Google: Back in the Games
August 17, 2018
Ten or 12 years ago, a person flipped through a presentation developed allegedly by a Google professional. The angle was that Google and Yahoo would team up for a video and online game business. As far as I know, the idea may have been a spoof. Given the history of Google and Yahoo, my thought was that “teaming up” might have been a non starter.
Flash forward to today.
Google’s limitless budget means it gets to invest in a lot of cool startups and ideas of its own. However, they have a real Babe Ruth batting average with this arm of its business—either they hit a homerun or strike out. This disturbing trend was covered in-depth in a Tech News World story, “Next Up, Game Consoles: Is There Anything Google Can’t Do Badly?”
According the story:
“Google’s latest effort is rumored to be a gaming system to compete with PlayStation and Xbox (but with streamed games). I expect it will end badly, largely because Google won’t want to expend the effort to make it successful and will lose interest within a brief period of time.”
If this ambitious jump to a new market goes as poorly as Google’s effort to break into the world of tablet computers. In case you need a reminder, it appears that the GOOG abandoned that effort. Will online games become a winner like Google Home?
Worth watching.
Patrick Roland, August 17, 2018
The Decentralized Web
August 16, 2018
The idea is a good one. The Web is not delivered from a handful of centralized companies. On the other hand, decentralization has not achieved the success many have predicted.
We read “What Do You Believe Now That You Didn’t Five Years Ago.” We also noted “Tron to Become the Google for Blockchain Industry? Taking Slow Steps to Achieve Its Aim to ‘Decentralize the Web’”. Both of these articles are interesting.
The “What Do You Believe” discussion makes a good point:
Today, servers aren’t even cattle, servers are insects connected over fast networks. Centralization is not only possible now, it’s economical, it’s practical, it’s controllable, it’s governable, it’s economies of scalable, it’s reliable, it’s walled gardenable, it’s monetizable, it’s affordable, it’s performance tunable, it’s scalable, it’s cacheable, it’s securable, it’s defensible, it’s brandable, it’s ownable, it’s right to be forgetable, it’s fast releasable, it’s debuggable, it’s auditable, it’s copyright checkable, it’s GDPRable, it’s safe for China searchable, it’s machine learnable, it’s monitorable, it’s spam filterable, it’s value addable.
If true, decentralization is unlikely because of one major “able”: Economical.
The “Tron” article makes this point:
Tron Foundation aims to use BlockChain.Org aims to observe and keep a track of all the information on social media, web, and other existing search engines. The information will be in all possible formats such as regular text, videos, pdf and other structured data.
Our question: Are these different visions or the same goal: A central point?
Stephen E Arnold, August 16, 2018
DuckDuck Go and Its View of Google
August 16, 2018
A post at the Search Engine Journal reproduces a series of tweets—“DuckDuckGo Blasts Google for Anti-Competitive Search Behavior,” they report. Writer Matt Southern introduces the captured tweets, noting that DuckDuckGo seems to have been prompted by the record $5 billion fine recently levied on Google by the EU for antitrust violations. Here’s what DuckDuckGo had to say about specific ways Googley practices have affected them:
“We welcome the EU cracking down on Google’s anti-competitive search behavior. We have felt its effects first hand for many years and has led directly to us having less market share on Android vs iOS and in general mobile vs desktop.
We noted:
“Up until just last year, it was impossible to add DuckDuckGo to Chrome on Android, and it is still impossible on Chrome on iOS. We are also not included in the default list of search options like we are in Safari, even though we are among the top search engines in many countries.
And this statement was interesting:
“The Google search widget is featured prominently on most Android builds and is impossible to change the search provider. For a long time it was also impossible to even remove this widget without installing a launcher that effectively changed the whole way the OS works. Their anti-competitive search behavior isn’t limited to Android. Every time we update our Chrome browser extension, all of our users are faced with an official-looking dialogue asking them if they’d like to revert their search settings and disable the entire extension.”
Google owns the domain Duck.com, which redirects to the Google home page and may confuse some DuckDuckGo users. Southern notes the privacy-centric search engine continues to dog Google on Twitter; for example, they recently called it a “myth” that users cannot be tracked when using (Google-owned) Chrome in Incognito mode and linked to a post that details why their process is far more effective at protecting user privacy. I suggest the curious navigate to that resource for the technical details.
BeyondSearch believes that DuckDuckGo is a metasearch system with some unique content. Depending on one’s point of view, there may be significant differences between DuckDuckGo and primary Web indexing systems like Exalead, Qwant, or Yandex. Running the same query on different systems is often a useful way to get a sense of what is in an index and what is not.
