Online Gun Sales Strengthens the Technology and Law Enforcement Connection
February 14, 2017
A feature article on CNN recently provided some background on Dark Web marketplaces. Entitled Inside the illegal online weapons trade, this piece shares the story of Michael Andrew Ryan. Ryan adopted the moniker gunrunner and opened up a gun sales business on the Dark Web while based in a small town in Kansas. Dark Web trading statistics are tough to pinpoint. However, in comparison with other illegal online trading, gun sales on the Dark Web are less than 3% according to a Carnegie Mellon professor and researcher. The author writes,
By the way, it’s entirely legal to buy guns online in the U.S. — although the process is more complicated, depending on various factors. Nonetheless, the ATF said it’s taking enforcement to a new level by creating an Internet Investigations Center aimed at combating illegal online gunrunners. The center includes federal agents, legal counsel and investigators. Their job: track illegal online firearms trafficking and feed intelligence to agents in the field. It’s a gigantic task, which aims to hit a constantly moving target.
While we will not comment on the sensationalizing and dramatizing of the Dark Web through Ryan’s story, we can say found the concluding remarks above to be helpful. This presents a good picture of the interconnectivity between multiple layers of law enforcement. It also hints at a need for technology upgrades in this cybersecurity arena.
Megan Feil, February 14, 2017
Who Owns What AI Outfit?
February 13, 2017
Yep, there is a crazy logo graphic. However, you will find a chart I found useful. Navigate to “The Race For AI: Google, Twitter, Intel, Apple In A Rush To Grab Artificial Intelligence Startups.” Look for the subhead “Major Acquirers In Artificial Intelligence Since 2011.” Google was a gobbler of smart software companies. There were three surprises on the list:
- Yahoot (sorry I meant Yabba Dabba Hoot, er, Yahoo) acquired some AI smarts while it was shopping itself, ignoring security problems, and making management history.
- Amazon, the outfit with the Echo gizmo, snagged a couple of companies. What happens if Alexa gets smarter? Answer: More pain for Apple, Google, and Microsoft. These are three companies unable to create a new product category which generates buzz while selling laundry detergent.
- Twitter seems to be making a bit of an effort to become more than the amplifier of trumpet music.
Interesting run down. Now about that crazy chart which I find unreadable. Here you go:
Nifty, eh?
Stephen E Arnold, February 13, 2017
Whither ISYS Search Software?
February 13, 2017
I must admit I don’t think too much about ISYS Search Software. Founded in the 1980s, Lexmark acquired the Australian company in 2012. The former IBM printer unit described ISYS as a “global leader” in search. ISYS performed well, but global leader? Well, that’s verbal fireworks in my opinion. ISYS disappeared and emerged (sort of) as the search system in Lexmark’s health care play. This outfit was called Perceptive Software and performed a wide range of magic for a market sector which would presumably make as much money as printer ink once did. Yep, how’s that for an MBA play? Not the full ball game. But Lexmark did not have enough text processing oomph. The company bought Brainware in 2012, an outfit which held patents for trigram, offered pattern matching search technology, and had a work flow system to do some back office tricks. Busy year 2012 for the horsey printer set.
The answer is that Lexmark is now part of Apex and PAG Asian Capital. Stated another way, Lexmark blew money and, like many other companies, learned that search was a tough business to use as a springboard to untold wealth. Lexmark snagged Kofax in 2015 in an attempt to generate money from the world’s need to federate content.
I thought of Lexmark, ISYS, and the gyrations of Lexmark when I read “Lexmark Cuts 320 Software Jobs; Local Toll Unclear.” What units of Lexmark are affected? My hunch is that the trio of Brainware, ISYS, and Kofax may bear the brunt of the weight of the folks looking for new jobs. (Lexmark bought the ETL outfit Kofax, which does some work for interesting US government agencies, licenses tools to one of my favorite outfits with visions of JRR Tolkien, and does not return telephone calls.) My experience with Chinese executives is that they are pragmatic. The write up told me:
“This action was taken to reduce our costs to be more in line with our revenues and those of comparable enterprise software companies,” Sylvia Chansler, a spokeswoman for Lexmark subsidiary Kofax Inc., said in a statement.
