CSRankings’ Liao Shumin may want to fluff her or his calligraphy brush for the next go round; otherwise, an opportunity to do some holiday coal mining in Haerwusu may present itself. “Holiday greetings from Inner Mongolia” may next year’s follow up story.
Expanding the User Base: Voice Search As the Three Rs Are Deprecated
December 24, 2019
How does a company deal with declining reading and writing skills? Easy. Shift to voice search. The technology opens the door to individuals who may not be able to read or write. Voice search sidesteps barriers to obtaining information online. “You’ll Soon Be Able Search YouTube Web by Using Your Voice” definitely makes clear that creating a way for those who are unable or unwilling to thumb type is going to be a reality. The write up itself is an example of what happens when basic skills are not up to snuff.
We noted this passage:
As per renowned reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong, YouTube is currently working on voice search for the web, meaning it will let users use their voice to perform searches.
DarkCyber is not sure what a “per renowned reverse engineer” is, but the message is clear. If a person cannot read, spell, or write—voice search will make it possible to watch YouTube videos.
Why?
Advertising revenue is one possible answer. Even those lacking certain skills buy stuff equipped with voice recognition. The reading and writing? Unnecessary for some consumers.
Stephen E Arnold, December 24, 2019
How to Be Numero Uno in AI Even Though the List Has a Math Error and Is Incomplete
December 24, 2019
DarkCyber spotted an interesting college ranking. Unlike some of the US college guides which rank institutions of higher learning, the league table published by Yicai Global takes a big data approach. (Please, keep in mind that US college rankings are not entirely objective. There are niceties like inclusions, researcher bias, and tradition which exert a tiny bit of magnetic pull on these scoreboards.)
According to “Six Chinese Colleges Place in CSRankings’ Top Ten AI List”, the US and other non-Chinese institutions are simply not competitive. Note that “six” in the headline.
How were these interesting findings determined? The researchers counted the number of journal articles published by faculty at the institutions in the sample. DarkCyber noted this statement about the method:
CSRankings is an authoritative global ranking of computer science higher educational institutions compiled by the AMiner team at Tsinghua. Its grading rests entirely on the number of scholarly articles faculty members publish.
The more papers—whether good, accurate, or science fiction—was the sole factor. There you go. Rock solid research.
But let’s look at the rankings:
- Top AI institution in the world: Tsinghua University.
- Not listed. Maybe Carnegie Mellon University
- Peking University
- University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Not listed. Maybe MIT?
- Nanyang Technological University
- Not listed. Maybe Stanford, the University of Washington, or UCal Berkeley?
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University
- Not listed. Maybe Cambridge University
- Not listed. DarkCyber would plug in École nationale supérieure des Mines de Saint-Étienne whose graduates generally stick together or maybe the University of Michigan located in the knowledge wonderland that is Ann Arbor?
Notice that there are five Chinese institutions in the Top 10 list. Yeah, I know the source document said “six.” But, hey, this is human intelligence, not artificial intelligence at work.
Who’s in the Top 10. Apparently Carnegie Mellon and MIT were in the list, but that’s fuzzy. The write up references another study which ranked “all area” schools. Does MIT teach literature or maybe ethics?
To sum up: Interesting source, wonky method, and incomplete listing. Plus, there that weird six but just five thing.
Stephen E Arnold, December 24, 2019
Silicon Valley: Management Talent Available for the Challenges of 2020?
December 24, 2019
Ho, ho, ho. It is the eve of a big time holiday. What do some Silicon Valley companies want to kick the festivities off in grand style? Fresh, experienced, capable management talent? New hires create new opportunities.
DarkCyber may have spotted several candidates. With proven leaders a company struggling in today’s difficult business climate may be able to revivify trust, increase market influence, and enhance credibility via key hires. Some MBAs believe that new management is just the ticket to win the revenue lottery.
Who are these candidates?
If the information in Reuters’ story “Boeing Fires CEO Muilenburg to Restore Confidence Amid 737 Crisis” is accurate, “Muilenburg’s departure followed a week of dramatic setbacks for Boeing, which vies with Europe’s Airbus for leadership of the $150 billion jet industry.” But one person’s setback is another company’s opportunity. It seems that this individual may be seeking his future elsewhere.
For companies looking for senior management talent for their European ventures, HR professionals may need to look no farther than the French executives who made headlines recently. According to “Three French Executives Convicted in the Suicides of 35 of Their Workers,” the method used to motivate colleagues was described as harcelement moral institutionnel. That means energetic constructive criticism.
DarkCyber believes that traditional hiring practices typically do a good job identifying and motivating professionals. Some individuals stand out for different reasons.
Stephen E Arnold, December 24, 2019
Do Four Peas Make a Useful Digital Pod?
