Digital Humanities Is Data Analytics For English Majors
January 4, 2021
Computer science and the humanities are on separate ends of the education spectrum. The two disciplines do not often mix, but when they do wonderful things happen. The Economist shares a story about book and religious nerds using data analytics to uncover correlations in literature: “How Data Analysis Can Enrich The Humanities.”
The article explains how a Catholic priest and literary experts used data analysis technology from punch card systems to modern software to examine writing styles. The data scientists teamed with literary experts discovered correlations between authors, time periods, vocabulary, and character descriptions.
The discoveries point to how science and the humanities can team up to find new and amazing relationships in topics that have been picked to death by scholars. It creates new avenues for discussion. It also demonstrates how science can enhance the humanities, but it also provides much needed data for AI experimentation. One other thing is brings up is how there are disparities between the fields:
“However, little evidence yet exists that the burgeoning field of digital humanities is bankrupting the world of ink-stained books. Since the NEH set up an office for the discipline in 2008, it has received just $60m of its $1.6bn kitty. Indeed, reuniting the humanities with sciences might protect their future. Dame Marina Warner, president of the Royal Society of Literature in London, points out that part of the problem is that “we’ve driven a great barrier” between the arts and STEM subjects. This separation risks portraying the humanities as a trivial pursuit, rather than a necessary complement to scientific learning.”
It is important that science and the humanities cross over. In order for science to even start, people must imagine the impossible. Science makes imagination reality.
Whitney Grace, January 5, 2021
Why Google Misses Opportunities: A Report Delivered by the Tweeter Thing
January 1, 2021
Here’s a Twitter thread from a Xoogler who appears to combine the best of the thumb typer generation with the bittersweet recognition of Google’s defective DNA. In the thread, the Xoogler allegedly a real person named Hemant Mohapatra reveals some nuggets about the high school science club approach to business on steroids; for example:
- Jargon. Did you know that GTM seems to mean either “global traffic management” or “Google tag manager” or Guatamala? Tip: Think global traffic management an a Google’s Achilles’ heel.
- Mature reaction when a competitor aced out the GOOG. The approach makes use of throwing chairs. Yep, high school behavior.
- Lots of firsts but a track record of not delivering what the customer wanted. Great at training, not so good in the actual game I concluded.
- Professionalism. A customer told the Google whiz kids: “You folks just throw code over the fence.” (There’s the “throw” word again.)
- Chaotic branding. (It’s good to know even Googlers do not know what the name of a product or service is. So when a poobah from Google testifies and says, “I don’t know” in response to a question, that may be a truthful statement.
Did the Xoogler take some learnings from the Google experience? Sure did. Here’s the key tweeter thing message:
My google exp reinforced a few learnings for me: (1) consumers buy products; enterprises buy platforms. (2) distribution advantages overtake product / tech advantages and (3) companies that reach PMF & then under-invest in S&M risk staying niche players or worse: get taken down.
The smartest people in the world? Sure, just losing out to Amazon and Microsoft now. What’s this tell us. Maybe bad genes, messed up DNA, a failure to leave the mentality of the high school science club behind?
Stephen E Arnold, January 1, 2021
The Apple Covid Party App: One Minor and Probably Irrelevant Question
December 31, 2020
I am not into Apple or any other Sillycon Valley outfit. I am aware of the yip yap about curation policies, editorial control, and delivering a good experience. Yadda yadda or as the overtalkers on Pivot say, “yoga babble.”
I read “Apple Pulls App That Promoted Secret Parties During Ongoing Pandemic.” The write explains that Apple removed the app from the lucrative App Store.
But there is one minor and probably irrelevant question which arises:
With all the effort Apple puts into curation, how did the app make it to the App Store?
My hunch is that talk, handwaving, and posturing are more important than evaluating, checking, and considering apps. But that’s just a hunch. Reality is probably different.
