The Automated Library Robot
August 11, 2016
Libraries have evolved from centers that allow people to borrow books and conduct research to a one-stop shop for Internet usage. People love to say that libraries are useless and only archive outmoded knowledge, but they still provide useful services for people and cannot be easily replicated with a machine. Science Daily shares that “High-Tech Librarian Knows Its Books” and relates how robotics are entering libraries.
No, an automated machine is not replacing librarians, but one of the biggest problems that libraries face are disorderly books. It is the bane of libraries everywhere and it makes librarians want to weep when a clean, orderly shelf is messed up within minutes by a lackadaisical hands. It takes a lot of hours and staff to keep shelves in order, time that could be better spent doing something else:
“At A*STAR’s Institute for Infocomm Research, researchers Renjun Li, Zhiyong Huang, Ernest Kurniawan, and Chin Keong Ho are designing robots that can relieve librarians of many menial tasks, while enhancing searching and sorting of books. Their latest project is an autonomous robotic shelf scanning (AuRoSS) platform that can self-navigate through libraries at night, scanning RFID tags to produce reports on missing and out-of-sequence books.”
Taking away this task will save some time and even locate missing materials with (perhaps) more accuracy than a human. Robots will not be destroying this sacred institution of knowledge, only improving it. Budget crunches are a bigger problem for libraries than being replaced by robots.
Whitney Grace, August 11, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
There is a Louisville, Kentucky Hidden /Dark Web meet up on August 23, 2016.
Information is at this link: https://www.meetup.com/Louisville-Hidden-Dark-Web-Meetup/events/233019199/
Battle of the Maps
August 10, 2016
Once upon a time Mapquest.com used to be the best map Web site on the Internet, then came along Google Maps and then Apple Maps unleashed its own cartography tool. Which is the better GPS tool? Justin Obeirne decided to get to the bottom and find which application is better. He discussed his findings in “Cartography Comparison: Google Maps And Apple Maps.”
Both Google and Apple want their tool to be the world’s first Universal Map, that is the map most used by the world’s population. Google Maps is used by one billion of the world’s population, but Apple Maps has its fair share of users too. These tools are not just mere applications, however, they are powerful platforms deployed in many apps as well.
These maps have their differences: colors, styles, and even different types of maps. The article explains:
“At its heart, this series of essays is a comparison of the current state of Google’s and Apple’s cartography. But it’s also something more: an exploration into all of the tradeoffs that go into designing and making maps such as these. These tradeoffs are the joy of modern cartography?—?the thousands of tiny, seemingly isolated decisions that coalesce into a larger, greater whole. Our purpose here is not to crown a winner, but to observe the paths taken?—?and not taken.”
After reading the article, take your pick and decide which one appeals to you. From my experience, Google Maps is more accurate and prone to have the most updated information. Apple makes great technology, but cartography really is not their strongest point.
Whitney Grace, August 10, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
There is a Louisville, Kentucky Hidden /Dark Web meet up on August 23, 2016.
Information is at this link: https://www.meetup.com/Louisville-Hidden-Dark-Web-Meetup/events/233019199/
Technology: The New Dr. Evil in the Digital Dark Age
August 9, 2016
When I ride my mule down the streets of Harrod’s Creek, I marvel at the young folks who walk while playing with their mobile phones. Heading home after buying oats for Melissa, I look forward to my kerosene lamps.
Technology does not frighten me. I find technology and the whiz kids amusing. I read “Technology Is Now Pop Culture’s Favorite Enemy.” Goodness. I find gizmos and bits fun. The write up suggests that fun loving, top one percenters in education and wealth are finding themselves at the wrong end of a varmint trap.
I find it interesting that technology, which some folks in big cities believe is the way out of a gloomy tunnel, is maybe not flowers, butterflies, and rainbows. (The unicorns have taken to the woods it seems. No unicorns at the moment.)
I learned:
The ubiquitous nature of futuristic technology has lead to an exponential increase in our distrust of each other and the products we use, but most interesting, has taken away some of the blame from government bodies and corporations. We no longer fear agency bodies as much as we fear the physical technology they use.
That seems harsh. I like the phrase, “We’re from the government and here to help you.” Don’t you?
The write up adds a philosophical note:
Despite us being more savvy of how to use social media or despite us having a better understanding of how computers work in general, most of us still aren’t fluent in how it all fits together. We give so much of ourselves over to our devices, and we don’t ask for much in return. When we give something that inanimate that much control over us, it’s terrifying to think that we’re willingly giving up our freedom.
Let’s think about technology in terms of public Web search. One plugs a query into a system. The system returns a list of results; that is, suggestions where information related to the query may be found.
But what is happening is that the person reviewing the outputs does not have to ask, “Are these results accurate? Are they advertising? Are they comprehensive?” There is another question as well, “Is the information objective?” And what about, “Is the information accurate; that is, verifiable?”
