Factualities for July 17, 2019
July 17, 2019
A new feature appears in this week’s round up of remarkable numbers, statistics, and quantifiable things. This is “Craziest Number of the Week.” DarkCyber must admit that identifying just one craziest number is difficult work. But we did it.
Craziest Number of the Week:
Virtual agents will add $2 trillion in business “value.”
The number comes from a font of predictions, Gartner Group. Here’s the number for fans of zeros: 2,000,000,000,000. Yeah, virtual agents. Why ask questions like What?, How?, Method? Waste of time. It’s 12 zeros and may sell some consulting work or a new outstanding report. Source: Venture Beat
Regular Fantastical Data
-26. Percentage decline in CNN viewers in the last 12 months. Source: Summit News
1. Number of electric scooter injuries per 5,000 rides. Source: Boing Boing
3. Rank of Florida in terms of danger among the 50 US states. Source: WPTV
5. Number of automobiles emitting pollution required to equal the environmental impact of an organization’s training one “modest” machine learning model. Source: Boing Boing
50 percent. Amount of untagged (not indexed) data in the world now. Source: Information Management
50 percent. Employees who don’t follow email security protocols. Source: InfoSecurity
62 percent. Percentage of UK millennials who believe their generation will be worse off that their parents’ generation. Source: Telegraph
97. Number of virtual private networks owned by 23 companies. Source: VPN Pro
219. Number of years in prison for UCLA professor who stole missile secrets for China and got caught. Source: Newsweek
1,000. Number of Android apps which harvest user data after the user has denied permission for such harvesting. Source: CNet
3,500. Number of sex trafficking cases reported to US National Human Trafficking Resource Center in 2018. Source: Christian Journal
$500,000. Amount stolen from 7-Eleven’s secure mobile payment system. Source: The Verge
5,500,000. The number of monthly viewing hours in the US on smart TVs. “But growth is slowing.” Source: Mediapost
10,000,000. Number of fake installs of a Samsung app. Source: How to Geek
£183,000,000. Fine levied against British Airways for data breach. Source: BBC
25,000,000. Number of new Android malware installations via doppelgangers. Doppelgangers! Source: ZDNet
$32,000,000. Amount of digital currency stolen from Bitpoint in possibly one day. Source: ZDNet
$800 million. Value of meth seized by Australian police in a single drug bust. Source: Time
$38,000,000,000. Amount Jeff Bezos paid his ex wife in a divorce settlement. Source: Reuters
Keep counting.
Stephen E Arnold, July 17, 2019
Google Is a Curious Outfit: Who, How, Why, Where, Buy, and Build?
July 16, 2019
Ah, the familiar Silicon Valley question: Buy or build?
Reuters, a “real news” outfit, published “Google Accused of Ripping Off Digital Ad Technology in U.S. Lawsuit.” DarkCyber has no idea if the alleged lawsuit is valid or if Google “ripped off” a company called Impact Engine.
According to the “real news” story:
Impact Engine Inc filed the complaint in federal court in San Diego, California, alleging various Google online advertising platforms, including Google Ads and Google AdSense, infringed on six patents.
DarkCyber believes that Impact Engine is convinced that Googlers took technology developed by the smaller firm. Google’s present senior management is probably unaware of the actions of young at heart Googlers.
Based on DarkCyber’s experience interacting with large, successful corporations, Google-type outfits ask a lot of questions. But these are predictable and probably should not be answered without prior thought. Scripting answers is a reasonable way to prepare for a lunch with a predator.
Now what about the basic questions. Here are a few I have experienced:
- Who are you?
- Who developed the innovation?
- Why was it developed?
- Why is it better than existing innovations?
- When did you develop the innovation?
- Did you patent the innovation and receive a patent?
- Where can this innovation be implemented?
- How much of a revenue boost does the innovation represent?
- How much did you spend in cash to create the innovation?
- How long did it take to create the innovation?
- How many people worked on the innovation in [a] its preliminary phase, [b] its testing phase, and [c] its commercialization phase?
- What is the programming language used?
- Does the innovation run from the cloud or on premises?
- What are the next series of enhancements you plan to add to your innovation?
- How long will those take?
- How much money do you need to implement the enhancements in half your time estimate?
- Who are your competitors?
- What are the gotchas in your innovation?
- Who is your nightmare competitor?
- What do you worry about relative to this innovation when you go to bed at night?
- If you had a magic wand, what changes would you make in the innovation as it exists at this time?
- Would you rough out a block diagram of the major components of the innovation?
- Would you walk us through your basic slide deck?
There are other questions, of course.
