Do Those Commercial Satellites Just Provide Internet? Maybe Not
July 12, 2020
Much has changed since the early days of the Civil Rights Movement, not the least of which is the state of observation technology. We learn from Bloomberg that “Satellites Are Capturing the Protests, and Just About Everything Else on Earth.” Satellite-captured images of protests pervade recent news coverage, particularly a photo of D.C.’s yellow “Black Lives Matter” street mural captured by Planet Labs, Inc. This company, founded in 2010, brings satellite imagery to the masses. Journalist Ashlee Vance reports:
“The company that took the photo, Planet Labs Inc., has hundreds of satellites floating around Earth, enough that it can snap at least one photo of every spot on the planet every day, according to the startup. Such imagery used to be rare, expensive and controlled by governments. Now, Planet has built what amounts to a real-time accounting system of the earth that just about anyone can access by paying a fee.
Over the next couple months, Planet is embarking on a project that will dramatically increase the number of photos it takes and improve the quality of the images by 25% in terms of resolution. To do that, the company is lowering the orbits of some of its larger, high-resolution satellites and launching a half-dozen more devices. As a result, Planet will go from photographing locations twice a day to as many as 12 times a day in some places. Customers will also be able to aim the satellites where they want using an automated system developed by Planet. ‘The schedule is shipped to the satellite, and it knows the plan it needs to follow,’ said Jim Thomason, the vice president of products at Planet.”
The implications are both amazing and alarming. The very concept of privacy may become hypothetical when anyone willing to pay can see just about anything and anyone, anywhere, at nearly any time. On the other hand, there are more benign possibilities, like the investors who examine parking lots to determine how lucrative certain retail businesses are. And, of course, there is the ability to chronicle a large scale social-justice movement. During the Covid-19 pandemic, analysts have also used satellite imagery to track activity slowdowns, military activity, and shipments of goods.
Planet Labs is not the only private company in the satellite imagery market. Rivals include Capella Space and Iceye. As the competition heats up, how many more objects will be placed into orbit around our planet? As I recall, we already have too much stuff flying around out there. I suppose, though, that concern is beyond the purview of companies looking to cash in on the technology.
Cynthia Murrell, July 12, 2020
Intelligence Agencies and Covid
July 11, 2020
Ever since (probably before) China unleashed the COVID-19 virus on the world, countries have prepped their intelligence agencies one how to gather information about a vaccine. Ekathimerini spoke with retired CIA operative Marc Polymeropoulos about gathering intelligence in, “The Key Role Of Intelligence In The Corona Virus Battle.” Polymeropoulos stated he would have deployed agents around the world to not only gather information, but potentially recruit people to assist the CIA. He also said:
“ ‘The first matter of business for the secret service in the pandemic is not looking for ventilators or diagnostic tests, as Israel’s Mossad did. It’s checking whether the scientific data being reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) by China, for example, is accurate or not. To do this, they recruit whistleblowers, tap communications between civil servants, and mine information from open sources,’ says Polymeropoulos. ‘Their second mission is to evaluate whether the spread of the virus and the reactions of the public in the places that are being hit the hardest are affecting the stability of their governments…”
Whoever had the latest scientific information related to the virus would mean billions of dollars for the winning country. Polymeropoulous, however, explained that the US secret services were warned about COVID-19 back in January, but dropped the ball. He believes once the pandemic is over, Congress will investigate why it got out of control.
VOA News has a similar story: “COVID-19 Offers ‘World Of Opportunity’ For Spies, Terrorists Australians Spy Boss Says.” Australia’s spy chief and Australian Security Intelligence Organization warned that the world is going to face more cyber-crime, extremist propaganda, and espionage during the pandemic. The panic associated with the pandemic makes people ripe for exploitation.
“It believes that extremist groups have spread their ideology and tried to radicalize Australians. Other common scams include phishing for personal information, online shopping fraud and the theft of pension funds, as well as fake crypto currency and celebrity endorsements. There are also allegations that foreign governments have used the pandemic to covertly gather sensitive information online.”
The pandemic has promoted fear, which makes people more susceptible to disinformation, cyber attacks, and scams. Some politicians even use it as an excuse to spy on their citizens and restrict their privacy rights online.
