Writing That Is Never Read
November 23, 2016
It is inevitable in college that you were forced to write an essay. Writing an essay usually requires the citation of various sources from scholarly journals. As you perused the academic articles, the thought probably crossed your mind: who ever reads this stuff? Smithsonian Magazine tells us who in the article, “Academics Write Papers Arguing Over How Many People Read (And Cite) Their Papers.” In other words, themselves.
Academic articles are read mostly by their authors, journal editors, and the study’s author write, and students forced to cite them for assignments. In perfect scholarly fashion, many academics do not believe that their work has a limited scope. So what do they do? They decided to write about it and have done so for twenty years.
Most academics are not surprised that most written works go unread. The common belief is that it is better to publish something rather than nothing and it could also be a requirement to keep their position. As they are prone to do, academics complain about the numbers and their accuracy:
It seems like this should be an easy question to answer: all you have to do is count the number of citations each paper has. But it’s harder than you might think. There are entire papers themselves dedicated to figuring out how to do this efficiently and accurately. The point of the 2007 paper wasn’t to assert that 50 percent of studies are unread. It was actually about citation analysis and the ways that the internet is letting academics see more accurately who is reading and citing their papers. “Since the turn of the century, dozens of databases such as Scopus and Google Scholar have appeared, which allow the citation patterns of academic papers to be studied with unprecedented speed and ease,” the paper’s authors wrote.
Academics always need something to argue about, no matter how miniscule the topic. This particular article concludes on the note that someone should get the number straight so academics can move onto to another item to argue about. Going back to the original thought a student forced to write an essay with citations also probably thought: the reason this stuff does not get read is because they are so boring.
Whitney Grace, November 23, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Android Has No Competition in Mobile OS Market
November 23, 2016
Google’s Android OS currently powers 88% of the smartphones in the world, leaving minuscule 12.1 percent to Apple’s iOS and the remaining 0.3 percent for Windows Mobile, BlackBerry OS and Tizen.
IBTimes in an article titled Android Rules! 9 out of Every 10 Phones Run Google’s OS says:
Google’s Android OS dominated the world by powering 88 percent of the world’s smartphone market in the third quarter of 2016. This means 9 out of every 10 mobile phones in the world are using Android, while the rest rely on iOS or other mobile OS such as BlackBerry OS, Tizen and Windows Phone.
The growth occurred despite the fact that smartphone shipments are falling. China and Africa which were big markets have been performing poorly since last three-quarters. Android’s gain thus can be attributed to the fact that Android is an OpenSource system that can be used by any device manufacturer.
Despite being the clear leader, the mobile OS is full of bugs and other inherent problems, as the article points out:
Android platform is getting overcrowded with hundreds of manufacturers, few Android device vendors make profits, and Google’s new Pixel range is attacking its own hardware partners that made Android popular in the first place.
At present, Samsung, Huawei, Oppo and Vivo are the leading Android phone makers. However, Google recently unveiled Pixel, its flagship phone for the premium category. Does it mean that Google has its eyes set on the premium handset category market? Only time can tell.
Vishal Ingole, November 23, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
In Connected World, Users Are Getting Reared as Slaughter Animals
November 22, 2016
Yahoo, Facebook, Google, WhatsApp, Instagram and Microsoft all have one thing in common; for any service that they provide for free, they are harnessing your private data to be sold to advertisers.
Mirror UK recently published an Op-Ed titled Who Is Spying on You? What Yahoo Hack Taught Us About Facebook, Google, and WhatsApp in which the author says:
Think about this for a second. All those emails you’ve written and received with discussions about politics and people that were assumed to be private and meant as inside jokes for you and your friends were being filtered through CIA headquarters. Kind of makes you wonder what you’ve written in the past few years, doesn’t it?
The services be it free email or free instant messaging have been designed and developed in such a way that the companies that own them end up with a humongous amount of information about its users. This data is sugarcoated and called as Big Data. It is then sold to advertisers and marketers who in the garb of providing immersive and customized user experience follow every click of yours online. This is akin to rearing animals for slaughtering them later.
The data is not just for sale to the corporates; law enforcement agencies can snoop on you without any warrants. As pointed out in the article:
While hypocritical in many ways, these tech giants are smart enough to know who butters their bread and that the perception of trust outweighs the reality of it. But isn’t it the government who ultimately ends up with the data if a company is intentionally spying on us and building a huge record about each of us?
None of the tech giants accept this fact, but most are selling your data to the government, including companies like Samsung that are into the hardware business.
Is there are a way that can help you evade this online snooping? Probably no if you consider mainstream services and social media platforms. Till then, if you want to stay below the radar, delete your accounts and data on all mainstream email service providers, instant messaging apps, service providing websites and social media platform.
