A Musky Odor Thwarts X Academicians
November 15, 2023
This essay is the work of a dumb humanoid. No smart software required.
How does a tech mogul stamp out research? The American way, of course! Ars Technica reveals, “100+ Researchers Say they Stopped Studying X, Fearing Elon Musk Might Sue Them.” A recent Reuters report conducted by the Coalition for Independent Technology Research found a fear of litigation and jacked-up data-access fees are hampering independent researchers. All while X (formerly Twitter) is under threat of EU fines for allowing Israel/Hamas falsehoods. Meanwhile, the usual hate speech, misinformation, and disinformation continue. The company insists its own, internal mechanisms are doing a fine job, thank you very much, but it is getting harder and harder to test that claim. Writer Ashley Belanger tells us:
“Although X’s API fees and legal threats seemingly have silenced some researchers, X has found some other partners to support its own research. In a blog last month, Yaccarino named the Technology Coalition, Anti-Defamation League (another group Musk threatened to sue), American Jewish Committee, and Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) among groups helping X ‘keep up to date with potential risks’ and supporting X safety measures. GIFCT, for example, recently helped X identify and remove newly created Hamas accounts. But X partnering with outside researchers isn’t a substitute for external research, as it seemingly leaves X in complete control of spinning how X research findings are characterized to users. Unbiased research will likely become increasingly harder to come by, Reuters’ survey suggested.”
Indeed. And there is good reason to believe the company is being less than transparent about its efforts. We learn:
“For example, in July, X claimed that a software company that helps brands track customer experiences, Sprinklr, supplied X with some data that X Safety used to claim that ‘more than 99 percent of content users and advertisers see on Twitter is healthy.’ But a Sprinklr spokesperson this week told Reuters that the company could not confirm X’s figures, explaining that ‘any recent external reporting prepared by Twitter/X has been done without Sprinklr’s involvement.’”
Musk is famously a “free speech absolutist,” but only when it comes to speech he approves of. Decreasing transparency will render X more dangerous, unless and until its decline renders it irrelevant. Fear the musk ox.
Cynthia Murrell, November 15, 2023
For Google Management No Hurdle Is Too High
November 10, 2023
This essay is the work of a dumb humanoid. No smart software required.
I read “Google’s Open Culture Collides With the Israel-Hamas War.” Note, gentle reader, that the Gray Lady charges for you to read her golden words of wisdom.
The main point of the write up is myth debunking. Google, as you may recall, is a wondrous place. The smartest people in the world (sorry, McKinsey, Booz Allen, JPMorgan Chase, et al, your employees are not Google grade. The proof? Those employees are not working at Google; therefore, the fentanyl thing, the Charlie Javice matter, the original BART mishap, etc.).
The young Googler looks at the high jump and says, “I am a Googler. I can jump over any hurdle. Logic and data will prevail.” Thanks, Microsoft Bing. With some Photoshop work, the image is a C+, not high school science club grade but “goog” enough.
The NYT reports as actual factual the following:
Google has long been a hub for employee activism, including over the company’s business with Israel. But workers looking to express support for Palestinians say they face hostility.
Is this a long-winded way to say, “Bias” or religious “persecution”? Yikes. At the Google, where data is the driver of decisions?
The news story offers:
Pro-Palestinian employees say the company has allowed supporters of Israel to speak freely about their opinions on the topic, while taking a heavy hand with Muslim employees who have criticized Israel’s retaliation in Gaza.
Interesting, but where’s the data, the objective information that comprises an intelligible signal?
The article continues:
But at Google, the issue has a unique meaning. Even compared with its Silicon Valley peers, Google has become a hub for employee activism, a legacy of the company’s open and informal founding culture.
I noted this somewhat downbeat sentence in the Gray Lady’s intentional or unintentional Google myth busting write up:
But now, he [a Google software engineer named Mr. Gilani] said, he’s worried that retaliation against Muslim employees is having a chilling effect on speech at Google, and he has developed a playbook for how to speak on the subject at work: Condemn Hamas and move on.
