Microsoft: Putting Teeth on Edge
January 11, 2022
Usually a basic press release for an update to Microsoft receives little discussion, but OS News recently posted a small quip: “Update For Windows 10 And 11 Blocks Default Browser Redirect, But There Is a Workaround” and users left testy comments. The sting fighting words were:
“It seems that Microsoft has quietly backported the block, introduced a month ago in a Dev build of Windows 11, on tools like EdgeDeflector and browsers from being the true default browser in Windows 10, with the change being implemented in Windows 11 too. Starting from KB5008212, which was installed on all supported versions of Windows 10 yesterday with Patch Tuesday, it is no longer possible to select EdgeDeflector as the default MICROSOFT-EDGE protocol.”
Followed by this sarcastic line: “They spent engineering resources on this.”
Users were upset because it meant Microsoft blocked other Web browsers from becoming a system’s default. It is a corporate strategy to normalize anti-competitive restrictions, but there are users who defended Microsoft’s move. They stated that blocking other Web browsers protected vulnerable users, like the elderly, from accidentally downloading malware and adware.
The comments then turned into an argument between tech-savvy experts and the regular users who do not know jack about technology. The discussion ended with semi-agreement that users need protection from freeware that forcefully changes a system, but ultimately users have the choice on their system settings.
In the end, the comments shifted to why Microsoft wants Edge to be the system default: money and deflecting attention from its interesting approaches to security.
Whitney Grace, January 11, 2022
Cherche: A Neural Search Pipeline
January 10, 2022
For fans of open source search, Cherche is available. The GitHub write up states:
Cherche is meant to be used with small to medium sized corpora. Cherche’s main strength is its ability to build diverse and end-to-end pipelines.
The “neural search” module includes ElasticSearch. The programming team for Cherche consists of Raphaël Sourty and François-Paul Servant. Beyond Search has not fired up the system and run it against our test corpus. We did have in our files a paper called “Knowledge Base Embedding by Cooperative Knowledge Distillation.” That paper states:
Given a set of KBs, our proposed approach KDMKB, learns KB embeddings by mutually and jointly distilling knowledge within a dynamic teacher-student setting. Experimental results on two standard datasets show that knowledge distillation between KBs through entity and relation inference is actually observed. We also show that cooperative learning significantly outperforms the two proposed baselines, namely traditional and sequential distillation.
The idea is that instead of retrieving strings, broader tags (concepts and classifications) appear to provide an advantage; pushing “beyond” old school search.
Stephen E Arnold, January 10, 2022
Windows 11: Loved and Wanted? Sure As Long As No One Thinks about MSFT Security Challenges
January 10, 2022
I hold the opinion that the release of Windows 11 was a red herring. How does one get the tech pundits, podcasters, and bloggers to write about something other than SolarWinds, Exchange, etc.? The answer from my point of view was to release the mostly odd Windows 10 refresh.
Few in my circle agreed with me. One of my team installed Windows 11 on one of our machines and exclaimed, “I’m feeling it.” Okay, I’m not. No Android app support, round corners, and like it, dude, you must use Google Chrome, err, I mean Credge.
I read “Only 0.21%, Almost No One Wants to Upgrade Windows 11.” Sure, the headline is confusing, but let’s look at the data. I believe everything backed by statistical procedures practiced by an art history major whose previous work experience includes taking orders at Five Guys.
The write up states:
According to the latest research by IT asset management company Lansweeper, although Windows 10 users can update Windows 11 for free, it is currently only 0.21%. Of PC users are running Windows 11.
I am not sure what this follow on construction means:
At present, Windows 11 is very good. Probably the operating system with the least proportion.
I think the idea is that people are not turning cartwheels over Windows 11. Wasn’t Windows 10 supposed to be the last version of Windows?
I am going to stick with my hypothesis that Windows 11 was pushed out the door, surprising Windows experts with allegedly “insider knowledge” about what Microsoft was going to do. The objective was to deflect attention from Microsoft’s significant security challenges.
Those challenges have been made a little more significant with Bleeping Computer’s report “Microsoft Code Sign Check Bypassed to Drop Zloader.”
Is it time for Windows 12, removing Paint, and charging extra for Notepad?
