Google: Trimming Expenses Signals an Abstemious Tremor
May 12, 2020
Times are changing at the Google. Despite being the world’s best and biggest online advertising service, the company is slowly morphing into an MBA centric operation.
CNBC published “Google Tells Employees They Can’t Expense Food or Other Perks When Working from Home.” The write up states:
The company issued an updated policy in the last week that states employees cannot expense perks while working from home, including food, fitness, home office furniture, decoration or gifts… The policy also states that employees cannot use unused budgets to do things like purchase meals for themselves or their teams during virtual meetings or donate to charities of their choice.
What’s interesting is that I saw Googlers living in their vehicles on or near Google properties in Mountain View. These individuals either chose van life to avoid the pre-Covid commute or because they could not afford a house or apartment.
Since these people live in some cases on Google premises, the change in perk policy may be particularly interesting. For Googlers who relied on the company for food face other hurdles. Nuking burritos in a microwave can get old fast.
What other financial tweaks will be forthcoming as the online ad giant tries to deal with the impact of the natural force of Covid and the unnatural force of the Bezos bulldozer scraping product search and advertising dollars from underneath Googzilla’s paws?
Stephen E Arnold, May 12, 2020
Microsoft: Documentation Craziness for Teams Meetings
May 12, 2020
Zoom has gained popularity because it is comparatively easy to use. WebEx does the Java thing. FreeConference.com relies on IBM for a peculiar experience. Google does the confusing array of overlapping services thing.
But Microsoft? Microsoft is in its own reality.
Take a look at “Meetings and conferencing in Microsoft Teams.” The acronym TL/DNR applies to this masterpiece of documentation. You know you are in for a long day when the statement appears telling you:
You can now use Advisor for Teams (preview) to help you roll out Microsoft Teams. Advisor for Teams (preview) walks you through your Teams rollout, including meetings and conferencing.
Note the link. Well, there are dozens of links in the write up. In fact, the text of the document is a vehicle for providing links to long documents with more links.
There’s a plain text reference to a “contoso.com,” which is a verified domain. What happens if you plug contoso.com into a browser? This page renders:
That was a surprise: Content unrelated to video meetings.
Remarkable documentation. No wonder Microsoft Certified Partners love this stuff.
Plus the most important item of information is tucked into the documentation; to wit:
To get the best experience on Teams, your organization must have deployed Exchange Online and SharePoint Online, and you must have a verified domain for O365…
Zoom is not perfect, but it is somewhat less forbidding than the Microsoft service.
Stephen E Arnold, May 12, 2020
Can Covid Virtue Signals Beep More Loudly? Sure
May 12, 2020
The Filipino Department of Health (DOH), Senti AI, and Google have combined their powers to fight COVID-19. Infochat reports on the development in the article, “DOH Partners With Google To Unify COVID-19 Communications Nationwide Using Artificial Intelligence.” The Filipino Department of Health wants to use Google and Senti AIs’ advanced technology to centralize communications related to COVID-19 so all information is consistent and updated. The plan is to use Senti AI’s AI-enhanced knowledge management tool that uses Google technologies.
The DOH has partnered with other communication organizations before, but COVID-19 information is constantly changing. The lack of a centralized communication systems increases information delays or different versions. Consistency, frequency, and rapidly are the DOH’s main goals with the Senti AI and Google partnership.
The new communication management tool will contain COVID-19 FAQs, latest government guidelines, and public and health worker inquiries. The tool will also simplify the information search and allow the DOH to update/modify contents.
“‘The DOH hopes that this effort can mitigate the spread of fake news by providing a reliable and verified source of information that can be accessed by all citizens,’ said DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario S. Vergeire. ‘Now more than ever, it’s crucial that all Filipinos act as one to overcome these difficult times. We need to be quick, focused, and united in the way we work together because there is no room for miscommunication and delay when lives are at stake. This is why it’s a very big honor for us to serve our country through this technology,’ said Ralph Regalado, CEO of Senti AI.”
Unfortunately the COVID-19 communications tool is only being developed for the Philippines. With all the news outlets and technology, could the US make use of this system?