My view remains that Google is operating under the precepts of a high school science club. High school organizations like a science or math club do not want people in the meetings who cannot solder a defective LED bulb or who cannot talk about matrix multiplication. Is that discriminatory or a type of social barb wire fence to separate the good cattle from the bad sheep?
Several observations:
- Google management is confident it can jump over high hurdles. Google has management athletes in abundance
- The social issues within Google seem to clump like iron filings around a high school science club electro-magnet charged with race, religion, and gender. Note that I said “seem” because reality at Google may be a digital Utopia I am unable to perceive from rural Kentucky
- The article in the New York Times does little to keep the myth of Google and its happy logo from the dents and dings of culture.
I suppose there are data to prove that Google’s approach to management is on the money. What’s on the money is Google’s effort to generate advertising revenue, but that’s just the view of an old dinobaby.
Stephen E Arnold, November 10, 2023
Will Apple Weather Forecast Storms in Beijing?
November 6, 2023
This essay is the work of a dumb humanoid. No smart software required.
The stock markets in the US have been surfing on the wave skimmers owned by the “magnificent seven.” The phrase refers to the FAANG crowd plus that AI fave NVidia and everyone’s favorite auto from Tesla. Has something gone subtly amiss at Apple, the darling of the hip graphics and “I love Linux” crowd?
“My weather app said it would be warm and sunny. What happened to smart software?” says the disenchanted young person. Rain is a good thing, not a bummer. Thanks, MidJourney. This image reminds me of those weird illustrations of waifs with big eyes. Inspiration is where one finds it.
I don’t know. I would point to one faint signal contained in the online write up “Why Apple’s Weather App Is So Bad.” The article makes it clear that weather forecasting is tricky. Software is not yet up to the of delivering accurate information about rain. Rain, I suppose, is one of those natural phenomena opaque to smart people, smart software, and smart acquisitions.
The statement in the write up which caught my attention was:
Over this time, this relentless weekend-only rain has also affirmed that Apple’s weather app is pretty much useless. Personally, I’ve learned that the app cannot distinguish between “light rain” and “rain,” that the percentages it spits out feel bogus, and to never trust it when it tells you what time the rain will stop. I’m not alone. My friends and coworkers also have various stories about how the app has let them down, or how sometimes it just won’t work. Some even talk about Dark Sky, a weather-forecasting app that Apple bought in 2020, with a mournful, wistful sadness, like a lost love. Apple says Dark Sky’s most beloved features have been integrated into its app, but Dark Sky fans aren’t convinced. Things were different then, they say. Things were better.
Did you spot the knife twist? Here it is, ripped from the heart of the paragraph:
sometimes it just won’t work
No big deal. A weather app. But Apple appeared to have ripped a page from the Google’s Management Handbook. Jon Stewart departed from Apple. The reasons are mysterious, a bit like the Dark Sky falling in Cupertino. I also noticed that Apple has a certain connection to China, particularly with regard to that most magical and almost unchanged candy bar phone. Granted it revolutionized Apple’s financial position, but does the contractor who assist me required a device to thaw the hearts of Apple lovers on a ski slope. (No raid predicted, I assume.)
Net net: Rain, Mr. Stewart, and the supply chain to China. Are these signals worth monitoring? Probably not. When I need a weather forecast, this dinobaby just looks out a window, not at a mobile phone.
Stephen E Arnold, November 6, 2023
Google Giggles: Late October 2023 Edition
October 25, 2023
This essay is the work of a dumb humanoid. No smart software required.
The Google Giggles is nothing more than items reported in the “real” news about the antics, foibles, and fancy dancing of the world’s most beloved online advertising system.
Googzilla gets a kick out of these antics. Thanks, MidJourney. You do nice but repetitive dinosaur illustrations.
