Microsoft Has a Digital Death Star and Windows 11
December 21, 2021
If you are not familiar with Microsoft’s digital Death Star, you will want to watch the story in the December 26, 2021, Dark Cyber video news program. You can find it in the mini player at this link. More than a year after the SolarWinds’ security misstep became public, the Redmond giant can digitally slay the 1,000 malefactors responsible for some data exfiltration. Quick.
My hunch has been that Microsoft rolled out Windows 11 as part of a red herring campaign. The idea may have been that Windows 11 would capture the attention of “real” journalists, thus reducing the blow torch directed at the Microsoft enterprise software processes. It seems to have worked. No one I have spoken with knows much about the Death Star meme and quite a few people are excited about Windows 11.
ZDNet remains firmly in the camp of writing about Windows 11. Why not? Users who want to use a browser other than Edge or a specialized software to perform a specific PDF function find that some noodling is required. Windows 11 is supposed to be simpler better cheaper faster more wonderfuler, right?
“8 Harsh Realities of Being a Windows 11 User” presents a distinguished lecturer’s view of some Windows 11 foibles. Let’s take a quick look at three of the eight and then circle back to the year long wait for digital retribution against the 1,000 engineers who created the SolarWinds’ misstep and made the Softies look inept and sort of silly in the security department.
Reality 1. The Browser Lock In
Microsoft does not want a Windows 11 user to load up a non Microsoft browser. I find this amusing because Edge is not really Microsoft code. Microsoft pulled out what I call soft taco engineering; that is, the Chrome engine is wrapped in a tortilla crafted in the kitchens of Microsoft Café 34. I am a suspicious type; therefore, I think the browser lock in is designed to make darned sure the geek bloggers and the “real” journalists have something to Don Quixote.
Reality 5. Control Panel / Settings Craziness
Okay, where is the widget to have the weird File Explorer show me “details”? And what about Display controls? I have a couple of places to look now. That’s helpful. Exactly what is the difference between a bunch of icons grouped in one place under one jargonized name? I am not sure about the logic of this bit of silliness, but, hey, one has to do more than clean the microwave in the snack area or hunt for the meeting room on the campus. (Where did the alleged interpersonal abuses take place? Is there a Bing Map for that?)
Reality 8. What Runs Windows 11?
Now if there is a super sized red herring being dragged over the SolarWinds’ misstep it is this one: Will my PC run Windows 11? Lame? You bet, but we are in the distraction business, not in the useful software business. Subscribe and pay now for the greatness which may not run on your PC, you computer dolt. But why? Maybe SolarWinds’ stuff saying, “Look here, not there.”
You have to navigate to the distinguished lecturer’s cited post for Realities of 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7. There are more Dusies too.
Now the circle back: SolarWinds’s misstep is still with us and Microsoft. At least I can understand Windows 11 as a quick and dirty distraction. Can users?
Stephen E Arnold, December 21, 2021
Semantics Have Become an Architecture: Sounds Good but
December 17, 2021
Semantic Architecture Is A Big Data Cash Grab
A few years ago, big data was the hot topic term and in its wake a surge of techno babble followed. Many technology companies develop their own techno babble to peddle their wares, while some of the jargon does have legitimate means to exist. Epiexpress has the lowdown on one term that does have actual meaning: “What Is Semantic Architecture, And How To Build One?”
The semantic data layer is a system’s brain or hub, because most data can be found through a basic search. It overlays the more complex data in a system. Companies can leverage the semantic layer for business decisions and discover new insights. The semantic layer uses an ontology model and enterprise knowledge graph to organize data. Before building the architecture, one should consider the following:
“1. Defining and listing the organizational needs
When developing a semantic enterprise solution, properly-outlined use cases provide the critical questions that the semantic architecture will answer. It, in turn, gives a better knowledge of the stakeholders and users, defines the business value, and facilitates the definition of measurable success criteria.