The great pivot of Lexmark from printers to management software seems to have failed. Surprised? I am not. I live in rural Kentucky and know that high technology dreams can be difficult to realize in an area where fast horses and expensive bourbon capture one’s imagination.
Stephen E Arnold, February 13, 2017
Data Mining Firm Cambridge Analytica Set to Capture Trump White House Communications Contract and Trump Organization Sales Contract
February 13, 2017
The article titled Data Firm in Talks for Role in White House Messaging — And Trump Business on The Guardian discusses the future role of Cambridge Analytica in both White House communication and the Trump Organization as well. Cambridge Analytica is a data company based out of London that boasts crucial marketing and psychological data on roughly 230 million Americans. The article points out,
Cambridge’s data could be helpful in both “driving sales and driving policy goals”, said the digital source, adding: “Cambridge is positioned to be the preferred vendor for all of that.”… The potential windfall for the company comes after the Mercers and Cambridge played key roles in Trump’s victory. Cambridge Analytica was tapped as a leading campaign data vendor as the Mercers… The Mercers reportedly pushed for the addition of a few top campaign aides, including Bannon and Kellyanne Conway, who became campaign manager.
Robert Mercer is a major investor in Cambridge Analytica as well as Breitbart News, Steve Bannon’s alt-right news organization. Steve Bannon is also on the board of Cambridge Analytica. The entanglements mount. Prior to potentially snagging these two wildly conflicting contracts, Cambridge Analytica helped Trump win the presidency with their data modeling and psychological profiling that focuses on building intimate relationships between brands and consumers to drive action.
Chelsea Kerwin, February 13, 2017
Dark Pools Demystified
February 13, 2017
Have you ever heard of dark pools? You may be hearing more about them as Bitcoin pioneer Jered Kenna and TradeZero offer digital currency dark pool trading. According to this International Business Times article, these two have created the world’s first dark pool exchange for Bitcoin. Their plan is to eventually scale to include other digital currencies. What is a dark pool? It is a private exchange to trade securities in a way where large transactions can occur without impacting the marketing. This means it can be used to avoid adverse price movements. We learned,
The Bitcoin market is less liquid than traditional FX and hence more volatile. Dark pool trading in Bitcoin would be useful to mainstream investors who may want to make large trades in Bitcoin, or use it as a currency hedge without alerting the market to their positions. Kenna, who launched the first US Bitcoin exchange in 2011, brings a wealth of experience to the table. He told IBTimes UK: “Dark pool trading certainly mitigates volatility where individuals making large trades are concerned.
Apparently, the size of the trade one would need to impact the Bitcoin market in is much smaller than what traditional traders experience. Jared Kenna appears to be projecting the future of Bitcoin, and non-traditional currencies in general, to explode. Why else would there be such a need for this kind of service? This is something we will be keeping an eye on, especially as it may come to be more interconnected with Dark Web matters.
Megan Feil, February 13, 2017
Google: Getting Frisky or a Victim. You Decide
February 12, 2017
I read “Google Cozies to Trump but Calls for His Impeachment.” This is a pretty exciting chunk of “real” journalism. The Washington Times is an interesting publication. Gee, I wonder who owns it. I noted this statement in the “real” news write up:
“Some of us may need to adopt Pence 2017 bumper stickers,” Google’s cofounder Sergey Brin joked at a company sponsored anti-Trump protest — the biggest demonstration from a Silicon Valley corporation this week — in response to Mr. Trump’s controversial immigration executive order.
That’s interesting. Online advertising meets politics without selling AdWords. I recall that Mr. Brin made some folks grin more than a decade ago when he visited poobahs. Mr. Brin, as I recall, wore a T shirt. Interesting. Made quite a stir for those of us who were in proximity to the Googler’s day on the Hill.
