Palantir: A Dying Unicorn or a Mad, Mad Sign?
February 26, 2016
I learned that some wag posted a Mad Magazine-type cartoon with an MBA-ish message. I am not sure if this is a message from the heart of a disgruntled Hobbit or someone angling for a writer’s job on a late night talk show.
Here’s the image I saw:
The point seems to be that the value of Palantir is in doubt. With the roiling of the financial valuations for outfits with billion dollar plus valuations, employees who work for stakes in a zoon zoon outfit may be in a cold, cold night.
I have inserted this alleged real-deal poster in my forthcoming overview of Palantir. If you want to reserve a copy, write benkent2020 [at] yahoo dot com. The 50 page report from ArnoldIT is US$99. The report will be available for sale in April 2016.
The report covers Palantir’s differences from Autonomy’s and i2’s augmented intelligence systems, examples of the “helper” interfaces, and a gathering of open source information about the firm. We have examined Palantir’s publicly accessible technical materials and identified 18 interesting technical innovations. A subset of this larger Palantir analysis will be included in the forthcoming Dark Web Notebook. I will offer some general comments in my forthcoming interview for the Singularity One on One video podcast as well.
Exciting if you follow how search-centric systems are shaped to perform value-added services for government and commercial clients. Open source with lipstick is a business model I find quite interesting to think about.
Stephen E Arnold, February 26, 2016
Mondeca Demos
February 26, 2016
Curious about semantic technology. You may want to navigate to the Mondeca.com Web site, read about the firm’s technology and professional services, and then explore its online demos. The page with various demos includes SPARQL Endpoint Status, a Temporal Search Engine, Linked Open Vocabularies, and eight other semantic functions. You can find the demos at this link. The Mondeca Web site is at www.modeca.com.
Stephen E Arnold, February 26, 2016
Clarabridge Knows IPOs
February 26, 2016
i read “New Clarabridge Exec Says IPO the Way to Go.” Clarabridge, as you may know, is a customer experience company. There is some synergy between Clarabridge and MicroStrategy, which is in itself a potential topic for a mini-MBA review.
The point in the article which I highlighted in US currency green was this statement:
For his part, Banerjee confirmed Clarabridge is staying on course for an IPO. “We’re accentuating the path toward an IPO,” Banerjee said. “I’ll be tag-teaming with Yuchun.” Lee said he is pleased with the Lee-Banerjee partnership and said Banerjee is “still the visionary.”
Apparently the senior executives know that the time is right to unlock the value of the Clarabridge operation. On February 21, 2016, 24/7 Wall Street reported in “IPOs Continue Slo-Mo 2016 Start”:
Only four companies have been able to go public this year, all biotechs with substantial insider support. Broader market indices are down across the board, and multiples in the tech sector have been crushed. A whopping 74% of IPOs from last year trade below the offer price, and the year’s average return from IPO is -22%.
Does Clarabridge have a Tolkien seeing stone?
Stephen E Arnold, February 26, 2016
Weekly Watson: IBM Interviews Itself and Does Not Mention Watson as a Favorite App
February 26, 2016
I came across an article in IBM Events called “Dan Magid Chief Technologist, IBM i Solutions.” It appears, and I am thinking in rural Kentucky, not a technology nerve center like Cedar Rapids or Boise, that Dan Magid, the article, reports an interview with Dan Magic (chief technologist) conducted and edited by Dan Magid.
I hope I have that straight.
There were some interesting points in the article / interview / content marketing thingy.
In response to a question about trends, I learned from Dan Magid (interviewer, expert, author, and i Solutions technologist):
Connectivity, Big Data and Cloud. Everything else going on is in some way connected to these three trends.
What? No Watson? Perhaps Mr. Magid, the interviewer, should ask Dan Magid, the technologist at IBM i Solutions, “What about Watson? You remember, don’t you? TV game show winner. Cook book author. Curer of disease.”
I also learned that IBM is concerned about customers. There is a baffling reference to something called Rocket. I know about Rocket, the search vendor, but the “Rocket” in the interview is presented as if the reader knows wherefore of that which Mr. Magid speaks. Sorry, I don’t. I get the main idea: IBM listens to customers. I would add that being a large company with a dedicated IBM capture team helps out the customer support thing.
I noted this question, “How can an organization stay relevant five years from now?” I was hoping that Mr. Magic would consult IBM’s senior management and relate the question to the 14 consecutive quarters of revenue decline, the stock price, the reductions in force, and other oddments of the Big Blue approach to “relevance.” Nope. Here’s what I learned:
The key to staying relevant is to understand your customers, your market and the direction of technology. … You need to understand technology direction so that you can take advantage of emerging technologies that will help your customers and so that you can ensure your organization is not surprised by a new technology that could make your business model obsolete.
