The Library: A Survival Tool
May 23, 2018
Hundreds of movies and books depict what will happen during and after the zombie apocalypse, a mass technology failure, the next mass extinction, a virus pandemic, environmental collapse, and/or a nuclear fallout. Here is a spoiler: most of the population dies.
The survivors are left in a barely recognizable world and despite all of humanity’s knowledge, what use is it if it is only digital?
Survivor Library or How To Survive When Technology Doesn’t is a knowledge repository for when the world becomes dystopian. The information in the Survivor Library includes information on building a telegraph system, farming, engineering, wagon building, medicine, and even Christmas. I bet the people in Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead wish they had this library, except it does not include information on killing zombies.
There will probably come a time when everyone is going to be reading digital books over the paper copies. That does not mean that paper copies are useless. This type of knowledge still has practical applications and needs to be taught…at least more practical skills need to be taught in schools. All of the information in the Survivor Library is in the public domain and comes from knowledge circa the early 1900s and earlier.
“As the library has grown over time we’ve tried to cover both the simplest, more basic self sufficiency skills such as growing food and raising livestock through the most advanced and sophisticated technology of the time such as aeroplanes and communications systems like telephone and telegraph.
Where there books on Industrial processes, methods, formulas, techniques we included those as well. Even the more advanced technologies of the periods are within the reach of people starting from scratch. Steam engines may seem primitive to most modern people but they powered the industrial revolution in much of the world well into the 1900s. Basic knowledge of chemical formulas and processes are recorded in books from these periods ranging from the most basic industrial chemical needs through household materials in common use.”
It will probably be more useful than the stuff Ash used in the Evil Dead movie.
Here is how the Survivor Library archives: PDFs that can be easily stored and printed. I love PDFs, the only problem with using them when society has collapsed is finding a machine and/or printer to read them.
Whitney Grace, May 23, 2018
DarkCyber for May 22, 2018, Now Available
May 22, 2018
The May 22, 2018 DarkCyber is now available at www.arnoldit.com/wordpress and on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/270993972
This week’s story line up includes … Russia increases the pressure on encrypted services… The end of Webstresser’s denial of service system… Tangem’s “just like paper money” Bitcoin bank notes… and scammers cultivate Orchid Labs with a fake initial coin offering.
Stephen E Arnold’s DarkCyber is a weekly video news and analysis program about the Dark Web and lesser known Internet services.
Russia wants access to messages and online sessions conducted within its borders. The government has now taken steps to outlaw virtual private networks unless special conditions are met. The move to block VPNs follows the country’s blocking of encrypted messaging services. Although VPNs lead data, time and technical resources are required to make sense of the data flowing through a VPN. A ban or tight restrictions will allow authorities to access content and monitor activity more easily. As censorship and clamp downs increase, innovators will try to find ways to circumvent government barriers.
Crime as a service (CaaS) has become a popular way to generate revenue among some bad actors. A vendor doing business as Webstresser has been shut down by government authorities in the UK. The service was allegedly used to prevent certain online sites from serving their users. Among those organization affected by Webstresser’s ability to flood a targeted Web site with bogus traffic were several banks in England. Nevertheless, CaaS vendors continue to make their technology available via the Dark Web and other obfuscated services.
The third story highlights what amount to Bitcoin bank notes. Tangem has created a physical bank note which can be used a currency without having to go online and use a digital wallet. The breakthrough appears to be a low-cost, highly functional chip which is embedded in the physical bank note. Merchants can verify that the account has a positive balance using a mobile phone. The first trial of the Bitcoin bank note will be in Singapore with other locations to be announced in the near future. Stephen E Arnold said, “A physical form of Bitcoin may facilitate easier use of digital currency. Despite the technical innovations incorporated in the Tangem bank note, convenience will come at a price. Bad actors will find physical Bitcoin notes useful in illegal transactions because the anonymity of the transaction and the lack of regulation opens the door to unlawful commerce, money laundering, and purchases of contraband.”
The final story reveals that Orchid Labs, a developer of high-security technology, has been the target of a scam. Bad actors have created a bogus initial coin offering (ICO). However, the digital currency does not benefit Orchid Labs. The funds flow to the bad actors. In May 2018, Orchid Labs wrote individuals on the company’s mailing list in order to explain the same.
