WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net and technology news
by Alan Lenton
Well we are nearly half way through the month, and it's been quite a rough ride for me so far. First my hard drive went down and then I ended up with an eye infection (now cleared up) that made it difficult to read the screen!
On the good side, the new drive arrived from Amazon on Tuesday as promised. I stuck a note on the door saying please leave it at flat four, when I got home there was a note from the postman saying he had left it with flat six... The other good thing was that github performed flawlessly. Barely a minute after telling it I wanted a complete clone of the repository, it was sitting on my hard disk ready to go - not just the current code, but all the older versions too. Distributed version control systems rock!
Following reader complaints (Hi, Allison!) I've been forced, by popular demand to not proceed with the Snarks section, since it is too dense to read. After all why would I want to write material no one reads? Despite that it remains the fact that there is always a lot more than I can include, so I'm sorry if something of your special interest didn't make it in, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.
And this weeks candidate for the Birthday of the start of science goes to Descartes, whose Book, 'Discourse on the Method for Guiding One's Reason and Searching for truth in the Sciences', which featured the famous quote,"I think, therefore I am". As you can see, they didn't exactly go in for snappy titles in those days. It would probably have sold better if he'd called it 'The Reason Protocol'.
Anyway - to business...
Shorts:
I see from an Associated Press report out earlier this month that a software 'upgrade' managed to take out no less than 10,000 of the US military's GPS receivers back in January. Since I don't recall hearing of major disasters at the time, I guess they managed using old fashioned maps instead. At this stage there are probably still a fair number of older soldiers around who were taught to read paper maps. What will happen in 20 years time when there is no one left in the armed forces who knows how to read a map, or use a sextant, is anybody's guess...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/02/gps_military_snafu/
At the end of last month the book trade gathered in New York for BookExpo America, and the issue on most lips was the vexed question of eBooks and their eReaders - mainly iPad and Kindle at the moment. The truth is that, in general, unlike the music and movie moguls, the book trade is not afraid of digital books. Of course, there are issues over DRM, but the real worry for the trade is the same as that of the consumers - being locked into a proprietary format, owned by one of the big digital companies like Amazon and Apple.
At the moment you can buy a book anywhere, and read it where you like. The fear is that you will only be able to buy a book in the online store that provides your particular reader, and only read it on your reader. This isn't a new problem, of course. A hundred years ago, Edison and Victor made records that were incompatible with one another's players. Or nearer to our own time there was the struggle over VHS/Betamax video tape.
It's not just the publishers this is going to have an effect on. Small bookshops are already dying, and with them goes the ability to browse through books that caught your eye, but which you've never heard of. You also lose the access to knowledgeable staff. A few years ago I wandered into Chiswick's local bookshop (since defunct) and said, "Three years ago I saw a book with a picture of a cat on the front, written by someone with a foreign sounding name." Ten minutes later she had located the book and was ordering it for me. Try doing that on Amazon! My favorite London Bookshop, 'Murder One', vanished last year, taking with it the opportunity I had to browse new sci-fi and detective novels. On the other hand, I have to say that I rarely buy technical books from anywhere other than Amazon now, since they have a far bigger stock than any bricks and mortar shop, even the legendary Blackwells, can offer.
We are at a crossroads where books are concerned. Will the publishers come up with a joint publisher and vendor neutral format which is acceptable to both the reading public and to the publishers? If so, will they, the publishers, and the reading public, be able to force the format onto the purveyors of eBook readers? I don't know the answer, but I do know that the longer it takes to come up with an acceptable format, the less chance it has of becoming the standard. Time is not on the side of the publishers and consumers.
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/05/universal-e-books-format/all/1
Bad news for the likes of Winding Down and others who habitually send links to friends through the internet. It seems that a bankruptcy court in Texas has decided to throw out all previous case law and rule that forwarding a link to defamatory material can in itself be defamatory!
