Microsoft and Linux: All Your Base Belong to Us
August 9, 2022
Microsoft has traditionally been concerned about Linux and has never hidden its indigestion — until the original top dogs went to the kennel. Microsoft actually hates all open source software and CEO Steve Ballmer said, ““Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches.” Wow! It sounds like someone wants to enforce a monopoly on technology, prevent innovation, and rake in dollars for personal gain. In other words, Ballmer is power and greed at its worst. Open source, on the other hand, inspires innovation and sharing technology. The Lunduke Journal of Technology, run by Bryan Lunduke, details his experience with controlling Microsoft heads and how Bill Gates’s company has slowly decimated Linux: “Microsoft’s Growing Control Of Linux.”
Lunduke recounted he heard Ballmer’s hatred for Linux and even had the CEO’s spittle on his face from an open source rage. Microsoft has slowly gained control over important parts of Linux and open source as whole. This includes: GitHub-the largest host of source code in the world, Linux conferences, Linux organizations-Microsoft is a “Premium Sponsor” of the Open Source Initiative and “Platinum Membership on the Linux Foundation, and hired prominent Linux developers.
Here is what Lunduke heard during a past Linux conference:
“During that keynote, the Microsoft executive (John Gossman) made a few statements worth noting:
‘You do not generally want your developers to understand how the licenses all work. If you’re a larger company, you’re very likely to have a problem of controlling all of the open source activity that’s going on … it can be bad for the company, it can be bad for the community, it can be bad lots of different ways.’
You don’t want developers to understand licenses? Not having corporate control of open source is bad? Not exactly pro-open source statements, eh?”
Microsoft does use Linux for Azure and Ubuntu, two products that make the company’s offerings stronger. This Linux thing will be an interesting challenge. MSFT “owns” GitHub. MSFT wants to sell subscriptions and maybe to what does not matter? Open source may be antithetical to MSFT subscriptions. Open source Linux? How about a subscription to MSFT Linux centric solutions?
Now that’s an idea.
Whitney Grace, August 9, 2022
TikTok: Is It a Helpful Service for Bad Actors?
August 9, 2022
Do you remember the Silicon Valley cheerleaders who said, “TikTok is no big deal. Not to worry.” Well, worry.
“TikTok: Suspected Gangs Tout English Channel Migrant Crossings on Platform” states:
The Home Office [TikTok] said posts which “promote lethal crossings” were unacceptable, but there are calls for more to be done to stop people-smuggling being advertised online.
TikTok is allegedly taking the position that such criminal promotions “have no place” on the China-linked service. The BBC report includes this statement:
A spokesman for TikTok said: “This content has no place on TikTok. We do not allow content that depicts or promotes people smuggling…and have permanently banned these accounts. “We work closely with UK law enforcement and industry partners to find and remove content of this nature, and participate in the joint action plan with the National Crime Agency to help combat organized immigration crime online.”
I am skeptical about TikTok for these reasons:
- Data collection
- Analyses which permit psychological profiling so that potential “insiders” can be identified
- Injection of content which undermines certain social concepts; that is, weaponized information.
Net net: Delete the app and restrict access to the system. Harsh? Maybe too little too late, cheerleaders.
Stephen E Arnold, August 9, 2022
YouTube: Latent Power and a Potential Flash Point within Russia?
August 8, 2022
I read the estimable Murdoch write up called “How YouTube Keeps Broadcasting Inside Russia’s Digital Iron Curtain.” And how about this subtitle?
Access to the video site allows Russians access to one of the few sources of independent information about the Ukraine war
(Keep in mind that you will have to pay to view the article on the WSJ.com site.)
I have suggested that Russia’s regulators see the Google as a giant piggy bank with a ceramic head resembling Godzilla’s. How powerful is Google’s YouTube? The write up suggests that the Alphabet Google YouTube DeepMind thing is pretty powerful. Well, actually what’s powerful is YouTube and its millions upon millions of videos.
Here’s the key statement in the “real” news article:
“Some banks are too big to fail, and some apps are too big to be blocked,” stated Nu Wexler, a former coverage communications staffer at Google, Meta and Twitter. “The Russian government knows they would face a backlash if they were to block a popular app like YouTube in the country.”
