Google Changes More Than How Some Companies Do Business
September 13, 2018
There is little doubt out there that the internet, and more specifically, Google, has changed the way we act and talk and even think. However, some experts argue that maybe it’s not our thinking that is changing, but the way we interpret. We learned more from a recent TIME article, “How Google Changed The Way We Think About Information.”
According to the story, we’ve always been info-hungry creatures. However, instead of falling into an encyclopedia entry, we find more specific info.
“The more we use services like Google, the more our brains organize the world in an index-based fashion. This also means people who make a living providing information are increasingly organizing their presentation to catch eyeballs looking for specific details in indexes.”
This is a much less scary view of our brains and the way the digital age is molding them. While we’d like to jump onboard and think that search isn’t shifting our senses, others argue to the contrary. Scientists in Europe claim that our capacity for small bits of information, like trivia and dates, is diminishing because of smartphones and Google. We can’t say that that hasn’t happened to us. Hopefully, the truth is somewhere in between where we are adapting, but not changing on a molecular level.
Put the business and the cognitive changes together and the sum may be more significant than its individual parts.
Patrick Roland, September 13, 2018
Chinese Art Online
September 13, 2018
With a little digging, anyone can find great stuff for free on the Internet. This stuff includes: games, books, audiobooks, language lessons, software tutorials, coding expertise, and more. The problem, however, is if you do not know where to look this information is near impossible to find. Open Culture is one of the Internet’s bastions for great free stuff and they announced a new Asian acquisition: “Free: Download 70,000+ High-Resolution Images Of Chinese Art From Taipei’s National Palace Museum.”
While China is now open to the West, many of its cultural aspects remain a mystery and unavailable to curious and interested people. Two of the greatest dynasties in China’s history are the Ming and Qing dynasties, ranging from 1386 to 1912. As one can imagined, Chinese artists created amazing pieces, but they have not been available to the public until now. The Taipei National Palace Museum has scanned over 70,000 items in high resolution photos for fee browsing and download. Not only was this a big expense and huge amount of work, it also brings new cultural history and content to the Internet.
There is currently an English version of the image archive, but the Chinese version, of course, has the richer and easier to navigate content (if you speak Chinese).
“Still, the National Palace Museum has been improving its English portal, which allows searches not just by category of object but by dynasty, a list that now reaches far beyond the Ming and Qing, all the way back to the Shang Dynasty of 1600 BC to 1046 BC. But even as the English version catches up to the Chinese one — as of this writing, it contains more than 4700 items — it will surely take some time before National Palace Museum Open Data catches up with the complete holdings of the National Palace Museum, with its permanent collection of about 700,000 Chinese imperial artifacts and artworks spanning eight millennia. As with Chinese history itself, a formidable subject of study if ever there was one, it has to be taken one piece at a time.”
This is an amazing contribution to humanity’s rich cultural history, but the biggest downside is that unless you visit the museum’s web site no one else is going to know about this online museum. One of the biggest problems with online databases and archives, such as those curated by museums and historical societies, is that their information is not connected to search engines like Google and DuckDuckGo.
Whitney Grace, September 13, 2018
Factualities for September 12, 2018
September 12, 2018
Believe ‘em or not. The “facts”, that is.
- $7,800 per month and up for the cloud version of IBM Information Server. Source: Datamation
- 280,000. The number of routers infected with crypto jacking. Source: Next Web
- 250 million. The number of Pinterest users. Source: Engadget
- $131 trillion. The amount of money artificial intelligence will add to global production. Source: Axios
- 44 percent. The number of people who have deleted the Facebook app this year. Source: Reddit
- Less than one percent of start ups fail due to competition. Source: Techcrunch
- Five times an hour. How often Americans check their mobile phones. Source: San Francisco Chronicle
- Zero percent. The use of open source in 1993. Source: Silicon Angle
Stephen E Arnold, September 12, 2018
Financial Tremors?
September 12, 2018
The folks with crypto currency may be having a bit of a thrill. The volatility suggests that bits and bytes may not be as stable as owning a chunk of real estate in Tokyo.
We have also noted rumblings elsewhere. Smart software, for example. Many hopes, of course, but there may be some downstream consequences. Salmon finding life difficult may be one metaphor.
It has become a weekly, maybe even daily, routine: some alarmist talks about the dangers of AI on a particular industry, we get scared, the news cycle moves on, and everyone forgets. However, a warning is lurking that has the potential to have some staying power. We learned more from a recent Technology Review story, “The World Economic Forum Warns That AI Might Destabilize The Financial System.”
We learned:
[A]rtificial intelligence will disrupt the industry by allowing early adopters to outmaneuver competitors. It also suggests that the technology will create more convenient products for consumers, such as sophisticated tools for managing personal finances and investments.
We also noted:
But most notably, the report points to the potential for big financial institutions to build machine-learning-based services that live in the cloud and are accessed by other institutions.
