made artillery that can fire pumpkins with a muzzle velocity of 600mph. It's the ultimate air rifle, runs off two 1,000 gallon tanks of compressed air and can project the pumpkins nearly three quarters of a mile!
As soon as I can figure out how to get my hands on a mile long firing range, I want one!
http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2010-01/air-cannon-sends-pumpkins-3700-feet
Scanner:
BitTorrent census: about 99% of files copyright infringing
http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2010/01/bittorrent-census-about-99-of-files-
copyright-infringing.ars
Hacking the Kindle DX
http://www.griffin.net/2010/01/hacking-the-amazon-kindle-dx-part-1.html
http://www.griffin.net/2010/01/hacking-the-amazon-kindle-dx-part-2-qt-
and-sudoku.html
India abandons UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and sets up own panel
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20100205/india-ipcc-un-climate-change-
global-warming.htm
Irish Intel chips get fertiliser
http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/165890,irish-intel-chips-get-fertiliser.aspx
Researcher creates strongest metal foam ever
http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/02/01/researcher-creates-strongest-metal-foam-ever/
US bill seeks cybersecurity scholarships
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/04/house_cybersecurity_bill/
Acknowledgements
Thanks to readers Barb, Fi, Jason, and to Slashdot's daily newsletter for drawing my attention to material used in this issue.
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 Spamato spam filter...
Alan Lenton
alan@ibgames.com
7 February, 2010
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.
Past issues of Winding Down can be found at http://www.ibgames.net/alan/winding/index.html.
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