Music Star Dubs Social Media As Mob Mentality
October 31, 2020
I am not sure I knew about Taio Cruz before I read “Taio Cruz: Social Media Has a Mob Mentality.” Mr. Cruz is a musician. He knows about social media, or, at least, he knows more than I do. Plus he makes an interesting connection:
“I think there’s a mob mentality that happens in comment sections. “A lot of the time people will see something, then look at the comments to give them the answer of how they should feel about it, or how they should behave. “And I think that’s really what happened with with my stuff. I was making fun videos, then someone decided to be toxic – and a bunch of other people decided, ‘Oh, I’m gonna join in on that.'”
The social media which sparked Mr. Cruz’s insight was TikTok, the data Hoover and entertainment mecca for people who are young at heart.
Mr. Cruz allegedly observed:
“Tik Tok really emphasizes making users’ content go viral through their ‘For You’ page – and it has this sort of feedback loop or a feedback spiral. “So if you create a piece of content, then someone else creates content from your content, it loops over and over and over again.”
Suggestion: The elected officials investigating social media may want to reach out to Mr. Cruz. He may have some insights and the language skills to explain impacts of social media upon users and stars alike.
The music for “Hangover” would enliven the forthcoming hearings.
Stephen E Arnold, October 31, 2020
Google Reveals Its Aspiration: Everything
October 30, 2020
An online publication called Gadgets360 published “Google Renames the Chromebook Search Button to the Everything Button.” The lowly capitalization lock key has been identified as expendable. By repurposing a way to create CAPS, Google has performed two vital services:
- Easier access to search
- A way to reveal its aspiration: To be “everything” to a human user.
The article states:
Google is renaming a button on Chrome OS PC keyboards to ‘Everything Button. … Google said that the new name for the Launcher button was chosen to reflect user feedback; the search giant hoped that the inclusion of the new name for the button will help highlight that Chromebook laptops have a dedicated button on their keyboards. Clicking on the Everything Button will open up a search bar through which you can search for things on Google, as well as for apps and files on the Chrome OS machine.
Interesting. What about confusion with the freeware application called Everything. David Carpenter at Voidtools.com has offered his useful information retrieval software for several years. Google is indeed innovative and proving that it is “everything” a me-too outfit would want to be.
Stephen E Arnold, October 30, 2020
Organizational Security: Many Vendors, Many Breaches
October 30, 2020
I noted a write up with a fraught title: “Breaches Down 51%, Exposed Records Set New Record with 36 Billion So Far.” I interpreted this to mean “fewer security breaches but more data compromised.”
The write up explains the idea this way:
The number of records exposed has increased to a staggering 36 billion. There were 2,935 publicly reported breaches in the first three quarters of 2020, with the three months of Q3 adding an additional 8.3 billion records to what was already the “worst year on record,” Risk Based Security reveals.
Okay. How is this possible? The answer:
The report explores numerous factors such as how media coverage may be a factor contributing to the decline in publicly reported breaches. In addition, the increase of ransomware attacks may also have a part to play.
I interpreted this to mean, “Let’s not tell anyone.”
If you want a copy of this RiskBased Security report, navigate to this link. You will have to cough up an email and a name.
Net net: More data breaches and fewer organizations willing to talk about their security lapses. What about vendors of smart cyber security systems? Vendors are willing to talk about the value and performance of their products.
Talk, however, may be less difficult than dealing with security breaches.
Stephen E Arnold, October 30, 2020
Linear Math Textbook: For Class Room Use or Individual Study
October 30, 2020
Jim Hefferon’s Linear Algebra is a math textbook. You can get it for free by navigating to this page. From Mr. Hefferon’s Web page for the book, you can download a copy and access a range of supplementary materials. These include:
- Classroom slides
- Exercise sets
- A “lab” manual which requires Sage
- Video.
The book is designed for students who have completed one semester of calculus. Remember: Linear algebra is useful for poking around in search or neutralizing drones. Zaap. Highly recommended.
