Monday, July 23, 2012


Unfortunately, I suspect this would work some small percentage every time...
"Many Aussies across New South Wales and South Australia had a bit of a shock this morning when they received an SMS threatening them with assassination. Although somewhat varied, the messages have typically read, 'Someone paid me to kill you. If you want me to spare you, I'll give you two days to pay $5000. If you inform the police or anybody, you will die, I am monitoring you', and signed with the e-mail address killerking247@yahoo.com. Police and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission have warned that the messages are almost certainly fake, and that no dialogue should be entered into with scammers."
I hope "almost certainly" is droll understatement.


Always looking for cautionary tales for my Statistics students.
Lies, Damn Lies, And Statistics About Privacy Hysteria


We've only been providing public power for what, 150 years? About time we stopped guessing and started analyzing.
July 22, 2012
Big Data, Bigger Opportunities: Plans and Preparedness for the Data Deluge
News release: "Smart grid deployments are creating exponentially more data for utilities and giving them access to information they’ve never had before. Accessing, analyzing, managing, and delivering this information – to optimize business operations and enhance customer relationships – is proving to be a daunting task. Somewhere in this data deluge lies the path to greater efficiencies, but how will access to this new data change the way utilities drive their businesses? Will predictive analytics spur operational change? Oracle recently surveyed 151 North American senior-level executives at utilities with smart meter programs in place and gauged their perceptions on the business impact of “big data,” preparedness to handle data growth, and plans to extract optimal business value from this data to better target, engage with and serve customers. The "Big Data, Bigger Opportunities" report is the first in Oracle's “Utility Transformations” series, which will examine how utilities use information generated from smart grid deployments to drive greater organizational efficiency, more reliable service, and stronger customer relationships."

(Related)
July 22, 2012
From Overload to Impact: An Industry Scorecard on Big Data Business Challenges
"IT powers today’s enterprises, which is particularly true for the world’s most data-intensive industries. Organizations in these highly specialized industries increasingly require focused IT solutions, including those developed specifically for their industry, to meet their most pressing business challenges, manage and extract insight from ever-growing data volumes, improve customer service, and, most importantly, capitalize on new business opportunities. The need for better data management is all too acute, but how are enterprises doing? Oracle surveyed 333 C-level executives from U.S. and Canadian enterprises spanning 11 industries to determine the pain points they face regarding managing the deluge of data coming into their organizations and how well they are able to use information to drive profit and growth.
  • 94% of C-level executives say their organization is collecting and managing more business information today than two years ago, by an average of 86% more
  • 29% of executives give their organization a “D” or “F” in preparedness to manage the data deluge
  • 93% of executives believe their organization is losing revenue – on average, 14% annually – as a result of not being able to fully leverage the information they collect.
  • Nearly all surveyed (97%) say their organization must make a change to improve information optimization over the next two years.
  • Industry-specific applications are an important part of the mix – 77% of organizations surveyed use them today to run their enterprises…and they are looking for more tailored options."


For my Students. Intros to many online tools including Facebook and Linkedin...
Index of Tools

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