Google Search, Jr.
April 6, 2016
As a kid friendly society, we cater to the younger generations by making “child friendly” versions of everything from books to meals. When the Internet made headway into our daily lives, kid friendly dashboards were launched to keep the young ones away from pedophiles and to guarantee they only saw age-appropriate content. The kid protocols sucked, for lack of better terms, because the people designing them were not the greatest at judging content.
With more tech-savvy, child wise Web developers running the show now, there are more kid friendly products with more intelligence behind their design. One of the main Internet functions that parents wish were available for their offspring is a safe search engine, but so far their answers have been ignored.
The Metro reports there is now a “New Search Engine Kiddle Is Like Google For Children-Here’s What It Does.” Kiddle’s purpose is to filter results that are safe for kids to read and also is written in simple language.
Kiddle is not affiliated with the search engine giant, however:
“Kiddle is not an official Google product, but the company uses a customized Google search to deliver child-friendly results. Kiddle uses Google colors but instead of the traditional white background has adopted an outer space theme, fit with a friendly robot. It will work in the same manner as Google but its search will be heavily filtered.”
The results will be filleted as such: the first three sites will be kid friendly, four through seven will be written in simple language, and the remaining will be from regular Google filtered through by the Kiddle search.
Kids need to understand how to evaluate content and use it wisely, but the Internet prevents them from making the same judgments other generations learned, as they got older. However, kids are also smarter than we think so a “kid friendly” search tool is usually dumbed down to the cradle. Kiddle appears to have the best of both worlds, at least it is better than parental controls.
Whitney Grace, April 6, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Nasdaq Joins the Party for Investing in Intelligence
April 6, 2016
The financial sector is hungry for intelligence to help curb abuses in capital markets, judging by recent actions of Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse. Nasdaq invests in ‘cognitive’ technology, from BA wire, announces their investment in Digital Reasoning. Nasdaq plans to connect Digital Reasoning algorithms with Nasdaq’s technology which surveils trade data. The article explains the benefits of joining these two products,
“The two companies want to pair Digital Reasoning software of unstructured data such as voicemail, email, chats and social media, with Nasdaq’s Smarts business, which is one of the foremost software for monitoring trading on global markets. It is used by more than 40 markets and 12 regulators. Combining the two products is designed to assess the context, content and relationships behind trading and spot signals that could indicate insider trading, market manipulation or even expenses rules violations.”
We have followed Digital Reasoning, and other intel vendors like them, for quite some time as they target sectors ranging from healthcare to law to military. This is just a case of another software intelligence vendor making the shift to the financial sector. Following the money appears to be the name of the game.
Megan Feil, April 6, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Glueware: A Sticky and Expensive Mess
April 5, 2016
I have been gathering open source information about DCGS, a US government information access and analysis system. I learned that the DCGS project is running a bit behind its original schedule formulated about 13 years ago. I also learned that the project is little over budget.
I noted “NASA Launch System Software Upgrade Now 77% overt Budget.” What interested me was the reference to “glueware.” The idea appears to be that it is better, faster, and maybe cheaper to use many different products. The “glueware” idea allows these technologies to be stuck or glued together. This is an interesting idea.
According to the write up:
To develop its new launch software, NASA has essentially kluged together a bunch of different software packages, Martin noted in his report. “The root of these issues largely results from NASA’s implementation of its June 2006 decision to integrate multiple products or, in some cases, parts of products rather than developing software in-house or buying an off-the-shelf product,” the report states. “Writing computer code to ‘glue’ together disparate products has turned out to be more complex and expensive than anticipated. As of January 2016, Agency personnel had developed 2.5 million lines of ‘glue-ware,’ with almost two more years of development activity planned.”
The arguments for the approach boil down to the US government’s belief that many flowers blooming in one greenhouse is better than buying flowers from a farm in Encinitas.
The parallels with DCGS and its well known government contractors and Palantir with its home brew Gotham system are interesting to me. What happens if NASA embraces a commercial provider? Good news for that commercial provider and maybe some push back from the firms chopped out of the pork loin. What happens if Palantir gets rebuffed? Unicorn burgers, anyone?
Stephen E Arnold, April 5, 2016
Google: Data Center Tour
April 5, 2016
If you marvel at all things Google, you will enjoy “Behind the Scenes and 360 at Google’s Dalles Data Center.” Dalles is not a suburb of the Cowboys’ football stadium, however. The video is a virtual tour of a “secret” Google facility. Even better, the article tells me the data center “is a highly secure area most Google employees aren’t even able to access.” There you go.
