WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week’s net, technology and science news
by Alan Lenton
This week we look at Secunia’s latest security problems with Microsoft, Oracle, and Abode way out ahead of everyone else. Then there are Silicon Valley lawsuits involving Apple, Google, Intel, Adobe, Intuit and Pixar. Other stories feature Adblock and Facebook, Google banner ads, Pro-Teq, MIT’s new 110-core chip, and classic computer games at GOG and the Internet Archive. URLs point to Apple stories, printed horseshoes, CAPTCHA beating IA, and 50 years of Dr Who.
There won’t be an issue next week, as I will be out of town on family business. I’ll be back on 17 November with a bumper crop of stories.
Shorts:
Secunia has released its latest report on unpatched security problems. Top of the list is Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML) – which is once again top for the 11th month. An estimated 79% of PCs have MSXML installed, and half of the installations are unpatched.
The winner of the biggest number of problems is Adobe with 243 vulnerabilities – I’m surprised anyone dares use Adobe products – followed by Oracle with 160 known Java vulnerabilities. Round up the usual suspects!
http://www.infoworld.com/t/patch-management/msxml-java-and-adobe-apps-are-the-most-unpatched-windows-software-230011
So, tell me who is going to be facing a class action lawsuit with a potential 50,000 plaintiffs in the near future?
The silicon valley heavies Apple, Google, Intel, Adobe, Intuit, and Pixar that’s who. The case is over an alleged conspiracy by the big tech firms to keep wages, and competition, down with an informal agreement not to poach each other’s employees. Now the cat is out of bag, and the lawyers are girding their loins. (More mixed metaphors to follow in due course.) I’ll keep you informed as this case proceeds.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/25/no_hire_pact_lawsuit_class_action/
Ahoy Facebook Freaks, I have a treat for you. That browser workhorse, Adblock Plus has some new functions. It can block that irritating and unwanted Facebook crud like ‘Upcoming Events’ and ‘People you may know’ displays.
This is a new step for Adblock, and I’m not sure I like the implications. Previously Adblock blocked only stuff that was clearly advertising, but the new anti-Facebook stuff blocks material generated by the site, which is clearly not advertising.
Much as I dislike Facebook and refuse to subscribe to it, I am wondering if this is a step too far.
http://www.infoworld.com/t/web-browsers/adblock-plus-new-target-facebook-annoyances-229247
And while we are on the subject of advertising, I have to confess that I’m not really surprised to hear that Google might be reneging on its long standing promise of no big banner ads. It’s currently running a limited, US only test of these banner ads.
Google’s problem is that it’s a public company, and as such it’s not enough just to make pots of money. You have to make bigger pots of money each time you show your accounts to the shareholders and the financial analysts. Banner ads are an obvious way to get the treadmill running faster.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/24/google_banner_ads/
Homework:
There’s an interesting new glow in the dark spray coating that has been produced by Pro-Teq. It’s touted use is for road surfaces to replace street lighting. If it’s durable enough I can see that being a big hit, though street lighting is really for people walking in the dark, which is a lot more frequent in the UK than in the US. (I can still remember my shock to discover that there were no sidewalks in the small town in the Sierras where I went to work on my Iron Wolves game in the 1990s.)
I can, however, see other uses for it – especially in emergency exits to public buildings, where it could be painted on the stairs and kept refreshed with low level UV lighting. If this really does work, it’s going to be one of those things that suddenly develop massive numbers of unexpected uses.
http://www.gizmag.com/pathway-sprayon-coating/29468/
For Geeks:
I want one! Want! Want! Want! Scientists at MIT have developed a 110-core chip. That in itself is pretty amazing, but they’ve also been playing around with the architecture. A lot of the problems with multi-core architecture are caused by having to shuffle data around to keep all the cores fed and running. The MIT crew have developed an architecture that relies on shifting the entire active contents of a program onto the chip as well, where it can be used by all the cores, without having to look off chip.
I expect all sorts of problems to show up – mostly in designing programs to run efficiently on this sort of architecture – but in my opinion, if they can be solved, this is really going to boost the processing power of computers.
http://csg.csail.mit.edu/pubs/memos/Memo-511/memo511.pdf
Do you hanker for the classic computer games of yore? Then it’s time to fire up your browser and get yourself over to the Internet Archive where they are experimenting with ways of running the old classic 8-bit games in the browser. You can try out such old favourites as the Hobbit, Choplifter and Elite (incidentally my game Federation wasn’t in any way based on Elite – I couldn’t do their stupid docking bit and never got past the first scene).
If you want something a little more recent, and are prepared to pay a small amount, then the place to go is GOG – which stands for Good Old Games. I buy stuff from them regularly. They even have old DOS games which they set up to run in DOSBOX (the installer handles all the setup for DOSBOX).
It’s pretty impressive, I’m currently playing one of my all-time fave role playing games – Might & Magic VI – and it’s as good as I remember it being!
https://archive.org/details/historicalsoftware
http://www.gog.com/
Scanner: Other stories
Apple:
MacBook Air fanbois! Your flash drive may be a data-nuking time bomb
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/18/apple_macbook_air_ssd_failures/
Bruised Apple: Buggy products and user censorship
http://www.infoworld.com/t/technology-business/bruised-apple-buggy-products-and-user-censorship-229951
Don’t crack that Mac: Almost nothing in new Retina MacBook Pros can be replaced
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/25/macbook_pro_2013_teardowns/
Oz racehorse shod with 3D-printed titanium hoof wear
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/24/titanium_horseshoes/
New AI algorithms beat CAPTCHA tests 90% of the time
http://www.gizmag.com/captcha-beating-ai/29559/
Bucket? Check. Toilet plunger? Check. El Reg’s 50 years of Doctor Who
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/31/doctor_who_50_intro/
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
3 November 2013
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.
