The Watson Update
July 15, 2016
IBM invested a lot of resources, time, and finances into developing the powerful artificial intelligence computer Watson. The company has been trying for years to justify the expense as well as make money off their invention, mostly by having Watson try every conceivable industry that could benefit from big data-from cooking to medicine. We finally have an update on Watson says ZDNet in the article, “IBM Talks About Progress On Watson, OpenPower.”
Watson is a cognitive computer system that learns, supports natural user interfaces, values user expertise, and evolves with new information. Evolving is the most important step, because that will allow Watson to keep gaining experience and learn. When Watson was first developed, IBM fed it general domain knowledge, then made the Watson Discovery to find answers to specific questions. This has been used in the medical field to digest all the information created and applying it to practice.
IBM also did this:
“Most recently IBM has been focused on making Watson available as a set of services for customers that want to build their own applications with natural question-and-answer capabilities. Today it has 32 services available on the Watson Developer Cloud hosted on its Bluemix platform-as-a-service… Now IBM is working on making Watson more human. This includes a Tone Analyzer (think of this as a sort spellchecker for tone before you send that e-mail to the boss), Emotion Analysis of text, and Personality Insights, which uses things you’ve written to assess your personality traits.”
Cognitive computing has come very far since Watson won Jeopardy. Pretty soon the technology will be more integrated into our lives. The bigger question is how will change society and how we live?
Whitney Grace, July 15, 2016
There is a Louisville, Kentucky Hidden Web/Dark
Web meet up on July 26, 2016. Information is at this link: http://bit.ly/29tVKpx.
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
The Intersection of the Criminal, Law Enforcement and Technology Industries
February 26, 2016
A ZDNet article covers Arrests made over Bitcoin laundering scheme, Dark Web drug deals
Dutch police made several arrests related to laundering of criminal profits orchestrated through an unindexed section of the web called the Dark Web. The article says suspects allegedly laundered up to 20 million euros from online drug deals. With the information originating from Reuters, this article summarizes the arrests made by Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service and public prosecution department:
“According to the publication, some of the men arrested are traders, while others are “Bitcoin cashers” — traders of Bitcoin online who cash these funds then withdraw money from ATMs. It is possible to find cashers online who run shadow services which exchange “dirty” coins for clean currency. Law enforcement in the United States, Australia, Lithuania and Morocco also participated in the raid.”
Just as criminal offenses are taking place increasingly online, so too must the law enforcement industry have turn to technology to aid its efforts. As the case unfolds, it will be interesting to uncover how these suspects were identified. Perhaps something innovative will be at the source.
Megan Feil, February 26, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Amazon Punches Business Intelligence
November 11, 2015
Amazon already gave technology a punch when it launched AWS, but now it is releasing a business intelligence application that will change the face of business operations or so Amazon hopes. ZDNet describes Amazon’s newest endeavor in “AWS QuickSight Will Disrupt Business Intelligence, Analytics Markets.” The market is already saturated with business intelligence technology vendors, but Amazon’s new AWS QuickSight will cause another market upheaval.
“This month is no exception: Amazon crashed the party by announcing QuickSight, a new BI and analytics data management platform. BI pros will need to pay close attention, because this new platform is inexpensive, highly scalable, and has the potential to disrupt the BI vendor landscape. QuickSight is based on AWS’ cloud infrastructure, so it shares AWS characteristics like elasticity, abstracted complexity, and a pay-per-use consumption model.”
Another monkey wrench for business intelligence vendors is that AWS QuickSight’s prices are not only reasonable, but are borderline scandalous: standard for $9/month per user or enterprise edition for $18/month per user.
Keep in mind, however, that AWS QuickSight is the newest shiny object on the business intelligence market, so it will have out-of-the-box problems, long-term ramifications are unknown, and reliance on database models and schemas. Do not forget that most business intelligence solutions do not resolve all issues, including ease of use and comprehensiveness. It might be better to wait until all the bugs are worked out of the system, unless you do not mind being a guinea pig.
Whitney Grace, November 11, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
NSA Blanket Data Collection Preventing Accurate Surveillance
June 4, 2015
The article on ZDNet titled NSA Is So Overwhelmed with Data, It’s No Longer Effective, Says Whistleblower examines the concept of “bulk data failure” by the NSA and other agencies. William Binney, a whistleblower who has been out of the NSA for over a decade, says that the sheer amount of data the NSA collects leads to oversights and ineffective surveillance. The article states,
“Binney said he estimated that a “maximum” of 72 companies were participating in the bulk records collection program — including Verizon, but said it was a drop in the ocean. He also called PRISM, the clandestine surveillance program that grabs data from nine named Silicon Valley giants, including Apple, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, just a “minor part” of the data collection process. “The Upstream program is where the vast bulk of the information was being collected,” said Binney.”
It appears that big data presents challenges even when storage, servers, and money are available. Binney blames the data overload for bungles that have led to the Boston bombing and Paris shooting. He believes the NSA had the information needed to prevent the attacks, but couldn’t see the trees for the forest. Smart data collection, rather than mass data collection, is his suggestion to fix this information overload.
Chelsea Kerwin, June 4, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
SharePoint Server Release Delayed by a Year
April 21, 2015
For users anxious to start working with SharePoint Server 2016, the wait just got a little longer. Microsoft just announced that the next version would not be available until the second quarter of 2016, a delay of full year from initial projections. ZD Net covers the latest news in their article, “Microsoft Pushes Back Next SharePoint Server Release to Q2 2016.”
The article breaks the news:
“When Microsoft announced the name of the next version of SharePoint Server — SharePoint Server 2016 — company officials said the product would debut in the second half of calendar 2015. But on April 16, Microsoft execs said that there’s a new delivery plan, and SharePoint Server 2016 won’t be generally available until the second calendar quarter of 2016.”
The delay doesn’t seem to be related to Windows Server, although it has also been pushed back to calendar year 2016. The new version is still very much anticipated as it promises updates to content management, team connectivity, and hybrid functionality. For users who are closely following all the news, stay tuned to ArnoldIT.com, specifically the SharePoint feed. Stephen E. Arnold maintains his site with a focus on search and all the expertise of a lifelong career.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 21, 2015
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
Microsoft Veteran Transitioning to New Role
April 7, 2015
Chris Jones, a veteran with Microsoft since 1991, is transitioning to a new role within the organization. Jones is the former head of the OneDrive and SharePoint teams. Microsoft has been making many announcements regarding changes with SharePoint lately, including the impending release of SharePoint 2016. Read more in the ZDNet article, “Microsoft’s OneDrive, SharePoint Chief to Take on a New Role.”
The article begins:
“Microsoft veteran Chris Jones, the current head of the OneDrive and SharePoint businesses at the company, will be transitioning to a new job in Microsoft’s Applications and Services Group (ASG) later this year. Jones, who has been at Microsoft since 1991, will be passing the Corporate Vice President torch to Phil Smoot, another Microsoft veteran who has worked on the Hotmail and Azure Storage businesses.”
To stay apprised of all the latest SharePoint news and developments, keep a close eye on Steven E. Arnold’s Web site, ArnoldIT.com. Arnold is a longtime search expert and operates a dedicated SharePoint feed on his Web site. Changes within SharePoint’s highest management could indicate additional directional changes that may affect customers. Stay tuned.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 7, 2015
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
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