Giggle 1: Liking sushi is not the same as sushi liking you. “The JFTC Opens an Investigation and Seeks Information from Third Parties Concerning the Suspected Violation of the Antimonopoly Act by Google LLC, Etc.” Now that’s a Googley headline from the government of Japan. Why? Many items are mentioned in the cited document; for example, mobile devices, the Google Play Store, and sharing of search advertising. Would our beloved Google exploit its position to its advantage? Japan wants to know more. Many people do because the public trial in the US is not exactly outputting public information in a comprehensive, unredacted way, is it?
Giggle 2: Just a minor change in the Internet. Google wants to protect content, respect privacy, and help out its users. Listen up, publishers, creators, and authors. “Google Chrome’s New IP Protection Will Hide Users’ IP Addresses” states:
As the traffic will be proxied through Google’s servers, it may make it difficult for security and fraud protection services to block DDoS attacks or detect invalid traffic. Furthermore, if one of Google’s proxy servers is compromised, the threat actor can see and manipulate the traffic going through it. To mitigate this, Google is considering requiring users of the feature to authenticate with the proxy, preventing proxies from linking web requests to particular accounts, and introducing rate-limiting to prevent DDoS attacks.
Hmmm. Can Google see the traffic, gather data, and make informed decisions? Would Google do that?
Giggle 3: A New Language. Google’s interpretation of privacy is very, very Googley. “When Is a Privacy Button Not a Privacy Button? When Google Runs It, Claims Lawsuit” explains via a quote from a legal document:
"Google had promised that by turning off this [saving a user’s activity] feature, users would stop Google from saving their web and app activity data, including their app-browsing histories," the fourth amended complaint [PDF] says. "Google’s promise was false."
When Google goes to court, Google seems to come out unscathed and able to continue its fine work. In this case, Google is simply creating its own language which I think could be called Googlegrok. One has to speak it to be truly Googley. Now what does “trust” mean?
Giggle 4: Inventing AI and Crawfishing from Responsibility. I read “AI Risk Must Be Treated As Seriously As Climate Crisis, Says Google DeepMind Chief.” What a hoot! The write up’s subtitle is amazing:
Demis Hassabis calls for grater regulation to quell existential fears over tech with above human levels of intelligence.
Does this Google posture suggest that the firm is not responsible for the problems it is creating and diffusing because “government” is not regulating a technology? Very clever. Perhaps a bit of self control is more appropriate? But I am no longer Googley. The characteristic goes away with age and the end of checks.
Giggle 5: A Dark Cloud. Google reported strong financial results. With online ads in Google search and YouTube.com, how could the firm fail its faithful? “Google Cloud Misses Revenue Estimates — And It’s Your Fault, Wanting Smaller Bills” reports that not all is gold in the financial results. I noted this statement:
Another concerning outcome for the Google cloud was that its $266 million operating income number was down from $395 million in the previous quarter – when revenue was $370 million lower.
Does this mean that the Google Cloud is an issue? In my lingo, “issue” means, “Is it time for the Google to do some clever market adaptation?” Google once was good at clever. Now? Hmmm.
Are you giggling? I am.
Stephen E Arnold, October 25, 2023
The Google Experience: Personnel Management and Being Fair
October 23, 2023
This essay is the work of a dumb humanoid. No smart software required.
The Google has been busy explaining to those who are not Googley that it is nothing more than a simple online search engine. Heck, anyone can use another Web search system with just a click. Google is just delivering a service and doing good.
I believe this because I believe everything a big high-technology outfit says about the Internet. But there is one facet of this company I find fascinating; namely, it’s brilliant management of people or humanoids of a particular stripe.
The Backstory
Google employees staged a walkout in 2018, demanding a safer and fairer workplace for women when information about sexual discrimination and pay discrepancies leaked. Google punished the walkout organizers and other employees, but they succeed in ending the forced arbitration policy that required employees to settle disputes privately. Wired’s article digs into the details: “This Exec Is Forcing Google Into Its First Trial over Sexist Pay Discrimination.”
