WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week’s net, technology and science news
by Alan Lenton
I’ve managed to pick up a few useful bits and pieces this week. How about stories on metadata, dual operating systems (or not, as the case may be), General Electric fridges, anti-satellite activities by the USA, China and Russia, French science fiction, and delivery drones. URLs are available for those with a penchant for Linux desktops, cosmic inflation, PRISM, NSA-proof GMail, and Windows XP on ATMs...
OK, people, let’s get started!
Shorts:
Metadata. The NSA love it. Advertisers want it. But what’s it all about?
There’s been a lot of abstract waffle around, but now if you want to get a real handle on what inferences can be drawn about you from your metadata, then you need to take a look at a study done by researchers at Stanford University. They got 546 people to allow them access to their phone metadata, and analysed it to see what inferences could be drawn from the data.
The results are frightening – and remember these people knew their data was being tracked and were presumably more careful than usual. From the calls the researchers ‘...were able to infer medical conditions, firearm ownership, and more, using solely phone metadata.” The study participants called public numbers for “Alcoholics Anonymous, gun stores, NARAL Pro-Choice, labor unions, divorce lawyers, sexually transmitted disease clinics, a Canadian import pharmacy, strip clubs, and much more.”
If you only read one URL from this week’s Winding Down, you must read this to get some idea of what can be inferred about you just from who you call. And imagine how much more can be garnered by putting that together with GPS data about where you travel. Read this and you will begin to understand what metadata is really about.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/03/volunteers-in-metadata-study-called-gun-stores-strip-clubs-and-more/
Some time ago Asus announced an interesting new product: a laptop-tablet hybrid that runs both Windows and Android. It looked pretty interesting, but it seems that the boot has been put into the project by both Microsoft (no surprise there) and Google (less surprise there than there would have been a few years ago).
It seems neither of them are interested in giving the user a choice of operating systems ready installed. For Microsoft that’s fully understandable – they no doubt feel that they could only lose. This isn’t the first time that the idea that ready installed dual booting systems has raised its head, and previously Microsoft has always killed the concept.
The irony is that Linux is actually a lot easier to install than Windows – usually I allow a couple of hours for a Linux install from scratch, and a couple of days to actually get a Microsoft install working properly. Though to be fair, that’s a big improvement on the two weeks I used to have to allow for Windows!
Sadly, I don’t see much chance of either Micro$oft or Google changing their minds in the near future, short of some sort of legal challenge, and that isn’t likely.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57620348-94/dual-os-asus-devices-put-on-indefinite-hold-says-report/
http://www.techienews.co.uk/977975/microsoft-google-pressurising-asus-shelve-dual-os-pcs/
Homework:
I note that GE are on the verge of a breakthrough on the refrigeration front. The last big breakthrough was quite a while ago, and didn’t involve anything to do with the cooling mechanism, but a massive improvement to the insulation. There was also the drive to stop using CFCs (think ozone holes) as the cooling liquid.
Now the GE researchers have come up with something completely new and much more (20% more) efficient. It uses magnets instead of a compressor, and a water based fluid instead of a chemical refrigerant. The technique relies on a discovery made in the 1880s (yes, I got the century right) , that certain metals heat up near magnets, and cool down again when the magnets are removed.
Neat. You won’t see new style fridges in the shops next Christmas, there’s still a lot of engineering to do, but the GE people reckon that they will have these machines available by 2020.
http://phys.org/news/2014-03-ge-magnetocaloric-refrigeration-video.html#nwlt
The Space Review has an interesting, if very lengthy, article on anti-satellite tests by the US, China and Russia. Obviously none of those countries publish details of their capabilities, so a lot of the article is detective work, but you learn quite a lot about space rockets reading it. Give it a try if you have some time to spare!
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2473/1
If the current generation of rockets aren’t your cup of tea, then you might like to read a piece by Brian Stableford about the French origin of the Sci-Fi genre, while you eat your freedom fries. Not many people realise that long before Gernsback and the golden age of science fiction pulp magazines, the French were writing what we would now call Science Fiction.
It all started, of course, with Jules Verne in the 1860. Most fans have heard of Jules Verne, but those French authors who followed him are much less well known, and not all of them have been translated into English.
Take a look at Stableford’s essay, it’ll open your eyes to a world you never knew existed, and, even better, he is currently engaged in translating many of these previously unpublished works...
http://www.nyrsf.com/2012/02/the-origins-of-the-science-fiction-genre-by-brian-stableford.html
For Geeks:
Some of you may remember that last year Amazon floated (so to speak) the idea of delivery by aerial drone. The was a lot of cynicism and sneering at the idea, but take a look at this video to get some idea of the potential.
I don’t for one minute think it isn’t faked – the box has got to be empty for the drone to be able to carry it. The idea is absolutely spot on though. And it’s a nice promo video.
Cheers! Bottoms Up!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/18/think_drone_delivery_is_hot_air_a_brewery_just_proved_you_wrong/
Scanner:
2014 is the year of the Linux desktop (That’s the 14th time I’ve seen this headline this century, just the year changes – AL)
http://www.infoworld.com/d/open-source-software/2014-the-year-of-the-linux-desktop-238358
Cosmic inflation: ‘Spectacular’ discovery hailed
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26605974
Tech giants knew about PRISM, and web snooping, claims top NSA lawyer
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/20/technology_firms_knew_about_prism_and_internet_monitoring_claims_nsa/
http://www.techienews.co.uk/978208/nsa-lawyer-tech-giants-knew-nsas-data-collection/
Google tries to NSA-proof Gmail
http://money.cnn.com/2014/03/20/technology/security/gmail-nsa/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
http://www.techienews.co.uk/978239/google-brings-always-https-gmail-claims-99-978-availability-2013/
Windows XP: Banks to be hit with Microsoft costs for running outdated ATMs
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/14/us-banks-atms-idUSBREA2D13D20140314
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
23 March 2014
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.
