Proprietary Software Cheats Users
November 16, 2017
Cory Doctorow is an outspoken defender of net neutrality, technology education, and user rights. He has written and spoken about these subjects and shares his opinion on BoingBoing. The science-fiction magazine Locus recently published one of his new essays,“Cory Doctorow: Demon-Haunted World.” Doctorow discusses how software can be programmed to take out the human factor of like and steer things in favor of corporations who want to gobble down dollars.
Cheating is a well-established enterprise that originated long before the digital revolution, but it is getting smarter as technology advances. While in the past it was cheating was more of a danger from outside forces, it is now nestled within the very things we own.
The software allows companies and literally anyone with the know how to cheat you out of money or precious time. Rather than cheat en masse, the cheating is coming to your home because it is so much easier to infiltrate the individual now. Even scarier is when he uses an alchemy metaphor, explaining how alchemists were cut-rate lab technicians who believed spirits, God, and demons influenced their experiments. The technology used for cheating has a similar demonic presence and that is not even the worst factor.
Doctorow pulls out his trump card when he explains how outdated technology laws from the 20th century still had standing today when it is more than obvious they need to be repealed:
What’s worse, 20th-century law puts its thumb on the scales for these 21st-century demons. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (1986) makes it a crime, with jail-time, to violate a company’s terms of service. Logging into a website under a fake ID to see if it behaves differently depending on who it is talking to is thus a potential felony, provided that doing so is banned in the small-print clickthrough agreement when you sign up.
Then there’s section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (1998), which makes it a felony to bypass the software controls access to a copyrighted work. Since all software is copyrightable, and since every smart gadget contains software, this allows manufacturers to threaten jail-terms for anyone who modifies their tractors to accept third-party carburetors (just add a software-based check to ensure that the part came from John Deere and not a rival), or changes their phone to accept an independent app store, or downloads some code to let them choose generic insulin for their implanted insulin pump.
Follow Doctorow’s advice, read, test, learn, and just combat ignorance.
Whitney Grace, November 16, 2017
Google Tries to Explain How to Make Another Google
November 15, 2017
Here’s the headline which snagged my attention: “How to Build the Next Google, According to a Google Executive.” In my three monographs about Google, I learned that Google was a result of several missteps and circumstances which Sergey Brin and Larry Page were able to seize upon. The exogenous factors I documented included:
- The Clever method which IBM did nothing to commercialize
- AltaVista’s unhappy campers who were looking for new gig
- Yahoo and other “search” services bumbling and portal craziness
- An understanding university
- A vision for making information accessible on Web servers to users with modest expectations for precision, recall, timeliness, etc.
Google was in the right place at the right time, and it was able to obtain some cash from a Silicon Valley money guru. The company’s efforts to sell itself were going nowhere until the bright idea for standing on the shoulders of GoTo, Overture, and Yahoo ignited the online ad money machine. The rest, after the 2004 settlement with Yahoo over an intellectual property issue, has become the success story MBAs love. Well, it was until Facebook came along.
The Fortune article disappointed me. The Google story was not complete in my opinion. The scalable business model referenced in the article was not Google’s. Google emulated the pay for play and perfected putting ads in front of people who used certain key words. As I stated, this was the GoTo (later Overture) revolution.
The write up reports:
The idea of changing the world isn’t at odds with making a buck, Felten (a Googler) said. In fact, the latter is usually necessary. “If you want to solve really large problems in the world, unless it’s a sustainable business, it probably won’t scale,” she said. “So, finding those things where there’s both profit and purpose is sort of our sweet spot.”
Too bad Fortune did not probe into the exogenous factors which allowed Google to generate billions. But in the world of business mythmaking and the “you can do it” advice sought by would be billionaires, cooking up tips which provide the path to success is okay.
By the way, after 20 years, what percentage of Google’s revenues come from the GoTo, Overture, Yahoo online advertising model? Look it up, gentle reader. That means that Google itself has not been able to move beyond the Steve Ballmer analysis of a “one trick pony.” High school science projects do not seem to become scalable businesses. I admit there may be some buyers for the solution to death. But that seems to be just out of reach like Loon balloons providing comprehensive mobile service to the island of Puerto Rico.
