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 buying a new screen for an iPhone X, Apple’s Face ID, paying for ransomware, keyless cars, an analysis of where the internet is going, skeuomorphisms, Perl language dislikes, Victorian volcano pictures, and Oscar Wilde’s last words. Scanner takes us to tech giants vs governments, poisoning Google search, the ICAAN ‘Whois’ row, a void in the Great Pyramid, GCHQ new head on cyber threats, cyber war, and finally, IT at sea.
We now have heat and water back on. When the plumber got here, she fixed it in a couple of minutes, and then explained what the problem was, and taught me how to fix it myself if it happens again!.
Go for it!
Shorts:
Did you succumb to temptation and buy an iPhone X? If you did, I suggest you keep it well wrapped up and treat it very gently, because Apple has now announced the prices for repairs. How does US$279 to repair a damaged screen grab you? Or maybe US$549 for other damage? I’m going to be fascinated to see how many of these ‘X’ rated phone are going to be sold. Though with Apple’s sales figures secrecy, that may prove difficult to find, especially if they don’t sell many...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/10/27/apple_iphone_x/
And while we are on the subject of the iPhone X, I note that the reviewers seemed to be having problems with the Face ID system. From reading The Register article on the subject (and making due allowance for sour grapes – The Register once, many years ago, criticised Steve Jobs, and has been excluded from all things like Apple device reviews and invites to Apple Conferences ever since), it seems that the handset needs to be held at the correct distance with relatively small tolerances, and under a relatively small range of ambient lighting. Still, I’m sure they’ll get it right eventually.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/10/31/iphone_x_reviewers_struggle_to_admit_face_id_not_very_good/
I was absolutely fascinated to find out that the majority of employees (59%) in smaller companies in the US hit by ransomware personally make the payment. There are various reasons for this, but the main one suggested is that using a work computer for non-work related activities is often a firing offense. The average payment, US$1,400, is worth it to make sure you keep your job and the boss doesn’t find out. It would definitely be better (and cheaper) to do frequent back-ups, though!
https://www.darkreading.com/endpoint/majority-of-employees-hit-with-ransomware-personally-make-payment/d/d-id/1330267
Do you have a car with one of those keyless car security systems? They’re mainly high end cars at the moment, but the idea will undoubtedly migrate to smaller ones in the future. Basically you have a wireless device on which you push a button to open the door when you are near, and just press a button in the car to start the car, with the proximity of the keyfob substituting for a physical key. Seems straightforward.
Straightforward enough that in London gangs of crooks have discovered that you can buy, on the internet, an amplifier powerful enough to amplify the signal from the key in the owner’s house at night, so that the car parked in the drive can be opened and started – and driven off to be broken up for parts!
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/gone-in-60-seconds-police-warning-after-gangs-target-luxury-cars-in-spate-of-keyless-thefts-a3657951.html
Homework:
If you want to read a really depressing analysis of where the web is going you might like to take a look at Andre Staltz’s essay ‘The Web Began Dying in 2014, Here’s How’. His basic thesis is that the three major internet purveyors of material on the net (Amazon, Facebook and Google), will become so dominant that they will replace much of the open web. Add to this the demise of net neutrality, and the ISPs will only bother with decent speeds for the big boys, anyone else just gets what’s left.
The case is well argued and persuasive. I have to say, though, that I’m not totally convinced. For a start I think he underplays the role of politics, and the resilience of the underlying internet. Nonetheless I think the piece is definitely worth a read.
https://staltz.com/the-web-began-dying-in-2014-heres-how.html?imm_mid=0f79f3&cmp=em-web-na-na-newsltr_20171101
The BBC’s ‘Future’ magazine has an interesting article about things in everyday items that are hangovers from an earlier era, but which are still there. Apparently, it’s called ‘skeuomorphism’. No, I’d never heard of it before, either. An example given is the rivets in jeans. Originally they were needed for the heavy working clothes, because the stitching itself wasn’t strong enough. Nowadays the stitching on jeans is much stronger, but the rivets are still there, because everyone expects jeans to have rivets! And don’t get me started on the qwerty keyboard layout – designed to slow you down so that the characters on a typewriter don’t jam up. I had a typewriter when I was at school and college, before PCs were invented, and it did indeed jam if you typed too fast! Take a look, I think you’ll like the details about the examples.
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20171023-the-useless-design-features-in-modern-products
Geek Stuff:
I see that the Perl programming language has been voted the most disliked by programmers. Well, I mean to say, it’s a write only language that seems to have been designed mainly to use up the symbols on the keyboard that no other languages wanted to use. But its real problem is that if you look at a piece of Perl code, you can’t tell if you are looking at the source code, a compiled version of another language, or a piece of encrypted data!
You may not be surprised to learn that I also don’t like Perl.
https://stackoverflow.blog/2017/10/31/disliked-programming-languages/
Pictures:
For this week’s pictures I thought I’d point you to a piece showing some of the photographs taken by Tempest Anderson, a pioneering Victorian vulcanologist. I particularly like the picture of the Victorian lady, complete with parasol standing on the lip of a live volcano crater – definitely not to be missed!
http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/tempest-anderson-pioneer-of-volcano-photography/
Coda:
This week’s quote is from Oscar Wilde. His last words before dying were, “This wallpaper is terrible – one of us will have to go!”
Scanner:
So, tell us again how tech giants are more important than US govt...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/01/facebook_twitter_google_senate_russia/
Hackers poison Google search results to deliver Zeus Panda
https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities---threats/hackers-poison-google-search-results-to-deliver-zeus-panda/d/d-id/1330322
ICANN gives domain souks permission to tell it the answer to Whois privacy law debacle
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/02/icann_whois_privacy_contracts/
Debate stirs over mysterious “void” found inside Egypt’s Great Pyramid
https://newatlas.com/void-great-pyramid-skepticism/52037/
Fending off cyber attacks as important as combatting terrorism, says new GCHQ chief
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/10/09/gchq_cyber_priority/
Make no mistake, cyber war is a real and present threat
https://www.worldcrunch.com/opinion-analysis/make-no-mistake-cyber-war-is-a-real-and-present-threat
IT at sea makes data too easy to see: Ships are basically big floating security nightmares
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/10/13/it_at_sea_makes_data_too_easy_to_see/
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
5 November 2017
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.
