Should Scientific Collaboration Be Easier?
July 28, 2022
One of the Internet’s greatest benefits is that it offers scientists and other smart people the chance to collaborate across the globe. The United Nations and other researchers state that collaboration is essential to solving global warming, biodiversity loss, and curing pandemics. However, The Conversation says it is not that easy in the article, “It’s Getting Harder For Scientists To Collaborate Across Borders-That’s Bad When The World Faces Problems Like Pandemics And Climate Change.”
Collaboration with non-Western countries, such as the tuberculosis research network between South Africa, China, India, Russia, and Brazil led to advancements in basic and applied research. Unfortunately, Earth’s most powerful countries, increases in their nationalism, Russia’s war with Ukraine, and the COVID-19 pandemic have made it difficult for researchers to work together.
Russia has stopped working with all collaboration efforts from the arts to climate science in the Arctic. China has stopped working with the United States on projects involving quantum computing and microelectronics. Russia, China, and other countries have turned science into a tool for international politics.
Stopping international research collaboration is bad:
“But reducing or stopping international research comes with its own risks. It slows down the production of knowledge needed to address long-term global problems and reduces the potential for future scientific collaboration… First, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 led to an increased openness in global scientific exchange. In particular, there was growth in the number of students from developing and non-Western countries going to universities in the West. This movement formed networks of researchers from many countries. Second, massively collaborative scientific efforts – such as the Human Genome Project – as well as the ever-growing importance of expensive, large research laboratories and instruments have fueled international collaboration. Finally, the digital revolution has made it much easier to communicate and share data across borders. This all resulted in collaborative and fruitful research in many fields including gene technology, climate science and artificial intelligence. While Western countries dominated the scientific landscape of the 20th century, globalization has benefited many non-Western countries.”
The European Union, China, and United States are competing for technological and scientific leadership. The US and European Union explained that the loss of scientific and technological leadership leads to fewer economic opportunities and threatens democracy.
The US does want to limit China’s international influence and scientific progress. The US launched a large anti-espionage effort called the China Initiative to uncover connections US-Chinese links in corporate and academic sectors. Nothing was substantiated, but three US-based scholars were convicted when they failed to disclose Chinese ties. The China Initiative was criticized, then President Biden ended it in 2022.
The US, however, still has trade sanctions on Chinese countries to curtail China’s science and technology industries. The European Union is doing the same. China wants its science, technology, and scholarly industries to serve its interests. All three powers are wary of any collaboration.
Scientists want to work together, but governments and dictators ruin the fun for everyone.
Whitney Grace, July 28, 2022
Facebook Sunset: A Rush to Judgment? Nope. Bus Left Already
July 27, 2022
I read a variation on the Chicken Little story with an infusion of Humpty Dumpty. Sound interesting? Just navigate to “Sunset of the Social Network.” Pretty interesting because this is a Silicon Valley type cheerleading outfit realizing that their outfits don’t match those from the ESPN Cheerleading Championships for 2022. How does one quickly fix a fashion faux pas? Easy. Just claim that social networks are even less trendy than the white pants and red sweaters with Mountain View and Palo Alto logos stitched on the polyester.
So what’s the future? If you haven’t figured it out, the answer is TikTok and recommendations to drive memes, advance fun activities like jumping off roofs, and making wlw videos for middle schoolers. Yep, the future. Why not toss end a couple of references to the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire?
The write up says:
Under the social network model, which piggybacked on the rise of smartphones to mold billions of users’ digital experiences, keeping up with your friends’ posts served as the hub for everything you might aim to do online. Now Facebook wants to shape your online life around the algorithmically-sorted preferences of millions of strangers around the globe.
On the surface, this seems to be what Zuckbook is trying to achieve. Irritating the Kardashians was a knock on effect.
The write up points out that digital dinobabies are a bit clumsy when snow falls:
Rivals tried and failed to beat Facebook at the social network game — most notably Google, with multiple forgotten efforts from Orkut to Google+.
I haven’t forgotten Orkut. That misstep illustrated a genetic flaw in Google’s DNA. Not only could Google not solve death, it couldn’t solve Facebook nor, more recently, Amazon’s gobbling a very large chunk of product search. (Presumably an able Verity alum will redress that issue with information gene splicing. Well, that’s the theory.
Here’s the passage I quite liked:
But the era in which social networking served as most users’ primary experience of the internet is moving behind us. That holds for Twitter, Facebook’s chief surviving Western rival, as well. Twitter never found a reliable business model, which opened it up to an acquisition bid by Elon Musk. Whatever the outcome of the legal fight now underway, Twitter’s future is cloudy at best. … The leadership of Meta and Facebook now views the entire machine of Facebook’s social network as a legacy operation.
