But can it handle a mom with two or three “free ranging” kids?

https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/21/inside-amazons-surveillance-powered-no-checkout-convenience-store/

Inside Amazon’s surveillance-powered no-checkout convenience store

By now many have heard of Amazon’s most audacious attempt to shake up the retail world, the cashless, cashierless Go store. Walk in, grab what you want, and walk out.

… As you might have seen in the promo video, you enter the store (heretofore accessible to Amazon employees only) through a gate that opens when you scan a QR code generated by the Amazon Go app on your phone. At this moment (well, actually the moment you entered or perhaps even before) your account is associated with your physical presence and cameras begin tracking your every move.

The many, many cameras.

… the system is made up of dozens and dozens of camera units mounted to the ceiling, covering and recovering every square inch of the store from multiple angles. I’d guess there are maybe a hundred or so in the store I visited, which was about the size of an ordinary bodega or gas station mart.

… The images captured from these cameras are sent to a central processing unit (for lack of a better term, not knowing exactly what it is), which does the real work of quickly and accurately identifying different people in the store and objects being picked up or held. Picking something up adds it to your “virtual shopping cart,” and you can pop it in a tote or shopping bag as fast as you like. No need to hold it up for the system to see.

For my Data Management students looking for jobs? “Show me the money!” Reads like the course outline.

https://venturebeat.com/2018/01/21/show-me-your-data-the-new-precondition-to-mas/?google_editors_picks=true

Show me your data — the new precondition to M&As

In 2017, the total value of merger and acquisitions (M&As) exceeded three trillion dollars. Some of the more notable M&As in the past year include Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods, Intel’s purchase of autonomous vehicle tech firm Mobileye, and Verizon’s acquisition of Yahoo, which became a high-profile example of the cost undisclosed data breaches have on valuations — in this case a $350 million drop in the final price tag.

To better prepare for the growing threat against corporate, customer, and employee data, companies are enforcing new data management and protection practices. One such change is the practice of requiring that each party in an M&A transaction demonstrate compliance with industry privacy and security standards before finalizing a deal. Under the new precondition, buyers and sellers are making more granular requests for visibility into the other side’s entire information repository and lifecycle to safeguard their own business assets and brands.

Tools for my Data Management students.

https://www.programmableweb.com/news/programmablewebs-most-interesting-apis-2017-big-data-and-analytics/brief/2017/12/24?google_editors_picks=true

ProgrammableWeb's Most Interesting APIs in 2017: Big Data and Analytics

Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?
Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here.
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Renault: Oh. Thank you very much. Everybody out at once.

https://www.bespacific.com/report-secret-origins-of-evidence-in-us-criminal-cases/

Report – Secret Origins of Evidence in US Criminal Cases

Human Rights Watch Report – Secret Origins of Evidence in US Criminal Cases

“In the United States today, a growing body of evidence suggests that the federal government is deliberately concealing methods used by intelligence or law enforcement agencies to identify or investigate suspects—including methods that may be illegal. It does so by creating a different story about how agents discovered the information, and as a result, people may be imprisoned without ever knowing enough to challenge the potentially rights-violating origins of the cases against them. Through a practice known as “parallel construction,” an official who wishes to keep an investigative activity hidden from courts and defendants—and ultimately from the public—can simply go through the motions of re-discovering evidence in some other way. For example, if the government learned of a suspected immigration-related offense by a person in Dallas, Texas, through a surveillance program it wished to keep secret, it could ask a Dallas police officer to follow the person’s car until she committed a traffic violation, then pull her over and start questioning her—and later pretend this traffic stop was how the investigation in her case started… This report recommends that the US executive branch prohibit all government departments and agencies from engaging in or contributing to parallel construction efforts, and disclose all policies related to the concealment of sources or evidence. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (“ODNI”) should also publicly and fully disclose all policies and legal interpretations of the intelligence agencies that may affect criminal defendants or others involved in proceedings before US courts or tribunals. Additionally, the US Congress should require the disclosure to criminal defendants of complete information about the origins of the investigations in their cases, with special procedures as necessary to address classified information or information whose disclosure may jeopardize the safety of identifiable human informants…”

Tools for students.

5 Uncomplicated Note-Taking Web Apps to Be More Productive