The Wheel of Search: Leidos
September 3, 2016
I know that most experts in search and content processing do not know too much about Teratext, the search system once owned by SAIC, a services firm. Teratext is described in this free profile. I read “Leidos Closes Lockheed Merger.” What I wanted to point out is that Lockheed Martin is “back into” the search business. The company sold its AeroText system, which is similar in some ways to to Leidos TeraText, to Rocket Software. With this deal, one services firm has moved search from its core business to a subsidiary and then sold that entity (Leidos) to a major US government contractor. Now Lockheed Martin is back in the search and content processing business. I find this brokering of search and content systems interesting because the technology is becoming dated and the systems require substantial professional support to install, optimize, operate, maintain, and extend. The wheel of search keeps on turning on axels of decades old technology. There is money in search, particularly some massive, complex systems.
Stephen E Arnold, September 3, 2016
Google: The Teacher Pakistanis Seek?
September 2, 2016
I read “Pakistan University Students All Set to Be Taught by Google.” The write up revealed:
Google, an internet giant has planned to visit universities in Pakistan to spread awareness among Pakistani students regarding modern and useful tools and various other services.
And the curriculum? Here’s what the write up explained:
This purposeful event will be focused on effective products of Google for monetization such as Google AdMob and Google Adsense.
No reference to the expanded Google patents collection, Google books, or Google maps.
Does this suggest that the academic focus is revenue generation from the for fee advertising business at the Alphabet Google thing?
Our best guess: Yep. A little learning is a dangerous thing some old dude said. But revenue is revenue. Next up? Kyrgyzstan? There are some interesting markets in that nation state we have heard.
Stephen E Arnold, September 2, 2016
Do You Use Social Media? Too Bad, You Are Now Evil
September 2, 2016
An ignorant understanding of social media can yield many humorous results; that is, grandparents who do not understand how to use Facebook or Twitter. It can also, however, lead to consequences more dire than the average Facebook user imagined. The International Business Times reports that “Zimbabwean Government Brands Social Media Users As ‘Cyber Terrorists’ And Reiterates Threats” is taking things too far The media is prone to create sensationalism around events that tend to be more mild. In this case, social media activists who take to Facebook, Twitter, and other channels to voice their disproval of the Zimbabwean government are labeled terrorists.
In the United States, we take our right to freedom of speech, for granted and the Zimbabweans are protesting the current government. Zimbabwe cracks down on any civilian demonstrations, but the country is now in the most provocative civilian movement in recent years. The leader of the moment, Pastor Evan Mawarire, has fled for his life and sought asylum in other countries. The Zimbabwe government is calling all Mawarire’s supporters “cyber terrorists”:
“On Tuesday (16 August), information minister Christopher Mushohwe warned that online activities are being monitored and that the government would deal with activists working with ‘Diaspora cyber-terrorists.’ ‘They must be warned that the long arm of the law is encircling them,’ he told press in Harare. ‘There are people who are now in trouble because they thought Mawarire was their leader. Where is Mawarire now?’ the minister said, in reference to #This Flag’s figurehead’s US stay.”
The Zimbabwe government is also saying that the current civil unrest will result in a war similar to what is currently happening in Syria. Social media is simply the tool Zimbabwe activists are using to pressure their government into making changes and to communicate their message.
Anything that be used to spread the activists’ message would be deemed as “terroristic” or “evil” in the eyes of the government because it is undermining their power. Do I hear a comparison of China’s limitation on information as well as North Korea keeping its citizens ignorant? The Zimbabwe protestors are not terrorists and social media is not only a communication hub.
