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

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by ibgames

EARTHDATE: November 1, 2015

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WINDING DOWN

An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net, technology and science news
by Alan Lenton

A reasonable amount of stuff for you this week in Winding Down. Daylight Saving Time,  Microsoft updates (again), sextants and the US navy, social network effects, what old subway cars are used for, Galileo's experiment repeated, GeoCubes, The Onion, spider silk, and London art. URLs point you in the direction of tablet sales figures, Bob Dylan lyrics and scientific papers, an Enigma machine, uninstalling apps, more VW dirty cars, freedom vs security, and Apple music.

Shorts:

I see the US time zones are back in sync with the rest of the world. If you want to know all about time changes, try this URL for the Wikipedia - it's uncontroversial enough to be likely to be accurate:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time

I noticed that there was yet another attempt by Micro$oft to sneak in its Windows 10 installer in this month's 'updates'. They really are becoming a pain. For the record, the installer is update number KB3035583.

I notice that Woody Leonhard has set up an equivalent of the US armed forces alert system, which he calls MS-DEFCON. Nice one! I note that level is currently at 2 (of 5), level 1 being all out war. I'd recommend keeping an eye on the site, there's much useful information on this subject available through it.

Microsoft made a couple of other announcements recently; apparently its sales are down 12% (no surprise there given the way it's trampling all over its customer base), profits are up (interesting) and they are laying off 1,000 employees. And to top it all the big wheel, Satya Nadella, received US$18 million for the company's last financial year. Clearly screwing over your customers is a lucrative business.

Of course, if they carry on like this, then eventually there won't be any customers left to annoy! There's already some indications blowing in the wind (as Bob Dylan would say). Over here in the UK the central government, notorious for its hostility to non-Microsoft and open source software, has just signed a deal to start using the open source Libre Office - first step in an attempt to wean those in the corridors of power off the increasingly expensive Microsoft Office.
http://www.askwoody.com/
http://www.infoworld.com/article/2999913/microsoft-windows/microsoft-to-start-pushing-automatic-updates-to-win10-early-next-year.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/23/microsoft_q1_2016_jobcuts/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/20/microsoft_satya_nadella_18m_pay_packet/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/21/government_signs_deal_with_libreoffice_open_sourcer/

I see that the US Navy is taking sensible precautions when it comes to the issue of GPS being unavailable due to hostile action. They discontinued teaching how to use sextants to do celestial navigation in 1998, but now they've realised that they need a safe backup for GPS. Celestial navigation, even though the math is tedious, is probably unhackable. A sextant has no electrical parts, it's purely mechanical. To give a false reading you have to either change the radius of the earth, so the horizon moves, or change the orbits of the major planets, or change the earth's orbit so that the sun is in a different place in the sky! Not an easy thing to do, I'd suggest...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/14/fearing_hacking_us_navy_resumes_sextants/

Homework:

The MIT Technology Review has an interesting paper on how social networks can fool you into thinking that something is common, when it is really rather rare. There isn't space to deal with exactly how it works in detail here, but the URL has a very clear explanation. Basically, it is to do with how well connected your 'friends' are when you post something. Interestingly, the research also explains how it is that some things go 'viral' very quickly, while others that are almost the same don't. It isn't to do with the content, it's to do with the connections!
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/538866/the-social-network-illusion-that-tricks-your-mind/

Ever wondered what happens to old subway cars when they reach the end of their working life? I can tell you - they become the building blocks for new ocean reefs. Now that's what I call recycling! Take a look at the article, it's got a bunch of still pics, and a video of the carriages being tipped overboard.
http://gothamist.com/2015/10/26/subway_barge_photos_video.php#photo-1

One of the most famous experiments in the history of science is that of Galileo dropping two objects of different weights off the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa to prove that objects of different weights fall at the same rate. Actually the chances are that the whole thing is a myth. And if he had done it, he would probably have had a problem - it's likely they would have fallen at different speeds.

The reason for that is because of air resistance. Different objects do fall at the same speed (because they have the same acceleration) in a vacuum. In an atmosphere, though, they travel at different speeds, because what's known as their 'terminal velocity' is different for each. As an object falls in the atmosphere, the air it's passing through exerts a drag on it - the faster it goes, the greater the drag force. At some stage the drag force acting against the object will equal the gravitational force trying to make it go faster, and the object will stop accelerating.

