WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net, technology and science news
by Alan Lenton
Another Sunday, another issue of Winding Down. This week we take a look at the real issues behind the Apple/FBI spat, the execrable VTech, Uber, AirBnB and their ilk v. the powers that be, backing out of Windows 10, the ‘WiFi on Wheels’ initiative, NASA space travel posters, an intro to Docker, and a London crime exhibition. On the purely URL side we have Pinewood and the Harrison Ford accident, Microsoft’s refusal to support the latest hardware except with Windows 10, the dangers of Trane thermostats, Verizon data caps, errors in an African genome study, a new digital storage technique, and reproducing science experiments.
Quite a nice little selection now I come to look at it. So let’s start with a look, from a somewhat different angle, at an issue that’s been dominating the US news over the last week or so...
Analysis: Apple v FBI et al
So, what’s the real -technical- issue hidden behind all the to-ing and fro-ing between Apple and the FBI over the Farook iPhone? The issue, as you would expect, is clouded with politics which obscure what’s really at stake here. On one side Apple is stridently defending its claims of security for iPhone users, while on the other side the FBI is using the case as publicity for its claim it must have access to an encryption back door to defend citizens from terrorists.
But all this posturing just obscures the real issue, which is that it’s not that Apple cannot break into this iPhone, but that it chooses not to. In other words it is possible to break into the iPhone and read its contents in spite of the so-called ‘unbreakable’ encryption. It’s a reasonable assumption from that information that all iPhones, or at least the ones from the generation of the iPhone in question can be broken into.
And if Apple can break into them, so can anyone else with the necessary skills.
In other words the security of the iPhone is seriously flawed. The question now is not whether Apple will acquiesce to the demands of the FBI, but what it is going to do to fix this security flaw? And the FBI? Well they are the ones that have unwittingly let the cat out of the bag about the problems with the iPhone’s security by their effort to gain traction on encryption back doors. Neither side comes out of the this little brouhaha smelling of roses, both are actually involved in running a campaign to market their wares...
http://www.cnet.com/news/tim-cook-apple-fbi-iphone-backdoor-terrorists-san-bernardino/
http://www.buzzfeed.com/johnpaczkowski/apple-terrorists-appleid-passcode-changed-in-government-cust#.giDx3bO54
http://www.darkreading.com/endpoint/encryption-has-its-place-but-it-isnt-foolproof/a/d-id/1324140
https://plus.google.com/+LaurenWeinstein/posts/2gD8z2ve8xM
Shorts:
I’ve covered the security problems of VTech toys in a past issue of Winding Down. Now I can report that they’ve come up with their own unique way of fixing the problem. Instead of dealing with the security issues revealed, VTech have amended their terms and condition to make it the fault of the customer if their information is hacked! That’s fascinating, could it be the start of a trend?
My advice – stay well clear of any VTech toys, and make sure your children (if you have any) do the same.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/08/vtech_gives_up_on_security/
The fight between the likes of Uber, AirBnB and similar business and various governments is heating up in Europe. There are two things involved here. The first is the loss of a tax base, something that makes governments really hate the likes of AirBnB. Most countries with any significant tourist trade make good tax receipts from hotel taxes on visitors. It’s not that they can’t, in theory, do that with the rentals from AirBnB, it’s that the whole thing is so diffuse that collection and enforcement would probably cost more than the receipts, and even if they managed to nail down taxes on AirBnB, there’s nothing to stop other similar services springing up for a re-run of the whole shebang.
Uber is a slightly different case, but also a product of new technology and business methods. Uber’s problems stem from a battle between them and a set of legally protect medieval style guilds. For instance, in London, access to licences to drive the iconic London Black cabs has long been restricted, by law, to those who have ‘The Knowledge’.
‘The Knowledge’ is a detailed understanding of the quickest route from anywhere to anywhere else in London. It take a lot of hard work to gain that knowledge. You will often see men (usually men, there are suspiciously few women black cab drivers – in fact, now I think about it, I can’t recall ever seeing a woman driving a black cab) on scooters or mopeds riding around with a map pinned to a clipboard mounted on the handlebars. That knowledge was very important for taxi drivers to be able to do their work expeditiously.
It died the day the first SatNav went on sale.