Stephen E Arnold, December 31, 2020
Failure: The Reasons Are Piling Up
December 28, 2020
Years ago I read a monograph by some big wig in Europe. As I recall, that short book boiled down failure to one statement: “Little things add up.” The book contained a number of interesting industrial examples. “How Complex Systems Fail” is a modern take on the failure of systems. The author has cataloged 18 reasons. Here are three of the reasons, and it may be worth your time to check out the other 15.
- Complex systems contain changing mixtures of failures latent within them.
- Change introduces new forms of failure.
- Failure free operations require experience with failure.
I am not an expert on failure although I have failed. I have had a couple of wins, but the majority of my efforts are total, complete flops. I am not sure I have learned anything. The witness to my ineptitude is this Web log.
Nevertheless, I would like to add a couple of additional reasons for failure:
- Those involved deny the likelihood of failure. I suppose this is just the old “know thyself” thing. Thumb typers seem to be even more unaware of risks than I, the old admitted failure.
- Impending failure emits signals which those involved cannot hear or actively choose to ignore.
The list of reasons will be expanded by an MBA pursuing a career in consulting. That, in itself, is one of those failure signals.
Little things still add up. Knowing about these little things is often difficult. I am not away of a hearing aid to assist whiz kids in detecting the exciting moment when the digital construct goes boom.
Stephen E Arnold, December 28, 2020
Does Open Source Create Open Doors?
December 21, 2020
Here’s an interesting question I asked on a phone call on Sunday, December 20, 2020: “How many cyber security firms rely on open source software?”
Give up?
As far as my research team has been able to determine, no study is available to us to answer the question. I told the team that based on comments made in presentations, at lectures, and in booth demonstrations at law enforcement and intelligence conferences, most of the firms do. Whether it is a utility function like Elasticsearch or a component (code or library) that detects malicious traffic, open source is the go-to source.
The reasons are not far to seek and include:
- Grabbing open source code is easy
- Open source software is usually less costly than a proprietary commercial tool
- Licensing allows some fancy dancing
- Using what’s readily available and maintained by a magical community of one, two or three people is quick
- Assuming that the open source code is “safe”; that is, not malicious.
My question was prompted after I read “How US Agencies’ Trust in Untested Software Opened the Door to Hackers.” The write up states:
The federal government conducts only cursory security inspections of the software it buys from private companies for a wide range of activities, from managing databases to operating internal chat applications.
That write up ignores the open source components commercial cyber security firms use. The reason many of the services look and function in a similar manner is due to a reliance on open source methods as well as the nine or 10 work horse algorithms taught in university engineering programs.
What’s the result? A SolarWinds type of challenge. No one knows the scope, no one knows the optimal remediation path, and no one knows how many vulnerabilities exist and are actively being exploited.
Here’s another question, “How many of the whiz kids working in US government agencies communicate the exact process for selecting, vetting, and implementing open source components directly (via 18f type projects) or from vendors of proprietary cyber security software?”
Stephen E Arnold, December 21, 2020
Modern Times: How Easy Is It to Control Thumbtypers? Easy
December 8, 2020
Navigate to “The Modern World Has Finally Become Too Complex for Any of Us to Understand.” You may want to read the listing of examples about how complex life has become. Note this sentence which refers to how humanoids accept computer outputs without much thinking:
What was fascinating — and slightly unnerving — was how these instructions were accepted and complied with without question, by skilled professionals, without any explanation of the decision processes that were behind them.
Let’s assume the write up is semi-accurate. The example may provide some insight about the influence, possibly power, online systems have which shape information. In my experience, most people accept the “computer” as being correct. Years ago in a lab testing nuclear materials, I noticed that two technicians were arguing about the output from a mass spec machine. I was with my friend (Dr. James Terwilliger). We watched the two technicians for a moment and noted that when human experience conflicts with a machine output, the discussion becomes frustrating for the humans. The resolution to the problem was to test the sample in another mass spec machine. Was this a fix? Nope.
The behavior demonstrated how humans flounder to deal with machine outputs. These are either accepted or result in behavior that will not answer the question: “Okay, which output is accurate?”
