A Possible Goodbye to the Dark Web
June 7, 2016
Should the Dark Web be eradicated? An article from Mic weighs in with an editorial entitled, Shutting Down the Dark Web Is a Plainly Absurd Idea From Start to Finish. Where is this idea coming from? Apparently 71 percent of internet users believe the Dark Web “should be shut down”. This statistic is according to a survey of over 24,000 people from Canadian think tank Centre for International Governance Innovation. The Mic article takes issue with the concept that the Dark Web could be “shut down”,
“The Dark Net, or Deep Web or a dozen other names, isn’t a single set of sites so much as a network of sites that you need special protocols or software in order to find. Shutting down the network would mean shutting down every site and relay. In the case of the private web browser Tor, this means simultaneously shutting down over 7,000 secret nodes worldwide. The combined governments of various countries have enough trouble keeping the Pirate Bay from operating right on the open web, never mind trying to shut down an entire network of sites with encrypted communications and hidden IP addresses hosted worldwide.”
The feasibility of shutting down the Dark Web is also complicated by the fact that there are multiple networks, such as Tor, Freenet or I2P, that allow Dark Web access. Of course, there is also the issue, as the article acknowledges, that many uses of the Dark Web are benign or even to further human rights causes. We appreciated a similar article from Softpedia, which pointed to the negative public perception stemming from media coverage of the takedown child pornography and drug sales site takedowns. It’s hard to know what isn’t reported in mainstream media.
Megan Feil, June 7, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Turn to Unsplash for Uncommon Free Photos
June 7, 2016
Stock photos can be so, well, stock. However, Killer Startups points to a solution in, “Today’s Killer Startup: Unsplash.” Reviewer Emma McGowan already enjoyed the site for its beautiful free photos, with new ones posted every day. She especially loves that their pictures do not resemble your typical stock photos. The site’s latest updates make it even more useful. She writes:
“The new version has expanded to include lovely, searchable collections. The themes range from conceptual (‘Pure Color’) to very specific (‘Coffee Shops’). All of the photos are free to use on whatever project you want. I can personally guarantee that all of your work will look so much better than if you went with the usual crappy free options.
“Now if you want to scroll through beautiful images a la old-school Unsplash, you can totally still do that too. The main page is still populated with a seemingly never ending roll of photos, and there’s also a ‘new’ tab where you can check out the latest and greatest additions to the collection. However, I really can’t get enough of the Collections, both as a way to browse beautiful artwork and to more easily locate images for blog posts.”
So, if you have a need for free images, avoid the problems found in your average stock photography, which can range from simple insipidness to reinforcing stereotypes and misconceptions. Go for something different at Unsplash. Based in Montreal, the site launched in 2013. As of this writing, they happen to be hiring (and will consider remote workers).
Cynthia Murrell, June 7, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Yippy for Vivisimo
June 6, 2016
I read “Yippy Buys MC+A, a Veteran Google Search Appliance Partner.” Yippy, if memory serves, is a variant of Vivisimo. In the good old days, before Vivisimo sold to IBM and suddenly became a Big Data company, Yippy did search and retrieval. I assume the old document limits were lifted. I also assume that the wild and crazy config file editing has been streamlined. I also assume that Yippy is confident it can zoom past Maxxcat and Thunderstone, two outfits also in the search appliance business. Buying a Google reseller provides some insight and maybe leads into which companies embraced the GSA solution. When the GSA was first demonstrated to me, I noted the locked down relevance system. There were other interesting “enhancements” the Googlers included to eliminate the complexity of enterprise search. I recall working on the training materials for a DC reseller of the GSA. Customization was like a Google interview question.
The Fortune write up is one of those reinventions of enterprise search which I enjoy. I circled this comment:
Google Search Appliance was a great idea for companies that deploy a welter of different applications, so important data can be scattered about in different file systems and repositories. It also gave Google a toehold in corporate server rooms, which is why some wondered why Google would cut the product at a time when it’s trying to sell more cloud services to these very companies.
I was unaware that Alphabet Google was in the search business. I thought it was an online advertising outfit. Who at Google wanted to work on the wonky GSA products? For years Google relied on resellers and outfits like Dell to make the over priced gizmos.
Love live Vivisimo. I mean Yippy. If you cannot pin down an integrator, why not buy one?
Stephen E Arnold, June 6, 2016
BA Insight Asserts Government Transformation for Information Access
June 6, 2016
This is a bold, bold assertion. In my limited experience with the US government’s entities, I can attest that certain systems and methods do not change. That obviously does not match the marketing message from BA Insight, a search and retrieval vendor with a Microsoft focus and competence in all sorts of interesting buzzwords.
Navigate to “BA Insight and MD Tech Solutions Join Forces to Transform the Way Government Agencies Find and Work with Content.” I read:
BA Insight today announced a partnership with MD Tech Solutions, a technology services company located in Fredericksburg, Virginia specializing in Custom SharePoint Development, Administration, Design and Architecture. As a reseller of BA Insight’s software portfolio, MD Tech can now provide its customers with a solution that quickly connects SharePoint users to the essential knowledge they need to be productive, while providing an internet-like search experience that users will love.