Yowza. The very thing that helped make Silicon Valley punditry the next big thing has moved on. Apparently the email has not yet reached Medium and Substack yet. It has, in my opinion, reached Buzzfeed’s senior team and is probably in the in box of a number of other information outlets. That’s just a guess on my part, however.
And what’s the future? The answer is revealed:
All this leaves a vacuum in the middle — the space of forums, ad-hoc group formation and small communities that first drove excitement around internet adoption in the pre-Facebook era. Facebook’s sunsetting of its own social network could open a new space for innovation on this turf, where relative newcomers like Discord are already beginning to thrive.
News flash!
That era has already arrived, and it is morphing, innovating, and invigorating interesting new mechanisms of informationization. Want an example? Okay, CSAM on Telegram. I address this disturbing activity in my luncheon talk at the upcoming Federal Law Enforcement Training Center talk. The downturn in Dark Web activity illustrates a trend building over the last six years.
Facebook and the Silicon Valley real news folks now realize something has changed. Too late? For some, yes.
Stephen E Arnold, July 27, 2022
How Secure Is Cyber Security?
July 27, 2022
I have noted that cyber security companies invite me to webinars, briefings, conferences, and telephone calls. The subject of these calls is usually advanced, next-generation, proactive, smart, and intelligent cyber security solutions. The idea is that I will mention these firms in my lectures to law enforcement, crime analysts, and intelligence professionals. I sit through some. One outfit offers weekly seven to 10 minute reports about some new, absolutely horrible cyber threat. Others want me to join a Zoom to watch a series of PowerPoint slides showing how the latest Zero Day will make life miserable for companies without their cloud-based security system.
I then read item after item about a new variant of a RAT, an exploit taking advantage of the Swiss cheese of enterprise software, or some new dump of personal financial data on a Dark Web site selling fulz. It seems to me as if the cyber security sector is better at marketing than delivering cyber security. That’s just my opinion, and I usually don’t make a big deal of the veggie burgers being sold as 100 percent prime sirloin.
I read “Digital Security Giant Entrust Breached by Ransomware Gang.” The article does little to make me feel warm and fuzzy about cyber security systems and their vendors. I learned:
Digital security giant Entrust has confirmed that it suffered a cyber attack where threat actors breached their network and stole data from internal systems.
Who are the customers of this “digital security giant”? The write up reported:
This includes US government agencies, such as the Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Health & Human Services, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Agriculture, and many more.
Great. How effective are those whiz bang cyber security systems?
Yeah. I think I know the answer. Marketing is easier than delivering cyber security that works.
Stephen E Arnold, July 27, 2022
Marketing Craziness Okay or Not? Socks Not Software May Provide Some Answers
July 27, 2022
I recall reading about a mid tier consulting firm which “discovered” via real mostly research that software may not work. The Powerpoints and the demos explain the big rock candy mountain world. Then the software arrives, and one gets some weird treat enjoyed east of Albania or north of Nunavut. Companies may sue software vendors, but those trials sort of whimper and die. I mean software. Obviously;y it does not work.
But socks or sox as some prefer are different.
I read “Bass Pro Getting Sued for Not Honoring Guarantee for “Redhead Lifetime Guarantee All-Purpose Wool Socks.” Yeah, socks. The write up states:
If a company puts “Lifetime Guarantee” into the name of one of its products, you would expect the product to have a lifetime guarantee. But in the case of Bass Pro, Lifetime Guarantee is apparently shorthand for “If your lifetime guarantee socks fail we will replace them with an inferior sock with a 60 day guarantee.” A man who bought a bunch of “Redhead Lifetime Guarantee All-Purpose Wool Socks” is now suing Bass Pro for being deceptive.
What about the unlimited data offered by major US telecommunications companies. How did that work out? My recollection is that “unlimited” means “limited.” Plus, the telcos can change the rules and the rates with some flexibility. What about Internet Service Providers selling 200 megabits per second and delivering on a good day maybe 30 mbs if that?
The answer is pretty clear to me. Big companies define their marketing baloney to mean whatever benefits them.
Will the socks or sox matter resolve the issue?
Sure. The consumer is king in the land of giant companies. If you want your software to work, don’t use it. If you want hole free socks, don’t wear them.
Simple fix which regulatory agencies are just thrilled to view as logical and harmless. Those guarantees were crafted by a 23 year old music theory major who specializes in 16th century religious music. What does that person know about software or socks?