Why not enjoy the videos on Rutube, Rumble, or the high quality streamgun.vod site? The reason, according to one attendee at a law enforcement, crime analyst, and intelligence professional centric conference boils down to YouTube being Number One with a bullet.
The idea is that in some of the cheerful outposts in Siberia as well as the toasty towns in Sochi, YouTube is the primary source of entertainment. Okay, but I suggested vodka was the big dog. Wrong, I learned. Despite the quality of Russian state television and the outstanding Russian motion pictures, YouTube kept the young folks busy.
I have yet to see credible data which suggests that YouTube, not Russia billboards, is the information gun in Russia. There is, of course, TikTok and some of the low cost pirate streaming services. YouTube has triumphed it is alleged.
Here’s a factoid from the write up I saw:
YouTube had greater than 85 million month-to-month distinctive viewers in Russia in June, in line with analytics firm.
And how about this allegedly accurate item?
The video website was utilized by 47% of a pattern of Russians surveyed in April by the unbiased Russian pollster Levada Center, making it the nation’s second-most common social community behind native service VKontakte.
Maybe Rutube can displace the GOOG’s YouTube? Maybe:
Russian officers have stated state cash could be invested into Rutube, a unit of the state-owned vitality big Gazprom PJSC that options pro-Moscow content material. It had 9.7 million month-to-month distinctive viewers in Russia in June, SimilarWeb stated.
Net net: No wonder the Alphabet Google YouTube DeepMind operation finds pesky laws enacted by nation-states annoying. YouTube is able to do what Ukraine cannot: Displace that which it finds annoying and a threat to its data collection and advertising efforts. Google is in a position to trigger social unrest in Russia by pulling out of the country’s datasphere. That’s power. What if YouTube were used to incite citizen unrest in Russia and maybe a couple of other countries?
Interesting idea and worth consideration by some I suppose.
Stephen E Arnold, August 8, 2022
Xoogler on AI Ethics at the Google: Ethics? Explain, Please
August 8, 2022
I read a write up which seems to be information I have seen cycled and recycled. Nevertheless” “An Engineer Who Was Fired by Google Says Its AI Chatbot Is Pretty Racist’ and That AI Ethics at Google Are a Fig Leaf” contains an interesting observation; to wit:
“These are just engineers, building bigger and better systems for increasing the revenue into Google with no mindset towards ethics,” Lemoine told Insider. “AI ethics is just used as a fig leaf so that Google can say, ‘Oh, we tried to make sure it’s ethical, but we had to get our quarterly earnings,'” he added.
The statement is interesting from several different vantage points:
First, the Xoogler is directing public criticism at the GOOG by linking Google’s approach to ethics to a fig leaf. The metaphor to a fig leaf. Wikipedia points out:
Some paintings and statues have the genitals of their subjects covered by a representation of an actual fig leaf or similar object, either as part of the work or added afterward for perceived modesty.
Yep, perceived modesty and the evocative idea of a cover up.
Second, the recycling of negative comments could create a target for some of Google’s legal eagles.
Third, the allegations about ethics and its possible subordinate role to achieving goals supports assertions offered by Timnit Gebru et al.
Will a burning pile of fig leaves attract attention? Unlikely. Hey, it’s the Google.
Stephen E Arnold, August 8, 2022
Ah, Ha! The Social Media Conundrum?
August 8, 2022
Facebook and Twitter both began as humble undergrad side projects. Both platforms, and social media in general, have since mutated into something much more consequential. That is why The Next Web declares “Social Media Companies Should Be Converted Into Nonprofits.” Writer David Ryan Polgar asserts:
“Social media companies like Twitter have morphed — whether their founders intended them to or not — into important social institutions with grave consequences for both the future of democracy and the human condition. Yet these platforms still remain constrained by their structures as for-profit companies with a duty to their shareholders. Whether Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk (if the Twitter deal goes through) are acting in the best interest of the public as they lead their respective companies is missing the larger point: They should never have such unchecked power. To allow such is to enter a future where the public is vulnerable to billionaires’ whims as they shape the future of communication. That isn’t a future I’d want to live in.”