Love in the government entities with which I had experience when I labored in the vineyards in Congress, the executive branch, and some other outfits was, in my experience, in short supply. There were numerous search and retrieval systems. There were legacy systems which did magic things to information. Anyone remember the baked in search system with SharePoint? Maybe Fast Search? What about the components in Oracle? Palantir? IBM i2?
I find the notion of transforming the government interesting. Even more fascinating is the notion of users loving a search system. Love in the government. Hmmm.
Stephen E Arnold, June 6, 2016
Emerging Technology May Have Application for Security
June 6, 2016
New technologies for use in security are increasingly receiving attention. An article, Lip-reading technology ‘could capture what people on CCTV say’ claim researchers from Mirror discusses one example. The University of East Anglia in Norwich developed what is called a visual speech recognition technology. The purpose is to identify what people are saying in situations where audio is not good enough to hear. One application mentioned is for videos recorded from security cameras. The post describes more,
“Helen Bear, from the university’s school of computing science, said the technology could be applied to a wide range of situations from criminal investigations to entertainment. She added: “Lip-reading has been used to pinpoint words footballers have shouted in heated moments on the pitch, but is likely to be of most practical use in situations where there are high levels of noise, such as in cars or aircraft cockpits. “Crucially, whilst there are still improvements to be made, such a system could be adapted for use for a range of purposes – for example, for people with hearing or speech impairments.” Some sounds like “P” and “B” look similar on the lips and have traditionally been hard to decipher, the researchers said.”
Whether in real life or online, security and cybersecurity efforts and technologies are making headlines, keeping pace with security threats and breaches. It is interesting that applications for emerging technologies like this have such a range, but this particular technology seems to be rooted in brick-and-mortar security. We think there is a need for more focus on security as it relates to the Dark Web.
Megan Feil, June 6, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
monograph
The Scottish Philosopher in Silicon Valley
June 6, 2016
When Alistair Duff, professor of information society and policy at Scotland’s Edinburgh Napier University, checked out Silicon Valley, he identified several disturbing aspects of the prevailing tech scene. The Atlantic’s Kevah Waddell interviews the professor in, “The Information Revolution’s Dark Turn.”
The article reminds us that, just after World War II, the idealistic “information revolution” produced many valuable tools and improved much about our lives. Now, however, the Silicon-Valley-centered tech scene has turned corporate, data-hungry, and self-serving. Or, as Duff puts it, we are now seeing “the domination of information technology over human beings, and the subordination of people to a technological imperative.”
Waddell and Duff discuss the professor’s Normative Theory of the Information Society; the potential for information technology to improve society; privacy tradeoffs; treatment of workers; workplace diversity; and his preference that tech companies (like Apple) more readily defer to government agencies (like the FBI). Regarding that last point, it is worth noting Duff’s stance against the “anti-statism” he believes permeates Silicon Valley, and his estimation that “justice” outranks “freedom” as a social consideration.
Waddell asks Duff what a tech hub should look like, if Silicon Valley is such a poor example. The professor responds:
“It would look more like Scandinavia than Silicon Valley. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t develop the tech industry—we can learn a massive amount from Silicon Valley….
“But what we shouldn’t do is incorporate the abuse of the boundary between work and home, we should treat people with respect, we should have integrated workforces. A study came out that only 2 percent of Google’s, Yahoo’s, and a couple of other top companies’ workforces were black. Twelve percent of the U.S. population is black, so that is not good, is it? I’m not saying they discriminate overtly against black people—I very much doubt that—but they’re not doing enough to change things.
“We need the best of Silicon Valley and the best of European social democracy, combined into a new type of tech cluster.
“There’s a book by Manuel Castells and Pekka Himanen called The Information Society and the Welfare State: The Finnish Model, which argues that you can have a different type of information society from the libertarian, winner-takes-all model pioneered in Silicon Valley. You can have a more human, a more proportioned, a tamer information society like we’ve seen in Finland.”
Duff goes on to say that the state should absolutely be involved in building the information society, a concept that goes over much better in Europe than in the U.S. He points to Japan as a country which has built a successful information society with guidance from the state. See the interview for more of Professor Duff’s observations.
Cynthia Murrell, June 6, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Search Vendor Identifies Big Data Failings
June 5, 2016
Talk about the pot calling the kettle a deep fryer? I read “Attivio Survey Exposes Disconnect Between Big Data Excitement and Organizations’ Ability to Execute.” On one hand, the idea that a buzzword does not, like Superman, transform into truth, justice, and the America way is understandable. On the other hand, the survey underscores one of the gaps in the marketing invasion force search vendors have when selling information access as business intelligence.
The write up points out that Big Data is going like gangbusters. However:
64 percent of respondents said that process bottlenecks prevent large data sets from being accessed quickly and efficiently. This dissonance highlights a growing gulf between the desire to embrace Big Data and their ability to operationalize it.