Stephen E Arnold, October 30, 2020
Contact Tracing Apps: A Road Map to Next Generation Methods
October 30, 2020
I read “Why Contact-Tracing Apps Haven’t Lived Up to Expectations.” The article explains that the idea of using a mobile phone and some software to figure out who has been exposed to Covid is not exactly a home run. The reasons range from people not trusting the app or the authorities pushing the app, crappy technology, and an implicit message that some humans don’t bother due to being human: Sloth, gluttony, etc.
The write up appears to overlook the lessons which have been learned from contact tracing applications.
- The tracers have to be baked into the devices
- The software has to be undetectable
- The operation has to be secure
- The monitoring has to be 24×7 unless the phone is destroyed or the power source cut off.
These lessons are not lost on some government officials.
What’s this mean? For some mobile phone operations, the insertion of tracers is chugging right along. Other countries may balk, but the trajectory of disease and other social activities indicated that these “beacon” and “transmit” functions are of considerable interest in certain circles.
Stephen E Arnold, October 30, 2020
A Failure to Understand Google and History: First, There Is No Google History for Real Googlers
October 30, 2020
I read “Creative Director At Google Stadia Advocates Streamers Paying Game Devs And Publishers.” The write up explains why game streaming is a good thing. A Googler involved in Stadia, Google’s effort to be a player in the big money world of online escapism, wondered publicly if “Twitch and YouTube users should be “paying the developers and publishers” of the games they stream.”
The write up includes this point:
Meanwhile, I’m just wondering why Hutchinson doesn’t just go read his own employer’s 2013 study that shows just how beneficial let’s plays and game-streaming is for the industry. He might also want to realize that Google’s YouTube has an entire wing of it’s service called YouTube Gaming, built around game-streaming….But it’s probably time to educate Hutchinson on the actual facts that his own employer has made clear in the past.
Observations:
- Googlers are a-historical; that is, there is no history. This is not the Wu thing about the “end of history.” The past is a non-event.
- Googlers making statements illustrate the lack of a cohesive intellectual fabric at the Google. Googlers see the world through a lens crafted by a single Googler or a small group of Googlers clumping.
- Google lawyers, not those working on products, are responsible for figuring out what happened in the past. But those analyses are only germane to legal issues in the here and now.
This article, its reference to a 2013 Google study, and the observation of a single atomic Googler vibrating in bonus space underscore a lack of understanding about the company. The past — like the Googler who died of an alleged overdose on a yacht with an interesting person or the attempted suicide by a jilted friend of a senior Googler — don’t exist. Google invented Google. That’s for sure. However, the silliness of historical events, a record of actions, and the “actual facts” are not germane.
Google is a now outfit. History is for the non-Googleys.
Stephen E Arnold, October 30, 2020
Cybersecurity Lapse: Lawyers and Technology
October 29, 2020
“Hackers Steal Personal Data of Google Employees after Breaching US Law Firm” is an interesting article. First, it reminds the reader that security at law firms may not be a core competency. Second, it makes clear that personal information can be captured in order to learn about every elected officials favorite company Google.
The write up states:
Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy LLP, a law firm that offers employment verification compliance services to Google in the United States, suffered unauthorized access into its computer systems in September that resulted in hackers accessing the personal information of present and former Google employees.
The article quotes to a cyber security professional from ImmuniWeb. I learned:
According to Ilia Kolochenko, Founder & CEO of ImmuniWeb, the fact that hackers targeted a law firm that stores a large amount of data associated with present and former Google employees is not surprising as law firms possess a great wealth of the most confidential and sensitive data of their wealthy or politically-exposed clients, and habitually cannot afford the same state-of-the-art level of cybersecurity as the original data owners.
This law firm, according to the write up, handles not just the luminary Google. It also does work for Lady Gaga and Run DMC.
Stephen E Arnold, October 29, 2020
France: No Palantir Gotham Clone. Really?
October 29, 2020
DarkCyber noted “A French Alternative to Palantir Would Take Two Years to Make, Thales CEO Says.” The Reuters news story contains information which allegedly originated with Patrice Caine, the CEO of Thales, a rough equivalent to a large US defense contractor like Raytheon or the British outfit BAE Systems.
Factoids which appear in the write up:
- DGSI, the French equivalent of a mash up of the FBI and NSA, said there was no comparable product available from a French company
- France wants to achieve digital sovereignty in the intelware and policeware markets; that is, use French products
- The time required to clone Gotham is 24 months; however, the assistance of the French government would be needed.