Whitney Grace, September 2,2016
Social Media Snooping Site Emerges for Landlord and Employers
September 2, 2016
The promise of unlocking the insights in big data is one that many search and analytics companies make. CNet shares the scoop on a new company: Disturbing new site scrapes your private Facebook and informs landlords, employers. Their website is Score Assured and it provides a service as an intermediary between your social media accounts and your landlord. Through scanning every word you have typed on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or even Tinder, this service will then filter all the words through a neuro-linguistic programming tool to provide a report on your reputation. We learned,
There’s no reason to believe that Score Assured’s “analysis” will offer in any way an accurate portrayal of who you are or your financial wherewithal. States across the country are already preparing or enacting legislation to ensure that potential employers have no right to ask for your password to Facebook or other social media. In Washington, for example, it’s illegal for an employer to ask for your password. Score Assured offers landlords and employers (the employer service isn’t live yet) the chance to ask for such passwords slightly more indirectly. Psychologically, the company is preying on a weakness humans have been displaying for some time now: the willingness to give up their privacy to get something they think they really want.
Scraping and finding tools are not new, but could this application be any more 2016? The author of this piece is onto the zeitgeist of “I’ve got nothing to hide.” Consequently, data — even social data — becomes a commodity. Users’ willingness to consent is the sociologically interesting piece here. It remains to be seen whether the data mining technology is anything special.
Megan Feil, September 2, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Google vs. Europe Becomes Three-Front War
September 2, 2016
The article titled European Commission Files Third Antitrust Charge Against Google on The Guardian discusses the most recent accusation against Google by the European Commission. This time, they took aim at AdSense advertising. The antitrust commissioner Margrethe Vestager announced that Google is preventing the visibility of competitors and favoring its own shopping service as well. The article states,
The EU regulator accuses Alphabet’s Google of abusing its dominance in search to benefit its own advertising business, which has historically been the company’s main revenue stream. The EC also reinforced its existing charge against Google’s shopping service…The EU’s concerns around Google’s adverts relate to the company’s AdSense for Search platform, in which Google acts as an intermediary for websites such as those of online retailers, telecoms operators or newspapers, with searches producing results that include search ads.
Alphabet’s Google has been given 10 weeks to answer the commission’s statement of objections. If the company is found guilty, its fines will consist of up to 10% of its global turnover. While Google works on its response to the charges, another investigation by the EU continues. The latter involves Google’s preferential treatment of its own products such as Google Chrome through its Android system.
Chelsea Kerwin, September 2, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Think of the Children! Kids and Unsupervised iPads
September 1, 2016
I hear this complaint everyday: people, especially children, are spending too much time attached to a screen. The belief is that we, as a society, are not establishing strong connections or relationships with each other. When it comes to children, the common conception is that too much screen time hinders their development growth. The Daily Mail spoke with modern parents to figure out what their concerns are concerning kids and iPad usage in the article, “’He Could Be Talking To A 60 Year Old Man:’ Parents Reveal Their Fears As They Admit Allowing Their Children As Young As Four to Use iPads Unsupervised.”
Parents are allowing their children to use iPads for entertainment, such as watching videos and playing games. Tablet is the dream tool that all parents have wanted for years when they needed to keep children occupied as they did chores or had a busy day running errands. While the iPad is a good tool to keep kids occupied, parents are concerned their offspring could access inappropriate material. One parent is concern that her child could communicate with an adult stranger. Another is worried that her progeny will create social media profiles and be at risk.
The biggest concern is stranger danger, which is a valid argument. However, most of these children using an iPad do not know how to read or write yet, so how could they contact anyone without those abilities? There are also settings on an iPad that limit how apps are touched and instill parental controls. From personal experience, there are always ways around parental controls that kids discover. Kids circumnavigate the parental controls to view taboo contact. Parents view the Internet:
The Internet is seen as a potential minefield by parents and whatever support site owners can give to prevent children seeing or buying what they shouldn’t would be welcomed. The government is currently pushing ahead with age verification protections for pornographic sites, but clearly parents have a much broader set of online content and services that cause them concern.
Also take into account each family raises their kids differently, so what qualifies as inappropriate content is subjective. The best way to raise children with an iPad is to be aware of what they are watching, how they use it, teach them on what they are allowed, and accept that there will be mistakes. All of the hullabaloo is the same as allowing kids to watch too much TV, videogames, comic books, and (way, way back) novels. It is a new medium, but same argument.