With a sample size of 150, I am not sure how solid these results are, but the point is poignant. Doing “stuff” with data is great. But how is the “stuff” relevant to closing a sale.
Attivio, the apparent sponsor of the study, seems a glass that is more than half full, maybe overflowing. Three key findings from the study allegedly were:
- Legacy systems are not up to the task of Big Data crunching. The fix? Not provided but my hunch is that the “cloud” will be a dandy solution
- Finding folks who can actually “do” Big Data and provide useful operational outputs is a very difficult task. The fix? I assume one can hire an outfit like the study’s sponsor, but this is just a wild guess on my part.
- Governance is an issue. The fix? If I were working at Booz, Allen, the answer is obvious: Hire Booz, Allen to manage. If that’s not an option, well, floundering may work.
Net net: Search vendors need to find a source of sustainable revenue. Big Data is a possibility, but the market is not exactly confident about the payoff and how to use the outputs. The demos are often interesting.
Stephen E Arnold, June 5, 2016
Ballmer Was Right: Google a One Trick Pony
June 4, 2016
Years ago Steve Ballmer allegedly said that Google was a one trick pony. In my Google Legacy (2004), I identified potential revenue streams for the Web search system. As time unspooled, my nifty diagram became less and less relevant. The early promise of diversified revenue at Google faded. Google, now the Alphabet thing, could not find a substantive stream of non search revenue. I was wrong about the Google. Ballmer, it seems, was spot on in his assessment.
I read “Advertising Will Always Dominate Google Despite New Tech Expansion, Says Ex CEO Eric Schmidt.” I learned:
…despite the exponential growth of these new tech formats, the money still lies, and will always lie, in advertising. This was the opinion of Google’s former chief executive Eric Schmidt, appearing just a week after the I/O conference at the Startup Fest Europe conference on May 24, to tell audiences that Google’s revenue stream is never likely to change.
Here’s the allegedly accurate statement I highlighted:
I have been at Google and Alphabet for 15 years and it has always been advertising and I suspect it will always be advertising, because advertising is such a large part of the global phenomena, and because our advertising is more accurate as a return on investment.
What does this mean for the moon shots? What about the myriad efforts to create an alternative to Facebook? Doomed from the start, perhaps?
Stephen E Arnold, June 4, 2016
Artificial Intelligence: Let the Claims and Counter Claims Begin
June 3, 2016
Amazon has artificial intelligence. More important, Amazon has a gizmo which people seem to be buying. Google has artificial intelligence. The Google I/O conference was a litany of smart software choir members. Now Facebook is, according to “Facebook Is Using ‘Near-Human’ AI to Muscle in on Google’s Home Turf,” going to make life tough for the Alphabet kids.
Well, wouldn’t you know it. IBM is in the game as well. “IBM Is building Cognitive AI to Impact Every Decision Made,” which I assume means decisions at Amazon, Facebook, Google, and the other outfits in the artificial intelligence hyperbole parade.
I like the “every.”
According to the write up:
“If it’s digital, it’ll be cognitive,” explained IBM CEO Ginny Rometty in a wide-ranging discussion with Recode’s Kara Swisher on Wednesday during the annual Code Conference.
Another sweeping categorical affirmative. The logic might get a first year philosophy major in trouble, but this is the wild and crazy world of the really, really Big Thing. Big Data and predictive analytics, visualization, and the other faux Big Things have to step aside.
The write up quotes IBM’s chief cognitive humanoid as saying:
You aren’t going to stop it…the trend is gonna keep moving,” she said, noting that she thinks repetitive task jobs will take a hit, but new jobs in areas like data will emerge.As for AI being evil, Rometty said, “What really matters is who teaches these things. Watson is taught. It’s about the data you use and who is teaching.” She added that, in the case of health care, Watson is being taught by the world’s greatest oncologists.
First, Amazon has a consumer product with AI. Second, I thought the Weather Channel delivered [a] data useful to DCGS and [b] new professionals who have more applicable skills than the deadwood terminated by IBM.
Wrong again. I like the “every.”
Stephen E Arnold, June 3, 2016
DuckDuckGo Tor Search
June 3, 2016
DuckDuckGo, like a number of other online outfits, has a presence on Tor, the gateway to the part of the Internet which is actually pretty small. I read “Tor Switches to DuckDuckGo Search Results by Default.” I learned:
[F]or a while now Disconnect has no access to Google search results anymore which we used in Tor Browser. Disconnect being more a meta search engine which allows users to choose between different search providers fell back to delivering Bing search results which were basically unacceptable quality-wise. While Disconnect is still trying to fix the situation we asked them to change the fallback to DuckDuckGo as their search results are strictly better than the ones Bing delivers.
The privacy issue looms large. The write up points out:
…DuckDuckGo made a $25,000 donation to Tor which in recent times has been trying to diversify its funding away from reliance on the US government — including launching a crowdfunding campaign which pulled in just over $200,000 at the start of this year.
How private is Tor? No information about this topic appears in the write up.
Stephen E Arnold, June 3, 2016
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