Now a company talking with a Google-type firm is likely to be darned excited to be in proximity to a deep pocket power center. Consequently the visitors are probably going to say too much, be too specific, and reveal more than the visiting team thought was possible.
Yep, well, there’s the fact that power and potential money loosens lips.
What happens when the small outfit leaves with booth leftovers in hand, a reasonable vegan lunch, and worshipful praise from the big company’s “team players”?
Let me boil down the gist of the debriefs in which I have participated:
- Is this innovation any good?
- Can we duplicate it quickly and easily? (Build?)
- If not, how much do you think the innovation is worth?
- Can we just license the innovation? (Semi-buy?)
- Should we forget this outfit and go to the competitors named in the meeting?
- Don’t we already have this functionality?
- Does anybody remember meeting with this company or anyone who works there before?
- Should we buy this outfit?
There are other considerations, of course.
In short, when big Google type outfits meet with small innovative outfits, the expectations of the small company are likely to be different from those at the big company.
Therefore, the legal dust up. Worth monitoring this particular action. But the matter of patents, prior art, and the patents which the big company may have tucked in their cloud storage device are likely to have some bearing on the matter.
One thing is certain: The lawyers involved will get paid a lot of money. And the money people? Sure. Money people.
Stephen E Arnold, July 16, 2019
Palantir Technologies: Soldiering Forward
July 16, 2019
On the positive side, Palantir Technologies landed a $144 million blanket purchase agreement from the US Navy. Presumably, Palantir will provide its government-centric investigation and intelligence analysis system and engineering services. According to GovConWire:
The fixed-price BPA [blanket purchase agreement] has a one-year base term valued at $27.6M and four option years that could run through July 11, 2024.
IBM, Oracle, and other traditional intelware vendors are unlikely to be thrilled with the award.
On the negative side, Liberation, an online information service, reported that protests were held in Palo Alto. The group wants Palantir to be shut down. This is a dramatic statement, and it is not going to stop Palantir from licensing its technology to government agencies.
So, good news and bad news for Palantir. DarkCyber believes the company will focus on staying open and closing deals. Competitive systems are proliferating, and some of the newer systems are easier to use and eliminate some of the fussiness associated with the ageing Gotham system.
Stephen E Arnold, July 16, 2019
DarkCyber for July 16, 2019, Now Available
July 16, 2019
This week’s program is now available at www.arnoldit.com/wordpress and on Vimeo at https://www.vimeo.com/348009146. The program is a production of Stephen E Arnold. It is the only weekly video news shows focusing on the Dark Web, cybercrime, and lesser known Internet services.
This week’s story line up includes: An Australian teen with 20,000 LSD doses; a money laundering operation run within a Florida prison; a how to guide for credit card fraudsters; Facebook’s digital currency triggers domain name land rush; and Interpol smashes a global child sex crime operation.
This week’s lead story talks about Facebook’s digital currency. Regulators in the US have expressed some reservations about what could be considered a sovereign currency. Facebook’s effort to unify its messaging applications and integrate encryption into the service poses one additional hurdle for investigators. The proposed digital currency called Libra may enable seamless, friction free financial transactions within the encrypted Facebook system. Bad actors are likely to test the system to find ways to use Facebook for illegal activities. Messaging apps can provide access to digital content like pirated videos, child pornography, commercial software with its security compromised, and similar digital contraband.
Other stories in the July 16, 2019, program are:
First, an Australian teenager used the Dark Web to purchase LSD, a controlled substance. The Australian Joint Agency Strike Team monitored the teenager’s activity which included setting up a mail drop in the central business district of Adelaide. When police moved in, they seized 20,000 doses or “tabs” of LSD. The contraband had an estimated street value of US$200,000. The legal representative of the alleged drug dealer pointed out that the young man had good family support. The teen also had knowledge of the Dark Web, a mail drop, and the 20,000 LSD tabs.
Second, Terbium Labs issued a new report which provides information about credit card fraud. For security professionals, the report is a concise review of key factors. To an individual looking for a primer explaining credit card fraud or “carding” the Terbium report is an interesting resource. Terbium points out that lesson plans for would be credit card fraudsters are available on the Dark Web. Most of the instructional material and guides cost between $4 and $13. Similar information can be located using Regular Web search engines. DarkCyber reveals that Yandex.com offers both current credit card fraud instruction guides as well as direct links to explanatory videos. This type of information may pose a dilemma for public search engines. For an individual seeking information about how to perform financial fraud, the abundance of available information is remarkable for its scope and its ready availability.
