Monday, October 08, 2018

Aweekstweets July 20 to October 8 2018: the weeks that just slipped into eternity



RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Janis Joplin "Women Is Losers" from The Essential Janis Joplin (disc 1) JK--1967. Actually, a feminist message. Listen till the end.


RT @KEXPNowPlaying #kexp Hoyt Axton "California Women" from Country Funk, Volume 2: 1967-1974 JK--1971. This classic singer-songwriter could do no wrong!


Americans’ geographic ignorance is startling. “You got out of Indonesia just in time, that tsunami,” said the guy at Trader Joe. Actually, Jakarta is as far from Palu as San Francisco is from Albuquerque.


Another visit to the fitness club, another bout of enduring management’s programming of cable sports or news on the main monitors and overplayed crap pop hits on endless overhead loops. I bring my devices & buds to tune it all out.


Took no photos in my barely 24 hours in Houston. Only my second time ever in the city. I’m slightly unnerved by the contrast between the gleaming downtown and griminess of the surrounding city. And it has the ugliest highway ramps I’ve ever seen.


"AI and Algorithmocracy: What the Future Will Look " (http://ow.ly/yo3g30m7z2v ) JK--Wrongheaded concept, unpronounceable term for it, and idiotic painting in this blog. Future will only be as democratic as humans will it to be. We'll bend algorithms to our preferred polis


"Instilling the Best of Human Values in AI" (http://ow.ly/SqYv30m7yP5 ) JK--I think we should focus on instilling them in humans first.


"Elon Musk tweets out a new name for the SEC" (http://ow.ly/2EJx30m7ykE ) JK--Whew! At least it has nothing to do with child molestation.


"Boomers Retire, Knowledge Goes With Them" (http://ow.ly/n8Na30m7yd9 ) JK--Serving notice to you young punks that we INVENTED knowledge. So don't get any funny ideas about taking over from here on in. Check the vast knowledge corpus we're leaving for you before you do anything dumb


Worked two consulting jobs this week. Saw another one come to fruition. Did I recently take a long overseas vacation? That was another (two) continent(s).


New jk #Wikibon research note: "Building Resilient Data Multiclouds" (http://ow.ly/lKiu30m7pDI )


"MLflow Opens Up to R" (http://ow.ly/lIrZ30m7gX8 ) JK--Databricks-based open source for manage ML DevOps workflows. Packages code as reproducible runs, executes & compares 100s of parallel experiments on any hardware or software platform, including on prem and cloud.


"Expert Interview (Part 3): James Kobielus on the Future of Blockchain, AI, Machine Learning, and GDPR" (http://ow.ly/2u1e30m76fn )


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Dum Dum Girls "Bedroom Eyes" from Only in Dreams JK--2011. This one always makes me shiver with delight.


“Trump climbed the steps of Air Force One with a thin piece of paper stuck to his shoe” (https://amp.businessinsider.com/trump-shoe-toilet-paper-napkin-stuck-air-force-one-2018-10 …) JK--Technically, it wasn’t toilet paper. He was wiping his ass with the Constitution.
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"Cellular automata as convolutional neural networks" (http://ow.ly/TvwA30m61jo ) JK--Will this innovation collapse AI's longstanding distinction between evolutionary algorithms and statistical algorithms?


Cloudera and Hortonworks merging. Hadoop's bloom is off the rose. Big data isn't the mania it was. I suggest reverting to the older technical term: "oodles of info." Slightly longer, but  fun to say.


"Partners Look to Scale ‘Chomsky Knowledge Graph’" (http://ow.ly/8z2c30m5Z7D ) JK--Cool. I'd  to see Chomsky's mental graph of America's "awesome propaganda machine," per this Oct 2 1979 Michigan Daily article authored by Mary Gaitskill, alongside my own busker review.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Townes Van Zandt "I'll Be Here in the Morning" from For the Sake of the Song JK--1968. Classic country-folk. Fort Worth native.


Does anybody have a presidential-alert blocker handy for me to download? I need it before 2:18pm ET today. I expect that the national crisis to which we’ll be alerted will have something to do with assaults on the reputation of that fine man Brett Kavanaugh.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Liz Phair "Supernova (edit)" JK--1994. Online source puts lyric as "your lips are sweet and slippery  a cherub's bare wet ass." I always misheard it as "sheriff's bearded ass." Either way: disturbing.