Cynthia Murrell, August 14, 2018
Google Becomes an Adviser to New Zealand about Copyright
August 16, 2018
We learned about a controversial meeting in New Zealand from an article at Stuff provocatively titled, “Google and Rights Holders Battle Over Copyright Reform.” Writer Tom Pullar-Strecker reports that in late June, Google lobbyist Kent Walker met with New Zealand Commerce Minister Kris Faafoi to discuss reform of that nation’s copyright laws. Apparently, Google was not sure search engines like theirs quite comply with existing law—so he offered suggestions on modifying the law. To be fair, that was an action already under consideration, but Google had to add its perspective to the mix. Naturally, Walker’s arguments must go beyond the well-being of his company, so the “more liberal” approach is being billed as key to New Zealand’s tech industry, particularly in AI. Others are not so certain; we learned:
Paula Browning, chief executive of interest group Copyright Licensing NZ, said one of the benefits of the existing law and the certainty it provided was “we don’t go to court every five minutes. The idea we would slip that on its head and be burdening the court in order to make law doesn’t sit very well with me,” she said. Browning also rejected the suggestion that copyright laws were holding back innovation. “There is an awful lot of business happening in New Zealand involving tech startups that suggest the law is not broken. We have got 28,000 tech companies under the Act we have got, so it doesn’t seem to be stopping us doing fabulous things.” There were only impediments to machine learning if people wanted to use other people’s information, she said. “If you are looking at companies that are doing AI, they are using data that is theirs. “If you want to have a ‘data grab of other people stuff’ to use for your business then, okay, maybe there are things in the way of you doing that.”
The official has a point. The article goes on to note Walker brought up Content ID (used by Google-owned YouTube), suggesting such a measure could be worked into the new law. (We’re told the EU is also considering the technology.) Notes on the meeting were taken and shared by New Zealand’s Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE). Browning expressed concern about upcoming decisions made “behind closed doors,” but believes the MBIE is working to ensure all stakeholders, large and small, have a say in that country’s copyright reform process. Meanwhile, we’re told, Walker is now senior VP of global affairs at Google; quell surprise.
Cynthia Murrell, August 16, 2018
Technology and Government: A Management Challenge for the 21st Century
August 15, 2018
Throughout history, government funding has led to some of the greatest technological advances known to man. Thank NASA next time you strap on your Velcro shoes or sip some Tang. Recently, some voices in Silicon Valley spoke out to try and repair the rift among tech and government. We learned more from a recent Washington Post Op-Ed, “Silicon Valley Should Stop Ostracizing the Military.”
According to the story:
“The world is safer and more peaceful with strong U.S. leadership. That requires the U.S. government to maintain its advantage in critical technologies such as AI. But doing so will be difficult if Silicon Valley’s rising hostility toward working with Washington continues. In June, Google…announced that it would not renew a Pentagon contract for an AI program called Project Maven when it expires next year.”
The biggest concern is that Russia and China are rapidly advancing their AI weaponry and leaving behind the US. This, they argue, weakens the freedom-loving world, so it is time for these often diametrically opposed organizations to make up for the good of the planet.
With the Department of Defense moving toward a decision about the $10 billion cloud procurement, Beyond Search anticipates more employee-management tension at the high technology giants jockeying for US government contracts.
Should employees expect a company’s Board of Directors and senior management to go in the direction employees want?
MBAs and high school math club thinking may create administrative friction. Whom does a tech slow down benefit? Electric scooter riders?
Patrick Roland, August 15, 2018
Google Contributes to the History of Kubernetes
August 15, 2018
It is time for a history lesson; the Google Cloud Platform Blog proffers, “From Google to the World: The Kubernetes Origin Story.” Anyone curious about the origins of the open source management system may want to check it out. The post begins with a description of the 2013 meeting at which the Kubernetes co-founders pitched their idea to executive Urs Holzle, which only happened because one of those founders (and author of the post) Craig McLuckie found himself on a shuttle with the company’s then-VP of Cloud Eric Brewer. To conclude the post, McLuckie notes Kubernetes is now deployed in thousands of organizations and has benefitted from some 237 person-years’ worth of coding put in by some 830 contributors. In between we find a little Star Trek-related trivia; McLuckie writes:
“In keeping with the Borg theme, we named it Project Seven of Nine. (Side note: in an homage to the original name, this is also why the Kubernetes logo has seven sides.) We wanted to build something that incorporated everything we had learned about container management at Google through the design and deployment of Borg and its successor, Omega — all combined with an elegant, simple and easy-to-use UI. In three months, we had a prototype that was ready to share.
We also noted this statement:
“We always believed that open-sourcing Kubernetes was the right way to go, bringing many benefits to the project. For one, feedback loops were essentially instantaneous — if there was a problem or something didn’t work quite right, we knew about it immediately. But most importantly, we were able to work with lots of great engineers, many of whom really understood the needs of businesses who would benefit from deploying containers (have a look at the Kubernetes blog for perspectives from some of the early contributors).”
McLuckie includes links for potential users to explore the Kubernetes Engine and, perhaps, begin a two-month free trial. Finally, he suggests we navigate to his Kubernetes Origins podcast hosted by Software Engineering Daily for more information.
History is good.