DarkCyber observations:
First, the perception that no French company can deliver this type of system may come as a surprise to some French companies. Firms like Sinequa have marketed intelligence capabilities for many years. Some policeware and intelware is just enterprise search gussied up with a stage costume and some eye liner. Plus, there are other companies as well who might interpret the “no comparable product” comment as an affront; for example, hot ticket Datanami or the quite functional Amesys Eagle and Shadow technology.
Second, the desire to use French products is important. However, the French government has not moved with sufficient purpose to cultivate the type of innovation in intelware evident in the UK, for example. The UK is a policeware and intelware hot spot; for instance, the Gamma Group among others. The deanonymization of digital currencies revolution has been chugging along for a number of years because one university moved forward.
Third, the idea that two years are needed before France has a system comparable to Palantir Gotham is either wildly optimistic or an understatement about the time required. Fast ramping is possible with a French nucleus, supplemented with strategic acquisitions. For example, tap Dassault Exalead, provide funding, and recommend that innovative companies be identified and moved lock, stock, and barrel to Montpellier or Toulouse.
DarkCyber’s team can identify what to buy and what to do to assemble a French solution to the need for a Palantir-type system. It is important to remember that Palantir Gotham is “old” in Internet years. There are innovators and talent to create what France wants more in step with the modern era, not the emulation of a i2 Ltd’s late 1990’s thinking.
And where did the phrase “red tape” originate? Yep, France.
Stephen E Arnold, October 29, 2020
A Googley Book for the Google-Aspiring Person
October 29, 2020
Another free book? Yep, and it comes from the IBM-centric and Epstein-allied Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The other entity providing conceptual support is the Google, the online advertising company. MIT is an elite generator. Google is a lawsuit attractor. You will, however, look in vain through the 1,000 page volume for explanations of the numerical theorems explaining the amplification of value when generators and attractors interact.
The book, published in 2017, is “Mathematics for Computer Science.” The authors are a Googler named Eric Lehman, the MIT professors F Thomas Leighton and Albert R Meyer, and possibly a number of graduate students who work helped inform the the content.
The books numerical recipes, procedures, and explanations fall into five categories:
- Proofs, you know, that’s Googley truth stuff to skeptical colleagues who don’t want to be in a meat space or a virtual meeting
- Structures. These are the nuts and bolts of being able to solve problems the Googley way
- Counting. Addition and such on steroids
- Probability. This is the reality of the Google. And you thought Robinhood was the manifestation of winning a game. Ho ho ho.
- Recurrences. Revisiting the Towers of Hanoi. This is a walk down memory lane.
You can download your copy at this link. Will the MIT Press crank out 50,000 copies for those who lack access to an industrial strength laser printer?
Another IBM infusion of cash may be need to make that happen. Mr. Epstein is no longer able to contribute money to the fascinating MIT. What’s the catch? Perhaps that will be a question on a reader’s Google interview?
Stephen E Arnold, October 29, 2020
Distance Learning? Works Well, Right?
October 29, 2020
I spotted this article from the ever reliable “real” news outfit Daily Mail: “Boy, 9, Is Forced to Sit on Concrete Outside His Closed Elementary School with His Laptop on a Cardboard Box Because His Family Can’t Afford Wi-Fi for Online Classes.” The write includes a story of the young boy kneeling in front of a cardboard box and using his laptop. The desk looks like a cardboard box.
Observations:
- Online access is not available to some students
- The young man — if the write up is “real” — wants to learn
- The modern world may offer many delights to those who can afford them. To those with fewer resources, life is not a bowl of cherries.
The cost of inequality can be considered in the context of knowledge lost. Perhaps the whiz kid economists who preach efficiency, fast twitch action, and Austrian economic theory can solve this young man’s problem?
No wait.
Apparently an individual with resources stepped forward and made online access possible.
That’s the spirit: Asset reallocation in action. Plus, perhaps we should expect the young boy to do more: Build a desk out of scrap wood, learn to code so he can piggyback on a neighbor’s Wi-Fi, or just embrace street crime?
I think education is a better option.
Stephen E Arnold, October 29, 2020
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