Video that explains the working of Bitcoin Currency

Wikileaks Assange and Spying and Big Data

Wikileaks and Julian Assange are difficult subjects.

I read articles by Russell Brand and Alex Baldwin - the gist - once in a while we need a whistle blower to reveal the truth about the environment in which we live.

No-one likes a whistle blower.

A whistle-blower disturbs the peace - they rock the boat - often everyone... already knows.. they just don't want to know - especially those that are comfortable enough - to want the status-quo to continue.

The initial reaction to a whistle blower - is to try and grab that dam whistle and shut it up.

The problem is that - with the internet - there is no real way to totally shut up the whistle blower. Documents are spread virally - recreated - turned into Meme's - into twitter posts - into Facebook groups.

Assange has been trapped in an embassy for over a year now... the leaker Manning is in prison and has essentially be dealt with by Obama's "Ministry of Love" - Snowden - essentially awaits a similarly grim fate.

In terms of results - we have had Arab Spring's - probably the destruction of Stratfor (I mean who's going to want to do business with them now!). We know that essentially all communications are monitored/keyworded/assessed/ etc.... that social media is not secure in the least.... (or indeed internet traffic full stop).

I don't think this has changed much - the move of world power to China and to Mega-Cities has been the dominant force - almost drowning out all other noise.

In a way - Wikileaks was a great early promoter of Bitcoin - so was Silk Road.

Perhaps whistle-blowers and black markets (the type where you can hire a contract killer) have a lot in common?

I wonder if Assange will ever face his charges - will he die in the Ecuadorian Embassy - will the UK say dammit we can't afford to keep a watch on him anymore - what would Dick Cheney think?

.London and the Dawn of the Megacity

So there will be a .London (spring I think) - domain followed by .nyc (New York) - Paris (.rude) and other mega-cities to follow.

I wonder - will Mumbai be cool and either go for  a:

• .bombay or a;
• .bollywood

Anyway there is a lot of interest in the .London domain. London is a global finance hub - a travel hub - a yummy sweets hub - a city where property - is a traded commodity like diamonds.

I want david.london myself - I don't fancy my chances.

Apart from pointing to a future - where opportunities are going to be few (outside of mega-cities) - it is also refreshing that the real buzz... is city brands - and not global brands (though the Spain might one day be renamed to Vodafone).

People associate with and are proud of being part of London (the same with New York).... I see the domainname as being very popular - not just for business - but for you and me...

As for the rest of England?

.envious I think.

A subliminal Mechanical Turk: Renting your spare mental capacity

The term "mechanical turk" came from a fake 18th century chess machine. Rather than being a precursor to IBM's " Deep Blue" - a chess master was hiding in the machine.. pulling various levers.

Now the term "mechanical turk" largely points to Amazon's cloud crowd service.

The premise is simple - you upload basic tasks like "tell me when there is a human in a photograph" and I will pay you a few cents. If you process enough photos - you could achieve $6.01 an hour.

From research I have seen most "turkers" earn pocket money.... its something to do while watching the tedious X-Factor for instance.

Turkers are increasingly seen as a "big data" tool - helping to classify data - which computers still struggle with:

• Complex image classification;
• Audio Transcription etc....

It is all reasonably primitive - but also very helpful!

Companies like Google or Twitter make extensive use of the Turk - to help code real-time event - to improve search... and to train machines.

Anyway - back to my premise...

Currently a turker logs in - and processes tasks when they are chilling out (in fact I have classified quite a bit of seafloor as a turker http://www.seafloorexplorer.org/#!/classify/ground-cover) - it was kind of fun - however they never acknowledged my help (I was just expecting a bit of gamification was all!) - so I gave up.

It did make me wonder though... what if like SETI (you lend spare computer time) - we simply gave spare mental capacity.

So when faced with an important life decision - we could look to the crowd for advice...... for instance 9/10 turkers recommend you buy that new car!

Facebook Third Party Authentication essentially a fail?