Google’s first pay discrimination case will be argued in New York. Google cloud unit executive Ulku Rowe alleges she was hired at a lower salary than her male co-workers. When she complained, she claims Google denied her promotions and demoted her. Rowe’s case exposed Google’s executive underbelly.
The case is also a direct result of the walkout:
“The costs and uncertainty of a trial combined with a fear of airing dirty laundry cause companies to settle most pay discrimination lawsuits, says Alex Colvin, dean of Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Last year, the US government outlawed forced arbitration in sexual harassment and sexual assault cases, but half of US employers still mandate it for other disputes. Rowe would not be scheduled to have her day in court if the walkout had not forced Google to end the practice. “I think that’s a good illustration of why there’s still a push to extend that law to other kinds of cases, including other kinds of gender discrimination,” Colvin says.”
The Outcome
“Google Ordered to Pay $1 Million to Female Exec Who Sued over Gender Discrimination” reported:
A New York jury on Friday decided that Google did commit gender-based discrimination, and now owes Rowe a combined $1.15 million for punitive damages and the pain and suffering it caused. Rowe had 23 years of experience when she started at Google in 2017, and the lawsuit claims she was lowballed at hiring to place her at a level that paid significantly less than what men were being offered.
Observation
It appears that the Googley methods at the Google are neither understood nor appreciated by some people.
Whitney Grace, October 23, 2023
Microsoft Making Changes: Management and Personnel Signals
October 17, 2023
![Vea4_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_t[2]](https://arnoldit.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Vea4_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_t2-25.gif "Vea4_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_t[2]")
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
We post headlines to the blog posts in Beyond Search to LinkedIn, “hire me” service. The traffic produced is minimal, and I find it surprising that a 1,000 people or so look at the information that catches our attention. As a dinobaby who is not interested in work, I find LinkedIn amusing. The antics of people posting little videos, pictures of employees smiling, progeny in high school athletic garb, and write ups which say, “I am really wonderful” are fascinating. Every month or so, I receive a message from a life coach. I get a kick out of telling the young person, “I am 78 and I don’t have much life left. What’s to coach?” I never hear from the individual again. What fun is that?
I wonder if the life coaches offer their services to Microsoft LinkedIn? Perhaps the organization could benefit more than I would. What justifies this statement? “LinkedIn Employees Discovered a Mysterious List of around 500 Names Over the Weekend. On Monday, Workers Said Those on the List Were Laid Off” might provide a useful group of prospects. Imagine. A group of professionals working on a job hunting site possibly terminated by Microsoft LinkedIn. That’s the group to write about life coaching and generating leads. What’s up with LinkedIn? Is LinkedIn a proxy for management efforts to reduce costs?
“Turn the ship, sir. You will run aground, leak fuel, and kill the sea bass,” shouts a consultant to the imposing vessel Titanic 3. Thanks, MidJourney, close enough for horse shoes.
Without any conscious effort other LinkedIn-centric write ups caught my eye. Each signals that change is being forced upon a vehicle for aggressive self promotion to make money. Let me highlight these other “reports” and offer a handful of observations. Keep in mind that [a] I am a dinobaby and [b] I see social media as a generally bad idea. See. I told you I was a dinobaby.
The first article I spotted in my newsfeed was “Microsoft Owned LinkedIn Lays Off Nearly 700 Employees — Read the Memo Here.” The big idea is that LinkedIn is not making as much money as it coulda, woulda, shoulda. The fix is to allow people to find their future elsewhere via role reductions. Nice verbiage. Chatty and rational, right, tech bros? Is Microsoft emulating the management brilliance of Elon Musk or the somewhat thick fingered efforts of IBM?
The article states:
LinkedIn is now ramping up hiring in India…
My hunch it is a like a combo at a burger joint: “Some X.com, please. Oh, add some IBM too.”