Third, convicted criminals in Pasco Country, Florida, operated a money laundering scheme from their cells. The angle was to obtain stolen credit cards from a Dark Web marketplace and transfer money from the credit card to a prisoner’s personal commissary account. Many US prisons allow inmates to purchase snacks and approved items from this prison store. Once the money was in a prisoner’s account, the ringleader then submitted a request for the prison to transfer the money to the account of an individual who was not in prison. Investigators identified the prisoners involved in the scheme, arrested one person who acted as an accomplice, and identified seven other individuals involved the the operation. A total of $8,000 was stolen in 40 separate transactions.
Finally, DarkCyber reports that Interpol’s Blackwrist investigated a global child sex crime operation. Dozens of individuals were arrested. One pedophile has been sentenced to more than 100 years in a Thailand prison. Others snared in the sweep are allegedly individuals who have abused children, some as young as 15 months. Blackwrist continues its investigations and more arrests are expected.
Kenny Toth, July 16, 2019
A Reminder about Deleting Data
July 15, 2019
If you believe data are deleted, you may want to take a deep breath and read “Good Luck Deleting Someone’s Private Info from a Trained Neural Network – It’s Likely to Bork the Whole Thing. Researchers Show Limited Success in Getting Rid of Data.”
With a title like this, there’s not much left to say. We did note this one, cautious quote:
Zou [a whiz researcher] said it isn’t entirely impossible, however. “We don’t have tools just yet but we are hoping to develop these deletion tools in the next few months.”
Will there be such tools? I have been stumbling along with databases since the 1960s, and deletes which delete are still not available.
Just a reminder that what one believes is not what happens within data management systems.
Stephen E Arnold, July 15, 2019
Facebook Usage: Who Is Abandoning Ship?
July 15, 2019
It is hard to imagine any social media platform being declared “old,” but Generation Z has already labeled Facebook as thing nobody uses anymore except grandparents sharing photos. Wandering attention spans and cooler Internet places lure younger users away, but there is another reason Facebook usage is down says The Guardian in the story, “Facebook Usage Falling After Privacy Scandals, Data Suggests.” Since April 2018, Facebook activity, including likes, shares, and posts, have dropped 20%, then usage picked up, but circa fall and winter 2018 they fell yet again.
Why is this happening to still one of the top social median platforms? The answer lays in how it handles privacy:
“The decline coincided with a series of data, privacy and hate speech scandals. In September the company discovered a breach affecting 50m accounts, in November it admitted that an executive hired a PR firm to attack the philanthropist George Soros, and it has been repeatedly criticized for allowing its platform to be used to fuel ethnic cleansing in Myanmar.”
Facebook is a social communication tool and not the problem itself. The problem is with the people who run and use, such as the attack on Soros and fueled hatred fires in Myanmar. (Does anyone else think about the Rwanda genocide, except radios were used instead of social media?). Facebook is a crazy, yet necessary tool in today’s wacko world. Despite the breaches, Facebook continues to grow
Users say that while they maintain their accounts, they are not using them as much or they have deleted them entirely. The younger crowds continue to stay away and there are more alluring Web sites to connect with than Facebook.
DarkCyber believes that Facebook chug along. At some point, most users may be law enforcement and intelligence professionals. But $5 billion fines and zero regulatory oversight suggest that whatever content is in Facebook, it has value to some people—for now.
Senior citizens do love looking at pix of their grandchildren.
Whitney Grace, July 15, 2019
IBM Cognos: A Mix of Marketing and Reality
July 15, 2019
Writing an online news story which does the James Bond “shaken, not stirred” approach, is difficult. A good example of partial success in blending marketing with reality is “IBM Battling to Change Perception of Cognos Analytics BI Platform.”
The source of the write up is an outfit called TechTarget, a publicly traded company. According to the firm’s Web site: The information services company:
is the online intersection of serious technology buyers, targeted technical content and technology providers worldwide. Our media, powered by TechTarget’s Activity Intelligence™ platform, redefines how technology buyers are viewed and engaged based on their active projects, specific technical priorities and business needs. With more than 100 technology specific websites, we provide technology marketers innovative media that delivers unmatched reach via custom advertising, branding and lead generation solutions all built on our extensive network of online and social media.
I noted the “custom advertising” phrase.
Now what’s Cognos?
Cognos dates from 1969, which makes the system 50 years old. In that span of time, analytics has emerged as the go-to technology for many firms. A working example is Google. Thus, it begs the question:
With a head start, why hasn’t Cognos become the financial big bang that Google has?
Ah, apples and oranges? Maybe not. But 50 years which represent the rocket ship revenues possible from analytics!