Most websites - that require authentication these days - lean on plugins from twitter or facebook.

It makes sense - especially on Mobile - why fill in a form - when you can login via facebook - with the Click of a button.

Ok so - what should authentication be concerned with:

• A safe and secure way of logging into a site!

So what has it become:

• You can login to our site - nice an easily - BUT if you take this easy path - we also want to data-mine your profile - for all you contacts - and all your posts.

Sort of sucks as an authentication method - sure you can login to our site - but we also want to spy on your completely non-related facebook profile/activity.

Emoplus Smartwatch looks very Cool

http://www.emopulse.com/

Looks the coolest so far (the previous winner was Nissan's Nismo watch.

Looks similar to Apple's iWatch patents (which was criticised for looking like the 70s show).

The Emoplus - looks like two screens - possibly the iWatch will be more revolutionary.

Certainly - its in the right direction - (i.e. doesn't look like Samsung's Gear).

ADID and the Authenticated Web or .. are Cookies even necessary any more?

There has been huge debate re: tracking cookies - those small pieces of text that are stored on your computer and allow (one way or another) advertisers to track your digital movements through the web.

Privacy advocates and the revenue hungry EU are forever demonizing this technology.

However:

• 50% if internet users are on Facebook (and therefore authenticated) 
• 10% (possibly more) of Google Traffic - is by authenticated users (thanks to nasty Gmail)
• A significant number  newspapers are moving to PayWalls (you need to be authenticated!)
• All e-commerce sites at some point require authentication
• Apple - your are pretty much permanently signed into iTunes if you have an Apple Device;
• Skype - Banks etc... all authenticated.

So what is happening?

It is simple - no internet company wants to "leak" data.

For instance Google used to provide website owners - (in a string) the very search terms the user entered before arriving on your site. Actually - very useful information. This information - however is drying up - as Google moves all traffic to https://.

They argue that https:// is great for their users.. but really they are moving an iron curtain around digital data. There will be no trail... you will have to pay for your own website data...!

So cookies - won't matter to the big players.

However - it does shed light on Google Plus - and Gmail... who cares if they are crappy - they are there to create a rival - authentication service.. to that of Facebook's.

Google Glass Computer Vision and Market Research

Steve Jobs Movie and the lost art of Innovation

I just watched the Steve Jobs movie starring the guy who replaced Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men. Well I watched about 20 minutes of it - the performances were wooden (at best).

However there were a couple of things that did interest me.

• The scene where Wozniak tries to talk up his first computer - a bunch of circuit boards - with a TV tube
• The second where their first investor - invests out of gut - but has no idea - of the implications of the technology.

What interested me - was just how raw the innovation was - there was a sense of potential - but no actual idea - of how this potential would manifest.

In a way - it was a type of disruptive innovation we have not seen for a long time (relative) in the Tech Space.

In the  2010's... people bandy around the word - disruption - all the time - but in some ways things are processing so painfully - and logically.

• Take "Big Data" - the internet revolution - means that all sorts of devices are leaving digital trails - big data is about analyzing that shit
• "Quantified Self" and biometrics- connecting human physiology up to the net...
• Google Glass - take the net - and turn it into a HUD

Nothing about any of these - is intellectually challenging - they are all obvious extensions of existing technology - it is the "Internet Revolution". The industrial revolution - began in England about 1700 - and lasted to about 1900. 

The internet age - 1990 - current - perhaps it has another 100 years to run!

It makes you wonder - what the next revolution could be and what its enablers will be.

• Fission Energy (free energy from sea water - like in the SciFi movie Oblivion)
• Human controlled Genetic Modification - we live 10 times as long and are 10 times as smart

However - wouldn't it be amazing - to be in the vicinity of the next 'age'!.

There is a latent consumer appetite for wearables

Short post.

I believe that there is a large consumer appetite for wearable's.

However - the whole sector is in discovery right now.

Old timers such as Nike Plus - are still doing well - but the whole Quantified Self - pedometer in a glossy case - stuff is boring.

