A Handy Collection of References on AI Topics
October 24, 2017
Ever wish there were a centralized resource with all you need to know about AI, clearly presented? If so, check out the “Cheat Sheets for AI, Neural Networks, Machine Learning, Deep Learning & Big Data” at Becoming Human. Chatbot pro-Stefan Kojouharov shares his selections of graphic aids and includes a summary list of links at the end. He briefly introduces his assemblage:
Over the past few months, I have been collecting AI cheat sheets. From time to time I share them with friends and colleagues and recently I have been getting asked a lot, so I decided to organize and share the entire collection. To make things more interesting and give context, I added descriptions and/or excerpts for each major topic. This is the most complete list and the Big-O is at the very end, enjoy…
The offerings begin with illustrations of neural networks and machine learning in general, then progress to detailed information on relevant software, like Python for Data Science and TensorFlow, and topics like data wrangling and data visualization. As promised, graphics on Big-O notation conclude the presentation. This is a page to bookmark; it could save some time hunting for the right resource down the line, if not today.
Cynthia Murrell, October 24, 2017
Uber vs DC Subway: Fancy Math but No Fires
October 23, 2017
I know I am supposed to focus on search and online content processing. But when I read “Metrorail vs Uber: Travel Time and Cost,” I decided to highlight this example of local government fancy math. The write up explains when it makes sense to take the DC subway usually referenced by those who live in Washington, DC as “the metro” and Uber.
The analysis uses graphs and logic to prove that the DC subway is the better bet for commuting. I noted this passage:
It is unclear how long Uber prices will remain this low. Several news outlets have reported that Uber subsidizes its rides with money from investors, meaning current fares might not reflect the full cost of a ride.
My take is that when prices go up, the DC subway is the better choice when moving around the throbbing heart of government.
But there are the fires, the breakdowns, and the complexity of the transfer bus system to delight the visitor from out of town and the long suffering Red Line riders trying to get from Shady Grove to Pentagon City.
Nifty illustration of what one can do with spare time and a somewhat superficial analysis. Now about those dead elevators or what I call the hassle factor? For added entertainment, watch a person from another country try to buy a ticket to ride the DC subway. Great fun!
Stephen E Arnold, October 23, 2017
Facebookand Publishing
October 23, 2017
Print publishing has slowly been circling the drain as revenue drops (at least depending on what type of publishing you are in). Some publishers have tried going totally digital, hoping that online subscriptions and ads would pay the bills, but Google and Facebook are siphoning off the source. The Next Web shares more of how publishers are struggling in the article, “Publishers Need To Learn From Mega Platforms Like Facebook.”
Like many smart companies, publishers have joined social media and hoped to build their brand image on them. Publishers, however, have learned that Facebook and other social media platforms keep changing their requirements. The article compares it to a type of Darwinian survival of the fittest. The publishing companies with deep pockets are surviving by investments and smart digital upgrades.
Jeff Bezos is used as an example because he has turned video streaming as one of Amazon’s main profit generators. The suggestion is that publishers follow suit with video and then live video streams. The comments sections in these videos create an ongoing dialogue with viewers (while at the same time allowing trolls). It turns out that commoditized content on social media is not the way to go.
Publishers need to instead concentrate on building their own platform apparently:
This is the perfect time for publishers to take control of their platforms and the video streams that will drive the next phase of the digital content revolution. With advances in live video programming and the speed with which original content can be created, publishers can greatly enhance what they already do and know, and monetize it through changes in advertising models that fuel online media platforms as well as live-streaming video platforms.
The Internet is more than video, however. Podcasts and articles are still viable content too. It might be time to double think your career if you are a social media manager.
Whitney Grace, October 23, 2017
HP Enterprise Spins Software Division into Micro Focus International
October 23, 2017
It would seem that the saga of HP’s lamented 2011 Autonomy acquisition is now complete—Reuters announces, “Hewlett Packard Enterprise to Complete Software Spin-Off.” Reporter Salvador Rodriguez explains:
The enterprise software businesses, which include the widely used ArcSight security platform, have been merged with Micro Focus International Plc (MCRO.L), a British software company. HPE was formed when the company once known as Hewlett-Packard split into HPE and HP Inc in November 2015.
The spin-off comes as HPE adjusts to the rapid shift of corporate computing to cloud services offered by the likes of Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) and Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O). HPE aims to cater specifically to customers running services both on their own premises and in the cloud, said Ric Lewis, senior vice president of HPE’s cloud software group, in an interview.
