WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week’s net, technology and science news
by Alan Lenton
Mostly bad news this week, with perhaps just a smidgen of good points. We look at more on the climate change front, hacking smart meters, the ‘end’ of Windows 7, the Butterfly Nebula, space sounds, ambulance drones, film drones, the advisability of not flying drones in China, and London’s Syon Park. Then in the Scanner section we point your browser at material on Facebook and scams, keyless car theft, Drupal’s problems, a new light source – more efficient than LEDs, the UN and the Internet, and finally at a piece on synthetic identity fraud.
Apologies for the no show last week, but this year, as in some previous years, my flu shot gave me a 24 hour dose of flu. There must be better ways of protecting people from flu. And knowing my luck, if there is a bad flu epidemic, it will be a different version from the one they are giving shots for, and I’ll get it anyway!
So, let’s get straight down to this week’s collection.
Shorts:
You’ve got to hand it to the climate change aficionados. They really keep at it. The latest news from them is in the form of a Meteorological Office press release trumpeting the fact that 2014 was the fifteenth warmest UK summer on record. Hot stuff, so to speak, and a just a little bit of bias showing through there...
Let me put it another way – last summer was colder than those of 1911, 1947 and 1955, to name but a few. Perhaps we are heading for a new period of freezing? After all, we are in the middle of a warm spell (an interglacial) in an ice age. Historically ice ages do not freeze the whole planet continuously – they have warm spells in which the glaciers retreat. The human race has evolved and is living in one such warm spell – so far.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/05/met_office_2014_was_fifteenth_warmest_summer_since_1910/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_age
And while we are on the topic of climate change, I note that the latest research on the models used to predict climate change has come to the conclusion that they fail to accurately take account of carbon dioxide (CO2) absorbed by plants. In fact, it turns out that over the last century plants absorbed 16% more carbon dioxide than the current models predicted.
That’s a large discrepancy. ‘Experts’, as the BBC news calls them, without saying what qualifies them as experts, claim this will make no difference to the outcome predicted by the models. If it doesn’t make a difference, then I would suggest looking very closely at the model for fudge factors added in in an effort to cancel out the extra plant absorption. After all, 16% less carbon dioxide is nearly a sixth less CO2 than the current model predicts, and CO2 is portrayed by climate changers as being the key contributor to global warming...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29601644
I don’t know what the state of play with smart meters is in the US, but here in the UK, they are supposed to be installed in all UK homes by 2020. Tech savvy students and other less well-off people are already rubbing their hands at the thought.
In the old days you could cut the consumption registered by electricity meters by the strategic placement of a magnet to slow down the little wheel inside. Gas meters could be turned round for a period so that the flow ran in the opposite direction, reducing the recorded usage.
Now the power utilities are moving into the 21st Century, by providing meters that can be hacked! Judging from the accounts provided by security researchers, it won’t take that long for a tech savvy student to crack it, and then instructions for the non-technically gifted will be all over the net.
The stories are, of course, all about terrorists breaking in and ‘switching off’’ the power grids. Yes, that could be a problem, but the real issue is going to be ordinary people who can’t afford the inflated bills covering the cost of installing these meters!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-29643276
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/30/smart_meter_hackable_for_free_electricity_say_
security_reserachers/
Those of you who use Windows PCs might like to take note of the fact that they are going to become more scarce, or expensive in the very near future. Microsoft is has ended sales of all Windows 7 licenses, except Windows 7 Pro. This is a rather forlorn attempt to force people onto Windows 8.1, which may well not really succeed, but which will fudge the figures nicely, since most of the new Windows 7 Pro machines will, in formal terms be sold as Windows 8.1, but factory downgraded to Windows 7.
In the mean time for the next few months the manufacturers and retailers are likely to have already purchased Windows 7 licenses in stock, so if you hurry you should be able to get a Windows 7 machine at the old price.
http://www.techienews.co.uk/9719940/microsoft-ends-windows-7-windows-8-retail-sales/
http://www.infoworld.com/article/2839542/microsoft-windows/windows-7-isnt-going-away-but-itll-cost-more.html
Homework:
ESA, the European Space Agency have just published a beautiful Hubble telescope picture of the Butterfly Nebula. It’s gorgeous – just take a look!
http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2014/10/Butterfly_death_throes
When the first astronauts orbited the moon, something spooky happened when they were above the dark side, the face that we never see from the earth. With the bulk of the moon between them and the earth, all the radio signals from the earth were cut out. There should have been no sound on the radio.
