Oath Rhymes with Loath and Maybe Sloth?
April 5, 2017
I wanted Yahoo to be named Yabba Dabba Hoot. Darn it. The Verizon outfit which may put some interesting software on mobile phones it sell has come up with the name Oath. I am not sure any of my friends in Harrod’s Creek would have stumbled upon this word. I noted that a number of the write ups reporting about the new name, the Tony Romo like sacking of Marissa Mayer, and the assurances that the calculus of AOL+Yahoot will change my life. See “Under Oath? How Yahoo + AOL Will Change Your Life.”
USA Today brilliantly revealed that Verizon’s Xoogler believes “the brands will stay the same. “ Yep, that’s what happens when Verizon acquires companies: The status quo is the Baby Bell way. Well, sometimes as long as one is not the CEO, the CFO, the legal team, and anyone who does not understand the ethos of the Young Pioneers and Bell Telephone training methods:
The real journalism outfit which we call McPaper here in Kentucky quoted the Xoogler responsible for the AOL Yahoot marriage. Tim Armstrong and apparently someone else allegedly said:
Armstrong has described Oath as a B2B brand, overseeing the names that you are all familiar with. Beyond Yahoo and AOL, those names include Tumblr, Huffington Post, TechCrunch and Engadget. In all, about 1.3 billion consumers use the company’s collection of brands making these among the most powerful digital brands on the Internet. “We like to say branding wise if you look at a hat, Huffington Post, TechCrunch, Yahoo Sports will be on the front, Oath will be on the side,” Armstrong said. Besides the early reaction to Oath hasn’t been all that flattering, with the new name the subject of numerous jokes out on social media.
On the side. Does oath mean economic growth?
Stephen E Arnold, April 5, 2017
Yahoot: Paying for Success
March 17, 2017
The Xoogler Marissa Mayer may get $23 million before Uncle Sam takes a bite. According to the “real” journalistic outfit Variety, I learned:
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, following the closing of the Verizon acquisition of the internet company’s operating businesses, will get a golden parachute package worth around $23 million if she’s fired or leaves for good cause within a year, Yahoo disclosed in a regulatory filing Monday.
My source was “Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Would Get $23M Severance Package after Verizon Deal Closes If She’s Fired or Leaves for Good Cause.” The payoff, if it occurs, provides $3 million in cash and the balance in equity.
Assuming no hitch in the git along, the new top Yahooligan will be Thomas McInerney, who has been a senior manager at IAC.
Yahoo. It’s a hoot. Paying for success.
Stephen E Arnold, March 17, 2017
ScyllaDB Version 3.1 Available
March 8, 2017
According to Scylla, their latest release is currently the fastest NoSQL database. We learn about the update from SiliconAngle’s article, “ScyllaDB Revamps NoSQL Database in 1.3 Release.” To support their claim, the company points to a performance benchmark test executed by the Yahoo Cloud Serving Benchmark project. That group compared ScyllaDB to the open source Cassandra database, and found Scylla to be 4.6 times faster than a standard Cassandra cluster.
Writer Mike Wheatley elaborates on the product:
ScyllaDB’s biggest differentiator is that it’s compatible with the Apache Cassandra database APIs. As such, the creators claims that ScyllaDB can be used as a drop-in replacement for Cassandra itself, offering users the benefit of improved performance and scale that comes from the integration with a light key/value store.
The company says the new release is geared towards development teams that have struggled with Big Data projects, and claims a number of performance advantages over more traditional development approach, including:
*10X throughput of baseline Cassandra – more than 1,000,000 CQL operations per second per node
*Sub 1msec 99% latency
*10X per-node storage capacity over Cassandra
*Self-tuning database: zero configuration needed to max out hardware
*Unparalleled high availability, native multi-datacenter awareness
*Drop-in replacement for Cassandra – no additional scripts or code required”
Wheatley cites Scylla’s CTO when he points to better integration with graph databases and improved support for Thrift, Date Tiered Compaction Strategy, Large Partitions, Docker, and CQL tracing. I notice the company is hiring as of this writing. Don’t let the Tel Aviv location of Scylla’s headquarters stop from applying you if you don’t happen to live nearby—they note that their developers can work from anywhere in the world.
Cynthia Murrell, March 8, 2016
Lawyer Responsible for Yahoo Security Failures: Believe It or Not
March 7, 2017
I read “Yahoo’s Head Lawyer Is Taking the Fall for Its Hacking While Marissa Mayer Is Getting Her Pay Docked.” The few layers I know are not exactly the sharpest tacks in the tool room when it comes to technology. I was amused but not surprised to learn that a legal eagle dropped the security mouse from 2,000 feet.
The write up explains:
…Yahoo’s head lawyer, Ron Bell, got bounced for not doing his job…the relevant legal t4eam had sufficient information to warrant substantial further inquiry in 2014 and they did not sufficiently pursue it.
Right.
Stephen E Arnold, March 7, 2017
Quote to Note: Yahoo and Sunshine
March 1, 2017
Here’s a quote I highlighted. The source is CNBC.com, a real journalism type outfit. The quote appeared in “How Richard Branson, Warren Buffett, Elon Musk and 13 Other Leaders Start the Day.” Marissa Mayer allegedly said:
Today is hard, tomorrow will be worse and the day after tomorrow will be sunshine.
Yep, with a nice golden parachute, the world may look golden. About that Yahoo security breach. Must be sunshine.