"20 Years of IT Conferences: How Tech's Mega-Events Have Evolved" (http://ow.ly/i7YT30m480V ) JK--They're less fun now, but there's livestreaming and other online media to help you absorb , social media keeps you up-to-speed on what you miss, &  work gets done


"6 tools to tame your hybrid cloud " (http://ow.ly/jocC30m47dt ) JK--Before long, every enterprise cloud administrator will be well-versed in the leading tools for managing bridged private/public cloud hybrids.


"Jenkins on Kubernetes is promising, but integration needs work" (http://ow.ly/QgxW30m46Kv ) JK--Cloud Native Jenkins will be essential for DevOps in this new era of ubiquitous microservices containerization.


"Tim Berners-Lee unveils Solid, an open source project to decentralize the web and give users control of their data, and Inrupt, a startup to guide the project" (http://ow.ly/tKiA30m469v ) JK--He should hire the Pied Piper team to build it & keep it away from the evil Gavin Belson


"Building safe AI: specification, robustness, & assurance" (http://ow.ly/JumA30m45jV ) JK--DeepMind provides useful framework for technical AI safety. See also my recent Dataversity piece:


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Nice As Fuck "Runaway" from Nice as Fuck JK--2016. I hope this Jenny Lewis project puts out  music. Seriously tight and memorably snappy rock with attitude. Ballsy name.


"Google confirms Dragonfly project in Senate hearing, dodges questions on China plans" (http://ow.ly/BFB230m44Cw ) JK--No easy answers here. Is a US-based company expected to push a "Radio Free Europe" operating model of counterpropaganda overseas?


"What’s new in Kubernetes containers" (http://ow.ly/8AkO30m44c6 ) JK--Great rollup by Serdar Yegulalp. This may seem  a lot of arcane details, but this is effectively the kernel of the operating system for our new multicloud world.


"Microsoft’s SQL Server gets built-in support for Spark and Hadoop" (http://ow.ly/4FhY30m43e7 ) JK--Telling detail: "SQL Server 2019 will support these big data clusters with the help of the Google-incubated Kubernetes container orchestration system."


"What’s New for Apache Spark on Kubernetes in the Upcoming Apache Spark 2.4 Release " (http://ow.ly/hQtp30m42Vo ) JK--Further proofpoint in the ongoing containerization of the big data analytics ecosystem.


"Expert Interview (Part 2): James Kobielus on Blockchain’s Sweet Spot in Practical Business Use Cases" (http://ow.ly/bYLH30m3ZOW )


"Five steps to tackle big graph data visualization" (http://ow.ly/uI9f30m3ZgR ) JK--Very important set of optimization techniques as graph models begin to consume  compute resources and  of our human attention span.

"Introducing Petastorm: Uber ATG’s Data Access Library for Deep Learning" (http://ow.ly/SFY530m3YWL ) JK--Very cool. A data layer optimized for continual distributed training of AI models for DevOps.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp T. Rex "Bang a Gong (Get It On)" from Electric Warrior JK--1971. Good song, but they lost me on "you're built  a car, you've got a hub cap diamond star halo." That sounds   mechanical engineering than sexual innuendo.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp dvsn "Morning After" from Morning After JK--2017. Love this moody electronic soul dance track.


RT @KEXPNowPlaying #kexp The Dead Milkmen "Punk Rock Girl" from Beelzebubba JK--1988. If this isn't Nerd Rock, nothing is. BTW nerds, "California Dreaming" is by The Mamas and The Papas, not the Beach Boys. Shame on you! I need you to issue a correction on the lyric.


RT @KEXPNowPlaying #kexp Big Mama Thornton "Hound Dog" JK--1952. Say what you will about Elvis' version, this song makes  sense sung by a woman: it's from the point of view of a lady fending off some no-account's sexual advances. Big Mama rocks it!


"Expert Interview (Part 1): James Kobielus on Separating Blockchain Hype from Reality" (http://ow.ly/WbC830m2SS6 )


"New working group aims to bring Kubernetes to IoT edge networks" (http://ow.ly/ZCaU30m2LeM ) JK--CNCF + Ecliipse. I'd be surprised if Eclipse doesn't bring its Ditto digital twin/device-as-a-service project into this. See my recent piece:


"Deep Learning Framework Power Scores 2018" (http://ow.ly/4bZv30m2KwQ ) JK--TensorFlow + Keras seem to be running away with this.


