The CEOs Have a New Best Friend: Information Technology People
December 21, 2021
During the COVID-19 pandemic, organizational leaders turned to their IT departments to keep business running. IT professionals were propelled into leadership roles and were integral to keeping the entire globe from crumbling. ZD Net explains how, “Technology Leaders’ Influence In Their Businesses Grows Beyond Expectations.”
Snow Software recently conducted a survey of 1000 IT leaders and discovered that they faired well during the world crisis. Their roles became so important that they will venture into leadership positions that fall outside IT. Before COVID-19, 89% of respondents said that their roles were undervalued. Now 90% claim they are viewed as trusted advisors within their companies. Ninety-four percent of IT leaders view innovation as an integral part of their jobs, but 71% said they are spending too much time fixing problems than the former.
In 2022, IT leaders want to concentrate on reducing IT costs, improving customer relations, and improving day-to-ay operations. The survey showed:
“‘These areas of focus can often conflict, or at least compete, with one another which, so often, is an all-too-familiar pain felt by IT leaders,’ the researchers observe. ‘To balance these priorities moving forward, CIOs need a more advanced approach for managing their technology environment. Nearly all respondents say they are in the process of adopting the cloud in some form — and 61% increased their use of cloud services over the last year.”
It is great that IT leaders are influencing business decisions and shaping the work environment, but will things revert back as the world heads towards normalcy? Also since IT is a white, male dominated industry will this exacerbate the bro culture that dominates industry?
Sounds like a winner for the techies who happen to be male.
Whitney Grace, December 21, 2021
Reading Is Fundamental for Some
December 21, 2021
Reading is not a dead habit as the media would have you believe. It has only changed, but not necessary for the best. Ben Wajdi discussed how reading habits have changed in, “Is Internet Addiction Eradicating The Habit Of Reading?” He does not approach the world’s current reading situation as a condescending elitist that believes any new technology is subpar to the old. He instead focuses on how reading habits have changed and how they could improve.
Wadji discusses how famous writers view technology, reading, and writing. Some love it, while others hate it, but Wadji remains neutral to a point. The writers he examines are privileged because they live in developed countries, but Wadji did not have the same advantages as them and explains why the Internet is a great tool:
“On the one hand, I resonate with Franzen’s take on the internet, and on corporations, yet on the other hand, I can’t deny that for someone like me, a marginalized North African kid whose first interaction with any part of the internet dates back to circa 2005, the internet was the only way I could’ve accessed the body of knowledge that could fulfill my curiosity, and my eternal search for a way out of the “sh%thole”. Without the internet, I would have been a very different man. Without it, I would have succumbed to all the currents of local nationalism, religious fanaticism, and the currents of elite leftists running the “shithole” and confining everyone with them in eternal misery.”
People do spend way too much time attached to their screens. It has become a addiction. Depending on the individual, it could be as mentally consuming as alcoholism or as limiting as biting one’s nails. Wadji encourages people to become consciousness of their habits, relearn how to absorb what they read, and think think critically about it. Was the same argument made when young Egyptians spent too much time staring at hieroglyphics?
Whitney Grace, December 21, 2021
Meta Mark Gets an F from the British Medical Journal
December 20, 2021
I don’t know anything about Covid, medical data, or Facebook. I do recognize a failing “mark” when I see one. I noted “Researcher Blows the Whistle on Data Integrity Issues…” [Note: the editor has trimmed certain stop words because trigger warning software is a fascinating part of life these days.’’]
The Harvard drop out who has garnered a few dollars via a “friend”, “like”, and “social online” service is unlikely to be personally affected by the big red F.
The write up states:
We are aware that The BMJ is not the only high quality information provider to have been affected by the incompetence of Meta’s fact checking regime. To give one other example, we would highlight the treatment by Instagram (also owned by Meta) of Cochrane, the international provider of high quality systematic reviews of the medical evidence.[3] Rather than investing a proportion of Meta’s substantial profits to help ensure the accuracy of medical information shared through social media, you have apparently delegated responsibility to people incompetent in carrying out this crucial task. Fact checking has been a staple of good journalism for decades. What has happened in this instance should be of concern to anyone who values and relies on sources such as The BMJ. We hope you will act swiftly: specifically to correct the error relating to The BMJ’s article and to review the processes that led to the error; and generally to reconsider your investment in and approach to fact checking overall.