A special report about one of the DarkCyber’s most interesting research findings will be released on June 5, 2018.
Kenny Toth, May 22, 2018
Google Magnetism Weakening? High Profile Wizard Allegedly Sidesteps Job Offer
May 22, 2018
Who knows if this “real” news item from a crypto currency online service in India is accurate? I find it interesting because it adds another straw to the pile on Googzilla’s back.
The write up is called “Google Tries Hiring Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin and Fails.” Now Ethereum may not be a big deal in Harrod’s Creek and similar rust belt cities. Amazon sort of has a thing for Ethereum. And despite the chatter about deanonymizing some of the blockchain-centric services, Ethereum continues to generate interest in its “platform.”
The write up states:
Search Engine giant Google tried hiring Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin to work for them. Buterin posted a screenshot of the mail he received from Google on twitter, asking his followers if he should take their offer.
The “offer” was made via a Tweet. I love that type of approach. Very trendy.
The write up adds:
Like most Silicon Valley startups, Google has also been exploring Blockchain for the past few months. In March, Google revealed that they were working on two different Blockchain products; a tamper-proof auditing system and a cloud operations platform. The recruiter may have reached out to Buterin for these projects or any upcoming unannounced projects.
Google does not allow crypto currency ads. However, the Google may have been monitoring some of the actions of super successful company and realized that the train is leaving the station.
Several observations:
- Google appears to be going for a home run play if we assume the information in the write up is accurate
- Google may be in a position which it finds uncomfortable: Back in the pack when it comes to the platformization of blockchain centric innovation
- Google may be losing its magnetism which once pulled wizards to the land of pay to play search.
Fascinating piece of possibly semi accurate, possibly real Twitter delivered information. Communicating by tweet is the new thing I assume.
Stephen E Arnold, May 22, 2018
Vendors Serving the eDiscovery Sector Get a Boost
May 22, 2018
Online forensics and eDiscovery are in a state of serious change. Many people are unaware of the federal changes that occurred in this world, but those in the industry are struggling to catch up. We discovered what the most recent change means in an eDiscovery Law and Tech Blog story, “A Rule 902(14) Process of Digital Authentication of Social Media Evidence Explained.”
According to the story:
“FRE 902(14) provides that electronic data recovered ‘by a process of digital identification’ is to be self-authenticating, thereby not routinely necessitating the trial testimony of a forensic or technical expert where best practices are employed. Instead, such properly collected electronic evidence can be certified through a written declaration by a ‘qualified person,’ attesting that they verified the hash value of an offered item of electronic evidence and that it was identical to the original.”
Consider the terabytes of data that is saved on social media, blogs, websites and all the other nooks and crannies online. It’s such a big terrain that attorneys and others needing to utilize eDiscovery simply can’t navigate it. This is the dawn of a new business model, according to some experts, like PageVault which is a “provider of web capture solutions, offers in-house software and vendor services to easily capture, preserve and authenticate web content such as webpages, websites, social media, videos, images, and documents.” Seems like wherever the federal government creates a door, ingenuity creates a window.
Patrick Roland, May 22, 2018
The Guardian Reveals That Big Tech Yields Useless Products
May 21, 2018
I don’t want to be a Luddite, but it seems to me that autonomous drones carrying interesting payloads are often darned helpful. The value of the big tech which gets these puppies aloft and in theater can be questioned when the person asking the questions is sitting at a laptop in an urban center thinking big thoughts. I would suggest that if that urban beastie were under fire in a slightly less refined environment and needed a bit of air cover to make an escape from a free fire zone, the big tech in the form of a MQ-1L Predator attack drone with AGM 114 K2 Hellfire Missiles would be somewhat useful. Mostly.
My hunch is that the British newspaper disseminating real news in “Ignore the Hype Over Big Tech. Its Products Are Mostly Useless” has a keen desire to poke sticks in the eye of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Netflix, and probably other outfits. Why not toss in Palantir Technologies too? Oh, don’t forget Darktrace.