"What China Can Teach the U.S. About Artificial Intelligence" (http://ow.ly/gqMm30m2KcV ) JK--This POV disturbs me. Argues that China's AI advantage is not so much in the amount of data that their data scientists have access to but the intrusiveness (aka "depth") of that data.


"Millions of things will soon have digital twins" (http://ow.ly/gLuG30m2JOq ) JK--Yes, and those will be used to orchestrate things/devices in amazing distributed ensembles. See my recent InformationWeek column on device-as-a-service:


"NetApp Kubernetes Service launched to orchestrate containers" (http://ow.ly/eN4630m2JAj ) JK--Storage containerization is remaking the fabric of distributed data management all the way to the cloud's finer edges.


"The Secret Behind the New AI Spring: Transfer Learning" (http://ow.ly/yDoq30m2IWK ) JK--Yeah, it's key to AI-model reuse. But can we please lose this "spring" vs. "winter" metaphor regarding this tech? It reeks of manifest destiny and all that historical-determinism nonsense.


"Just Months Old, a Game-Playing A.I. Takes on the World" (http://ow.ly/p41n30m2Hwf ) JK--And here's my August 30 InfoWorld column on the OpenAI Five DotA challenge:


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard "The Fourth Colour" from Live at KEXP JK--2018. Melbourne group I neglected to mention while I was in Melbourne last week. Yeah, they're from Melbourne too.


"Predictive Analytics in DevOps: Apps & Benefits" (http://ow.ly/wjUz30m2H3E ) JK--Predictive log analysis for application quality enforcement, application delivery security, application performance in production, reduction of alert storm floods, and production failure prevention.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Ray LaMontagne "Homecoming" from Ouroboros JK--2016. Nice recessive one from the sensitive, bearded singer-songwriter dude.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp La Luz "Cicada" from LIVE at KEXP JK--2018. Love these ladies' killer spaghetti-western vibe on this. The video, with its long sequence of fake TV-show opening credits, is a perfect one to watch over and over.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Prince "17 Days" from Piano & A Microphone JK--2018. Posthumous release. Excellent.


"Artificial Intelligence Can Reinforce Bias, Cloud Giants Announce Tools For AI Fairness" (http://ow.ly/33Hv30m2FBN ) JK--Highlights anti-bias tools from Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, & IBM. See my InformationWeek column from May on the topic:


"Why building your own Deep Learning Computer is 10x cheaper than AWS" (http://ow.ly/KpWq30m2FoP ) JK--This is homebrew-a-go-go for the serious AI hardware-acceleration geek/hacker/innovator.


"Identify mutable and immutable infrastructures in action" (http://ow.ly/9Q5W30m2F1o ) JK--The spread of microservices and edge computing to nanodevices will tip the balance toward immutable infrastructure. Every component gets refreshed in toto rather than mutably modified in situ


RT @KEXPNowPlaying #kexp Empress Of "When I'm With Him" from Trust Me Baby JK--2018. I hope this becomes a big radio hit. I want to hear it over and over.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp iLe "Te Quiero con BugalĂș" from Ilevitable JK--2016. Swinging Latin sounds from a Grammy-winning LP.


"Azure’s new machine learning features embrace Python" (http://ow.ly/lePt30m2EgO ) JK--Microsoft making significant strides in automated ML with distributed training, FPGA-accelerated inferencing, container-based model management, and DevOps for data science pipelines.


4Q. Fork you. Today's the first day of either the most obscene time of the year, or the beginning of the season in which open-source developers are given license to take their code as proprietary as their little hearts desire (which would be an obscenity in its own right).


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Hot Chip "These Chains" from In Our Heads JK--2012. A perfect early morning groove.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Low "Fly" from Double Negative jk--2018. Lovely, chill. A nice bit of ambience for early autumn back in the northern hemisphere.


RIP Marty Balin. Founder of Jefferson Airplane and male pop-honed tenor voice that defined their classic sound from the start. His duets with Grace were electric and he authored many of their best songs. 