Whitney Grace, May 12, 2020
DarkCyber for May 12, 2020: Web Tracking, Free Malware Appliance, Banjo Trouble, New Drones, and Mobile Location Spoofing
May 12, 2020
DarkCyber for May 12, 2020, is now available. You can view this program on YouTube or Vimeo. This week’s program covers the Banjo founder – KKK connection. SoftBank invested $100 million in the company. There has been a potential feature film project called Banjo Policeware: The Wrath of Khan. Two stories focus on surveillance of persons of interest. The first references allegations that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation uses faked Web pages or seized pages to obtain useful information about actors. Another story describes an open source malware analysis appliance. Unlike commercial solutions which cost thousands of dollars, the Phoenix appliance is available without charge. The appliance, which is a software wrapper around a number of tools, allows analysis and visualization of malware behavior. The program also includes a report about two new drones which can perform surveillance and data collection. The first is an autonomous system developed by AeroVironment. The second is DJI’s drone equipped with a 48 megapixel camera.
We are now producing two DarkCyber videos each month. We plan to release a short “special focus program” between our regular shows. Watch DarkCyber for details about this special report. Topics on the production schedule include the failure of cyber security solutions to protect Work From Home employees and contractors, search engine optimization fraud, and policeware marketing.
DarkCyber is produced by Stephen E Arnold and the DarkCyber research team. Tony S. has rejoined the group after a hiatus due to family responsibilities. Join me in saying, “Yo, Tony, get to work.” He is now our principal researcher for a new project related to the European Community’s investigation of Google search result manipulation. (I know that most people are unaware of this most recent thrust at Google, but it is happening.)
One final but important point: The DarkCyber video programs contain no sponsored content, no advertisements, and no embarrassing “begging for dollars” messages. The approach allows the DarkCyber team to discuss a range of topics, even those which can be uncomfortable for search engine marketers, consultants, and sketchy service providers.
Kenny Toth, May 12, 2020
Banjo: What Did SoftBank Money Buy?
May 11, 2020
We completed an analysis of Banjo’s intellectual property. Note: the Banjo url ends in jo, not com. The company — despite its low, low profile since 2016 — has been a reasonably active policeware vendor. Is the activity directed at publicity? Expanding its sales force? Developing a platform comparable to Amazon’s sprawling policeware initiative?
Nope.
The firm has been patenting and repatenting some of its ideas. A quick example is the method disclosed in a paper by one of Banjo’s first employees: “Lateral Thinking in Search Engines” by Yann Landrin-Schweitzer, et al, in Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines, March 2006. You can locate a copy of this infrequently cited document at this link. Note: you may have to pay to view the document.
The ideas were evident in Banjo’s consumer app, which will not be discussed in this brief blog post, and again in the post-pivot patent documents.
The method, known for decades, was popularized by Endeca. The idea is to find, show, or leverage in some fashion related content. Some of the now disgraced search and retrieval evangelists called this “side search.”
For an example of Landrin-Schweitzer’s influence, check out US 8,341,223, Method for relevant content discovery. Since the patent document was filed in mid 2012, Banjo has made this method one of its key foundation stones.
What is interesting is that Landrin-Schweitzer left the company about the time the patent document was in process.
DarkCyber wants to point out that the “hot” technology powering the LiveTime unique capability is not particularly distinctive. Granted, Banjo has built a system which processes video and combines it with other inputs to generate alerts.
Nevertheless, the low profile adopted by the company may have been a way to reduce public scrutiny of what technology was the foundation for the interesting claims the company’s PR made.
I want to note that the DarkCyber research team tracked some of Banjo origin story to Jennifer Peck, worked at Banjo and who later married Mr. Patton. (Did the marriage or common sense stop the PR about Banjo which flowed in a steady stream until the end of 2015?)
Shifting gears the NASCAR way stabs the accelerator for more capital. SoftBank invested $100 million in Banjo in early 2016.
What is interesting is that the SoftBank due diligence process seems to have overlooked [a] some aspects about Mr. Patton and possibly the firm’s origin story, [b] Mr. Patton’s hackathon “wins” at a Google event and in an event held in China with “original” code, [c] and the firm’s core technology, [d] Landrin-Schweitzer’s contributions.