Also, I circled an item with the banner “20% of LinkedIn’s Recent Layoffs Were Managers.” Individuals offered some interesting comments. These could be accurate or the fabrications of a hallucinating ChatGPT-type service. Who knows? Consider these remarks:
- From Kuchenbecker: I’m at LI and my reporting chain is Sr mgr > Sr Director > VP > Sr vp > CEO. A year ago it was mgr > sr mgr > director > sr Director> vp> svp > ceo. No one in my management chain was impacted but the flattening has been happening organically as folks leave. LI has a distinctive lack of chill right now contrary to the company image, but generally things are just moving faster.
- From Greatpostman: I have a long held belief that engineering managers are mostly a scam, and are actually just overpaid scrum masters. This is from working at some top companies
- From Xorcist: Code is work, and the one thing that signals moving up the social ladder is not having to work.
- From Booleandilemma: My manager does little else besides asking what everyone is working on every day. We could automate her position with a slack bot and get the same results.
The comments suggest a well-crafted bureaucracy. No wonder security buffs find Microsoft interesting. Everyone is busy with auto scheduled meetings and getting Teams to work.
Next, I spotted was “Leaked Microsoft Pay Guidelines Reveal Salary, Hiring Bonus, and Stock Award Ranges by Level.” I underlined this assertion in the article:
In 2022, when the economy was still booming, Microsoft granted an across-the board compensation raise for levels 67 and lower through larger stock grants, in response to growing internal dissatisfaction with compensation compared to competitors, and to stop employees from leaving for better pay, especially to Amazon. As Insider previously reported, earlier this year, as the economy faltered, Microsoft froze base pay raises and cut its budget for bonuses and stock awards.
Does this suggest some management problems, problems money cannot resolve? Other observations:
- Will Microsoft be able to manage its disparate businesses as it grows ever larger?
- Has Microsoft figured out how to scale and achieve economies that benefit its stakeholders?
- Will Microsoft’s cost cutting efforts create other “gaps” in the plumbing of the company; for example, security issues?
I am not sure, but the game giant and AI apps vendor appears to be trying to turn a flotilla, not a single aircraft carrier. The direction? Lower cost talent in India? Will the quality of Microsoft’s products and services suffer? Nope. A certain baseline of excellence exists and moving that mark gets more difficult by the day.
Stephen E Arnold, October 17, 2023
Blue Chip Consultancy Gets Cute and Caught
October 4, 2023
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
I was not going to read “PwC Caught Hiding Terms of secret Review.” However, my eye spotted the delectable name “Ziggy Switkowski” and I had to devour the write up. Imagine a blue chip outfit and a blue chip consultant named Ziggy.
The story reports about PwC (once the esteemed Price Waterhouse Coopers firm) and how it conducted a “secret internal investigation” in a “tax affair.” To me, the fuzzy words suggest tax fraud, but I am a dinobaby and a resident of Harrods Creek, Kentucky.
The Ziggy affair warranted this comment by the Klaxon, an Australian online publication:
“There’s only one reason why you’re not releasing your terms of reference,” governance expert Dr Andy Schmulow told The Klaxon last night. “And that’s because you know you’ve set up a sham inquiry”.
Imagine that! A blue chip consulting firm and a professional named Ziggy. What’s not to believe?
The article adds a rhetorical flourish; to wit:
In an interim report called “PwC: A calculated breach of trust” the inquiry found PwC was continuing to obfuscate, with its actions indicating “poor corporate culture” and a lack of “governance and accountability”. “PwC does not appear to understand proper process, nor do they see the need for transparency and accountability,” the report states. “Given the extent of the breach and subsequent cover-up now revealed on the public record, when is PwC going to come clean and begin to do the right thing?”
My hunch is that blue chip consulting firms may have a different view of what’s appropriate and what’s not. Tax irregularities. Definitely not worth the partners’ time. But Ziggy?