Doing work while on overseas vacation was the perfect middle-of-night jetlag remedy. It put my head into a timezone of its own for several hours at a clip.


Enjoyed our overseas trip. But got a bit tired of Trump entering seemingly every conservation over there too. Enough already!


Hey Alaska Airlines: the SFO -> IAD final leg of my journey home last night was uncomfortable. Let's focus on those stupid recessed-handset arm-rests: how do you expect someone's elbow to relax into that? Thank goodness my wife had a neckrest pillow I could adapt for that.


Caught the 2-hour HBO documentary retrospective on Robin Williams on the Emirates flight from Melbourne to Singapore yesterday. Didn't quite answer why he was such a brilliant comedic actor, but I don't think such things are answerable.


Caught 1st few season 1 episodes of "The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel" on the Singapore Airlines flight home yesterday. Terrific. The characters were all exceptionally well sketched and the pace kept me tuned into every turn of events. Transgressive feminist stand-up ~60 years ago


Connecting in SFO. Coming from Melbourne via Singapore. Ironically, they’re playing Men At Work “Down Under” overhead. I hadn’t heard it before on this trip.


Watched the documentary "Won't You Be My Neighbor?"on the flight from Melbourne to Singapore. Fred Rogers was one serious empath. His wife and sons sound slightly in awe of him.


"Five Characteristics of a Data-Driven Company" (http://ow.ly/7qg730lZbhq ) JK--Irina Peregud quotes me.


"Former Google CEO predicts the internet will split in two — and one part will be led by China" (http://ow.ly/x6bh30lXllQ ) JK--I dunno. Doubtful whether other nations will acquiesce to PRC leadership's demands to censor PRC-unfriendly news from their domestic Internets.


"Microsoft Delivered a Ton of GA Releases at Ignite: Here They Are" (http://ow.ly/XNET30lXl2k ) JK--I'm glad somebody compiled these into a single article. Hard to keep up with what they're doing on every level.


"Benchmarking RL Algos on Real-World Robots" (http://ow.ly/NhgN30lXjCJ ) JK--Standard suites enable researchers to benchmark effects of hyperparameter & other choices, and running on real-world platforms helps understand how well these algorithms deal with robotics challenges.


"Microsoft Ignite 2018: 7 New Azure And IoT Products, Features" (http://ow.ly/wouC30lXjn5 ) JK-- automated ML and public previews of SQL Svr 2019, Azure SQL DB Hyperscale, Azure Data Explorer, Azure Digital Twins, Azure Data Box Edge, and Azure Sphere.


"Gmail's Smart  is an example of what real AI will look  for frontline workers" (http://ow.ly/SyAQ30lXiH4 ) JK--I've seen a few of those auto-suggests and I'm starting to dis them as much as spam. Just another distraction. Hopefully they'll get better in the future.


"Machine Learning Confronts the Elephant in the Room" (http://ow.ly/rKfs30lXilx ) JK--Computer vision AI focusing selective attention in a crowded environment. See this post of mine:


"Cisco: How AI & machine learning are going to change your network" (http://ow.ly/SHFl30lXhWh ) JK--Having encrypted traffic end2end, identify that there’s malware in that traffic without decrypting that content, building sanctioned connectivity graph to drive whitelisting policy


"AI Chips Put to Data Center Tests" (http://ow.ly/2VPI30lXhvM ) JK--Data centers are ly to adopt multiple AI accelerator hardwares, each mapped to specific workloads that they best fit. Some apps use as many as 20 types of neural nets, making cross-model flexibility a must.


"Help! I can’t reproduce a machine learning project!" (http://ow.ly/IYBr30lXh7u ) JK--Check out my latest InfoWorld column on this very topic: http://ow.ly/oZMP30lXh8C .


"Microsoft acquires Lobe to help bring AI development capability to everyone" (http://ow.ly/KyAm30lXgXZ ) JK--What will be impressive is when small children can create powerful AI apps in the act of play, and then build on them  the coolest constructive toy in all creation.


"Talend Speeds Apache Spark and Machine Learning Implementations without Coding" (http://ow.ly/8Ju130lXgLr ) JK--Throws its hat into the ever crowded data science toolchain solution arena.