I was disappointed to see the letter’s close; that is, “best wishes.” A more British expression could have been “Excuse me.” But excusing a stupid “mark” is impolite.
Stephen E Arnold, December 20, 2021
Who Blinked? Googzilla or Dopey
December 20, 2021
I read “YouTube TV Drops Disney Owned Channels Including ESPN, Disney Channel, & ABC.” The Google, fresh from its negotiations with the super giant Roku, faced a more formidable negotiating team representing Disney capture team of Goofy and friends. Rumors that Darth Vader and Spiderman would participate in the discussions proved false. Dopey was not moved by Alphabet’s spelling out the realities of working with the online advertising behemoth. The write up reports one of Dopey’s assistants as saying:
We’ve been in ongoing negotiations with Google’s YouTube TV and unfortunately, they have declined to reach a fair deal with us based on market terms and conditions.
The online advertising giant’s representative, a former high school science club member, allegedly said:
We’ve held good faith negotiations with Disney for several months. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we’ve been unable to reach an equitable agreement before our existing one expired, and their channels are no longer available on YouTube TV….We know this is frustrating news for our customers, and not what we wanted. We will continue conversations with Disney to advocate on your behalf in hopes of restoring their content on YouTube TV.
We have heard that Dopey rejected the Alphabet request for special access to the Lightning Lane and VIP parking.
Dopey was not available for comment. The write up includes this statement:
In September, YouTube TV had a similar dispute with NBCUniversal over carriage of their local affiliates and cable channels, but were able to reach a deal without the channels going dark. They were also recently in a carriage dispute with Roku, which prevented new subscribers from downloading the YouTube TV App. The two sides reached a deal last week that saw the app return to the platform. However, YouTube TV has dropped channels in the past. Most notably, in October 2020 they dropped Bally Sports (which were Fox Sports RSNs at the time), along with Sinclair-owned Tennis Channel and Boston-based RSN NESN.
Then Googzilla and Dopey, after listening to complaints of five-year-olds saw the light saber. “YouTube TV reaches deal with Disney to restore channels including ABC, ESPN” reported that despite the gap between Googzilla and Dopey:
CNET’s David Katzmaier notes, though, that while relatively brief, the two-day blackout was an inconvenience to YouTube TV customers who wanted to watch college football (bowl season starts this weekend), the NFL or the NBA on ESPN or ABC, or a Christmas special on the Disney Channel. Katzmaier has his own take on YouTube TV alternatives for bummed-out Disney and sports fans.
Googzilla and Dopey are planning a visit to Disney World over the holidays. Separate rooms, please.
Stephen E Arnold, December 20, 2021
Scientific Research Might Not Work The Second Time Around or the First Time Either
December 20, 2021
Scientific research is one way humanity advances, but Science Alert brings into question if studies’ results can be replicated: “Strenuous 8-Year Effort To Replicate Key Cancer Research Finds An Unwelcome Surprise.” Common sense and the scientific process tells that if results cannot be replicated a second time, then they are not going to work. Cancer research is facings a stigma about scientific studies being replicated:
“The research looked at 193 different experiments found in 53 cancer-related papers published in high-profile journals between 2010 and 2012, and found that none of the experiments could be set up again using only the information published. After getting help from the original study authors, 50 experiments from 23 papers were reproduced.
That only a quarter of the experiments could be rerun at all is concerning – some of the original authors never responded to requests for help – but the results showed that these reproduced tests showed effect sizes that were often smaller than what the original studies yielded.”
The findings of the replicated studies discovered that the evidence was weaker than the original experiments. This does not mean that findings are false, but further testing is needed. Furthermore, time, money, and resources are wasted in clinical trials on patients where drugs do not affect diseases. Demands for results shape cancer biology and other scientific research.
