Fed2 Star - the newsletter for the space trading game Federation 2

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by ibgames

EARTHDATE: July 13, 2014

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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 PCs, planets that never were, Microsoft and No-IP, not to mention Windows 9, a British real ale record, Sahara desert dust, loudspeaker design, the Dell  XPS 15 Touch, the FedEx Package Lab, and free Windows e-material. If that doesn’t whet your appetite, then there are URLs pointing to alternative space funding, Amazon and in-app payments, the FTC and T-Mobile, new style bank heists, the ‘Right to be Forgotten’, taking down Shylock, and the origins of universe’s dust.

Something for everyone there!

Shorts:

I know that PCs are so passé these days – devices are cool and in, man. However, in general I prefer PCs, and in any case you can’t write ultra-cool apps on a smart phone. For that you need a full blown PC! That being the case, I was interested in to see the latest figures on PC sales. It seems like the decline in Windows PC sales is slowing – only 1.7% year on year, while the MacBook is losing ground. At the same time the growth in tablet sales is slowing down.

Along with this are rumours of the imminent demise of Windows 8 and strong suggestions that Windows 9 will arrive sometime later this year. Given that everyone expects to see Windows 9 correct all the excesses of Windows 8 and its offshoots, one would expect people to be waiting till the autumn before making their purchases. But, it appears not.

In the meantime the net is awash with articles and blogs advising Microsoft how to fix their broken Windows 8 in Windows 9. Personally, I think Microsoft are well aware of what they should do to fix Windows as a desktop operating system. the problem is internal politics, not technical or even sales savvy. Will they bite the bullet? the signs are hopeful, but, given the track record of Win 8.1, I wouldn’t lay any money on it yet!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07/10/mac_sales_plummeting_as_pcs_once_again_in_the_ascendancy/
http://www.infoworld.com/t/microsoft-windows/wzor-predicts-demise-of-windows-8-windows-9-arrive-in-the-fall-245626
http://www.techienews.co.uk/9714734/gartner-global-pc-market-tablets/
http://www.infoworld.com/d/microsoft-windows/windows-9-the-empires-last-hope-245440

With discoveries of planets in other solar systems now exceeding the 1,700 mark, it has been found that a couple of ‘planets’ in the habitable zone of the star Gliese 581, are not actually planets at all. The normal way of spotting a planet is by the reduction in brightness when a planet passes in front of the star. That’s how these two planets were found.

However, there are other mechanisms that can temporarily reduce the brightness of stars – like large sunspots. And that’s what happened with both both Gliese 581d and 581g.
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/are-two-goldilocks-planets-just-cosmic-illusions-n147831
http://www.gizmag.com/gliese-581-exoplanets-existence/32845/

Going back to Microsoft, I covered their heist of 22 of No-IP’s domains last week. I thought you might like to know that Microsoft has handed back the domains to No-IP having made a secret agreement with them. So, that’s all right now then? Well, not exactly, there are up to four million innocent people whose sites were effectively taken off the internet because of Microsoft.

The four million figure is from No-IP, so the real figure is probably lower, hyperbole and nice round figures always being good in a public slanging match. Nonetheless it’s undoubtedly the case that a lot of people were affected, and they are going to want recompense for what happened to them, and any losses incurred as a result of Microsoft’s action.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07/09/microsoft_settles_noip_malware_blocking_lawsuit_acknowledges_mistakes/
http://www.darkreading.com/microsofts-seizure-of-no-ip-domains-disrupted-criminals-and-innocents-alike/d/d-id/1279079

This month was important for the British space effort, which has been a bit moribund since the gallant failure of the Beagle 2 Mars mission. (Gallant failure is a Brit specialty, though we do sometimes get it right.)

Saturday 5th July marked the first successful sub-orbital launch of British real ale from The White Swan pub, in Whitchurch, near Aylesbury.

Two pints, (no mix up between metric and imperial measures here) one open, one in a sealed container, of Fullers award winning London Pride were carried, by balloon, to a height of 28,000 meters (91,863ft  6 13/64in – that last bit is six and thirteen sixty fourths of an inch!). For those of you that haven’t got a long ruler, that’s over 17 miles high!

