Autonomy: More Legal Activity
October 25, 2023
This essay is the work of a dumb humanoid. No smart software required.
Though the UK legal system seems to have lost interest, the US is still determined to throw the book at Autonomy’s founder for his alleged deceit of HP. Now, The Telegraph reports, “Mike Lynch Files Legal Challenge to Have Fraud Case Thrown Out by US Courts.” While their client languishes in San Francisco under self-funded house arrest, Lynch’s lawyers insist the US has no jurisdiction to prosecute. Reporter James Titcomb writes:
“The filing states: ‘At all times between 2009 and 2011, Autonomy was fundamentally a UK-centric business. Autonomy listed its shares on the London Stock Exchange. All major decisions about the strategic direction of the company, its revenue-generating operations, and its compliance with financial reporting obligations were made in England. ‘The “means and methods” identified in the [indictment] – revenue recognition issues, allegedly fraudulent entries in Autonomy’s books, allegedly false and misleading quarterly and annual reports – all comprise conduct that occurred in another country.’ Mr Lynch has long maintained that any case against him should be heard in Britain, but the Serious Fraud Office dropped its investigation into the matter in 2015.”
Will this tactic work? The US DOJ filed charges in 2018 and 2019. Despite all efforts to block extradition, Lynch was moved to San Francisco in May 2023. The article states a judge will hear the request to throw out the case in November. Meanwhile, the trial remains scheduled for 2024.
The saga of Autonomy and HP continues. Who knew enterprise search could become a legal thriller? Netflix, perhaps a documentary?
Cynthia Murrell, October 25, 2023
HP Innovation: Yes, Emulate Apple and Talk about AI
October 24, 2023
This essay is the work of a dumb humanoid. No smart software required.
Amazing, according to the Freedictionary means “ To affect with great wonder; astonish.” I relate to the archaic meaning of the word; to wit: “To bewilder; perplex.” I was bewildered when I read about HP’s “magic.” But I am a dinobaby. What do I know? Not much but …
I read “The Magic Presented at HP Imagine 2023.” Yep, magic. The write up profiles HP innovations. These were presented in “stellar fashion.” The speaker was HP’s PR officer. According to the write up:
It stands as one of the best-executed presentations I’ve ever attended.
Not to me. Such understatement. Such a subtle handling of brilliant innovations at HP.
Let’s check out these remarkable examples cited in the article by a person who is clearly objective, level headed, and digging into technology because it is just the right thing to do. Here we go: Innovation includes AI and leads to greater efficiency. HP is the place to go for cost reduction.
Innovation 1: HP is emulating Apple. Here’s the explanation from the truth packed write up:
… it’s making it so HP peripherals connect automatically to HP PCs, a direction that resonates well with HP customers and mirrors an Apple-like approach
Will these HP devices connect to other peripherals or another company’s replacement ink cartridges? Hmmm.
Innovation 2: HP is into video conferencing. I wonder if the reference is to Zoom or the fascinating Microsoft Teams or Apple Facetime, among others? Here’s what the write up offers:
[An HP executive] outlined how conference rooms needed to become more of a subscription business so that users didn’t constantly run into the problem of someone mucking with the setup and making the room unusable because of disconnected cables or damaged equipment.
Is HP pushing the envelope or racing to catch up with a trend from the Covid era?
Innovation 3: Ah, printers. Personally I am more interested in the HP ink lock down, but that’s just me. HP is now able to build stuff; specifically:
One of the most intriguing announcements at this event featured the Robotic Site Printer. This device converts a blueprint into a physical layout on a slab or floor, assisting construction workers in accurately placing building components before construction begins. When connected to a metaverse digital twin building effort, this little robot could be a game changer for construction by significantly reducing build errors.
Okay, what about the ink or latex or whatever. Isn’t ink from HP more costly than gold or some similar high value commodity?
Not a peep about the replacement cartridges. I wonder why I am bewildered. Innovation is being like Apple and innovating with big printers requiring I suppose giant proprietary ink cartridges. Oh, I don’t want to forget perplexed: Imitation is innovation. Okay.
By the way, the author of the write up was a research fellow at two mid tier consulting firms. Yep, objectivity is baked into the work process.