These mounting pressures hinder scientific research and delay eventual cancer cures. There is a saying, “Art for art’s sake,” so why cannot there not be “Research for research’s sake” in order to advance science? Plus one can make up data, fiddle the results, or contact colleagues for some STM SEO goodness.
Whitney Grace, December 20, 2021
Twitter Road Paved with Tweety Intentions
December 20, 2021
It did not take long for this well-intended change to go sideways. The Guardian reports, “‘So Vague, It Invites Abuse’: Twitter Reviews Controversial New Privacy Policy.” The platform was trying to prevent the very real problems of harassing and doxxing by penalizing those who share images of others without consent. Twitter had been warned by activist groups that the policy, created with little input from communities often targeted by doxxing and harassment, would backfire. Besides the rushed implementation and vague wording, Twitter’s historically obtuse automated appeals process was a concern. Reporter Johana Bhuiyan writes:
“Hours after the policy became public, users affiliated with far-right movements like the Proud Boys and others espousing QAnon conspiracies put out calls to their followers, urging them to weaponize the new rules to target activists who had posted about them. On 1 December, for example, a member of the far-right group National Justice Party posted a list of about 40 Twitter accounts of anti-racist and anti-fascist activists who research far-right groups. The member called on his more than 4,000 followers to report their posts: ‘Due to the new privacy policy at Twitter, things now unexpectedly work more in our favor as we can take down Antifa, [gay slur] doxxing pages more easily,’ the post read.”
It worked immediately—see the article for several examples of resulting penalties and appeal results. We also learn:
“Reporters and photographers, too, have expressed concern. The new policy explicitly states Twitter will take into account whether the images are publicly available, being covered by journalists or adding to the public discourse… . Journalists have warned that leaving the decision of whether an image is newsworthy or adds to the public discourse to Twitter’s discretion could be problematic.”
For example, as National Press Photographers Association general counsel Mickey Osterreicher observes, Twitter seems blind to the established principle that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in public spaces. At least the company has admitted it was wrong in at least some of these decisions and is conducting an internal review of the policy. We shall see where it leads, if anywhere.
Cynthia Murrell, December 20, 2021
Meta Shows Its True Face
December 17, 2021
I have no idea if a Meta executive offered the statement reported in “Top Meta Exec Blames Users for Spreading Misinformation.” We live in the Stone Age of Deep Fakes, redefining words like unlimited, and getting rid of bad grades. Anything is, therefore, possible.
Here’s the statement I noted:
“The individual humans are the ones who choose to believe or not believe a thing; they’re the ones that choose to share or not to share a thing.”
There you go. We built a platform. We provided algorithms to boost engagement. We shape the content flows. And users are responsible for whatever.
Amazing. I really want to work at “two face” or — sorry — Meta so I can sit in meetings and validate this viewpoint myself. Bizarro world, whatever, I want to be the only 77 year old in Kentucky to hear Meta’s wisdoming first hand. Zoom is okay with me, but I am wise to Zoom hacks which fake who is really in the meeting.
Stephen E Arnold, December 17, 2021
Google and Its Penchant for Bold Assertions
December 17, 2021
Google claimed quantum supremacy. Recently Google’s engineers studied the technology of the NSO Group and according to “A Deep Dive into an NSO Zero-Click iMessage Exploit: Remote Code Execution” found the “most technically sophisticated exploit ever seen.” The analysis is thorough and reflects considerable enthusiasm for disentangling some of the inner workings of Apple’s mobile operating system. I can almost hear the chuckles of the Google engineers as they figured out how the NSO Group compromised iPhones simply by sending the unlucky target a message packet.
Several observations:
- The NSO Group talks with other entities (people from university, a military unit, colleagues at limited attendance conference, etc.). Consequently information about methods seeps into the intelware community. This community is not quite like the Yacht Club in Manhattan, but it is similar: Traditions, friendships, bon homie, and the like.
- Intelware developers associated with other countries often gain access to specialized tools and services via connections with a nation state which is a customer of an specialized services firm, say, for argument’s sake, the NSO Group. It is probable that other entities have examined and replicated some of the NSO Group’s systems and methods. The fact that Google figured out the system and methods of this particular NSO Group service means that other groups can too. (It is possible that some at Google believe that their work is singular and not replicable. Yeah, high school science club thinking, perhaps?)