Now the write up:
The article begins with a surprising admission. I expected a rah rah, sis boom bah approach to IBM Cognos. Instead I read:
While some see IBM’s BI suite as being too complicated and expensive for citizen data scientists, the company is adding updates to try and attract the modern user.
From my point of view, IBM’s software too complicated. It is too expensive. IBM’s fixes are cosmetic, not structural. The people who are into Cognos are not modern.
Yep, that will boost sales.
In a half century, Cognos has been version updated 11 times. That one every six months, a bit below the constant stream of updates pumped into my system. In today’s world, I would characterize the approach as glacial.
IBM’s current pitch is that Cognos is just fine for medium sized businesses. That sounds good, particularly IBM’s statement:
“We released 11.0 in 2015 and spent a lot of time on the road at conferences banging the drum that this is not your grandfather’s Cognos, that this is the next iteration,” said Kevin McFaul, senior product manager of business analytics at IBM. “The capabilities are still there, but it was enhanced to target the new line of business users. Our competition went to market on ‘Cognos is too complex’ and we’ve done a lot of work to try and correct that perception.”
Okay, three years put in perspective IBM time versus the time cycle at an outfit like DataWalk. IBM deals in clumps of years; DataWalk operates in “right now” time. (I don’t work for DataWalk, but the company’s fast cycle approach to analytics is more in touch with what DarkCyber thinks believes is the future.)
Even Gartner, according to the write up, has pushed IBM Cognos down its wild and crazy subjective approach to identifying “with it” technology players. The write up quotes a Gartner wizard making a statement which will probably cause IBM to rethink its subscription to Gartner’s outstandingly subjective information services:
“IBM was a leader in traditional BI, but it took them a long time to respond to [changes in the market],” said Rita Sallam, a VP analyst at Gartner. “Cognos lost a lot of traction, but they’ve made promising investments in augmented intelligence, which we see as the next phase of BI.”
Yep, “was” and then “lost a lot of traction.” The the magical “but.” Sure enough, brilliant Gartner wizard, sure enough.
So what’s new in the IBM “Pimp My Ride” approach to modernizing a 50 year old classic former leader?
It is still a truck but a truck with Watson. Watson was supposed to be the billion dollar baby. Watson was supposed to help doctors, not create consternation. Watson was smart, not take person years of smart humans crafting content to make Watson smart.
Watson is now in Cognos.
Complexity definitely is enhanced with more complexity. The idea is very good for consulting revenues IF someone can find a client to buy into the complexity squared approach to analytics and THEN pay money to get the system to perform like a customized mine truck. Slick, huh?
The write up concludes with this bit of sales genius:
“Their challenges don’t stem from the product,” Sallam said. “It’s their go-to-market strategy, how to sell beyond their installed base, how to attract new buyers. They’ve put in place a plan to do that, but we’ll see how well they execute on those plans.”
What? The product is 50 years old and stuck in the mud, despite the giant tires and chrome rims. The marketing strategy is crazy. No kidding. Just read this TechTarget write up. IBM cannot sell.
Pretty amazing.
Net net: How many ads will IBM buy in TechTarget products and services?
One can use IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson to predict the number. But why bother?
Stephen E Arnold, July 15, 2019
Amazonia for July 15, 2019
July 15, 2019
The Amazon displacement effect appears to be gaining momentum. Here’s a selection of Bezos bulldozer actions for the past week. DarkCyber has included a handful of items that took place outside this review window, but holidays can perturb in unexpected ways.
Amazon: Disinformation or Dissing the Competition?
A quite interesting article appeared in the Brisbane Times. The title caught my attention: “Former Amazon Scientist Pokes Holes in Data Collection at Brisbane Summit.” DarkCyber noted these quotes and statements in the write up:
- …People in poorer economic areas may not drive, so might not see potholes as a problem, or they were less likely to be connected online, so were less likely to report them. DarkCyber note: This means that the data will mis-report potholes. In short, the data leads to uninformed decisions.
- …Organizations should be transparent about how they used private data, and that citizens should be able to see their own data within the organization…The “right to inspect the refinery”, he said, was another right – that any person must be able to see and observe how organizations were using their data.” DarkCyber note: Amazon seems to preserve and use Alexa data, but that information is not revealed to customers of the Alexa devices.
Note that the speaker is a “former” Amazon scientist.
Employment Developments: Efficiency and Beyond
A report which appeared on July 8, 2019, suggested that Amazon workers will strike on Prime Day. That is a Monday, the same day this Amazonia news run down appears. Alas, we can’t update before this goes live on Prime Day. The origin of this story appears to be Engadget which pegs the action in Minnesota. If false, Amazon has dodged a problem. If it is true, disgruntled Amazon low tier workers may become more bold. What happened in the Middle Ages when those lower down the Great Chain of Being were unhappy? I don’t remember. Perhaps Amazon will have a book about these historical antecedents.