This is a very volatile situation, especially as so much finance is starting to hinge on machine learning. For example, many retirement plans are shifting funds around based on AI insights. But take hope for what it is. Quantum computing may be just around the corner.
Patrick Roland, September 13, 2018
IBM Watson: Chug, Chug, Chugging Along
September 12, 2018
Beyond Search does feel a little sad for IBM. You know. The Watson thing.
IBM really, really wants their AI to cure cancer. We’ve reported on recent findings that the famous AI is, as of yet, falling short of that goal; Information Magazine adds some details in its opinion piece, “IBM’s Watson Hasn’t Beaten Cancer, but AI May Win.” Writer Faye Flam points to the revelations from internal IBM documents as reported by Stat News (registration required) that the software had made some “unsafe and incorrect” recommendations for cancer patients. Flam seems sure this is a temporary state and that, eventually, some form of machine-learning AI will come to permeate healthcare because medicine is, at heart, a data problem. She also notes, however, why cancer treatment is a particularly tough area to master—for one thing, humans ourselves haven’t quite mastered it yet. She writes:
“Cancer treatment is more complicated, because humans are still figuring it out. Patients get multiple treatments that may result in remission periods, but whether there’s a remission and how long it lasts depends on a host of variables. ‘It’s something we struggle with a lot,’ Beam said. ‘You want a ground-truth gold-standard correct answer for a given patient, and 99 percent of the time that doesn’t exist.’ Only a small fraction of cancer patients have their information recorded in a systematic way, said Isaac Kohane, a doctor and chairman of the biomedical informatics program at Harvard Medical School. That’s now starting to change. ‘Those of us in the AI community are extremely optimistic about how these techniques are going to revolutionize medicine,’ he said. But with Watson, ‘it’s just unfortunate that the marketing arm got ahead of the capabilities.’”
That marketing issue right there is the problem in a nutshell; salespeople gotta sell. AI, even Watson, holds great promise for better medical outcomes, but we mustn’t get ahead of ourselves. In the meantime, IBM is pursuing some less consequential AI projects, like delivering coffee by drone at just the right moment. TechAcute reports, “IBM Files a Patent for Coffee Delivery Drone Which Knows You Want Your Coffee.” Reporter Kate Sukhanova tells us the service monitors users’ biometric data and delivers them their cup of joe before they even know they need it. Just what we (or, perhaps Watson’s public relations) needed!
Cynthia Murrell, September 13, 2018
Silicon Valley: Off Ramp Closed for Repairs?
September 11, 2018
We learned that Alibaba (a Chinese outfit) has entered into a deal with Russian firms for online payments. Reuters reported the tie up in “Alibaba’s JV in Russia to Use Russia’s Payment System.” The system is used in Russia.
TechCrunch points out in “Alibaba Goes Big on Russia with Joint Venture Focused on Gaming, Shopping and More”:
Mail.ru, the Russia firm that offers a range of internet services including social media, email and food delivery to 100 million registered users, has teamed up with Alibaba to launch AliExpress Russia, a JV that they hope will function as a “one-stop destination” for communication, social media, shopping and games. Mail.ru backer MegaFon, a telecom firm, and the country’s sovereign wealth fund RDIF (Russian Direct Investment Fund) have also invested undisclosed amounts into the newly-formed organization.
From our vantage point, Alibaba may have taken a more direct route to Russia. Has one of the off ramps to Silicon Valley closed for repairs? Maybe the traffic flow is heading to a more interesting destination?
Stephen E Arnold, September 11, 2018
Social Media and the Violence Thing
September 11, 2018
I read “Can Facebook Really Drive Violence?” Interesting question for some. The write up states:
Recent reporting has probed the link between virtual hate and real world action. But the connection remains murky.
I recall a trick one of my professors at the one horse university I attended. She substituted other words in an assertion and then asked the same question, stood back, land let the logic of 18 year olds prevail. For instance:
Does the telephone drive teenage smoking?
Intriguing because substitution can reveal the tenuousness of human logic.
Set aside the collegiate penchant for rediscovering logical reasoning. A trend can become more obvious thanks to social media and fake news. With careful selection of facts and suppositions, it sure seems as if behavior can be organized and amplified when certain types of information flow. NBC News reported that “Social Media Rumors Trigger Violence in India; 3 Killed by Mobs.”
According to the story:
“Mobs of villagers killed at least three people and attacked several others after social media messages warned that gangs of kidnappers were roaming southern India in search of children, police said Friday.
And NBC added:
“Authorities said there was no indication that such gangs actually existed.”
This “event” caught the attention of some. The Indian Government has reached out to WhatsApp and demanded that they begin filtering out fake news stories. Google and Facebook have already begun attempting to police themselves. If the Indian government’s move to take control over fake news proves successful, expect to see other nations to follow suit and put stronger demands upon social media outlets.