2. Survey the relevant business data
Many enterprises possess a data architecture founded on data warehouses, relational databases, and an array of hybrid cloud systems and applications that aid analytics and data analysis abilities
In such enterprises, employing relevant unification processes and model mapping practices based on the enterprise’s use cases, staff skill-sets, and enterprise architecture capabilities will be an effective approach for data modeling and mapping from source systems.3. Using semantic web standards for ensuring governance and interoperability
When implementing semantic architecture, it is important to use semantic technology such as graph management apps to be middleware. Middleware acts as organizational tools for proper metadata governance. Do not forger that users will need tools to interact with the data, such as enterprise search, chatbots, and data visualization tools.
Semantic babble?
Whitney Grace, December 17, 2021
Will The Google PR Carpet Bombing about AI Deliver Victory?
December 13, 2021
The short answer is, “Yes.” The mass market and niche content marketing is the obvious part of the program. There are some less obvious characteristics which warrant some attention. Run a query for Snorkel. What does one get? Here’s my result page on December 9, 2021:
The pictures are for scuba snorkels. But the first hit is not an advertisement, at least one that an entity compensated the Google to publish. The number one with a bullet is the Snorkel AI company. There you go. That’s either great performance from the circa 1998 algorithm, spectacular SEO, or something of interest to some entity at the Google.
What happens if I run a query for “AI”? Here’s what I saw on December 9, 2021
Amazon bought an ad and linked to its free AI solutions. The number one hit is:
The Google.
So what? Nudging, great SEO, some engineer’s manicured hand on the steering wheel?
I do know that most people have zero idea about smart software. What’s my source for this glittering generality? Navigate to “Survey Suggests 84% of Americans Are Illiterate about AI — So Here’s a Quiz to Test Your Own AI IQ.”
Those nudges, the PR, and the search results may amount to something; for example, framing, reformation, and dissemination of what the Google magical “algorithms” find most relevant. Google wants to win the battle for its approach to really good training data for machine learning. Really wants to win.
Stephen E Arnold, December 13, 2021
Google into Healing
December 9, 2021
How does one explain healing? For the Google the answer is with a Year in Search video. “Google Is All about Healing in its Year In Search Video for 2021” reports:
According to Google Trends, searches on climate change have hit a record high number in 2021. Google’s Year In Search video has captured that with the search of ‘how to help our planet.’ Other positive search examples like ‘ways to help your community’ and ‘how to be yourself’ have also captured the attention of Google and are included in the video with appropriate examples.
Okay, climate change. And Covid. Google even shares some of its user data, according to the write up:
The Year In Search video is accompanied by an interactive site where you can see all of the top global Google searches month-by-month in nine different categories. Of course, you can also check out Google Trends where you can see data for a specific country or region.
What about repairing that relationship with Dr. Timnit Gebru and others who raised questions about Google’s AI methods and motives?
Oh, that’s an unfair question. No healing there. Plus only the really important information is worthy of the Year in Search video.
Stephen E Arnold, December 9, 2021
Smart Software Is Innovative: Two Marketing Examples, You Doltish Humanoids
December 7, 2021
I zipped through the news releases, headlines, and emails which accumulate in my system. I spotted two stories. Each made the case that smart software — created by humans — is discerning information humans had not previously known or had revealed. This assertion has some interesting implications. There are issues associated with Kurt Gödel-type thinking and the Star Trek think which has launched billions of smart phones.
Here’s the first article. It’s called “AI Is Discovering Patterns in Pure Mathematics That Have Never Been Seen Before.” That’s a clickable title. The write up asserts:
In a newly published study, a research team used artificial intelligence systems developed by DeepMind, the same company that has been deploying AI to solve tricky biology problems and improve the accuracy of weather forecasts, to unknot some long-standing math problems.
DeepMind is pretty much Google. Google is a fan of Snorkel methods. These procedures use minimal training and then let math learn. The outputs are — well — Googley. You know solving the big problems of life like online advertising, reducing the costs of alternative methods of training smart software, and dealing with the legal hassles associated with the alleged “AI cabal” and Timnit Gebru.
The second article is “AI Generates Hypotheses Human Scientists Have Not Thought Of.” The write up says:
One of the benefits of machine learning systems is the way that they can look for patterns and scenarios that programmers didn’t specifically code them to look out for – they take their training data and apply the same principles to new situations. The research shows that this sort of high-speed, ultra-reliable, large-scale data processing can act as an extra tool working with mathematicians’ natural intuition. When you’re dealing with complex, lengthy equations, that can make a significant difference.