Stephen E Arnold, March 1, 2017
Yahoo: Discount News
February 25, 2017
I read “Verizon, Yahoo Agree to Lowered $4.48 Billion Deal.” The knock off price for an outfit with interesting security controls and a fine customer communication business process is $4.48 billion. Not bad for an aged Internet dowager which seems to have been drifting of late. The write up stated in real news fashion:
Under the amended terms, Yahoo and Verizon will split cash liabilities related to some government investigations and third-party litigation related to the breaches. Yahoo will continue to be responsible for liabilities from shareholder lawsuits and Securities and Exchange Commission investigations.
From my vantage pointing Harrod’s Creek, it is party time for the attorneys engaged in the many facets of Silicon Valley’s business school generation machine. Yahoooot or is it Yabba Dabba Hoot. I just get mixed up.
Stephen E Arnold, February 25, 2017
Yahoo Is Trying: Tusk Keep Trying
January 21, 2017
Beyond Search read a short but interesting “news” item with the interesting title “Yahoo Japan is Refusing to Stop the Sale of Ivory on Its Website.” Like other Internet news items, we believe everything we read online. Yahoo, according to the write up, is selling ivory. The write up points out:
“Even Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, has tried to stop the trade — but the business argues that so long as no laws are broken, people should be able to trade whatever it wants on the site.”
We love the “even.”
A Yahoo Japan person, quoted anonymously in the write up, allegedly says:
We want to provide an internet auction site where people can trade freely, and at this moment we have no intention of banning legal trading without any reason,” a spokesman for Yahoo Japan said. “We don’t believe the ivory sales contribute to a fall in elephant numbers.”
US Yahoo, I learned:
bans the sale of endangered animal products, says it can’t force Yahoo Japan to change. Mayer has not publicly addressed the issue, though she has let it be known that she has raised concerns internally.
The tireless warriorette, Marissa Mayer, “has met up dozens of times with Yahoo Japan on this issue.” Meeting up is easy because US Yahoo owns more than 35 percent of Yahoo Japan.
Well, Yahoo is trying, using the same management methods which may have contributed to the loss of users’ credentials. Trying. Yes, Ms. Mayer is trying.
Stephen E Arnold, January 21, 2018
Yahoo May Become Altaba
January 10, 2017
I read a US government filing which revealed that after Verizon allegedly buys the core assets of Yahoot. Sorry, I meant “Yahoo”, the remaining part of the Internet old timer will be called Altaba.
Darn. I was hoping that the non core assets of Yahoot. Sorry, I meant Yahoo would have a more mellifluous name; for example:
- Hooty
- Marissa Ville
- Yabba-dabba-doo.
My pick is “Yabba-dabba-doo” in a nice sans serif font. I would probably recall the new name as “Yabba-dabba-hoot.” As I age, my mind plays tricks on me. Kudos to the artist who designed a possible new logo for the company which should be named Yabba-dabba-hoo.
Stephen E Arnold, January 10, 2017
Yahoo Takes on ISIS, in Its Way
January 9, 2017
The article on VentureBeat titled Yahoo Takes Steps to Remove Content Posted From ISIS and Other Terrorist Groups remarks on the recent changes Yahoo made to its community guidelines. The updated guidelines now specify that any content or accounts involved with terrorist organizations, even those that “celebrate” violence connected to terrorist activity are up for deletion or deactivation. The article speaks to the relevance of these new guidelines that follow hard upon the heels of Orlando and San Bernardino,
Twitter has responded as well, “suspending over 125,000 accounts” related to terrorism. Messaging app Telegram has also blocked 78 channels that engaged in ISIS-related activity. Kathleen Lefstad, Yahoo’s policy manager for trust and safety, wrote that this new category is in addition to other types of content that are flagged, including hate speech, bullying or harassment, and sharing adult or sexualized content of someone without their consent.
ISIS has grown infamous for its social media presence and ability to draw foreign supporters through social media platforms. Yahoo’s crackdown is a welcome sign of awareness that these platforms must take some responsibility for how their services are being abused. Priorities, folks. If Facebook’s machine learning content security can remove any sign of a woman’s nipple within 24 hours, shouldn’t content that endorses terrorism be deleted in half the time?
Chelsea Kerwin, January 9, 2017
In Pursuit of Better News Online
December 20, 2016
Since the death of what we used to call “newspapers,” Facebook and Twitter have been gradually encroaching on the news business. In fact, Facebook recently faced criticism for the ways it has managed its Trending news stories. Now, the two social media firms seem to be taking responsibility for their roles, having joined an alliance of organizations committed to more competent news delivery. The write-up, “Facebook, Twitter Join Coalition to Improve Online News” at Yahoo News informs us about the initiative:
First Draft News, which is backed by Google [specifically Google News Lab], announced Tuesday that some 20 news organizations will be part of its partner network to share information on best practices for journalism in the online age. Jenni Sargent, managing director of First Draft, said the partner network will help advance the organization’s goal of improving news online and on social networks.
Filtering out false information can be hard. Even if news organizations only share fact-checked and verified stories, everyone is a publisher and a potential source,’ she said in a blog post. ‘We are not going to solve these problems overnight, but we’re certainly not going to solve them as individual organizations.
Sargent said the coalition will develop training programs and ‘a collaborative verification platform,’ as well as a voluntary code of practice for online news.
We’re told First Draft has been pursuing several projects since it was launched last year, like working with YouTube to verify user-generated videos. The article shares their list of participants; it includes news organizations from the New York Times to BuzzFeed, as well as other interested parties, like Amnesty International and the International Fact-Checking Network. Will this coalition succeed in restoring the public’s trust in our news sources? We can hope.
Cynthia Murrell, December 20, 2016
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