December 24, 2019
The Four P’s of Information
This has the problem with data since at least the turn of this century—Forbes posts a “Reality Check: Still Spending More Time Gathering Instead of Analyzing.” Writer and Keeeb CTO Sid Probstein reminds us:
“Numerous studies of ‘knowledge worker’ productivity have shown that we spend too much time gathering information instead of analyzing it. In 2001, IDC published its venerable white paper, ‘The High Cost of Not Finding Information,’ noting that knowledge workers were spending two and a half hours a day searching for information. Since then, we have seen the rise of the cloud, ubiquitous computing, connectivity and everything else that was science fiction when we were kids becoming a reality — including the imminent emergence of AI. Yet in 2012, a decade after the IDC report, a study conducted by McKinsey found that knowledge workers still spend 19% of their time searching for and gathering information, and a 2018 IDC study found that ‘data professionals are losing 50% of their time every week’ — 30% searching for, governing and preparing data plus 20% duplicating work. Clearly, all the technology advances have not flipped the productivity paradigm; it seems like we still spend more time searching for information that exists rather than analyzing and creating new knowledge.”
Probstein believes much of the problem lies in data silos. There are four subsets of the data silo issue, we’re told, but most proposed solutions fail to address all of them. They are the “four P’s” of information: Public Data (info that is searchable across the World Wide Web), Private Data (information behind login pages or firewalls), Paid Data (like industry research, datasets, and professional information), and Personal Data (our own notes, bookmarks, and saved references). See the article for more about each of these areas. Bridging these silos remains a challenge for knowledge workers, but it seems businesses may be taking the issue more seriously. Will we soon be making better use of all that data? Do four peas make a pod? Not yet.
Cynthia Murrell, December 24, 2019
The Intercept Says Happy Holidays to Thomson Reuters
December 23, 2019
I read “How Ice Uses Social Media to Surveil and Arrest Immigrants.”
DarkCyber’s reaction to this story was, “What did Thomson Reuters do to warrant this Happy New Year greeting?” The good folks at Thomson Reuters are not the largest nor the only source of information for analysts—both commercial and governmental. The write describes a routine method of cross correlating items of information. The write up mentions a number of other outfits selling data to organizations. Hello, this is the commercial database business. The sector includes hundreds of companies, not just those who had a mostly forgotten connection to Lord Thomson of Fleet.
Please, sir, may I have some rich, hearty soup, not thin gruel?
A few observations:
- What other firms provide commercial data services to government agencies? Hint: LexisNexis, Experian, other government agencies, and lots, lots more.
- When did this business begin? What were the first commercial firms operating in this business sector? Hint: History can be interesting if one goes back to the the days of RECON and SDC.
- What are the sources of data available to entities which are not allies of the United States? Hint: Singapore’s information sector is booming for a reason.
But the big red herring in the write up is the failure to address the one important weakness in most of the existing data services. What do we get? Thin porridge like that fed Tiny Tim.
My point is that focusing on Thomson Reuters is a misrepresentation of how data can be cross correlated. What happens if a new service becomes available which provides a meta service? That’s a story.
If you want to obtain a copy of a report which describes one new service taking shape, send an email to darkcyber333 at yandex dot com. A government or company email address is required. Will there be exceptions? Nope.
No Happy New Years to Thomson Reuters from the Intercept and none from me for those wanting a document without the required email type.
I know, “Humbug.”
Stephen E Arnold, December 23, 2019
Google Scores Big in a Decade of Failures
December 23, 2019
The trendy Verge identified “The 84 Biggest Flops, Fails, and Dead Dreams of the Decade in Tech.” The importance of the story warranted capital letters. Shouting “Failure” is cool, is it not?
I scanned the list and noted these entries for Google.
- Google Nexus Q—A media streamer from the online ad outfit
- Google Reader—An RSS reader that worked
- Google Fiber—Yeah, but I got a T shirt for the defunct Louisville service
- Google Barge—Data centers outside of country’s legal limits
- Google+—The future of Google that wasn’t. Orkut is missed among some interesting supporters in Brazil even now
- Google Tango—A virtual reality middle school science club project
- Google Daydream—A virtual reality high school science club project
- Android tablets—Sluggish? For sure
- Essential phone—Not really Google, but the Xoogler behind it and the Google exit? Priceless
- Google Project Ara—A grade school science club project
- Google smart watch—Yeah, super
- Google messaging strategy—Pre-school science club projects
- Google Glass—One Googler Glass professional needed therapy after using the device
This means that one company appears to contribute more failures, flops, and foolhardy actions than any other firm in the ken of the Verge’s failure team.
Good work, Verge failure team. Great work, Google. The next decade will be even better and more relevant than the last 10 years we assume.
Stephen E Arnold, December 23, 2019
Instagram Learns about Uncontrolled Indexing
December 23, 2019
Everyone is an expert on search. Everyone can assign index terms, often called metatags or hashtags. The fun world of indexing at this time usually means anyone can make up a “tag” and assign it. This is uncontrolled indexing. The popularity of the method is a result of two things: A desire to save money. Skilled indexers want to develop controlled vocabularies and guidelines for the use of those terms. These activities are expensive, and in MBA land who cares? A second reason is that without an editorial policy and editorial controls, MBAs and engineers can say, “Hey, Boomer, we just provide a platform. Not our problem.”