What’s interesting is that the write up does not link the researchers with DeepMind. But it appears that the mathematician András Juhász has worked with Googley DeepMind. See “DeepMind AI Collaborates with Humans on Two Mathematical Breakthroughs.”
The first item cited in this blog post appeared on December 4, 2021. The second appeared in October 2021.
My thought is that the Google is injecting rah rah messages about its Snorkel-type approach into highly regarded publications. My hope is that Dr. Timnit Gebru’s and her work gets equal coverage.
Why? The Google wants to be the big dog in certain smart software dog sled pulling. But inbreeding has its downsides; including, bias. PR firms and rah rah marketers are not sensitive to such mathematical oddities as “drift” in my experience. From peer reviewed articles to the open market for “great ideas”, information marches forward on the wheels of propaganda and factual reformation it does, it does.
Stephen E Arnold, December 6, 2021
What Company Is the Leader in Search Powered by Artificial Intelligence? One Answer May Surprise You. It Did Me.
November 30, 2021
Give up? The answer is Lucidworks, “the leader in AI-powered search.” You can get the gull story from Unite.ai and the article “Will Hayes, CEO of Lucidworks – Interview Series.” What’s “AI”? I don’t know, and the answer is not provided from @IAmWillHayes’ comments. What’s “search”? I don’t know because no specific definition is provided. (Search is a blanket word, covering everything from the open source Lucene in policeware solutions to whiz-bang, patented real time methods for time series data from Trendalyze. And we must not forget the generous offerings of “search” for eDiscovery, product supplier data, chemical structures, streaming video files, code libraries, and mysterious content like the interesting information in encrypted Signal and Telegram interactions. Search at Lucidworks is different it seems.
I noted this statement:
Lucidworks takes mission-critical business problems and solves them with search.
I assume that Lucidworks is disconnected from Dassault Systèmes search based applications approach. There is a 2011 book titled “Search Based Applications: At the Confluence of Search and Database Technologies.” The author is Dr. Gregory Grefenstette with assistance from Laura Wilber. The Lucidworks’ assertion struck me as one more example of marketing hoo hah disconnected from what came before. At least, the Dassault technology was original, not a recycling of open source software.
Here’s another statement offered as an original insight:
Lucidworks offers products and applications for commerce, customer service, and the workplace that use AI and machine learning to solve search. Fusion, our flagship product, uses AI extensively through every stage of enriching data—during ingest and at query time, for understanding user intent, and personalizing results that match that intent.
I want to point out that the Paris-based firm Polyspot used almost the exact same language (both French and English) to describe the company’s approach to information access. Here’s what Bloomberg says about the now repositioned company:
PolySpot SAS develops and publishes enterprise software. The Company’s products offer search and information access solutions designed to improve business and ensure that companies can access the data they need, regardless of their structure, format or origin. PolySpot markets its products internationally.
Dis Yogi Berra or Yogi Bear say: “It’s déjà vu all over again.” I go with the cartoon bear. The aphorism applies to Lucidworks in my opinion.
Lucidworks also does chatbots, fits into the connected experience cloud (CXC), and compounds “value.” Okay. The company, according to @IAmWillHayes, is “leader in next-generation search solutions and we have an exciting roadmap of cloud products coming in the near future.”
I wonder what outfits like Algolia, Coveo, Sphinx Search, and even the heroic X1 think about this assertion. What will Google’s revolving door search experts make of Lucidworks’ bold assertion? What about the crafty laborers in AWS search vineyards who watch the competitors gun for the Bezos bulldozer? What about the innovators working on the somewhat frightening IBM search solution? Maybe Microsoft will just pull a “Fast Search” and buy Lucidworks to beef up its incredible array of finding systems?
My hunch is that Lucidworks has to deal with its backers who want their money back plus some upside. Mix in the harsh market realities of many options, some free or low cost, and others bundled with purpose built solutions like Voyager Labs’ software and what do you get?
I am not sure about your answer. My answer is, “Recycling marketing lingo, ideas, and assertions which are decades old?” Will AI, machine learning, and CXC pull a rabbit from the search magician’s hat?
Maybe. But the investors who have injected more than $200 million into the company may want more than a magic show. And what is “search” and “AI” anyway? Solr with a new outfit from Amazon?