The incident illustrates that humans may not like to take guidance from another human, but guidance from a “computer” is just fine. And when the output conflicts with experience, humans appear to manifest some odd ball behavior.
Here’ are two questions:
How does a user / consumer of online information know if the output is in context, accurate, verifiable?
If the output is not, then what does the human do? More research? Experimentation? Ask a street person? Guess? Repeat the process (like the confused lab techs)?
This is not complexity; this is why those who own certain widely used systems control human thought processes and behaviors. Is this how society works? Are one percenters exempt from the phenomenon? Is this smart software or malleable human behavior?
Stephen E Arnold, December 8, 2020
Big Brother Might Not Be Looking Over Our Shoulders
October 6, 2020
Ever since George Orwell wrote his dystopian classic 1984, the metaphor of an Orwellian society entered the cultural zeitgeist. As more cameras and recording equipment become commonplace, the Orwellian metaphor becomes a reality or at least we are led to believe. Venture Beat explains that might not be true in the article, “AI Weekly: A Biometric Surveillance Stat Is Not Inevitable, Says AI Now Institute.”
According to the article, we have been conditioned to believe that an Orwellian a.k.a. surveillance capitalistic society is inevitable so we do not fight companies and governments that implement the technology. During the current COVID-19 pandemic, the idea is easy to believe, especially as biometric technology becomes in demand.
Biometric data collection and surveillance is new and there are still gray areas when it comes to legal, ethical, and safe usage for biometrics. AI Now wrote a report that examines biometrics’ challenges, their importance, and solutions. Eight real life case studies are referenced such as police use of facial recognition technology in the United States and United Kingdom, centralizing biometric data in Australia and India, biometric surveillance in schools, and others.
An understanding of biometric challenges and solutions are important for everyone. There are currently barriers that hinder a greater understanding, especially a basic definition of “biometrics.” Some want to pause using these systems until laws are reformed, while others want to ban biometric technology:
“To effectively regulate the technology, average citizens, private companies, and governments need to fully understand data-powered systems that involve biometrics and their inherent tradeoffs. The report suggests that ‘any infringement of privacy or data-protection rights be necessary and strike the appropriate balance between the means used and the intended objective.’ Such proportionality also means ensuring a ‘right to privacy is balanced against a competing right or public interest.’”
How and why biometric technology will be used depends on the situation. The report used an example of Swedish schools that implemented facial recognition technology to track students’ attendance. Swedish authorities feared that the technology would creep on students and teachers, gathering rich data on them. They wondered how else this “creepy” data could be used. On the flipside, the same facial recognition technology can be used to monitor for identifying unauthorized people on school campuses as well as for weapons. Both concerns are valid, but which side is correct?
Regulation is needed but might happen only after biometric systems are deployed. India’s Aadhaar biometric identity project for every citizen (photographs, fingerprints, and iris scans). Aadhaar ran for twelve years without legal guardrails, but when Indian lawmakers could have repaired problems they made laws that skirted them.
Biometric systems will be implemented, but human error prevents them from being Orwellian.
Whitney Grace, October 6, 2020
Facebook Is Nothing If Not Charming
October 5, 2020
Facebook spies on its users by collecting their personal information from hobbies, birthdays, relationships, and vacation spots. Facebook users voluntarily share this information publicly and/or privately. As a result, the company sells that information to advertisers. Facebook also spies on its competitors, but it does so in a more sophisticated way says the BBC article “Facebook Security App Used To ‘Spy’ On Competitors.”
Facebook apparently used its cross-party Onavo VPN to collect information on its competitors knowingly and in violation of anti-piracy laws. The Commons Committee discussed the incident in a report that is more than one hundred pages. Here is the gist of the report:
“The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee wrote that through the use of Onavo, which was billed as a way to give users an extra layer of security, Facebook could ‘collect app usage data from its customers to assess not only how many people had downloaded apps, but how often they used them”.