Whitney Grace, September 1, 2016
Learning from Smart Software from the GOOG
September 1, 2016
I noted “5 Lessons from Google’s Machine Learning Development.” Earlier we pointed to a number of papers by Googlers. The papers revealed some of the innovations from Google’s investments in smart software. Now a wizard has extracted the best from Google’s years-long and millions deep work in machine learning.
What are those lessons, pray tell? Here’s our interpretation of the nuggets:
- Google can recognize a cat in a picture. No human tells the software what a cat is.,
- Google’s Deep Mind is working on an artificial brain. Some lesson, eh?
- Google runs an in company smart software training program. Ten percent of the company’s tens of thousands of engineers are into machine learning. The longest journey begins with a single step, but that’s another guy’s lesson.
- Google uses smart software to answer email. Yep, looking for exclamation points is a good lesson.
- Magenta. That’s the Google system to write songs. Sing a happy tune. Perhaps an advertising jingle like “See the USA the Google way”?
Informed? Neither were the humanoids at Beyond Search. Our addled goose loved these lessons, however.
Stephen E Arnold, September 1, 2016.
Intuitive Interfaces Matter on Dark Web Sites Too
September 1, 2016
Did you know some sites on the Dark Web have a sleek look and intuitive user experience? VeriClouds published this information, including screenshots and more in a piece called Dark Web: Sophisticated eCommerce platform trading in your personal information. Channels for cybercriminals allow users to search for Dark Web commodities such as personal or sensitive information by: category, product type, price, sale type, location and shipping options. Mirroring the processes and policies of traditional retail, some sellers also have refund options. The article states:
Platforms like these are so much more than just rudimentary command line setups or chat rooms. They offer many of the same features as online stores like Amazon or Ebay with vendor ratings, buyer feedback, detailed search options and facilitated transaction and delivery services. Collections of data are presented with detailed descriptions (similar to an ecommerce product pages), and some even provide tutorials on how to best utilize that data to scam victims.
On one level, this report shows us how much an intuitive user experience has become the expectation, not an added bonus — anywhere on the web. Related to this heightened expectation for even intangible “things” to have an effective look and feel, we are reminded this is the information age. As information is a commodity, it is no surprise to see the rise in cyber theft of such invisible goods on the Dark Web or otherwise. For example, as the article mentioned, last year’s estimate by the Federal Trade Commission showed 9.9 million victims of identity theft.
Megan Feil, September 1, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Thunderstone Gets an Upgrade
September 1, 2016
Pokémon Go is the latest mobile gaming craze and all of the players want to have a Pikachu as their main Pokémon. Eventually players will evolve their Pikachu into the more powerful Raichu using candy and stardust, but old school Pokémon gamers know that the true way to evolve a Pikachu is with a Thunderstone. The hardest part of evolving a Pikachu, however, was finding the actual Thunderstone. Compulsive searchers have their own difficulties trying to find their information and other related content in their systems. There is a software search solution coincidentally named Thunderstone and it recently went through an upgrade: “Thunderstone Releases Version 16.”
Thunderstone’s newest release includes updates that improve search quality across the board: intranets, aggregators, and public facing Web sites. There also are more authorization options for better security, including a central authentication service and negotiate Kerberos option. Perhaps the biggest upgrade is the following:
Simplified crawl configuration
- Sitemaps allowing easier crawling of sites where URLs are not easily determined from a crawl.
- XML/XSL site support by applying stylesheets to sites that deliver content via XML and XSL instead of HTML; the searchable text is better identified.
- Proxy Auto-config (PAC) file support which makes it easier to index and crawl enterprises composed of different networks with varying proxy rules: the same config files used by browsers may now be used at crawl time.
The Ajax crawlable URL scheme from Google is supported, allowing Ajax based dynamic sites that support it to be crawled and indexed more effectively.”
Thunderstone now packs a more powerful punch for search quality and returning results. Now if only finding Cubone could be improved as well.
Whitney Grace, September 1, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
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