Play Search the Game
March 25, 2016
Within the past few years, gamers have had the privilege to easily play brand new games as well as the old classics. Nearly all of the games ever programmed are available through various channels from Steam, simulator, to system emulator. While it is easy to locate a game if you know the name, main character, or even the gaming system, but with the thousands of games available maybe you want to save time and not have use a search engine. Good news, everyone!
Sofotex, a free software download Web site, has a unique piece of freeware that you will probably want to download if you are a gamer. Igrulka is a search engine app programmed to search only games. Here is the official description:
Igrulka is a unique software that helps you to search, find and play millions of games in the network.
“Once you download the installer, all you have to do is go to the download location on your computer and install the app.
Igrulka allows you to search for the games that you love either according to the categories they are in or by name. For example, you get games in the shooter, arcade, action, puzzle or racing games categories among many others.
If you would like to see more details about the available games, their names as well as their descriptions, all you have to do is hover over them using your mouse as shown below. Choose the game you want to play and click on it.”
According to the description, it looks like Igrulka searches through free games and perhaps the classics from systems. In order to find out what Irgulka can do, download and play search results roulette.
Whitney Grace, March 25, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Wikipedia Grants Users Better Search
March 24, 2016
Wikipedia is the defacto encyclopedia to confirm fact from fiction, although academic circles shun its use (however, scholars do use it but never cite it). Wikipedia does not usually make the news, unless it is tied to its fundraising campaign or Wikileaks releases sensitive information meant to remain confidential. The Register tells us that Wikipedia makes the news for another reason, “Reluctant Wikipedia Lifts Lid On $2.5m Internet Search Engine Project.” Wikipedia is better associated with the cataloging and dissemination of knowledge, but in order to use that knowledge it needs to be searched.
Perhaps that is why the Wikimedia Foundation is “doing a Google” and will be investing a Knight Foundation Grant into a search-related project. The Wikimedia Foundation finally released information about the Knight Foundation Grant, dedicated to provide funds for companies invested in innovative solutions related to information, community, media, and engagement.
“The grant provides seed money for stage one of the Knowledge Engine, described as “a system for discovering reliable and trustworthy information on the Internet”. It’s all about search and federation. The discovery stage includes an exploration of prototypes of future versions of Wikipedia.org which are “open channels” rather than an encyclopedia, analysing the query-to-content path, and embedding the Wikipedia Knowledge Engine ‘via carriers and Original Equipment Manufacturers’.”
The discovery stage will last twelve months, ending in August 2016. The biggest risk for the search project would be if Google or Yahoo decided to invest in something similar.
What is interesting is that former Wiki worker Jimmy Wales denied the Wikimedia Foundation was working on a search engine via the Knowledge Engine. Wales has since left and Andreas Kolbe reported in a Wikipedia Signpost article that they are building a search engine and led to believe it would be to find information spread cross the Wikipedia portals, rather it is something much more powerful.
Here is what the actual grant is funding:
“To advance new models for finding information by supporting stage one development of the Knowledge Engine by Wikipedia, a system for discovering reliable and trustworthy public information on the Internet.”
It sounds like a search engine that provides true and verifiable search results, which is what academic scholars have been after for years! Wow! Wikipedia might actually be worth a citation now.
Whitney Grace, March 24, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
VPN Disables Right to Be Forgotten for Users in European Union
March 24, 2016
Individuals in the European Union have been granted legal protection to request unwanted information about themselves be removed from search engines. An article from Wired, In Europe,You’ll Need a VPN to See Real Google Search Results, explains the latest on the European Union’s “right to be forgotten” laws. Formerly, privacy requests would only scrub sites with European country extensions like .fr, but now Google.com will filter results for privacy for those with a European IP address. However, European users can rely on a VPN to enable their location to appear as if it were from elsewhere. The article offers context and insight,
“China has long had its “Great Firewall,” and countries like Russia and Brazil have tried to build their own barriers to the outside ‘net in recent years. These walls have always been quite porous thanks to VPNs. The only way to stop it would be for Google to simply stop allowing people to access its search engine via a VPN. That seems unlikely. But with Netflix leading the way in blocking access via VPNs, the Internet may yet fracture and localize.”
The demand for browsing the web using surreptitious methods, VPN or otherwise, only seems to be increasing. Whether motivations are to uncover personal information about certain individuals, watch Netflix content available in other countries or use forums on the Dark Web, the landscape of search appears to be changing in a major way.
Megan Feil, March 24, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Stanford Offers Course Overviewing Roots of the Google Algorithm
March 23, 2016
The course syllabus for Stanford’s Computer Science class titled CS 349: Data Mining, Search, and the World Wide Web on Stanford.edu provides an overview of some of the technologies and advances that led to Google search. The syllabus states,
“There has been a close collaboration between the Data Mining Group (MIDAS) and the Digital Libraries Group at Stanford in the area of Web research. It has culminated in the WebBase project whose aims are to maintain a local copy of the World Wide Web (or at least a substantial portion thereof) and to use it as a research tool for information retrieval, data mining, and other applications. This has led to the development of the PageRank algorithm, the Google search engine…”
The syllabus alone offers some extremely useful insights that could help students and laypeople understand the roots of Google search. Key inclusions are the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and PageRank, the algorithm named for Larry Page that enabled Google to become Google. The algorithm ranks web pages based on how many other websites link to them. John Kleinburg also played a key role by realizing that websites with lots of links (like a search engine) should also be seen as more important. The larger context of the course is data mining and information retrieval.