Stephen E Arnold, July 27, 2022
Kenyan Survey Shows Social Media Usage Tripled Since 2015
July 27, 2022
Global market research firm IPSOS conducts a study in Kenya to get clues on how media and other organizations can better reach their audiences in that country. Last performed in 2015, the company just released its latest iteration. We learn some of this year’s findings in Capital News‘ article, “Social Media Reach Triples in Past 7 Years.” Reporter Wendy Wangui tells us:
“The Kenya Media Establishment Survey 2022 revealed that mobile device has been the major disruptor in the media landscape with an increase in ownership from 79% to 95% and growth of smartphone from 19% to 51%. Speaking during the launch, IPSOS in Kenya Managing Director Chris Githaiga said that Kenya has witnessed accelerated growth and diversity in media touch points since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. ‘We found out that internet use has more than tripled from 13% to 46% mainly driven by social media. We also discovered that social applications such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google are debasing more quickly as newer applications like Betting, TikTok, Telegram and Opera become more attractive to the youth,’ he said.”
So it seems a combination of mobile devices and COVID are helping platforms extend their reach. This survey illustrates how social media’s grip over the Internet is spreading around the world like a plague. Alas, we may be approaching a day when no one remembers a Web free of its big tech overlords, a time when the Internet is synonymous with social media. Then again, perhaps folks working to avoid that digital dystopia will prevail.
My hunch is that social unrest will increase.
Cynthia Murrell, July 27, 2022
TikTok, TikTok: The Doomsday Clock at the Googleplex May Be Ticking
July 26, 2022
I read “Time Is Ticking for Google to Catch Up with TikTok”. The write up — which is unlikely to be greeted with cheers at the Google — says:
Google complained that almost 40% of Gen Z prefers using social apps like TikTok and Instagram for online queries instead of Google Search and Maps. Instead of complaining, perhaps Google should take the necessary steps to make valuable changes to its services to draw in its losing customer base.
The write up quotes a Verity-trained Googler as saying:
“We keep learning, over and over again, that new internet users don’t have the expectations and the mindset that we have become accustomed to,” Raghavan said. He added that younger users are making queries in an entirely different way.”
I love the royal “we.” Very King Carlos II of Spain.
The write up points out that Google is a dinobaby:
But in recent years, we changed the way we consumed content. We prefer watching videos that are short and to the point — the type of content TikTok succeeds in, and one Google is trying to catch up with.
How fast can Googzilla adapt?
TikTok, TikTok, is that the doomsday clock?
Stephen E Arnold, July 26, 2022
Intel Horse Feathers: The Graphics Edition
July 26, 2022
Intel, famous for its remarkable quantum facilitator chip, is back in the horse feathers’ news. I read the allegedly spot on “Intel Won’t Be Troubling Nvidia This Year, Because the Arc A780 GPU Never Existed.” I don’t get to excited about graphics cards. The ones we use are stable and good enough (that’s the benchmark for excellence these days). The write up is more interested in this branch of video razzle dazzle, however. I noted this statement in the cited article about a wonder product from the Intel Inside folks:
Ryan Shrout, who handles Intel’s graphics marketing, has confirmed via Twitter that there isn’t an incoming A780 card – and not only that, but he also claims that Intel never even had plans to make one.
The former podcaster apparently knows when horse featherism must be addressed. How? Via Twitter!
What I find interesting is that assertions abound. Many of these sell products, licenses, and services which are marketing centric. My perception is that a desire to capture mind share takes precedence over reality.
I think part of the problem is sparked by insecurity or belief that publicity can make up for delivering something that solves a problem. Intel is going to build or was thinking about building big semiconductor fabs in a state which faces some water challenges. Next up was a build out in Ohio, just not too close to the big river. Plus we have the horse thing.
As TSMC and others move forward with 3 nm chips, Intel relies on a former podcaster and a tweet to make clear. Yeah, no A780. Credibility? Absolutely.
But a tweet? Very 2022.
Stephen E Arnold, July 26, 2022
Hasta La Vista News. Et Tu Facebook?
July 26, 2022
Many Internet users use Facebook as their main news platform. One of the problems of using Facebook is that it builds a confirmation bias, conspiracy theory, and misinformation trap. Facebook has garnered a lot of bad press as a news purveyor throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Nieman Lab explains that Facebook might be done sharing the news: “Facebook Looks Ready To Divorce The News Industry, And I Doubt Couples Counseling Will Help.”
Facebook could never officially divorce itself from the news, but the social media platform is moving as far away from the news as possible. Facebook pays news outlets millions of dollars each year to post stories in its “News” feature that users can access for free. Facebook had three-year contracts with many news outlets that will soon expire. Facebook is interested in reinvesting the news fees into short video producers like TikTok.
Speaking of TikTok, Facebook has informed its workers to make the platform resemble TikTok. Facebook will now prioritize posts on feeds regardless of their origin, instead of posts users follow. Facebook’s app will continue to feature content from people, then show items recommended by its discovery engine.
The breakup might be mutual:
“So on one hand, Facebook might stop writing checks to news publishers, having found they don’t make its PR problems go away. And on the other, Facebook wants to demote what little news still remains in its primary feed, having found that it doesn’t keep users engaged as much as an algorithm-generated stream of random videos.