Possibly.
Stephen E Arnold, January 10, 2022
US Needs to Do Better at Building Digital Skills
January 10, 2022
A recent study sums up the state of worker skills in this country, and it is far from rosy. Tech News World connects the dots in its piece, “Report Finds US Workers Lagging in Digital Skills.” In both educating our youth and keeping adult workers up to date, the US is falling behind. It seems playing online games, watching TikTok, and using chipped credit cards do not provide a high-value tech foundation. Citing a recent think-tank report, writer John P. Mello Jr. tells us:
“One-third of U.S. workers lack digital skills, with 13 percent having no digital skills and 18 percent having, at best, limited digital skills, noted the report by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a science and technology institute. In essence, the ITIF reported, one in six working-age Americans are unable to use email, web search, or other basic online tools. ‘It begins with insufficient teaching of digital skills in the K-12 education system. Only a quarter of U.S. high schools have computer classes,’ the report’s author, ITIF Director of Global Innovation Policy Stephen Ezell told TechNewsWorld.”
Another roadblock is a lack of digital platforms at home for many students. Apparently 23% of households do not possess a computer and over seven percent of Americans do not use the internet.
Not only are we failing to teach our children what they need to know, efforts to keep the existing workforce current are insufficient in several fields. We learn:
“The lack of workforce digital skills is particularly acute in certain industries, according to the report. Across the U.S. construction, transportation and storage industries, half of all workers have no or only limited digital skills, while that share is over one-third across the health and social work, manufacturing, hospitality and retail and wholesale industries, it continued. The lack of digital skills in the manufacturing sector is particularly concerning, it added, especially because jobs in U.S. manufacturing increasingly demand a facility with digital skills, which is important for individual workers to be both competitive and productive, and for broader U.S. manufacturing industries as well.”
Ezell reports private-sector investment in training, as a share of US GDP, fell 30 percent over the past 20 years. According to the international Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), we invest about one-sixth the OECD average in labor market retraining among leading countries. Where does this lack of investment get us? Well below average in the developed world. A 2021 study from online education provider Coursera ranked the U.S. just 29th out of 100 countries in digital skills proficiency, putting us behind many countries in Europe and Asia.
This sorry state of affairs could all change if Congress ever manages to pass the Build Back Better bill, which includes funding for digital-skills training for both youth and established workers. We also see a ray of hope from yet another report, this one released last April by global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. That study found 69%of organizations are doing more skill-building now than they did before the Covid-19 crisis. A silver lining, we suppose.
Cynthia Murrell, January 10, 2022
A Sporty Cyber Centric Write Up with Key Information Left Out
January 10, 2022
I read “Experts Detail Logging Tool of DanderSpritz Framework Used by Equation Group Hackers.” The main point of the write up is that some clever cyber people have been working to figure out how a particular exploit works. The exploit is called DanderSpritz, which is a full featured framework for obtaining useful information from a target system. The Shadow Brokers leaded the software in 2017. It took the folks writing the article four years to figure out the method. Non US outfits figured it out more quickly. What’s left out of the write up?
I noted these omissions:
- Details of the DanderSpritz methods incorporated into other exploit tools
- Explanation of who and what the Equation Group is. The Web site link does not provide substantive information.
- Why do long between the release of the exploit and a public analysis?
Personally I would not get too frisky when it comes to the Equation Group. I apply this type of thinking to any outfit conveniently located near an NSA facility. In the case of Shadow Brokers, my recollection is that this outfit found a way to obtain Equation Group code. My hunch is that this is a sore point for the Equation Group, and the embarrassment of the DanderSpritz dump may still cause some red faces.
Stephen E Arnold, January 7, 2022
Challenging the AI Cabal: More Tasteful ART, Please
January 7, 2022
If you follow the often confused fault lines of artificial intelligence (whatever that is), you know that some folks with big IQs have some Antonio Brown-type energy in their logical hearts.
Some of the AI dust ups focus on the messy intersection of management, bias, and cost reduction methods. Others are more esoteric, relying on a happy confluence of high ideals, smart people, and some hand crafted algorithms. Others are just chasing grants, writing research papers for outstanding peer reviewed publications loved by tenure review committees, and giving graduate students something to do before these folks return to their homelands.