Maintaining order and safety is paramount during crises, but no one has found the right balance between citizens’ rights and government power.
One thing intelligence agencies know is that human behaviors have changed based on past emergencies.
Whitney Grace, July 11, 2020
Search History: Mostly Forgotten and Definitely of Zero Interest to the Smart Software Crowd
July 10, 2020
There’s an interesting, if selective, write up about online information search and retrieval. Navigate to “The Bourne Collection: Online Search Is Older Than You Think.”
An interesting statement appears in the write up:
Founder Roger Summit had been part of Lockheed Missiles and Space Corporation’s mid-1960s Information Sciences Laboratory (1964). He had built his ideas about iterative search—a “dialog” between the user and the computer—into a separate online search division for Lockheed. (This was very different from the “take your best shot” approach of modern search engines, where you generally need to run a new search to refine irrelevant results). Dialog licensed access to leading databases in a variety of fields, which you could search with its powerful tools. While the overall amount of information was far smaller than on the modern web, it was far, far more relevant and better organized.
For the modern online experts, such a quaint, irrelevant, and inefficient concept.
Stephen E Arnold, July 10, 2020
Google and Social: Peanut Butter and Jelly?
July 10, 2020
We read with interest “Google+ Rebranded as Google Currents: Check New App Features.” Google’s Orkut was a fascinating service. Certain interesting users in Brazil made it a semi-hit, particularly among law enforcement officers. Then there were other social services, most notably Google + or Plus. Searching for symbols was clever. Close enough but I wrote out the plus. A word. Easy to search.
Google Plus bit the dust, but the write up points out that Google Plus is now Currents. Either electric chair type or flowing water. Maybe berries?
We noted this statement in the article:
Google+, although never exactly a successful platform, was marred by two major data leaks, potentially exposing data of tens of millions of users to outside developers. One leak that was kept secret for months, and the other one, which leaked the data of 52.5 million people, prompted Google to prepone [sic] the shutdown by four months.
“Prepone” caught our eye, but the write up does remind one about Google’s security capabilities.
The killer factoid in the write up warranted a blue circle with a pen and one exclamation point:
Google has, on multiple occasions, acknowledged that Google+ has not been able to meet the expectations. In a blog post in October, Google’s Ben Smith wrote that 90 percent of Google+ user sessions are less than five seconds long.
Five seconds. Interesting. Definitely not sticky.
Stephen E Arnold, July 10, 2020
Google and the Middle Kingdom
July 10, 2020
Remember when Google nosed into China and suggested that the country change how it approached life, business, and online? Few do. Suffice it to say that Google’s Silicon Valley inputs did produce one reaction: A small dish of day old sweet red bean dumplings. Yummy.
Flash forward to the present. “Google Shuts Down Cloud Project, Says No Plan to Offer Cloud Services in China” reports that Google
has shut down its cloud project named ‘Isolated Region’ and added that it was not weighing options to offer its cloud platform in China.
The article states:
The search engine giant, however, said that the project’s shutdown was not due to either of those two reasons and that it has not offered cloud platform services in China.
Perhaps Google became impatient waiting for China to modify its methods?
Stephen E Arnold, July 10, 2020
Optical Character Recognition for Less
July 10, 2020
Optical character recognition software was priced high, low, and in between. Sure, the software mostly worked if you like fixing four or five errors per scanned page with 100 words on it. Oh, you use small sized type. That’s eight to 10 errors per scanned page. Good enough I suppose.
You may want to check out EasyOCR, now available via Github. The information page says:
Ready-to-use OCR with 40+ languages supported including Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai.
Worth a look.
Stephen E Arnold, July 10, 2020
Palantir Technologies and Semi Hard Numbers
July 10, 2020
Palantir Technologies is super secretive. The company plans to become publicly held. Does secret and public match up for you?
“Palantir Built Itself into a $20 Billion Success with a Secretive and Controversial business. Now It’s Prepping for Life As a Transparent Public Company” offers some numbers; for instance:
- The company is valued at $20 billion US
- The company’s technology is 17 years young
- The company has raised about $3 billion US in funding
- 200 employees sent a letter to top management complaining about Palantir’s work for US Customs.
None of these numbers indicate if the company is profitable.
Important? Probably not in today’s fraught economic environment.