Stephen E Arnold, November 30, 2021
Gartner Revs Its Prediction Engine: The Global AI Market
November 29, 2021
My hunch is that smart software is going to be pervasive: Financial outfits, wonderful health care institutions, and exemplary high technology outfits engaged in an American favorite activity nudging.
You can read about this prediction in “Global AI Software Market to Hit $62 Billion in 2022.” My first reaction was, “Just $62 billion.” Oh, well, I don’t work at a mid tier consulting firm eager to populate its conferences with true believers. (This write up may be disappeared. If you can’t locate it, give the mid tier folks a jingle. My hunch is that you can buy a report right from the distributed organization itself.)
The write up says:
Global artificial intelligence (AI) software revenue is forecast to reach $62.5 billion in 2022, an increase of 21.3 per cent from 2021, according to Gartner. The top five use cases for AI software spending in 2022 will be knowledge management, virtual assistants, autonomous vehicles, digital workplace and crowdsourced data.
I am not sure what a digital workplace is and I am puzzled by crowdsourced data. Maybe Gartner is talking about smart surveillance of mobile device users? I don’t know.
Nevertheless, pretty modest growth and just $62 billion.
Stephen E Arnold, November 29, 2021
Frisky Israeli Cyber Innovators Locked Down and Confined to Quarters
November 26, 2021
Before the NSO Group demonstrated remarkable PR powers, cyber centric companies in Israel were able to market to a large number of prospects. Conference organizers could count on NSO Group to provide speakers, purchase trade show space, and maybe sponsor a tchotchke for attendees. Governments and even some commercial enterprises knew about NSO Group’s technological capabilities and the firm’s ability to provide a network which eliminated quite a bit of the muss and fuss associated with mobile device surveillance, data analysis, and related activities.
How did that work out?
The PR sparked “real journalists” to use their powers of collecting information, analyzing those items, and making warranted conclusions about NSO Group’s enabling activities. Sure, pesky Canadian researchers were writing about NSO Group, but there wasn’t a “real news” story. Then… bingo. A certain individual associated with a “real news” organization was terminated and the arrows of data and supposition pointed to NSO Group’s capabilities and what one of the firm’s alleged customers was able to do with the system.
The journalistic horses raced out of the gate, and the NSO Group became a “thing.”
Vendors of specialized software are not accustomed to the spotlight. Making sales, collecting fees, and enjoying pats on the backs from colleagues who try hard to keep a low, low profile are more typical activities. But, oh, those spotlights.
The consequences have been ones to which cyber innovators like to avoid. Former superiors send email asking, “What are you doing?” Then government committees, consisting of people who don’t know much about next generation technologies, have to be briefed. And those explanations are painful because the nuances of cyber centric firms are different from explaining how to plug in a Tesla in Tel Aviv. Oh, painful.
Now, if the information in the Calcalist’s article “The Ministry of Defense Has Cut by Two-Thirds the Number of Countries That Cyber Companies Can Sell To” is accurate, the Israeli government has put a shock collar on NSO Group’s ankle and clamped the devices on other firm’s well-formed, powerful legs as well. The message is clear: Stay in bounds or you will be zapped. (I leave it to you to figure out what “zap” connotes.)
The publication’s story says:
The [Israeli] Ministry of Defense has cut by two-thirds the number of countries that cyber companies can sell to The previous list included 102 countries to which cyber exports are allowed, and now it includes only 37 countries. The latest list from the beginning of November does not include countries such as Morocco, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Who’s at fault? The Calcalist offers this statement:
It is implied that Israel used in a very permissive manner the special certificates that it may grant and was in any case aware of where the Israeli society is known. It is important to note that the new list includes companies to which cyber can now be exported and it is possible that in the past lists there were other countries to which systems could be exported without fear.
My knowledge of Hebrew is lousy and Google translate is not helping me much. The main idea is that up and down the chain of command, the “chain” was not managed well. Hence, the PR gaffes, the alleged terminations, and the large number of high intensity lights directed at companies which once thrived in the shadows.