Now, we said earlier that the drag force was proportional to the speed of the object. We also need to know that the weight of an object can be thought of as a measure of the gravitational force acting on it. So you have two objects that are the same size and shape, but one is heavier than the other. You drop them both at the same time, then they will both accelerate at the same rate until the drag balances out the gravitational force on the lighter object. At that stage it will continue to drop at the speed it has already reached  (its terminal velocity), but it won't go any faster.

On the other hand our heavier object is still accelerating (F=MA for those of you who remember school physics) and continues to accelerate until the drag force on it balances. But it's been accelerating for longer so it's going faster, and will therefore reach the ground ahead of the lighter object! So now you know. On the other hand just to prove that I'm right (and so was Galileo), the URL points you to a video of professor Brian Cox performing the same experiment in the world's largest vacuum chamber...
http://www.openculture.com/2015/10/see-galileos-famous-gravity-experiment-performed-in-the-worlds-largest-vacuum-chamber-and-on-the-moon.html

Geek Stuff:

Take a look at the URL for some absolutely amazing stuff called GeoCubes. This what the site says about them: "A single Cube consists of 12 individual Pyramids. Each one connected on two sides and carrying two rare-earth magnets to help stabilize the major structures. There are 5 (or more) major shapes that will "fall into place", meaning the magnets will pull it together and no hinge is left flexible. As a toy the Cube possesses the challenge of a Riddle to unlock the different Shapes or to find the paths of shortest movement between them. As Art it can be left Standing, or with the supplied wall mount, be displayed as a hanging Object. The beauty of this dissection, displayed in Numbers, are the different side lengths of a Single Pyramid. Namely: One, Sqareroot of Two and Half Squareroot of Three."

You have to see it, though to believe it. And when you put four of them together...
http://andreashoenigschmid.wix.com/geobender#!geocubes/c5yl

I love the spoofs in The Onion website - often they are so clever that someone will report them elsewhere as truth. One of its most recent efforts is very funny indeed, and like the very best satire, it's built on some unpalatable facts (in this case ones facing the USA). Take a look  - the headline is 'China Unable To Recruit Hackers Fast Enough To Keep Up With Vulnerabilities In U.S. Security Systems'.
http://www.theonion.com/article/china-unable-recruit-hackers-fast-enough-keep-vuln-51719

Ooooh - spider silk. Stronger than steel, more flexible than nylon. Tough. Very tough. And now it looks like a Japanese company called Spiber has managed to produce a synthetic version using a process that can make the material at a viable price. Their first product, for which they have got together with the well-known North Face outdoor clothing company, is a parka, dubbed the Moon Parka. It should be available commercially next year, but remember you read about first in Winding Down!
http://www.spoon-tamago.com/2015/10/20/moon-parka-outerwear-made-from-synthetic-spider-silk/

London:

For this week’s taster on London, I'd like to introduce you to the art of John Duffin, who paints wonderful pictures of London. If I ever win the lottery, I'll be able to buy a couple of them for my walls...
http://londonist.com/2015/10/john-duffin#gallery=2262925,2262926
http://forartssake.com/product-category/john-duffin/

Scanner:

What upgrade cycle? Tablet sales crater for fourth straight quarter
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/29/tablet_sales_crater_4th_straight_quarter/

Scientists confess to sneaking Bob Dylan lyrics into their work for the past 17 years
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2014/09/26/scientists-confess-to-sneaking-bob-dylan-lyrics-into-their-work-for-the-past-17-years/

Fully working U-Boat Enigma machine sells for US$365,000
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/23/enigma_machine_4_rotor_sale/

Why users uninstall apps
http://www.i-programmer.info/news/83/9085.html

Volkswagen enlarges emissions scandal probe: 'Millions' more cars may have cheated
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/22/volkswagen_widens_probe_into_emissions_cheating/

Freedom or security? Most users have chosen
http://www.infoworld.com/article/2995015/security/freedom-or-security-most-users-have-chosen.html

Millions of people forget to cancel Apple Music subscription
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/20/millions_forget_to_cancel_apple_music_subscription/

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
1 November 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.

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