That means if I give you a link in this newsletter and it points to something that's declared to be defamatory, then I can also become liable for the defamation. Given how today's modern social networking sites work, this ruling could have a major impact on the whole use of the internet, should it be taken up in any way by those with a vested interest.
I don't think this can be made to stick. But the way things are going these days you can never tell, especially with the propensity of modern states to use 'anti-terrorism' as an excuse for all sorts of repressive behavior. Hopefully, though, that won't be the case.
http://techdirt.com/articles/20100604/1307039696.shtml
Oh, Oh, the end is nigh. The legendary mystery Russian shortwave radio station known as UVB-76 has finally stopped transmitting its strange buzzing noise. It's been transmitting continuously on 4625kHz since 1982, sending 25 buzzes/minute for 24 hours a day. Even the end of the cold war didn't stop it! Could this mean that preparations for Armageddon are under way? Could we be on the verge of a massive black helicopter attack? Have the Russians run out of spies to talk to? More to the point, have they run out of roubles to keep it going?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UVB-76
Something interesting is happening in the Kingdom of Spain. Something to do with file sharing, no less. Judges sitting in the Provincial Court of Madrid, have ruled that file sharing site CVCDGO did not break the law. They pointed out that CVCDGO did not host copyrighted files, and generated no profit from copyright infringement.
As the judges so aptly put it, "...since ancient times there has been the loan or sale of books, movies, music and more. The difference now is mainly on the medium used – previously it was paper or analog media and now everything is in a digital format which allows a much faster exchange of a higher quality and also with global reach through the Internet."
This is fully within a long tradition of common sense ruling by judges in the country, but, at least until now it hasn't stopped the police's highly zealous 'Intellectual Property Crime Squad' from arresting unwary sysops. Maybe this will put a severe break on police activity on this front. All credit to the Spanish judiciary for taking a stand for common sense.
http://torrentfreak.com/judges-liken-p2p-to-the-ancient-practice-of-lending-books-100608/
I see that the powers that be in Canada are planning to jam wireless signals in the area around the G8 and the G20 summits this month. This is apparently to hinder co-ordinated protest action. Will it work? Perhaps not. After all you can use the silence to find out where the convoys of dignitaries are by seeing who you can't ring!
It reminds me of when I was an impetuous youth in the days when 'mobile' phones were the size of a suitcase and strictly for telephone engineers. My then partner and I were members of a campaign against the stationing of nuclear armed cruise missiles at Greenham Common in England. They were supposed to be taken out and hidden in the British countryside so they couldn't be off-ed by a first strike. They only practiced this about half a dozen times a year, and we had a tracking system that had people come out and 'greet' the convoy as it arrived at each village along the way.
Ostensibly the tracking was done by having watchers outside the base with a CB radio. Actually, we always knew when they were going to leave the base (usually at night). It was when our phones (land lines in those days) 'mysteriously' stopped working! Other nights we were able to get a good night's sleep...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/11/wireless_jamming_canada/
Homework:
Those of you following the current debate about the future of NASA, might like to take a look at an interesting article in 'The Space Review' about what the author, Simon Vanden Bussche, refers to as a 'Lego' paradigm for spaceflight.
What he is basically saying is, rather than producing a set of highly specialized components for space flight, such as the heavy lift vehicle, concentrate on using simpler, standardized components, in the same way simple Lego bricks can be used to build complex models.
For instance, rather than trying to get all the fuel needed to complete a mission into space in one go, develop lighter cheaper standardized rockets and standard orbital fuel tank components, and use multiple launches to get the fuel into orbit. A useful by-product of this strategy is not only that the rockets could have multiple commercial sources, and orbit infrastructure could be used by all countries, but this would also kick start the commercial use of space.
It's an interesting article which I'd recommend to anyone who follows the progress of space travel.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1638/1
Here's some literal home-work for you! Ever had trouble putting together an Ikea flat pack piece of furniture? You're not the only one! Now however, there is the possibility that a very old piece of technology may be able to come to the rescue.