The search systems perform another magic trick. The user becomes a content input. This means that the person with access to the queries as a group or the query subset related to a particular individual has new information. In my experience, knowledge is power, and the folks using the search system do not generally have access to this information.
Asymmetry results. The technology outfits offering service have more information than the users. Search does more to illuminate the dark corners of those using the search system than the results of a search illuminate the user’s mind.
Without the inclination to figure out what’s valid and what’s not or lacking the expertise to perform this type of search results vetting, the users become the used.
That sounds philosophical but there is a practical value to the observation. Without access and capability, the information presented becomes a strong influence on how one thinks, views facts, and has behavior influenced.
My thought is, “Welcome to the medieval world.” It is good to be a king or a queen. To be an information peasant is the opposite.
Giddy up, Melissa. Time to be heading back to the digital hollow to think about the new digital Dr. Evil.
Stephen E Arnold, August 9, 2016
Quote to Note: One Computer Error Can Lead to a Plan. A Plan?
August 8, 2016
I read “Delta’s Massive Computer Outage Is Part of a Much Bigger Problem.” This is an authoritative write up. The newspaper publishing this insight is owned by Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon and possibly the world’s smartest man. Here’s the quote I highlighted in hot pink:
Computers and automated systems have increased the efficiency and productivity of businesses in ways that were unimaginable a century, or even decades ago. But whether because of cyber attacks or just plain computer errors, the inter-connectivity built into almost all aspects of our lives means that one problem can quickly cascade into a catastrophe. So companies need to have a plan in place for when something goes wrong.
Yes, a plan. Anyone remember Tandem computers? Next time Amazon goes Wiley Coyote, I will contemplate this parental suggestion.
Stephen E Arnold, August 8, 2016
Internet Ad Fraud, Who Knew There Would Be Such a Thing?
August 8, 2016
I hate Internet ads. They pop up everywhere when I am trying to watch a video, read an email, or skim through an article. I know Internet ads are important to commerce and help keep certain services free, but why must they have sounds now? It should not come as a surprise with the amount of Internet ads that fraud would be associated with them at some point. The Register shares how to detect fraud in the story, “Digital Ad Biz Is Fraudulent By Design, Complain Big Brands.”
The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) is a global trade body that represents the biggest spenders in digital advertising. (MasterCard and Unilever are two of the biggest cash cows.) Adverting fraud not only harms advertising firms, but also brands seeking to sell their products and services. The WFA urges advertising firms that they not only clean up their own acts, devout resources to fight fraud, and not be so desperate for clicks and pocket change.
Businesses end up buying “cheap” traffic to bolster their numbers, but they are throwing their dollars into a money pit. The WFA advises that businesses limit their digital investments to avoid fraud. The WFA also predicts that by 2025 digital ad fraud could exceed $50 billion a year.
Digital ad fraud can take many forms:
“There are many shady practices at work, falling into three categories, the report explains.
- Website fraud is where the operator is an ad network affiliate, such as in conversion fraud schemes.
- Platform fraud includes social network and user-generated-content hosting sites.
- Data fraud includes fiddling the numbers, for example by using a botnet.
Website fraud can be identified because the site sends more traffic to an ad exchange than its size suggests it should – so it could be bumping up the numbers. Website fraud encompasses a range of schemes including hidden ads, cookie stuffing, clickjacking and cloudbot traffic. The latter is where a hosting company’s IP addresses generate traffic.”
Ad fraud is easier than ever, because if you create a simple bot algorithm, paint yourself with a reputable ad business, and snap of a up clients you are set to wheel in the dollars. It is not unsurprising that ad fraud is so common and regulation is slow. Internet standards are hard to regulate, even Google has its own problems.
Whitney Grace, August 8, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
There is a Louisville, Kentucky Hidden /Dark Web meet up on August 23, 2016.
Information is at this link: https://www.meetup.com/Louisville-Hidden-Dark-Web-Meetup/events/233019199/
Is Google a New Science Fiction Sub-Genre?
August 5, 2016
Science fiction is a genre that inspires people to seek the impossible and make it a reality. Many modern inventors, scientists, computer programmers, and even artists contribute their success and careers from inspiration they garnered from the genre. Even search engine Google pulled inspiration from science fiction, but one must speculate how much of Google’s ventures are real or mere fiction? Vanity Fair questions whether or not “Is Google’s BioTech Division The Next Theranos?”
Verily Life Sciences is GoogleX’s biotech division and the company has yet to produce any biotechnology that has revolutionized the medical field. They bragged about a contact lens that would measure blood glucose levels and a wristband that could detect cancer. Verily employees have shared their views about Verily’s projects, alluding that they are more in line to fanning the Google fanfare than producing real products. Other experts are saying that Google is displaying a “Silicon Valley arrogance” along the lines of Theranos.
Theranos misled investors about its “state of the art” technology and is now under criminal investigation. Verily is supposedly different than Theranos:
“Verily, however, is not positioning itself as a company with a salable product like Theranos. Verily ‘is not a products company,’ chief medical officer Jessica Mega argued Monday on Bloomberg TV. ‘But it’s a company really focused on trying to shift the needle when it comes to health and disease.’ That’s a distinction, luckily for Google, that could make all the difference.”