Business model obsolescence. I would suggest that IBM’s business model might be a suitable subject for a case study by some eager beaver MBA candidates. Just a thought.
I enjoyed this comment too:
Question from Mr. Magid to Mr. Magid: What app can you not live without?
Answer from Mr. Magid to Mr. Magid:
The Expensable mobile app. I travel 2-3 weeks a month and keeping up to date on expense reports used to be a nightmare. I would return from each trip with an envelope full of receipts and spend a few hours organizing and entering them for reimbursement. I would often get months behind. Now, I use the Expensable app to enter my expenses as they are incurred. I take five minutes to review it when I get home and submit the report. It’s simple.
Yikes. Not Watson.
Remarkable write up which delivers quite an insight into IBM’s thought processes.
Stephen E Arnold, February 26, 2016
The Intersection of the Criminal, Law Enforcement and Technology Industries
February 26, 2016
A ZDNet article covers Arrests made over Bitcoin laundering scheme, Dark Web drug deals
Dutch police made several arrests related to laundering of criminal profits orchestrated through an unindexed section of the web called the Dark Web. The article says suspects allegedly laundered up to 20 million euros from online drug deals. With the information originating from Reuters, this article summarizes the arrests made by Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service and public prosecution department:
“According to the publication, some of the men arrested are traders, while others are “Bitcoin cashers” — traders of Bitcoin online who cash these funds then withdraw money from ATMs. It is possible to find cashers online who run shadow services which exchange “dirty” coins for clean currency. Law enforcement in the United States, Australia, Lithuania and Morocco also participated in the raid.”
Just as criminal offenses are taking place increasingly online, so too must the law enforcement industry have turn to technology to aid its efforts. As the case unfolds, it will be interesting to uncover how these suspects were identified. Perhaps something innovative will be at the source.
Megan Feil, February 26, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Startup Semantic Machines Scores Funding
February 26, 2016
A semantic startup looks poised for success with experienced executives and a hefty investment, we learn from “Artificial Intelligence Startup Semantic Machines Raises $12.3 Million” at VentureBeat. Backed by investors from Bain Capital Ventures and General Catalyst Partners, the enterprise focuses on deep learning and improved speech recognition. The write-up reveals:
“Last year, Semantic Machines named Larry Gillick as its chief technology officer. Gillick was previously chief speech scientist for Siri at Apple. Now Semantic Machines is looking to go further than Siri and other personal digital assistants currently on the market. ‘Semantic Machines is developing technology that goes beyond understanding commands, to understanding conversations,’ the startup says on its website. ‘Our Conversational AI represents a powerful new paradigm, enabling computers to communicate, collaborate, understand our goals, and accomplish tasks.’ The startup is building tools that third-party developers will be able to use.”
Launched in 2014, Semantic Machines is based in Newton, Massachusetts, with offices in Berkeley and Boston. The startup is also seeking to hire a few researchers and engineers, in case anyone is interested.
Cynthia Murrell, February 26, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Google and Page Loading Speed
February 25, 2016
I read “Google Has Slowest Loading Home Page on Mobile Compared to Competitors.” I access the Internet from my desktop boat anchor computers. No cigarette racer for me.
The write up makes a startling claim about the speed and efficiency crazed Alphabet Google thing; to wit:
Google actually has the slowest loading home page on mobile devices compares to its major competitors.
The write up contains actual data to prove this bold assertion for the Googzilla. The top speed is 100, and Yahoo delivers a blistering 95.
Now in my own albeit uninformed experience, Yahoo loads slowly or not at all. Yahoo Mail is particularly snailish and unpredictable. The fix is to access dear old Yahoo via a Google search. I click on the Mail link in the Google results, and this often makes the recalcitrant purple people eater “work.”
Now the “test” was performed on mobile devices. I am not sure what devices, how many tests were run, and what mobile services were used to access the tested systems.
The write up seems a bit fluffy, but, heck, I read it. That’s the point. The information may be secondary to the click and the ads. One must not forget the ads.
Stephen E Arnold, February 25, 2016
DuckDuckGo: Challenging Google Is Not a Bad Idea
February 25, 2016
I read “The Founder of DuckDuckGo Explains Why Challenging Google Isn’t Insane.” I noted several statements in the write up; namely:
- DuckDuckGo delivers three billion searches a year, compared to Google’s trillion-plus search per year. The zeros can be confusing to an addled goose like me. Let me say that Google is delivering more search results that DuckDuckGo.com
- DuckDuckGo’s revenues are in 2015 were more than $1 million. Google’s revenues were about $75 billion. Yep, more zeros.