New jk #InfoWorld column: "How to solve AI’s reproducibility crisis" (http://ow.ly/eGSV30lWwkJ )


"The building blocks of cloud-native application development" (http://ow.ly/jsYV30lWp01 ) JK--Good piece suggests that there should be a standard maturity model for cloud-native computing.


My favorite thing about traveling the world is looking up and seeing that the sky is still blue, the sun still moves from east to west, and that children still talk out of turn.


"IKEA designs future autonomous cars that work as hotels, stores, & meeting rooms" (http://ow.ly/rd2Q30lWnPs ) JK--Use them in every way we now live/work aboard airplanes, trains, buses, ships, etc. Not inconceivable that people will use them as primary residence, a la houseboats


"Adobe continues innovating storytelling with AI" (http://ow.ly/CBW830lWcY1 ) JK--Makes you kinda wonder how the Goldilocks story would've been written if she'd've had access to a porridge-temperature sensor and optimization algorithm.


"How Nvidia is using its autonomous car platform to drive into health care" (http://ow.ly/JAX630lWcUo ) JK--Project Maglev: uses semi-autonomous methods originally developed for self-driving cars to automate collection and labeling of data for many other apps.


"Alexa and Google can tell Eufy's new RoboVac to get cleaning" (http://ow.ly/vxFG30lWcQs ) JK--Pure overkill for a housekeeping chore that people with reasonably tidy habits only need to do once a month or so, and for which a whisk and dustpan are often sufficient (and cheaper).


I love Melbourne’s system of free trams for trips within downtown. Great way to keep people there longer, combining shopping, dining, sightseeing, and other personal business. Fosters a lively community atmosphere.


Melbourne has a great Chinatown. A fairly large one with several arches and block after block of restaurants with buzzy foot traffic. Significantly 20-something and affluent in demographics.


Having a pleasant time on my overseas vacation. I’ve experienced a summer equivalent in Indonesia, late winter and early spring in Australia, and vicarious back-home autumn. A full year’s worth of ambience.


New jk #InformationWeek column: "Device-as-a-Service Will Power the Access Economy" (http://ow.ly/EMRl30lUYKX )


"If Software Ate the World, What In the World Happens Next?" (http://ow.ly/wzgm30lUMWj ) JK--Software would puke it right back up. The world's a pretty disgusting place.


I’ve prepared one consulting deliverable, two articles, and nine poems on this Indonesia/Australia trip, which is mixing pleasure and work in a weird blur of nights of restlessness and deep snoring sleep.


RT @KEXPNowPlaying #kexp Emmylou Harris "Deeper Well" from Wrecking Ball JK--1995. Love this. Sounds  a dark night of the soul.


"This blockchain-based company got $30M to build a ‘new internet’" (http://ow.ly/CeJe30lSRlQ ) JK--That overstates it by a wide margin. DADI is one of several P2P compute brokering initiatives that use blockchain. See my recent InformationWeek article:


"Strata NYC 2018: AI, data governance, containers and production-ready data lake" (http://ow.ly/3wex30lSPCt ) JK--Covers announcements by Cloudera, Information Builders, Trifacta, Sprint, Rubrik, Hortonworks, Waterline Data, MapR, Alation, Okera, SAP, Dataiku, and Nvidia.


"AI mashes up existing games to create new ones" (http://ow.ly/Z8ky30lSPhm ) JK--Analyzes levels of already developed games; converts them into a graph that lays out the environments, objects, and rules for a new video game; turns game graphs’ into new playable levels of a game.


Want to thank the fellow Yank who lent/gave me his North America-to-Australia AC adapter in a pinch. I brought two with me, but they both essentially went deep-six long before I went Down Under. You saved my computer-dependent traveler's tail.


Didn't realize how cold it can get in Australia. It's 46 degrees Fahrenheit this evening in the Melbourne area. I know this is still winter in the southern hemisphere. Glad our friends have a spare jacket for me to wear. Brrrr!!


First time in Australia. Yes, we declared everything (i.e, nothing that the authorities might find objectionable). I'm no Johnny Depp http://ow.ly/Trxg30lSsU3  .


While I'm in Indonesia, all the banner ads I'm seeing digitally in my Web, email, and mobile apps are in Bahasa. I'm sure there's a reason why. Advertisers are  interested in testing my language comprehension than pitching me products while I'm overseas.