“Amazon Finds an Alternative Workforce Through Northwest Center, a Seattle Nonprofit Helping People with Disabilities” explains another Amazon management approach to staffing. The title explains the tactic.
Another tactic is the use of home workers for customer service roles. These employees receive some benefits. For details see “Amazon Is Hiring 3,000 Work-from-Home Employees with Full Benefits.”
Amazon will retrain its workers. Automation is coming and with it, many jobs will be crushed under the Bezos bulldozer. The New York Times explains the $700 million “retraining” effort but does not reference similar initiatives in Stalinist soviets.
ZDNet contributes the notion of a protest about upskilling. ZDNet reported:
Amazon’s announcement comes amid an Amazon Web Services conference in New York where CTO Werner Vogels was interrupted by protesters. Chants, which revolved around AWS providing technology to the US government, repeatedly picked up as Vogels talked early in his keynote. Vogels, flustered a smidge but rolling with it, said: “I’m more than willing to have a conversation, but maybe they should let me finish first.” AWS’ New York Summit had a similar issue last year, but the 2019 version was more persistent. On AWS’ live stream the protester audio was muted. “We’ll all get our voices heard,” said Vogels.
Does the Bezos bulldozer listen to humans directly or just through Alexa devices? DarkCyber does not know the answer.
Business Insider reveals that Amazon employees want the online bookstore to take a stand against the US government’s enforcement of immigration law. These individuals may not realize that Amazon facial recognition technology may be able to identify them.
Build a Serverless Architecture with AWS
A how to, diagrams, and step by step instructions. Navigate to Hypertrack and learn how “awesome” serverless is. The write up includes suggestions for specific AWS functions to include.
AWS Control Tower Available
I bet you didn’t know that Amazon AWS had a control tower. DarkCyber did not. Satellites, yes. Control towers? Sure, but these are a service automating “the process of setting up a new baseline multi account AWS environment.” InfoQ explains:
With Control Tower, a cloud administrator has a tool, which automates various tasks involving the initial setup of a new AWS environment such as identity and access management, centralized logging, and security audits across accounts. Furthermore, the service consists of several components, including:
- A Landing Zone – the multi-account AWS environment the tool sets up
- Blueprints – design patterns used to establish the Landing Zone
- A set of default policy controls known as Guardrails
- The Environment – an AWS account with all of the attendant resources set up to run an application.
Amazon QLDB
Jerry Hargrove published a useful diagram. Yes, we know it is small, but you can get a larger one and more from the link:
A link to the QLDB is included in the source.
Amazon Offers Centralized and Decentralized Blockchain Services
Most of the people with whom DarkCyber speaks are not aware of Amazon’s digital currency and blockchain services. We noted that Forbes, the capitalist tool, has noticed some blockchain capabilities available from Amazon. We noted:
AWS announced the preview for both of these models, centralized and decentralized, in late November of 2018, according to a press release. At the time of the July 3, 2019 interview with me, Pathak noted, “Quantum Ledger Database, QLDB, is still in preview,” while “Amazon Managed Blockchain went into General Availability at the end of April.” While in preview, customers can gain free access to these projects by filling out a form and signing up, an AWS representative clarified via email. When released for General Availability, anyone can use them.
Timely coverage.
Amazon Emotion Detection
Detecting a person’s emotions can be useful. Examples range from an insurance company’s identifying an insured driver evidencing signs of impending “rage” behavior to an Amazon DeepLens camera identifying an individual becoming increasingly problematic in a restaurant, night club, or sporting event. “Amazon May be Developing a Wearable That Detects Human Emotions” discusses this innovation. DarkCyber wonders if the technology has already been implemented in other Amazon devices; for example, the Alexa home gizmos. Could security and government authorities find this type of data-generating technology useful? DarkCyber thinks this is an interesting question.
DeepLens Now Available in Europe
DarkCyber covers the imaging devices in its Dark Web Version 2 lecture. We want to note The Register’s article “AWS’s Upgraded DeepLens AI Camera Zooms in on Europe” states:
The product is the result of work between AWS and Intel. DeepLens’s hardware consists of a mini PC running Ubuntu 16.4 LTS (Long Term Servicing) upon which is mounted an HD camera.
We noted:
The advantage of DeepLens is that it is ready to go, presuming you want to use AWS for your ML project. The pre-installed software includes AWS IoT Greengrass, which does local processing of IoT data such as the stream of images from your DeepLens camera.