Vishal Ingole, November 22, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
All the Things Watson Could Do
November 21, 2016
One of our favorite artificial intelligence topics has made the news again: Watson. Technology Review focuses on Watson’s job descriptions and his emergence in new fields, “IBM’s Watson Is Everywhere-But What Is It?” We all know that Watson won Jeopardy and has been deployed as the ultimate business intelligence solution, but what exactly does Watson do for a company?
The truth about Watson’s Jeopardy appearance is that very little of the technology was used. In reality, Watson is an umbrella name IBM uses for an entire group of their machine learning and artificial intelligence technology. The Watson brand is employed in a variety of ways from medical disease interpretation to creating new recipes via experimentation. The technology can be used for many industries and applied to a variety of scenarios. It all depends on what the business needs resolved. There is another problem:
Beyond the marketing hype, Watson is an interesting and potentially important AI effort. That’s because, for all the excitement over the ways in which companies like Google and Facebook are harnessing AI, no one has yet worked out how AI is going to fit into many workplaces. IBM is trying to make it easier for companies to apply these techniques, and to tap into the expertise required to do so.
IBM is experiencing problems of its own, but beyond those another consideration to take is Watson’s expense. Businesses are usually eager to incorporate new technology, if the benefit is huge. However, they are reluctant for the initial payout, especially if the technology is still experimental and not standard yet. Nobody wants to be a guinea pig, but someone needs to set the pace for everyone else. So who wants to deploy Watson?
Whitney Grace, November 21, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Hacking the Internet of Things
November 17, 2016
Readers may recall that October’s DoS attack against internet-performance-management firm Dyn, which disrupted web traffic at popular sites like Twitter, Netflix, Reddit, and Etsy. As it turns out, the growing “Internet of Things (IoT)” facilitated that attack; specifically, thousands of cameras and DVRs were hacked and used to bombard Dyn with page requests. CNet examines the issue of hacking through the IoT in, “Search Engine Shodan Knows Where Your Toaster Lives.”
Reporter Laura Hautala informs us that it is quite easy for those who know what they’re doing to access any and all internet-connected devices. Skilled hackers can do so using search engines like Google or Bing, she tells us, but tools created for white-hat researchers, like Shodan, make the task even easier. Hautala writes:
While it’s possible hackers used Shodan, Google or Bing to locate the cameras and DVRs they compromised for the attack, they also could have done it with tools available in shady hacker circles. But without these legit, legal search tools, white hat researchers would have a harder time finding vulnerable systems connected to the internet. That could keep cybersecurity workers in a company’s IT department from checking which of its devices are leaking sensitive data onto the internet, for example, or have a known vulnerability that could let hackers in.
Even though sites like Shodan might leave you feeling exposed, security experts say the good guys need to be able to see as much as the bad guys can in order to be effective.
Indeed. Like every tool ever invented, the impacts of Shodan depend on the intentions of the people using it.
Cynthia Murrell, November 17, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Dark Web Marketplaces Are Getting Customer Savvy
November 17, 2016
Offering on Dark Web marketplaces are getting weirder by the day. Apart from guns, ammo, porn, fake identities, products like forged train tickets are now available for sale.
The Guardian in an investigative article titled Dark Web Departure: Fake Train Tickets Go on Sale Alongside AK-47s reveals that:
At least that’s the impression left by an investigation into the sale of forged train tickets on hidden parts of the internet. BBC South East bought several sophisticated fakes, including a first-class Hastings fare, for as little as a third of their face value. The tickets cannot fool machines but barrier staff accepted them on 12 occasions.
According to the group selling these tickets, the counterfeiting was done to inflict financial losses on the operators who are providing deficient services. Of course, it is also possible that the fake tickets are used by people (without criminalistics inclinations) who do not want to pay for the full fares.
One school of thought also says that like online marketplaces on Open Web, Dark Web marketplaces are also getting customer-savvy and are providing products and services that the customers need or want. This becomes apparent in this portion of the article:
The academics say the sites, once accessed by invitation or via dark-web search engines (there’ll be no hyperlinks here) resemble typical marketplaces such as Amazon or eBay, and that customer service is improving. “Agora was invitation-only but many of these marketplaces are easily accessible if you know how to search,” Dr Lee adds. “I think any secondary school student who knows how to use Google could get access – and that’s the danger of it.
One of the most active consumer group on Dark Web happens to be students, who are purchasing anything from fake certificates to hacker services to improve their grades and attendance records. Educational institutions, as well as law enforcement officials, are worried about this trend. And as more people get savvy with Dark Web, this trend is going to strengthen creating a parallel e-commerce, albeit a dark one.