I also highlighted this passage:
Mr. Schmidt told Google employees that the Trump administration is “going to do these evil things as they’ve done in the immigration area and perhaps some others.” Google’s corporate mantra is “don’t be evil.” And yet, like any firm, Google needs to make money, and it’s benefited from peddling soft influence in the nation’s capital. Now that a new sheriff is in town, Google needs to at least pretend to play nice — or all be lost.
Hmm. I thought that “don’t be evil” thing was a goner. Guess not.
I circled this statement in the “real” news story as well:
Before Mr. Obama took office, Google spent almost no money trying to peddle political influence, now it’s a behemoth. It spent more than $15 million in lobbying in 2016, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, compared with $2.8 million in 2008. During Mr. Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, Google employees were the second-largest source of donations by any single U.S. company, with Microsoft being number one.
Nifty write up. And it is “real” journalism. If Google is sending mixed messages to humans, how does one search for this: “Google actual intent Trump”. I got neither relevant nor timely results on this query. I must admit I did not run this query: “Google Trump impeach”. Ah, call me superficial.
Stephen E Arnold, February 12, 2017
Captain Obvious Report: Smart Software Will Kill Jobs
February 12, 2017
I love the chatter about artificial intelligence. Lists Like “Experts Have Come Up with 23 Guidelines to Avoid an AI Apocalypse” are amusing. The outfits applying smart software are focused on revenues, deals, market share, big contracts, and money. I am not sure worrying about how a Boston Dynamics-type robot will operate when deployed in a war zone in swarm autonomous mode is going to do much for the apocalypse worriers.
There are the obvious statements about smart software. You know. Search systems that deliver information to you before you knew you needed that information. A digital mom or a persistent and ever present significant other. Enter our Captain Obvious report. Read on.
I read the “Experts Have Come Up with…” article can absorbed this injunction:
the Asilomar AI Principles (after the beach in California, where they were thought up), the guidelines cover research issues, ethics and values, and longer-term issues – everything from how scientists should work with governments to how lethal weapons should be handled. On that point: “An arms race in lethal autonomous weapons should be avoided,” says principle 18.
Interesting. You can look at the complete list, sort of like a year end top 10 films output, at this link.
Enter Captain Obvious. Navigate to “Google’s Diane Greene: Machine Learning Will Cost Jobs, So Skills Training Is Essential.” I love it when Googlers make it so easy for folks with dull normal IQs to get good advice for working in the post smart software world. But our intrepid Captain Obvious intellect spotted this gem:
Greene said, “machines are better than humans” at some tasks. Recently they’ve started to do better at some kinds of image and speech recognition, and they’re performing tasks such as finding signs of disease, such as retinopathy, from images more accurately than humans.
Yikes, aren’t these jobs performed by people with college educations and maybe graduate degrees?
Captain Obvious enters:
people, especially those that are computer-literate, shouldn’t have a problem getting new jobs. “This has happened before in the world,” she said, such as during the Industrial Revolution. “There’s new jobs they can easily do. It’s all about training.” But others need to be helped through the transition.
So no work. Retraining. What about some folks who are not too bright? asks Captain Obvious. These people can work on “new” jobs at Google maybe?
Stephen E Arnold, February 11, 2017
IBM Watson PR Tax Excitement
February 10, 2017
In one eight hour period I noticed these rah rah write ups about IBM Watson doing taxes. How timely? What a coincidence that these publications ran stories about yet another Watson achievement. Everything it seems except sustainable revenue.
Here are the write ups I reviewed:
- Fast Company, “H&R Block’s Watson-Powered Robots Are Here To Help With Your Taxes” stating “Block and IBM say Watson has digested 600 million “data points” from past filings to learn tips and tricks.” I bet those IRS analysts love those “tricks.”
- TechCrunch, “H&R Block Is Now Using IBM Watson to Find Tax Deductions,” stating “Beginning Sunday, February 5th, H&R Block customers will be able to interact with the new system at the company’s retail locations.” Nifty. Foot traffic for those who want H&R Block to “do” their taxes. In short, no hands on yet, right?