Stephen E Arnold, October 24, 2023
Quantum Security? Yep, Someday
October 24, 2023
![Vea4_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_t[2]](https://arnoldit.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Vea4_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_t2-27.gif "Vea4_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_t[2]")
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
How is this for a brilliant statistical item: “61% of Firms Worry They Are Unprepared for Security Risks in Quantum Era.”
The write up reports with apparent seriousness:
Some 61% have expressed concern their organization is not and will not be prepared to handle security implications that may surface in a post-quantum computing future, according to a survey conducted by Ponemon Institute. Commissioned by DigiCert, the study polled 1,426 IT and cybersecurity professionals who have knowledge of their company’s approach to post-quantum cryptography. Among them were 605 from the US, 428 in EMEA, and 393 across Asia-Pacific.
Apparently some people missed one of the largest security lapses since 9/11. Israel’s high profile smart cyber security capabilities was on leave. The result is what is labeled as the Israel Hamas war. If the most sophisticated cyber security outfits in Tel Aviv cannot effectively monitor social media, the Web, and intercepted signals for information about an attack more than a year in planning, what about the average commercial operation? What about government agencies? What about NGOs?
Boo, I am the quantum bully. Are you afraid yet? Thanks, MidJourney. Terrible cartoon but close enough for horse shoes.
Yet I am to accept that 61 percent of the survey sample is concerned about quantum compromises? My hunch is that the survey sample respondent checked a box. The other survey questions did not ferret out data about false belief that current technology makes these folks vulnerable.
I don’t know where the error has spread. Was it the survey design? The sample selection? The interpretation of the data? The lax vetting of the survey results by ZDNet? Or, maybe a Fiverr.com contractor doing the work for a couple of hundred dollars?
Quantum when today’s vanilla services fail? Wow, some people are thinking about the future, assuming today is peachy keen in the cyber security department. Marketers are amazing when the statement, “Let’s do a survey,” and off to the races and lunch the folks go.
Stephen E Arnold, October 24, 2023
Amazon: Great Products and Transparent Pricing Impress
October 24, 2023
This essay is the work of a dumb humanoid. No smart software required.
Free SaaS trials are supposed to demonstrate a software’s capabilities and benefits to convince the user to subscribe. Sometimes free trials require users to input their billing information. If users aren’t careful, they’re charged for the SaaS. Reddit user Mizcizi had a bad experience when he signed up for AWS, read his post, “1k Bill After 1 Month, For The Service I Didn’t Even Use.”
Mizcizi signed up for a free AWS trial to test its Web hosting. He tried AWS Amplify but didn’t like it. He still wanted to use AWS S3 for storage and everything was going well for a while then the problems started. First, the data couldn’t be verified, next the account was suspended. He ignored the issues because he used another storage service.
AWS via RDS then slapped him with a $1000 bill for 280.233 Hrs, 1,129.972 IOPS-Mo, and 150.663 GB-Mo. Here are more details:
“Now there are a few things wrong with this. At first, I don’t remember setting up any RDS service. I might have checked what it provides because I was also checking for a DB hosting at the time, so I’m not 100% about that. What I am 100% sure is that I never used RDS anywhere, so I don’t know where all their IOPS are coming from. One thing that also doesn’t make sense is the 280.233 Hrs resulting in 391.77 USD. In the free trial for RDS, it says that you get 750 free hours.”
Mizcizi is trying to work with AWS support. Because he’s a first time user they may probably wipe the bill. He could also cancel the payment through his credit card. Other comments offered suggestions like setting up bill notifications, opening a support case, and explaining how the charges racked up.
Many comments said that AWS allegedly overcharges some users and recommending services for novice tech developers. Then the invoice arrives. Yipes.
Whitney Grace, October 24, 2023
AI Cybersecurity: Good News and, of Course, Bad News
October 23, 2023
This essay is the work of a dumb humanoid. No smart software required.
Life, like a sine wave, is filled with ups and downs. Nothing strikes me like the ups and downs of AI: Great promise but profits, not yet. Smart cyber security methods? Same thing. Ups and downs. Good news then bad news. Let’s look at two examples.
First, the good news. “New Cyber Algorithm Shuts Down Malicious Robotic Attack” reports:
Researchers have designed an algorithm that can intercept a man-in-the-middle (MitM) cyberattack on an unmanned military robot and shut it down in seconds. The algorithm, tested in real time, achieved a 99% success rate.
Is this a home run. 99 percent success rate. Take that percentage, some AI, and head to a casino or a facial recognition system. I assume I will have to wait until the marketers explain this limited test.