"Moving Towards Autonomous Driving Networks" (http://ow.ly/OaLb30lQk2K ) JK--Interesting Huawei blog ties it to digital twin technology.


"Google Cloud's new AI chief is on a task force for AI military uses and believes we could monitor 'pretty much the whole world' with drones" (http://ow.ly/BeB830lQjQP ) JK--And this pretty much assures that guerillas everywhere will deploy ruthless anti-drone tactics.


"Introducing a New Framework for Flexible and Reproducible Reinforcement Learning Research" (http://ow.ly/1J7830lQj5O ) JK--Google Dopamine: TensorFlow-based supports fast RL-algo prototyping in "small, easily grokked codebase in which users can freely experiment with wild ideas"


"Using AI to Design Deep Learning Architectures" (http://ow.ly/hgHI30lQj0J ) JK--Much of IBM's most cutting-edge R&D in advanced AI approaches seems to be coming from their Ireland lab. Case in point.


"Baidu launches EZDL, an AI model training platform that requires no coding experience" (http://ow.ly/c5ha30lQiWV ) JK--I count a few dozen such solutions on the market. The number and variety will grow. Most will be as-a-service offerings.


"Cisco joins the AI hardware fray with new deep learning server powered by 8 GPUs" (http://ow.ly/YYFC30lQiO6 ) JK--Collab w/ Hortonworks to validate for Hadoop 3.1. Promising support for Kubeflow to make TensorFlow compatible with Kubernetes software container orchestration engine.


"Hortonworks, IBM, Red Hat Collaborate to Help Accel Containerized Big Data Workloads for Hybrid Architectures" (http://ow.ly/KJhl30lQiJH ) JK--AI ecosystem been shifting toward decoupled, orchestrated, containerized, hybridized for some time. See my 2017:


"Deep image reconstruction from human brain activity" (http://ow.ly/FnnD30lPYKv ) JK--Mind reading. Now you're blowing mine


"What-If Tool: Code-Free Probing of Machine Learning Models" (http://ow.ly/HR3730lPYIB ) JK--Cool new interactive feature in Google's TensorBoard to help data scientists understand their model better--e.g., how would changes to a datapoint affect the model’s predictions.


"Anatomy of an AI System" (http://ow.ly/8BP130lPYH2 ) JK--As far as I can tell, this weird diagram is intended to show the place of an AI-infused device (Amazon Echo) within the connected cosmic fabric of humanity, geology, ecology, and physics.


"Skydio Autonomy Platform brings R1 self-driving drone smarts to devs" (http://ow.ly/rfRI30lPYEb ) JK--Interesting drone AI development platform.


"Microsoft announces Azure DevOps, will succeed Visual Studio Team Services" (http://ow.ly/ed0s30lPXTi ) JK--Notice how integral their GitHub acquisition is to this. This will also be fundamental to Azure Machine Learning for DataOps, I'm expecting.


"AI can recognize images. But can it understand this headline?" (http://ow.ly/QdC630lPVyv ) JK--"“We’re never going to be able to get enough labeled data...We really need to develop models that take messy, unlabeled data and learn as much from it as possible.”


"Put on your dancing algorithm" (http://ow.ly/zuNS30lPVuc ) JK--"Do as I do" motion transfer: AI that could revolutionize how choreographers communicate their compositions, instruct dancers to enact them, & dancers visualize themselves doing so before they actually do it.


"Google unveils search engine for open data" (http://ow.ly/JCTE30lPVr9 ) JK--Does this mean they have no plans at any point in the future to make money from selling data that competes with free & freely discoverable alternative sources?


I sincerely hope that they doublecheck the number of deaths caused by Hurricane Florence. Wouldn’t want to make Donald Trump look bad.


“Kamar kecil.” The Bahasa Indonesia phrase literally means “small room.” I love non-literal idiomatic phrases for the place with the toilet. Makes our “rest room” seem less dumb, in context. I never rest there and I don’t care about its dimensions.


Been in several houses in the week I’ve been in Jakarta. Haven’t seen a single house gecko (cicak). Wondering why. I kind of miss the little guys. Or their song, at the very least.


Verbatim PR email intro: “Hey James, quick question for you: How much do you know about artificial intelligence?” Hey PR, quick question: Do you know how to type my name into a Google search box?


