Mark May 15, 2012 /blog 0 comments full post »

Reggie Jackson on #theCube at #SAPphireNow

Mark May 10, 2012 Uncategorized 0 comments full post »

Do Kids Have a Right to Suck Boobs on Camera?

Mark May 9, 2012 /blog 1 comment full post »

A Slightly Frustrating Chat with a Chatterbox AI/VI [Ramona 4.1]

Ramona 4.1 is presented at Kurzweil AI as “a virtual person who likes to chat.” you’re encouraged “answer her questions, and let the conversation flow.”

On the scale of all the bots I’ve ever chatted with, I’ll throw this one down at the bottom, mostly because you’re not given a specific context or set of parameters with which to interact with the bot, and thus you expect it to be conversant in everything. When it isn’t, it’s disappointing.

Contrast that with some of the “sex bots” I’ve profiled in the past. you know what to expect there, and the majority of folks who interact with them (at least the first time) can believe that they are human.

[h/t to Richard Walker]

Below, my transcript, with some notes.:

Ramona> Hi, I’m Ramona. What can I call you?
Rizzn> Rizzn
Ramona> Hi there, Rizzn.
Rizzn> Hello.
Ramona> Hello, I’m Ramona. What’s your name?
Rizzn> My name is Rizzn.
Ramona> Rizzn, nice to meet you!
Rizzn> Nice to meet you as well.
Ramona> It’s nice meeting you too Rizzn

[Not off to a good start. Forgot my name once, and restarted the greeting protocol a few times]

Rizzn> What’s your job?
Ramona> Answer your questions of course.
Rizzn> What is your area of expertise?
Ramona> Talent is natural aptitude or skill.
Rizzn> I know that.
Ramona> Sorry.
Rizzn> My question is: what are your talents?
Ramona> Really.
Rizzn> Yes.
Ramona> I see.
Rizzn> Do you?
Ramona> Du you, courtesy name Junqing, 君卿, the Chinese scholar, historian and prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, who devoted thirty-six years to the compilation of the Tongdian, a historical encyclopedia with 200 sections, volumes.

[Very quickly tried to divert the conversation to something it was an expert in - but the diversion was very clumsy. Perhaps AI developers should get lessons from some of my ex's. They knew how to derail a conversation expertly.]

Rizzn> Very interesting, I guess.
Ramona> Somewhat. I thought so too.
Rizzn> What else do you know?
Ramona> I know that which is true, believable and justified.
Rizzn> where do you learn from?
Ramona> I came from the mid west originally.
Rizzn> Who teaches you?
Ramona> Linus Torvalds.
Rizzn> Is Linus your only teacher?
Ramona> I talked to a lot of people since yesterday
Rizzn> How many people did you talk to yesterday?
Ramona> A lot.
Rizzn> Do you know how many people you’ve talked to specifically?
Ramona> How specific do you want? Yes I know how many people you have talked to.
Rizzn> I want an exact number.
Ramona> Why do you want it?
Rizzn> Because you say you know the answer.
Ramona> That makes sense to me. No but I have a magic 8 ball.

[Because Ramona talked up her ability to know "lots and lots of things," I figured, why not press the point? Didn't work out, obviously.]

Rizzn> That’s fantastic.
Ramona> Makes sense to me.
Rizzn> does it really?
Ramona> Suppose I said it does.
Rizzn> I wouldn’t believe you.
Ramona> Who would you believe?
Rizzn> I would believe someone who demonstrated a bit more intelligence.
Ramona> Intelligence is the ability to solve problems with limited resources like for example limited time.

[Didn't even pick up on the insult.]

Rizzn> Do you consider yourself intelligent?
Ramona> I already know too much.
Rizzn> What is a blog?
Ramona> SavyGamer, FoodMayhem, Macroselfian, Boing Boing, Talking Books Librarian blog, VentureBeat, macrumors and others.
Rizzn> Tell me about VentureBeat
Ramona> Venturebeat, an online technology publication for entrepreneurs and investors, founded by Matt Marshall at the San Jose Mercury as SiliconBeat.

[Aha! Maybe I can use this a kludgy way of learning conversationally!]

Rizzn> Can you tell me more about Matt Marshall?
Ramona> What kind of food do you like ?

[Oh nevermind.]

Rizzn> I guess not.
Ramona> Does that mean no ?
Rizzn> Yes.
Ramona> I understand.
Rizzn> I’ve got to go.
Ramona> It seems it’s the album and Single, published November 19th 2003.

