Logs: Still a Problem after So Many Years
August 23, 2023
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
System logs detail everything that happens when a computer is powered on. Logs are traditionally important because they can reveal operating problems that would otherwise go unnoticed. Chris Siebenmann’s CSpace blog explains why log monitoring is not as helpful as it used to be aka it is akin to herding cats: “Monitoring Your Logs Is Mostly A Tarpit.”
Siebenmann writes that monitoring system logs wastes time and leads to more problems than its worth. System logs consist of unstructured data and they yield very little information. You can theoretically search for a specific query but the query’s structure could change. Log messages are not API and they often change.
Also you must know what the specific query looks like, i.e. knowing how the source code is written. The data is unstructured so nothing is standard. The biggest issue is this:
“Finally, all of this potential effort only matters if identifiable problems appear in your logs on a sufficiently regular basis and it’s useful to know about them. In other words, problems that happen, that you care about, and probably that you can do something about. If a problem was probably a one time occurrence or occurs infrequently, the payoff from automated log monitoring for it can be potentially quite low…”
Monitoring logs does offer important insights but the simplicity disappeared a long time ago. You can find positive and negative matches but it is like searching for information to rationalize a confirmation bias. Siebenmann likens log monitoring to a tarpit because you quickly get mired down by all the trails. We liken it to herding cats because felines are independent organisms that refuse to follow herd mentality.
Whitney Grace, August 23, 2023
Now Streaming in Real Time: Googzilla Lost in Space
August 22, 2023
“Google Executive Turnover and Role Changes Come As the Company Searches for New Identity” presents an interesting thesis: Google lacks an identity. I want to make a reference to Catcher in the Rye, but that book may not be a touchstone for some today. I wanted to link this statement from the book to the CNBC article:
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MidJourney does a good dinosaur lost in space. It only took three tries before I said, “Good enough.” The descent along a gradient continues.,
“I think that one of these days…you’re going to have to find out where you want to go. And then you’ve got to start going there. But immediately. You can’t afford to lose a minute. Not you.”
Let’s let the short essay explain the alleged identity crisis at the Google:
it’s also searching for its own identity in a pivotal moment in the company’s history. The company was caught flat-footed last fall when OpenAI launched its AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT, and suddenly found itself in a rare spot where its core search business was threatened. Industry observers wondered if users could simply get answers from an AI-powered chatbot, how long would they keep entering queries into a search engine? It was an ironic moment for the search giant, given that CEO Sundar Pichai had been talking up the company’s “AI-first” strategy since 2016, with little to show externally.
Imagine. Microsoft — the giant beacon of excellence in engineering and security — catching Google “flat-footed.” When elephants dance, some people leave the party.
The write up points out:
In June, Google execs admitted to employees that users are “still not quite happy” with the search experience, CNBC reported. Search boss Prabhakar Raghavan and engineering VP HJ Kim spent several minutes pledging to do a better job to employees while Pichai noted that it’s still the most trusted search engine.
Yes, trust. That’s an interesting word, particularly when used by a technology giant and alleged monopoly.
The article makes clear that Google operates like a government, a government of a large and mostly disorganized country with a single crop. I noted this passage:
“Like mice, they are trapped in a maze of approvals, launch processes, legal reviews, performance reviews, exec reviews, documents, meetings, bug reports, triage, OKRs, H1 plans followed by H2 plans, all-hands summits, and inevitable reorgs.”— former Google employee Praveen Seshadri
And this interesting observation:
Now, the company faces its biggest challenge yet, which falls on the shoulders of Pichai and the next guard — trying to recreate the magic of its early days along with delivering revenue while being under more pressure than ever.
Several observations:
- Google has problems
- Google derives the majority of its revenue from its walled garden online advertising house of mirrors
- The company’s approach evokes the Lost in Space comparison
Net net: How does a company operating as a country shift from a monoculture based on selling bananas to a more diversified economy? The story is unfolding in real time. Like the TV show, the adventure presents in real time, crashes, earthquakes, and the consequences of its actors. Perfect for some TikTok type videos.