- New York Times, “IBM Gives Watson a New Challenge: Your Tax Return,” stating “For IBM, the collaboration with H&R Block underlines its strategy in the emerging market for artificial intelligence technology. Watson will touch consumers, but through IBM’s corporate clients.” You may have to pay to view this apparent chunk of marketing collateral. I love the “touch” thing.
You get the idea. A huge PR push for Watson, H&R Block, a promo for a super bowl commercial, and jargon about how smart Watson because it indexes text.
Revenues? Did anyone mention revenues? Cost? Did anyone mention cost? Competitive technology? Did anyone mention competitors? Editorial rigor? Are you nuts? Rigor. What’s that?
Nah. Watson. Weakly.
Stephen E Arnold, February 10, 2017
Everyone Can Be a Search Expert
February 10, 2017
In the bad old days of SDC Orbit and BRS, one had to learn commands to run queries. I remember a pitch from Dow Jones and its nascent “retrieval” experts baying about graphical interfaces. Yep, how has that worked out for the professional researchers. With each “making it easier to search” movement, the quality of the search experts has gone down. I can’t recall the last time I met a person who said, “I am not very good at finding information online.”
Right, everyone is an expert.
The point of my comment about user friendliness is to create a nice little iron hook on which to hand this hypothesis.
Search is going to disappear.
Don’t believe me. Navigate to “Survey: 60 Percent of Voice Users Want more Answers and Fewer Search Results.” The key word is “voice.” This means more Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and voice recognition. The fewer results is a direct consequence of small screens and diminished attention spans.
Who wants to do research which requires:
- Identifying sources
- Locating information
- Reading the information
- Thinking about the information
- Synthesizing the information
- Creating a foot or end note.
Forget the notion of a reference interview, selecting a database editorially shaped to contain higher value information, and scanning an annotated bibliography.
Nope.
Talk to your phone. The smart software will deliver the answer.
I learned from the write up:
The top three rationales behind voice usage were:
- It’s fast.
- The answer is read back to me.
- I don’t have to type.
About 40 percent of both men and women said that voice made using their smartphones easier. Men were more likely than women to strongly agree. This answer and other data in the survey reflect a mostly positive experience with voice.
Want charts? Want “proof”? Read the source document. My view is that a failure to think about research and go through the intellectual work required to obtain semi reliable, semi accurate information means more time for Facebook and Twitter.
That’s great.
Let’s make it so people will accept the output of a voice search without thinking. There’s absolutely nothing like a great idea with no downside. Wonderful.
Stephen E Arnold, February 10, 2017
Google Battling Pirates More and More Each Year
February 10, 2017
So far, this has been a booming year for DMCA takedown requests, we learn from TorrentFreak’s article, “Google Wipes Record Breaking Half Billion Pirate Links in 2016.” The number of wiped links has been growing rapidly over the last several years, but is that good or bad news for copyright holders? That depends on whom you ask. Writer Ernesto reveals the results of TorrentFreak’s most recent analysis:
Data analyzed by TorrentFreak reveals that Google recently received its 500 millionth takedown request of 2016. The counter currently [in mid-July] displays more than 523,000,000, which is yet another record. For comparison, last year it took almost the entire year to reach the same milestone. If the numbers continue to go up at the same rate throughout the year, Google will process a billion allegedly infringing links during the whole of 2016, a staggering number.
According to Google roughly 98% of the reported URLs are indeed removed. This means that half a billion links were stripped from search results this year alone. However, according to copyright holders, this is still not enough. Entertainment industry groups such as the RIAA, BPI and MPAA have pointed out repeatedly that many files simply reappear under new URLs.
Indeed; copyright holders continue to call for Google to take stronger measures. For its part, the company insists increased link removals is evidence that its process is working quite well. They issued out an update of their report, “How Google Fights Piracy.” The two sides remain deeply divided, and will likely be at odds for some time. Ernesto tells us some copyright holders are calling for the government to step in. That could be interesting.
Cynthia Murrell, February 10, 2017
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