Looking Behind the Curtain

Today’s lunchtime news chum brings together a collection of stories that are all related through the notion of peeking behind the curtain to see something previously hidden:

• Yelp Reviewers. A Virginia court has ruled that Yelp must disclose the identities of people making anonymous reviews. The issue here is this: If you have been a customer of the establishment, it’s OK to tell the truth about your bad experience. If you’ve never patronized the place, making up a false bad experience is legal slander. The only way to determine which is which is to examine customer records, which requires real identities. What should you learn from this? Always speak the truth.
• You Might Find This of Interest. We’ve all seen them at the bottom of pages: the ads with stories also recommended for us, usually a little bit titillating or salacious. Where do these recommendations come from? Here’s the explanation, and how clicking on them keeps the infrastructure alive. Alas, the recommendation engine isn’t as strong as the one used by Amazon, or even the one used by Netflix.
• Internet in your Appliances. The big thing touted this week at CES is the “Internet of Things” (which is a poor name, but what can you do?). Everyone is spouting off on how having any and everything electronic interconnected over the Internet is a good thing. When you look behind the curtain, however, you discover how it isn’t as good as it appears, because all those devices are (a) horribly insecure, (b) rarely patched, and (c) if patches are issued, rarely updated. If you don’t believe me, answer me this: Have you updated the firmware on your laptop? Your router? Your printer? Your washing machine? Your automobile? Your thermostat? I think you begin to get the idea.
• The Last Mile. Nowadays, we take cross-country and international communications for granted. We can talk to anyone, anywhere. We can watch live video from anywhere. ’twasn’t always the case. Two interesting articles expose the history. The first article looks at the history of CATV (Community Antenna TV), which morphed into today’s cable TV. My only dispute with that article is that it mentions HBO as the first cable pay-for-movies service (which it was, starting in 1972), but fails to mention the equally important Z-Channel. The second article looks at the history of coast-to-coast broadcasting, which in the early days, was not easy at all. Both stories ultimately revolve around… coaxial cable.
• Baby, Its Cold Outside. Here’s a look behind the curtain at something you probably didn’t expect. On days the south pole reaches -100ºF, there is a tradition for researchers in the area to sit in a 200ºF sauna for a little while, and then run outside with only shoes, circle the South Pole, and return to the base. Yup, this is the tradition of the 300º Naked Antarctica Run.