It seems that the stonemasons who build the great medieval cathedrals of Europe had a similar problem. The masons who cut the stone blocks needed to be able to convey to the workers how the block fitted into their part of the project. Obviously if you put a block in the wrong way, or put a block in the wrong place it could have serious consequences, to say the least. So, there developed what became known as 'masons marks' which showed the assemblers how everything fitted together.
Historians working on looking at how these magnificent cathedrals were built have obviously had their own problems with Ikea flat packs, because they have come up with a way to use masons marks on flat packs, and a video showing how it work. A decent assembly system for flat packs? At last. Just think of what would have happened to Narnia if it had been 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Ikea Wardrobe'!
http://www.physorg.com/news195111036.html
There seem to be an increasing number of stories coming out about 'cyberwar', these days. Hence, I was pleased to find a useful piece on the 'Errata Security' web site entitled 'Cyberwar is fiction'. Actually the story isn't so much that 'cyberwar' per se doesn't exist, it's more that it isn't 'war' in the sense that the military understand it. The basic premise is that war is about force - if you don't succeed get bigger/better/more hi-tech version of the weapons and try again. On the other hand cyberstuff is about outsmarting your opponent.
It's an interesting argument, though ultimately unconvincing to a military historian. The fact is that throughout history battles have been won by commanders who while they were apparently weaker, outsmarted their opponents. I think the problem with the article is that it is actually raising a Colonel Blimp type straw man to knock down. You should definitely read the piece though, its argument is considerably more sophisticated than the bare bones presented here.
http://erratasec.blogspot.com/2010/06/cyberwar-is-fiction.html
Yet more homework! Take a look at this video by physicist Brian Cox, who takes up the task of explaining why it is that in these times of hard decisions and savage budget cuts, we should still fund big science projects. It's not an easy case to make, but Professor Cox comes up with some convincing arguments, and will at the very least make you think twice about the issue.
http://www.ted.com/talks/brian_cox_why_we_need_the_explorers.html?utm_source=
newsletter_weekly_2010-06-08&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email
Geek Toys:
Have you seen the video from 'OK Go' on YouTube, and wondered how they created the incredible Heath Robinson (or Rube Goldberg, depending on your nationality) contraption that it uses? Well now you can find out, because 'TED' have a video of a talk by Adam Sadowsky, whose team engineered the beast. It's a wonderful explanation, and concludes with the actual OK Go video. Well worth a watch!
http://www.ted.com/talks/adam_sadowsky_engineers_a_viral_music_video.html?
utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2010-06-08&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly
&utm_medium=email
If you want something, how shall I put it, a little more sophisticated (not to say less messy), though, then I've got a little something you might like to take a peek at. A 122 ft SuperSport yacht from StandCraft. It comes with a matching car, and cruises at 44 knots (maxing out at 55 knots). It has a stateroom to kill for, with a built in Bang & Olufsen surround sound system, and four luxury cabins. Its lines would make even James Bond jealous! No price yet, but it's a must for the discerning geek in these days of growing miserablism...
http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/future-yachts-concept-boats/13679-new-
design-strand-craft-122-supersport.html
On the other hand, if you would prefer something a little less ostentatious, and perhaps a little more threatening, why not take this mechanical spider out to a spin, so to speak?
http://dvice.com/archives/2010/06/damn-its-a-gian.php
Scanner:
New Google search index: Caffeine
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html
Publishing company under fire for putting warning label on the US Constitution
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/06/09/publishing-company-putting-warning-label-
constitution/?test=latestnews
Olympus apologizes after shipping malware-laced cameras in Japan
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/09/olympus_pre_pwned_digital_camera/
John Perry Barlow: Internet has broken political system
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/101273-john-perry-barlow-internet-
has-broken-political-system
Second Life creator Linden Lab laying off 30 per cent staff
http://www.physorg.com/news195331168.html
Fairfax police writing fewer tickets because of problematic computer system
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/06/AR2010060603219.html
Acknowledgements
Thanks to readers Barb, Fi, Lois, 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
13 June, 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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