Mr. Patton’s trajectory from homeless waif in LA to the US Navy and military warfighting to NASCAR to construction to genius coder seems to be well crafted, almost like a feat of Baron Munchausen. The positioning of the company as one that wants to “save lives” could be a modern parable crafted on Madison Avenue to elevate the company above the likes of Palantir Technologies.
Wrapping the “good” cloth around surveillance technology is a PR plus to some. Plus, Banjo manifests Patton’s white knight accoutrements in the little known world of policeware applications. Also the factoids about Mr. Patton’s hard fought effort to obtain a college education and how a hitchhiking ride made an education possible could be inspiring to a befuddled and homeless youth. Does this remind anyone of a Jim Bakker? A modern version of a Horace Greeley tall tale?
Several questions:
- Are the other technology foundation stones unique and rock solid?
- How much of the technology embodied in Banjo is unique?
- What are the due diligence processes used by investment firms when facts suggest the founder’s past has not been vetted?
DarkCyber thinks that Banjo is an interesting firm. We have prepared a summary of Banjo’s intellectual property. If you are interested in learning more about this report, write benkent2020@yahoo.com.
The May 12, 2020, DarkCyber video program has more Banjo related content. You can view that video at this link. Remember: No ads, no search engine optimization, no begging for dollars. Just information.
Stephen E Arnold, May 11, 2020
Bayesian Math: Useful Book Is Free for Personal Use
May 11, 2020
The third edition of Bayesian Data Analysis (updated on February 13, 2020) is available at this link. The authors are Andrew Gelman, John B. Carlin, Hal S. Stern, David B. Dunson, Aki Vehtari, and Donald B. Rubin. With the Bayes’ principles in hand, making sense of some of the modern smart systems becomes somewhat easier. The book covers the basics and advanced computation. One of the more interesting sections is Part V: Nonlinear and Nonparametric Models. You may want to add this to your library.
Stephen E Arnold, May11, 2020
Even More of the British Museum Collection Goes Online
May 11, 2020
Now we can virtually view more works in the British Museum’s extensive collection from the safety of our homes, without even having to register. “British Museum Makes 1.9 Million Images Available for Free,” reports ianVisits. The collection is available under a Creative Commons 4.0 license, so users can download the images for free and use them for non-commercial uses as long as they credit the museum. The database revamp has been launched earlier than planned, both because more people are checking out exhibits online right now and because staff at the shuttered museum have had more free time to work on the project. The post informs us:
“The relaunch also sees 280,000 new object photographs and 85,000 new object records published for the very first time, many of them acquisitions the Museum has made in recent years, including 73 portraits by Damian Hirst, a previously lost watercolor by Rossetti, and a stunning 3,000-year-old Bronze age pendant. … This revamp is the biggest update the Museum’s Collection Online has seen since being first created in 2007. It is now fully responsive, making it accessible on mobile and tablets alongside desktop browsers for the first time. The online collection includes the Museum’s most famous objects such as the Rosetta Stone, the artifacts of Sutton Hoo, the Cyrus Cylinder, the Parthenon Sculptures, and the Benin Bronzes. Object records include physical descriptions, information on materials, display and acquisition history, dimensions, previous owners and curatorial comments. Work is continuing to ensure this information is included as fully as possible on every object in the collection and to add new photographs.”
A nifty new feature is the ability to view some of the objects up close, like he Rapa Nui sculpture Hoa Hakananai’a and the Chinese Admonitions Scroll made over 1600 years ago. Located in London, the venerable British Museum was established by Parliament in 1753. Due largely to the country’s acquisitive nature during its Empire years, its collection is second to none as a resource for exploring human history and cultural diversity.
Can one locate images? Sort of.
Cynthia Murrell, May 11, 2020
JEDI Warriors: Amazon and Microsoft Soldier On for Money
May 11, 2020
DarkCyber noted “Bid High, Lose, Try Again. Amazon Continues to Push for a JEDI Re-Do.” The main point of the write up is to point out that Amazon is not happy with the disposition of the Department of Defense’s decision to award JEDI to Microsoft.