Cynthia Murrell, August 15, 2018
Factualities for Wednesday, August 15, 2018
August 15, 2018
Believe these items or not. We found them interesting:
- China has built 350000 5G cell sites; the US, 30 000
Source: CNBC - Five billion videos are watched around the world each day, with the vast majority of viewers being between 18 and 49-years-old. Source: Express tabloid newspaper
- Americans are now spending 11 hours each day consuming media. Source: Quartz
- Criminal activities account for just 10 percent of Bitcoin transactions. DEA via CCN.com
- Google will lose $50 million or more in 2018 from Fortnite bypassing the Play Store. Source: Techcrunch
- Baltimore will pay a person $176,800 to maintain Lotus Notes. Source: Baltimore Sun newspaper
Real or fake? A question smart software will have to answer. We cannot.
Stephen E Arnold, August 15, 2018
Partnership with Deloitte Boosts SAP-Google Cloud Combo
August 14, 2018
Google wants to be a player in the enterprise cloud. Price cuts alone may not do the job. Therefore, Google is embracing new types of partners.
Consultancy firm Deloitte has been busy. On the heels of merging their Pacific operations, we now learn, “Deloitte Deal Brings Google Cloud and SAP Alliance to Life,” courtesy of New Zealand’s ResellerNews. Now, as part of its cloud migration and management services, the company will migrate SAP apps to the Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Writer James Henderson informs us:
“Deloitte will provide a ‘full suite’ of solutions for running SAP applications on GCP, including an invoice management solution, which will automate invoice processing within an SAP environment. In addition, other offerings include a visual inspection solution, capable of automating the visual inspection process and accelerate inventory restocking. … From a technology perspective, GCP is certified to run SAP workloads, which includes S/4HANA, BW/4HANA, Business Suite, Business Warehouse, alongside applications such as Hybris, Business One, Solution Manager and Business Objects BI Suite… The alliance comes 18 months after Google Cloud announced an applications partnership with SAP, in a move designed to position the tech giant as a serious cloud contender within the enterprise.”
Further offerings include an automated visual inspection process and accelerated inventory restocking. This partnership brings more than 125 million SAP subscribers into Google Cloud’s realm, including more than 5,200 start-up developers, we’re told. Deloitte was founded long ago in 1895 in London, and is now headquartered in New York City. They also are hiring at the moment for locations in several far-flung cities.
Cynthia Murrell, August 14, 2018
The Obvious: Business Intelligence Tools May Need Clarity
August 14, 2018
Artificial intelligence and business have been a natural pair since the moment we began speculating about this technology. However, we are currently in a sort of golden age of AI for business (or drowning in a swamp of it, depending who you ask) and we could all use a little help sorting through the options. That’s why a recent Data Science Central story “A Comparative Analysis of Top 6 BI and Data Visualization Tools in 2018” seemed so relevant.
According to the story:
“It is often hard to separate the facts from fiction when evaluating various business intelligence (BI) tools, as every BI vendor markets their product as the only “best” solution, often flooding the Internet with biased reviews. If you want to understand the functional product value, avoid the hype and useless clicking through endless pages of partial reviews, you’ve come to the right place.”
This is a very important breakdown and it goes over some really compelling programs, depending on your needs. This seems to be a trend in the industry as we become awash in BI choices. Recently, we also discovered a valuable contrast looking at augmented analytics versus business intelligence tools. What seems obvious is that developers are trying to provide point and click math insight and expertise to individuals who may lack a firm foundation in evaluating data quality, statistics, and other disciplines. No, majoring in medieval literature is not what is needed to make sense of data. To be fair, some find art in proofs.
Insight from slick interfaces? Maybe.
Patrick Roland, August 14, 2018
DarkCyber for August 14, 2018, Now Available
August 14, 2018
DarkCyber for July 24, 2018, is now available at www.arnoldit.com/wordpress and on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/284579347 .
Stephen E Arnold’s DarkCyber is a weekly video news and analysis program about the Dark Web and lesser known Internet services.
This week’s program covers four Dark Web and security related stories.
The first story presents data about online drug sellers. The estimated number of vendors is in the 30,000 to 50,000 range. DarkCyber points out that such data are likely to be uncertain. Estimates of online sources for controlled substances are based on difficult-to-verify data. DarkCyber reports that as many as one half of the prescription drugs sold online may be fakes.
The second story reports that the Dark Web is changing. The shift from Tor-centric Web sites to encrypted chat and messaging systems is underway. Encrypted chat complicates the work of law enforcement and intelligence professionals. Plus, encrypted chat sessions can trigger mob actions which can spiral out of control and without warning. A lynching in India may be the direct result of forwarded encrypted chat messages.
The third story provides a snapshot of the NC4 policeware system Street Smart. A popular US magazine referenced the company without providing details about the system and its functions. DarkCyber explains that information about the software system are available on the NC4 Web site and in videos publicly available on YouTube.
The final story explains how 3D printing makes it comparatively easy for an individual to create what is called a “ghost gun.” The 3D printed weapon does not have an identification number, so tracing the gun is difficult. DarkCyber points out that copyright issues and regulations concerning the manufacture of weapons will consume time, money, and human resources.
Kenny Toth, August 14, 2018
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