The main point of the write up struck me as:
In fact, might Duplex be a grim portal into a future in which high-flyers get digital “assistants” to do their chores, while poorly paid people have to meekly talk to computers, in constant fear that they are about to be automated into joblessness?
I like this notion of reworking a two tier society so those in the lower tier could perform jobs like booking a haircut.
The target here is Google and its demo of its artificial intelligence wizardry. Some of this magic is performed in the UK by DeepMind.
Google is now a couple of decades into its search based businesses.
Several questions occur to me:
- Where was the Guardian and other “real” news outfits in the pre IPO phase of Google when Yahoo took Google to task for finding inspiration in GoTo.com, Overture.com, and Yahoo’s “pay to play” models?
- Where have newspapers been for the last two decades as companies finding revenue streams different from print and classified display advertising on paper?
- With the insight of a skilled editorial staff and the ability to generate information, why haven’t those professionals been able to communicate the risk of taking “free lunches” every day for two decades?
Net net: The train has left the station. The “woke” folks are already at the airport with their digital assistants in their pocket and the beach on their mind.
Stephen E Arnold, May 21, 2018
Bing Keeps on Trying
May 21, 2018
Ah, Bing.
Microsoft has struggled to garner the respect in the search engine world that its software has commanded.
Bing is often seen as the Avis to Google’s Hertz. Maybe a stepchild of the search game patriarchs, Sergey and Larry.
Microsoft is not blind to these views, which is resulting in some interesting innovations to close the gap between it and Google. We learned about these steps from a recent TechRadar story, “Microsoft Unveils New Features for Bing in Bid to Make You Switch from Google.”
The biggest upgrade? The fact that Bing now gives you an “Intelligent Answer” and not just the one that ranks first. It seems like a good move, which the article highlights:
“We’re pleased to see Microsoft attempt to win over users by adding more features (which you can read about more on the Bing blog), rather than trying to strong-arm people who use Windows 10 into using the search engine, but will this be enough to make people switch?”
We’re going to go out on a (not very long) limb and suggest, no. This isn’t enough to make people switch. That’s especially true when we see news like this, that claims that Google’s Assistant is the most accurate. Looks like the game board is shifting beneath Microsoft’s feet as they try to catch up. How does one find information available on the Internet?
One doesn’t without recourse to commercial systems from vendors with low or zero profile among consumers. Money is required to find relevant information. Free stuff returns what earns money to pay for the “free lunch.”
Patrick Roland, May 21, 2018
AI: Risky? Nah, Works Great
May 21, 2018
One purpose of science fiction books is to highlight potential risks that can develop from technology. Evil robot overlords are scary, but what is even scarier is the unseen cyber criminal that can track and manipulate everything within the Internet. Science fiction authors have toyed with this idea for decades, but Phys.org shares that this now our reality. The article “DeepMind Boss Admits ‘Risks’ Of AI” has the scary details.
The respected AI company DeepMind is part of Google’s empire and Demis Hassabis leads it. In the article, Hassabis discusses how AI is a tool with many benefits to humankind, but there are philosophical questions we need to answer in order to govern the systems. The philosophical questions concern ethics and how we want AI to affect our future. Hassabis said:
“In a question and answer session at University College London, he said AI is an ‘incredible tool to accelerate scientific discovery,’ adding: ‘We believe that it will be one of the most beneficial technologies of mankind ever.’ However, like other powerful technologies, “there are risks”, he said, adding: ‘It depends on how we as a society decide to deploy it that will resolve in good or bad outcomes.’”
The biggest thing we need to worry about are the unknown factors of the future. But with leaders who evoke trust and the well-being of everyone, why worry? Wait? Who said that? Al Capone?
Whitney Grace, May 21, 2018
Mobile Phone Usage Insights?
May 20, 2018
I read “Students Spend Four to Seven Hours on Phones, Check Them 150 Times a Day, Study Finds.” These types of reports interest me. “Students” refers to a sample drawn from 20 “central universities” (whatever that means) and 200 students. How were these “students” lured into interviews? Self selection, money, or the joy of having a chance to share their behaviors. These are behaviors, I wish to point out, already known to certain organizations monitoring mobile phone usage.
