Royal Mail, Delivering Narcotics Efficiently
January 17, 2017
Unsuspecting Royal Mail postmen are delivering narcotics and drugs ordered over Dark Web to punters and buyers with much efficiency. Taking cognizance of the fact, The Home Office is planning an investment of GBP 1.9 billion over next five years to fight this new face of crime.
The Sun in an article titled Royal Mail Postmen Unknowingly Deliver Drugs Parcels Bought From the Dark Web says:
Royal Mail postmen are unknowingly delivering drug parcels bought from the dark web, it has been revealed. Millions of pounds of drugs are bought online every day via the dark web and shipped to punters anonymously.
The postmen, however, cannot be blamed as they are ill-equipped to find out what’s hidden inside a sealed parcel. Though drug sniffing dogs exist on paper for the Royal Mail, many postmen say they never saw one in their service life. Technology is yet to catch-up with dogs that can sniff out the drugs.
As the postmen are being put at risk delivering these packages, the Home Office in a statement said:
We have committed to spending £1.9bn on cybersecurity over the next five years, including boosting the capabilities of the National Crime Agency’s National Cyber Crime Unit, increasing their ability to investigate the most serious cybercrime.
Law enforcement agencies, including the ones in the US will have to invest in detecting and preventing such crimes. So far the success ratio has been barely encouraging. Till then, unsuspecting people will be used as pawns by cybercriminals, royally!
Vishal Ingole, January 17, 2017
Google: A Selective History
January 16, 2017
If you want a selective history of Google, you will want to print out and hang on your wall “Almost Everything You Need to Know About Google’s History.” I would not be surprised is the pride of place goes to a diploma from a University of Phoenix type outfit, but that’s just an assumption on my part. I would point out that there are a few omissions which the Google watchers of the world might want to note. I pulled a few from my back file but I think these are important:
- The idea for Web search which actually included more than a small percentage of accessible Web servers was an old one. The Googley part of Google took inspiration from AltaVista and Jon Kleinberg, one of the IBM Almaden team which did Clever
- Google bought Applied Linguistics, formerly Oingo. That was an important deal just like Google’s purchase of Transformic
- The monetization of Google via AdWords was “inspired” by GoTo.com/Overture.com which Yahoo owned. Prior to the IPO, the GOOG settled out of court for about $1 billion.
Three omissions of this magnitude give you a good idea of how many pivot points have been left out of the carnival ride. Almost covers a great deal of ground, just like some roller coaster cars which jump off tracks.
Stephen E Arnold, January 16, 2017
Google Drones Down, Loon Balloons Up
January 16, 2017
I read “Alphabet Grounds Titan Solar-Powered Drones, Shifts to Project Loon Instead.” Whatever is going on at Google seems to make life tough for those involved in high school science projects. Bummer. Drones down. Balloons still aloft.
The write up explains:
One of X’s most hopeful initiatives involves providing universal internet access via sky-based wireless routers. One of them, Project Loon, uses high-altitude balloons to loft the routers in the air, and that project is still on track. Another, dubbed Titan and using fixed-wing solar-powered drones, isn’t so lucky…
I learned:
Titan made high-altitude, solar-powered drones that can stay in the air for extended periods of time and could likely serve a variety of purposes for Alphabet. The idea at the time seemed to be to combine the Titan drones with Project Loon balloons to provide internet access to underserved areas of the globe, but it appears that idea has been abandoned.
Alphabet Google needs to find a way to deal with the Alexafication of search. Ad revenue could be the next thing coming down. Will Loon balloons keep the company’s Yahoo-inspired online ad contraption aloft?
Stephen E Arnold, January 16, 2017
Autonomy and Hewlett Packard: A How To from Fortune
January 16, 2017
I read “How Autonomy Fooled Hewlett-Packard.” The article was written by Jack T. Cielsielski, who is president of R.G. Associates, Inc. in Baltimore, Maryland. Mr. Ciesielski’s company publishes “The Analyst’s Accounting Observer, which is described as “a research service for institutional investors.” The company offers this example return on a $1 million investment:
The caption for the chart is “All performance data is net of advisory fees. 3, 5, 10 year returns are annualized total returns. Inception is the annualized total return since 12/31/1992. S&P 500 Total Return sourced from www.standardandpoors.com. Past performance is not indicative of future results.”
I am not sure if the write up is a Fortune-edited article, a Fortune-commissioned article, or an inclusion in Fortune which an entity purchased. For the purposes of Beyond Search, I will assume that the article is an example of “real” reporting and spot on in its objectivity and accuracy. I recognize that depending on where one sits and the tools and information available will affect what one perceives. This is the viewshed problem, which is illustrated below. Each color shows what the respective observer “sees.”
