Intel: Code Name? Horse Feathers?
July 31, 2020
After Intel’s track record of manufacturing excellence, the company moved into a “breakthrough” in quantum computing. What you don’t know about Horse Ridge? Oh, right, the company’s inability to produce chips designed to put AMD in the revenue dumpster are delayed for — what? — the second, third time? But who is counting?
“Intel Researchers Create AI System That Rates Similarity of Two Pieces of Code” reports another gigantic breakthrough:
In partnership with researchers at MIT and the Georgia Institute of Technology, Intel scientists say they’ve developed an automated engine — Machine Inferred Code Similarity (MISIM) — that can determine when two pieces of code perform similar tasks, even when they use different structures and algorithms. MISIM ostensibly outperforms current state-of-the-art systems by up to 40 times, showing promise for applications from code recommendation to automated bug fixing.
Okay, this is another corporate innovation with some modest, probably inconsequential assistance, from two big name universities. Plus the technical matching seems similar to the approach described in “MIT Algorithm Finds Subtle Connections between Art Pieces.” Interesting perhaps?
How does this Intel innovation work? Sussing. Yep, that’s the word:
MISIM works because of its novel context-aware semantic structure (CASS), which susses out the purpose of a given bit of source code using AI and machine learning algorithms. Once the structure of the code is integrated with CASS, algorithms assign similarity scores based on the jobs the code is designed to perform. If two pieces of code look different but perform the same function, the models rate them as similar — and vice versa.
DarkCyber has a couple of questions:
- Will the method be used to address certain flaws in the Intel security used in its long-in-the-tooth processors?
- Will the “novel” invention be patented? If yes, will the graduate students and university professors be listed as inventors?
- Will the procedure be used to determine if another firm has used Intel code?
Worth monitoring because one of the schools contributing time, talent, and resources to the Intel invention is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Yep, the outfit that accepted funds from everyone’s favorite socialite Jeffrey Epstein. Mr. Epstein had an interesting background. MIT allegedly zipped its lips about this luminary’s financial support. I am tempted to saddle up and ride the Horse Ridge to enlightenment, but I shall refrain from equine antics.
Stephen E Arnold, July 31, 2020
You Know Times Are Hard When a Blue Chip Firm Stoops to SEO
July 27, 2020
Many years ago I worked at Booz, Allen & Hamilton. After I set up my own consulting firm, I did projects for other outfits which I thought operated in a blue-chip or high-quality mode.
If you read DarkCyber, you may have seen my articles making fun of some consulting firms’ analyses; for example, the outfits producing Gartner-type subjective comparisons enterprise vendors.
I have also been quite clear over the years about search engine optimization. The manipulation of a Web page feeds sales of online advertising and erodes what minimal objective relevance ranking methods remain in use. From my point of view, SEO is a scam. If you want traffic, buy advertising.
Why take time to write again about questionable consulting operations and SEO?
I received this email a day or two ago, and I have informed the sender that I would publish the email, his name, his contact information, and his employer before this item runs in my blog. Now the spam email. Please, note the chatty tone:
We noticed that you featured Boston Consulting Group in four of your articles (Gartner Magic Quadrant in the News: Netscout Matter, Radicati Group: Yet Another Quadrant, Search Engine Optimization: Chasing Semantic Search & Search Companies: Innovative or Not?) and wanted to say thanks so much for the mentions!
We were hoping you could add a link to our homepage [https://www.bcg.com/] in those articles so your readers can easily find the site. Please let me know if you have any questions or if I should direct this email to someone else. Thanks again for your help in advance.
Sincerely,
Connor Hayes
Connor Hayes Hayes.Connor@bcg.com
Global Search Senior Coordinator
T + 1 617 850 3941
Boston, USA
Allow me some observations, and I will offer some comments for Connor Hayes and other SEO “experts”:
1. Connor, and spare me your slathering of Dollar Store taco sauce. I am not into familiarity or hippy dippy “I want a link” pitches.
2. Boston Consulting Group, let’s be classy. SEO spam is something that I associate with outfits less well positioned to sell high-end professional services work.
I asked myself, “Was Connor Hayes influenced by Homer on “The Simpsons”?
I asked myself, “Has BCG lost its sense of professionalism?”
I do recall learning from my father who worked for an entrepreneur R. G. LeTourneau that General Eisenhower and later president of the United States was not impressed that Bruce Henderson, founder of BCG “borrowed” the four square matrix analytic tool. When I heard this anecdote, I suppose the state was set for today’s BCG to embrace search engine optimization. Both the four square star-dog thing and SEO illustrates a similar thought process: Do what needs to be done to become a modern day winner.