- It used to take Google six months to index pages on the Internet. (I thought that Google indexed from its early days based on a priority algorithm. Some sites were indexed in a snappy manner; others, like the National Railway Retirement Board, less snappily. I am probably dead wrong here, but it is a nifty point to underscore Google’s slow indexing. I just don’t think it was or is true.)
- DuckDuckGo was launched in 2008. The company is almost eight years old.
- Google’s incognito mode is a myth. What about those Google cookies? (I think the incognito mode nukes those long lived goodies.)
Here’s the passage I highlighted:
Adams (the interviewer): I thought the government could track me whether I use DuckDuckGo or not.
Weinberg (the founder of DuckDuckGo): No they can’t. They can get to your Google searches, but if you use DuckDuckGo it’s completely encrypted between you and us. We don’t store anything. So there’s no data to get. The government can’t subpoena us for records because we don’t have records.
DuckDuckGo beats the privacy drum. That’s okay, but the privacy of Tor and I2P can be called into question. Is it possible that there are systems and methods to track user queries with or without the assistance of the search engine system? My hunch is that there are some interesting avenues to explore from companies providing tools to various government agencies. What about RACs, malware, metadata analyses, etc.? Probably I am wrong again. RATs. I have no immunity from my flawed information. I may have to grab my swim fins and go fin-fishing. I could also join a hacking team and vupen it up.
Stephen E Arnold, February 25, 2016
Data Insight: Common Sense Makes Sense
February 25, 2016
I am skeptical about lists of problems which hot buzzwords leave in their wake. I read “Why Data Insight Remains Elusive,” which I though was another content marketing pitch to buy, buy, buy. Not so. The write up contains some clearly expressed, common sense reminds for those who want to crunch big data and point and click their way through canned reports. Those who actually took the second semester of Statistics 101 know that ignoring the data quality and the nitty gritty of the textbook procedures can lead to bone head outputs.
The write up identifies some points to keep in mind, regardless of which analytics vendor system a person is using to make more informed or “augmented” decisions.
Here’s the pick of the litter:
- Manage the data. Yep, time consuming, annoying, and essential. Skip this step at your decision making peril.
- Manage the indexing. The buzzword is metadata, but assigning keywords and other indexing items makes the difference when trying to figure out who, what, why, when, and where. Time? Yep, metadata which not even the Alphabet Google thing does particularly well.
- Create data models. Do the textbook stuff. Get the model wrong, and what happens? Failure on a scale equivalent to fumbling the data management processes.
- Visualization is not analytics. Visualization makes outputs of numerical recipes appear in graphical form. Do not confuse Hollywood outputs with relevance, accuracy, or math on point to the problem one is trying to resolve.
- Knee jerking one’s way through analytics. Sorry, reflexes are okay but useless without context. Yep, have a problem, get the data, get the model, test, and examine the outputs.
Common sense. Most basic stuff was in the textbooks for one’s college courses. Too bad more folks did not internalize those floorboards and now seek contractors to do a retrofit. Quite an insight when the bill arrives.
Stephen E Arnold, February 25, 2016
More Hacked US Voter Data Appears on the Dark Web
February 25, 2016
From HackRead comes a piece called More US Voters Data Circulating on the Dark Net, which points to the lack of protection surrounding data on US voters. This data was leaked on the site The Hell on Dark Web. No reports yet suggest how this data was hacked. While no social security numbers or highly sensitive information was released, records include name, date of birth, voter registration dates, voting records, political affiliation and address. Continuing the explanation of implications, the article’s author writes,
“However, it provides any professional hacker substantial information to initiate and plan a phishing attack in the next election which takes place in the US. Recent discoveries, news and speculations have exposed the role of nation-state actors and cyber criminals in planning, instigating and initiating hacking attacks aimed at maligning the upcoming US elections. While social media has emerged as one of the leading platforms adopted by politicians when they wish to spread a certain message or image, cyber criminals and non-state actors are also utilizing the online platform to plan and initiate their hacking attacks on the US election.”
As the article reminds us, this is the not first instance of voter records leaking. Such leaks call into question how this keeps happening and makes us wonder about any preventative measures. The last thing needed surrounding public perception of voting is that it puts one at risk for cyber attacks. Aren’t there already enough barriers in place to keep individuals from voting?
Megan Feil, February 25, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
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