“Hello, we are the team responsible for infusing AI into cyber security safeguards. We are confident that our technology will have an immediate, direct impact on protecting your organization from threats and bad actors,” says Mary, a lawyer and MBA. I believe everything lawyers and MBAs say, even more than Tom, the head of marketing, or Ben, the lead developer who loves rock climbing and working remotely. Thanks, Bing Dall-e. You understand the look and feel of modern cyber security teams.
Okay, the bad news. A cyber security outfit named Okta was unable to secure itself. You can the allegedly real details from “Okta’s Stock Slumps after Security Company Says It Was Hacked.” The write up asserts:
Okta, a major provider of security technology for businesses, government agencies and other organizations, said Friday that one of its customer service tools had been hacked. The hacker used stolen credentials to access the company’s support case management system and view files uploaded by some customers, Okta Chief Security Officer David Bradbury disclosed in a securities filing. Okta said that system is separate from its main client platform, which was not penetrated.
Yep, the “main client platform” is or was secure.
Several observations:
- After Israel’s sophisticated cyber systems failed to detect planning and preparing for a reasonably large scale attack, what should I conclude about sophisticated cyber security systems? My initial conclusion is that writing marketing collateral is cheaper and easier then building secure systems.
- Are other cyber security firms’ systems vulnerable? I think the answer may be, “Yes, but lawyer and MBA presidents are not sure how and where?”
- Are cost cutting and business objectives more important than developing high reliability cyber security systems? I would suggest, “Yes. What companies say about their products and services is often different from that which is licensed to customers?
Net net: Cyber security may be a phrase similar to US telecommunications’ meaning of “unlimited.”
Stephen E Arnold, October 27, 2023
Gallup on Social Media: Just One, Tiny, Irrelevant Data Point Missing
October 23, 2023
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Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
I read “Teens Spend Average of 4.8 Hours on Social Media Per Day.” I like these insights into how intelligence is being whittled away.
Me? A dumb bunny. Thanks, MidJourney. What dumb bunny inspired you?
Three findings caught may attention and one, tiny, irrelevant data point I noticed was missing. Let’s look at three of the hooks snagging me.
First, the write up reveals:
Across age groups, the average time spent on social media ranges from as low as 4.1 hours per day for 13-year-olds to as high as 5.8 hours per day for 17-year-olds.
Doesn’t that seem like a large chunk of one’s day?
Second, I learned that the research unearthed this insight:
Teens report spending an average of 1.9 hours per day on YouTube and 1.5 hours per day on TikTok
I assume the bright spot is that only two plus hours are invested in reading X.com, Instagram, and encrypted messages.
Third, I learned:
The least conscientious adolescents — those scoring in the bottom quartile on the four items in the survey — spend an average of 1.2 hours more on social media per day than those who are highly conscientious (in the top quartile of the scale). Of the remaining Big 5 personality traits, emotional stability, openness to experience, agreeableness and extroversion are all negatively correlated with social media use, but the associations are weaker compared with conscientiousness.
Does this mean that social media is particularly effective on the most vulnerable youth?
Now let me point out the one item of data I noted was missing:
How much time does this sample spend reading?
I think I know the answer.
Stephen E Arnold, October 23, 2023
The Google Experience: Personnel Management and Being Fair
October 23, 2023
This essay is the work of a dumb humanoid. No smart software required.
The Google has been busy explaining to those who are not Googley that it is nothing more than a simple online search engine. Heck, anyone can use another Web search system with just a click. Google is just delivering a service and doing good.
I believe this because I believe everything a big high-technology outfit says about the Internet. But there is one facet of this company I find fascinating; namely, it’s brilliant management of people or humanoids of a particular stripe.
The Backstory
Google employees staged a walkout in 2018, demanding a safer and fairer workplace for women when information about sexual discrimination and pay discrepancies leaked. Google punished the walkout organizers and other employees, but they succeed in ending the forced arbitration policy that required employees to settle disputes privately. Wired’s article digs into the details: “This Exec Is Forcing Google Into Its First Trial over Sexist Pay Discrimination.”
Google’s first pay discrimination case will be argued in New York. Google cloud unit executive Ulku Rowe alleges she was hired at a lower salary than her male co-workers. When she complained, she claims Google denied her promotions and demoted her. Rowe’s case exposed Google’s executive underbelly.
