WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week’s net, technology and science news
by Alan Lenton
This week’s serving involves the FCC and Title II, Google and web encryption, GOG.com’s new user agreement, a new Raspberry Pi computer, the sky with different planets in place of the moon, a real SimCity, mosaics in London, and the Monopoly game. There’s also a fistful of URLs pointing to material on super cookies, Apple’s iPhone sales, the Milky Way as a galactic transport system, climate change predictions, China’s gender imbalance, Cameron’s absurd plans, and glasses-free 3D.
All in all, not a bad little selection, even if I say so myself!
Shorts:
Well I guess the story of the week (month? year? decade? epoch!) is the news that the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler is proposing that the FCC should classify broadband as a utility – also known as ‘Title II’. Assuming it goes through the full committee, which seems likely, this will have profound implications for ISPs, since it will not allow providers to fast track their own, or anyone else’s, content.
Needless to say the big ISPs are screaming loudly about this being the end of the internet. It’s not, of course, but that won’t stop them. I foresee a long drawn out set of legal battles ahead. (Not much of a crystal ball needed for that prediction!) In the meantime here are a few URLs, including Tom Wheeler’s own article in Wired magazine.
http://www.wired.com/2015/02/fcc-chairman-wheeler-net-neutrality/
http://www.infoworld.com/article/2878968/net-neutrality/fcc-tom-wheeler-internet-vote-title-ii-reclassification.html
http://www.cnet.com/news/net-fix-title-ii-the-two-words-that-terrify-the-broadband-industry/
http://www.infoworld.com/article/2880147/government/net-neutrality-forever-not-if-lawyers-can-stop-it.html
Google have been pushing for encryption across all the web (that is, for everyone to use HTTPS) for some time. Recently they’ve ratcheted things up a notch by adding a feature to the test version of their chrome browser that can alert users to unencrypted network connections. At the moment the feature is off by default, and has to be turned on by the user, but I suspect that will change in due course.
While I’m in favour of encryption in general, I find myself deeply ambivalent about this latest move. Let me explain. There are three main reasons for my dubiousness , even though I am fully in favour of encryption for private and business transactions.
The first problem I have is whether putting yet another icon in the URL bar is helpful. There’s already a change of icon when an encrypted session is in progress, is there really a need for something to show the reverse? In addition will people understand, or will they assume that the icon means the site is dishing out malware and avoid perfectly inoffensive sites?
The second problem I have is that I simply don’t think that everything needs to be encrypted. Take this newsletter. It’s available on my site for anyone who wants to read it, even the NSA – and they can sign up to have it delivered to their mailbox if they find it interesting...
I realize that there is a case for arguing that if everything is encrypted it will make mass surveillance much more difficult, because it won’t be so obvious what to look for. But, frankly, I don’t think that’s a strong enough argument to currently justify encrypting everything.
The third problem, I believe, is the show stopper. In order for you to understand it, I need to explain a little about how you provide encryption to a website. The first thing you need is a certificate. A certificate is a very long unique number that is issued to you by a small number of companies known as Certificate Authorities (CA). Unfortunately, they aren’t issued free of charge. Far from it. Neither are they issued automatically on application.
By issuing you with a certificate, the CA is certifying to the world that you are who you say you are, and giving you a unique encryption key. Given the work that has to be done by the CA to ensure that you are who you say you are, the chances of ever being able to obtain such a certificate free of charge are almost non-existent.
And you don’t even want to know about all the different documents they demand you produce to prove that you are yourself! The current prices could come down, the profits are very ‘healthy’ at the moment, but there isn’t any way they could drop to zero given what’s involved with the current system.
But the problems don’t end once you’ve got the certificate, because you have to install it on your machine, and, to be blunt, you need to be a techie to do that. And even that’s not the end of it – the certificates have a limited life, so you have to buy a new one every one, two or three years when the current one expires. Furthermore, though you only need to be a techie to install the original cert, then you need to be a trained system administrator to re-install a replacement certificate. When we were charging people for playing my game, Federation 2, and needed a certificate, we got the original certificate installed, eventually. We never succeeded in installing the second one, when the original ran out!
