Tweet This: Ephemera in Google Search Results
May 20, 2015
Short honk: I know the tweet thing is popular with folks in San Francisco, law enforcement, and marketers with degrees in art history. For me, the tweet thing is a “feature” implemented by one of the goslings fooling around with this blog and our posts on Xenky.com about my new cyberosint book. Now the GOOG has re-embraced Twitter content. The read about this innovation, navigate to “A New Way to Discover Tweets.” The write up uses a compelling example; to wit: Taylor Swift.
Stephen E Arnold, May 20, 2015
Yahoo Management: Raising the Bar
May 20, 2015
I love it when Xooglers demonstrate how Googley behavior translates into down home management expertise. Two examples this morning:
- The Wall Street Journal reported that the new Yahoo chief information officer has decided to leave Yahoo for other opportunities. You may have to pay to view the article or you can buy a dead tree version at your local news agent. (Local news agent! What was I thinking?)
- The Alibaba deal worth lots of money may have hit a speed bump. You can get some of the details in “Yahoo Affirms Spinoff Plan as IRS Comments Trigger Share Slump.” That tax stuff is tricky. Accountants have so much to do and tax issues come up so infrequently.
Yahoo management continues to provide a flow of possible business school case examples.
Stephen E Arnold, May 20, 2015
Eric Schmidt On Search Ambition and Attitude at the GOOG
May 20, 2015
The article on Business Insider titled Google’s Former CEO Reveals The Complicated Search Question He Wants Google To Be Able To Answer reports on Eric Schmidt’s speech in Berlin where he mentioned the hurdles Google is yet to overcome. Obviously, Google is an incredibly ambitious company, and should never be satisfied. He spelled out one particular question he would like the search engine to be able to answer,
“Try a query like ‘show me flights under €300 for places where it’s hot in December and I can snorkel,'” Schmidt says. “That’s kind of complicated: Google needs to know about flights under €300; hot destinations in winter; and what places are near the water, with cool fish to see. That’s basically three separate searches that have to be cross-referenced to get to the right answer. Sadly, we can’t solve that for you today. But we’re working on it.”
Schmidt also argued on behalf of Google in regards to the EU investigation into Google possibly favoring its own results rather than a fair spread of companies. Schmidt claimed that Google is most interested in simplifying search for users, rather than obliging users to click around. Since Google search is admittedly ad-oriented, Schmidt’s position seems to be at least semi-accurate.
Chelsea Kerwin, May 20 , 2014
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
Sinequa and Systran Partner on Cyber Defense
May 20, 2015
Enterprise search firm Sinequa and translation tech outfit Systran are teaming up on security software. “Systran and Sinequa Combine in the Field of Cyber Defense,” announces ITRmanager.com. (The article is in French, but Google Translate is our friend.) The write-up explains:
“Sinequa and Systran have indeed decided to cooperate to develop a solution for detecting and processing of critical information in multiple languages ??and able to provide investigators with a panoramic view of a given subject. On one side Systran provides safe instant translation in over 45 languages, and the other Sinequa provides big data processing platform to analyze, categorize and retrieve relevant information in real time. The integration of the two solutions should thus facilitate the timely processing of structured and unstructured data from heterogeneous sources, internal and external (websites, audio transcripts, social media, etc.) and provide a clear and comprehensive view of a subject for investigators.”
Launched in 2002, Sinequa is a leader in the Enterprise Search field; the company boasts strong business analytics, but also emphasizes user-friendliness. Based in Paris, the firm maintains offices in Frankfurt, London, and New York City. Systran has a long history of providing innovative translation services to defense and security organizations around the world. The company’s headquarters are in Seoul, with other offices located in Daejeon, South Korea; Paris; and San Diego.
Cynthia Murrell, May 20, 2015
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
Navy Cloud Encounters a Storm Front
May 19, 2015
I read “Slow Progress Forces navy to Change Strategies for Cloud, Data Centers.” I have high regard for US Navy technical professionals. ONION router technology and miniature swarm drones have been based on some Navy research.
The write up troubled me. Here’s the first passage I noted this statement:
Culturally, we have to make this shift from a mistaken belief that all our data has to be near us and somewhere where I can do and hug the server, instead of someplace where I don’t know in the cloud. This is a big shift for many within the department. It’s not going to be an easy transition.”