I was interested in the write up because the legal dispute between the “old” Hewlett Packard and executives of Autonomy is on going. Obviously neither Mr. Ciesielski Fortune does not want to find itself in the legal crossfire. My assumption is, therefore, that Fortune’s “real” journalists have figured out some of the nuances of the HP-Autonomy matter. I would point out that these nuances were overlooked or misinterpreted by HP’s executives, Board members, advisers, lawyers, and accountants. Too bad neither HP nor Autonomy had Fortune-caliber experts assisting when the $11 billion deal was conceived, executed, understood, and prosecuted. Some outfits have smarter, more thorough investigators, researchers, and analysts.
The write up points out that the former top dog of Autonomy USA (Christopher Egan) had to pay $800,000 in November 2016 he garnered from the HP buy out. The prime mover in this check writing was the US Securities & Exchange Commission. The Fortune article states:
HP relied on figures he had helped inflate. The facts of the case are now public.
Here’s the method used by Autonomy as reported by Fortune:
Autonomy’s UK-based senior managers directed a program swelling revenues by almost $200 million. Autonomy sold its software through “value-added” resellers, legitimate businesses providing additional services and support to product end users while also selling Autonomy’s software. Just five resellers, in 30 transactions, provided services to Autonomy that couldn’t be called legitimate.
How Google Used Machine Learning and Loved It
January 16, 2017
If you use any search engine other than Google, except for DuckDuckGo, people cringe and doubt your Internet savvy. Google has a reputation for being the most popular, reliable, and accurate search engine in the US. It has earned this reputation, because, in many ways, it is the truth. Google apparently has one upped itself, however, says Eco Consultancy in the article, “How Machine Learning Has Made Google Search Results More Relevant.”
In 2016, Google launched RankBrain to improve search relevancy in its results. Searchmatics conducted a study and discovered that it worked. RankBrain is an AI that uses machine learning to understand the context behind people’s search. RankBrain learns the more it is used, similar to how a person learns to read. A person learning to read might know a word, but can understand what it is based off context.
This increases Google’s semantic understanding, but so have the amount of words in a search query. People are reverting to their natural wordiness and are not using as many keywords. At the same time, back linking is not as important anymore, but the content quality is becoming more valuable for higher page rankings. Bounce rates are increasing in the top twenty results, meaning that users are led to a more relevant result than pages with higher optimization.
RankBrain also shows Google’s growing reliance on AI:
With the introduction of RankBrain, there’s no doubt that Google is taking AI and machine learning more seriously. According to CEO, Sundar Pichai, it is just the start. He recently commented that ‘be it search, ads, YouTube, or Play, you will see us — in a systematic way — apply machine learning in all these areas.’ Undoubtedly, it could shape more than just search in 2017.
While the search results are improving their relevancy, it spells bad news for marketers and SEO experts as their attempts to gain rankings are less effective.
Whitney Grace, January 16, 2016
Apache Tika Could Be the Google of Dark Web?
January 16, 2017
Conventional search engines can effectively index text based content. However, Apache Tika, a system developed by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) can identify and analyze all kinds of content. This might enable law enforcement agencies to track all kind of illicit activities over Dark Web and possibly end them.
An article by Christian Mattmann titled Could This Tool for the Dark Web Fight Human Trafficking and Worse? that appears on Startup Smart says:
At present the most easily indexed material from the web is text. But as much as 89 to 96 percent of the content on the internet is actually something else – images, video, audio, in all thousands of different kinds of non-textual data types. Further, the vast majority of online content isn’t available in a form that’s easily indexed by electronic archiving systems like Google’s.
Apache Tika, which Mattmann helped develop bridges the gap by analyzing Metadata of the content type and then identifying content of the file using techniques like Named Entity Recognition (NER). Apache Tika was instrumental in tracking down players in Panama Scandal.
If Apache Tika is capable of what it says, many illicit activities over Dark Web like human trafficking, drug and arms peddling can be stopped in its tracks. As the author points out in the article:
Employing Tika to monitor the deep and dark web continuously could help identify human- and weapons-trafficking situations shortly after the photos are posted online. That could stop a crime from occurring and save lives.
However, the system is not sophisticated enough to handle the amount of content that is out there. Being an open source code, in near future someone may be able to make it capable of doing so. Till then, the actors of Dark Web can heave a sigh of relief.
Vishal Ingole, January 16, 2017
McKinsey and Analytics: Make Sure You Are a One Percenter
January 15, 2017
McKinsey & Co., the blue chip consulting firm, is doing its part to motivate students to ace their SATs. You can get a glimpse of the future for those who are not over achievers and able to get hired at an oligopoly in “The Age of Analytics: Competing in a Data Driven World.” If your firm is a customer of McKinsey, you can wrangle a briefing and get even more juicy insights. But for the folks who live in Harrod’s Creek, we have to make do with the free write up.