This comment warranted a checkmark:
AWS has its own forthcoming Inferentia project, custom hardware for processing all the common ML frameworks, but currently it seems Google Cloud Platform has an advantage for TensorFlow.
Amazon Neighborhood Watch
A viewer of the DarkCyber Video news program questioned our assertion that Amazon was monitoring with humans, not just DeepLens and other zippy technology. Here’s a no cost source of information: “Amazon’s Neighborhood Watch App Raises Discrimination, Privacy Fears.” The problem is, of course, is that people cannot track Amazon’s activities nor do most professionals want to exert that effort. Hey, those meetings are important and there’s yoga and the off site. The write up points out:
Advocates and experts are worried that an Amazon-owned mobile app, used by owners of its Ring security cameras to upload videos for neighbors to see, could entrench racial discrimination and violate people’s privacy.
Why it matters: The app, called Neighbors, is striking deals to partner with police departments across the country.
Driving the news: Last week, journalists on Twitter noticed Ring was hiring an editor — prompting concerns that Amazon was stoking community fears to sell security systems. (Amazon bought the company last year.)
How it works: People with and without Ring cameras can download the Neighbors app. It features a feed where users can post videos and photos from their cameras, file reports of activity they think is suspicious and read crime reports from the app’s “News Team.”
Poke around online and other bits and pieces of information will surface. If you are lucky, you may get to meet Teresa Carlson, a former Microsoftie who is now Amazon’s VP of the Worldwide Public Sector. (This means government work.)
Amazon Brands
Trust Amazon?
Nope. “There’s No Reason to Trust Amazon’s Choice.” The idea is that Amazon recommends its own products. Do consumers know which products are really Amazon’s? No. The write up states:
Amazon’s typical statement on the matter is this: “Amazon’s Choice is just our recommendation, and customers can always ask for specific brands or products if they choose.” But Amazon’s recommendation doesn’t mean much if the recommendation engine is getting fooled.
Typical? Nope, standard operating procedure.
Furthermore, the article “These Are All the Businesses You Never Knew Were Owned by Amazon” was a heroic effort by a shopaholic. Among the gems in the list were these five brands with names DarkCyber found suggestive:
- 206 Collective (Was a variant of this in use in Stalinist stores?)
- Coastal Blue (Similar to the code name for the first stealth aircraft, “Have Blue”)
- Core 10 (a phrase similar to those in use in the nuclear industry)
- The Fix (slang for a rigged event or a drug injection)
- Mint Lilac (a code name similar to those used by SAS operatives).
Amazon Acquisitions
Business Insider (which may or may not beg for your email or demand cash to view the article) compiled from open sources of information a list of Amazon acquisitions. These lists are usually incomplete because the researchers typically exclude partial investments, stakes held by individuals who employed by Amazon, and clever deals in which services are exchanged for stock. The real excitement is often in these secondary holdings. In the case of this article, the coverage of the list is superficial. Contact your local Wall Street purveyor of investor research for a more thorough run down.
Amazon’s Impact on Truck Drivers
Business Insider ran this story: “Truckers Say Amazon’s New Logistics Empire Is Being Underpinned by Low, Ridiculous Rates — and Some Are Refusing to Work with Them.” Amazon’s investments in self driving are not included in the lists of Amazon’s acquisitions. But Amazon is focused on efficiency. Robots are efficient. Humans require benefits, retirement plans, and other “soft” and “squishy” things which add escalating and variable costs. Nope, not in Amazon’s future.
How to Put Amazon in Your Business?
Answer: Just use Amazon. Plus, CTO Vision ran a “real” news story called “Amazon on How Businesses Can Implement AI.” The write up is a pointer to an Amazon movie “How AWS Is Changing Businesses Using Artificial Intelligence.” The video runs about four minutes, too short for popcorn, long enough to get the message across, “Embrace Amazon.” Admission is free even if one does not have a Prime membership. More Amazon PR is included in “At Re:MARS, Amazon Sells Itself As an AI Innovator.” Unlike Facebook and Google, Amazon is taking note of America Online’s disc campaign and refined it. Instead of CD ROMs, Amazon is using digital reminders, flashy technology, and glitzy conferences to make clear that it is the Bezos way or one will be sitting on the side of the Amazon toll way.
Amazon Revenue
According to GeekWire, Amazon’s sale of products make up less than half of Amazon’s revenue. Where’s the other revenue come from? Amazon Web Services, advertising, and “other” revenue streams. Is this important? Facebook, Google, and Microsoft may care. Regulators? Tough to say.