Stephen E Arnold, October 4, 2023
Need Free Data? Two Thousand Terabytes Are Available
October 2, 2023
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
I read “Censys Reveals Open Directories Share More Than 2,000 TB of Unprotected Data.” What’s an open directory? According to the champion of redactions the term refers to lists of direct links to files. True?
The article reports:
These open directories could leak sensitive data, intellectual property or technical data and let an attacker compromise the entire system.
Why do these “lists” exist? Laziness, lack of staff who know what to do, and forgetting how an intern configured a server years ago?
The article states:
Why don’t search engines prohibit people from seeing those open directories? Censys researchers told TechRepublic that “while this may initially sound like a reasonable approach, it’s a bandage on the underlying issue of open directories being exposed on the internet in the first place.
Are open directories a good thing? I think it depends on one’s point of view. Why are bad actors generally cheerful these days? Attack surfaces are abundant and management floats above such hard-to-grasp details about online systems and services. Hey, what time is lunch?
Stephen E Arnold, October 2, 2023
KPIs: The Perfect Tool for Slacker Managers
September 22, 2023
Many businesses have adopted key performance indicators (KPIs) in an effort to minimize subjectivity in human resource management. Cognitive researcher and Promaton CTO Ágoston Török explores the limitations of this approach in his blog post, “How to Avoid KPI Psychosos in your Organization?”
Török takes a moment to recall the human biases KPIs are meant to avoid: availability bias, recency bias, the halo/horn effects, overconfidence bias, anchoring bias, and the familiar confirmation bias. He writes:
“Enter KPIs as the objective truth. Free of subjectivity, perfect, right? Not so fast. In fact, often our data collection and measurement are also biased by us (e.g. algorithmic bias). And even if that is not the case, unfortunately, KPIs suffer from tunnel vision: they measure what is measurable, while not necessarily all aspects of the situation are. Albert Einstein put it brilliantly: ‘Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.’ This results in perverse motivation in many organizations, where people have to choose between doing their job well (broader reality) or getting promoted for meeting the KPIs (tunnel vision). And that’s exactly the KPI psychosis I described above.”
That does defeat the purpose. Not surprisingly, the solution is to augment KPI software with human judgment.
“KPIs should be used in combination with human intuition to enable optimal decision-making. So not just intuition or data, but a constant back and forth of making (i.e. intuition) and testing (i.e. data) hypotheses. … So you work on reaching your objective and while doing so you constantly check both what your KPI shows and also how much you can rely on it.”
That sounds like a lot of work. Can’t we just offload personnel decisions to AI and be done with it? Not yet, dear executives, not yet.
Cynthia Murrell, September 22, 2023
Kill Off the Dinobabies and Get Younger, Bean Counter-Pleasing Workers. Sound Familiar?
September 21, 2023
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
I read “Google, Meta, Amazon Hiring low-Paid H1B Workers after US Layoffs: Report.” Is it accurate? Who knows? In the midst of a writers’ strike in Hollywood, I thought immediately about endless sequels to films like “Batman 3: Deleting Robin” and Halloween 8: The Night of the Dinobaby Purge.”
The write up reports a management method similar to those implemented when the high school science club was told that a school field trip to the morgue was turned down. The school’s boiler suffered a mysterious malfunction and school was dismissed for a day. Heh heh heh.
I noted this passage:
Even as global tech giants are carrying out mass layoffs, several top Silicon Valley companies are reportedly looking to hire lower-paid tech workers from foreign countries. Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Zoom, Salesforce and Palantir have applied for thousands of H1B worker visas this year…
I heard a rumor that IBM used a similar technique. Would Big Blue replace older, highly paid employees with GenX professionals not born in the US? Of course not! The term “dinobabies” was a product of spontaneous innovation, not from a personnel professional located in a suburb of New York City. Happy bean counters indeed. Saving money with good enough work. I love the phrase “minimal viable product” for “minimally viable” work environments.
There are so many ways to allow people to find their futures elsewhere. Shelf stockers are in short supply I hear.
Stephen E Arnold, September 21, 2023
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