Note to Googlers and Xooglers: Put your comments in the comments section of this blog. Don’t email me unless you have read The Google Legacy, Google Version 2, and Google: The Digital Gutenberg. Just a modest request.
Stephen E Arnold, November 15, 2017
Dark Web Predator Awaits Sentencing
November 15, 2017
Here we have one of the darker corners of the Dark Web. A brief but disturbing article at the UK’s Birmingham Mail reports, “Birmingham University Academic Dr Matthew Falder Led Horrific Dark Web Double Life as ‘666devil’.” The 28-year-old academic in question has pled guilty to 137 charges, most if not all, it seems, of vile crimes against children. Reporter James Cartledge writes:
Since 2010, the geophysicist, who worked at Birmingham University till September, had degraded and humiliated more than 50 victims online using the names ‘666devil’ and ‘evilmind’. … He admitted the offences at a hearing at Birmingham Crown Court on Monday. He was arrested on June 21 this year and has been held in custody since that date. Falder, of Edgbaston, Birmingham, posed as a woman on sites such as Gumtree to trick his victims into sending him naked or partially-clothed images of themselves. The disgraced geophysicist then threatened to expose his victims if they did not send severe and depraved abuse images of themselves. He then distributed the images.
It gets worse from there. We’re told this is the first time the UK’s National Crime Agency had delved into the Dark Web’s hidden forums that share and discuss such “dark” material. Falder is scheduled to be sentenced on December 7 and shall remain in custody in the meantime.
Cynthia Murrell, November 15, 2017
Microsoft Does Not Make Renault Go Vroom Vroom
November 15, 2017
In the formula one racing world, Renault was performing poorly. Then Google stepped in, poured its artificial intelligence technology into Renault’s gas tanks, and bragged about how the formula one team is underperforming. In a PR blunder, The Register shares how Microsoft boasted about helping Renault in last place, “Microsoft’s AI Is So Good It Steered Renault Into Bottom Of The F1 League.”
We all know that Microsoft likes to be the best of the best and they like to brag about their success, but sometimes the company really needs to keep its mouth shut. Microsoft sang its own praises when it explained how they helped the Renault Formula 1 racing team achieve its current seventh-place standing. How did they help achieve this honor? By using none other than Azure Machine Learning, Stream Analytics, Dynamics 365, and other Microsoft software to bolster the racing team.
Renault said that being seventh is “pole position in our world.” They employ Microsoft’s technology to analyze data from thousands of sensor channels and to analyze vehicle performance.
The idea, says Microsoft, is to use the machine learning to perform calculations and analysis that would otherwise take up the time of a team of engineers.
Additionally, the Windows giant says the Renault design team is using its HoloLens augmented reality platform to study and improve car and engine designs – something that d’Imbleval sees not only more successful Formula One teams, but also the fans themselves, taking up in the coming years.
The article then explains that in the future fans will be able to wear HoloLens and have access to the same data as the drivers. Interesting thought, but Nascar is already doing something similar. Also bragging about the seventh place is not the best way to upset your software Microsoft.
Whitney Grace, November 15, 2017
Spark: An Easy Way to Burn Through Big Data?
November 14, 2017
I read “What is Apache Spark? The Big Data Analytics Platform Explained.” Interesting approach. The publishing outfit IDC seized upon the idea that the Wikipedia entry for Spark was not making the open source project easy enough to understand. I know that Wikipedia is chock full of craziness, but the Spark write up in the free encyclopedia struck me as reasonably good as far as Wikipedia content goes. There are code samples, links, and statements which balance the wonderfulness of open source with the grim realities of fiddling with the goodies the community provides. If I were a college professor (which I most certainly am not!), I would caution my students about applying the tenants of recycling to their class assignments. Apparently the old fashioned ideas I have are irrelevant.