The brew survived the flight, the re-entry, and the landing. The recovery vehicle made a good rendezvous and the samples were recovered. The open ale had turned into a popsicle, but the sealed pint was perfectly OK, and is on display at the pub. I regard this as a significant move forward in the annals of human capable spaceflight – especially since London Pride is my ale of choice, and I can see the Fullers brewery from my desk window, even as I write this story...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07/04/stratobeer_mission/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07/11/stratobeer_mission/
http://www.fullers.co.uk/

Homework:

It’s not generally realized just how much dust from the Sahara desert travels around in the atmosphere. Only a couple of months ago it came home to people in the UK when rain precipitated a large amount of the stuff out of the atmosphere, and cars left out in the rain overnight (including mine) were found to be covered with the stuff the following morning.

NASA’s earth observatory has just published an even more impressive display of the movement of Saharan dust. It’s a composite image from several different instruments which shows an atmospheric river of dust moving in the direction of the Americas. Take a look – it’s pretty impressive.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=83966&src=eoa-iotd

One of the more fascinating pieces I’ve read in the past few weeks is a look at the design of loudspeakers, which has been more or less static for many years. The article is really interesting and comprehensive, linking the design of codecs, the limitations of conventional speakers, and the abilities of the human ear. It’s a fairly long piece, but well worth a read to teach you something about sound, so settle into a comfy chair and prepare to enter the world of hi-fi.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07/02/feature_the_future_loudspeaker_design/

For Geeks:

I have to say I was impressed by the reviews I’ve seen of Dell’s latest, and, from all accounts, greatest, laptop. The XPS 15 Touch flagship is a nice spec cool looking (dare I say almost MacBook  like in appearance) machine. I’ve used XPS laptops in the past, and they were powerful machines, but, boy, were they built like a battleship! The new generation retains the performance but ups the coolness stakes. Take a look...
http://www.infoworld.com/d/computer-hardware/review-dell-xps-15-touch-the-best-windows-laptop-ever-245923

Getting disillusioned with the IT business? Death march coding, 14 hour days, weekend work, impossible deadlines? Well, have I got the just the job for you!

FedEx’s Package Lab, is the place where you can happily spend your time wrecking packages to test how well they will withstand the efforts of FedEx delivery droids. Dropping, crushing, heating, freezing, vibrating, and reducing air pressure, they have all the necessary facilities.

And, if your urge to destroy starts to flag, then you could try your hand at designing new package shapes for customers – which, of course, in their turn will be crushed, dropped,  etc. Read all about it!
http://www.cnet.com/news/dropping-packages-at-fedex-and-getting-paid-for-it/

Those of you who are staying in the business, and who program Windows  material might like to take a look at the URL at the end of this piece for what are described as 130 free eBooks. This is a bit of a misnomer, since a lot of them are PDF papers, some of them are DOCX, and only a few of them are in MOBI format. Notwithstanding that, they cover a vast range of Microsoft topics, so I’d strongly recommend that you eyeball the list to at least be aware of what’s available, in case you need it in the future.
http://www.techienews.co.uk/9714775/microsoft-offers-130-ebooks-covering-windows-8-1-office-2013-azure-free/

Scanner:

Scaling up alternative space funding sources
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2550/1

Bezos house ‘on fire’: Amazon in-app kiddy megabuck charge storm
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07/10/ftc_files_lawsuit_against_amazon_over_house_on_fire_inapp_charges/

FTC: T-Mobile knowingly added bogus charges to bills
http://www.11alive.com/story/tech/2014/07/01/ftc-tmobile/11915883/

Comment: bank heists haven’t disappeared, they’ve evolved
http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/view/38824/comment-bank-heists-havent-disappeared-theyve-evolved/

UK wants ‘Right to be Forgotten’ struck from draft data-protection laws; invites criticism
http://www.techienews.co.uk/9714875/uk-wants-right-forgotten-struck-draft-data-protection-laws-invites-criticism/

Global law enforcement, security firms team up, take down Shylock
http://www.darkreading.com/global-law-enforcement-security-firms-team-up-take-down-shylock/d/d-id/1297194

Supernova reveals origins of universe’s dust
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/supernova-reveals-origins-of-universe-s-dust/?&WT.mc_id=SA_SPC_20140710

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
13 July 2014

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.

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