Who is going to want to go through all this aggro to get their web site encrypted, when all they want to do is publish a blog, cat pictures, and maybe a few samples of their work for the world (and its cats) to see? And, of course they are not charging.
Let’s face it, people may be annoyed by the NSA, FBI, GCHQ and their ilk, but what they are really worried about, if they think about online security at all, is big companies being hacked, like the recent hack of Anthem – eight million customers’ records compromised.
http://www.cnet.com/news/chrome-becoming-tool-in-googles-push-for-encrypted-web/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/05/anthem_hacked/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_key_certificate
Homework:
My congratulations to games company GOG.com, who specialize in classic older games with no digital protection. They’ve recently produced a new User Agreement, and it’s the best I’ve seen since the one used early on by Borland for its compilers. It’s relatively simple. There are two columns, and in one column is the legal agreement, and in the other, next to each section is what they call the ‘English’ version! I particularly liked the bit next to the legal requirement to be over 18 or have parental approval – “We know it sounds kind of silly – no, no – it is not our invention, but actually a legal requirement.”
http://www.gog.com/support/policies/gog_user_agreement
There’s a new Raspberry Pi computer version been launched – it’s much more powerful that the first version. In fact it’s so much more powerful, that Microsoft is preparing a free cut down version of Windows 10 for it – and the price of the new board remains the same as the old board, US$35. Sounds interesting.
http://www.gizmag.com/raspberry-pi-2-model-b/35873/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/02/microsoft_eyes_slice_of_raspberry_pi_with_free_windows_10/
Those of you who like astronomy might like to take a look at a series of stills and a video showing what the sky would look like if the moon and/or sun were swapped for some of the better known stars and the planets. It’s produced by the Russian space agency Roscosmos, and they’ve just released it. Take a look...
http://www.gizmag.com/roscosmos-video-replaces-moon-star-sun-planet/35802/
Geek Stuff:
Here’s something a little different for those of you bored with playing the likes of SimCity. It’s a collection of miniature (1:1000 scale) urban buildings just waiting to be assembled into a model of your very own city. It looks impressive , and even includes a miniature of the New York Guggenheim Museum. (Make sure you put it in the right way up!) Who wants to play with digital toys when the miniaturised real thing is available. Incidentally, I wonder if they will eventually make the 3D printer plans available?
http://www.citylab.com/navigator/2015/02/play-god-with-this-customizable-miniature-city/385054/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_R._Guggenheim_Museum
London:
London has loads of mosaics around its environs, but they do say that familiarity leads to contempt. Sadly, many of them are under threat of destruction from developers, and there is little objection from the public. However, there are still plenty to see if you keep your eyes open in some of the less developed areas of London. Here’s some pictures of a selection of mosaics, representing just a tiny fraction of those scattered around the city.
http://londonist.com/2015/02/friday-photos-mosaics.php
Useless information:
275 million copies of the game ‘Monopoly’ have been sold since it was launched in this week in 1935. (from World Crunch’s 57 second video)
Scanner:
Browsing in privacy mode? Super Cookies can track you anyway
http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/01/browsing-in-privacy-mode-super-cookies-can-track-you-anyway/
iPhone’s double-edged sword: Big sales, big risk for Apple
http://www.cnet.com/news/iphones-double-edged-sword-big-sales-but-also-big-risk-for-apple/
In theory, the Milky Way could be a ‘galactic transport system’
http://phys.org/news/2015-01-theory-milky-galactic.html
IPCC climate change predictions were spot-on, new study affirms [The other side’s view to last week’s climate change stuff -AL]
http://www.techienews.co.uk/9723396/ipcc-climate-change-predictions-spot-new-study-affirms/
China says its gender imbalance “Most Serious” in the World
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/china-says-its-gender-imbalance-most-serious-in-the-world/
Zimmermann slams Cameron’s ‘absurd’ plans for crypto ban
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/03/zimmermann_slams_cameron_anti_encryption_policies/
Will glasses-free 3D finally put 3D TVs in every home?
http://www.howtogeek.com/207549/will-glasses-free-3d-finally-put-3d-tvs-in-every-home/
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
8 February 2015
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.