What’s interesting about the article is that Microsoft implies that it is the provider of the “latest and best technology available.” The author is a corporate vice president of communications. The viewpoint is understandable.
The blog post points out:
Amazon has filed yet another protest – this time, out of view of the public and directly with the DoD – about their losing bid for the JEDI cloud contract. Amazon’s complaint is confidential, so we don’t know what it says. However, if their latest complaint mirrors the arguments Amazon made in court , it’s likely yet another attempt to force a re-do because they bid high and lost the first time.
That’s an interesting assertion. If the bid data were available, perhaps some characterization of what “high” means in this context would be helpful.
DarkCyber understood that Amazon lost the procurement because of a combination of factors, not “price.” Factors included alleged interference by the White House, Amazon’s assurances that on premises and cloud systems would work in the security environment required / envisioned by the DoD, and a lack of support for essential applications like PowerPoint. Price is an important factor, but data about the fees is not floating around in the miasma of rural Kentucky.
Microsoft’s PR VP states:
This latest filing – filed with the DoD this time – is another example of Amazon trying to bog down JEDI in complaints, litigation and other delays designed to force a do-over to rescue its failed bid. Think about it: Amazon spent the better part of last month fighting in court to prevent the DoD from taking a 120-day pause to address a concern flagged by the judge and reevaluate the bids. Amazon fought for a complete re-do and more delay. Amazon lost. The judge granted the DoD’s request for a timeout in the litigation to address her concerns. And now Amazon is at it again, trying to grind this process to a halt, keeping vital technology from the men and women in uniform – the very people Amazon says it supports.
The conclusion of the blog post is that Amazon should tip over its king and concede defeat.
DarkCyber finds this procurement to be interesting. Neither side is likely to walk away.
The reason, however, has little to do with technology or concern with the DoD, war fighters, or any other uplifting notion.
There are 10 billion reasons or more plus additional payments as a result of scope changes, engineering change orders, and ancillary tasks.
The battle is less about ideals and more about money, prestige, and the JEDI deal as a Dyson vacuum cleaner for more government work. The best technology? Yeah, right.
Stephen E Arnold, May 11, 2020
Putting Wood Behind the Toronto Project: Why Google Drops Projects
May 11, 2020
If DarkCyber were asked, “What cloud vendor should I use?”, the answer must consider persistence, consistency, and commitment.
Amazon, bless their prime heart, continues to take orders, deploy new AWS services, and make documentation which baffles. IBM is trying to turn its digital battleship into something capable of delivering AIops, whatever that is while it sells mainframes. Microsoft is pushing its Azure concept forward as it leaves the baffled Surface users and frustrated Window 10 update lovers at the altar. Even Oracle demonstrated that low prices can zoom forward.
But Google?
With the news reported in “Sidewalk Labs Announces It Will No Longer Pursue Quayside Project,” Google makes it clear that stick-to-ativity is not the company’s core competency. The write up states:
the economic circumstances made it “too difficult” to make the 12-acre project financially viable without sacrificing “core parts” of its plan. Sidewalk Labs, which has a 30-person office on the waterfront, will continue to work on some of its proposed innovations, including mass timber construction, a digital master-planning tool, and its approach to all-electric neighborhoods.
Ah, ha. Covid and not the push by Google to get money from tax and other assessments. Like other Google projects, this smart city thing is not really going away. It’s a pre beta testing thing.
What’s this have to do with Google’s cloud push? Decisions like waving goodbye to Toronto are tough to ignore. Forgetting Dodgeball and Web Accelerator are easy, but pulling out of Toronto is a major move.
Why does Google drop projects?
Google sells ads.
I am not convinced that its up to the task of delivering over time what government and commercial customers require; that is, confidence that Alphabet won’t spell “sayonara” with AdWords without warning. Automated ads are easier than creating something, overcoming hurdles, and persevering. Hey, let’s play ping pong. That putting wood behind a tough job for sure.