More interesting is the success of the Pebble Watch - also of interest is the http://www.ringclock.net/ a ring and a clock in one.

I that Apple's elves - are busy working on wearable's right now - however - they are being cautious - they don't want to launch a fair ground curiosity - they want to launch a game changer.

My experience with Google Glass - are the use cases about Health?

We'll I finally got to test out Google Glass.

In a way it is a hero product - as it is very geeky - and it goes for it - without worrying about silly things like privacy implications.

The experience - it reminded me of one of those old fashioned slide projectors - but the screen being in the top right hand corned of your eye. Actually for such a tiny screen - it is very clear - and the writing (a tasteful font - similar to that IOS update) easy to read.

I took a photo - it was all really easy.

People are seeing that some of the best use cases - could involve Doctor's, nurses, GP's etc... For example:

• Bringing up patient records;
• Getting procedural advice;
• Being able to instantly upload image data - a wound etc... to a specialist etc....

Police:

• Effectively a more military grade HUD - says maps - alerts in a riot situation.

However for both examples - Glass has a relatively short battery life (3 hours etc...) so perhaps work needs to be done.

The guy who owned the Glass - said he would wear it out  - and yes - people (like me) would stop him all the time!

Changing tack from Steven Jobs's Four Year Plan

I have heard a few times that part of Steve Jobs legacy - is a four year product plan for Apple.

http://gizmodo.com/5848275/did-steve-jobs-leave-a-special-four-year-plan-for-apple

No one is  sure of its existence - however this Gizmodo article indicates it is likely - as four years plans are a standard corporate practice (so let's not be mysterious about this!).

It's hard to imagine Jobs focusing on such a plan - during the final passage of his life. However, being such a passionate person, you can imagine him pen to paper - much like Mozart was in his final days.

So what if his plan is wrong or what if the plan needs adjusting?

Goodness knows - Apple is currently investing a huge amount in Research and Development - and to be sure - there will be teams working on projects- that aren't just upgrades of the iPhone and iPad.

However one area where Apple has disappointed is services -like SIRI. SIRI started with such promise - but   is now a poor second to Google Now. The whole - intuitive assistant idea - ended up "owned" by Google's superior machine learning, gargantuan repository of information (the entire web) plus its unsurpassed data on digital interaction (profile + clickstream).

There are reports that Apple is beefing up SIRI (aqui-hiring) etc.. but will they be able to compete? - without access to a comparable data repository and analytics systems (a deal with Microsoft? or Yahoo!). Certainly small start-ups will struggle to fill this void.

A lot of the "brains" behind SIRI is Wolfram's Mathematica platform - so perhaps something is  being worked on? perhaps Mathematica is an acquisition target -  or more likely a joint venture?

Maps is the other focus - but Google bought WAZE - so are way ahead.

But there mobile ecosystems that are failing - possibly leaving a gap - notably - the digital wallet - and NFC payments (Apple doesn't support NFC - much like they didn't FLASH) . A cross between highly accurate location data (and low powered) + bio-metric authentication - a payment play?

It will be interesting - the iWatch could be a good source of bio info - did you know your heart beat - has a clear signature for instance? Combined with decent fingerprinting - it could provide two phase authentication.

The most aggressive of Apple's competitors is Samsung - who has a strategy of developing products to fill the "Apple rumor space".

Like Apple - Samsung also does not have in-house machine learning smarts - relying on external companies - such as Nuance (for voice).

In a way victory - could come to the company - who masters user data and machine learning fastest - the one who can truly make a "smart phone".

Who knows - but I interested to see how Tim Cook's reign pans out. He seems tough and strong to me - and I am hoping he is privy to some amazing innovations - that will hit the market - fully formed - when the time is right!

And let's be humble - it might be a fruit machine game (or candy) - that ends up dominating the world!

Welcome to the "Machine Learning"

Man used to fear the dark - because thousands of years ago - this was when animals much larger than us would hunt.

We have all sorts of phobia's - but the one that interests me is fear of computers - Cyberphobia.