There is also a distinction between fantasy and a reality and counting your chickens before they hatch. Google should be investing in experimentation medical technology that could improve treatment and save lives, but they should not promise anything until they have significant research and even a prototype as proof. Google should discuss their ventures, but not brag about them as if they were a sure thing.
Whitney Grace, August 5, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Popular Programming Languages
August 4, 2016
What language should you use to create digital riches? (I wager that’s a question you ponder each and every day except when you are scanning for gems on your computing device.)
How do these outfits and others program the future money gushers? “Good Ol ‘C Tops the IEEE 2016 Programming Language Ranking.”
Here’s the hit parade according to the fun loving folks who revel in tales of electrical engineering success. Check the original for the full list of 14 languages.
- C
- Java
- Python
- C++
- R
- C#
- php
- JavaScript
- Ruby
- Go
Where, you may be asking, is Assembly language? It is number 13. What about Snobol? Did not make the list. Bummer for the AT&T crowd.
Stephen E Arnold, August 4, 2016
The Less Scary Applications of Artificial Intelligence: Computer Vision
August 3, 2016
The article on The Christian Science Monitor titled Shutterstock’s Reverse Image Search Promises a Gentler Side of AI provides a glimpse into computer vision, or the way a computer assesses and categorizes any image into its parts. Shutterstock finds that using machine learning to find other images similar to the first is a vast improvement, because rather than analyzing keywords, AI analyzes the image directly based on exact colors and shapes. The article states,
“That keyword data, while useful for indexing images into categories on our site, wasn’t nearly as effective for surfacing the best and most relevant content,” says Kevin Lester, vice president of engineering at the company, in a blog post. “So our computer vision team worked to apply machine learning techniques to reimagine and rebuild that process.”
The neural network has now examined 70 million images and 4 million video clips in its collection.”
In addition, the company plans to expand the search feature to videos as well as images. Jon Oringer, CEO and founder of Shutterstock, has a vision of endless possibilities for this technology. The article points out that this is one of the clearly positive effects of AI, which gets a bad rap, perhaps not unfairly, given the potential for autonomous weapons and commercial abuse. So by all means, let’s use AI to recognize a cat, like Google, or to analyze images.
Chelsea Kerwin, August 3, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Summize, an App with the Technology to Make Our Children Learn. But Is They?
August 2, 2016
The article on TheNextWeb titled Teenagers Have Built a Summary App that Could Help Students Ace Exams might be difficult to read over the sound of a million teachers weeping into their syllabi. It’s no shock that students hate to read, and there is even some cause for alarm over the sheer amount of reading that some graduate students are expected to complete. But for middle schoolers, high schoolers, and even undergrads in college, there is a growing concern about the average reading comprehension level. This new app can only make matters worse by removing a student’s incentive to absorb the material and decide for themselves what is important. The article describes the app,
“Available for iOS, Summize is an intelligent summary generator that will automatically recap the contents of any textbook page (or news article) you take a photo of with your smartphone. The app also supports concept, keyword and bias analysis, which breaks down the summaries to make them more accessible. With this feature, users can easily isolate concepts and keywords from the rest of the text to focus precisely on the material that matters the most to them.”
There is nothing wrong with any of this if it is really about time management instead of supporting illiteracy and lazy study habits. This app is the result of the efforts of an 18-year-old Rami Ghanem using optical character recognition software. A product of the era of No Child Left Behind, not coincidentally, exposed to years of teaching to the test and forgetting the lesson, of rote memorization in favor of analysis and understanding. Yes, with Summize, little Jimmy might ace the test. But shouldn’t an education be more than talking point mcnuggets?
Chelsea Kerwin, August 2, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
The Surprisingly Diverse Types of Cybercriminals Threatening Your Business
July 29, 2016
The article titled BAE Systems Unmasks Today’s Cybercriminals- Australia on BAE Systems digs into the research on the industrialization of cyber crime, which looks increasingly like other established and legal industries. While most cybercriminals are still spurred to action by financial gain, there are also those interested more in a long-term strategy of going after intellectual property and selling the data on the black market. The article states,
“Some cyber criminals are becoming even more professional, offering skills and services, such as “project management” to other criminal organisations. They are writing their own software that comes with service agreements and money-back guarantees if the code gets detected, with the promise of a replacement. This ‘industrialisation’ of cyber crime means it has never been more important for businesses to understand and protect themselves against the risks they face,” said Dr Rajiv Shah, regional general manager, BAE Systems Applied Intelligence.”
The article pinpoints six profiles including career criminals but also internal employees, activists and, and what they call “The Getaway,” or underage criminals who won’t be sentenced like adults. Perhaps the most insidious of these is The Insider, who can be a disgruntled employee or a negligent employee with more access than is good for them or the company they work for.
Chelsea Kerwin, July 29, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
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