Stephen E Arnold, May 11, 2020
Banjo Targets an F Sharp and Breaks a Polyweb String
May 10, 2020
Policeware vendor Banjo continues to make headlines. (This may be welcome news to NSO Group, another low profile firm which has been in the spotlight recently.)
The Banjo story is one of the features in the DarkCyber video news program which becomes available on Tuesday, May 12, 2020.
Mr. Patton graduated from the University of North Carolina Greensboro. NASCAR helped him get a degree after his discharge from the US Navy. He served in an intelligence unit and participated in military activities in the Middle East. He allegedly races trucks.
There’s an update to the interesting revelations about the founder Damien Patton. Mr. Patton started a company sometime between 2011 and 2013 called Banjo. The original idea was a social media app. The function was to ingest Tweets and other content and display who was nearby. After some excitement about privacy, Mr. Patton pivoted and created a policeware company.
The angle was to use real time live video and content from social media sources like Twitter and Facebook to inform law enforcement about events. Unlike some of the policeware companies, Mr. Patton’s spin was that Banjo would be used to save lives and do good.
By 2016, Mr. Patton has wrapped up about $131 million in funding and bundled his past underneath the firm’s PR blitz. The “news” about Banjo and Patton played up a rags to riches story: From Mr. Patton’s homelessness to the US Navy, from a NASCAR grease pit to entrepreneurial clover.
Until… the story emerged about Mr. Patton’s activities in his youth. The allegations included the KKK, shooting up a religious facility, and rubbing elbows with interesting characters.
Where are we now?
“Banjo CEO Steps Down as Fallout from the Revelations of Past Ties to KKK Continues” brings us up to date. The write up states:
Embattled event detection tech firm Banjo announced Friday that the company’s current CEO and founder, Damien Patton, has resigned and the company will transition to a new leadership team with current Chief Technology Officer Justin R. Lindsey taking over the top position.
And the investors?
One of the principal sources of funding for the company is SoftBank, a firm which has the distinction of investing substantial funds in WeWork.
Now the firm has a new president, probably some agitated investors, and the distinction of becoming the first policeware company to hurtle from obscurity to headlines in a matter of a couple of days.
One question: “What did Banjo do with the investment funds obtained from investors?” DarkCyber opines that the patent filings in the last four years indicate inventing and fencing in its real time services consumed time and effort.
Banjo has amassed a number of patents related to its real time analysis of content. One of the early employees (Yann Landrin-Schweitzer) and co inventor of Banjo’s foundational technology said adios after a short stint at the company. Despite the assertions that the company has hundreds of employees in offices in California and Utah, Banjo has kept a low, low profile since 2016. Paying customers have not be enshrined on the company’s Web site at www.banjo.co.
Net net: This is an interesting story, and it does little to build confidence in the vendors providing specialized services to law enforcement and intelligence agencies. At one time, companies like Banjo kept a low profile, tried to avoid problems, and served a tight lipped clientele. NSO Group broke with tradition. But NSO’s legal spat with Facebook has been shoved off state.
Now we have a NASCAR type booth featuring a banjo player. What does it cost to see the show? John Malloy at BlueRun paid a couple of million. But Masayoshi Son put an estimated $100 million to get a piece of the act.
Was it worth it?
The reviews are just starting to come in, and they are a little negative. This could be a new PR challenge for Jennifer Peck, the PR wizard who helped orchestrate the Damien Patton story.
Observations:
- Having skeletons in one’s closet related to the KKK and a drive by shoot up of a synagogue are not useful when selling to law enforcement and intelligence entities
- Losing contracts and having government officials in Utah scrambling to figure out if Banjo’s algorithms are biases poses a challenge to other policeware vendors. Algorithms are indeed biased, but figuring out where the bias creeps in and how it effects the outputs of a smart system is a tar ball. This is probably not a plus for other policeware vendors.
- Agitating SoftBank’s president Masayoshi Son is possibly an unwelcome side effect of this situation. The investment in Banjo is going to require time and probably more money to get the company back on track.
The DarkCyber video segment about Banjo becomes available at www.arnoldit.com/wordpress early Tuesday, May 12, 2020.
Stephen E Arnold, May 10, 2020
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