Chelsea Kerwin, March 23, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Interview with Stephen E Arnold, Reveals Insights about Content Processing
March 22, 2016
Nikola Danaylov of the Singularity Weblog interviewed technology and financial analyst Stephen E. Arnold on the latest episode of his podcast, Singularity 1 on 1. The interview, Stephen E. Arnold on Search Engines and Intelligence Gathering, offers thought-provoking ideas on important topics related to sectors — such as intelligence, enterprise search, and financial — which use indexing and content processing methods Arnold has worked with for over 50 years.
Arnold attributes the origins of his interest in technology to a programming challenge he sought and accepted from a computer science professor, outside of the realm of his college major of English. His focus on creating actionable software and his affinity for problem-solving of any nature led him to leave PhD work for a job with Halliburton Nuclear. His career includes employment at Booz, Allen & Hamilton, the Courier Journal & Louisville Times, and Ziff Communications, before starting ArnoldIT.com strategic information services in 1991. He co-founded and sold a search system to Lycos, Inc., worked with numerous organizations including several intelligence and enforcement organizations such as US Senate Police and General Services Administration, and authored seven books and monographs on search related topics.
With a continued emphasis on search technologies, Arnold began his blog, Beyond Search, in 2008 aiming to provide an independent source of “information about what I think are problems or misstatements related to online search and content processing.” Speaking to the relevance of the blog to his current interest in the intelligence sector of search, he asserts:
“Finding information is the core of the intelligence process. It’s absolutely essential to understand answering questions on point and so someone can do the job and that’s been the theme of Beyond Search.”
As Danaylov notes, the concept of search encompasses several areas where information discovery is key for one audience or another, whether counter-terrorism, commercial, or other purposes. Arnold agrees,
“It’s exactly the same as what the professor wanted to do in 1962. He had a collection of Latin sermons. The only way to find anything was to look at sermons on microfilm. Whether it is cell phone intercepts, geospatial data, processing YouTube videos uploaded from a specific IP address– exactly the same problem and process. The difficulty that exists is that today we need to process data in a range of file types and at much higher speeds than ever anticipated, but the processes remain the same.”
Arnold explains the iterative nature of his work:
“The proof of the value of the legacy is I don’t really do anything new, I just keep following these themes. The Dark Web Notebook is very logical. This is a new content domain. And if you’re an intelligence or information professional, you want to know, how do you make headway in that space.”
Describing his most recent book, Dark Web Notebook, Arnold calls it “a cookbook for an investigator to access information on the Dark Web.” This monograph includes profiles of little-known firms which perform high-value Dark Web indexing and follows a book he authored in 2015 called CYBEROSINT: Next Generation Information Access.
Change Is Hard, Especially in the User Interface
March 22, 2016
One of the most annoying things in life is when you go to the grocery store and notice they have rearranged the entire place since your last visit. I always ask myself the question, “Why grocery store people did you do this to me?” Part of the reason is to improve the shopping experience and product exposure, while the other half is to screw with customers (I cannot confirm the latter). According to the Fuzzy Notepad with its Pokémon Evee mascot the post titled “We Have Always Been At War With UI” explains that programmers and users have always been at war with each other when it comes to the user interface.
Face it, Web sites (and other areas of life) need to change to maintain their relevancy. The biggest problem related to UI changes is the roll out of said changes. The post points out that users get confused and spend hours trying to understand the change. Sometimes the change is announced, other times it is only applied to a certain number of users.
The post lists several changes to UI and how they were handled, describing how they were handled and also the programming. One constant thread runs through the post is that users simply hate change, but the inevitable question of, “Why?” pops up.
“Ah, but why? I think too many developers trot this line out as an excuse to ignore all criticism of a change, which is very unhealthy. Complaints will always taper off over time, but that doesn’t mean people are happy, just that they’ve gone hoarse. Or, worse, they’ve quietly left, and your graphs won’t tell you why. People aren’t like computers and may not react instantly to change; they may stew for a while and drift away, or they may join a mass exodus when a suitable replacement comes along.”
Big data can measure anything and everything, but the data can be interpreted for or against the changes. Even worse is that the analysts may not know what exactly they need to measure. What can be done to avoid total confusion about changes is to have a plan, let users know in advance, and even create tutorial about how to use the changes. Worse comes to worse, it can be changed back and then we move on.