Like most nations’ military forces resources are available in the form of personnel, machines, and money. Staffing also refreshes on a cadence different from some other government entities and many commercial organizations. There are not too many 70 year old nuclear submarine commanders.
The issue about the shift to cloud computing suggests that more than technical hurdles prevent enterprise and mission critical applications from moving to the cloud. I noted this paragraph as well:
While the Navy is open to using commercial or public clouds, the Marine Corps is going its own way. Several Marine Corps IT executives seemed signal that the organization will follow closely to what the Navy is doing, but put their own twist on the initiative. One often talked about example of this is the Marines decision to not move to the Joint Regional Security Stacks (JRSS) that is part of the Joint Information Environment (JIE) until at least version 2 comes online in 2017. Marine Corps CIO Gen. Kevin Nally said the decision not use the initial versions of JRSS is because Marine Corps’ current security set up is better and cheaper than version 1 or 1.5.
In interpreted the milspeak to mean, “We are doing the cloud but we are focusing on a private cloud, not the public Amazon thing.”
Will enterprise search vendors who emphasize their cloud solution advise their customers about cloud options? Search marketers often tell the prospect many things, and I assume explaining the different approaches to clouds and aggregation will be part of the sales presentation.
Stephen E Arnold, May 19, 2015
HP Autonomy: MicroTechnologies Joins the Legal Fray
May 19, 2015
I read “MicroTech Sues HP, Claims to Be Caught in Middle of Autonomy Legal Battle.” I am going to have create a wall of index cards to keep track of who is suing whom in the dust up about Hewlett Packard’s purchase of Autonomy.
According to the write up:
MicroTechnologies LLC is suing Hewett-Packard for $16.6 million in unpaid invoices that the technology giant claims were for deals that never actually existed.
The article explains:
For two transactions totaling $16.5 million, Autonomy took the payments from MicroTech but never delivered the license keys, according to the complaint. Neither deal ever closed, the lawsuit states, but Autonomy kept the payments from MicroTech. One of the two customers was the Vatican Library in Italy, and the other was HP itself — prior to its 2011 acquisition of Autonomy for $11 billion.
I will make a note card run to Dollar General at noon. Lots of litigants to track.
Stephen E Arnold, May 19, 2015
Searching Bureaucracy
May 19, 2015
The rise of automatic document conversion could render vast amounts of data collected by government agencies useful. In their article, “Solving the Search Problem for Large-Scale Repositories,” GCN explains why this technology is a game-changer, and offers tips for a smooth conversion. Writer Mike Gross tells us:
“Traditional conversion methods require significant manual effort and are economically unfeasible, especially when agencies are often precluded from using offshore labor. Additionally, government conversion efforts can be restricted by document security and the number of people that require access. However, there have been recent advances in the technology that allow for fully automated, secure and scalable document conversion processes that make economically feasible what was considered impractical just a few years ago. In one particular case the cost of the automated process was less than one-tenth of the traditional process. Making content searchable, allowing for content to be reformatted and reorganized as needed, gives agencies tremendous opportunities to automate and improve processes, while at the same time improving workflow and providing previously unavailable metrics.”
The write-up describes several factors that could foil an attempt to implement such a system, and I suggest interested parties check out the whole article. Some examples include security and scalability, of course, as well as specialized format and delivery requirements, and non-textual elements. Gross also lists criteria to look for in a vendor; for instance, assess how well their products play with related software, like scanning and optical character recognition tools, and whether they will be able to keep up with the volumes of data at hand. If government agencies approach these automation advances with care and wisdom, instead of reflexively choosing the lowest bidder, our bureaucracies’ data systems may actually become efficient. (Hey, one can dream.)
Cynthia Murrell, May 19, 2015
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
Hybrid Is Essential to SharePoint 2016
May 19, 2015
It looks like SharePoint is planning to bring the cloud to its SharePoint Server 2016 users at critical points, rather than forcing them to go “all cloud.” This technique allows Microsoft to continue with the cloud-based services that they have invested in, while improving the on-premises experience that users are demanding. ZDNet covers the whole story in their article, “Microsoft’s SharePoint 2016: What’s Hybrid Got to do With It?”
