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Fiona Craig
Aug 6, 2017, 7:14:32 AM8/6/17
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Fed2 Star
Earthdate August 6, 2017
[This is a subscription mailing list. Details about how to stop
receiving it are at the foot of the email.]
For a fancy formatted version go the Fed2 Star website:
http://www.ibgames.net/fednews/current/index.html
Official News part two
VIDEO OF THE WEEK: FLYING OVER PLUTO
by Hazed
NASA has used data sent back to Earth by the New Horizons spacecraft
which flew over Pluto two years ago, to create a video letting you soar
over the planet’s surface.
You’ll see a nitrogen ice plain called Sputnik Planitia, some highlands
and a methane ice mountain range.
Watch the Pluto video here:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-video-soars-over-pluto-s-majestic-mountains-and-icy-plains
PICTURE OF THE WEEK: ROBOTS… IN… SPAAAAACE!
by Hazed
The International Space Station has a new crew member: a robot. The cute
floating ball is a Japanese device, the JEM Internal Ball Camera,
informally known as the IntBall. It can float and manoeuvre itself, or
be controlled remotely.
Its purpose is to take high resolution images and videos.
Take a look at the IntBall space robot here:
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170725.html
WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week’s net, technology and
science news
by Alan Lenton
Well, we’re back with material on Uber, Roomba, peer-review, Leonardo da
Vinci’s notebook and To Do lists, not to mention Edison’s To Do list and
job application test, then there is the end of Flash to celebrate, plus
electronic and alternative music timelines in an unusual layout, not to
mention three lots of pictures: the Milky Way, the Earth and a
sculpture. The URLs in the scanner section point you to material about
the FAA and seat size, Snopes, data storage on tape, Intel, Amazon, and
Twitter financial results, a French castle, and radioactive water at
Fukushima.
Happy reading!
Shorts:
I always feel ambivalent about Uber. On the one hand they are
undoubtedly one of the classical mold-breaking uses of technology. On
the other, I don’t like the way they treat their staff and customers.
Now, it seems, the drivers have found a way to collectively game the
system! Uber uses something it touts as ‘algorithmic management’. That’s
just a fancy way of saying it controls the work with a computer program,
or programs.
Among other things the program controls setting the prices for
customers. There’s nothing fancy about it. More people wanting cabs, or
less cabs available, and the cost of a cab goes up. There’s no magic in
it, it’s supply and demand. It’s basically what I coded into the trading
exchanges in my game Federation 30 years ago!
However, the ‘management’ may be by computer, but the cabs are driven by
humans and humans will always, eventually, find away round a computer
program. In this case the drivers discovered that they could control the
prices , and thus their remuneration, by coordinated logging off the net
until the price went up, because the software registered less cabs
available.
The truth is that if you have any scheme that involves work based on
numbers, sooner or later someone will figure out how to game the system.
The more unpleasant the management style, the faster it will happen!
No wonder Uber would like to use driverless cabs!
http://www.i-programmer.info/news/181/11002.html
Do you own a Roomba cleaning robot, or are you thinking of getting one?
It seems the company that makes them, iRobot, has come up with a wheeze
to make extra money out of selling the floor plans of its customers’
houses to Amazon, Google and Apple. I bet you didn’t even know that the
thing recorded your floor plans while cleaning, let alone that it sent
them back to iRobot. Do I detect a class action in the works?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/07/26/irobot_q2_fy2017_roomba_maps/
Homework:
I know I’m always encouraging you to be sceptical, especially about what
you read on the net. On that front peer-reviewed journals are something
that figure as being one of the more reliable resources. But it seems
that not all peer-reviewed journals are created equal. To see why not,
take a look at the August edition of SciFi fanzine ‘Ansible’. Point your
browser at the URL, scroll down to the ‘Infinitely Improbable’ section
and look for the paragraph headed ‘Science Masterclass’. Star Wars fans
will be particularly amused.
http://news.ansible.uk/a361.html
Here is something to exercise your brain over the next week or so.
Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook has now been digitised. So as long as you
don’t mind reading backwards writing, that is. On the other hand,
perhaps you’d like to take a look at his ‘To Do’ list. Yes, even in the
1490s they had To Do lists. Fifteen items in Leonardo’s case.
http://www.openculture.com/2017/07/leonardo-da-vincis-visionary-notebooks-now-online-browse-570-digitized-pages.html
http://www.openculture.com/2014/12/leonardo-da-vincis-to-do-list-circa-1490-is-much-cooler-than-yours.html
Maybe you’d prefer something a little more recent? Then how about Thomas
Edison’s ‘To Do’ list. That one is 150 items long. And I thought my 10
item list was getting too long...
http://www.openculture.com/2016/11/thomas-edisons-hugely-ambitious-to-do-list-from-1888.html
And while we are on the subject of Edison, why not try your hand at the
145 question knowledge test he set for people wanting a job in his
company. How well would you have done?
http://www.openculture.com/2015/03/thomas-edisons-146-question-knowledge-test-for-prospective-employees.html
Geek Stuff:
Hurrah! Adobe has announced the end of life timetable for its perfidious
Flash plugin technology. Quite apart from fact that it’s not open
source, unlike most other browser plugins, the varmint was -the- major
source of security holes for ordinary people.
Flash is dead (or will be by 2020)! Long live HTML5!
http://www.infoworld.com/article/3210748/web-development/adobe-flash-player-to-reach-end-of-life-in-2020.html
http://www.i-programmer.info/news/87/10979.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/07/27/flash_reaction/
Here’s a nifty little something that any geek would want – a history of
electronic music, mapped out on a blueprint laying out the circuitry of
a Theremin! Nifty, though it’s my personal feeling that Delia Derbyshire
should have been much more prominent.
https://www.wearedorothy.com/products/electric-love-blueprint-original-open-edition
Incidentally, there is also a similar history of alternative music
mapped onto a circuit of an early transistor radio. Ah! Nights spent
under the bedclothes listening to Radio Luxembourg and the offshore
pirate radio stations of the early sixties...
https://www.wearedorothy.com/products/alternative-love-blueprint-a-history-of-alternative-music
Pictures:
First a stunning astronomy picture – the Milky Way (our galaxy) over
Monument Valley, Utah. I wish I could take photographs like that! [Note:
I was having some problems accessing this site early this morning, but I
found that a little persistence paid off! – AL]
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170726.html
And next, no less than 45 pictures of the Earth taken from space over
the last 70 years, including the famous ‘blue marble’ one. Classic.
http://newatlas.com/gallery-photograph-earth-from-space/50704/
Finally, some amazing pictures of an indoor rainbow coloured sculpture
made of thousands of threads. I just wonder how long it took to make...
http://geekologie.com/2016/11/indoor-rainbow-made-from-thousands-of-di.php
Scanner:
Court says FAA must explain why it won’t do anything to stop the
“Incredibly Shrinking Airline Seat”
https://consumerist.com/2017/07/31/court-says-faa-must-explain-why-it-wont-do-anything-to-stop-incredibly-shrinking-airline-seat/
Snopes.com asks for bailout amid dispute over who runs the site and
collects ad dollars
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/07/25/snopes_seeks_bailout_amid_legal_dispute/
Sony and IBM shatter magnetic tape storage density record
http://newatlas.com/sony-ibm-magnetic-tape-density-record/50743/
Intel, Amazon, Twitter: Your 60-second guide to the latest financials
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/07/27/intel_amazon_twitter_q2_fy2017_earnings/
The Anti-Disneyland, a French castle built on authenticity
https://www.worldcrunch.com/culture-society/the-anti-disneyland-a-french-castle-built-on-authenticity
Fukushima’s radioactive water to be released into ocean under new plan
https://www.rt.com/news/396358-fukushimas-radioactive-water-released-ocean/
Acknowledgements
Thanks to readers Barb and Fi for drawing my attention to material for
Winding Down.
Please send suggestions for stories to al...@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
al...@ibgames.com
6 August 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.
Past issues of Winding Down can be found at
http://www.ibgames.net/alan/winding/index.html.