The article points out this surprising fact:
While the video is – naturally – highly curated, it nonetheless provides an interesting insight into Google’s vast data center, which can hold more than 750,00 machines and what’s behind running it all – from the sizeable hard drive shredder to very colorful water pipes – in Google colors of course.
Of course and naturally. Here’s the link.
Enjoy as long as you have Google Chrome, the YouTube app on m mobile gizmos, or the wonderful Google Cardboard thing. For information about the security in use at some Google facilities, check out this article too.
Stephen E Arnold, April 5, 2016
Bandwidth Item from DARPA
April 5, 2016
Short honk. If you follow the activities of the US government, you may be interested in “DARPA Wants to Give Radio Waves AI to ‘Stretch Bandwidth.” The idea is an important one. The reason is that the US government requires bandwidth to move around certain interesting data. Worth noting. Now about the value of bandwidth “owned” by commercial entities?
Stephen E Arnold, April 5, 2016
Forget World Population, Domain Population Is Overcrowded
April 5, 2016
Back in the 1990s, if you had a Web site without a bunch of gobbidly-gook after the .com, you were considered tech savvy and very cool. There were plenty of domain names available in those days and as the Internet became more of a tool than a novelty, demand for names rose. It is not as easy anymore to get the desired Web address, says Phys.org in the article, “Overcrowded Internet Domain Space Is Stifling Demand, Suggesting A Future ‘Not-Com’ Boom.”
Domain names are being snapped up fast, so quickly, in fact, that Web development is being stunted. As much as 25% of domains are being withheld, equaling 73 million as of summer 2015 with the inability to register domain names that would drive Internet traffic.
“However, as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has begun to roll out the option to issue brand new top-level domains for almost any word, whether it’s dot-hotel, dot-books or dot-sex – dubbed the ‘not-coms’ – the research suggests there is substantial untapped demand that could fuel additional growth in the domain registrations.”
One of the factors that determine prime Internet real estate is a simple, catchy Web address. With new domains opening up beyond the traditional .org, .com, .net, .gov endings, an entire new market is also open for entrepreneurs to profit from. People are already buying not-com’s for cheap with the intention to resale them for a pretty penny. It bears to mention, however, that once all of the hot not-com’s are gone, we will be in the same predicament as we are now. How long will that take?
Whitney Grace, April 5, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Google DeepMind Acquires Healthcare App
April 5, 2016
What will Google do next? Google’s London AI powerhouse has set up a new healthcare division and acquired a medical app called Hark, an article from Business Insider, tells us the latest. DeepMind, Google’s artificial intelligence research group, launched a new division recently called DeepMind Health and acquired a healthcare app. The article describes DeepMind Health’s new app called Hark,
“Hark — acquired by DeepMind for an undisclosed sum — is a clinical task management smartphone app that was created by Imperial College London academics Professor Ara Darzi and Dr Dominic King. Lord Darzi, director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London, said in a statement: “It is incredibly exciting to have DeepMind – the world’s most exciting technology company and a true UK success story – working directly with NHS staff. The types of clinician-led technology collaborations that Mustafa Suleyman and DeepMind Health are supporting show enormous promise for patient care.”
The healthcare industry is ripe for disruptive technology, especially technologies which solve information and communications challenges. As the article alludes to, many issues in healthcare stem from too little conveyed and too late. Collaborations between researchers, medical professionals and tech gurus appears to be a promising answer. Will Google’s Hark lead the way?
Megan Feil, April 5, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Watson Weakly: Analysis of Harry Potter
April 4, 2016
I noted this write up: “IBM’s Watson Analyzed All the ‘Harry Potter’ Books and Movies — and the Results are Fascinating.” An outfit called Tech Insider appears to have “asked” Watson “what it thought of the Harry Potter original book series and movies.”
IBM, that revenue engine which delights its stakeholders, offered up Vinith Misra, “a research staff member for IBM Watson.”
It appears that Watson did what any second year English major does in between pizza bites and hanging out. Watson “read” the Potter books and “watched” the films. I think Watson was fed movie scripts, but that’s a niggling point. Of course, Watson can handle rich media. Watson is a very capable system for generating some text analytics.
What did Watson discover? I won’t review the findings in one big list of stunners. Let me highlight one finding, which will lure you into the silly listicle. Here you go:
Professor McGonagall ranks the highest of all the characters for intellect.
Useful? Insightful?
IBM’s marketing continues to amaze me. By the way, if I were teaching those college sophomores, I would expect more from an analysis written in a dorm in 15 minutes after a long weekend of partying.