I segment the world of professional services consulting into some simple chunks. At the bottom are newly unemployed managers, unemployable college graduates with degrees in home economics, art history, or some similar expertise, and people who just cannot stick with a legitimate company. Many of these individuals become SEO experts.
Then there are mid-tier consulting firms. These firms capture government contracts, find a niche and generate information and knowledge products, and pontificate on LinkedIn about their organizations’ mastery of knowledge-value in today’s world.
The third group is the top of the professional services pyramid. My perception was that the big leagues attracted the best and the brightest. Examples of these top-tier operations included Arthur D. Little, Bain (formed by unhappy professionals at Boston Consulting Group), BCG itself and its four square star dog thing, Booz, Allen & Hamilton, McKinsey & Company, SRI, and a handful of others.
The names I assign each level are:
- Pigeons, the flocks of consultancies pecking for anything that will sustain them
- Azure-chip consultants, the myriad of good enough firms that pontificate on everything from Amazon AWS to Zulu refugee buying preferences in South Africa
- Blue-chip consultants, the Big Leagues of professional consulting and advisory services.
Some observations are warranted, at least to my way of thinking:
- Blue-chip consulting firms once marketed via word of mouth, repeat business, and sponsoring awards like the original McKinsey payoff for the “best” Harvard Business Review article. Sorry, BCG, McKinsey aced you out there. SEO is definitely a winner for some like Twitch or YouTube luminaries. (Why not retain Dr. Disrespect to build an audience for BCG’s services? He is available for promotional work at this time I believe?)
- The economic downturn appears to require scraping the dregs from the wine barrel for sales leads. Yes, SEO, the better way. Forget the white papers, the speeches, and the thought leadership. It is apparently short cut time.
- The larger issue is that desperation marketing seems to be okay for a once-prestigious firm’s management team. The use of Connor Hayes-type intellects to get me to point to a formerly respected consulting firm is either the sign of a Ted Kaczynski-type thought process or stupid.
Net Net: The fact that BCG appears to endorse and desire SEO backlinks is more evidence of a decline within the ranks of top-tier consulting firms’ marketing and PR methods.
PS.
Connor Hayes, as you progress in your SEO career, why not get ManyVids or TikTok influencers to promote BCG? Let me know when you become a partner, please.
Stephen E Arnold, July 27, 2020
Honeywell: Yep, Our Sweet Quantum Computer Is the Blue Ribbon Winner
July 25, 2020
Who has the world’s fastest quantum computer? Is it IBM, Microsoft, Apple, or Google? No, none of these companies have that claim to fame. According to The Motley Fool that honor belongs to, “Honeywell Unveils The World’s Fastest Quantum Computer.” Quantum computers are still reserved for companies, universities, and governments with deep pockets, but Honeywell’s newest machine is making them one step closer to commercial use.
IBM used to own the fastest quantum computer, but Honeywell’s device has a process with 64 quantum volume. IBM’s machine only has 32 quantum volume capability. The Honeywell quantum computer processes six cubits. A cubit is a quantum computing unit that stores and processes more than ones and zeros. Most computers are still limited to the famous ones and zeros from binary code. Honeywell’s computer also has a 99.997% fidelity score, meaning it can compute simulations and calculations of high quality.
Quantum computers are still in a state similar to the behemoths that dominated basements last century. Ironically, quantum computers are large themselves:
“The Honeywell system is another step forward in a long and difficult process. Scientists expect quantum computers to handle problems that are essentially unsolvable with current technology in fields such as cryptography, weather forecasting, artificial intelligence, and drug development. However, that future lies many years ahead. These are very early days in the development of usable quantum systems.”
Honeywell does not claim to have the best quantum computer, only the fastest. At doing what exactly?
Whitney Grace, July 25, 2020
PR from Technology Firms: No Kidding?
July 19, 2020
I read “Inside Big Tech’s Years-Long Manipulation Of American Op-Ed Pages.” The write up explains in a couple of hundred words that high technology firms practice the craft of public relations.
I noted this statement:
In the policy world, planting op-eds from ‘independent’ third parties is so common it has a name: “Grasstops,” a word derived from grassroots. Grasstops advocacy is not limited to the tech giants, but these companies and their allies are especially adept at using the practice to fight off regulation. As antitrust inquiries against them build in the US, it’s worth reading op-eds supporting their positions with healthy skepticism.
Why’s this taking place? Maybe one of these statements is the reason:
- High-tech outfits give away neat stuff like mouse pads. The recipient feels special with said mouse pad.
- News organizations have zero incentive to check sources because high-tech is just so cool
- News organizations have been gutted because ad revenue has been absorbed by high-tech companies
- News organizations hire people who really want to work for a high-tech company
- Reporters have been replaced by “ready to use” content prepared by PR firms paid by high-tech companies.
