WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week’s net and technology news
by Alan Lenton
Well, I’m still catching up on interesting stuff that came up while I was having a Christmas break, but this week includes more of the immediate news. Think, for instance, personal satellites, Wikipedia, Sisma Calce, Apple and iPhone 5, a 20 inch tablet from LG and Samsung, Facebook and Instagram, Google, the TSA, a pocket X-ray scanner, the internet for dictators, the excellent Open Education Database, a different take on the Ferrari 250 GTO, and the rise of Cthulu architecture.
Phew! As one UK TV program would put it: “Have I got news for you...”
Quote of the week:
“The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, (s)he’s one who asks the right questions.” ~ Claude Levi-Strauss.
I found the quote on the ‘Supernova Condensate’ web site, and it’s just so true.
http://supernovacondensate.net/2013/01/08/the-right-questions/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_L%C3%A9vi-Strauss
Shorts:
Usually I only watch videos that last a few minutes. However a video of a talk by Korean artist and independent satellite engineer Hojun Song kept me hooked for a full 20 minutes. His talk is about how an individual can, for a reasonable cost, build and launch their own satellite! OK - it’s only a small satellite, but wow! It never occurred to me that ordinary people could have their own satellites in space.
Like almost everyone else I assumed that only government agencies and multinational corporations had the wherewithal to build and launch satellites. I was completely wrong, as was shown by this talk about the Open Source Satellite Initiative. Take a look, and see what you think!
http://videos.liftconference.com/video/4668738/the-open-source-satellite
I gave a link to the Wikipedia in my Quote of the week section. One should not, however, take everything on the Wikipedia site as literal truth, as became very obvious recently, when an article about a 17th Century war in India called the Bicholim Conflict was found to be a complete fabrication. There was never any such war, but the article had been on the site for the five years.
Usually if I give a link to Wikipedia, it’s a link to something that I’m at least tangentially familiar with, and I, at a minimum, eyeball the piece before giving you the link. In case you’re wondering how a programmer and game designer like myself comes to know of Levi-Strauss. It’s because I studied structural anthropology as part of my Sociology degree. I didn’t agree with him then, and I still don’t, but that doesn’t invalidate the article.
http://dailycaller.com/2013/01/06/hoax-article-detailing-fake-war-stayed-up-on-wikipedia-for-five-years/
If you live in an earthquake zone you might well be interested in a new product called ‘Sisma Calce’. it’s a fabric made of glass fibers and elastic polypropylene fibers laid in four different directions for all round strength. Basically you incorporate it into the walls of your building and it helps to reduce earthquake damage, or, in more extreme cases, gives the survivors a chance to get out and get clear of falling debris.
It sounds interesting, and anything that helps save lives and reduce damage is worth investigating. Take a look at the URL for more details.
http://www.gizmag.com/seismic-fabric/25664/
Hmmm... The iPhone 5 doesn’t seem to be doing as well as it was expected to do. Apple has halved orders for screens for the current quarter. Sounds like the same thing that’s happening with the Microsoft Surface tablet. It’s a direct result of lower than anticipated sales. One has to ask why this is. The obvious answer is that Steve Jobs is no longer around to guide Apple.
I don’t think that is the case. I think that the latest iPhone isn’t the major breakthrough setting new trends that earlier iPhones were. Therefore, for a lot of people, the urge to upgrade before the end of the phone’s working life is simply not there. I don’t doubt that those people will, eventually, upgrade to whatever is the latest iPhone, but they have no need to just now - especially given the price premium on Apple products.
Additionally, I suspect, there is the problem (for Apple) that its competitors (especially Samsung) are finally catching up and producing smart phones that are genuine rivals to the iPhone. They haven’t caught up with the iPad in the 10 inch tablet market yet, but the writing is on the wall on that front, and Apple would do well to pay attention. Already in the seven inch market they are playing catch up, thanks to Jobs’ blindness to the convenience of seven inch models.
All in all, Apple promises to be in for an interesting time over the next few years.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/14/iphone_5_screen_order_halved/
While we are on the subject of innovation, I was fascinated to see that LG and Samsung were showing off a 20 inch tablet at CES. I want one. I have no idea what I would use it for, or even how I would carry it, but I would love to sit on some public transport reading a book on it! I’m sure I could find a use for it once I had one to play with...
http://www.gizmag.com/panasonic-20-inch-4k-tablet-ces/25727/
I see that Facebook’s Instagram service managed to lose half its daily active users over its attempt to slurp up members’ content. I think there’s a lesson there somewhere, but whether the traditionally arrogant powers that be in the social network milieu will take any notice is a moot point.
In the meantime the news media were all agog with stories about how Facebook’s new Graph Search would take on Google. I don’t think so, somehow. The problem with that idea is twofold. First, the system is not yet very well developed, and realistically, Facebook are unlikely to be able to put the sort of resources behind the engine that Google, for whom it is their primary source of income, will do.