Science fiction has long predicted - that computers will become our equals if not our superiors.

Computers are taking middle class jobs and often the jobs that graduates would take. In Spain unemployment is 56% for youth under the age of 26.
http://www.businessinsider.com/benja-serra-bosch-spains-unemployment-icon-2013-10

Lots of these starter jobs have currently been moved to India or the Philippines (where it is cheaper to outsource) in stead of computers. However this type of work is heavily scripted - i.e.  perfect for computers and India and Philippines will also be stripped this type of work. If these countries are clever - that will use the current outsourcing environment - to up skill their youth - while they still can.

There are plenty of articles on this phenomena.
http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/515926/how-technology-is-destroying-jobs/

The free market - as it exists - is slowly but surely boiling down to a handful of people at the top making all the money - and the rest of us - will only be required if a machine cannot replicate our function. The free market therefore desires machines that replace as many people as possible - and are faster than their competitors computers.

Currently machines using their computational powers - for our benefit

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22380611

The area of AI, Machine Learning, Computer Vision (all areas that Robotics focus on) are still in their infancy (yes Deep Blue beat Kasparov)  -but people in the AI field generally blog about how this tech has never gone anywhere.

However, in my opinion, the reason for this if that they try and program a computer - to be a computer.

However, using different machine learning techniques, computers are beginning to think (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y43qwS8fl4). It's dam primitive - however - this is where it all starts.

We are successful as our brains are able to make multiple predictive assumptions - about what we see and hear and remember. We are amazing - at recognizing and assessing/scoring patterns. This ability - has allowed our species to dominate the planet. We recognize the patterns - that mean we are under threat - we recognize patterns that indicate opportunity.

However, at some point computers will be able to do this. Not now..... as the computing power required to access trillions of patterns and make sense of them - does not exist.

However, in a way, it may not be that hard as we think.

Take a look at the complex and bewildering patterns produced by simple fractal equations (Stephen Wolfram - has dabbled with the idea - that the entire universe was created by a simple pattern http://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_wolfram_computing_a_theory_of_everything.html).

Computers will one day be able to see and understand patterns well beyond the human brain can process. Hopefully computers - will pass these insights back to us - to make all our lives better. In the short term - this is unlikely. Such insight - will be used by Governments and Countries - for their advantage.


Think the infamous PRISM....

Its naive to think this network is just about spying on terrorists! It is also extracting business insight - for US corporations - it is protecting both the USA's security - it is also protecting the countries business interests. Security and economy is always tied together!

At some point - computers like us will be able to reason/make decisions/and seek betterment for their existence. This is currently the realm of science fiction - but science fiction that was written a long time ago now. A lot of the enablers are appearing now... and funnily enough - a lot of them... right now... are just trying to get you to click on an ad!

Will Google Glass actually launch

This is a product - so long in the hype that personally I've lost interest in it.

I wonder if others have also lost interest - and that Google's own market research is indicating that it won't fly.

The tech is interesting - but they look so dam silly - like a sell out to the net - an end of individualism - as Google feeds your brain with snippet rubbish.

But I might be wrong!!

Bitcoin to enable mobile micro-payments

???

The one thing holding back mobile - is micro-payments - a few cents for an image or an audio etc....

I wonder if Bitcoin could be the solution.

A list of medical biometric sensors for mobile phones

Here are some examples from AliveCor's heart monitor.

In this case heart rate per minute!