Do I sound jaded?
Navigate to “Deep Learning Can’t Be Trusted, Brain Modeling Pioneer Says” and learn about:
Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART).
The article says:
ART can be used with confidence because it is explainable and does not experience catastrophic forgetting, Grossberg says. He adds that ART solves what he has called the stability-plasticity dilemma: How a brain or other learning system can autonomously learn quickly (plasticity) without experiencing catastrophic forgetting (stability).
The method has been around since 1976, and one might assume that decades of investigation and application would allow a better approach to dominate the field of artificial intelligence (whatever that is). The fact that ART is one method suggests that the Darwinian model allows survival, which is good. But the survivor has not stamped out pesky alternatives.
The article adds some color to the ART:
ART’s networks are derived from thought experiments on how people and animals interact with their environment, he adds. “ART circuits emerge as computational solutions of multiple environmental constraints to which humans and other terrestrial animals have successfully adapted….” This fact suggests that ART designs may in some form be embodied in all future autonomous adaptive intelligent devices, whether biological or artificial. “The future of technology and AI will depend increasingly on such self-regulating systems,” Grossberg concludes. “It is already happening with efforts such as designing autonomous cars and airplanes. It’s exciting to think about how much more may be achieved when deeper insights about brain designs are incorporated into highly funded industrial research and applications.”
Will ART paint other methods into a corner? Which AI (whatever that is) can one trust? Perhaps we should ask IBM Watson?
Stephen E Arnold, January 7, 2022
Google and Its Management: More Excitement
January 7, 2022
In western countries, the technology industry is predominantly white and male. This has led to AI algorithms are accidentally programmed with “racial bias.” These awkward and humorous incidents include a “racist” soap dispenser that could not sense dark pigmented skin and photo recognition software identifying black people as gorillas. AI algorithms can easily be fixed when they are fed more diverse data, however, it is harder to fix human habits. Google is once again under fire for its treatment of minority employees, specifically, “Google Facing Probe For How It Treats Black Female Workers,” says Daiji World.
Google’s recent diversity report stated that only 1.8% of its work force consists of black women. The tech giant explains that it wants to be a viewed as a welcoming environment for black people. The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing has questioned Google employees about harassment and discrimination in response to complaints. Google has a known history of harassment and discrimination:
“Artificial Intelligence (AI) researcher Timnit Gebru, who was fired from Google after sending an email of concern to her Ethical AI team, has now set up her own research institute that will be an independent, community-rooted institute set to counter Big Tech’s pervasive influence on the research, development and deployment of AI.
Gebru was the technical co-lead of Google’s Ethical Artificial Intelligence team. She was fired over an email where she expressed her doubts about Google’s commitment to inclusion and diversity. Two Google engineers, including one of Indian-origin, quit Google over the abrupt firing of Gebru.
While engineering director David Baker said that Gebru’s dismissal “extinguished” his will to work at the company, software engineer Vinesh Kannan announced that he was quitting because Gebru and April Christina Curley, a diversity recruiter, were “wronged”.”
All industries should be merit-based, but allowances must be given for sex and ethnicity as these factors heavily weigh on society. All ethnicities and sexes want acceptance, respect, and inclusion in the workplace. This means racist, sexist, discriminatory, and harassing behaviors are taboo. If they do occur, the perpetrator should be punished, not the victim.
Here is a big secret about women in the workplace: they want to work. Here is a big secret about ethnic minorities in the workplace: they want to work too. Why is it so hard to curb rude behavior and treat women and ethnic minorities like everyone else?
The tech industry is like a huge good old boys club. When the male club members are confronted with change, they do not want to relinquish their power. Toxic male behaviors are not the only problem. As a whole, society still pushes women towards more traditional female roles. These roles stem away from science, math, and technology.
Things are better, but they can and will improve. The biggest holdups are old predilections that will face as older generations pass. Once Generation Z reaches adult hood, society will have improved. The biggest downside is the present.
Whitney Grace, January 7, 2022
Perhaps Someone Wants to Work at Google?
