WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net and technology news
by Alan Lenton
Well this is going to be the last Winding down for a couple of weeks because the person who handles all the boring work (proof reading, editing, formatting, webifying, emailifying, and such like) is off for three weeks.
I of course, would just love to spend my next three Sunday mornings slaving over a hot keyboard to bring you news of goings on in the Internet world. However, circumstances beyond my control force me slob around in bed instead. I look forward to receiving your emails of commiseration.
The debate I referred to last week about net neutrality is still rumbling on, but I hope to have a round-up/analysis by the time the next issue comes out. And as if that wasn't enough, I will also have a look at the implications of Oracle's attempt to take Google's Android operating system off the market.
But now, this week's news, as filtered through the prism of Winding Down.
Shorts:
Somebody did WikiLeaks front man, Julian Assange, a big favor this week by talking the Swedish authorities into issuing an arrest warrant against him for rape and molestation.
That's a favor, do I hear you ask?
Yep. A very big favor. Assange was only in Sweden for a short time, and since he was on a shoestring budget, he stayed in someone's house and was never unaccompanied for the whole trip! This made refuting the charges very easy indeed. So easy that the Swedish authorities rapidly backed off and withdrew the warrant.
It's a favor because the attempt to frame him was so crude and obvious that it will make future attempts to frame Assange and other WikiLeaks people much, much, more difficult. So who was behind it? With another 75,000 secret US military documents on the way to appearing on the WikiLeaks web site shortly, US involvement seems to be the favorite option for the pundits. Me, I'm not so sure.
There are a lot of countries and companies that would like to see WikiLeaks shafted, the US is only the latest in a very long queue. What I suspect is that one of the others thought it was worth a try, because the US was bound to get blamed if anything went wrong...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11047025
A team from the University of South Carolina and Rutgers has come up with an interesting little hack. You may not realize it, but since 2008 tire pressure monitoring systems have been compulsory in US vehicles. You obviously can't connect a wire to the moving wheel, so the sensors in the tire communicate with the car's on-board computer by wireless.
Regular readers (I use the plural because I know there are two of you...) will see what's coming! The team generated fake messages which fooled the car's computer into thinking that there was something wrong with the tire pressure.
The really impressive thing, though was not the distance over which it worked (about 45 yards) but the fact that they were able to generate the fake messages between two vehicles travelling next to one another at about 45mph. How long, I wonder before this technique is used to inject in-car viruses?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/13/car_sensor_wireless_hack/
This month the Internet will pass a new milestone. Somewhere, possibly near you - yes, you - someone will plug the five billionth device into the Internet. According to analysts IMS Research, even this will be dwarfed within the next ten years as the number of connected devices will reach 20 billion. That's a lot of devices.
Obviously a lot of the new growth is things like cell phones, e-book readers and Internet TVs. However, there is another growth sector which is not generally recognized, and some would suggest, is sinister. It is machine to machine communications for things like surveillance, parking control, and sensor networks.
Today, you may use the Internet, but tomorrow, if we're not careful, the Internet may well be using us. (Editor - please wave your want to add sinister, doom-laden music at this point!)
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/081610-5billion-devices-internet.html
And in case you think I'm exaggerating, Google boss Eric Schmidt is currently spouting off about how in the future you will have to change your name as you grow up, in order the get rid of all the things you posted on the Internet when you were young and fancy free. And whose fault is that I wonder?
This is from the man who arranged for all -his- information to be removed from Google's databases after CNET published information about Mr Schmidt which they obtained from... Google! I think Google's mantra should perhaps be changed to 'Do as I say, not as I do'.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/16/schmidt_wsj/
I always knew the RIAA (Recording Industry Ass. of American) was completely bonkers (a business plan based on suing your customers is a sure-fire sign), but its latest wheeze beats even its previous antics. They are trying to persuade Congress to -mandate- that all portable devices - cell phones, PDAs, e-book readers, etc - should have FM radio receivers built in!
I think it's probably time that the deliberations of this august body were aired on the radio waves. I think a good name for the program would be 'The RIAA Comedy Show'. You'll laugh so hard, you'll cry.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/08/radio-riaa-mandatory-fm-
radio-in-cell-phones-is-the-future.ars
And now a story from the department of digital paperclips. For many decades now it has been traditional for low level office workers to help themselves to a little extra from the company stationary cupboard. A handful of paper clips, a pad of post-it notes, a notepad, staples, maybe even a stapler if you are particularly brazen. If you worked for a dot com when the bust came along you might even have taken your laptop with you when the company ran out of venture capital.
A survey just released indicated that the Internet is changing all this. Only a mere 13% of US employees, and 22% of UK employees admitted that they would now take small office supplies from their employer when leaving.
You might be tempted to think that this represents an improvement in honesty on the part of employees. Far from it, they are now nicking the company's digital property. Around half of them admitted they would take company property with them, including customer data, electronic files, and product information!
Just one thing. These figure are for people who admitted they would lift goodies from employers. How many do you think were lying when they said they wouldn't?
http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=9754
The Web is Dead, long live the Web! Another dead tree magazine proclaims the demise of the Internet. This time it's Wired magazine. Interestingly enough it's still running its massive web site, complete with a large product reviews section, 13 blogs and sundry video channels. Strange that. If the web is indeed dead, why are they expending so much effort and cash to keep a presence on the web?
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/jacks-blog-10017212/dead-tree-magazine-claims-
the-web-is-dead-again-10018282/?s_cid=42
Geek Toys:
Last week I mentioned Tilera's 200 core chip in this section. Those of you who found the idea of a 200 core chip exciting might like to cast your peepers over a piece about a project being worked on by the UK's Southampton University, Manchester University, the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council, and the ARM and Silistix companies.
SpiNNaker is a project to put together a computer with one million cores - a computer that has no common clock and no shared memory, and which routes messages between the cores in a way similar to a neurological system.
Wow! A nice case of thinking big. I wish the researchers the best of luck in this project. Point your browser at the URL for more info, which is written for a (nearly) lay person.
http://mattaw.blogspot.com/2010/06/future-of-computing-spinnaker-million.html
And now for a geek toy that's, how shall I put it, a little more, physical. How would you like a Bagger 288 Bucket-Wheel Excavator to play with? It's the world's largest tracked vehicle (big is the new black here at geek toys). It's built by none other than Krupp - no it's not equipped with tank cannons - and works Germany's coal mines.
It looks to me as though it's build from giant Meccano pieces, and its tracks are 12 feet wide. Oh and you will need a 20 Megawatt generator to actually run it. But that's a mere bagatelle against one of these little babies!
You'll need to scroll down this URL to find the excavator - click on the pic to get a larger version:
http://dvice.com/archives/2010/08/6-of-the-worlds.php#more
Scanner:
Feds: No charges in Philadelphia school laptop-spying case
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-08-17-laptop-spying_N.htm
Your fears confirmed: "up to" broadband speeds are bogus
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/08/your-worst-fears-confirmed-real-
broadband-speeds-half-of-whats-advertised.ars
How the Internet is changing language
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10971949
Intel to buy McAfee for $7.68 billion
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-20014082-92.html?tag=nl.e498
Stupid data center tricks
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9180479/Stupid_data_center_tricks?
taxonomyId=154&pageNumber=1
Acknowledgements
Thanks to readers Barb, Fi, and to Slashdot's daily newsletter for drawing my attention to material used in this issue.
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 Spamato spam filter...
Alan Lenton
alan@ibgames.com
22 August, 2010
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.
Past issues of Winding Down can be found at http://www.ibgames.net/alan/winding/index.html.
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