The driver performed flawlessly on our shortcut-intensive intra-city trip across Jakarta. Even in normal traffic on main roads, it’s usually a hair-raising odyssey of close calls.


Excellent 2-hour deep-tissue massage in central Jakarta. The girl really did me right. Couldn't have been  than 25. Wife was right next to me, getting hers. So don't get any funny ideas.


"We’re living in the Last Era Before Artificial General Intelligence" (http://ow.ly/Q5DF30lMB2b ) JK--Yep. End of days is approaching. No better time to rend our garments, let our eyes bug out, pull our hair out of our heads, and run screaming through the streets at dawn.


"7 Short-Term AI ethics questions" (http://ow.ly/rf0A30lMAWP ) JK--I don't see what's "short-term" about weaponization of AI. Death, destruction, tyranny, terrorism, and balance of power are pretty much for keeps. Don't relegate this discussion to namby-pamby anodyne "philosophy."


"Panacea or Alchemy the Truth About AI" (http://ow.ly/bn8E30lMASf ) JK--Apparently, Jason Silva has upgraded himself from "futurist" to "futurist/philosopher." I guess that gives him free range to make one breathlessly over-the-top prognostication after another.

"The Reality of Digital Twins for IoT" (http://ow.ly/bSSs30lMAMU ) JK--"A digital twin is the virtual representation of a physical asset. Some refer to a digital twin as the virtual doppelganger of a thing. I also  the analogy that a digital twin enables a device-as-a-service."


"Amazon has patented a system that would put workers in a cage, on top of a robot" (http://ow.ly/FW4l30lMAnI ) JK--Sounds perfect for 60s nostalgia installations where caged android go-go girls do the watusi above audio-animatronic re-enactments of Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs.


"The AI calculus – Where do ethics factor in?" (http://ow.ly/5AxC30lMrys ) JK--The data-science mainstream is to factor ethics in right after you've recouped your investment in AI + a tidy profit. Bu probably need to transfer financial suffering to "ethical" AI developers early on


"With $65M, ThinCI Joins Elite AI Startup Club" (http://ow.ly/SedN30lMroA ) JK--What's interesting about this article is the table showing how much funding is flowing to so many AI integrated circuit startups and how global this is (US, UK, India...)


"Amazon Rekognition Mistook Congressmen for Criminals? A Closer Look" (http://ow.ly/kqiu30lMqGt ) JK--It was ACLU's stunt. They didn't follow Amazon's recommended practices (says Amazon). And at what point are vendors responsible for customer misuse of their solutions?


"Models Will Run the World" (http://ow.ly/zt4Z30lM2sB ) JK--Will that be before or after they do their little turn on the catwalk?


"GitOps — Git Push All the Things" (http://ow.ly/aVIW30lM1U2 ) JK--Lists three principles of GitOps. But in fact there's really only one: "Better git while the gittin's good." Take it from me, pardner, if you know what's good for ya.


"Alibaba continues to gain cloud momentum" (http://ow.ly/XwFt30lLZ46 ) JK--I've already told several people on this Indonesia trip that Alibaba is the Asian cloud/AI powerhouse to watch.


"EmbodiedQA: A Facebook Challenge for Building Goal-Oriented, Autonomous AI Agents" (http://ow.ly/eL7T30lLYQx ) JK--"Finding right balance between perception, communication & action is key element to power goal-driven autonomous AI agents." Explaining while exploring and exploiting


RT @KEXPNowPlaying #kexp Ryan Adams "New York, New York" from Gold JK--2001. I remember when he did this on Saturday Night Live. I'm , who is that guy? he's great!


"Can ML and AI Tackle Fake News" (http://ow.ly/KAwZ30lLYde ) JK--Can they? You wouldn't know from reading this article. My piece a few months ago goes to the heart of the matter and dissects the approaches for doing so:


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers "Into the Great Wide Open" JK--1991. I was indifferent to Tom Petty till my nephew played his greatest hits while driving around Jakarta in 1994. Somehow, I listened differently when America was at a literal distance.


Maybe I'm an incorrigible analyst, but I'm not comfortable talking technology socially unless we can break it down to something highly specific that I actually have an informed opinion on. I don't enjoy indulging in attitudinal techno-blather that's not anchored in reality.