Not surprisingly even some millennials are figuring out that old school indexing has some value, despite the burden of responsibility. Responsible behavior builds a few ethical muscles.
“How Anti-Vaxxers Get around Instagram’s New Hashtag Controls” reveals some of the flaws of uncontrolled indexing and the shallowness of the solutions crafted by some thumb typing content professionals. This passage explains the not too tough method in use by some individuals:
But anti-vaccine Instagram users have been getting around the controls by employing more than 40 cryptic hashtags such as #learntherisk and #justasking.
There you go. Make up a new indexing term and share it with your follow travelers. Why not use wonky spelling or an odd ball character?
The write up exposes the limitations of rules based term filtering and makes clear that artificial intelligence is not showing up for required office hours.
Should I review the benefits of controlled term indexing? Yes.
Will I? No.
Why? Today no one cares.
Who needs old fashioned methods? No one who wants his or her bonus.
Stephen E Arnold, December 23, 2019
Backkrubs: Not Always Comfortable
December 23, 2019
I spotted Scott Hassan’s name in “Google Co-Founder Faces Lawsuit from Wife Amid Divorce Call.” The write up digs into some business dealings of one of the people who worked on the search engine code for what is now known as the great and wonderful Google. Mr. Hassan is not mentioned in the “Larry Page and Sergey Brin” explanation of how the world’s greatest online ad agency began. There was another person involved in the wild and thrilling adventure — Alan Steremberg. Depending on the source, these Backrubbers were either cranking out code or contributing to the recycled methods that became the world’s largest online advertising agency. Does this matter? No, because no one cares. With inputs from different people and inspirations from AltaVista and models like CLEVER, the myth of individuals laboring in a garage is what seems to be true. Before Google, there was nothing. Time for Foosball and then a scooter ride in the hall of Building 43 to Abidijan. Innovative.
Stephen E Arnold, December 23, 2019
Retailers and Facebook Conspire to Target Advertising
December 22, 2019
Facebook’s purchase tracking has moved into brick-and-mortar stores, thanks to the cooperation of major retailers. CanIndia cites a report from Business Insider in its write-up, “Facebook Now Tracks In-Store Shopping, Targets Users with Ads. We learn:
“Facebook has joined hands with top retailers who are sending the social networking giant data on what the customers are buying in retail stores. Facebook, in turn, is targeting those customers with specified ads. Not just online shopping, Facebook is able to track what customers buy in stores and target those customers with ads, according to a Business Insider report. Retail companies are sending Facebook ‘names, phone numbers and email addresses attached to what products people have purchased, which are then used to target people with those businesses’ ads’.”
The article names Macy’s and Dick’s Sporting Goods as two major retailers already playing this game. Since Facebook makes nearly all its revenue through advertising, it is motivated to sell more ads by any means necessary. We are reminded that, earlier this year, researchers found Facebook was targeting ads using phone numbers and other personal data users did not explicitly provide to them. The company tried some damage control in July with a new set of steps that they say give consumers more control over how their information is used. We have seen, though, that the company can be slippery with language when it comes to user control over these things.
Cynthia Murrell, December 22, 2019
Microsoft Matches the Amazon AWS Security Certification
December 21, 2019
DarkCyber wants to point out that the JEDI deal has not closed. But one of Microsoft’s weaknesses has been remediated. The news is probably not going to make Amazon’s AWS government professionals smile. In fact, the news could ruin the New Year for the Bezos bulldozer.
Stars and Stripes explained in “With New Pentagon IT Certification, Microsoft Narrows the Cloud Security Gap with Amazon” that:
on December 12 Microsoft became the second company to hold the Pentagon’s highest-level IT security certification, called Impact Level 6, Defense Information Systems Agency spokesman Russ Goemaere told The Washington Post in an email. The temporary certification lasts three months, after which a longer one will be considered, Goemaere said. The news of Microsoft’s certification was reported earlier by the Washington Business Journal. The certification means that, for the first time, Microsoft will be able to store classified data in the cloud. Defense and intelligence agencies typically use air-gapped, local computer networks to store sensitive data rather than the cloud-based systems that most companies now use to harness far-off data centers. Previously, Amazon was the only cloud provider trusted with secret data.
The Grinch may want to contact Amazon customer service and ask for an explanation. DarkCyber is not sure if certification is the same as “real” security, but checklists matter. When billions are at stake, one small item can have significant impact. For more detail, see “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” The book is just $9.00 on Amazon. The 1957 book is classified as inspirational and religious poetry.
Yep, categories are important too.
Stephen E Arnold, December 22, 2019
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