The main point is that organizations who embrace analytics can just be more successful. More money, more influence, more, more, more. In today’s uncertain business climate, the starving cats are going to pay attention to this catnip.
The write up reveals:
Leading companies are using their capabilities not only to improve their core operations but also to launch entirely new business models. The network effects of digital platforms are creating a winner-take-most situation in some markets. The leading firms have remarkably deep analytical talent taking on various problems—and they are actively looking for ways to enter other industries. These companies can take advantage of their scale and data insights to add new business lines, and those expansions are increasingly blurring traditional sector boundaries.
Net net: hire McKinsey to help you take advantage of this opportunity. For those who are not working hard to be perceived as smart enough to work at a blue chip outfit like McKinsey, there may be universal basic income in your not so bright future.
Stephen E Arnold, January 15, 2017
About Twitter: Kill It, Kill It Now
January 14, 2017
I am not sure what to make of “It’s Time to Kill Twitter, Before It Kills Us.” I understand how drone swarms can kill. I grasp the notion of fungibles doing bad in airport baggage claim. But I had not considered the idea that sending short digital messages would kill “us.”
The write up explained to me:
The best thing you might say about Twitter is that it’s become the new micro press release—a way for the famous and powerful to promote, with as little effort as possible, their next project, product or random thought.
Twitter, therefore, can trigger people to do bad things. Therefore, kill Twitter.
The logic is obviously rock solid for some folks.
The write up continued:
From its founding, Twitter never had a purpose.
Okay, new media have no purpose. Interesting notion, particularly when viewed in the context of the tradition of communication methods.
But Twitter might be tough to kill. The write up pointed out:
Twitter might prove harder to get rid of than raccoons at a campsite. The company is still worth nearly $12 billion. It still has around 300 million monthly users. And it still has Trump, so if anyone tried to shutter it, he’d probably step in and classify Twitter as essential to our national security and install Ivanka to run it.
Fascinating. The question is, “Is the write up humorous like the Beyond Search weekly video news program, or is the write up making clear that certain types of communication must be stopped?”
News week or news weak?
Stephen E Arnold, January 14, 2017
Google: Rah Rah for India
January 13, 2017
I read “Google Bets Big on Artificial Intelligence.” The content was not too new, but the India-centrism surprised me. Google is chasing India as a revenue source. Sure, the country is the Avis to the Hertz of China. But the Googlers are not thriving in the Middle Kingdom. My thought is that Google doesn’t want to be aced out of the second largest country in the world. If it drowns in the Ganges, that means that Google is not likely to be a player in China, Russia, and India. Those nation states have a lot of customers who will find happiness without the US online ad giant. Bad for Google’s stakeholders. Good for Google competitors who don’t find themselves blocked or bumped from a space ship ride.
The write up offers some interesting factoids; to wit:
- Google’s smart software can detect a diabetic’s problematic retina
- Google supports the Digital India project
- Google wants cheaper smartphones
- When Google develops products and services for India, Google develops for the world. (Keep in mind that the “world” may not include China and Russia, two beefy markets.)
- In three to four years, big software companies will come out of India
- India will compete with the rest of the world, but that “will take a few more years.”
The write up does not provide much information about Google’s smart software. I assume that the headline is designed to get the article about Google indexed by Google.
In short, Google is making sure it has water wings and a life preserver before putting its talons in the river.
Stephen E Arnold, January 13, 2017
Alphabet Google Sheds Letters
January 13, 2017
I read “Alphabet Said in Talks to Sell Skybox Satellite Business.” if true, believers in Alphabet Google’s ability to generate new ideas from acquisitions can embrace Loon balloons. According to the write up:
In June 2014, when Google acquired Skybox, the search giant said its equipment would help keep Google Maps accurate with up-to-date imagery. It also hoped to use the technology to improve internet access and disaster relief. The division operated within Google’s mapping business and it launched a small number of satellites, each about the size of a refrigerator. Alphabet seems to be switching from a strategy of developing its own satellite businesses to investing in other companies pursuing similar goals. The Skybox sale to Planet is an equity transaction, which means Alphabet will own a stake in the latter startup, according to some of the people familiar with the situation.
Net net according the the “real news” source:
Alphabet curbs plans for global internet satellite network.
Ah, Alphabet Google. After 15 years, one revenue stream. Let’s hope that one trick pony is keeping up with its vitamins.
Stephen E Arnold, January 13, 2016
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