You mean we cannot trust a few billionaires to navigate the fine line between protecting free expression and reigning in hate speech, misinformation, and other harmful content? While such a balance is tricky even for governments, Polgar notes, at least there voters have some say in who is making these choices. The write-up continues:
“Twitter’s growth into a ‘de facto public town square,’ I would argue, should necessitate its radically reimagining its business structure, transforming into a nonprofit or benefit corporation, which is a legal structure that includes the overall benefit to society as an objective of the business, not just maximizing profits. If the platform immensely affects the public — as both Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk argue it does — its business model should serve the public interest and not shareholders or the ego of a company leader.”
We cannot argue with that last sentiment, but not all nonprofits benefit society as one would hope. The other direction implied here would be to make social media platforms into government entities, an idea that would float as well as a lead balloon in today’s climate. So what is society to do? The solution continues to elude as we chug along in a landscape paved by social media.
Cynthia Murrell, August 8, 2022
AI-Generated Dirty Pictures! What an Opportunity for Legal Eagles
August 8, 2022
Despite usually being racist, sexist, and dumber than binary code, there are some AI algorithms that are smart and capable of amazing feats. One feat is the ability to create digital, realistic photos of non-existent people. Another amazing ability is how AI can realistically recreate nudity. Fake nudity is as old as art, including the modern mediums of animation, videogames, and CGI. Early animators, videogame developers, and CGI artists have minds as dirty as the rest of humanity. DIY Photography explored fake nudity in, “A Website Sells AI-Generated Nudes Of Non-Existent Women. Why Is It (Not) Okay?”
While fake nudity is an ancient tradition, AI-generated nudity is a relatively new concept. It sounds like an innocuous concept, but could it be harmful?
“Let’s be honest, it was just a matter of time before someone starts using this type of AI to generate nudes (not dunes, nudes). Heck, I’m amazed that it hasn’t happened sooner. At the same time, now that I know AI-nudes of fake ladies exist, I just can’t wrap my head around it. As my DIYP buddy Alex pointed out, this is pretty much like some nerdy guy drawing nude sketches, and her comparison made me chuckle. But then again, these “sketches” could change the adult entertainment industry, beauty standards, and the view of men on women – sadly, not for the better.”
While the Web site in question does not work, it does exist. Visitors pursue a variety of different AI-generated women, select different features, then they can purchase images for $1 after they find the perfect nude. Each image is assigned a “seed number” as a receipt to prove that the buyer owns the unique model. It sounds like a cheaper version of NFTs.
Some of the pros of AI-generated nudes could be safer for women. Since the “women” are fake, no real people would be harmed. It could also mean women could stop be asked for inappropriate photos, maybe even catcalled.
There are more negative points, though. The fake nudes reinforce harmful, sexist stereotypes and it arguably allows people to buy and create a “woman” to suit their desires. The AI-generated nude market also only sells naked women at the moment, because there is not a big demand for the former.
To create the nudes, the AI algorithms needed a large, robust dataset of nude women. Where did that come from and did data scraping hurt anyone?
“‘The verification process for public domain [images] centers around running public domain data through reverse image searches,’ the co-founder told VICE. ‘If we notice that the results are from paywalled/monetized websites, revenge po*n websites, online forums, or behind paywalls, we err on the side of caution and exclude that data since it may not have been gathered ethically.’
But still, as VICE points out, many nude and po*nographic images found online are frequently stolen from actual sex workers. Even those marked as a public domain! ‘People steal sex worker’s content all of the time, posting it to tube sites for free or dumping it into database links.’ This means that women whose images were used to feed the algorithm maybe hadn’t given their consent for something like that.”
Reddit has a discussion thread titled “Technically the Truth.” It is technically the truth these AI-generated images are fake, it is still selling women and exploiting harmful standards for a profit. The “women” are still fake, but is it bad? Enter the science-fiction philosophical questions of the future.
The real winners are likely to be the lawyers. Is LAMdA’s attorney available?
Whitney Grace, August 8, 2022
Google Innovates Again: Quick or Is That Semi-KWIC?
