China Charts a Course in Cyber Space
August 19, 2018
I am not much a political thinker. But even with the minimal knowledge I possess about world affairs, it seems to me that China has made its cyber technology objective clear. Of course, I am assuming that the information in “When China Rules the Web” is accurate. You will have to judge for yourself.
The write up states:
Chinese President Xi Jinping has outlined his plans to turn China into a “cyber-superpower.”
My reaction to this statement was to ask this question, “When US companies make changes in order to sell to China, does that mean those companies are helping to make the Chinese cyber space vision a reality?”
There are other questions swirling through my mind, and I need time to sort them out. Companies define the US to a large part. If the companies go one way, will other components of the US follow?
Worth considering. A stated policy that is being implemented is different from a less purposeful approach.
Stephen E Arnold, August 19, 2018
Factualities for Wednesday, August 15, 2018
August 15, 2018
Believe these items or not. We found them interesting:
- China has built 350000 5G cell sites; the US, 30 000
Source: CNBC - Five billion videos are watched around the world each day, with the vast majority of viewers being between 18 and 49-years-old. Source: Express tabloid newspaper
- Americans are now spending 11 hours each day consuming media. Source: Quartz
- Criminal activities account for just 10 percent of Bitcoin transactions. DEA via CCN.com
- Google will lose $50 million or more in 2018 from Fortnite bypassing the Play Store. Source: Techcrunch
- Baltimore will pay a person $176,800 to maintain Lotus Notes. Source: Baltimore Sun newspaper
Real or fake? A question smart software will have to answer. We cannot.
Stephen E Arnold, August 15, 2018
Internet Platforms Are Something New. But What Does “New” Mean?
August 12, 2018
“New” is an interesting concept. A new car suggests a vehicle that emits the mix of polyvinyls, warm electronics, and snake oil. “New” in a camp in Yemen means a T shirt abandoned by a person and claimed by another. “New” in a temple in Kyoto means repairs made a century ago.
But I learned in “Platforms Are Not Publishers”:
Google, Facebook, Twitter, and the internet are not media. They are something new we do not yet fully understand.
Would it be helpful to have the context and intended connotation of “new” defined?
Nah, after the Internet revolution, everyone knows the meaning of the word.
The problems generated when flows of data rip across the digital landscape is that these bits and bytes erode. The impact is more rapid but less easy to detect than the impact of a flash flood gushing through the streets of a Rio hillside slum.
The notion that commercial enterprises are the context. The platforms emerged from the characteristics of digital technology; that is, concentration, velocity, disintermediation, etc.
The large platforms are like beavers. Put a beaver in the observation deck of the Chrysler Building in Manhattan and the beavers are going to do what beavers do. They may die, but their beaverness makes them behave in a way that to some degree is predictable.
I like the idea that individuals in the “media”—another term which warrants defining—have to shoulder some of the blame. Better hurry. I am no longer sure how long the real media and the real journalists will survive.
Their future will be finding a way to exploit the digital flows.
In short, Internet platforms today are not much different from the BRS, DataStar, Dialog, and Lexis type systems before the Internet.
What’s different is the scope, scale, and speed of today’s digital flows. In the context of the information environment (what I continue to call the datasphere) is unchanged.
The problem is that today’s digital experts have a limited perception of “new” and the context of online systems and services.
In short, too late folks. Russia, Turkey, Iran, and other countries have figured out that the shortest distance between A and B is censorship.
Censorship is now a content fashion trend. That’s “new” as in governments are punching the “off” button. The action may be futile, but it is a reminder that old school methods may deliver because responsible commercial organizations ignore what may be their “duty.” Publishing? What’s that?
Stephen E Arnold, August 12, 2018
Kindle: There Are Free Options
August 7, 2018
Here’s a handy resource for anyone with an Amazon Kindle e-reader—PCWorld shares “Where to Find Free Books for our Amazon Kindle.” You may want to make a note of this because one thing is for sure—you won’t find this list via Amazon. Reporter Séamus Bellamy introduces:
“When you own an Amazon Kindle, the cost of supporting a voracious reading habit can get very steep, very quickly. A quick glance at Amazon’s list of the Best Books of the Month shows that a decent read can set you back between $13 and $15 for a Kindle edition book. Sure, Amazon offers deals on great e-books, but waiting for a deal could take forever. Many titles can be had for two bucks or less, but it takes work to find the gems among the dross. What you need are some solid options for finding free, absorbing content to devour on your Kindle. We’re more than happy to point you in the right direction. (And if you need a new e-reader, find one among our reviews of the best Kindles.)”
