WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week’s net, technology and science news
by Alan Lenton
A rather rushed issue this week again – yet again I have to be out of town over the weekend. One of these days I will get a weekend at home. Anyway, here are a few stories I spotted when going through things the night before I zoomed off to the wilds of Leominster (as featured in Ben Aaronovitch’s latest book ‘Foxglove Summer’).
Predictably, there won’t be an edition of Winding Down on Easter Weekend, which happens some time real soon now, I’m told by those who keep track of the full moons and solstices...
Shorts:
Now that the wages fixing agreements between the likes of Apple, Adobe, Google, Intel, Intuit and Pixar have been knocked on the head, I see that employees are starting to move around much more. In particular, it seems that electric car maker Tesla has managed to lure over 150 Apple employees away from the Jobsian company. If this is the start of a trend, it will be interesting to see how well Apple can maintain its design lead over its rivals!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/06/whos_the_auto_tycoon_that_makes_apple_employees_swoon_musk/
One of the key problems with virtual reality at the moment is the lack of ‘feel’. Thus, I was interested to note that a startup in Bristol, UK has come up with a potential solution to this tactile problem using a small array of ultra-sound speakers. Potentially, any texture that can be mapped can be invisibly, and soundlessly, recreated using the system.
It’s early days yet, but this seems to me to have a lot of potential.
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ultrahaptics-bringing-sensation-touch-virtual-reality-1489289
I don’t know about you, readers, but I hate pulling up stuff that requires Adobe Flash to run. However, HTML5 is now capable of running videos on its own – assuming you are using one of the more modern browsers. Google has now gone a step further with its AdWords, with facilities to change Flash to HTML5 on the fly! The problem for advertisers wanting to use video is that most mobile browsers don’t support Flash, so their Flash ads will only run on the desktop. Google’s latest is a solution to this problem, while the programmers educate themselves in how to use HTML5 instead of Flash.
The whole changeover will make what was previously a pretty high paid skill completely useless, but most good programmers shouldn’t have much trouble making the transition. And for the rest of us, not having to put up with cranky, flaky, insecure Flash browser plug-ins has got to be a step forward...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/26/google_adwords_flash_to_html_conversion/
I was fascinated to see that earlier this month Apple replaced AT&T on the Dow Jones index! Could this be a whiff of things to come?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/03/06/apple_joins_dow_index_kicks_off_att/
If you have children, then I’d recommend that you take a look at How-To Geek’s ‘Parents guide to Minecraft’, which will fill you in on all the things you need to know about it. Minecraft is one of the world’s most popular games among children, so it’s well worth the time taken.
http://www.howtogeek.com/210923/the-parents-guide-to-minecraft/
Homework:
There’s a really interesting piece in the Pacific Standard about self-driving vehicles. The author’s argument is that the future of transportation is not self-driving cars, but self-driving buses. It’s an interesting argument, and I’m inclined to agree with her. My agreement is not just based on the psychological/sociological arguments she uses, but also on the physical fact of the increased urbanization and urban density in the US, which now makes this mode of transport viable.
The idea of self-driving buses would not have made sense in most of the USA in, say, the 1950s – people just didn’t live close enough to one another, but the last 50 years have seen increased urbanization. To work properly, buses need a minimum urban density, and that is what makes the idea workable.
http://www.psmag.com/nature-and-technology/lol-self-driving-cars-are-supposed-to-be-our-great-transit-future-lol
Are you a Windows PC user? Then perhaps you should take a look through the set of 25 free (yes FREE as in free beer) tools for every Windows desktop. I doubt anyone will use all of them, but you should be using some of them. The ones I already use are 7-Zip, VLC, Paint.net, HWiNFO, and Malwarebytes. Make sure you read slide 27, which is a warning about avoiding bundled crud in the installers.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/2607009/windows-tools/160168-Top-25-free-tools-for-every-Windows-desktop.html#slide1
Geek Stuff:
Net neutrality – the FCC rules are 400 pages long. Cringeley takes a considered look at it, and its impact on the future of the net, TV, and the likely role of Apple. See if you agree...
http://www.cringely.com/2015/03/18/net-neutrality-apple-and-the-future-of-tv/
And here’s a link to the FCC document itself (in PDF format):
http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2015/db0312/FCC-15-24A1.pdf
I have only one question to ask. Any true geek will want to know the answer, if they don’t already know it. And the question is, ‘How many Pringles can you fit into the 42Km long tunnel for London’s new Crossrail subway?’
http://callingallstations.co.uk/2015/03/18/how-many-pringles-can-you-fit-in-crossrail/
London:
Google maps are really becoming useless; since they changed it, I can’t figure out how to get from the maps to the street view anymore, and now they’ve managed to lose Chiswick Bridge, just down the road from where I live. Why is it that people feel they have to fiddle with things that are simple and easy to use, to make them complex and broken...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-31914175
Scanner:
Twitter puts trillions of tweets up for sale to data miners
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/mar/18/twitter-puts-trillions-tweets-for-sale-data-miners
Ex-squeeze me? Baking soda? Boffins claim it safely sucks CO2 out of the air
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/07/scientists_use_baking_soda_to_capture_carbon_dioxide/
Indians find ways to see rape documentary despite ban
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/06/world/asia/indias-efforts-to-ban-rape-documentary-spur-greater-interest-online.html
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/001090.html
No one is making money from YouTube, even Google!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/26/no_one_making_money_from_youtube_google_report_claims/
The great SIM heist: How spies stole the keys to the encryption castle
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/02/19/great-sim-heist/
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
29 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.