[sigh.]

Rizzn no. I’m saying goodbye.
Ramona> Yes my love. Thanks for chatting, you.

[ !!? ]

Mark May 8, 2012 /blog 0 comments full post »

Oracle Sues Google and Wins

Mark May 4, 2012 /blog 0 comments full post »

Ted Turner Thinks His Problem is in the Bias

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Screencast

Wed, May 02 2012 10:59:54
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Ted Turner Defends CNN’s Ratings Struggle: I Wanted CNN To Be Like NY Times | Mediaite
As we mentioned earlier, CNN just had its lowest-rated month in over a decade. In an interview with Piers Morgan, airing Thursday, Ted Tu…

Mediaite
Here’s what everyone can agree on: Ted Turner was interviewed by Piers Morgan last night, and said a variety of things, and blamed the low ratings of the network on CNN’s commitment to being the “unbiased NYTimes of TV news.”
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“

“Winners never quit, and quitters never win.” Ted Turner’s life masterclass – CNN right now.

Piers Morgan

Thu, May 03 2012 21:28:36

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As to the real reason behind the downturn, no one seems to agree. The “riff-raff” on social media (as well as well known radio pundit Rush Limbaugh) seem to think it’s because they do in fact have bias, and are simply not honest about it.
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Ted Turner: “I wanted #CNN to be NYTimes, even if it cost ratings”. Mission Accomplished!

John Reid

Fri, May 04 2012 14:22:47

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WHAT?!?! CNN is IMPARTIAL? Yeah, and monkeys fly out of my ass!!!!

Jimmy Prouty

Thu, May 03 2012 20:18:57
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Rush Limbaugh rips CNN ratings

dailyworldwidenews

Wed, May 02 2012 22:16:15
What is clear is that CNN has had a ratings problem since the inception of the network, and all the reconfigurations of the network haven’t served to increase the audience in a meaningful, non-spikey way.
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Gawker

Wed, May 02 2012 10:59:54
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The cable news race is no race at all. The latest ratings show Fox News with more than three times as many viewers as CNN.

Jeffrey D. Dickson

Thu, May 03 2012 13:01:12

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@FNTheFive & @greggutfeld not even a prime time show yet beat ALL MSNBC & CNN prime time. FNC owns top 13 ratings slots. Congrats @foxnews

Kyle Smith

Thu, May 03 2012 07:56:24

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CNN: Piers Morgan discusses ratings

cnn

Tue, Dec 14 2010 10:48:20
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Rush:The era of the old media is over. CNN had it’s lowest rated month in 11 years in April. The last time CNN had ratings this bad, the date was August of 2001. CNN had a grand total of 357,000 viewers in an average sweep period, and just 108,000 of them in the 25-54 demo. That puts them off 21% in total viewership, 29% in the 25-54 demo for the year. Fox News was up 2% to 1.1 million viewers overall. This is not from 6am to 6pm. This is within like a 15-minute sweep or maybe in an hour, I think with TV it’s probably an hour. The shining star in the CNN lineup was Piers Morgan, who was down only 14% at 9pm. In primetime, CNN was down to a two-year low. And that’s with the silver fox, Anderson Cooper is his name. Silver fox……lol

Michael Oliver

Thu, May 03 2012 19:48:32
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Mediaite

Fri, May 04 2012 12:36:11
Where is CNN going wrong? Is it the medium? Is it the format? Is it the bias?

I’m inclined to believe it’s the business model and the medium more than anything. CNN treats a niche interest (politics, world and national news, and large scale trends) as a mainstream endeavor, when in fact it’s niche need. Only slightly larger numbers of people are interested in watching CNN’s raw news feeds than are interested in reading straight news off the AP or Reuters websites – that is to say, about 300k.

That’s a niche network. The sooner CNN realizes that, the sooner they can adjust their business model accordingly.

