Staying Informed: The Modern Path to Enlightenment
October 22, 2018
I read “Snapchat Is a Popular Source for News among College Students.” Here’s the passage I noted:
In a survey of 5,844 college students from 11 US institutions, 89 percent said they got at least some of their news from social media over the previous week. And Facebook was the most popular outlet, with 71 percent of respondents saying they got news from the platform during that time period. Interestingly, Snapchat came in second place, with 55 percent of the students saying they had gotten news from the app during the past week. And YouTube, Instagram and Twitter followed, pulling 54 percent, 51 percent and 42 percent of respondents, respectively.
Observations:
- The 11 percent who get news from other sources need to get with the program
- The rise of pictures and captions is interesting and probably not good news for anyone pumping out text
- Retirement savings invested in print media look like risky bets.
Stephen E Arnold, October 23, 2018
Congressional Research Becomes Far Less Mysterious with Search
October 10, 2018
A strange thing is happening in Washington, the government is making itself more transparent and searchable. At least when it comes to congressional research. The Congressional Research Service has long been among the most secretive agencies in Washington, only releasing a report or two when it absolutely must. That has changed, according to a recent Federal News Radio story, “A Window Opens Into the Secretive Congressional Research Service.”
According to the story:
“CRS didn’t volunteer this initiative. Until now Its “board of directors” would only release reports individually, maybe, upon request from a constituent. But thanks to a provision in a 2018 appropriations bill, it now has to make them all public. Which means not every member of Congress liked the way things were. The provision was the work of Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.). He’s been trotting out legislation about CRS for the past seven years.”
You can take a look for yourself. Currently, the service only provides documents dating back to January of 2018, but more is supposed to be on the way. The only limitation is a redaction of the author’s information.
One question is, “Why aren’t government documents, not marked classified, available to the public?”
USA.gov does not provide a comprehensive index of public US government information. Interesting.
Patrick Roland, October 10, 2018
Factualities for October 10, 2018
October 10, 2018
I decided not to mention the number of anonymous sources (17) in the “real” news story about spy chips on motherboards. Bloomberg does “real” news. Sources, like those invoked by the New York Times, need not be identified. Are there sources in fiction best sellers? Anyway… believe these or not.
- 120,000 British pounds or about $150,000. The amount Heathrow Airport was find for losing a USB storage device with high value data. Source: ZDNet
- 44,000. The estimated number of Verizon employees RIFed in a downsizing move by the owner of Yahoo. Source: Bloomberg
- $368 million. The estimated loss at Google Deep Mind smart software company in the last 12 months. Source: Forbes
- $20 million. Cost to Elon Musk remain Tesla CEO after his “deal” tweets. Source: CNBC
- 4.58 factoids. The number of entities in DBpedia, the go to resource for outfits like IBM, the New York Times, etc. Source: Twobithistory
- $14. The cost of a legitimate passport on the Dark Web. Source: Cyware
Stephen E Arnold, October 10, 2018
One Internet? Not Likely
October 4, 2018
Some relationships are not made to last, but I never thought the Internet would break up with itself. I bet you are scratching your head wondering how the Internet could split apart, but the fault is one Asian country. Behind the Great Fire Wall, China could be working on its own Internet. Business Insider wrote that, “Google’s Ex-CEO Eric Schmidt Says The Internet Will Split In Two By 2028.”
Schmidt stated that by 2028, China will have their own version of the Internet. China does not like the western Internet and has a very powerful firewall that blocks unsavory Web sites. Schmidt believes the future Internet will be divided into the Chinese-led Internet and then the American-led Internet. Schmidt had this to say:
“If you look at China, and I was just there, the scale of the companies that are being built, the services being built, the wealth that is being created is phenomenal. Chinese Internet is a greater percentage of the GDP of China, which is a big number, than the same percentage of the US, which is also a big number. If you think of China as like ‘Oh yeah, they’re good with the Internet,’ you’re missing the point.
Globalization means that they get to play too. I think you’re going to see fantastic leadership in products and services from China. There’s a real danger that along with those products and services comes a different leadership regime from government, with censorship, controls, etc.”
The US is the world’s technology leader, but China has been ramping up its game since the early 2000s. China is on the verge of becoming a technological leader and could rival the US, especially in AI. The US appears to be the only option for the Internet, but if China creates its own Internet, other countries might adopt it.
This could be a big game changer in the world. The US has controlled many markets since World War II and China, probably will not topple them, but could be a strong rival.
Whitney Grace, October 4, 2018
Factualities for October 3, 2018
October 3, 2018
Believe ‘em or not.
-
- 56 percent. The number of teens who have experienced cyber bullying. Source: Pew Research Center
- 66 months in prison. Sentence for NSA thief taking work home. Source: Daily Beast
- $80 billion. Amount spent by technology companies to maintain a competitive edge. Source: Bloomberg
- 75. The number of banks joining JPMorgan Chase’s blockchain system. Source: Bitnovosti
- 800 kilograms. The world’s biggest bird. Source: CNet
- $3,499. Starting price of a Microsoft Surface Studio 2 PC. Source: Softpedia
- 90 million. Number of Facebook access tokens lost to hackers. Source: Betanews4
- More than 70. Number of new emoji in Apple iOS 12.1. Source: Apple
 |
Stephen E Arnold, October 3, 2018
Factualities for September 5, 2018
September 5, 2018
Believe ‘em or not.