But there was sound – strange and weird sound. No, it wasn’t Pink Floyd! Or even aliens trying to contact us. It eventually turned out to be radio signals generated by thunderstorms in Jupiter’s atmosphere. It turns out that NASA have collected quite a lot of clips of sounds over the years. Ranging from President Kennedy’s speech that started the space race to the moon, through to signals similar to those heard on the dark side of the moon.
Along the way have astronaut/base communications – including the famous “One small step...” and “Houston, we have a problem...” – and the sounds of rockets being tested and taking off.
The sounds are now available as both MP3 clips and as ring tones.
Boy, I just can’t wait until the first time I’m in a crowded subway and someone’s phone rings – “Houston, we have a problem...”
http://www.nasa.gov/connect/sounds/index.html#.VF8SL_msXpD
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Side_of_the_Moon
I was just reading a piece about a really, really, good use of drones. Ambulance drones. The idea is that you can use drones equipped with a defibrillator to get to the scene of a heart attack even if the traffic is bad. The inventor of the idea thinks that it could increase survival rates by up to 80%. That’s probably optimistic, but it’s a brilliant idea none the less.
http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/ambulance-drone-delivers-help-to-heart-attack-victims/
For Geeks:
Now here’s an interesting little snippet for those of you who fancy yourselves as drone meisters. It comes from the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO is tasked with making sure that companies do not misuse personal data they collect and that they look after it properly.
They’re not actually very good at it, but sometimes they come up with the goods. Just recently they issued a warning to film companies that their use of unmanned (and presumable unwomanned) drones must stay within the UK’s data protection laws.
So if you want to fly drones in the EU, you’re not only going to have to comply with aircraft licensing but also be able to prove to the ICO, when they come calling, that you’ve secured the data properly. I guess you may also have to prove that you had permission from those filmed in certain circumstances!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/21/ico_warns_uk_broadcasters_over_filming_using_drones/
Oh, and incidentally, if you are thinking of flying your drone to China, I’d suggest you do it very soon, since the Chinese are in the process of developing lasers capable of shooting drones out of the sky. The Chinese take violations of their airspace very seriously, so if you don’t want your drone turned into a fused mass of slag, I’d suggest you give China a miss.
http://www.gizmag.com/china-laser-system-drones/34590/
London:
If you’re planning a family visit to London in the next month, then I suggest that you seriously consider an evening family outing to Syon Park in the Isleworth part of London. For the next month they are turning the park into a fabulous enchanted woodland using coloured lights. I used to live very close to the park, and I can recommend it highly as a nice venue in its own right. It was one of my favourite places to go for walks when I was thinking about what to do next in the Federation 2 game.
It also has a conservatory that looks like a miniature version of the Victorian Crystal Palace. There’s a reason for that – it was built to test out the glass and cast iron construction that was eventually used on the real thing! Highly recommended.
http://londonist.com/2014/11/enchant-the-whole-family-at-syon-parks-woodland-walk.php?showpage=1#gallery-1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crystal_Palace
Scanner:
Users can’t tell Facebook from a scam
http://www.zdnet.com/users-cant-tell-facebook-from-a-scam-7000035440/
Keyless cars ‘increasingly targeted by thieves using computers’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-29786320
DRUPAL-OPCALYPSE! Devs say best assume your CMS is owned
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/30/drupal_sites_considered_hosed_if_sqli_hole_unclosed/
Beyond LEDs: Brighter, new energy-saving flat panel lights based on carbon nanotubes
http://phys.org/news/2014-10-brighter-energy-saving-flat-panel-based.html
Has the United Nations taken over the Internet yet?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/30/itu_plenipot_primer/
Synthetic Identity Fraud a fast-growing category
http://www.darkreading.com/synthetic-identity-fraud-a-fast-growing-category/d/d-id/1316830
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
9 November 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.