The article sums up the much talked about hybrid approach:
“Though it will run on top of Windows Server 2016 R2 and/or Windows Server 2016, SharePoint 2016 will include support for what Microsoft calls ‘cloud-accelerated experiences,’ meaning new hybrid scenarios . . . Instead of trying to push all SharePoint users and all SharePoint workloads to the cloud, Microsoft is acknowledging there are some reasons (compliance among them) that not all data can or should be in SharePoint Online. That said, Microsoft wants to enable its SharePoint users to get at their data wherever it’s stored.”
Stephen E. Arnold is a lifelong leader in search and a long-time expert in SharePoint. He keeps managers and users updated on the latest SharePoint news through his Web service ArnoldIT.com. All eyes should stay peeled for continuing developments, as users get closer to seeing a public release of SharePoint Server 2016.
Emily Rae Aldridge, May 19, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Open Source Conquers Proprietary Software, Really?
May 19, 2015
Open source is an attractive option for organizations wanting to design their own software as well as saving money of proprietary licenses. ZDNet reports that “It’s An Open Source World-78 Percent of Companies Run Open Source Software”, but the adopters do not manage their open source systems very well. Every year Black Duck Software, an open source software logistics and legal solutions provider, and North Bridge, a seed to growth venture capital firm, run the Future of Open Source Survey. Organizations love open source, but
“Lou Shipley, Black Duck’s CEO, said in a statement, ‘In the results this year, it has become more evident that companies need their management and governance of open source to catch up to their usage. This is critical to reducing potential security, legal, and operational risks while allowing companies to reap the full benefits OSS provides.’”
The widespread adoption is due to people thinking that open source software is easier to scale, has fewer security problems, and much faster to deploy. Organizations, however, do not have a plan to manage open source, an automated code approval process, or have an inventory of open source components. Even worse is that they are unaware of the security vulnerabilities.
It is great that open source is being recognized as a more viable enterprise solution, but nobody knows how to use it.
Whitney Grace, April 19, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Data Mining Algorithms Explained
May 18, 2015
In plain English too. Navigate to “Top 10 Data Mining Algorithms in Plain English.” When you fire up an enterprise content processing system, the algorithms beneath the user experience layer are chestnuts. Universities do a good job of teaching students about some reliable methods to perform data operations. In fact, the universities do such a good job that most content processing systems include almost the same old chestnuts in their solutions. The decision to use some or all of the top 10 data mining algorithms has some interesting consequences, but you will have to attend one of my lectures about the weaknesses of these numerical recipes to get some details.
The write up is worth a read. The article includes a link to information which underscores the ubiquitous nature of these methods. This is the Xindong Wu et all write up “Top 10 Algorithms in Data Mining.” Our research reveals that dependence on these methods is more wide spread now than they were seven years ago when the paper first appeared.
The implication then and now is that content processing systems are more alike than different. The use of similar methods means that the differences among some systems is essentially cosmetic. There is a flub in the paper. I am confident that you, gentle reader, will spot it easily.
Now to the “made simple” write up. The article explains quite clearly the what and why of 10 widely used methods. The article also identifies some of the weaknesses of each method. If there is a weakness, do you think it can be exploited? This is a question worth considering I suggest.
Example: What is a weakness of k means:
Two key weaknesses of k-means are its sensitivity to outliers, and its sensitivity to the initial choice of centroids. One final thing to keep in mind is k-means is designed to operate on continuous data — you’ll need to do some tricks to get it to work on discrete data.
Note the key word “tricks.” When one deals with math, the way to solve problems is to be clever. It follows that some of the differences among content processing systems boils down to the cleverness of the folks working on a particular implementation. Think back to your high school math class. Was there a student who just spit out an answer and then said, “It’s obvious.” Well, that’s the type of cleverness I am referencing.
The author does not dig too deeply into PageRank, but it too has some flaws. An easy way to identify one is to attend a search engine optimization conference. One flaw turbocharges these events.
My relative Vladimir Arnold, whom some of the Arnolds called Vlad the Annoyer, would have liked the paper. So do I. The write up is a keeper. Plus there is a video, perfect for the folks whose attention span is better than a goldfish’s.
Stephen E Arnold, May 18, 2015
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