This is what a breakup looks like. Facebook was not originally intended to be the world’s largest distributor of human attention to news stories. It became that, circa 2015. But that responsibility became a nuisance, and it’s spent the past seven years walking away from it.”
Maybe this will be the end of conspiracy theorists with a megaphone.
Whitney Grace, July 26, 2022
Now We Know Why Consultant Reports Are Long, Wordy, and Just So-So
July 26, 2022
I noted the research findings (allegedly spot on and reproducible) in “Experts Don’t Always Give Better Advice—They Just Give More.”
Here’s the killer statement:
Top performers didn’t write more helpful advice, but they did write more of it, and people in our experiments mistook quantity for quality…
Several observations:
- What is “helpful”? Maybe helpful means that the person listening was sufficiently intelligent to pick out the important bits?
- Why more output? Maybe more reflects what the individual thinks he she it knows?
- Why fiddle with experts in the first place? Maybe when one needs brain surgery, the doctor should have a bit of a track record whether he she it can talk coherently or not?
How about a simple crowd sourced test? Ask a question on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube. Pick a short answer. Apply it. Let me know how that works out for [a] tattoo removal, [b] investing in NFTs about psychologists, [c] where to purchase contraband via a Telegram group, or [d] working for a dinobaby who wants a person who thinks, is reliable, and has a good attitude.
Not appealing? Okay, just guess like many MBAs working in high-tech market sectors or blue-chip consulting firms.
Stephen E Arnold, July 26, 2022
Microsoft: Excellence in Action
July 25, 2022
I wanted to print one page of text. I thought a copy of the cute story about the antics of Elon and Sergey might be nice to keep. My hunch is that some of the content might be disappeared or be tough to see through the cloud of legal eagles responding to the interesting story. Sorry.
Nope.
Why?
Microsoft seems to be unable to update Windows without rendering a simple function. Was I alone in experiencing this demonstration of excellence? Nope. “Microsoft Warns That New Windows Updates May Break Printing.” The article states:
Microsoft said that the temporary fix has now been disabled by this week’s optional preview updates on Windows Server 2019 systems. This change will lead to printing and scanning failures in Windows environments with non-compliant devices.
There you go. Non compliant.
But wait, there’s more.
But wait there’s more!
“New Windows 11 Update Breaks the Start Menu Because Microsoft Hates Us All” explains:
It looks like Microsoft has once again shipped dodgy Windows 11 updates, with reports suggesting that the two latest cumulative updates have been causing serious issues with the Start menu. The updates in question are KB5015882 and KB5015814, and it looks like they’ve introduced a bug which causes to Start menu to disappear when you click to open it.
What do these examples suggest to me?
- A breakdown in basic quality control. Perhaps the company is involved in addressing layoffs, knock on effects from SolarWinds, and giving speeches about employee issues
- Alleged monopolies lack the management tools to deliver products and services which function like the marketing collateral asserts
- Employees follow misguided rules; for example, the Wall Street Journal’s assertion that employees should “ditch office chores that don’t help you get ahead.” See Page A 11, July 25, 2022. (If an employee is not as informed as a project lead or manager, how can the uninformed make a judgment about what is and what is not significant? This line of wacko reasoning allows companies with IBM type thinking to provide quantum safe algorithms BEFORE there are quantum computers which can break known encryption keys. Yep, the US government buys into this type of “logic” as well. Hello, NIST? Are you there.
Plus, Microsoft Teams, which is not exactly the most stable software on my Mac Mini, is going to get more exciting features. “Microsoft Is Launching a Facebook Rip-Off Inside Teams.” This article reports:
Microsoft is now launching Viva Engage today, a new Facebook-like app inside Teams that encourages social networking at work. Viva Engage builds on some of the strengths of Yammer, promoting digital communities, conversations, and self-expression in the workplace. While Yammer often feels like an extension of SharePoint and Office, Viva Engage looks like a Facebook replica. It includes a storylines section, which is effectively your Facebook news feed, featuring conversational posts, videos, images, and more. It looks and feels just like Facebook, and it’s clearly designed to feel similar so employees will use it to share news or even personal interests.
That’s exactly what I don’t want when “working.” The idea for me is to get a project, finish it, and move on to another project. Sound like kindergarten? Well, I listened to Mrs. Fenton. Perhaps some did not heed basic tips about generating useful outputs. Yeah, Teams with features added when the service does not do the job on some Macs. Great work from the Windows Phone and Surface units’ employer.
Net net: Problems? Yes. Fixable? I have yet to see proof that Microsoft can remediate its numerous technical potholes. Remember that Microsoft asserted that Russia organized 1,000 programmers to make Microsoft’s security issues more severe. In my view, Russia has demonstrated its inability to organize tanks, let alone complex coordinated software exploits. Come on, Microsoft.
Printers!
Stephen E Arnold, July 25, 2022
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