I highlighted several pieces of “real” data which I found interesting:
- The sample comes from India. How closely to these behavior patterns match the actions of a similar sample in Italy or the United States?
- The study included the word “hedonism.” That’s a great word and strikes me as one design
- 26 percent of those in the sample “use smartphones to make calls”
- 63 percent use a smartphone for four to seven hours each day
The point I found interesting, assuming that it is statistically valid, is that almost one fourth of those in the sample use a smartphone more than eight hours per day.
Perhaps a career as an eye doctor is one to consider?
Stephen E Arnold, May 20, 2018
IBM: Just When You Thought Crazy Stuff Was Dwindling
May 19, 2018
How has IBM marketing reacted to the company’s Watson and other assorted technologies? Consider IBM and quantum computing. That’s the next big thing, just as soon as the systems become scalable. And the problem of programming? No big deal. What about applications? Hey, what is this a reality roll call?
Answer: Yes, plus another example of IBM predicting the future.
Navigate to “IBM Warns of Instant Breaking of Encryption by Quantum Computers: ‘Move Your Data Today’.”
I like that “warning.” I like that “instant breaking of encryption.” I like that command: “Move your data today.”
Hogwash.
IBM’s quantum computing can solve encryption problems instantly. Can this technology wash this hog? The answer is that solving encryption instantly and cleaning this dirty beast remain highly improbably. To verify this hunch, let’s ask Watson.
The write up states with considerable aplomb:
“Anyone that wants to make sure that their data is protected for longer than 10 years should move to alternate forms of encryption now,” said Arvind Krishna, director of IBM Research.
So, let me get this straight. Quantum computing can break encryption instantly. I am supposed to move to an alternate form of encryption. But if encryption can be broken instantly, why bother?
That strikes me as a bit of the good old tautological reasoning which leads exactly to nowhere. Perhaps I don’t understand.
I learned:
The IBM Q is an attempt to build a commercial system, and IBM has allowed more than 80,000 developers run applications through a cloud-based interface. Not all types of applications will benefit from quantum computers. The best suited are problems that can be broken up into parallel processes. It requires different coding techniques. “We still don’t know which applications will be best to run on quantum computers,” Krishna said. “We need a lot of new algorithms.”
No kidding. Now we need numerical recipes, and researchers have to figure out what types of problems quantum computing can solve?
We have some dirty hogs in Harrod’s Creek, Kentucky. Perhaps IBM’s quantum cloud computing thing which needs algorithms can earn some extra money. You know that farmers in Kentucky pay pretty well for hog washing.
Stephen E Arnold, May 19, 2018
Cambridge Analytica Bankrupt: What Company Is Next on the Firing Line?
May 18, 2018
Cambridge Analytica has declared bankruptcy. What outfit is next to be pushed to center stage?
Facebook? Perhaps. The founder of Facebook has an opportunity to answer questions before England’s law makers soon. Very soon.
And Google?
Google could be in very hot water if a recent court filing is any indication. While it is not a shocker to know that YouTube and its parent Google are collecting data on users’ habits, it is a little unnerving to know that this extends to our children. We learned more from a recent AP News Archive story, “Child Advocates Ask FTC to Investigate YouTube.”
According to the story, the complaint points out that YouTube is targeting users under the age of 13 with their advertisements. The article points out that this is not much different from advertisers on a television cartoon series, except on difference.
“YouTube does so with a lot of data collection. Its business model relies on tracking IP addresses, search history, device identifiers, location and other personal data about its users so that it can gauge their interests and tailor advertising to them. But a 1998 federal law prohibits internet companies from knowingly collecting personal data from kids under 13 without their parents’ consent.”
Those are some interesting allegations. We don’t expect the heat to be turned down anytime soon. In fact, allegations involving actions which increase risks for children are hot potatoes.
Some critics are already saying the search giant’s data collection practices are more invasive than current public enemy number one, Facebook. Will a former Googler follow in Christopher Wylie’s colorful footsteps? Will a “real” news organization do a bit of old school investigative journalism? Will a savvy lawyer team with alleged “victims” and head for the US TV news outlets?
Interesting to watch.
Stephen E Arnold, May 18, 2018
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