Here is the list:

COMPANY	TYPE	WEBSITE
LifeWatch V	Purpose Built Smartphone	http://www.lifewatchv.com/
AliveCor	Moble Phone ECG	http://www.alivecor.com/
QualcommLife		http://www.qualcommlife.com/
mHealthAlert	Pulse oximeter	http://www.mhealthalert.com
ActiHeart	Heart	http://www.camntech.com/products/actiheart/actiheart-overview?gclid=CJiqmNOEibYCFcrHtAodJ1oA_A
Withings	Activity - bio-impedence	http://www.withings.com/
mHealthAlert		http://www.mhealthalert.com
mHealthAlert, entrahealthsystems		http://www.mhealthalert.com/index.php/en/
Affectiva		www.affectiva.com
Toumaz
LifeScan		http://www.lifescan.co.uk/ourproducts/meter/one-touch-ultratwo
Entra Health Systems		http://www.entrahealthsystems.com/
FitBIT	Activity + sleep Tracker	http://www.fitbit.com/
HapiFork	Monitors eating habits - plus has sensors for sleep + stress	http://www.hapilabs.com/
AT&T M Health Site		https://mhealth.att.com/
careinnovations		http://www.careinnovations.com/products/quietcare-assisted-living-technology

Machine Learning to identify Ad Servers in Clickstream

Being able to sift through the clickstream of thousands of people is interesting in the search of insight is a fun task.

However clickstream is fill of noise:

• Ad servers;
• Iframes
• Analtyics trackers (adsence, commscore etc...)

Ad servers are particularly annoying - they are shape shifters - continually adding changing both domains and subdomains.

However - noise has patterns:

• Referrers
• Redirect Codes
• HTTP Headers
• In-discriminant appearances across the web.

These are the sort of patterns that machine learning could eat for breakfast!

Context is required for Machine Learning to understand Human Behavior

Ok someone takes a photo of a building right in front of them - what is the name of the building?

Unless that building is the Taj Mahal - it could take a huge library of photos (akin to Streetview's database) - and a lot of processing time - to work out what and where that building is. Then - if the building happens to be a generic block - similar to thousands - you have no chance.

However, it you know - the location - where the photo was taken - thinks become much simpler - and a hacker without access to a super computer (or Amazon's redshift) - will be able to solve this problem.

The key here is context.

The same applies to human behavior,

We can look for patterns - in someone's browsing history and search terms - however those patterns become more accurate/reliable and powerful when we have their clickstream + context:

• Their location;
• Their actual income (as opposed to census data)
• Examples of their shopping bill;
• Their relationships;
• Their Gender;
• Their work history and occupation.

Context - is therefore what the Market Research industry can add to machine learning models on insight.

Functional Drinks - The Recipe depends on your Biometric Readings

I think somewhere in Mexico - there is an experiment - where basically they mix you a drink (electrolytes not booze!) based on analyzing - your needs (biometric measurements).

Very Star Trek - although this was an experiment - it points to of future of "ultra-personalisation".

In a branding sense it means - ok people will still want to be part of a given brand - but the products will be ultra tailored to the customer.

A Smart Watch needs Biometric Input to be defining

I'm interested in the iWatch - and it is something I might buy as I think it could be defining.

So, therefore I was interested when Samsung - released the Galaxy Gear - however it looks disappointing - with a one day battery life - making it essentially a prototype - that is going to be launched into the market.

I think that biometric sensors - will be required to make the product hot!

In a way the device can be even - further integrated into the life of a user - thanks to these sensors.

Without them - hmmmm - I would just stick to a smartphone.

Why everyone will need their own personal super computer to compete

Most digital geeks will have heard the term - "Quantified Self".

Currently the consumer applications of this - have manifested themselves into "pseudo health" tech - like Nike +, like Fitbit, like JawBone etc.. Basically Internet of Things .. things.. that take crude sensor reading - like a pedometer - and upload the data to the internet - so you can track your fitness, your progress and your health.

However, we all know, that in the new Hour Glass economy - we all have to compete to get to the top .... as the middle class is disappearing .. and the bottom of the Hour Glass is a dreadful dispirited place.

To compete, we will need, digital helpers/assistants - powerful machines helping us with our decisions - all our decisions - quietly in the background.

To start - they will analyze our digital and financial history - our health stats - our location - our travel - our relationships - and try initially to find patterns - to make sense. It is likely the computer - will also askt - survey like questions - where it needs specific data.

From there - it would start - just by offering up basic info-graphics - which could be broadcast - to a device such as Google Glass. Non-threatening - but useful snippets of information.