Let’s look at three points from the IDC “explainer” that I found intriguing:
Apache Spark is the leading platform for large-scale SQL, batch processing, stream processing, and machine learning
The statement seems to be factual. I would ask, from my shack in rural Kentucky, what is the source of data backing up this claim. I hate to rain on everyone’s parade, but I was under the impression that the numero uno tool for wrestling with data was Excel. There are some software solutions which are popular among the crunching crowd; for example, the much loved SAS and SPSS systems. And there are others. Many others.
A second interesting statement warranted a blue circle on my printed copy of the article:
The second advantage is the developer-friendly Spark API. As important as Spark’s speed-up is, one could argue that the friendliness of the Spark API is even more important.
If I understand the title, the write up is about making Spark easy. The explanation of “easy” is to use the “developer friendly Spark AI.” Easy means friendly. Hmmm.
The third statement I noted was:
By providing bindings to popular languages for data analysis like Python and R, as well as the more enterprise-friendly Java and Scala, Apache Spark allows everybody from application developers to data scientists to harness its scalability and speed in an accessible manner.
It seems that “easy” means that one needs knowledge of specific programming languages. Yep, easy. For “everybody” too.
What a simple thing is Spark! I will stick with Wikipedia. Maybe IDC should too?
Stephen E Arnold, November 14, 2017
A Collection of Statistics on Chatbot Usage
November 14, 2017
As chatbots become increasingly common, businesses are naturally wondering how to make the most of them. Writer Josiah Motley at The Next Web has assembled user statistics from several sources and reports, “Chatbots Are Here to Stay, What the Data Is Telling Us About the People that Use Them.” He writes:
We know businesses are loving them thanks to better service times for customers and for certain problems to be solved automatically without the need for a (paid) human to jump in, but what about other statistics and interesting facts revolving around chatbots? Are people happy with them? Do they prefer a chatty AI or do they just want to cut to the chase? All of these are questions that will need to be asked when deciding if a chatbot is right for your business, so of course, there are companies out there that are breaking out the customer surveys and figuring out what people are liking, where they’re getting the most use, and a plethora of other random information about them.
The first bit of information Motley shares is how users are liking their chatbot experiences. Nearly half of the respondents to a survey from LivePerson had not had enough such chats to say, while 38% felt good about them and 11% were displeased. That survey also examined what respondents have been using chatbots for—67% had used one for customer service in the previous year, but just 14% for productivity. Then there are several usage trends sorted by US state, including most profanity used—see the write-up for those details (complete with bar graphs.) Motley insists that chatbots are becoming an indispensable part of a business, and each organization must now decide how best to use them to reach its own particular goals.
Cynthia Murrell, November 14, 2017
Even Genius Kids Need Teachers
November 14, 2017
Geniuses are supposed to have the innate ability to quickly learn and apply information without being taught. It is almost like magic what they can do, but even with their awe-inspiring intellects, geniuses need their own mentors. The Independent wrote about a study that proved geniuses need guidance, “Psychologists Studies 5000 Genius Kids For 45 Years-Here Are Their 6 Takeaways.”
Started in 1971, the “Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth” (SMPY) followed 5000 American children with intelligence measured in the 0.01%, 0.1%, and 1% of all students. The study’s facilitators learned that the children led extraordinary lives that ranged from them being patent holders, they earned doctorates or graduate degrees, and are in the top 5% of income earners. One problem is that these children were often ignored by their teachers because they were already meeting their potential. Teachers had to spend more time helping lower students achieve their academic requirements.
They also learned that skipping a grade can help and intelligence is varied. The latter means that intelligence cannot be prepackaged, one size fits all, instead, it comes in different forms. Also despite how much they are loathed, standardized tests do have some predictive ability to measure genius kids success in life. Perhaps the most interesting factoid is something that is taught in business classes, mindfulness, and other life coaching strategies:
The psychologist Carol Dweck has found that successful people tend to keep what’s known as a “growth mindset” as opposed to a “fixed mindset.” They view themselves as fluid, changing beings that can adapt and grow — they are not static.
SMPY agrees with that assessment, but it also has found that the earliest signs of cognitive ability in kids can predict how well they’ll do later in life, ignoring all the practice that may or may not come in between.