August 5, 2022
Innovation at the Googleplex never stops. Never. I read the online story “Google Updates Search Result Snippets for Queries with Quotes.” The write up reports that after more than two decades of defining Googling as searching:
Now Google will now show the quoted text in the snippet where that exact phrase appears on the page.
The idea upon which the quantumly supreme Googlers hit is that some context, not much, but some is helpful. No one has ever had this scintillating insight before. Amazing. Think about it. A person’s search for a quote returns some semi-context. I learned:
Google said they made this change based on searcher feedback, Google wrote “We’ve heard feedback that people doing quoted searches value seeing where the quoted material occurs on a page, rather than an overall description of the page. Our improvement is designed to help address this.”
A few observations? Sure, why not?
- Google ignores bound phrases and user defined phrases in quotes. Don’t you love the strike out for the key words in a query that do NOT appear in the results list? I do. Will this helpful feature be decremented or ignored?
- Key words in context has been a function for a long time. I am not motivated to dig through my 50 year archive of “search” ideas to locate the very first KWIC option. I think some of the long-forgotten online search systems offered this feature? Maybe Dialog circa 1980? Somewhere around there. I recall Carlos Cuadra talking about the function at an Information Industry Association 45 years ago. Yo, SDC experts, any thoughts?
- Is this the magic learnings of a former Verity wizard transporting inspirations to the GOOG?
- Will the Google allow the user to specify the size of the KWIC window? Sure, when Google discovers the function. What’s next? Boolean logic?
Wow. KWIC.
Stephen E Arnold, August 5, 2022
Microsoft Teams: The Disconnect between Users and Features
August 5, 2022
I have mentioned that “free” Microsoft Teams does not work on my Mac Mini which I use for Facetime, Zoom, and WebEx meetings. The Massachusetts Attorney General knows about my problems first hand. Let’s just say that there were fewer than 30 investigators who recognized that Microsoft and Apple are not exactly in sync.
I read “Microsoft Says It Added More Than 450 New Teams Capabilities in the Past Year.” In the past year, there have been some issues with Windows updates killing printers and a few trivial security gaffes. Hey, who is trying to make a league table of Microsoft software vulnerabilities? Not me.
The write up states:
officials also updated investors on Teams momentum a bit, saying they’ve added more than 450 capabilities over the past year.
Among the technological gems added, according to the write up, were in the words of the write up, “It is unclear what “Teams capabilities” means, but that can cover things across chat, meetings, integrations with Microsoft Viva, and a lot more.”
Okay, unclear. I did a quick search on Swisscows.com for Microsoft Teams features. Here are a few of the precious stones presented to me:
- Adjust filter brightness
- Background blur
- A horizontal participant gallery
- A customer lockbox
- Day view in calendar
- Anonymous meeting join across clouds
And more than 440 more important additions.
My view is very simple. Why not get Teams to work for those who are using Mac Minis? You know. Basic functional reliability. Microsoft Teams, like Zoom, is essentially a telephone call, right? And why not get that printer thing fixed? And security? I think that particular issue is unfixable. Sorry but that’s just my opinion, not a PowerPoint about Microsoft’s security capabilities. PowerPoints are easy. Delivering what customers and users want is much more difficult.
Do the MSFT priorities pursue the trivial, not the substantive?
Stephen E Arnold, August 5, 2022
Smart Software Can Output Like a Real Humanoid Philosopher. Mere Humanoids Are Fooled.
August 5, 2022
I cannot resist commenting on “In Experiment, AI Successfully Impersonates Famous Philosopher.” For a year or two I studied phenomenological existentialism at the Jesuit-linked Duquesne University in the idyllic village of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Yes, take a deep breath. Enjoy the clean, crisp air. Ahh, memories.
Here’s a sample of the texts the quite serious and generally smart, multi-lingual students read, discussed, and in one case came to fisticuffs over a controversial interpretation by a free thinking student. (Jesuit school, philosophy, and reasonably bright students. Quite a tinderbox after a two hour lecture, a couple of short presentations, and the invigorating Pittsburgh air flowing into the classroom on a muggy early May day.