Vishal Ingole, November 17, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Black-Hat SEO Tactics Google Hates
November 16, 2016
The article on Search Engine Watch titled Guide to Black Hat SEO: Which Practices Will Earn You a Manual Penalty? follows up on a prior article that listed some of the sob stories of companies caught by Google using black-hat practices. Google does not take kindly to such activities, strangely enough. This article goes through some of those practices, which are meant to “falsely manipulate a website’s search position.”
Any kind of scheme where links are bought and sold is frowned upon, however money doesn’t necessarily have to change hands… Be aware of anyone asking to swap links, particularly if both sites operate in completely different niches. Also stay away from any automated software that creates links to your site. If you have guest bloggers on your site, it’s good idea to automatically Nofollow any links in their blog signature, as this can be seen as a ‘link trade’.
Other practices that earned a place on the list include automatically generated content, cloaking and irrelevant redirects, and hidden text and links. Doorway pages are multiple pages for a key phrase that lead visitors to the same end destination. If you think these activities don’t sound so terrible, you are in great company. Mozilla, BMW, and the BBC have all been caught and punished by Google for such tactics. Good or bad? You decide.
Chelsea Kerwin, November 16, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Three Deadlines in October and November Mark Three Strikes on Google
November 11, 2016
The article titled Google Is Getting Another Extension to Counter EU Antitrust Charges on Fortune begs the question, how many more times will the teacher accept the “I need more time” argument? With the potential for over a billion dollar penalty of Google is found guilty, the company is vying for all the time it can get before answering accusations of unfair treatment of rival shopping services through its search results. The article tell us,
The U.S. technology giant was due to respond to the accusations on Thursday but requested more time to prepare its defense. The company now has until Nov. 7, a European Commission spokesman said. “Google asked for additional time to review the documents in the case file. In line with normal practice, the commission analysed the reasons for the request and granted an extension allowing Google to fully exercise its rights of defense,” he said.
If anyone is counting at this point, the case is now 6 years old, meaning it has probably graduated kindergarten and moved into the First Grade. The article does not comment on how many extensions have been requested altogether, but it does mention that another pair of deadlines are looming in Google’s near future. October 26 and October 31 are the dates by which Google must respond to the charges of blocking competitor advertisements and using the Android operating system to suppress rivals.
Chelsea Kerwin, November 11, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Google Search Tips That Make You Say DUH
November 10, 2016
Unless you are establishing the trends in the search field, then there is room for you to learn new search-related skills. Search is a basic function in the developed world and is more powerful than typing a word or phrase into Google’s search box. Google also has more tricks in its toolbox than you might be aware of. Single Grain published, “Google Like A Pro: 42 Of The Most Useful Google Search Tricks” that runs down useful ways to use the search engine. Some of them, however, are cheap tricks we have discussed before.
Single Grain runs down the usual Google stats about how many people use the search engine, its multiple services, and the hard to find Advanced Search. Here is a basic article description:
Here’s a list of 42 of the most useful Google search tricks that’ve probably never thought of—some practical, some just plain fun. Everyone knows how to Google, but by learning how to Google like a pro, you can harness the full power of the search giant and impress your boss and friends alike. Or at least find stuff.
These tips include: calculator, package tracker, stock watcher, tip calculator, conversions, weather, flight tracker, coin flipping, voice search, fact checking, and other tips you probably know. What I love is that it treats Boolean operators as if they are a brand new thing. They do not even use Boolean in the article! Call me old school, but give credit where credit is due.
Whitney Grace, November 10, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Google May Be Edging Out Its Competitors Surreptitiously
November 9, 2016
Leading secure email service provider ProtonMail mysteriously vanished from Google’s search results for 10 long months. Though the search engine giant denies any wrongdoing on its part, privacy advocates are crying foul.
ZDNet in an article titled ProtonMail strikes out at Google for crippling encrypted email service searches says:
ProtonMail has accused Google of hiding the company from search results in what may have been an attempt to suffocate the Gmail competitor. The free encrypted email service, which caters to nearly one million users worldwide, has enjoyed an increasing user base and popularity over the past few years as governments worldwide seek to increase their surveillance powers.
This is not the first time that Google has been accused of misusing its dominant position to edge out its competitors. The technology giant is also facing anti-trust lawsuit in Europe over the way it manipulates search results to retain its dominance.
Though ProtonMail tried to contact Google multiple time, all attempts elicited no response from the company. Just as the secure email service provider vanished from its organic search results, it mysteriously reappeared enabling the email service provider to get back on its feet financially.
As stated in the article:
Once Google issued a “fix,” ProtonMail’s search ranking immediately recovered. Now, the company is ranked at number one and number three for the search terms at the heart of the situation.
What caused the outage is still unknown. According to ProtonMail, it might be a bug in the search engine algorithm. Privacy advocates, however, are of the opinion that ProtonMail’s encrypted email might have been irking Google.
Vishal Ingole, November 9, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
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