Genius kids are valuable as individuals and their intellect can help the world, but the bigger problem is trying to find ways to help them achieve when the rest of the world is trying to catch up.
Whitney Grace, November 14, 2017
Google Comes with an Olive Branch Because It Is Happy with What It Has and Publishers Should Be Happy Too
November 13, 2017
I read two Google items this morning (November 13, 2017). I found each interesting and useful in plotting Google’s evolution from Backrub to the behemoth it has become by selling ads.
The first item is “Google X’s Chief Business Officer Says You Can Achieve Happiness by Following One Simple Rule.” No, the rule does not mean that one does not reveal whether Google’s super secret Deep Mind is working with the GOOG’s own skunk works. The rule is, if the write up is accurate, “If you really start to appreciate what you have in your life, happiness becomes a much easier task to achieve.”
That’s good to know. I am confident that the people living in vans in Palo Alto are going to enjoy getting cleaned up at the McDonald’s much more. Hey, you can also have an Egg McMuffin after one’s morning ablutions.
The other article is “Google UK Chief Ronan Harris Says Digital Giant Is Not Stealing Advertising from Publishers Telling Editors: We Come in Peace.” I highlighted this passage from the story. The Googler is one Ronan Harris, who is in charge of Google in the UK:
“Every year we share billions of pounds in revenue with publishers globally. We also drove more than 10 billion clicks a month to publisher websites — for free — from Google Search and Google News.
He allegedly added:
And as more and more people interact with news in different ways, we need to take advantage of new digital tools and capabilities to develop new experiences and sustainable business models. “We’re eager to partner with you to create them. To work with you to tackle the challenges head on, because having a healthy media ecosystem is crucial to your business, to ours and to society.
Yep, Google comes in peace to those who have spent 40 days and nights wandering in the wilderness. Let’s party, friends!
Stephen E Arnold, November 13, 2017
Searx: Another Privacy Oriented Web Search System
November 13, 2017
There are a number of privacy oriented Web search systems. If you want to poke around, try the quirky Unbubble or give Gibiru a whirl. I noted another entrant called Searx. There are some important differences. Searx is a system which takes a page from peer to peer access systems. You host it yourself. The system is a metasearch engine like Ixquick (Startpage). This means that the user’s query is converted to the query syntax used by search systems like Bing.com. The results are merged and a results list displayed. Deduplication is a slippery fish. You will need to scan the results and run through the familiar, but much maligned procedure of scan, click, browse, and save the Web page with the information you want. If you are like a millennial, you will take the first result because everything on the Web is true.
Stephen E Arnold, November 13, 2017
AI Changes Power Delivery
November 13, 2017
Artificial intelligence has already changed the way our lives progress daily, and will continue to do so the more advances are made in that field. What is amazing is how AI concepts can be applied to nearly every industry in the world and T&D World takes a look at how it has affected the power grid, “Artificial Intelligence Is Changing The Power-Delivery Grid.” The author introduces the article explaining how he has noticed that when people say Thomas Edison would be familiar with today’s modern innovations and how it is a put down to the industry.
In truth, Edison would be hard pressed to rationalize today’s real-time mechanics and AI structure. AI is an important development in all fields from medical to finance, but it plays an important role in the modern power grid:
Some of us call situational awareness technology machine learning, but most of us use the more common term of artificial intelligence (AI). AI is being used on the grid right now and it is more widespread than you might think. Case in point: In June, the U.S. Department of Energy held its 2017 Transmission Reliability Program in Washington, D.C., and there were several AI presentations. The presentation that caught my attention was about using advanced machine learning with synchrophasor technology. Synchrophasor technology generates a great deal of data using phasor measurement units (PMUs) to measure voltage and current of the grid, which can be used to calculate parameters such as frequency and phase angle.
Edison would not feel at home, instead, he would want to get his toolset and tear the power grid apart to figure out how it worked. Geniuses may be ahead of their time, but they still are products of their own.
Whitney Grace, November 13, 2017
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