WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week’s net, technology and science news
by Alan Lenton
Only a few topics again this week: I was out of town, and when I got back there was a massive pile of potential material – too much to read through before writing this rag, so I’ve boxed it up for you again this week. Fortunately, I don’t expect to have to go away again in the near future, so hopefully things will return to normal next week.
Stories:
Recent historical research using tree rings and other records suggests that the US is moving into a cyclical ‘mega-drought’ period with severe droughts lasting multiple decades, similar to those in the 12th and 13th Centuries. That’s pretty alarming, and not just for the US, given the role of US surplus food in the rest of the world. And no it isn’t caused by global warming, since it is part of long term weather patterns, though if we do have global warming in the coming years, as some models predict, it seems likely that it will make things worse.
Just one note of warning, though. This is only one piece of research. It does seem legitimate and reproducible to me, so I strongly suspect it’s valid. Also, to give you some idea of what a serious drought might mean, I’ve included an URL to a short piece from the US National Climatic Data Center about droughts in the 20th Century, and about paleoclimatology and drought, which explains some of the techniques used.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/u-s-headed-mega-drought-21st-century-scientists-warn/
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/u-s-droughts-will-be-the-worst-in-1-000-years1/
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/12/us-faces-worst-droughts-1000-years-climate-change-predict-scientists
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/user/bc9z (the credentials of one of the authors)
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/drought/drght_history.html
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/drought/drght_paleo.html
Meanwhile in the clueless music moguls department we have a classic case of digital incompetence. Following in the footsteps of Time Warner, Microsoft and Apple, the German music label Total Wipes Music Group managed to set its ‘anti-piracy’ software so that the software demanded the take down of all content featuring the word ‘download’. The music group’s name is certainly apt!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/23/wurst_ever_dmca_notice/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/07/eff_warner_dmca_takedown/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/16/microsoft_dmca_takedown_requests_targeting_openoffice/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/09/playfair_dmca_takedown/
On the ISP front, providers who also supply phone access are trying to avoid obligations to provide power to the phones during phone outages, while AT&T has suddenly discovered that there is a demand for GigaBit fiber in Kansas City. Of course this has nothing to do with the arrival of Google fiber...
Meanwhile over in Washington the FCC is taking steps to overturn state laws that protect ISPs from competition, and carriers are going to have to unlock phones at their (soon to be former) customers’ request. In the smartphone wars Android is way ahead, Blackberry is dead in the water, while iPhone and Windows Phone duke it out for second place.
http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/02/internet-providers-lobby-against-backup-power-rules-for-phone-lines/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/17/att_suddenly_finds_demand_for_fiber_in_kansas_city_just_after_google/
http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/02/fcc-overturns-state-laws-that-protect-isps-from-local-competition/
http://www.cnet.com/news/new-regulation-requires-us-carriers-to-unlock-user-phones/
http://www.infoworld.com/article/2882814/smartphones/the-smartphone-wars-whos-winning-where.html
And, of course, our coverage wouldn’t be complete without a quick look at what our government snoopers are doing. Well, for a start, there are rumours that the NSA and GCHQ have swiped the master crypto keys to cell phone SIMs, there’s also some evidence that the NSA have perfected a way of hacking hard drives to hide material they want to take a look at. Normal anti-malware programs can’t spot it – and neither can it be removed by formatting the disk. That’s pretty worrying. Over on this side of the pond a campaign is under way to clog up the work of GCHQ with information requests – on paper letters! Finally Google are drawing attention to a plan by the US government to massively expand the FBI’s hacking powers.
http://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/nsa-gchq-theft-of-sim-crypto-keys-raises-fresh-security-concerns/d/d-id/1319182
http://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/what-you-need-to-know-about-nation-state-hacked-hard-drives-/d/d-id/1319296
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/17/privacy_international_investigatory_powers_tribunal/
http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/google-calls-fbi-s-plan-to-expand-hacking-power-a-monumental-constitutional-threat-20150218
Other important material
Resetting the score – the role of disruptive innovation – a past example
http://ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2015/1/11/resetting-the-score
How a lone hacker shredded the myth of Crowdsourcing
https://medium.com/backchannel/how-a-lone-hacker-shredded-the-myth-of-crowdsourcing-d9d0534f1731
Scientists struggle to explain bizarre Martian plumes
http://io9.com/scientists-struggle-to-explain-these-bizarre-martian-pl-1686274987
Bank of England could mint own brand of Bitcoin
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/26/bank_of_england_considers_its_own_brand_of_bitcoin/
Track European Space Agency ongoing missions on your computer
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/Track_ESA_missions
Be careful what you say around your Samsung Smart TV
http://uk.pcmag.com/tv-home-theaters/39572/news/be-careful-what-you-say-around-your-samsung-smart
And one piece of good news...
Lost Sherlock Holmes story found in an attic in Scotland
http://mashable.com/2015/02/20/lost-sherlock-holmes-story/
Acknowledgements
Thanks to readers Barb, Fi, and Chandra 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 March 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.