The case is also a direct result of the walkout:
“The costs and uncertainty of a trial combined with a fear of airing dirty laundry cause companies to settle most pay discrimination lawsuits, says Alex Colvin, dean of Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Last year, the US government outlawed forced arbitration in sexual harassment and sexual assault cases, but half of US employers still mandate it for other disputes. Rowe would not be scheduled to have her day in court if the walkout had not forced Google to end the practice. “I think that’s a good illustration of why there’s still a push to extend that law to other kinds of cases, including other kinds of gender discrimination,” Colvin says.”
The Outcome
“Google Ordered to Pay $1 Million to Female Exec Who Sued over Gender Discrimination” reported:
A New York jury on Friday decided that Google did commit gender-based discrimination, and now owes Rowe a combined $1.15 million for punitive damages and the pain and suffering it caused. Rowe had 23 years of experience when she started at Google in 2017, and the lawsuit claims she was lowballed at hiring to place her at a level that paid significantly less than what men were being offered.
Observation
It appears that the Googley methods at the Google are neither understood nor appreciated by some people.
Whitney Grace, October 23, 2023
Publishers and Remora: Choose the Right Host and Stop Complaining, Please
October 20, 2023
This essay is the work of a dumb humanoid. No smart software involved.
Today, let’s reflect on the suckerfish or remora. The fish attaches itself to a shark and feeds on scraps of the host’s meals or nibbles on the other parasites living on their food truck. Why think about a fish with a sucking disk on its head?
Navigate to “Silicon Valley Ditches News, Shaking an Unstable Industry.” The article reports as “real” news:
Many news companies have struggled to survive after the tech companies threw the industry’s business model into upheaval more than a decade ago. One lifeline was the traffic — and, by extension, advertising — that came from sites like Facebook and Twitter. Now that traffic is disappearing.
Translation: No traffic, no clicks. No clicks and no traffic mean reduced revenue. Why? The days of printed newspapers and magazines are over. Forget the costs of printing and distributing. Think about people visiting a Web site. No traffic means that advertisers will go where the readers are. Want news? Fire up a mobile phone and graze on the information available. Sure, some sites want money, but most people find free services. I like France24.com, but there are options galore.
Wikipedia provides a snap of a remora attached to a scuba diver. Smart remora hook on to a fish with presence.
The shift in content behavior has left traditional publishing companies with a challenge: Generating revenue. Newspapers specialized news services have tried a number tactics over the years. The problem is that the number of people who will pay for content is large, but finding those people and getting them to spit out a credit card is expensive. At the same time, the cost of generating “real” news is expensive as well.
In 1992, James B. Twitchell published Carnival Culture: The Trashing of Taste in America. The book offered insight into how America has embraced showmanship information. Dr. Twitchell’s book appeared 30 years ago. Today Google, Meta, and TikTok (among other digital first outfits) amplify the lowest common denominator of information. “Real” publishing aimed higher.
The reluctant adjustment by “white shoe” publishing outfits was to accept traffic and advertising revenue from users who relied on portable surveillance devices. Now the traffic generators have realized that “attention magnet” information is where the action is. Plus smart software operated by do-it-yourself experts provides a flow of information which the digital services can monetize. A digital “mom” will block the most egregious outputs. The goal is good enough.
The optimization of content shaping now emerging from high-technology giants is further marginalizing the “real” publishers.
Almost 45 years ago, the president of a company with a high revenue online business database asked me, “Do you think we could pull our service off the timesharing vendors and survive?” The idea was that a product popular on an intermediary service could be equally popular as a standalone commercial digital product.
I said, “No way.”
The reasons were obvious to me because my team had analyzed this question over the hill and around the barn several times. The intermediary aggregated information. Aggregated information acts like a magnet. A single online information resource does not have the same magnetic pull. Therefore, the cost to build traffic would exceed the financial capabilities of the standalone product. That’s why commercial database products were rolled up by large outfits like Reed Elsevier and a handful of other companies.
Maybe the fix for the plight of the New York Times and other “real” publishers anchored in print is to merge and fast. However, further consolidation of newspapers and book publishers takes time. As the New York Times “our hair is on fire” article points out:
Privately, a number of publishers have discussed what a post-Google traffic future may look like, and how to better prepare if Google’s A.I. products become more popular and further bury links to news publications… “Direct connections to your readership are obviously important,” Ms. LaFrance [Adrienne LaFrance, the executive editor of The Atlantic] said. “We as humans and readers should not be going only to three all-powerful, attention-consuming mega platforms to make us curious and informed.” She added: “In a way, this decline of the social web — it’s extraordinarily liberating.”