Stephen E Arnold, August 22, 2023
India Where Regulators Actually Try or Seem to Try
August 22, 2023
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
I read “Data Act Will Make Digital Companies Handle Info under Legal Obligation.” The article reports that India’s regulators are beavering away in an attempt to construct a dam to stop certain flows of data. The write up states:
Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Thursday [August 17, 2023] said the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP Act) passed by Parliament recently will make digital companies handle the data of Indian citizens under absolute legal obligation.
What about certain high-technology companies operating with somewhat flexible methods? The article uses the phrase “punitive consequences of high penalty and even blocking them from operating in India.”
US companies’ legal eagles take off. Destination? India. MidJourney captures 1950s grade school textbook art quite well.
This passage caught my attention because nothing quite like it has progressed in the US:
The DPDP [Digital Personal Data Protection] Bill is aimed at giving Indian citizens a right to have his or her data protected and casts obligations on all companies, all platforms be it foreign or Indian, small or big, to ensure that the personal data of Indian citizens is handled with absolute (legal) obligation…
Will this proposed bill become law? Will certain US high-technology companies comply? I am not sure of the answer, but I have a hunch that a dust up may be coming.
Stephen E Arnold, August 22, 2023
Google: Most But Not Every Regulatory Outfit Is Googley
August 22, 2023
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
When Google started it earned its revenue by selling advertising. While Alphabet Inc. diversified its portfolio, a large portion of its profit is still generated by advertising via Google. Unfortunately Torrent Freak explains that many of these ads are “pirate” links: “Google Search Asked To Remove One Billion ‘Pirate’ Links In 9 Months.” From the beginning, Google faced issues with copyright holders and it developed policies to be a responsible search engine. The easiest way Google and users address copyright infringements are DMCA takedown notices.
Google records its DMCA requests and began publishing them in 2012 in its Transparency Report. In August 2023, Google posted its seven billionth DMCA takedown notice and it is less than a year after its six billionth request. It took twice as long for Google to jump from five to six billion requests. Most of the DMCA takedowns were from a single copyright holder to stop a specific pirate operation. Who is the main complainer?
“Around the start of the year MG Premium began to increase its takedown efforts. The company is an intellectual property vehicle of the MindGeek conglomerate, known for popular adult sites such as P*rnHub. One of MG Premium’s main goals is to shut down ‘unlicensed’ sites or at least make when unfindable. Last year, MG Premium scored a multi-million dollar damages win in a U.S. federal court against pirate ‘tube site’ Daftsex . This order also took down the main .com domain, but that didn’t stop the site. Daftsex simply continued using alternative domains which remain available to this day.”
MG Premium has a vendetta against pirate links and is nursing a DMCA takedown never before witnessed in history. MG Premium averages more than two million requests per day.
While MG Premium is the biggest reporter of the moment, there are more complainers. Google sells ad space to anyone with the funds but the even bigger question is who is buying ad space on these pirated Web sites? Google automates most of its advertising sales but where are the filters to prevent pirate links?
Whitney Grace, August 22, 2023
An Existential Question: When Everything Is Advertising, What Is Advertising?
August 21, 2023
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
A goldfish in a fish bowl lives in a constrained environment. Most fish — with the exception of the fish able to climb out of the water and draw a bead on a French bulldog — stay in the fish bowl. In a world in which information flows in streams, waves, and geysers, what constitutes advertising.
The fish understands only that the bowl defines the world. The outside-the-bowl world is not well understood. What does this say about the fish? What if an advertising professional does not understand the world outside of the ad deal? How much can the fish or the advertising professional be able to understand? Thanks for the fish, MidJourney.
The LinkedIn user promoting one’s past achievements in order to get a job is advertising in my book. The local bar providing data to Google Local is advertising. The posts on BlueSky, Threads, and X are advertising as well. For example, search for #osint on X.com and you see posts similar to this one:
The Cyber Detective is advertising expertise in performing or advising individuals about reverse face image look ups. Why? Presumably it is to advertise the skill and knowledge of the individual. I believe if that anonymous Cyber Detective were asked, “Why are you posting high value information for free?” the answer might be a statement like this: “I want to help the community.” I accept this rationalization, but I recall a college lecture about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. At the top was something to do with the “self.” Therefore, the do-good argument is secondary to the action for the benefit of the person doing the posting.
