IBM reveals secrets of Watson’s Jeopardy triumph
IBM has explained the principles behind how its Watson machine bested the world’s finest Jeopardy players, even if it can’t handle Siri.
In a lecture at the University of California at Berkeley, IBM research scientist Eric Brown outlined the history of the project, and provided some details about how Watson was able to sort through a variety of structured and unstructured data in the fastest time possible. His team of 30 engineers spent four years designing the current system, and believe it has great potential for non-gimmicky purposes.
Watson runs on 90 IBM 750 servers, with 2,880 Power7 cores running on 3.55GHz processors. It has 15TB or memory and can pump out 80 teraflops. This is a commercially available configuration, but Watson's secret sauce is IBM’s DeepQA data-handling software. Brown said that to answer a question on this rig eventually took under three seconds, compared to the two days it would have taken a single processor. Read more...
Google, Microsoft, Intel, Verizon among new cloud security registry members
Google, Verizon, Intel, McAfee, Microsoft, and Savvis are joining a voluntary program set up by the Cloud Security Alliance that provides public information about whether contributors comply with CSA-recommended cloud-security practices.
By reading reports submitted to CSA's STAR (Security Trust and Assurance Registry), potential customers of participating providers can more readily assess whether products and services meet their security needs.
To encourage other participants, CSA is encouraging businesses to require that any cloud vendors they deal with to submit reports to CSA STAR. Read more...
How Political Campaigns Can Turn Social Media Support Into Votes
During the last presidential election, the use of social media in political campaigns was revolutionized. The Obama campaign gathered followers through Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Today, all candidates have learned the organizing power of social media. However, a “Like” on Facebook, a YouTube view or a re-blog on Tumblr may not directly affect the ballot box. Each campaign must answer an important question: How do we turn a digital following into real-world volunteers? Social media campaigns for candidates should be focused on getting volunteers in the campaign office door, on the phones and out in the community. There are three crucial steps to accomplishing this task.
1. Share Ideals, Goals, Accomplishments and Behind-the-Scenes Footage
By sharing a candidate’s beliefs and goals via social media, candidates can connect with existing supporters and reach out to voters who aren’t yet convinced. Accomplishments, such as campaign milestones, will get liked, shared, re-tweeted and reblogged. Read more...
Android sees nearly 500% increase in malware since July
Google's Android platform sees new devices join its ranks on a regular basis. This widespread adoption of the operating system has allowed it to claim a huge share of the smartphone market, but it also makes it a big target for malware developers looking to cash in on stolen data. This year has been particularly gruesome for the OS, and security firm Juniper Networks has determined that the number of Android malware attacks has seen a 472% increase since July 2011.
Android's vulnerability to various types of malicious programs stems from Google's app publishing process, which is lax when compared with Apple's. When you submit an app for the iPhone or iPad, various code signing, verification, and approval steps are required before the application is allowed onto the store. These steps usually kill all malware-ridden programs before they make it to consumers' devices. Read more...
Apple patent shows ideas for crack-resistant iPhone airbags
Good news for the Donald LeBuhns of the world, newly uncovered patents filed by Apple show the company has been thinking about upping durability for portables. Future iOS devices may even be getting little airbags installed to prevent your precious mobile electronics from shattering on the first drop.
The patent was apparently filed in 2010′s Q2, and dug up by Pattently Apple who says that one of the patent inventors, Stephen Lynch, worked on the iPod touch and inductive charging projects. Read more...
Celebs and Twitter: Do they have to go together?
So, Simon Cowell is now on Twitter. That was the big news in social media Wednesday. What was your first reaction? I'll tell you what mine was not: "Amazing! He'll have so many insights to share, and we really don't see that much of him on any of his other media platforms."