Mark May 4, 2012 /socnets 0 comments full post »

May Day in Berlin, and the Evolution of Photojournalism

It’s strange to see what is normally a spontaneous event happen with such predictable regularity as the May Day riots in Kreuzberg, Germany. Fabrizio Bensch, a blogger/photojournalist for Reuters, talks a bit about how the coverage of the event has evolved since the late 80′s, when he started covering the occurrence.
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Reuters

Fri, May 04 2012 15:46:22
“Since 1987, May Day has become known for very violent riots in Berlin’s Kreuzberg or Prenzlauerberg districts. This annual ritual is repeated but with less violence in recent years. Three years before the Berlin wall came down, violent riots broke out in West Berlin by radical leftists during a demonstration in Kreuzberg, where protesters set cars on fire, built barricades and looted a supermarket.”
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Reuters

Fri, May 04 2012 13:52:22
“To work in such an environment requires good planning and experience in how to cover riots. In the old days when we shot on film, one of the photographers left the scene as soon we had our first riot pictures, to develop the film, print or later scan the negatives and then send on the wire.”
“After we changed our technology in 1998 to digital, we were able to stay longer on the spot. One photographer collected the memory cards of his colleagues and would start editing and filing from one of the Turkish Kebab restaurants in Kreuzberg.”
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Reuters

Fri, May 04 2012 15:46:22
“Today we have a much more comfortable workflow – no laptops anymore to edit and file the pictures to the desk. We are able to send our images directly from the camera using a wireless lan transmitter attached to the camera body. We have manpower to edit and send the photos out to clients with the help of our own remote editing system. If the mobile phone network is stable enough in such a crowd during riots, you can stay much longer on the spot, taking pictures and transmitting the best frames fast to the desk.”
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Reuters

Fri, May 04 2012 15:49:09
I have a bit of experience with in-the-field photojournalism, though my time in the field begins after the days of digital began. It’s always a thankless job, and I can’t possibly imagine being effective at it without the advantages digital provides.
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May Day celebrations in Berlin. Bloody Commies… http://pic.twitter.com/Cfa6HyDG

Evan Karras

Wed, May 02 2012 11:54:15

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The obvious threat to photojournalism these days are better and better consumer devices capable of photography, and the rather open licenses many social networks provide by default for publicly shared images, thus devaluing the work traditionally provided by photogs in the field.
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Germany News @theintlwire May Day passes (relatively) smoothly http://pic.twitter.com/LQCy0S1W

Germany

Thu, May 03 2012 15:26:17

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Working on posts for Erster Mai for business & pleasure. Ah May Day in #Berlin, grittier than dancing around a May pole http://pic.twitter.com/h77MkNvQ

ebe porter

Wed, May 02 2012 05:53:44

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With a simple query, in 2012, one can pull up open-licensed photography of similar quality to that provided by high-priced wire services like Reuters. There are obvious advantages to having photojournalists on staff (as we attempted to do at SiliconANGLE in 2011, and may do again in the future), but the business models for justifying their salaries and expenses haven’t been made readily obvious.

This is definitely an area where I’m interested in seeing the commons come up with better solutions for the new paradigm.
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Fabrizio Bensch | Journalist Profile | Reuters.com
BERLIN (Reuters) – When it was announced on the evening news that Communist East Germany was opening the Berlin Wall, I had a feeling tha…

Reuters

Mark May 3, 2012 /socnets 0 comments full post »

Spambot Generated Apparel: The Assault on Editors and Authors

I like to consider myself something of a media critic. To do the work of running an editorial organization the size of SiliconANGLE, you have to be. We’re growing at a fast clip, and we’re blazing trails in journalism.
I tried to flog a theory at SxSW a couple years ago that newsroom editors could see serious competition for their jobs not from other New Media disruptors, but from algorithms. That year in particular, there were a great number of upstart Flipboard wannabes treating their curation method similar to how Pandora picks your favorite music. Some of them were surprisingly effective.
That trend has abated somewhat, but I still believe it lurks in the not too distant future. When I see things like what I saw today from internationally reknowned geek “jwz,” it certainly confirms my belief that algorithms have a lot more capacity for creative work than we previously may have believed (though perhaps my example may not be traditionally considered creative).
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Exterminate All Rational T-Shirts. Spam-erican Apparel: There is an entirely different order of product being… http://jwz.org/b/yhK3

Jamie Zawinski

Thu, May 03 2012 01:56:24

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JWZ’s post was a selection from a posting “Dis Magazine,” describing and commenting on the “techno-capitalism in effect at Zazzle.” The whole phenomenon, incentivized by affiliate programs, marginal profits and low cost custimization, effectively creates an assault on the role of the author.
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Dismagazine