This passage comes from Edmund Husserl’s Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy:
Any eidetic particularization and singularization of an eidetically universal predicatively formed affair-complex, in so far as it is that, is called an eidetic necessity. Eidetic universality and eidetic necessity are therefore correlates. But the use of the word “necessity” varies following the interrelated correlations: the corresponding judgments are also called necessary. It is important, however, to heed the distinctions and above all not to designate eidetic universality a necessity (as people usually do). The consciousness of a necessity, more particularly a judging consciousness in which there is consciousness of a predicatively formed affair-complex as a particularization of an eidetic universality, is called an apodictic consciousness; the judgment itself, the asserted proposition, is called an apodictic (also an apodictically “ necessary” ) consequence of the universal judgment with which it is connected. The stated propositions about the relations among universality, necessity, and apodicticity can be framed more universally so that they hold good for any, and not only for purely eidetic, spheres. Obviously, however, they require a distinctive and particularly important sense within the eidetic limitation. (page 37)
Keep in mind that this passage from Edmund’s pen is “real”, just translated from the German original because why put another hurdle in front of a Husserl lover who wants to do a TikTok on Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy.
Now here’s a passage from the article cited above “In Experiment, AI Successfully Impersonates Famous Philosopher.” I want to point out the AI did not go for Husserl, who admittedly, is going to require time and patience to read. (Hey, the mid-term in Dr. Chivers’ class was a hoot. Wow, everyone loved Husserl except the Jesuit who bashed the non-believer in the nose about eidetic signs.)
“Even knowledgeable philosophers who are experts on Dan Dennett’s [a modern philosopher presumably more clear than Edmund] work have substantial difficulty distinguishing the answers created by this language generation program from Dennett’s own answers,” said Schwitzgebel, a professor of philosophy at University California Riverside.
My reaction? Wow, people cannot tell the difference between output from smart software and prose generated by thinkers of Edmund Husserl’s ilk?
Who would have thought this possible?
Answer: Anyone familiar with the intellectual capabilities of some modern readers and some smart software. Why didn’t the now famous former Google engineer dive into the philosophy space? Too late now.
Stephen E Arnold, August 5, 2022
Will Vintage Gameshows Slow Down TikTok?
August 5, 2022
Somehow we are not surprised. Axios reports, “News Engagement Plummets as Americans Tune Out.” Reporters Neal Rothschild and Sara Fischer assembled data from several sources and share the results in a handy chart. From the first half of 2021 to the first half of this year, visits to the top 5 news sites and news apps were down by 18% and 16% respectively, primetime cable news viewership decreased by 19%, and interactions with news articles on social media was cut in half. The article observes:
“The big picture: The level of news consumption in 2021 took a nosedive following historic highs in 2020. Despite a slew of major stories, readers have retrenched further in 2022. The war in Ukraine, a series of deadly mass shootings, the Jan. 6 hearings and the Supreme Court’s revocation of abortion rights haven’t been able to capture the same level of attention spurred by the onset of the pandemic and the 2020 election.”
There is one important caveat to the 50% drop via social media: during this time Facebook de-emphasized news in user feeds as part of its News Tab push. Perhaps during a spate of bad news is not the best time to coax users onto the dedicated tab. See the write-up for more engagement statistics from a news-weary nation.
For anyone who would rather relive the past than watch current events, reruns may be the way to go. Polygon reveals “Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune Will Steam 24/7” on Pluto TV. We learn:
“Vulture reported Monday that both Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune — the game show classics — will stream ‘vintage’ episodes 24/7 on separate Pluto TV channels, thanks to a deal between the streaming service and Sony Pictures Entertainment. The broadcasts will begin on Aug. 1, according to Vulture. Pluto TV is a free streaming service purchased by Viacom (now Paramount Global) in 2019. Vulture said it’s the start of Pluto TV’s expansion into game show content; it’s moving the current game show offering, like old The Price Is Right episodes, to a new game show category. CBS’ Lets Make a Deal, hosted by Wayne Brady, was added to the service today.”
What Sony considers “vintage” is left undefined. Pluto does offer an on-demand section, but for a real shot of nostalgia one can stick with its Live TV page. Maybe a trip down memory lane can provide some respite from today’s concerns, at least temporarily? And TikTok? Imagine the Lone Ranger is 30 second clips. Winner!
Cynthia Murrell, August 5, 2022
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