That would be stage one.

The next stage - would be - the "Optimized Self" - the device offering tips - to make you more efficient. However, this would be no - dumb device. If the computer suggested - you need to take more walks - and your didn't - it wouldn't repeatedly offer this advice. It would adapt. It would find other ways to optimize.

The Personal Super Computers - will initially be very expensive - and will be bandwidth hungry. Like glass - the computer - will see and hear - what you do. They will require expensive - data plans to run.

For the super rich - it is likely they will not connect - but their staff will - their helpers.

Those without - access to this computing power - will in the future be relegated to the bottom of the hour glass.

Biostamp and the contact-less Airport

With facial recognition - and other bio-metric techniques (fingerprints) not used in Airports globally - it is surely only time - before we move to the next step - embedded personal identifiers.

In essence - chip.

Sure - someone could hack a chip out of someone - but it is probable the chip would be tuned to a specific DNA - a two step authentication mechanism (and combined with facial coding/gate coding) - pretty hard to beat!

How many business travelers (I'm talking about Global Business Dev's) would implant a chip - knowing that they can walk straight through customs - on a global basis.

A big time saving - and significantly less stress - meaning potentially better sales.

The idea's of a product like biostamp are endless - and scary.

It is a product the turns us into - a thing - as far of the "Internet of Things" is concerned.

Our body - just becomes another device - broadcasting its data.

Machine Learning versus Human Understanding

The concept of machine learning - is going to change the world - and although the term is bandied about - along with "Big Data" and "IOT" - the impact is going to swifter and more brutal than the impact e-commerce had.

So where is it going to impact?

Well as a guide - I would say - outsourced/off-shored areas - where the work - requires a human brain - but is also highly scripted - and methodic.

And the companies - that this threatens? - well - companies who offer off-shored solutions.

And how will this threat be manifested? - cloud sourced - machine learning solutions - which require a small pool of trained humans to help create the machine learning models.

So in a way it is a threat and an opportunity.

The opportunity - humans - who can create - and populate - quality machine learning models.

iWatch and Bio-metric Measurement

The whole bio-metric field is waiting for a killer product.

I think that product could be the iWatch.

We do have products like:

• Fitbit
• jawbone
• Nike+ etc...

 However - currently these are Niche offerings - for the obsessive.

I think that the iWatch will bring - biometrics into the mainstream.

I do worry that Tim Cook - might be too scared to launch such a product - he is no Steve Jobs nor is Johhny Ive. There is a risk they will over-design and choke. However it is reported that Tim Cook is a fan of Nike+ - so it is only a matter of time.

But if they don't... biometrics is going to be another data input - another digital fingerprint.

Not only will marketers know - what, when and where you have ventured in your digital explorations - they might also have some indication of your state of being at the time.

The main challenge will be making sense of the data - context being a key ingredient - deep profiling and segmentation another.

Google Glass as a Market Research Tool

Market Research is all about panels of people - who have agreed (for payment) to answer survey's on all manner of products and topics.

In terms of tools - it has evolved from the Clipboard - to online survey's - and more lately - much the same thing on a mobile device.

As the above has progressed, new tools, called passive digital tracking have come along - and now - on top of answering (patience thinning RSI inducing pages of tick boxes) - the industry is also recording their surfing habits.

In addition - to this - one interesting tool - is the digital diary.

Every-time you buy a beer - click here!

Even on mobile - we have that same - can't be arsed user experience. Like ok - I'm having a beer - ok - my phone... ok ... hmmm where's that dam survey app among the sea of icons... ok cool - click load.... ok hmmmmm

Yeh way too slow - and a real pain.

I can't help something like Google Glass would be a Market Researchers dream.

Wack on the glasses - and just say beer - in the meantime - the glasses are busy recording all sorts of other data - location - images - video - audio..... additional contextual data - at no extra cost.

Beyond the cost of the glasses - and an outsourced android app ($1000 bucks top)