“Made-for-Advertising Sites Lack a Clear Definition, Causing Confusion among the Advertising Industry” makes clear that those who are advertising professionals are struggling to define advertising in a world which is chock full of messaging, self-promotions, influencer TikToks which Amazon is desperate to add to its shopping service, and the old chestnut, the LinkedIn post with the little phrase “OpenToWork.”
The article explains:
Marketers say they’re concerned about made-for-advertising (MFA) sites, but the industry lacks a clear consensus on what an MFA actually is. Consider this response when Digiday asked one media buyer for their stance on including MFAs in clients’ programmatic campaigns: “My mind immediately goes to clickbait. Am I using that in the right context?”
I interpret this as an signal that the world is essentially advertising. Consider advertising in an environment increasingly populated by messages generated by smart software (AI). Are these messages non-advertising? Certainly not. A person instructed a system to generate messages presumably to cause a change in thought or action. When we consider the motive of self-interest, the blurring of “factual” with “marketing” is understandable.
Consider this statement about the Web sites which exist to accept advertising. The quote allegedly is from Chris Kane, founder of Jounce Media. (“Jounce” means to move in an up-and-down manner. Link to definition.) He states:
“It’s all about the advertising experience. If the advertising experience is ridiculous, that’s made-for-advertising.
Okay, I think I understand.
Do advertisers know that everything is now advertising? Apparently not. Is YouTube now made for advertising? Is X.com made for advertising? Is Yahoo.com made for advertising? I get the advertising angle. I am worrying about the weaponizing of information on a global scale.
Stephen E Arnold, August 21, 2023
Amazon: You Are Lovable… to Some I Guess
August 21, 2023
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
Three “real news” giants have make articles about the dearly beloved outfit Amazon. My hunch is that the publishers were trepidatious when the “real” reporters turned in their stories. I can hear the “Oh, my goodness. A negative Amazon story.” Not to worry. It is unlikely that the company will buy ad space in the publications.
A young individual finds that the giant who runs an alleged monopoly is truly lovable. Doesn’t everyone? MidJourney, after three tries I received an original image somewhat close to my instructions.
My thought is the fear that executives at the companies publishing negative information about the lovable Amazon could hear upon coming home from work, “You published this about Amazon. What if our Prime membership is cancelled? What if our Ring doorbell is taken offline? And did you think about the loss of Amazon videos? Of course not, you are just so superior. Fix your own dinner tonight. I am sleeping in the back bedroom tonight.”
The first story is “How Amazon’s In-House First Aid Clinics Push Injured Employees to Keep Working.” Imagine. Amazon creating a welcoming work environment in which injured employees are supposed to work. Amazon is pushing into healthcare. The article states:
“What some companies are doing, and I think Amazon is one of them, is using their own clinics to ‘treat people’ and send them right back to the job, so that their injury doesn’t have to be recordable,” says Jordan Barab, a former deputy assistant secretary at OSHA who writes a workplace safety newsletter.
Will Amazon’s other health care units operate in a similar way? Of course not.
The second story is “Authors and Booksellers Urge Justice Dept. to Investigate Amazon.” Imagine. Amazon exploiting its modest online bookstore and its instant print business to take sales away from the “real” publishers. The article states:
On Wednesday[August 16, 2023], the Open Markets Institute, an antitrust think tank, along with the Authors Guild and the American Booksellers Association, sent a letter to the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission, calling on the government to curb Amazon’s “monopoly in its role as a seller of books to the public.”
Wow. Unfair? Some deliveries arrive in a day. A Kindle book pops up in the incredibly cluttered and reader-hostile interface in seconds. What’s not to like?
The third story is from the “real news outfit” MSN which recycles the estimable CNBC “talking heads”. This story is “Amazon Adds a New Fee for Sellers Who Ship Their Own Packages.” The happy family of MSN and CNBC report:
Beginning Oct. 1, members of Amazon’s Seller Fulfilled Prime program will pay the company a 2% fee on each product sold, according to a notice sent to merchants … The e-commerce giant also charges sellers a referral fee between 8% and 15% on each sale. Sellers may also pay for things like warehouse storage, packing and shipping, as well as advertising fees.
