WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net, technology and science news
by Alan Lenton
This week in Winding Down we have material on AMD, Intel and the Spectre bug (no surprise there...), Firefox browser, a Crossrail flat-pack station, requirements documents, and dumb user interfaces, not to mention remote hotel pictures, and an Orion Nebula fly through. The quote of the month is from Intel – I think you’ll like it. Further interesting stuff can be obtained on an underwater volcano eruption, what to do with your 3D printer Christmas present, US AGs to defend Net Neutrality, a mini gamma-ray burst, and iOS slowdowns under government scrutiny.
Here we go...
Shorts:
I guess we might as well start with the (much deserved) woes of our computer chip suppliers. Intel already has a bunch of lawsuits, but now AMD can be added to the list. They, or rather their CEO and CFO, are being accused of artificially inflating AMD’s stock price by not making public the fact that AMD’s processor chips were also vulnerable to the Spectre design flaw.
I’m sure this isn’t going to be the only lawsuit heading AMD’s way. Intel already has four of them. One of the more interesting things that doesn’t seem to have been raised so far is how early the microprocessor companies became aware of the flaws. So far the evidence seems to suggest that the first they knew about it was when Google told them about it in July 2017. However, the question is, were they aware of the problem earlier from their own work?
If they did know earlier, they would have been between a rock and a hard place. If they admitted it, they would have laid themselves open to demands that they make restitution and lawsuits. On the other hand, if they kept their mouths shut, given the complexity of the chips involved, there was a strong possibility that they might get away with it. Note that I’m speculating here, not suggesting that this is necessarily the case. I don’t want to appear in Snopes! Interestingly, if they did pursue the ‘let’s keep our mouths shut’ option, then they would have to keep producing chips with the design flaw, otherwise people would ask why they no longer had this feature when other people’s processors did.
I think that’s enough speculation for the time being, but I’m sure I and a lot of other people will be looking very closely at what happens over the next few years in this case. And by the way, talking of looking closely, I’m sure techies are going to be putting the chips under much more intensive scrutiny to see if there are any other design flaws that could cause problems.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/17/amd_investors_sue_over_chip_flaw_silence/
Homework:
Years ago, I moved from the (then) increasingly clunky Firefox, to a new clean looking minimalistic Google Chrome (Microsoft’s Internet Explorer was never in the race). Now the positions are reversed. I’ve become increasingly wary of Chrome, and, on a wider level of Google. Now Chrome feels clunky, Google are becoming more intrusive, and I no longer trust them the way I used to. Sad, but there it is. So, with the launch of the latest Firefox browser (aka ‘Quantum’) I decided it was time to give it a whirl.
And WOW! It’s nice. It reminds me of the original Chrome in some ways. It’s now my main browser. I still have Chrome on my desktop, and will do for a while until I’m sure Firefox can cope with everything I do. Switching to a different piece of software to handle something you do frequently and getting used to slightly different ways of doing things is a bind, and I did keep putting it off for a month or so, but I’m glad I made the effort, it was very worthwhile. Highly recommended.
https://hackernoon.com/firefox-ffe71d0e16c3
Here in rainy London (sleet and snow an optional extra) we have been digging a new massive tube (aka subway) tunnel right through the middle of the city. It’s actually a very impressive piece of work, and it’s called Crossrail. Well, aksherly, they recently renamed it the ‘Elizabeth’ line, but Londoners still call it Crossrail. Like all good transport projects Crossrail connects to a goodly number of other rail and underground stations, which meant that connections and extensions to existing stations had to be built to cope with the likely new influx of passengers. So what Crossrail did was very clever. They designed ‘flat-pack’ stations (think IKEA) that could be assembled on the spot and used while the building work was in progress.
When the building work was finished the flat-pack station was disassembled and stored away ready for the next time one of these was needed. Now that Crossrail is nearly finished, the flat pack isn’t needed anymore. Enter small rural villages outside the big cities that have become commuter destinations, but whose stations are too small for the current levels of traffic. Obviously, a new larger station is needed. But the town councils involved are small and don’t have the funds for such a major undertaking.
So... Someone very clever went to Crossrail, who had written off the flat-pack, and said “Please Crossrail can we have the flat-pack you no longer need to replace our old station.” And it looks like it’s going to happen!
A fascinating legacy of Crossrail!
https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2018/01/12/how-crossrails-legacy-could-end-up-in-rural-oxfordshire/
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/35m-flat-pack-crossrail-station-takes-shape-in-sheffield-8908770.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossrail
Geek Stuff:
I see that The Register has just reported the results of a survey of what its software developer readers think. I’m sure the developers among our readers won’t be surprised to find out that ambiguous requirements documents topped the list of moans! Actually, there are two problems here. The first it genuinely sloppy work that doesn’t accurately reflect what is supposed to happen – usually because the author hasn’t bothered to find out how the work is really done by those at the coal face. That, at least theoretically, can be corrected by training.
More subtle is the fact that even if the requirements are accurate the actual deployment of the software written to the requirement changes the environments significantly, invalidating the original documents, and leading to a rash of demands for changes and new features that hadn’t even been considered as a possibility in the old environment.
Basically, no one has yet come up with a fool proof way of predicting unpredictable demands!
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/16/software_dev_woes_study_results/
Mega bad interface design from Hawaii, where the menu item for ‘Test Missile Alert’ is right next to the one saying ‘Missile Alert’. Eventually, of course, someone was bound to press the wrong one. And that’s exactly what happened last week! The result, a load of people in Hawaii got an e-mail alert saying, “Emergency Alert. Ballistic Missile Threat InBound to Hawaii. Seek Immediate Shelter. This is not a Drill.”
And, of course, given the sabre rattling currently going on over North Korean missile, the alert was more believable than it would otherwise have been! What a classic piece of bad user interface design...
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/15/hawaii-missile-false-alarm-design-user-interface
Pictures:
Here you are! This week we feature 54 pictures of the most remote hotels on planet earth. Personally, I’ll pass on the one on the side of cliff, but the underwater ones look nice!
https://newatlas.com/most-remote-hotels-photos/52925/#gallery
If that doesn’t appeal to you, try this video showing what it would be like to fly through the Orion Nebula...
http://www.sciencealert.com/orion-nebula-3d-flythrough-hubble-spitzer-2018
Coda:
Quote of the month, I think:
“Intel has no higher priority than our customer’s security” – Intel Spokesperson speaking to The Register January 2018
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/12/intel_amt_insecure/ [In the last paragraph of the article – AL]
Scanner:
We all nearly missed the largest underwater volcano eruption ever recorded
http://www.sciencealert.com/almost-nobody-noticed-largest-underwater-volcano-eruption-ever-recorded-havre-seamount
You got a 3D printer, now what?
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/10/you-got-a-3d-printer-now-what/
Attorneys General go to court to rescue internet protections (aka Net Neutrality)
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/17/fcc_attoneys_general_net_neutrality/
Scientists have created a mini gamma-ray burst in the lab for the first time
http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-have-created-a-mini-gamma-ray-burst-in-the-lab-for-the-first-time
You. Apple. Get in here and explain these iOS slowdowns and batteries – US, French govt reps
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/10/us_french_government_apple_ios_slowdown/
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
21 January 2018
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.