- $13,470. Cost for 30 minutes of T Mobile Internet access. Source: Hardocp News
- 2.2 million customers’ data lost in data breach by T Mobile. Source: Naked Security
- $60 billion. The size of the global blockchain market in 2024. Source: Blokt
- 20%. Number of employees who share their email password with co workers. Source: ZDNet
- 2 percent. The number of teens who read a newspaper. Source: Science
- 64 billion. Number of fake emails sent each day. Source: Dark Reading
Stephen E Arnold, September 5, 2018
Gray Literature May Face a Backlash from Professional Publishing Companies
September 3, 2018
I read “Read Research Papers Trapped Behind a Paywall With This Chrome Extension.” The write up describes a Google Chrome extension which helps a user locate a pre-publication version of a journal article. This makes veering around a paywall a little easier for some people. Here in Harrod’s Creek, we just ignore articles for which someone has assigned a price tag. We believe that ignorance is bliss, and we wouldn’t want to have our halcyon life disrupted.
The write up explains:
the extension searches for the article to see if the author has posted a free version anywhere as well.
Bingo.
The write up explains in a somewhat labored manner:
Important to note: This isn’t getting you around the paywall or stealing the content. Instead, what it’s doing is seeing if there’s another legal version online that you can read instead. Emphasis on the “legal” in that sentence. If there is another copy online, you’ll see a green tab on your screen letting you know.
The visual clue is a green tag. Click it and, in theory, you will see the so called pre-publication, gray version of the write up.
Beyond Search believes that some of the professional publishers will note this innovation. We hypothesize that some of these savvy executives will come up with some ideas to nuke these unauthorized versions of the publishers’ for fee articles.
Some professional publishers charge authors for the work required to take their drafts and convert them into professional publishing recurring revenues.
Authors, some of whom are academics, often have zero choice about publishing in journals owned by professional publishing outfits. Do gooder researchers often have different ideas.
Professional publishers can make life difficult because most have outstanding legal teams, a keen desire to keep the recurring revenue flowing, and a need to make sure another Google-type existential threat does not blindside them. To be fair, some professional publishers were not able to perceive how disruptive, Google-type outfits could affect their businesses until they were in the hospital after being hit by the digital trains.
If you want the Chrome extension, navigate to the source article. We don’t use Chrome, and, as I said, we don’t use content in peer reviewed journals. Why?
Sorry, like some of the work I did in my 50 year working career, I won’t talk. Move forward I say. But here’s a question for you, “How much are those must have medical and engineering journals either in dead tree or digital form?” That’s a fact worth knowing.
Stephen E Arnold, September 3, 2018
EU Not Taking Terror Lying Down
September 3, 2018
Applause are due to the European Union, who have instituted a unique plan for battling online extremism. We learned more about this tactic and were able to think about its potential stress points from reading an interesting Inquirer article, “EU Wants Tech Firms to Remove Terror Content Within an Hour of Facetimes.”
According to the story:
“In March, legislation passed that presented the hour-long purge window, but it was only marked under voluntary guidelines. But it looks like tech firms aren’t volunteering to work to these guidelines so the EU wants to force them to do so by imposing fines on firms that are blasé about terrorism-related materials on their services, networks and platforms.”
This is a very exciting prospect in the war on disinformation and violence planned online. However, it’s not time to celebrate quite yet. As reported recently, the EU is a complex machine itself and several countries failed to step in line with the cybersecurity deadline that loomed this summer. Beyond that, we are very curious to see how the various nations and governing bodies work together to oversee this new security measure. We hope it makes some headway, but will be watching from afar.
Patrick Roland, September 3, 2018
Quote to Note: Walled Gardens
August 30, 2018
I spotted a quote which I immediately tucked into my “Research” folder. Here it is:
The trouble with a walled garden is that if the thing outside the garden is bigger and better than the thing inside the garden, then the wall only serves to keep new customers out rather than lock them in.
The statement appears in “What the Hell Was the Microsoft Network?” The history of this early Microsoft adventure is fascinating. The write up does a good job of bringing alive the thought process of smart people essentially unable to think about a problem outside of their beige cubicle.
But the quote has relevance today because walled gardens may be coming back in vogue. Apple is a walled garden. Facebook is a walled garden. Even Twitter is a walled garden. And if services are not becoming walled gardens, the gardeners are busy fixing fences, locking gates, and planting thorny hedges.
Worth reading the cited article.
Stephen E Arnold, August 30, 2018
Factualities for August 22, 2018
August 22, 2018
Believe ‘em or not. This week’s factualities are:
- 25,000. The number of illegal gambling apps removed from Apple store due to the Chinese government. Source: Wall Street Journal with a pay wall at this link.
- Museum puts sewage on display. Source: Ars Technica
- 33, the number of clinical trial centric scientific papers published by a Japanese expert. How many identified as containing made up date? Just 23. Source: Science Magazine
- Get paid to watch dirty movies. Yep, but you get a special crypto currency. Source: Metro Newspaper at this link
- 500. The number of English speaking robots to be deployed in Japanese schools. Source: ZDNet at this link
- Who is the leader, according to Forrester and IBM, in industrial Internet of Things platforms? IBM. Source: IBM at this link
- The secret to managing millennials? Don’t assume they are millennials. Source: Inc. at this link
Ah, the modern world with mobiles and online.
Stephen E Arnold, August 23, 2018
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