The first two sources on the list, Project Gutenberg and OverDrive, offer free content. Founded by the creator of e-books, Michael Hart, it is no exaggeration to say Project Gutenberg has made a crusade of digitizing public-domain books. Meanwhile, OverDrive allows anyone who holds a card from a (participating) public library to access their facilities’ digital collection. The next two items are actually little-touted Amazon features: It turns out you can “loan” someone a Kindle e-book for 2 weeks, during which time they can view it but you cannot. Furthermore, two adults from each household may freely share each e-book purchased form the Kindle store. See the article for more on each of these options, including click-by-click instructions for the latter two.
Cynthia Murrell, August 8, 2018
Amazon and Special Data
August 6, 2018
Amazon Web Services is ubiquitous with cloud computing and big data power. We all know dozens of companies use these tools, but until recently it was all a little hazy as to who was and how. But, a Silicon Angle gives us some tea leaves to read. According to the story, “In Conversation With: AWS Serverless Chief Tim Wagner Peers at the Future of Cloud Computing:”
“If you have traded any stocks, or had any stocks traded in your behalf, FINRA processes those stock trades at the end of the closing day using Lambda, so there’s a big chance here that the trade you made was evaluated and validated by FINRA using Lambda. Thomson Reuters does four thousand transactions every second with it, Fannie Mae runs its 20 million mortgage calculations through there. So these are not ancillary, some line-of-business, or over-in-the-marketing-department kinds of pieces These are mission-critical software that is now tied at the hip to a serverless architecture.”
This is significant, because we get a little first hand confirmation of AWS client base. Doing a little more research, it suddenly comes as no shock that Fannie Mae reported big earnings in its last quarter and Thomson Reuters is venturing into new territories. It’s fascinating to finally get to put a story to AWS’ offerings and it would not shock us if more big name corporations jump on board.
Quick question: What new revenue opportunities do these data create?
Patrick Roland, August 6, 2018
Math: The New Reality for Cryptocurrency Believers?
August 3, 2018
A lot of really smart people believe they can predict the future with math. Before you laugh, consider that meteorologists study weather patterns to predict the weather, biologists studies a tumor’s growth trajectory to determine future growth, and financial analysts predict the stock market’s up and downs. Phys.org takes a look at how scientists are using math to track down patterns to then predict the future: “Can Math Predict What You Do Next?”
Guess what the article is talking about? Big data and predictive analytics! It explains how retailers like Amazon use predictive analytics to predict what products consumers want next. Online advertisers are doing it to! Wow! This is new stuff…not, but the information on mathematical machine learning puts some new thoughts out there.
Machine learning algorithms can accurately predict Supreme Court outcomes, suicide attempts, and terrorist attacks. Machine learning is not perfectly accurate:
“As technology develops, scientists may find that we can predict human behavior rather well in one area, while still lacking in another. It’s very difficult to give an overall sense of the limitations. For instance, facial recognition may be easier to emulate because vision is one of many human sensory processing systems, or because there are only so many ways faces can differ. On the other hand, predicting voting behavior, especially based on the 2016 presidential election, is quite another story. There are many complex and not yet understood reasons why humans do what they do.”
One example is the reassuring human behavior of using information for personal gain. Combine opportunity, cleverness, and greed, and you end up with cryptocurrency markets struggling with insider trading. Math seems to contribute to the human calculus.
Whitney Grace, August 3, 2018
Google: A Digital Deer Stalker
August 2, 2018
The digital Natty Bumpos and Chingachcooks are on the job some pundits believe. In fact, Beyond Search has learned that some skeptical souls think Google is following you, me, heck, everyone.
We’ve all been suspecting that we are being digitally followed for quite some time now. Ever since smart phones started getting smarter than us, there’s been that suspicion. Recently, Google confirmed this but with an interesting caveat. We learned more from an in-depth IB Times story, “Tech Expert Explains How Google Maps Tracks Real Time Traffic.”