Stephen E Arnold, April 4, 2016
Video: The Top Info Dog
April 4, 2016
I love the capitalist tool. The founder rode a motorcycle. When I was in Manhattan, I had the pleasure of listening to the Malcolm-cycle burble and grunt when talking with a couple of pals. Wonderful that noise and odor.
I read “The Content Pyramid: And Why Video Must Be at the Top.” I am not sure the founder of the capitalist tool was into video. Well, the capitalist tool is an an article with a parental “must” makes this point:
Video is the Matryoshka doll of content.
I did not know that. I know that some folks who shoot videos write scripts, sell them and then other people (who know better than the author) rewrite them.
The write up points out that a video has a script. But the video has pictures and audio.
I need to take a couple of deep breaths. My heart is racing with the impact of these comments.
I learned:
As more and more content consumption goes mobile, it’s usually a necessity to create multiple lengths and optimized formats of video content, so you should always have tiered, multi-channel thinking built in to your editorial process.
So how much video does the capitalist tool have on YouTube? 4,900 videos. But that’s not too many. I ran the query “Forbes” on Google Video and learned that there are 16,900 videos available. I checked Vimeo and learned there were 521 videos. I checked Blinkx and found quite a few false drops.
The problem is that I have never seen a reference to a Forbes video. I do receive mail addressed to my deceased father enjoining him to re-subscribe to the print edition of Forbes Magazine. But the video thing with the podcast, the clips, and the use of video in marketing. Not on my radar.
Remember the “must.” How about adding the concept of “effective”?
Video by itself is a bit of an ego play in my opinion. When no one watches the video or knows a video exists, what’s the point? Right, right. I forget. Some ad agencies love to do video shoots in Half Moon Bay. It is fun. How bright the video shines depends on more the height of the pyramid in my opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, April 4, 2016
The Forrester Wave Becomes Blobs
April 4, 2016
I want you to know that I read this statement attached to the illustration in “Master Data Management: Which MDM Tool Is Right For You?”; to wit:
Unauthorized reproduction, citation , or distribution prohibited.
Okay, none of that, gentle reader. The Forrester Wave has morphed from a knock off of the Eisenhower grid which was reinvented by Boston Consulting Group. The new look is like this:
Remember Psych 101? What do you see? How do you feel about that? What do you mean it looks like a dog’s breakfast? Do you love your mother?
Each tinted region denotes a type of Master Data Management classification. The classifications which the mid tier consulting firm generated from a rigorous statistical analysis of the data available to the wizards working on this report are:
- Integration model vendors
- Logical model vendors
- Contextual model vendors
- Analytic model vendors.
I am not sure what the differences in the categories are because I am familiar with some of the outfits in the Master Data Model space and it seems to me that outfits like IBM, Oracle, and others offer a range of Master Data Model services and capabilities. Hey, I don’t want to assemble the bits and pieces on offer from IBM into a functioning solution, but I suppose one can.
What companies deliver what function in this Rorschachian analysis?
Integration model, a pale blue horizontal elliptical blob:
- Dell Boomi
- Information Builders
- Microsoft
- Profisee (like prophecy I assume)
- Software AG
- Semarchy
- Teradata
- Tibco (the data bus folks)
Analytic model, a gray circle:
- Novetta
- Reltio
Logical model, a blue gray ellipse which looks like an egg standing on one end:
- SAS
- SAP
- IBM
- Tibco (yep, in two places at once like an entangled particle)
- Software AG (only the “ware AG” makes it into the logical egg thing)
- Information Builders (the “builders” component is logical. Go figure.)
- Teradata (yikes, just the “ata” is logical. Makes sense to the mid tier crowd I assume.)
Contextual model, which looks like a fried egg to me with a context of breakfast:
- Informatica (another outfit which is like a satyr, half one thing and half another)
- Liaison Technologies
- Magnitude Software (the outfit is another entangled MDM provider because it is included in the logical model. Socrates, got that?)
- Orchestra Software (also part of the logical category like a Rap musician who fills in when the the first violin at the London Philharmonic is on holiday).
- Pitney Bowes (the postage meter outfit?)
- Verato
I wish I could reproduce the diagram, but there is that legal threat. A legal threat is one way to make sure that constructive criticism of the blobs is constrained. I suppose my representations of the geometry of the analysis connects the dots for you, gentle reader. If not, the mid tier wizards will explain their “real” intent.
I love the fried egg group. How about some hot cakes with that analysis? Also, no half baked biscuits with that, please.
Stephen E Arnold, April 4, 2016
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