Secondly, because people use browsers to access Facebook, even now with all the apps in the world. Because browser are agnostic (even Internet Explorer, though Microsoft would like it to be otherwise), it is just as easy to use Google for a search as any other search engine.
Incidentally, that’s one of the reasons why although Google dominates the search market, it is not a true monopoly in the classic sense of the word. Unlike, say, their electricity, water, or natural gas supply, consumers can go elsewhere at no monetary cost if they don’t like what Google supplies.
But I digress, back to Facebook. One thing that didn’t really make the news was the fact that at the same time as it launched Graph Search, Facebook removed the ability of users to opt out of appearing in search results on the site. This is because the search engine relies on the content in profiles to generate its results. Already you can get information about people that those in question thought was private. Classic, just classic Facebook abuse of their users.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/14/instagram_bombs/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57564077-93/facebook-takes-on-google-with-graph-search/
http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/01/on-facebook-users-can-no-longer-hide-from-search-results/
One news item that came through this week doesn’t seem to have made many waves for some reason. The TSA is planning to remove all its ‘virtual strip search’ back-scatter X-ray scanners from US airports by June. These are the scanners that have caused so much opposition in the past. They will be keeping the machines that use millimeter wavelength radio waves, but those just give an outline of the body, not the whole thing.
The TSA is undoubtedly doing this because of opposition in high places, but I suspect it will also have the added advantage (for the TSA) of making the remaining machines more acceptable.
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/18/travel/tsa-body-scanners/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn
Homework:
To misquote Mae West, “Is that an X-ray scanner in your pocket, or are you just pleased to see me?” Scientists at the University of Missouri have managed to produce a hand held, battery operated X-ray machine. When you consider the size of the commercial machine you see in the dentists’ surgeries or hospitals and the fact that you need to generate a voltage in the region of 100 Kilovolts produce X-rays, you realize just how impressive the work is.
The hand held machine uses the piezoelectric effect to get the high voltages needed and it seems to me that now this technique is shown to be workable, it opens a door not just for X-ray scanners but for portable versions of other devices that require high voltages. I think it would be fair to say that the technique has very high potential!
http://www.gizmag.com/compact-radiation-source-portable-x-ray/25707/
Calling all dictators. I know Winding Down has a wide readership, so it’s not unlikely that it includes the odd dictator or two. Given the problems caused recently by the anti-dictator movements in the Middle East, I thought you, or one of your trusted minions, might like to take a look at a recently produced pamphlet on how to shape the internet to help you retain power. It’s called ‘The Dictator’s Practical Internet Guide to Power Retention’, and I’m sure you’ll find it exceedingly useful.
Conversely, if you happen to live in a democracy, a quick read of this handy little tract will warn you exactly what things to look for that will make the internet a danger to democracy. Unfortunately, several of the measures currently being proposed by various Western governments - not to mention United Nations - fall into the latter category. Take a look, it’s well worthwhile.
http://assets.pwd.io/pwd/media/The_Dictator_s_Practical_Internet_Guide_Laurier_Rochon.pdf
I’d like to draw your attention to the Open Education Database (thanks for pointing it out, Daniel). It’s got reviews of over a thousand online courses, and has details of over 2850 free courses in the liberal arts and sciences. It’s a very impressive piece of work - my congratulations to those involved in setting this up. Highly recommended.
http://oedb.org/
Geek Stuff:
A Ferrari 250 GTO. Just the sort of sports car that that a rich geek would lust after - only 39 of them were built, and the current going price among collectors is US$35 million. Hmmm... But what if you are a poverty stricken geek? Then I have a possible solution for you. Not quite as good as actually owning one, but very cool, none the less. Take a look at this:
http://www.futilitycloset.com/2013/01/11/winning-colors/
Calling all Cthulu fans - just take a look at this doorway in the entryway to the Institut Oceanographique in Paris. Does it remind you of anything...
http://io9.com/5976115/this-french-doorway-is-obviously-the-beginning-of-the-cthulhian-architecture-movement
Scanner: Other stories
Security audit finds dev outsourced his job to China to goof off at work
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/16/developer_oursources_job_china/
Few savings from Digital Health Records
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/11/business/electronic-records-systems-have-not-reduced-health-costs-report-says.html?pagewanted=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=1&
http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/32/1/63.abstract
The race against the machine (Jobs v. Robots)
http://www.33rdsquare.com/2013/01/60-minutes-looks-at-race-against-machine.html
IllumiRoom takes video games beyond the TV
http://www.gizmag.com/illumiroom-video-games-tv/25762/
Climate watch: 2012 figures confirm global warming still stalled
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/16/2012_temperature_figures/
Acknowledgements
Thanks to readers Barb, Fi and Daniel 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
20 January 2013
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.