Some observations:
- Countries unable to acquire the technology associated with NSO Group are likely to buy from non-Israeli firms. Gee, I wonder if China and Russia have specialized software vendors who will recognize a sales opportunity and not do the PR thing in which NSO Group specialized?
- The publicity directed at NSO Group has been a more successful college class than the dump of information from the Hacking Team. A better class may translate to more capable coders who can duplicate and possibly go beyond the Israeli firms’ capabilities. This is a new state of affairs in my opinion.
- Cyber technologies are the lubricant for modern warfare. Israel had a lead in this software sector. It is now highly likely that the slick system of government specialists moving into the private sector with “support” from certain entities may be changed. Bummer for some entrepreneurs? Yep.
Net net: The NSO Group’s PR excesses — combined with its marketing know how — has affected a large number of companies. Keeping secrets is known to be a wise practice for some activities. Blending secrecy with market dynamics is less wise in my experience. This NSO Group case is more impactful than the Theranos Silicon Valley matter.
Stephen E Arnold, November 25, 2021
Quantum Supremacy Questioned
November 25, 2021
IBM is the quantum supremacist. Google was the previous quantum cage match PR champ. What’s up with quantum supremacy other than buzzwords, public relations hoo hah, and worry lines that encryption will die?
An interesting take on the Google quantum thing appears in “Math May Have Caught Up with Google’s Quantum-Supremacy Claims.” The article is a gilding of a tidy green sward with a couple of Swiss Fleckvieh contributions steaming in the morning sun.
The write up reports:
Google chose a very specific method of computing the expected behavior of its processor, but there are other ways of doing equivalent computations. Over the intervening time, a few options have been explored that do perform better. Now, Feng Pan, Keyang Chen, and Pan Zhang are describing a specific method that allows a GPU-based cluster to produce an equivalent output in only 15 hours. Run it on a leading supercomputer, and they estimate that it would outperform the Sycamore quantum processor.
Parse this and then summarize: Google pulled a high school science club method from its hip pocket.
I also noted this statement in the write up:
In our chat with Darío Gil, head of IBM research, he dismissed the idea of quantum supremacy and instead focused on getting to what he termed quantum advantage: where quantum computers consistently outperform classical ones on problems that are useful for companies. So, unless someone else wants to pay IBM to reserve the time needed to perform Google’s computations on IBM’s hardware, this is likely to get fairly academic.
One tiny problem: IBM seems to imply that it’s the big dog in quantum computing if I understand the information in “First Quantum Computer to Pack 100 Qubits Enters Crowded Race.”
Yep, got it.
Stephen E Arnold, November 25, 2021
Gmail: Is It a Go To Platform for Bad Actors?
November 22, 2021
“91% of All Bait Attacks Conducted over Gmail” is a report. Like many other cyber security related studies, the information is shaped to send a shiver of fear through the reader. Now is the assertion “all” accurate? Categorical affirmatives appear to make the writer appear confident in the data presented. The phrase “bait attack” sounds like insider speak. What’s the write up present? Here’s a passage I found interesting:
Researchers from Barracuda analyzed bait attack patterns in September 2021 from 10,500 organizations.
Where are the findings; specifically, the information about “bait attacks”?
The answer is, “Not in the article.” The write up points the reader to a link for a study conducted by Barracuda. If you want to read that report in its marketing home, navigate here. Then accept cookies. You will see that the examples are indeed email. The connection to Google is that the service is popular. It makes sense that bad actors would use a large email system as a convenient method of reaching individuals, obtaining information about valid and invalid email accounts, and other sorts of mischief.
What’s the fix? Put the onus on Goggle? Nah. Buy a Barracuda product? But if the cyber defense system worked, wouldn’t the method become less effective. Organizations would license the solution in droves. Has that happened?
Well, the attacks are widespread, according to the research. Google apparently is not able to manage the messages. The user remains an unwitting target.
So what’s the fix?
My thought is that Gmail accounts have to be verified. Cyber security companies should publish reports that reveal significant payoffs from their methods. Users should be smarter, more willing to keep their email address under wraps, and better at security.
Right now, none of these actions and attitudes are happening. What is happening is content marketing and jargon.
Some companies are quite good at talk. Cyber security solutions? That’s another story. I love that “all” approach too.
Stephen E Arnold, November 22, 20201
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