The spin-off marks the end of HP’s unhappy tangle with Autonomy, which it acquired for $11 billion in an aborted effort to transform HP into an enterprise software leader. The ink was barely dry on the much-criticized deal when the company took an $8.8 billion writedown on it.
But wait, the story is not over quite yet—the legal case that began when HP sued Autonomy ’s chief officers continues. Apparently, that denouement is now HPE’s to handle. As for Micro Focus, Rodriguez reports it will now be run by former HPE Chief Operating Officer Chris Hsu, who plans to focus on growth through acquisitions. Wait… wasn’t that what started this trouble in the first place?
Cynthia Murrell, October 23, 2017
Quote to Note: The Dark Web and Its Uses
October 20, 2017
I read “Everything You Need to Know about…the Dark Web (but May Have Been Afraid to Ask!)” The article references research by Terbium Labs, a company profiled in my monograph “Dark Web Notebook.”
Here’s the quote to note:
Research by Terbium Labs suggests that less than half of activity on the dark web is illegal or nefarious. “Anonymity does not equate criminality, merely a desire for privacy,”
Stephen E Arnold, October 20, 2017
Google: Doing Better with Mini Cupcakes
October 20, 2017
In Harrod’s Creek, mini cupcakes make mouths water. In fact, Little Debbie snacks and the nutritious Twinkies provide the ideal post work out reward. Heck, breakfast would not be complete without a package or two of cream filled, artificially flavored Ding Dongs.
Imagine my surprise when I read “Google Removes Maps Feature Showing Calories and Mini-Cupcakes after Huge Online Backlash.” Google was using icons of mini cupcakes to communicate the energy required to walk to the local shot house or boot leg transfer point.
I learned:
With the test update, which also showed you how many mini cupcakes (!) you’d burn if you walked instead of drove, Google probably wanted to motivate people to be more healthy. It got the opposite reaction. While other navigation apps like Citymapper, which is incredibly popular in the UK, already have a calorie-counting feature, the pink-coloured mini cupcakes really upset people online who saw it as perpetrating fat-shaming culture, particularly of women…
Google wants to do better. The company finally adopts the mini cupcake and social media mavens flag off this feature. Google you can do better by doing exactly what you want.
Bring back the mini cupcake. Add moon pies and RC colas. Where’s that confidence of the salad days in 2002?
Stephen E Arnold, October 20, 2017
Wave of Fake News Is Proving a Boon for the Need for Humans in Tech
October 20, 2017
We are often the first to praise the ingenious algorithms and tools that utilize big data and search muscle for good. But we are also one of the first to admit when things need to be scaled back a bit. The current news climate makes a perfect argument for that, as we discovered in a fascinating Yahoo! Finance piece, “Fake News is Still Here, Despite Efforts by Google and Facebook.”
The article lays out all the failed ways that search giants like Google and social media outlets like Facebook have failed to stop the flood of fake news. Despite the world’s sharpest algorithms and computer programs, they can’t seem to curb the onslaught of odd news.
The article wisely points out that it is not a computer problem anymore, but, instead, a human one. The solution is proving to be deceptively simple: human interaction.
Facebook said last week that it would hire an extra 1,000 people to help vet ads after it found a Russian agency bought ads meant to influence last year’s election. It’s also subjecting potentially sensitive ads , including political messages, to ‘human review.’
In July, Google revamped guidelines for human workers who help rate search results in order to limit misleading and offensive material. Earlier this year, Google also allowed users to flag so-called ‘featured snippets’ and ‘autocomplete’ suggestions if they found the content harmful.
Bravo, we say. There is a limit to what high powered search and big data can do. Sometimes it feels as if those horizons are limitless, but there is still a home for humans and that is a good thing. A balance of big data and beating human hearts seems like the best way to solve the fake news problem and perhaps many others out there.
