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.