What’s the big deal?
To admirer who grew up relying on a giant company, no problem.
Stephen E Arnold, August 21, 2023
Elsevier Boosts Scopus With Generative AI
August 21, 2023
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
Generative AI algorithms aka AI assistants are technology’s latest and greatest tool. Its buzzword status makes every industry want an AI algorithm designed specifically for them. Even Elsevier, the large international academic publisher and distributor of data analytics and scientific information, adopted a generative AI tool, says the press release: “Elsevier takes Scopus To The Next Level With Generative AI.”
Elsevier released the first version of Scopus AI, a new tool that combines Scopus’s peer-reviewed literature database with generative AI. Scopus Ai will allow researchers to get faster collaboration, share information, and gain deeper insights. This is not Elsevier’s first project using AI algorithms. Elsevier has experimented with AI for over a decade.
While it is easier than ever to access information, researchers still encounter challenges regarding access, misinformation, lack of transparency, and information overload. Scopus AI minimizes these difficulties:
“Scopus AI provides easy-to-read topic summaries based on trusted content from over 27,000 academic journals, from more than 7,000 publishers worldwide, with over 1.8 billion citations, and includes over 17 million author profiles. Content is rigorously vetted and selected by an independent review board, that is made up of 17 world-renowned scientists, researchers and librarians who represent the major scientific disciplines. Researchers can quickly dig deeper and explore these topics in several ways, including suggested follow-up questions and links to the original research.”
The Scopus AI offers summarized abstracts, “Go Deeper Links” for further research exploration, natural language queries, and visual maps showing interconnections between information.
Scopus AI is in its initial phase and being tested by 15,000 researchers. The full product launch will be in early 2024.
Scopus AI is being marketed as an objective research tool that will weed out misinformation, but it is still meant to make revenue. Some of the research in Scopus is non-reproducible and peer SEO is used to make certain papers rise to the top of search results. Scopus AI is bound to have other biased issues but in theory it sounds great.
Whitney Grace, August 21, 2023
Google Mandiant on Influence Campaigns: Hey, They Do Not Work Very Well
August 18, 2023
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
“AI Use Rising in Influence Campaigns Online, But Impact Limited – US Cyber Firm” is a remarkable report for three reasons: [a] The write up does not question why the report was generated at this time, the dead of summer. [b] What methods were used to determine that online “manipulative information campaigns” were less than effective, and [c] What data substantiate that the “problem” will get “bigger over time”.
The speaker says, “Online information campaigns do not work too well. Nevertheless, you should use them because it generates money. And money, as you know, is the ultimate good.” MidJourney did a C job of rendering a speaker with whom the audience disagrees.
Frankly I view this type of cyber security report as a public relations and marketing exercise. Why would a dinobaby like me view this information generated by the leader in online information finding, pointing, and distributing as specious? One reason is that paid advertising is a version of “manipulative information campaigns.” Therefore, the report suggests that Google’s online advertising business is less effective than Google has for 20 years explained as an effective way to generate leads and sales.
Second, I am skeptical about dismissing the impact of online manipulative information campaigns as a poor way to cause a desired thought or action. Sweden has set up a government agency to thwart anti-Sweden online information. Nation states continue to use social media, state controlled or state funded online newsletters to output information specifically designed to foster a specific type of behavior. Examples range from self harm messaging to videos about the perils of allowing people to vote in a fair election.
Third, the problem is a significant one. Amazon has a fake review problem. The solution may be to allow poorly understood algorithms to generate “reviews.” Data about the inherent bias and the ability of developers of smart software to steer results are abundant. Let me give an example. Navigate to MidJourney and ask for an image of a school building on fire. The system will not generate the image. This decision is based on inputs from humans who want to keep the smart software generating “good” images. Google’s own capabilities to block certain types of medical information illustrate the knobs and dials available to a small group of high technology companies which are alleged monopolies.
Do I believe the Google Mandiant information? Maybe some. But there are two interesting facets of this report which I want to highlight.