Earthdate August 6, 2017
[This is a subscription mailing list. Details about how to stop
receiving it are at the foot of the email.]
For a fancy formatted version go the Fed2 Star website:
http://www.ibgames.net/fednews/current/index.html
Official News part two
VIDEO OF THE WEEK: FLYING OVER PLUTO
by Hazed
NASA has used data sent back to Earth by the New Horizons spacecraft
which flew over Pluto two years ago, to create a video letting you soar
over the planet’s surface.
You’ll see a nitrogen ice plain called Sputnik Planitia, some highlands
and a methane ice mountain range.
Watch the Pluto video here:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-video-soars-over-pluto-s-majestic-mountains-and-icy-plains
PICTURE OF THE WEEK: ROBOTS… IN… SPAAAAACE!
by Hazed
The International Space Station has a new crew member: a robot. The cute
floating ball is a Japanese device, the JEM Internal Ball Camera,
informally known as the IntBall. It can float and manoeuvre itself, or
be controlled remotely.
Its purpose is to take high resolution images and videos.
Take a look at the IntBall space robot here:
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170725.html
WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week’s net, technology and
science news
by Alan Lenton
Well, we’re back with material on Uber, Roomba, peer-review, Leonardo da
Vinci’s notebook and To Do lists, not to mention Edison’s To Do list and
job application test, then there is the end of Flash to celebrate, plus
electronic and alternative music timelines in an unusual layout, not to
mention three lots of pictures: the Milky Way, the Earth and a
sculpture. The URLs in the scanner section point you to material about
the FAA and seat size, Snopes, data storage on tape, Intel, Amazon, and
Twitter financial results, a French castle, and radioactive water at
Fukushima.
Happy reading!
Shorts:
I always feel ambivalent about Uber. On the one hand they are
undoubtedly one of the classical mold-breaking uses of technology. On
the other, I don’t like the way they treat their staff and customers.
Now, it seems, the drivers have found a way to collectively game the
system! Uber uses something it touts as ‘algorithmic management’. That’s
just a fancy way of saying it controls the work with a computer program,
or programs.
Among other things the program controls setting the prices for
customers. There’s nothing fancy about it. More people wanting cabs, or
less cabs available, and the cost of a cab goes up. There’s no magic in
it, it’s supply and demand. It’s basically what I coded into the trading
exchanges in my game Federation 30 years ago!
However, the ‘management’ may be by computer, but the cabs are driven by
humans and humans will always, eventually, find away round a computer
program. In this case the drivers discovered that they could control the
prices , and thus their remuneration, by coordinated logging off the net
until the price went up, because the software registered less cabs
available.
The truth is that if you have any scheme that involves work based on
numbers, sooner or later someone will figure out how to game the system.
The more unpleasant the management style, the faster it will happen!
No wonder Uber would like to use driverless cabs!
http://www.i-programmer.info/news/181/11002.html
Do you own a Roomba cleaning robot, or are you thinking of getting one?
It seems the company that makes them, iRobot, has come up with a wheeze
to make extra money out of selling the floor plans of its customers’
houses to Amazon, Google and Apple. I bet you didn’t even know that the
thing recorded your floor plans while cleaning, let alone that it sent
them back to iRobot. Do I detect a class action in the works?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/07/26/irobot_q2_fy2017_roomba_maps/
Homework:
I know I’m always encouraging you to be sceptical, especially about what
you read on the net. On that front peer-reviewed journals are something
that figure as being one of the more reliable resources. But it seems
that not all peer-reviewed journals are created equal. To see why not,
take a look at the August edition of SciFi fanzine ‘Ansible’. Point your
browser at the URL, scroll down to the ‘Infinitely Improbable’ section
and look for the paragraph headed ‘Science Masterclass’. Star Wars fans
will be particularly amused.
http://news.ansible.uk/a361.html
Here is something to exercise your brain over the next week or so.
Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook has now been digitised. So as long as you
don’t mind reading backwards writing, that is. On the other hand,
perhaps you’d like to take a look at his ‘To Do’ list. Yes, even in the
1490s they had To Do lists. Fifteen items in Leonardo’s case.
http://www.openculture.com/2017/07/leonardo-da-vincis-visionary-notebooks-now-online-browse-570-digitized-pages.html
http://www.openculture.com/2014/12/leonardo-da-vincis-to-do-list-circa-1490-is-much-cooler-than-yours.html
Maybe you’d prefer something a little more recent? Then how about Thomas
Edison’s ‘To Do’ list. That one is 150 items long. And I thought my 10
item list was getting too long...
http://www.openculture.com/2016/11/thomas-edisons-hugely-ambitious-to-do-list-from-1888.html
And while we are on the subject of Edison, why not try your hand at the
145 question knowledge test he set for people wanting a job in his
company. How well would you have done?
http://www.openculture.com/2015/03/thomas-edisons-146-question-knowledge-test-for-prospective-employees.html
Geek Stuff:
Hurrah! Adobe has announced the end of life timetable for its perfidious
Flash plugin technology. Quite apart from fact that it’s not open
source, unlike most other browser plugins, the varmint was -the- major
source of security holes for ordinary people.
Flash is dead (or will be by 2020)! Long live HTML5!
http://www.infoworld.com/article/3210748/web-development/adobe-flash-player-to-reach-end-of-life-in-2020.html
http://www.i-programmer.info/news/87/10979.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/07/27/flash_reaction/
Here’s a nifty little something that any geek would want – a history of
electronic music, mapped out on a blueprint laying out the circuitry of
a Theremin! Nifty, though it’s my personal feeling that Delia Derbyshire
should have been much more prominent.
https://www.wearedorothy.com/products/electric-love-blueprint-original-open-edition
Incidentally, there is also a similar history of alternative music
mapped onto a circuit of an early transistor radio. Ah! Nights spent
under the bedclothes listening to Radio Luxembourg and the offshore
pirate radio stations of the early sixties...
https://www.wearedorothy.com/products/alternative-love-blueprint-a-history-of-alternative-music
Pictures:
First a stunning astronomy picture – the Milky Way (our galaxy) over
Monument Valley, Utah. I wish I could take photographs like that! [Note:
I was having some problems accessing this site early this morning, but I
found that a little persistence paid off! – AL]
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170726.html
And next, no less than 45 pictures of the Earth taken from space over
the last 70 years, including the famous ‘blue marble’ one. Classic.
http://newatlas.com/gallery-photograph-earth-from-space/50704/
Finally, some amazing pictures of an indoor rainbow coloured sculpture
made of thousands of threads. I just wonder how long it took to make...
http://geekologie.com/2016/11/indoor-rainbow-made-from-thousands-of-di.php
Scanner:
Court says FAA must explain why it won’t do anything to stop the
“Incredibly Shrinking Airline Seat”
https://consumerist.com/2017/07/31/court-says-faa-must-explain-why-it-wont-do-anything-to-stop-incredibly-shrinking-airline-seat/
Snopes.com asks for bailout amid dispute over who runs the site and
collects ad dollars
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/07/25/snopes_seeks_bailout_amid_legal_dispute/
Sony and IBM shatter magnetic tape storage density record
http://newatlas.com/sony-ibm-magnetic-tape-density-record/50743/
Intel, Amazon, Twitter: Your 60-second guide to the latest financials
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/07/27/intel_amazon_twitter_q2_fy2017_earnings/
The Anti-Disneyland, a French castle built on authenticity
https://www.worldcrunch.com/culture-society/the-anti-disneyland-a-french-castle-built-on-authenticity
Fukushima’s radioactive water to be released into ocean under new plan
https://www.rt.com/news/396358-fukushimas-radioactive-water-released-ocean/
Acknowledgements
Thanks to readers Barb and Fi for drawing my attention to material for
Winding Down.
Please send suggestions for stories to al...@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
al...@ibgames.com
6 August 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.
Past issues of Winding Down can be found at
http://www.ibgames.net/alan/winding/index.html.
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