Ah, perception. Information flow can have an impact, just not what some anticipate.
Stephen E Arnold, September 11, 2018
Can Algorithms Be Designed to Perform Like Trained Dogs?
September 11, 2018
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Trump thinks Google search results are rigged in the article, “Here’s What We Really Know About Google’s Mysterious Search Engine.” Trump claims that Google and other social media search results are rigged for their lack of conservative, right wing views on the networks. The president even warned Facebook, Google, and Twitter that they are treading on thin ice.
Mr. Trump, like some Web site operators receiving minimal traffic, has arrived at this conclusion because of the dominance these platforms have on people’s lives. However does it have any stock? Google claims that it does not pollute its search results, but the company has also shown it does not like the president. After a short explanation about how Google search works, the article moves into information about “Google News’ secret sauce.” Google News has an algorithm that personalizes news results for each user. People and companies can influence the search results with their content, but how much does Google intervene in the results?
We learned:
“Google’s algorithm, particularly for search, is a master algorithm that is applied in real time against each search query as it comes in, according to the company. Although the algorithm itself frequently changes as Google makes tweaks, it is applied identically to each search. If the results differ from person to person, that could be because they may be using a browser in incognito mode, which deletes the cookies and other third-party tracking software. Or they may be searching from a different location, triggering Google’s reflex to return local results. Or they may simply be performing a search slightly later in time than another, said Christo Wilson, a computer science professor at Northeastern University who has studied Google’s search practices for six years.”
We like the idea of a master algorithm? We also believe that filtering information can have interesting consequences.
How political are free systems which display answers to questions? Is it possible for a disgruntled person to tweak wrapper code to return certain results or to down check a certain concept?
Answers to these questions are difficult to evaluate. After two decades of providing ad supported information, why would anyone doubt the objectivity of mathematical recipes?
Woof, woof.
Stephen E Arnold, September 11, 2018
DarkCyber for September 11, 2018, Now Available
September 11, 2018
DarkCyber for September 11, 2018, is now available at www.arnoldit.com/wordpress and on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com .
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 reports that cybercrime has increased by 32 percent in the first quarter of 2018 compared to the first quarter of 2017. The most popular malware is for covert crypto currency mining and for Trojan software that can entice a user to download a document or video. DarkCyber reveals an easy way to locate malware using Bing.com and the Pastebin.com service. The easy access to potentially harmful software presents an increasing risk for many Internet users.
The second story explains that a citizen attempted to research a Dark Web murder-for-hire site. After engaging law enforcement, the individual used malware to create a disturbance on the Dark Web site. What happened next surprised the citizen hacker. The police picked up the individual and held him for 36 hours. The incident makes clear that law enforcement has the technical capabilities to monitor Dark Web access and identify individuals who perform certain online actions. The Dark Web and access to it can present some interesting challenges to those who assume that the Dark Web access is secret.
The third story explores the capabilities of SpyCloud, a fast-growing start up based in Austin, Texas. The company has amassed billions of items of information related to passwords, users names, and other types of high-value information. The firm’s system makes it possible for the company to identify a data security problem, often before it poses a problem for the organization. The company recently raised an additional $5 million in Series A funding, bringing the total funding to about $8 million.
The final story reports that the Australian government wants access to computing devices protected by a password. Pending legislation provides for a sentence of 10 years in jail for an individual who refuses to comply with a government request to unlock devices or decrypt encrypted data.
Kenny Toth, September 11, 2018
Newspapers and Their Web Sites
September 10, 2018
I have no recollection of who told me this bit of folklore, but I thought of it when I read “Why Are Newspaper Websites So Horrible?”
Take a beaver from its habitat. Maybe a stream in the woods in northern Wisconsin. Put the beaver in the Chrysler Building’s old observation room with some wooden furniture. Come back in about four hours. What will the beaver do? Answer: Try to build a dam. Moral: Beavers do what beavers to regardless of the location.
Take a print newspaper with the baggage that entails. Put it in a digital environment which has been around since the New York Times put content on the LexisNexis news service AFTER it failed with its own online service in the 1970s. Think the NYT is a success? Yeah, but what if the NYT management had supported Jeff Pemberton and his team? Yeah, success might look different. Ah, what if?
The write up focuses on the implementation of the “beavers do what beavers do” behavior.
That’s lighting the garden when I need light underneath my car when I am changing its oil.
Newspapers do ads. An enlightened and wealthy owner like Barry Bingham could generate a newspaper and some electronic products of quality. But once the Bingham properties when to new owners, understand the beaver thing kicks in.
The problem is how traditional journalism, reporting the news, financing the operation, and creating the gatekeeper role with some influence.
The crazy Web sites of newspapers illustrates that result of the management of these interesting business properties. User experience? Sure.
Beavers do what beavers do.
Stephen E Arnold, September 10, 2018
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