The report added:
‘This knowledge helped them to decide which companies were performing well and therefore gave them invaluable data on possible competitors. They could then acquire those companies, or shut down those they judged to be a threat.”
Even more alarming are the details about ways Facebook could shut down services it provides to its competition. Twitter’s video sharing app Vine is an example of how Facebook destroyed a competitor. Twitter wanted Vine users to find friends via their Facebook accounts, but Zuckerberg nixed that idea. Vine shuttered in 2016.
Facebook does something equally nefarious with a white list of approved apps that are allowed to use Facebook user data. Among the 5,000 approved apps are Netflix, Airbnb, and Lyft. These app companies supposedly spend $250,000 on Facebook advertising to keep their coveted position.
Zuckerburg wrote in an email:
“I think we leak info to developers, but I just can’t think of any instances where that data has leaked from developer to developer and caused a real issue for us.”
There was the Cambridge Analytica scandal where voter information was collected through a personality quiz. The data of users and their friends was stolen and it profiled 82 million Americans, then that information was sold to the Cambridge Analytica company. The United Kingdom fined Facebook 500,000 pounds and the company apologized.
It will not be the first time Facebook steals and sells user information. We wonder how their competition spies on users and sells their data.
Whitney Grace, October 5, 2020
Why Software Is Getting Worse
October 5, 2020
I have noticed that certain popular applications are getting harder to use, less reliable, and increasingly difficult to remediate. Examples range from the Google Maps interface to Flipboard. I suppose those individuals who use these applications frequently find their hidden functions delightful. I just walk away.
Now there’s an explanation of sort. Navigate to “Devs Are Managing 100x More Code Now Than They Did in 2010.” As I recall, software was flakey in 2010, but if the information in the article is accurate, the slide downhill is accelerating.
The write up explains:
Some of this code growth can be explained by increasingly complex code, but much of it comes from an increase in the diversity of platforms and tools used. Modern development—particularly Web development—generally means amalgams of many different platforms, libraries, and dependencies. The developers surveyed reported increases in the number of supported architectures, devices, languages, repositories, and more.
More code, more complexity and what do you get?
Interfaces that confuse the user. Weird error messages that point to nothing comprehensible. Certified upgrades that don’t install.
Is there a fix? Sure, just like the fix for the deteriorating physical infrastructure of roads and bridges.
Talk, promises, and budget discussions.
The result? Downhill fast, folks.
Stephen E Arnold, October 5, 2020
Palantir: Planning Ahead
September 4, 2020
I read “In Amended Filing, Palantir Admits It Won’t Have Independent Board Governance for Up to a Year.” The legal tap dancing is semi-interesting. Palantir wants money and control. I understand that motive. The company — despite its sudden interest in becoming a cowboy — has Silicon Valley roots.
What’s fascinating is that the company was founded in 2004, although I have seen references to 2003. No big deal. Just a detail. The key point is that the company has been talking about an initial public offering for years.
The write up explains that after submitting an S-1 form to the Securities & Exchange Commission, Palantir submitted a revised or amended S-1. For a firm which provides intelware and policeware to government agencies, planning and getting one’s ducks in a row seem to be important attributes.
Did Palantir just dash off the first S-1 at Philz Coffee? Then did some bright young stakeholder say, “Yo, dudes, we need to make sure we keep control. You know like the Zuck.”
After 16 years in business and burning through a couple of tractor trailers filled with cash, it seems untoward to submit a revision hard on the heels of an SEC S-1 filing.
Careless, disorganized, or what the French call l’esprit d’escalier strikes me as telling.
Observations:
- The resubmission suggests carelessness and flawed management processes
- The action raises the question, “Are these Silicon Valley cowboys getting desperate for an exist?”
- For a low profile outfit engaged in secret work for some of its clients, public actions increase the scrutiny on a company which after a decade and a half is not profitable.
Interesting behavior from from Palantirians. Did the seeing stone suffer a power outage?
Stephen E Arnold, September 4, 2020
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