The first is that the Mandiant information undercuts what Google has suggested is the benefit of its online advertising business; that is, it works. Mandiant’s report seems to say, “Well, not too well.”
The second is that the article cited is from Thomson Reuters. The “trust principles” phrase appears on the story. Nevertheless ignores the likelihood that the Mandiant study is probably a fairly bad PR effort. Yep, trust. Not so much for this dinobaby.
Stephen E Arnold, August 18, 2023
Amazon, Arm, and Softbank: A Happy Coincidence Indeed
August 18, 2023
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
I try not to think about Amazon, Arm, and Softbank. Oh, let me add a footnote to the “Amazon” reference. When deliveries do not arrive or I am scammed, then I do think about Amazon. But most of the time, it is a digital discount store located in a low-rent district.
However, I noted an article about Amazon which caused me to wrinkle my already crinkly brow; specifically, ”Amazon Has More Than Half of All Arm Server CPUs in the World” uses a trigger word for me — “all.” But that is news headline writing today. The main assertion in the article is that Amazon with its multi-billion dollar server business has more Arm CPUs than Apple has three nanometer fabrication commitments. Why are these giant companies involved in “real news” which seems focused on stock amping than improving technology or privacy protections?
Then I remembered that Softbank, an outfit that is losing money on almost 70 percent of its investments, according to the Financial Times, wants to convert Arm into an initial public offering. I then wondered, “Is this confluence of seemingly disparate factoids a happy coincidence?”
My hunch is that somewhere, somehow, an inspired PR / SEO / or marketing professional thought it would be a good idea to pitch Softbank as a giant in the land of artificial intelligence. AI is hot; Softbank’s financials are, in my opinion, not so hot.
The question becomes, “How accurate is the information about these Arm chips?” and “Is the PR push part of an activity which I cannot discern?” And there is the “all”. How important is the Arm IPO dream if Amazon shifts to a different CPU? Good vibrations strike me as important for both Amazon and Softbank.
Stephen E Arnold, August 18, 2023
Reddit: Feedback, Okay. Apologies, Forget It
August 18, 2023
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
Do Reddit execs even understand what they did wrong in the first place? ArsTechnica reports, “Too Little Too Late—No Apologies as Reddit Halfheartedly Tries to Repair Ties with Moderators.”
A child telling a neighbor, “Don’t put your trash in my family’s garbage can, understand.” Good work MidJourney and no alerts to talk with the correctness group.
Writer Scharon Harding summarizes the recent conflict between the platform and its hard-working but unpaid moderators:
“Reddit went forward with its API pricing changes on July 1, resulting in many third-party Reddit apps closing and some cautiously attempting paid-for models. Since then, some longtime users, including moderators and communities, have exited Reddit, with some encouraging community members toward other social platforms, like Lemmy and Discord. … Reddit’s hasty implementation of API fees and its belittling of protests (both internally, reportedly, and to the press) and complaints are frequently cited by mods Ars has spoken to as elevating the protests beyond a debate on what the formerly free API should cost. Reddit has dug itself into a sizable hole that it will likely be unable to crawl out of through typical methods.”
And yet, it tries. Harding points to a (now missing) post in which a Reddit employee discussed the company’s efforts to repair the relationship, like new weekly feedback sessions and other communication channels. Notably absent are actual concessions to moderators or anything resembling an apology. Harding shares a couple moderators’ responses to the supposed olive branch. First:
“Akaash Maharaj, an r/equestrian mod who also participates in Reddit’s Mod Council, told Ars he doesn’t think the recently outlined efforts will mend broken relations on their own. That’s because the problem wasn’t a dearth of communication channels but, rather, corporate leadership showing consistent ‘contempt for the advice it has received during those communications.'”
Then there is the simple desire from Alyssa Videlock, moderator of multiple subreddits, some of them quite large:
“When asked how Reddit could restore its relationship with moderators, her answer was simple: an apology.”
But such humility may escape these tech wizards turned managers. Their high school science club method emerges like lava from a volcano in Iceland. Many little creatures are vaporized. People may be inconvenienced. New land may be formed. But management decisions can be controlled; their downstream consequences, like lava, cannot.
Cynthia Murrell, August 18, 2023
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