Now ‘The Knowledge’ is just a device for keeping people out of an exclusive guild, backed up by legal sanctions. The ‘legit’ taxi drivers can bluster, fight and talk about safety all they like, but at the end of the day they are an anachronism, and their hard won knowledge is worth zilch!
This is an old, old, fight that began with the industrial revolution. It’s not over yet, and perhaps, given the rate of technological change, it never will be over...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/11/uber_taskrabbit_eu/
Homework:
I’ve tried to avoid lecturing my readers on the twists and turns of Microsoft and its attempts to force people to switch over to its half-finished Windows 10 operating system, not to mention the trials and tribulations of patching its systems. But here’s something I think readers might well find interesting and useful. It’s a piece by the excellent and knowledgeable Woody Leonhard on how and when you can roll back your Windows 10 upgrade. Thoroughly recommended.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/3033806/microsoft-windows/how-to-roll-back-your-windows-10-upgrade.html
This is really interesting. Coachella Valley Unified School District, one of the poorest in the US, has come up with a way to piggy back WiFi for rural families on to the back of its existing school buses. The program is called ‘WiFi on Wheels’ and is an ingenious solution involving minimal extra outlay. Basically they are arranging to park their school buses, which are already equipped with WiFi, near trailer parks, instead of keeping them all in central municipal parks. This means that the kids in the trailer parks can have WiFi access, with the batteries on the buses charged up by solar panels.
Ingenious – this is the sort of lateral thinking that gets things done!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/10/coachella_wifi_bus/
Geek Stuff:
Do you like having posters on your walls? Then you might like to take a look at the 14 free posters NASA are offering as digital downloads. They are posters purporting to depict the future of space travel. The graphic style is directly derived from that of the travel posters of the 1930s, and really suits the topic. Amazing.
http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/14-free-posters-from-nasa-that-depict-the-future-of-space-travel.html
I guess most geeks have heard of Docker – after all it is (or perhaps by now was) the latest ‘in thing’. A surprising number of tech people, though, have only a vague idea what it is about. So, for those of you for whom this applies, not to mention those non-geeks who are just curious, I thought I’d draw your attention to a useful short explanatory piece at open source.com. Brief as it is, it also has a useful set of URLs for further reading and a three-quarter of an hour video tutorial. Take a look, and see what you think.
https://opensource.com/resources/what-docker
London:
If you are in London between now and 10 April, take a trip down to the Museum of London. Why? Because it has an exhibition that covers part of the Scotland Yard Museum of Crime. The Museum of Crime at Scotland Yard has never been open to the public, but now part of its collection is on display at Museum of London. It’s not so much the items themselves that are necessary grisly, it’s the stories that go with them that matter.
There are also a number of talks available while the exhibition is on, covering things like forensics, digital crime fighting, and the future of the Crime Museum. Hmmm... that reminds me. I wonder what it would do for crime figures and clear up rates if people started reporting digital thefts?
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/getting-in-the-minds-of-murderers-at-londons-hidden-crime-museum
http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/london-wall/whats-on/exhibitions-displays/the-crime-museum-uncovered/
http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/london-wall/whats-on/adult-events/talks-and-workshops/
Scanner:
UK Health & Safety Executive to prosecute over squashed Harrison Ford
[I worked at the satellite studio to Pinewood for a while – I was amazed what Health & Safety let them get away with – AL]
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/11/health_and_safety_star_wars/
Microsoft won’t support many Skylake PCs without Windows 10
http://www.infoworld.com/article/3025399/microsoft-windows/microsoft-wont-support-most-skylake-pcs-without-windows-10.html
Trane thermostat is a hot spot for viruses on home networks
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/08/trane_thermostat_hackable/
Verizon’s mobile video won’t count against data caps – but Netflix does
http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/02/verizons-mobile-video-wont-count-against-data-caps-but-netflix-will/
Error found in study of first ancient African genome
http://www.nature.com/news/error-found-in-study-of-first-ancient-african-genome-1.19258
New storage technique could preserve data for billions of years
http://www.33rdsquare.com/2016/02/new-storage-technique-could-preserve.html
Let’s just try that again – reproducibility should be at science’s heart. It isn’t. But that may soon change
http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21690020-reproducibility-should-be-sciences-heart-it-isnt-may-soon
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
21 February 2016
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.