What an interesting list of reasons for disinformation to flow like the sparkling clean water in the Ohio River. Yes, you can drink it too.
Yummy.
Stephen E Arnold, July 19, 2020
Crazy Enterprise Search Report: Content Marketing Spam Gets Religious
June 23, 2020
DarkCyber noted this content marketing spam dutifully recycled by Jewish Market Reports:
And the author. Maybe a nice Jewish fellow named Sameer Joshi or maybe just a pseudonym?
The story recycles a bit of fluff from the Goodwill of off base data. Goodwill accepts almost any product; the data off shoot is okay with crazed generalizations of mostly off base numbers. That Excel projection function is a darned useful thing too.
The write up covers the 360 view of the market. What’s interesting about these recycled and spam centric reports is not their cost. Think thousands. The fascinating bit is the list of companies fueling the rocket ship of enterprise search in the Rona Era; specifically:
- Algolia
- com, Inc. [sic]
- Coveo Solutions Inc.
- Elasticsearch B.V.
- IBM Corporation
- iManage LLC
- Lucidworks, Inc.
- Microsoft Corporation
- SearchUnify (Grazitti Interactive Inc.)
- Swiftype, Inc.
A couple of observations. The list is alphabetized, a useful operation. But the nifty part are com, Inc. [sic] and Grazitti. To be blunt, neither outfit is in the DarkCyber/Beyond Search files.
For a nice Jewish boy or maybe not, the list of leaders makes sense. Where was his grandmother when the author demonstrated an inability to determine what was wheat and what was chaff?
Definitely not paying attention because she was working on an earlier version of the document offered by her company, The Insight Partners. More time with Sameer Joshi, her grandson, would have been well spent I surmise. But the publication? Hmmm.
Stephen E Arnold, June 23, 2020
Intel Secure CPUs: From the Outfit That Delivered Unfixable Security Issues?
June 17, 2020
I read “Intel Brings Novel CET Technology to Tiger Lake Mobile CPUs.” Sounds good. Sounds like Google and quantum supremacy. Sounds like IBM cheerleading for Watson’s Covid drug discovery service. Sounds like… marketing.
Intel, as DarkCyber recalls, has been shipping CPUs with some interesting characteristics: [a] Older and very warm technology and [b] CPUs with security issues that have been metaphorically characterized as unfixable.
True? DarkCyber believes everything available via the Internet.
ZDNet asserts in what seems like marketing department speak:
Intel has announced today that its experimental CET security feature will be first made available in the company’s upcoming Tiger Lake mobile CPUs.
Okay, experimental.
Like the quantum computer Horse collar innovation, DarkCyber will take a wait-and-see stance. The article contains a diagram, helpfully provided by Intel.
The innovation is definitely going to put a dent in AMD mobile CPU sales. Oh, right. Intel has a new line of mobile CPUs built on old fabrication technology.
The message seems to be:
“When we need to maintain a technical lead, let’s issue a news release.”
Does this echo like the quantum supremacy and Covid approach to technical leadership. Is Intel following a marketing and PR playbook, not technical realities?
Stephen E Arnold, June 16, 2020
Free Logo Search
June 16, 2020
Years ago I profiled a company called Trademark Scan. The firm gathered logos, indexed them, and created a commercial database. The idea was that trademark attorneys could sign up and receive alerts when some possibly infringed on a trademark. I lost track of the company, but the idea seemed interesting. As I recall, the service was expensive.
Now you can search for logos for free. No pattern matching, no alerts, and no fees. Navigate to Logosearch at the url https://logosear.ch. (Love that Swiss domain?)
There are some hitches in the git alongs. Some logos do not display and there are broken links. Here’s what a search for Google returned on June 15, 2020, at 0630 am US Eastern time:
Who knew that Google used a logo that looked like a tennis ball with flair? Certainly not DarkCyber.
Stephen E Arnold, June 16, 2020
After Dog Matching, Watson Pivots to Technology Ops
June 13, 2020
Can an older dog learn new tricks after a visit to a Mexican avocado festival?
It has been a while since Watson debuted, so it is not surprising the AI supercomputer would need to be retrained in IT. It has a held a variety of other jobs from chef to medical professional, so going back to its roots will do wonders for Watson’s career. ARN explains that, “IBM Retains Watson AI For IT Operations?”
Watson’s retraining comes from IBM’s CEO Arvind Krishna, who wants to use the AI supercomputer to become a tool diagnosing and solving enterprise IT problems. Krishna particularly wants to focus on the new AIOps market that applies AI to IT operations. He also wants to focus on cloud edge computing and the growing importance of the 5G mobile infrastructure. The new Watson AIOps will:
“Watson AIOps, IBM’s name for the new iteration of Watson, is built on the latest release of Red Hat OpenShift, a container orchestration platform, so it can run across hybrid cloud environments.