Patrick Roland, October 20, 2017
Bing Gains on Google in Desktop Search
October 20, 2017
Many were skeptical that Bing could make any inroads into Google’s market, but now TechRadar reports, “Bing Search Has Taken Over a Surprising Amount of Google’s Turf.” Citing comScore’s figures for desktop PC searches made this past March, writer Darren Allan tells us that, in the US, one out of three desktop searches used Bing and in the UK, one out of four did. Globally, Bing’s market share is 9%, a figure that includes Microsoft-powered Yahoo and AOL searches. What is behind Bing’s unforeseen success? Allan reflects:
The spread of Windows 10 is the primary factor, with Microsoft’s newest OS maintaining a steady rate of growth as time goes on, as we saw with the latest figures on that front yesterday. Windows 10 is fronted – quite literally, from setup onwards – by Cortana, and searches conducted via the digital assistant are powered by Bing. As Windows 10 continues to gather pace, and more folks begin to use Cortana on the desktop, naturally more searches will come Bing’s way. And to some extent, Google getting flak for anti-competitive practices in Europe, as seen last month when the search giant was hit by a massive fine for favoring its own shopping services in results, isn’t likely to hurt Bing’s prospects either. We’ve certainly had several non-techie friends hear anti-Google news hitting the headlines, prompting them to think about using alternatives. This search might lead folks to Bing’s door. And finally, the fact that Microsoft will now pay you to use Bing could tempt some folks, as well.
Yes, Microsoft Rewards is bribing users to make the switch. I suppose every incentive helps. Will such tactics, along with Windows’ dominant desktop position and Google’s reputation problem, continue to support Bing’s rise in the search market? Stay tuned.
Cynthia Murrell, October 20, 2017
Online Fraud: Loophole, Soft Freeze, Hard Freeze, or Just Business in 2017?
October 19, 2017
Consumer Alert: A credit freeze may not do what one expects.
After the Equifax data loss, I promptly put a credit freeze on my unwanted “credit rating” accounts.
As you know, a consumer (even one who writes books about online fraud and lectures to law enforcement and intelligence professionals) has zero choice with regard to dealing with Equifax, Transunion, and Experian. I thought the credit freeze meant that my personal financial information would not be released to third parties.
I learned from a cheerful person named Kelly Lurz, who presumed to write me a personal and confidential email, that there is a “hard” freeze of credit information and a “soft” freeze of credit information. I did not know that. In fact, after freezing the release of my credit details, none of the documentation I received from Equifax, Transunion, and Experian used this terminology. Quite an oversight in light of the security issues related to personal credit information.
Let me share the personal email with you, gentle reader. I received this email from an outfit doing business as Pearl Solutions, an automotive technology innovator. You can find out about this marketing company at this link. Kelly Lurz does not work at Pearl. She did know enough to tell me that she was not the sender of the “personal” email to my business email address. She was, in retrospect, quite a font of information with the hard and soft freeze data and the ability to shift the blame to an outfit named Pearl, the automotive technology innovator.
First, the email has as Volvo logo. My last interaction with the Volvo dealer in Louisville was an unpleasant one, a fact I communicated when I received a $900 invoice for an annual service check. The Volvo dealer just smiled and said, “That’s what it costs.” Now this outfit wants to buy or lease another Volvo? I don’t think so.
Second, the email is sending me a “personal” note and wants to make a “private” offer. In this era of online fraud, fake news, and general duplicity—I am going to get a personal note sent to me from noreply@pearlsolutions.com. What? Personal, private, pearl? This hit me like those Backpage.com ad for personal services we have analyzed in the course of our research for CyberOSINT and the Dark Web Notebook.
Third, the letter is signed by the aforementioned “Kelly Lurz.” I called Ms. Lurz, and she informed me that I was on a list, the letter really was not “personal,” was not “private”, and was nothing more than a pitch to dump my 18 month old automobile and move into a brand new Volvo. Well, a letter using the terms “personal” and “private” from a person named Kelly Lurz (a female, by the way, judging from her voice and LinkedIn page) struck me as stupid and perilously close to harassment of a 74 year old male who is quite happy with his automobile.
Fourth—and this is the big issue, even bigger than harassment-type terminology—is the logo of Experian, one of the credit agencies whose data I froze by providing proof of my identity and paying money for the aggregator to keep my information private. (I did not choose to give Experian my information; Experian collected the information and now charges me to keep it private. Nice business model because of the hard and soft freeze distinction.) Obviously the PIN number, the information about paying money to make my credit information available, and the new approach to security were confections, mere fabrications, digital illusions designed to create a new cash stream for the credit agencies.
Let me come back to Ms. Lurz’s explanation of the “hard freeze” and a “soft freeze.” Her company, a car dealer in Louisville, was using the “soft freeze” data and was, therefore, breaking no laws. Her LinkedIn profile suggests that she has a degree in elementary education, not law. She also has a degree in biology. That’s interesting, but not directly germane to understanding the bright white lines of financial regulations. I guess I am old fashioned but dissecting a frog falls short of the standard for interpretation of statutes.