January 7, 2022
I read another quantum supremacy rah rah story. What’s quantum supremacy? IBM and others want it whatever it may be. “Google’s Time Crystals Could Be the Greatest Scientific Achievement of Our Lifetimes” slithers away from the genome thing, whatever the Nobel committee found interesting, and dark horses like the NSO Group’s innovation for seizing an iPhone user’s mobile device just by sending the target a message.
None of these is in the running. What we have it, according to The Next Web, is what may be:
the world’s first time crystal inside a quantum computer.
Now the quantum computer is definitely a Gartner go-to technology magnet. Google is happy with DeepMind’s modest financial burn rate to reign supreme. The Next Web outfit is doing its part. Two questions?
What’s a quantum computer? A demo, something that DARPA finds worthy of supporting, or a financial opportunity for clever physicists and assorted engineers eager to become the Seymour Crays of 2022.
What’s a time crystal? Frankly I have no clue. Like some hip phrases — synaptic plasticity, phubbing, and vibrating carbon nanohorns, for instance — time crystal is definitely evocative. The write up says:
Time crystals don’t give a damn what Newton or anyone else thinks. They’re lawbreakers and heart takers. They can, theoretically, maintain entropy even when they’re used in a process.
The write up includes a number of disclaimers, but the purpose of the time crystal strikes me as part of the Google big PR picture. Whether time crystals are a thing like yeeting alphabet boys or hyperedge replacement graph grammars, the intriguing linkage of Google, quantum computing, and zippy time crystals further cements the idea that Google is a hot bed of scientific research, development, and innovation.
My thought is that Google is better at getting article writers to make their desire to work at Google evident. Google has not quite mastered the Timnit Gebru problem, however.
And are the Google results reproducible? Yeah, sure.
Stephen E Arnold, January 7, 2022
A New Spin on Tech Recruitment
January 7, 2022
“Knock Knock! Who’s There? – An NSA VM” is an interesting essay for three reasons.
First, it contains a revealing statement about the NSO Group:
Significant time has passed and everyone went crazy last week with the beautiful NSO exploit VM published by Project Zero, so why not ride the wave and present a simple NSA BPF VM. It is still an interesting work and you have to admire the great engineering that goes behind this code. It’s not everyday that you can take a peek at code developed by a well funded state actor.
I noticed that the write up specifically identifies the NSO Group as a “state actor.” I think this means that NSO Group was working for a country, not the customers. This point is one that has not poked through the numerous write ups about the Israel-based company.
Second, the write up walks through a method associated with the National Security Agency. In terms of technical usefulness, one could debate whether the write up contains old news or new news. The information does make it clear that there are ideas for silent penetration of targeted systems. The targets are not specific mobile phones. It appears that the targets of the methods referenced and the sample code provided are systems higher in the food chain.
Third, the write up is actually a recruitment tool. This is not novel, but it is probably going to lead to more “look how smart and clever we are, come join us” blandishments in the near future. My hunch is that some individual, eager to up their games, will emulate the approach.
Is this method of sharing information a positive or negative? That depends on whom one asks, doesn’t it?
Stephen E Arnold, January 7, 2022
France Punches Its Googzilla-Type Pez Dispenser Again
January 6, 2022
Some government have figured out how to generate some cash. Target Facebook and Google. Fine them. Collect the money. This is a new spin on the Pez dispenser. Punch a lever and get a snack.
We could not locate an official Googzilla Pez dispenser. However, we spotted this creature from the Black Lagoon on the Antiques Navigator Web site here. The idea is to push a button and get a healthful, nutricious sugar pellet. The digital version requires a legal document finding the target guilty of an infraction. After some legal fancy dancing, the target pays the nation state. Efficient and fun. More EU states and Russia are fascinated with the digital Pez method.
The write up “Google, Facebook Face Big Private Fines in France” explains:
French data regulator the CNIL is set to fine Google €150 million and Facebook €60 million for violating EU privacy rules…. The CNIL will fine Google’s United States and Irish operations €90 million and €60,
France is not particularly worried about the opinion of nation states like Ireland.
But the point is that the approach yields cash, bad publicity for certain US technology outfits, and fees for lawyers. Yes, lawyers.
Punch that button? Sounds like a plan.
Stephen E Arnold, January 6, 2022
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