It’s designed to evaluate the swarms of alerts generated by IT monitoring tools when an incident occurs, in order to identify and help fix the root cause of the problem…
IBM already has an AI-based IT operations management tool, Netcool Operations Insight, that automatically groups related events and provides context to help solve problems.”
IBM is not the only AIOps developer in the market, but despite the hefty competition Krishna believes Watson and his company offer tools they cannot find anywhere else.
With 5G and cloud edge computing, IBM could have a one up on a market still in development.
Whitney Grace, June 13, 2020
Super Ethical Uber Wants to Determine If AI Can Be Ethical: Pot Calling Kettle What?
June 12, 2020
I spotted this headline: “Uber Researchers Investigate Whether AI Can Behave Ethically.” I immediately asked this question:
Can ethical Uber hire ethical engineers who can ethically decide if smart software can be ethical?
Then I had to sit down with a cool cloth on my forehead. The question caused me to develop a slight stitch in my side and a headache.
Uber is an interesting outfit, and I wonder if it would be the expected high-tech wonderland to delve into philosophical questions. Some Uber drivers have appeared agitated when faced with ethical decisions. Allegedly shooting, shouting, and assaulting passengers do not seem particularly difficult to resolve in terms of Kentucky ethicalities. Then Uber had a founder who engaged in interesting behavior. He is now creating the future elsewhere and presumably refining his management skills. I don’t want to overlook the triviality of the Google-Uber Lewandowski affair. That too was something which may have caught the attention of Aristotle if he were alive today and updating his Nicomachean Ethics for the with-it world of Silicon Valley.
Remarkable goal the Uber professionals have set for themselves. One assumes an Uber artificial intelligence expert will reveal the learnings from this bold initiative.
On the other hand, we might wait to see if an Uber AI equipped automobile runs over a chipmunk or a 77 year old blogger in Kentucky.
Stephen E Arnold, June 12, 2020
Is It Facebookization or Goddellization? Either Way Zation Is a Thing
June 6, 2020
DarkCyber noted the article “Facebook’s Zuckerberg Vows to Review Content Policies.” Interesting. Mr. Zuckerberg, the supreme and respected Great Leader of Facebook, is doing backtracking with a red herring. A vow. Wow. Not an actual action but a vow, a promise, an assurance of rethink-ization. The write up reports in “real news” fashion:
Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said the company will review content policies after employees blasted their leader for his decision to leave up controversial posts … The company will review policies on posts that promote or threaten state use of force or voter suppression techniques, and will also look into options for flagging or labeling posts that are a violation but shouldn’t necessarily be removed entirely, the CEO wrote on Facebook. He also pledged to study Facebook’s review structure “to make sure the right groups and voices are at the table.”
Facebook has been a stellar example of appropriate behavior for years. There have been some slips twixt the cup and the lip. Cambridge Analytica, the role of the firm’s Board of Directors, and testimony before the US Congress. No biggies.
A “zation” for sure. Facebookization appears to mean the act of emitting statements that semi-approach issues of governance and related matters. Change could be afoot. Baloney-ization remains a possibility.
Then there is the non technical Goodellization of mental frameworks. Walt Disney’s “real news” company published “NFL Players Spoke, and Roger Goodell Responded.” Now What? Here’s What We Know.” No mouse ears were included as illustrative touch points.
In a video message released Friday night (June 5, 2020) , NFL commissioner Roger Goodell responded to a video released Thursday night (June 4, 2020) by a collection of NFL stars, including Michael Thomas, Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson. Goodell’s video included three specific statements the players in Thursday’s video asked the NFL to make about racism, social injustice and peaceful protests. “We, the National Football League, condemn racism and the systematic oppression of black people,” Goodell said. “We, the National Football League, admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all players to speak out and peacefully protest. We, the National Football League, believe that black lives matter.”
The Goodellization of a contentious issue arrives with the timeliness and possibly the sincerity of the Facebookization event.
Several observations:
- Employee push back now is more effective than an internal ethical compass for guiding a corporate construct. DarkCyber thought that fuzzy stuff like subjective data was irrelevant in today’s go go business world.
- No actual change has taken place in the isolated, self congratulating worlds of Facebook social media or the voracious maw of video.
- A threat to money and power is more effective than employees posting grumpies on an email system or fencing with attorney Mark Geragos, handwaving, and emulating Roman nobles.
Facebookization and Goddellization. New words. Maybe new behaviors in the online and video constructs?
We’ll see because this social media and TV sports watching produces money. A threat to the cash flow puts the cards on the table, the fingers on the buttons, and the thought processes of Big Wheels in a different gear. Money-ization?
Stephen E Arnold, June 6, 2020
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