Yep, liberating. “Real” journalists can do TikToks and YouTube videos. A tiny percentage will become big stars and make big money until they don’t. The senior managers of “shaky” “real” publishing companies will innovate. Unfortunately start ups spawned by “real” publishing companies face the same daunting odds of any start up: A brutal attrition rate.
Net net: What will take the place of the old school approach to newspapers, magazines, and books. My suggestion is to examine smart software and the popular content on YouTube. One example is the MeidasTouch “network” on YouTube. Professional publishers take note. Newspaper and magazine publishers may also want to look at what Ben Meiselas and cohorts have achieved. Want a less intellectual approach to information dominance, ask a teenager about TikTok.
Yep, liberating because some of those in publishing will have to adapt because when X.com or another high technology alleged monopoly changes direction, the sucker fish has to go along for the ride or face a somewhat inhospitable environment, hunger, and probably a hungry predator from a bottom feeding investment group.
Stephen E Arnold, October 20, 2023
Innovation: Perhaps Keep an Eye Open for Non US Players?
October 20, 2023
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Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
“40 Companies That Are Beating the West” contains thumbnail descriptions of firms RestOfWorld.org believes are winning the hearts and minds of users. The losers, according to the write up, are in Silicon Valley and Western Europe. I am not convinced that the companies profiled are winners, but some are. Of interest to me and my research team are the comments about a handful of companies; namely:
- Binance, crypto which to me suggests a service designed to appeal to a certain slice of humanity
- ByteDance, a China fave and super conduit for shaped messages and vacuum pump for obtaining useful data
- Telegram Messenger, a super app for interesting applications
- Tencent, a China fave.
In my lectures to a law enforcement group last week, I mentioned several non-US outfits in the policeware and intelware sector. RestOfWorld.org did not include those in its round up.
The snapshots are interesting, but the ones I listed above are definite companies to monitor.
Stephen E Arnold, October 20, 2023
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OpenAI Dips Its Toe in Dark Waters
October 20, 2023
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Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and other social media platforms have exacerbated woke and PC culture. It’s gotten to the point where everyone and everything are viewed as offensive. Even AI assistants aka chatbots are being programmed with censorship. OpenAI designed the Chat GPT assistant and the organization is constantly upgrading the generative text algorithm. OpenAI released a white paper about upgrading version four of Chat GPT: “GPT-4V(ision) System Card.”
GPT-4V relies on large language models (LLMs) to expand its knowledge base to solve new problems and prompts. OpenAI used publicly available data and licensed sources to train GPT-4V then refined it with human feedback. The paper explains that while GPT-4V was proficient in many areas it severely lacked in presented factual information.
OpenAI tested GPT-4V’s ability to replicate scientific and medical information. Unfortunately GPT-4V continued to stereotype and offer ungrounded inferences from text and images as AI algorithms have proven to do in many cases. The biggest concern is that Chat GPT’s latest upgrade will be utilized to spread disinformation:
“As noted in the GPT-4 system card, the model can be used to generate plausible realistic and targeted text content. When paired with vision capabilities, image and text content can pose increased risks with disinformation since the model can create text content tailored to an image input. Previous work has shown that people are more likely to believe true and false statements when they’re presented alongside an image, and have false recall of made up headlines when they are accompanied with a photo. It is also known that engagement with content increases when it is associated with an image.”
After GPT-4V was tested on multiple tasks it failed to accurately convey information. GPT-4V has learned to interpret data through a warped cultural lens and is a reflection of the Internet. It lacks nuance to understand gray areas despite OpenAI’s attempts to enhance the AI’s capabilities.
OpenAI is implementing censorship protocols to dispel harmful prompts; that is, GPT-4V won’t respond to sexist and racist tasks. It’s similar to how YouTube blocks videos that contain trigger or “stop” words: Gun, death, etc. OpenAI is proactively preventing bad actors from using Chat GPT as a misinformation tool. But bad actors are smart and will design their own AI chatbot to skirt around censorship. They’ll see it as a personal challenge and will revel when they succeed.
Then what will OpenAI do?
Whitney Grace, October 20, 2023
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