We noted a question posed by the Motley Fool, a rock solid financial advisory service: Is Amazon spending too much cash on Lord of the Rings? You can read the MBAistic discussion at this link. The answer is that the streaming world is a competitive place. Deep pockets are needed for this game. Even Google is working to fix up its YouTube service. If Amazon doesn’t get with the seeing stone, Apple, Disney, Netflix, or another outfit with cash will. Netflix has lost “Friends” and that’s the new world of streaming video. Losing friends.
Amazon: Asking Permission
“Amazon Asks to Join Broadband Space Race with Elon Musk’s SpaceX” signals a new spirit at Amazon. The write up reports:
Amazon.com asked for U.S. permission to launch 3,236 communications satellites, joining a new space race to offer internet service from low orbits and challenge the fleet planned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Yes, asking permission.
Amazon’s satellite initiative is designed to help people get Internet access. Those without Internet access can use Amazon for shopping, videos, and computer services. But the permission angle is noteworthy.
Amazon Faces Challenges
There has been an uptick in “Amazon faces challenges” news. The Telegraph published “As Amazon Turns 25, What Are the Biggest Challenges Facing the World’s Most Powerful Company?” The Week, another UK publishing outfit, chimed in with “Amazon at 25: Where Next for the Online Giant?” These “analyses” recycle truisms. But after a decade of inattention, the rush to criticize is amusing.
More interesting were these items about Amazon’s new world:
Deliveroo Stalled
CNN reported:
UK regulators have ordered Amazon to pause its investment in UK food delivery startup Deliveroo while they consider whether the deal amounts to a takeover.
UK Investigates Amazon
The Associated Press, an outfit which frightens us, emitted a write up called “UK Investigation of Amazon Investment Shows Tougher Approach.” The AP story appeared in SFGate. We won’t quote from the story. What’s up is that government authorities are going to scrutinize Amazon. Amazon has been in business for more than 20 years. What’s the rush? Possible revenue from fines and taxes. These are potent forces in some nation states.
French Push Back
SFGate reported that Amazon faced some environmental pushback in Paris, France. We learned:
Protesters also disrupted Amazon sites in the southern city of Toulouse and northern city of Lille, hoping to inspire similar action in other countries.
C’est dommage.
Adding fuel to the environmental dumpster fire was a report that the online bookstore will not reveal how much carbon is pumped into the atmosphere by its Australian server operations. The Register said:
It’s one rule for Jeff Bezos’ online empire, and another for everyone else.
Security Issue
A new exploit has appeared. The code is Magecart and it attacks misconfigured AWS S3 instances. The method used is called “skimming.” The basic idea is to siphon off credit card data.
One unique feature of the S3 attacks is that the group is using a “spray and pray” technique as opposed to previous attacks that were highly targeted. In this case, the Magecart group is installing the skimmer code on any open S3 instances it can find in the hope that some of them may be linked to sites that have e-commerce functions.
Financial fraud is a new core competency of some bad actors and industrialized crime cartels. You can read more in Silicon Angle.
Selected Partner / Integrator News
- The Chengdu Hi-tech Zone has teamed up with the Chinese non governmental organization to create a joint innovation zone. The idea is that Amazon and its partner will have an accelerator, incubator, international maker space and talent base. Source: Yahoo
- Datadog has achieved AWS Microsoft workloads competency status. Source: Business Wire
- Dobler Consulting has achieved Select Partner status as part of the Amazon Partner Network (APN). Source: Business Insider
- Saviynt announced support for the newly launched Amazon EventBridge, from Amazon Web Services (AWS). (Amazon EventBridge is a serverless event bus service that connects applications using events.) Source: Digital Journal
- Iron Mountain now supports AWS. The announcement included this remarkable phrase: ‘’Iron Mountain announced it has joined the AWS Partner Network (APN) as a Select Technology Partner, enabling customers to accelerate their digital transformation journey with AWS.” Source: Yahoo
- The Spanish vendor Media Interactiva Media Interactiva offers system developers and engineers the chance to prepare for certification in Amazon Web Services (AWS). Source: Business Insider (may be paywall protected or free. It’s sort of hit and miss with this media and “real” news giant.)