Whitney Grace, March 22, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
For Sale: Your Bank Information
March 21, 2016
One of the common commodities for sale on the Dark Web is bank, credit card, social security numbers, and other personal information. This information can sell for a few bucks to hundreds of dollars depending on the quality and quantity of the information. In order to buy personal information, usually the interested parties must journey to the Dark Web, but the International Business Times tells us that “Confidential Bank Details Available For Sale On Easily Found Web Site” is for sale on the general Web and the information is being sold for as little as a couple pounds (or dollars for the US folks). The Web site had a pretty simple set up, interested parties register, and then they have access to the stolen information for sale.
Keith Vaz, chairman of the home affairs select committee, wants the National Crime Agency (NCA) to use its power and fulfill its purpose to shut the Web site down.
“A statement from the NCA said: “We do not routinely confirm or deny investigations nor comment on individual sites. The NCA, alongside UK and international law enforcement partners and the private sector, are working to identify and as appropriate disrupt websites selling compromised card data. We will work closely with partners of the newly established Home Office Joint Fraud Task Force to strengthen the response.”
Online scams are getting worse and more powerful in stealing people’s information. Overall, British citizens lost a total of 670 million pounds (or $972 million). The government, however, believes the total losses are more in the range of 27 billion pounds (or $39.17 billion).
Scams are getting worse, because the criminals behind them are getting smarter and know how to get around security defenses. Users need to wise up and learn about the Dark Web, take better steps to protect their information, and educate themselves on how to recognize scams.
Whitney Grace, March 21, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
The New Google? Instagram
March 19, 2016
I read “Google is Like for Oldies. Instagram Is the New Google” The source of this insight is Alia Bhatt, a person associated with Bollywood. The write up states:
Being in her early 20s, Alia Bhatt though may not be the most intellectual actor on earth, but she is definitely an actress who has earned professional success and fans. Being considered as one of the youth icons, Alia is also extremely fond of social media networking sites and obviously she is a frequenter on Instagram.
The write up adds:
Alia Bhatt, who is a self-confessed Instagram lover, has over 5.3 million followers and her account is filled with pictures from her film’s promotions, magazine covers to dubsmash videos to selfies with friends and lots more on food and her love for pets. As her co-star of Kapoor & Sons Sidharth Malhotra maintains, this generation creates their own new world within their smartphones. “It’s a generational thing. People our age are always on the phone – Instagraming, Tweeting, Whataspping and because we are in this world we have to cater it,” he added.
Google, Instagram is the new you, just without the balloons, the self driving autos, and the solving death stuff. Alert your AI systems, please, to the new lingo like “instagraming.”
Stephen E Arnold, March 19, 2016
Artificial Intelligence Fun: The Amazon Speech Recognition Function
March 18, 2016
I read “Amazon’s Alexa Went Bonkers, Reset User’s Thermostat.” Alexa is an Amazon smart product. The idea is that one talks to it in order to perform certain home automation tasks. Hey, it is tough to punch the button on a stereo system. Folks are really busy these days.
According to the write up:
one of the things Alexa apparently cannot do quite so well is determine who her master is. During a recent NPR broadcast about Alexa and the Echo, listeners at home noticed strange activity on their own Echo devices. Any time the radio reporter gave an example of an Alexa command, several Alexas across the country pricked up their ears and leapt into action — with surprising results.
There you go. A smart device which is unable to figure out which human voice to obey.
Here is one of the examples cited in the write up:
“Listener Roy Hagar wrote in to say our story prompted his Alexa to reset his thermostat to 70 degrees,”wrote NPR on a blog recounting the tale.
Smart devices with intelligence do not—I repeat—run into objects nor do they change thermostat settings. Humans are at fault. When one uses a next generation search system to identify the location of a bad actor, nothing will go wrong.
Stephen E Arnold, March 18, 2016
Google Decides to Be Nice to
March 18, 2016
Google is a renowned company for its technological endeavors, beautiful office campuses, smart employees, and how it is a company full of self-absorbed and competitive people. While Google might have a lot of perks, it also has its dark side. According to Quartz, Google wanted to build a more productive team so they launched Project Aristotle to analyze how and they found, “After Years Of Intensive Analysis, Google Discovers The Key To Good Teamwork Is being Nice.”
Project Aristotle studied hundreds of employees in different departments and analyzed their data. They wanted to find a “magic formula,” but it all beats down to one of the things taught in kindergarten: be nice.
“Google’s data-driven approach ended up highlighting what leaders in the business world have known for a while; the best teams respect one another’s emotions and are mindful that all members should contribute to the conversation equally. It has less to do with who is in a team, and more with how a team’s members interact with one another.”
Team members who understand, respect, and allow each other to contribute to conversation equally. It is a basic human tenant and even one of the better ways to manage a relationship, according to marriage therapists around the world. Another result of the project is dubbed “psychological safety,” where team members create an environment with the established belief they can take risks and share ideas without ridicule.
Will psychological safety be a new buzzword since Google has “discovered” that being nice works so well? The term has been around for a while, at least since 1999.
Google’s research yields a business practice that other companies have adopted: Costco, Trader Joes, Pixar, Sassie, and others to name a few. Yet why is it so hard to be nice?
Whitney Grace, March 18, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
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