With some forcefulness in her verbal statements to me, she told me that she knew I had a Mercedes and only “wanted to offer me an opportunity” to buy a new Volvo. Right, but she knew my business email, my financial status, the type of vehicle my wife drives, and where I lived. Right. A soft freeze.
But the email was Pearl’s not hers and not the Louisville Volvo dealership. As a direct result of here unwillingness to accept responsibility for using my personal information to sell me a car I do not want, I poked into Pearl, the automotive technology innovator. (I liked that catchphrase for a company engaged in the use of personal information to sell cars.)
I called the 800 number of Pearl, the automotive technology innovator, and went to a voice recording. I left a message with whoever the operator connected me to to the effect that I was going to write about this use of personal informati0n and include the email in my next lecture to law enforcement and intelligence professionals. The reason is that the confidential information about me is in the possession of: Volvo (see the letter), Kelly Lurz (sales person), Pearl, and Experian. So much for control.
At 640 pm Eastern on October 17, 2017, I received a phone call from an alleged Pearl employee. I pointed out that I was eating dinner. The Pearl professional sounded eager to speak with me, so I left the dinner group and spoke with the Pearl professional who represented the innovator in automotive technology. On a napkin, I noted these points conveyed by the Pearl professional:
- What Pearl is doing with financial data is legal. Furthermore, the Pearl professional promised to mail me the pertinent regulations. (Yes, Pearl has access to my email, but the promised information has not arrived.)
- The Pearl professional told me that I should really be talking to Experian because Pearl was not responsible for the information in the email.
- The Pearl professional told me that Ms. Lurz did not have access to information about the type of vehicle I had nor how I was paying for that vehicle. Unfortunately for the Pearl professional, Ms. Lurz did have that information. The possible falsehood caught my attention.
- The Pearl professional insisted that somewhere along the line I had provided permission for Pearl and Ms. Lurz to contact me.
Upon reflecting about this situation, I formulated several observations:
First, the “freeze” appears to mean nothing. Zilch. The credit entities release data of individuals who have taken the steps to “freeze” data and then ignore that request. I will include this information in my next law enforcement lecture when I address online identity theft.
Second, the email letter references two companies and one individual who is writing me a private and personal letter. I find this a quick way to increase online security vulnerabilities. Experian releases the data, Pearl converts it to direct mail spam, and Ms. Lurz has her name and contact information included in a personal and private communication. Good business practice or security nightmare? My view is that it is a security problem and an illustration of poor business judgment.
Third, the no replay email does little to create the impression that Pearl, the automotive technology innovator, is a legitimate operation. We have been examining the email addresses used by Dark Web vendors. The similarities of multiple identities, the obfuscation of the email, and the effort taken to mask the identity of who uses private information jumped out at us.
Fourth, Pearl and Ms. Lurz are not signing from the same hymnal. Doesn’t this suggest a certain looseness with the facts? The one thing the two humans had in common was an eagerness to blame someone else. Now that’s accepting responsibility for one’s action handled the millennial way!
What’s the fix?
I suggest that others take a closer look at the business practices of outfits like Volvo, Pearl, and the hapless Ms. Lurz. I don’t think she really wants to have a private and personal relationship with me even thought she wrote to me in that offensive manner.
What’s clear is that what these players are delivering are ersatz pearls. Sad. Sad. Sad. Too bad I take things “personal” and “private” to heart. Others don’t. Therefore, this sad, sad, sad business anecdote.
Stephen E Arnold, October 19, 2017
IBM Watson: A Fashionista Never Says Sorry
October 19, 2017
I haven’t paid much attention to IBM Watson since the popular media began poking holes in IBM’s marketing assertions. However, I feel compelled to highlight the information in “Presenting Intelligent Fashion: IBM’s Watson and Vogue Unveil the World’s First AI Inspired Saree.” There’s nothing quite like versatile software able to treat cancer and whip up a saree.
Here’s the passage that I found amusing:
Findability Sciences, an IBM ecosystem partner, used Watson’s Visual Recognition API to extract specific context around patterns and colors that were most dominant. Aura Gupta used this data via a custom-built IBM application, to design a never-before-seen saree-gown that was worn by the event’s MC and Emmy Award winning actress, Archie Panjabi. The designs embodied the achievements of every woman and two men, yet were unique to each individual winner.
Quite a case example.
Stephen E Arnold, October 19, 2017
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