Stephen E Arnold, July 10, 2020
How Many Ads Can a YouTube Video Hold? Answer: Never Enough
July 10, 2020
We spotted a HackerNews post wondering if the YouTube (free version) was getting more ad love from the merrie band of Googlers.
The answer is, “Absolutely.”
The Google bean counters are well aware of the cost of the “free” video service. Thus, the free video service has to generate cash and more cash so the system can produce infinite cash. That’s logical in a Googley way I think.
In the comments to the original question on HackerNews, an entity named Operyl wrote:
If I understand correctly from a friend, the problem is YouTubers (and YouTube/Google) are currently making _much less_ money per ad. It sounds like more are getting shoved per video to make up for it (iirc, it’s up to YouTube to determine this?).
I don’t know what iirc means, but the rest of the post is clear. More money is needed.
Observations:
- YouTube ads are more and more annoying. The fix obviously is to pay Google money. Most of the annoying ads go away. Google is discovering subscriptions. Undoubtedly Google will think subscription revenues for other services just like BMW and its heated steering wheel stroke of genius. German logic, of course. Ever read Kant? Congruent indeed.
- The YouTube ads are increasingly irrelevant when I check out some YouTube videos. I love the tours of the Incan ruins. Ads about all sorts of things unrelated to Peruvian stone work appear. Therefore, the famous smart algorithm is just spewing ads to burn up inventory is one thought which crossed my mind.
- The autoplay of post viewing content are interesting as well. How many of those ads are viewed BEFORE the YouTube user identifies which tab is playing the pitch to go Adobe? My hunch. Zero if these startled views are like me.
Net net: Those grousing about Google’s monetization quest have not seen anything yet. Why? The cost hole for the Google is probably close to infinite as long as there are former TikTok users looking for a home. Infinite costs can only be offset by infinite revenue. That too is logic worthy of a Google flashing logo pin.
Stephen E Arnold, July 9, 2020
Huawei and Its Sci-Fi Convenience Vision
July 9, 2020
One of the DarkCyber research team spotted what looked like a content marketing, rah rah article called “Huawei’s 1+8+N Strategy Will Be a Big Success in China As It Has No Competitors.”
We talked about the article this morning and dismissed its words as less helpful than most recycled PR. The gem in the write up is this diagram which was tough to read in the original. We poked around and came across a Huawei video which you can view on the Sparrow News Web site.
Here’s a version of the 1+8+N diagram. If you are trying to read the word “sphygmomanometer” means blood pressure gizmo. The term is shorthand for “smart medical devices”.
The idea is that the smartphone is the de facto surveillance device. It provides tags for the device itself and a “phone number” for the device owner. Burner phones registered to smart puppets require extra hoops, and government authorities are going to come calling when the identify of the burner phone’s owner is determined via cross correlation of metadata.
The diagram has three parts, right? Sort of. First, the “plus” sign in the 1+8+N is Huawei itself. Think of Huawei as the Ma Bell, just definitely very cozy with the Chinese government. The “plus” means glue. The glue unites or fuses the data from the little icons.
The focal point of the strategy is the individual.
From the individual, the diagram shows no phone computing devices. There are nine devices identified, but more can be added. These nine devices connected to an individual are all smart; that is, Internet of things, mobile aware, surveillance centric, and related network connected products.
The 1
The “1” refers to the smartphone.
The 8
The eight refers to the smart devices an individual uses. (The smartphone is interacting with these eight devices either directly or indirectly as long as there is battery and electrical power.)
Augmented / virtual reality “glasses”
Earphones
Personal computers
Speakers
Tablets
Televisions
Watches
Vehicles
The connection between and among the devices is enabled by Huawei HiLink or mobile WiFi, although Bluetooth and other wireless technologies are an option.
The N
The N like the math symbol refers to any number of ecologies. An ecology could be a person riding in a vehicle, watching a presentation displayed by a connected projector, a smart printer, a separate but modern smart camera, a Chinese Roomba type robot, a smart scale for weighing a mobile phone owner, a medical device connected or embedded in an individual, a device streaming a video, a video game played on a device or online, a digital map.
These use cases cluster; for example, mobile, smart home, physical health, entertainment, and travel. Other categories can, of course, be added.
Is 1+8+N the 21st Century E=MC^2?