- SentryOne has also achieved Advanced Tier status in the Amazon Web Partner Services Network (APN) as well as Amazon Web Services (AWS) Microsoft Workloads Competency status. Source: Yahoo
- SIOS Technology Corp. achieved Amazon Web Services (AWS) Microsoft Workloads Competency status within the AWS Partner Network (APN). Source: Yahoo
- Trend Micro will deliver transparent, inline network security with Amazon Web Services Transit Gateway. Source: MarketWatch
- Turbonomic has achieved Amazon Web Services (AWS) Microsoft Workloads Competency status as an inaugural global launch AWS Partner Network (APN) Partner. Source: Yahoo
- Unissant has joined the AWS consulting partner network. Source: Globe News Wire
- Oooh rah. The US Marines and Amazon have teamed up for AWS training. Source: Education Drive
Stephen E Arnold, July 15, 2019
Qwant Pitches Map Privacy
July 14, 2019
Digital maps are an indispensable tool, especially if you ceaselessly use a GPS. While digital maps are accurate, fast, and reliable, the also track and store user information. One semi-logical argument is that if you have nothing to hide, what is the big deal about information being stored. On the other hand, you should have the right to protect your privacy whether or not you have anything to hide. Qwant Maps believes in preserving user privacy, so it is an open source and privacy-preserving map tool. Qwant Maps was created so users have exclusive control over their geolocated data.
Qwant Maps built its tool on OpenStreetMap, a free and collaborative geographical database supported by more than one million voluntary contributors. OpenStreetMap is not an out-of-the box solution and requires some tech savviness to use it. Qwant Maps’s team developed a geoparsing engine to make OpenStreetMap more user friendly.
“To overcome these shortcomings and to meet the needs of most of people, Qwant Maps has developed — or participated to the development — its own software components. The will of Qwant Maps is to create a virtuous synergy between Qwant Maps and OpenStreetMap. Thus Qwant Maps uses OpenStreetMap data to generate its own vector tiles, its own base map, its own web APIs. Also Qwant Maps feeds its geoparsing web service as well as its online applications thanks to OpenStreetMap data.”
All of the code for both the Qwant Maps geosparsing tool and OpenStreetMap are open source. Qwant Maps also uses Mimirsbrunn as its search engine, Kartotherian as a visual rendering tool based on vector tiles, and Idunn is used to highlight all information on the tiles.
Whitney Grace, July 5, 2019
New Jargon: Consultants, Start Your Engines
July 13, 2019
I read “What Is “Cognitive Linguistics“? The article appeared in Psychology Today. Disclaimer: I did some work for this outfit a long time ago. Anybody remember Charles Tillinghast, “CRM” when it referred to people, not a baloney discipline for a Rolodex filled with sales lead, and the use of Psychology Today as a text in a couple of universities? Yeah, I thought not. The Ziff connection is probably lost in the smudges of thumb typing too.
Onward: The write up explains a new spin on psychology, linguistics, and digital interaction. The jargon for this discipline or practice, if you will is:
Cognitive Linguistics
I must assume that the editorial processes at today’s Psychology Today are genetically linked to the procedures in use in — what was it, 1972? — but who knows.
Here’s the definition:
The cognitive linguistics enterprise is characterized by two key commitments. These are:
i) the Generalization Commitment: a commitment to the characterization of general principles that are responsible for all aspects of human language, and
ii) the Cognitive Commitment: a commitment to providing a characterization of general principles for language that accords with what is known about the mind and brain from other disciplines. As these commitments are what imbue cognitive linguistics with its distinctive character, and differentiate it from formal linguistics.
If you are into psychology and figuring out how to manipulate people or a Google ranking, perhaps this is the intellectual gold worth more than stolen treasure from Montezuma.
Several observations:
- I eagerly await an estimate from IDC for the size of the cognitive linguistics market, and I am panting with anticipation for a Garnter magic quadrant which positions companies as leaders, followers, outfits which did not pay for coverage, and names found with a Google search at Starbuck’s south of the old PanAm Building. Cognitive linguistics will have to wait until the two giants of expertise figure out how to define “personal computer market”, however.
- A series of posts from Dave Amerland and assorted wizards at SEO blogs which explain how to use the magic of cognitive linguistics to make a blog page — regardless of content, value, and coherence — number one for a Google query.
- A how to book from Wiley publishing called “Cognitive Linguistics for Dummies” with online reference material which may or many not actually be available via the link in the printed book
- A series of conferences run by assorted “instant conference” organizers with titles like “The Cognitive Linguistics Summit” or “Cognitive Linguistics: Global Impact”.
So many opportunities. Be still, my heart.
Cognitive linguistics — it’s time has come. Not a minute too soon for a couple of floundering enterprise search vendors to snag the buzzword and pivot to implementing cognitive linguistics for solving “all your information needs.” Which search company will embrace this technology: Coveo, IBM Watson, Sinequa?
DarkCyber is excited.
Stephen E Arnold, July 13, 2019
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