According to the story:
“Google Maps keeps on tapping the mobile phones of millions of people who keep their location services “ON” while they are on roads without hampering the security and privacy of the users. This data tracks the average speed at which the sedans are moving to a particular location.”
That’s a tough realization to come to. Yes, our driving is being intermittently watched, but the result is a better navigation tool. For example, Waze recently started using more artificial intelligence to its program. The plan is that the already crowd-sourced material from the driving app will be enhanced by predictive analytics and artificial intelligence in order to create a user experience that hopefully takes the edge off gridlock. What are your thoughts on this? We are, frankly, a little torn between beating our heads against the steering wheel in traffic and wanting to toss our phone out the window and live off the grid.
Nifty idea. Probably impossible for most individuals working, going online, using credit cards, sending text messages, etc.
Patrick Roland, August 2, 2018
Factualities: Believe Them or Not
August 1, 2018
Factualities quantify our online world. Today’s data:
- 80 percent of Dark Web visits relate to child porn. Source: Wired
- When organizations do not restrict any internet activity, over half of employees (58 percent) spend at least four hours per week, on Web sites unrelated to their job. Lost time: Just 26 work days every 12 months. Source: ZDNet
- Silicon Valley families making $117,000 are considered low income. Source: Boing Boing
- Dark Web boosts ecommerce fraud by 30 percent. Source: Forex
- The cost of UK biometric residence permits: About $30. Cheap some say. Source: The Register
Stephen E Arnold, August 1, 2018
Silos Are a Natural Consequence of Information: Learn to Love Them
July 30, 2018
How To Eradicate Unnecessary Data Silos
A piece at the SmartDataCollective explains “How to Eliminate Silos in Company-Wide Data Analytics.” Writer Larry Alton explains:
“Silos emerge when a cluster of individuals in your company (usually within a specific department) have trouble communicating with, or collaborating with another cluster of individuals in your company (usually within another department). In some ways, this is a natural result of building a company; if you want your sales team to focus on sales and your marketing team to focus on marketing, eventually, it will be difficult for your sales and marketing staff to collaborate on a mutual problem. But if you want your company’s data to be streamlined, accessible, and impactful to your organization’s bottom line, you’ll need to eliminate these silos, or at least mitigate their development.”
The piece lists the reasons silos are to be avoided and we agree, in general, with Alton’s points. However, we observe that data isolation by department is required in some sectors—intelligence, law enforcement, and pharmaceuticals, for example. Alton offers specific advice in his list, “How to Break Silos Down,” so see the piece for that info.
The problem, however, is that data silos are a fact of life in many organizations. Examples range from the 23andMe data now shared with a major pharmaceutical company to information in the possession of an attorney allegedly bound by confidentiality obligations. The idea that federating a wide range of data is a natural condition goes against individual and corporate behavior.
Talk about data silos is one thing. Delivering a giant data lake with open access to those with permission to view the data is another. When a new project gets off the ground, how are the data handled? The answer, “In a silo.” Toss in a government requirement for secrecy or a corporate rule about secret drug research, and you have silos.
Who doesn’t want silos?
Cynthia Murrell, July 30, 2018
Free Great Books Available
July 26, 2018
Amazon may not be able to replace libraries…yet. It was a comparatively short time ago that some of the world’s brightest thinkers thought the Internet could be a utopian idea that shared knowledge and kindness and funny cat videos. Fast forward to now and the Internet is a place mostly filled with ads, fake facts and fakier news, social media, social media trolls, identity thieves, vendors of baby data, and cat videos. However, it’s not all a minefield, because the knowledge category is actually becoming a reality, thanks to inventive services like Harvard’s new site, “My Harvard Classics.”
The site claims:
If you would like to download a PDF of any volume of the Harvard Classics you may do so for free.” And features massive texts from Homer, Plato, Ben Franklin and many of history’s brightest thinkers.
This is just one of several ways in which the academic world is opening up to this idea. The University of California libraries now offer open access search options, which offers a world of knowledge to anyone with an internet connection. It’s rare that we see stories of goodwill and genuine advancement when we talk about online activity and especially databases, so it’s good to bask in the glow that people are really taking full advantage of the online world in one respect.
By the way, most of the Harvard Classics are available via Amazon for a fee… of course.
Patrick Roland, July 26, 2018
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