Possibly. What is clear is that Huawei has done a very good job of mapping out the details of the Chinese intelligence and surveillance strategy. By extension, one can view the diagram as one that could be similar to those developed by the governments of Iran, North Korea, Russia, and a number of other nation states.
The smartphone delivers on its potential in the 1+8+N diagram, if the Huawei vision gets traction.
Observations
The 1+8+N equation has been around since 2019. Its resurfacing may have more to do with Huawei’s desire to be quite clear about what its phones and other products and services can deliver.
The company uses the phrase “full scene” instead of the American jargon of a 360 degree view.
Neither phrase captures the import of data in multiple dimensions. Tracking and analyzing data through time enables a number of interesting dependent features, services, and functions.
The 1+8+N may be less about math and more about intelligence than some of the write ups about the diagram discuss.
Stephen E Arnold, July 9, 2020
Subscriptions: Spreadsheet Fever Fuels the Magazine Model
July 9, 2020
Nothing is easier. Plug in a series of four numbers, highlight the cells, and drag the little black box. Excel spits out the “projected next number.” Magic.
Think about this. Mail out 10 million snail mail pitches for a year’s subscription to a jazzy magazine, maybe Psychology Today or something similar. Fire up the spreadsheet, plug in the estimated number of sign ups, and project how much money will flow into the coffers of the magazine publisher or the third party handling the campaign from an office in Hoboken.
Subscriptions are the “next big thing” for many businesses. Here in rural Kentucky, our single car wash sells a “subscription.” The idea is that the car wash gets upfront money, and the lucky buyer can drive in one every two weeks and get the horse and buggy hosed down. Working good? Not so much.
BMW is selling subscriptions to features like heated steering wheels. Tesla, the auto company owned by Joe Rogan star, Elon Musk has subscriptions on its radar too.
Twitter, according to Bloomberg, the socially positive and continually uplifting information service, may be going to a subscription model. The DarkCyber research team has long considered Twitter a very useful tool for misinformation, disinformation, and reformation. Asking “fake personas” to pay for the service may work. On the other hand, industrious individuals may find the steady stream of innovations in encrypted messaging apps a possible complement. But look at those Excel projections. Imagine a 1,000,000 subscribers at $10 US a month. Wow, drag those tiny black squares. Count your bonus now.
The Quibi short form video service is subscription based. No one on the DarkCyber team has downloaded the app nor peered over someone’s shoulder while social distancing outside the general store in our small town. (It is near the vacant subscription car wash.)
According to a possibly specious, wildly incorrect, and statistically flawed report, Quibi’s subscription model is not selling like Rona N95 masks. The rock solid “real” news outfit Verge published “Quibi Reportedly Lost 90 Percent of Early Users after Their Free Trials Expired.”
The marketing technique implemented get six issues free and then pay only $10 US a month approach. How are magazines doing these days? Yep, stunning business.
The write up recycles data from a “research firm” named Sensor Tower and reports:
Streaming service Quibi only managed to convert a little under 10 percent of its early wave of users into paying subscribers, says mobile analytics firm Sensor Tower. According to the firm’s new report on Quibi’s early growth, the short-form video platform signed up about 910,000 users in its first few days back in April. Of those users, only about 72,000 stuck around after the three-month free trial, indicating the app had about an 8 percent conversion rate.
Short form video content is available mostly for free. Ever hear of Funimate?
Let’s step back. Advertising online is a monopoly game with two outstanding firms managing the dice, the money, and the cute little tokens. Direct mail is more expensive. With creative, list rentals, and fulfillment house fees, figure $5 to $7 per envelope delivered by snail mail. The promo can be cheaper if you go with a single “please, subscribe” flier in a ValPak envelope. Inserts in a daily newspaper. Okay, that’s a great idea. Door knob hanging? Nope. Banner ads on the Adf.ly network. Yeah, maybe?
Subscription plays are looking good when viewed through the blood shot eyes of someone with spreadsheet fever.
Reality may be different. Even National Geographic is a non profit. Hey, there’s an idea for BMW, Twitter, and Quibi. When this bout of spreadsheet fever winds down, consider the benefits of becoming a non governmental organization: Donations, fund raisers, merchandise, and more.
Stephen E Arnold, July 9, 2020
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