With all due respect to Cowell, who I do believe is quite an influential man about television and music, I don't see the need for him to be on Twitter. Here's the thing: most celebrities do their best work in the platform in which they became famous. Very few actually gain something by becoming more accessible via the internet. Take one of Cowell's inaugural tweets, for example: "Melanie --incredible but Josh just stole the show." Does this sound like the Cowell we've all come to know and love/hate? No. That comment about the "X Factor" contestants could have come from anyone, and arguably doesn't serve as any sort of meaningful extension of Cowell himself. Read more...
Facebook user or not, you’re being tracked
Heads up to all you Facebook haters out there regularly ripping on us self-absorbed "sheeple" trusting all our personal info to the Big Bro we call Facebook. If you’ve ever clicked on a Facebook profile or page — you know just to see what the big whoop is or whatever — Facebook follows you around the Internet too.
Just exactly how and why Facebook does this was laid out in an exclusive report in USA Today. And while the info gathered through interviews with Facebook representatives may or may not surprise you, the story rattled Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W. Va., who now wants Facebook to explain these details directly to Congress.
"Is this a violation to my privacy?" you may be asking yourself, and even if you’re not, Rockefeller, along with others in the U.S. government, continue to ask on your behalf. As Facebook nears a settlement after a two-year investigation by the Federal Trade Commission, Congress, along with the World Wide Web Consortium, are outlining privacy guidelines for all of cyberspace. Read more...
House committee to investigate China’s Huawei, ZTE
A U.S. House Intelligence Committee is launching an investigation into Chinese telecommunication equipment suppliers Huawei and ZTE to determine whether the companies pose a security threat to the U.S.
The investigation will examine if Huawei's and ZTE's expansion into the U.S. market gives the Chinese government an opportunity to hijack the nation's infrastructure to conduct espionage. U.S. lawmakers worry that the networking equipment sold could secretly contain Chinese military technology to spy on U.S. telecommunications.
"The fact that our critical infrastructure could be used against us is of serious concern," said U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, who along with Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger announced the investigation in a statement Thursday.
The investigation is the latest obstacle Huawei has faced in its U.S. business activities. In September, the U.S. Department of Commerce said it had informed Huawei that the company was barred from participating in a project to build a national wireless network. The Department of Commerce has declined to explain why, citing security reasons. Read more...
‘Occupy Flash’ movement wants Adobe’s plug-in dead
A small group of website and mobile app developers have kicked off an "Occupy Flash" campaign to put a stake in the heart of Adobe's popular browser plug-in.
The organization, which launched a website earlier this week, said its goal was to "Get the world to uninstall the Flash Player plug-in from their desktop browsers."
And the group didn't mince words why it was after Flash Player.
"Flash Player is dead. Its time has passed. It's buggy. It crashes a lot. It requires constant security updates," said the Occupy Flash site. "It's a fossil, left over from the era of closed standards and unilateral corporate control of Web technology."
Last week, Adobe announced that it was halting development of Flash Player for mobile browsers, but that it would continue work on the plug-in for desktop browsers such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE), Mozilla's Firefox, Google's Chrome and Apple's Safari. Read more...
Hands on: Google’s Galaxy Nexus and Android Ice Cream Sandwich
Ladies and gentlemen, meet the next generation of Android.
Google officially unleashed its Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS on Monday, and now, the flagship ICS phone is finally making its debut. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus went on sale in the U.K. Thursday morning and is expected to launch on Verizon Wireless within a matter of days.
I've been spending some hands-on time with the Galaxy Nexus and Android Ice Cream Sandwich this week. I'll be putting together in-depth reviews of the phone and the operating system soon, but I wanted to share some of my early impressions with you now.
Getting to Know the Galaxy Nexus and Android Ice Cream Sandwich
First, I should point out that the Galaxy Nexus unit I have is not the Verizon LTE edition; it's an HSPA+ version of the phone that'll be sold globally. The phone, provided to me on loan from Google, is connected to T-Mobile's network. It could also work with AT&T or any other compatible HSPA+ carrier anywhere in the world. Read more...