- Due to the connection between high value targets and the cachet of the Apple iPhone, figuring out how to penetrate an iPhone is a high value activity. Apple’s engineers are bright and were in their high school science clubs as well. However, engineers do not design to prevent unforeseeable flaws in their engineering innovations. This means that iPhones have flaws. When a device is the focus of attention of numerous nation states’ intelligence services, commercial enterprises in the zero day business, and companies with staff trained by military intelligence organizations — flaws will be found. My Arnold Rule for this situation is that insights will be discovered of which the original developer had no clue.
Kudos to Google for the NSO Group information. However, like quantum supremacy, the statements about the sophistication of the exploit are a bit like the claim for quantum supremacy. There are other entities in the Intel world which have capabilities which will surprise the “experts” just now discovering the world of intelware. Nice paper, very academic, but it reveals a disconnect between the world of the commercial researcher and the robust, broad intelware ecosystem.
Stephen E Arnold, December 17, 2021
SEO for 2022: Why Not Buy Google Ads and Skip the Baloney
December 17, 2021
There is one game in the US for search. Yeah, I know DuckDuckGo is wonderful. There’s even Bing. And you can still navigate to AOL.com and enter a search. Same for Dogpile.com. I am not going to repeat what I have been saying for decades. Primary search does the crawl, the indexing, the query processing, and the results serving. There are a few outfits in this business, but none is known; for example, Swisscows.ch, Yandex.ru, Baidu.com, and a few others.
This article “Why Your Website Must Have an SEO Strategy for 2022” strikes me as pretty darned crazy. If someone repeats a process over and over again and fails, what’s that say about the approach or the person? In my view, crazy seems close to the mark.
The write up says:
The aim of SEO is simple: high SEO ranking brings more traffic and more revenue.
More accurately, SEO produces work for search engine optimization experts. Many of the certified outfits are Google partners. When a temporary boost expires, these professionals will sell Google ads.
There you go.
Why not just buy Google ads and forget the futility of trying to outwit the Google. In case you haven’t notice, the Google along with Facebook are in a prime position to determine who and what gets eyeballs.
Buy ads. Simpler, faster, and cheaper. People with degrees in art history and business communications are no match for Googzilla’s decades of “refinement”.
Stephen E Arnold, December 17, 2021
Semantics Have Become an Architecture: Sounds Good but
December 17, 2021
Semantic Architecture Is A Big Data Cash Grab
A few years ago, big data was the hot topic term and in its wake a surge of techno babble followed. Many technology companies develop their own techno babble to peddle their wares, while some of the jargon does have legitimate means to exist. Epiexpress has the lowdown on one term that does have actual meaning: “What Is Semantic Architecture, And How To Build One?”
The semantic data layer is a system’s brain or hub, because most data can be found through a basic search. It overlays the more complex data in a system. Companies can leverage the semantic layer for business decisions and discover new insights. The semantic layer uses an ontology model and enterprise knowledge graph to organize data. Before building the architecture, one should consider the following:
“1. Defining and listing the organizational needs
When developing a semantic enterprise solution, properly-outlined use cases provide the critical questions that the semantic architecture will answer. It, in turn, gives a better knowledge of the stakeholders and users, defines the business value, and facilitates the definition of measurable success criteria.
2. Survey the relevant business data
Many enterprises possess a data architecture founded on data warehouses, relational databases, and an array of hybrid cloud systems and applications that aid analytics and data analysis abilities
In such enterprises, employing relevant unification processes and model mapping practices based on the enterprise’s use cases, staff skill-sets, and enterprise architecture capabilities will be an effective approach for data modeling and mapping from source systems.3. Using semantic web standards for ensuring governance and interoperability
When implementing semantic architecture, it is important to use semantic technology such as graph management apps to be middleware. Middleware acts as organizational tools for proper metadata governance. Do not forger that users will need tools to interact with the data, such as enterprise search, chatbots, and data visualization tools.
Semantic babble?
Whitney Grace, December 17, 2021
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