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Reinventing Society In The Wake Of Big Data | Conversation | Edge

While on the subject of Big Data, from an earlier post, this interview with Alex Pentland is a riveting read. He explains what big data (or lots of data) really does for those who use it, at the expense of those who don’t really understand the implications of their book-face posting & zillions of interactions online.

Enemy of the State – & it’s not a movie

Weigh this.

A chap gets you to willingly share all your personal information, photos, friends list (at least those online), birthdays, location etc etc. He gets hailed as the best entrepreneur of the whatever period in history, multi-billion dollar valuations for his company. (Book-Face Zuckerberg)

Another lifts the lid on the criminal acts of a government who ostensibly commits murder of innocents in the name of democracy. He gets hounded by multiple governments, his own government denies any help to him, his news organisation is starved of payments, gets charged with sexual assault, & as finally gets labelled “Enemy of the state“. (Julian Assange/ Wikileaks).

Whither justice? Or is it a figment of our collective imagination?

How dependent are you on online banking?

As more and banks plod towards the Internet of Banking, (& the less of “currency” that we see & touch), we put too much of trust in the “big” organisations to keep “our money” safe. Trouble is, they either don’t  know, or care to, or both.

6 American Banks were impacted by a Denial of Service attack last week, which meant their customers couldn’t get access to their accounts online or pay their bills.

Things that go …. in the night

At about 2am last night, I awoke from deep sleep to a strange sound. I guess all sounds sound strange at 2am, but I’m not usually up at that hour to have any experience in the matter. It continued for what seemed like a long time, & then I realised what it was.. it was my wife, giggling away in her dream, well, it wasn’t giggling as much as peals of laughter. Pointing to our 18month old lying next to her, from deep in her sleep, she repeated “Rapunzel!” a couple of times, & then woke up, but the laughter continued, for a good 5 minutes after.

I shush’d her, trying my 2am brand of logic – “the neighbors might complain of an abusive husband, & the wife cries every night, & I hate to have to explain to the cops that this is how you laugh in your sleep. Shut up & go back to sleep”. It didn’t work, as I found out this morning. “Do you think I’m Mrs. M?” (the caretaker who’s lived with my wife’s family for over 4 decades, & is a bit slow in all matters of the mind, but then again, that is what my wife says!).

And this morning, reciting the happenings of the night to my 6 year old daughter brought forth fresh peals of laughter from the young lady. The toddler, evidently liking the sounds from his sister, added to the din.

I know what Heaven must sound like!

🙂

The medal race

I’m not an olympics fan – for various reasons.
What is interesting to me however is that China is off to a medal collecting race, already picking up 4 golds & 2 bronzes and no one on this side of the world (or any other media for that matter) is covering any of their athletes.
Bizarre? Or deliberate? (I’m no conspiracy theorist)