Monday, May 22, 2017

We’re going to have to schedule more classes. 
All IT Jobs Are Cybersecurity Jobs Now
The rise of cyberthreats means that the people once assigned to setting up computers and email servers must now treat security as top priority


Trying to create a single, simple set of rules to define what is acceptable in every community around the world?  Good luck with that. 
Revealed: Facebook's internal rulebook on sex, terrorism and violence
Facebook’s secret rules and guidelines for deciding what its 2 billion users can post on the site are revealed for the first time in a Guardian investigation that will fuel the global debate about the role and ethics of the social media giant.
The Guardian has seen more than 100 internal training manuals, spreadsheets and flowcharts that give unprecedented insight into the blueprints Facebook has used to moderate issues such as violence, hate speech, terrorism, pornography, racism and self-harm.
   The Facebook Files give the first view of the codes and rules formulated by the site, which is under huge political pressure in Europe and the US.
They illustrate difficulties faced by executives scrabbling to react to new challenges such as “revenge porn” – and the challenges for moderators, who say they are overwhelmed by the volume of work, which means they often have “just 10 seconds” to make a decision.


I’m shocked, shocked I tell you!  Oh wait, I don’t do it either. 
Pew – Not everyone in advanced economies is using social media
by Sabrina I. Pacifici on May 21, 2017
“Despite the seeming ubiquity of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, many in Europe, the U.S., Canada, Australia and Japan do not report regularly visiting social media sites.  But majorities in all of the 14 countries surveyed say they at least use the internet.  Social media use is relatively common among people in Sweden, the Netherlands, Australia and the U.S.  Around seven-in-ten report using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, but that still leaves a significant minority of the population in those countries (around 30%) who are non-users.  At the other end of the spectrum, in France, only 48% say they use social networking sites.  That figure is even lower in Greece (46%), Japan (43%) and Germany (37%).  In Germany, this means that more than half of internet users say they do not use social media.  The differences in reported social media use across the 14 countries are due in part to whether people use the internet, since low rates of internet access limit the potential social media audience.  While fewer than one-in-ten Dutch (5%), Swedes (7%) and Australians (7%) don’t access the internet or own a smartphone, that figure is 40% in Greece, 33% in Hungary and 29% in Italy…”


Another disruption! 
Can Zillow ‘Uber-ize’ the hundred-billion-dollar real estate brokerage?
Earlier this month, when Zillow announced a record high quarter, projecting to surpass a billion dollars in revenue by the end of this year, many wondered whether the company, with its 75 percent online real estate audience market share and 171 million monthly users, can “Uber-ize” real estate agents, cutting out traditional brick-and-mortar brokerage middlemen in the same way Uber bypassed taxi dispatchers.
The answer is perhaps yes, but it’s not quite that straightforward.
   So-called “super agents,” who spend over $60,000 a year buying leads from Zillow and driving the company’s growth, are already spending more with Zillow than with Re/Max in desk fees, prompting accusations that Zillow is effectively collecting a “brokerage fee” without legally being a broker.
   Traditionally, brokerages have flaunted their trusted brands as a key value to agents.  But even as brokerages spend billions in marketing, with the Internet today providing most of the vital information brokers once did, as many as 97 percent of homebuyers and sellers now consider their branding to be irrelevant in hiring an agent.
Given that 3 out of 4 home shoppers now start their search with Zillow, the company sees a well-timed opportunity to close the “search-to-transaction” loop.  If Zillow is able to assume all the roles of a broker without legally being a broker, then brokers could find their role increasingly limited until, like notaries, they exist only to fulfil a simple legal function: an agent must be affiliated with a broker to be paid.


The laddie doth protest too much, methinks.  Note that he says, “am not” not “will not.”  He is starting to talk like a politician. 
Mark Zuckerberg: I’m not running for public office


For my Spreadsheet students.
Microsoft has packed Excel with all kinds of different ways to get things done quicker.  However, you can’t take advantage of these features if you don’t know about them.
These ten techniques may only save you a few seconds every time you use them.  That might not sound like much, but if you can integrate them into your workflow, you’re sure to reap the benefits over time.


Probably not in my case, but a noble effort.
The web has brought scientific knowledge at our fingertips.  But how do you make sense of it all?  How can you even begin to understand complex papers without the requisite education and training?
Call upon the aid of artificial intelligence and meet Iris.AI.  It’s a tool that gives you a shortcut to all the science that’s out there on the web.  It acts as a science assistant and makes sense of any openly available scientific paper you come across.
   Iris makes research a lot simpler.  It identifies key points in the abstracts of a paper.  The algorithm then organizes concept maps with the key points.  And finally, it gives you access to the most relevant research papers which it groups by the concepts.


I rarely look at my blog statistics.  Last time I looked, Poland read my blog more than any other country.  This time it’s Russia.  What am I doing wrong/right?   

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