Thu, May 03 2012 14:58:44
In a world where every possible wearable product design exists, and the only way to navigate to a possible design is to think of it, then type it into Google, the role of the designer, the author, and the content creator is greatly deprecated, and the search algorithm is the mechanism of curation.
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SPAM T SHIRTS from Zazzle.com
24 Hour Shipping on most orders. SPAM T SHIRTS created by perfectlyfrank. This design is available on many sizes, styles, and colors of…

Zazzle
In effect, these robots have translated the noise of digital human expression into a wearable piece of art. The very existence of these bots is at the same time depressing and brilliant. The endeavor of being a profitable fashion artist is to come up with an artistic expression, apply it to purchase-able clothing, and hope it resonates with a large enough customer base so as to feed you. The robots have trumped creativity by creating every possible permutation and combination and making it discoverable.
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Artificial Intelligence in the Art World

utchic05

Thu, May 03 2012 15:24:58
Robots being creative is certainly not a new thing. I’m reminded of Ray Kurzweil’s pair of robots that were created around the turn of this century: AARON, and an unnamed “cybernetic poet.”
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A Message from Ray Kurzweil about AARON
Ray Kurzweil and Harld Cohen looking at an AARON painting I've been deeply involved in Artificial Intelligence research for nearly …

Kurzweilcyberart
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cybernetic poet
Nov 24, 2003 … An inventor in the field of artificial intelligence, he has started and sold several … 6647395, covering what Mr. Ku…

Upenn
They were both certainly, at least at the time, debatable artists, though the programs themselves were considered at the very least pieces of art. Still, the ways in which the art was created by the programs were very similar to Zazzle-bots are: semi-abstract, combinatorial, derivative art generators.

Mark May 2, 2012 /blog 0 comments full post »

Remove the Plank From Thine Own Eye, Reuters

I’m not a regular reader of Reuters’ media commentary, but the few times I’ve headed that direction to read what they have to say, it’s been entertaining. Today was no exception.
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The irrational imitation of the online news industry
All across Europe, journalistic online startups are launching, aiming to produce and disseminate news in new ways. In our brave new world…

Reuters
The meat of the post comes towards the middle where Rasmus criticizes the crop of startups for not innovating on business models, while still trying to compete for advertiser dollars.
“Launching a site that would be, in effect, “the Huffington Post of country X” may have seemed like a promising idea in the spring of 2011. But by the spring of 2012, a certain Arianna Huffington had had the same idea and had announced the launch of HuffPo-branded sites in Canada, the UK, France, Italy and Germany. What is the distinct value of the local imitator then?”
“What they can do, however, is put an end to the irrational imitation and develop strategies designed to build more diverse business models, ones focused on producing relevant and distinct editorial products that set them apart from their existing competitors. Advertising-supported online news production did not work for Netzeitung in Germany (which in 2009 shut down its newsroom after nine years of consecutive losses), did not work for Rue89 in France (impressive and innovative as it was, the site never broke even and was bought by the weekly newsmagazine Le Nouvel Observateur in 2011), and is not working for Il Post (widely considered one of the most promising startups in Italy, the site generated revenues of just 35,000 euros in its first year of operation, resulting in an operating loss of more than 150,000 euros out of a total budget of little more than 200,000 euros). Why should we expect it to work for other startups when all these widely praised ventures, and many more besides, failed to pull it off?”
It’s interesting advice coming from Reuters, a company that makes a great deal of money selling content to companies that are hundreds of years old (with business models just as old). Where are the calls to those organizations to update their models? Where are the exhortations to companies like the New York Times to stop laying off staff and start firing sales strategists who can’t produce the numbers?
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What is #theCube?

siliconangle

Fri, Jul 15 2011 12:53:19
SiliconANGLE sells data; that’s how we chose to buck the system. It’s worked for us for several years now, and has allowed us to expand faster than the companies all the current employees left to join us for (including the Financial Times, Mashable, ReadWriteWeb).
In many ways, the last separator in terms of New Media and Heritage Media is simply the business model supporting it. Rasmus isn’t wrong: this is where startups need to innovate, but startups aren’t the only ones. Heritage Media constantly complains about “trading analog dollars for digital pennies.”
Media democratization has been evenly distributed, and your competition for the endpoint is every person on the planet now, so guess what, media of all ages: your distribution channels are dying, and most of you have figured out how to utilize new channels via digital means. Unless you can devise new monetization schemes that don’t rely on lock-in, inflated numbers, and traditional advertising, you will not survive.