Trump vows to write a "real book." I'd be impressed if he could read a real book.


"It's time to establish big data standards" (http://ow.ly/3XFw30lLvQP ) JK--Oh, dear lord, please no. I was pulled into several of those industry initiatives in my last gig and found them an exercise in futility. People proliferate empty specifications that no one really needs.


RT @KEXPNowPlaying #kexp Kate Bush "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" from Hounds of Love JK--1985. The gorgeous, talented English singer-songwriter recently turned 60. If anyone deserves to be called a "diva" (in the best sense), it's Kate.


"AI camera shootout: Samsung Galaxy Note 9 vs Huawei Mate 10 Pro and LG G7" (http://ow.ly/rg3z30lLuTX ) JK--Auto-adjusts/improves the framing, lighting, contrast, color saturation, etc while you're pressing the shutter button.


"10 Hot AI-powered IoT startups" (http://ow.ly/jlSo30lLuKM ) JK--We've just seen the beginning in commercial and open-source edge-AI platforms, frameworks, tools, libraries, etc. This stuff is getting  fused into the physical world with every passing day.


"Consultants Saying Things - Episode 08: The One About Deep Learning" (http://ow.ly/DPw630lLupN ) JK--Me, Chris Lockhart, Bill Bensing, and Phil Yanov a few weeks ago. Thanks for engaging me. I enjoyed chatting on mic/camera with you guys.


RT @KEXPNowPlaying #kexp Bob Moses "Back Down" from Battle Lines JK--2018. Love this musical statement of personal resolve.


"When Bots Teach Themselves to Cheat" (http://ow.ly/3Vml30lK4IL ) JK--The pretext for that statement is that the bots were already instilled with a moral compass. To them, "cheating" is simply exploiting knowledge of the best path to their objective.


"A Robot Walks Into a Bar. But Can It Do Comedy?" (http://ow.ly/UYs630lK4H6 ) JK--Interesting. Here's a piece I published on my LinkedIn blog two years ago on  or less that same topic:


"RecoGym: A Reinforcement Learning Environment for the problem of Product Recommendation in Online Advertising" (http://ow.ly/xU2y30lK0Yq ) JK--Cool. Implicitly recognizes that  ad-optimization scenarios are "cold start" in a long-tail world of microsegmented products/customers


"Auto-Keras, or How You can Create a Deep Learning Model in 4 Lines of Code" (http://ow.ly/4b8g30lK0Wq ) JK--Before long, automation will be taken for granted in data science pipeline tools. You won't need to call it out.


"The next generation of AI assistants in enterprise" (http://ow.ly/1dML30lK0tB ) JK--Please assure us that this "autonomous organization of assistants" won't conspire against us. Just to be on the safe side.


"What do computers see?" (http://ow.ly/OQeg30lK0eL ) JK--Organically visualizing how artificial neural networks see for us. Far out, man!


"Q: Why Do Keynote Speakers Keep Suggesting That Improving Security Is Possible? A: Because Keynote Speakers Make Bad Life Decisions and Are Poor Role Models" (http://ow.ly/zzEn30lK030 ) JK--Now THAT dude knows how to title a keynote!!!!


"Microsoft’s TextWorld is the OpenAI Gym of Language Learning Agents" (http://ow.ly/whcR30lJYMV ) JK--Cool game-theoretic testbed that uses trial-and-error reinforcement learning to help NLP agents learn to chat fluidly using rich memory, contextual analysis and long-term planning


"Alibaba’s Jack Ma, China’s Richest Man, to Retire From Company He Co-Founded" (http://ow.ly/vsy730lJYzl ) JK--Totally cool. Once in a while, a plutocrat comes out as a human being with a heart as deep as his balance sheet.


"Beyond the hype, AI will spark a marketing renaissance" (http://ow.ly/x7sx30lJXRL ) JK--Beyond the marketing, AI has already sparked a hype renaissance. Why is no one discussing that? Let's hype it till people notice. Do I have to do this all by myself?


"Disrupting The Car: How Shared Cars, Bikes, & Scooters Are Reshaping Transportation And Cannibalizing Car Ownership" (http://ow.ly/Ayxa30lJXCW ) JK--They have every one of these options on the streets of Jakarta but the privately owned driver-only passenger cars abound nonetheless


"Venture Capital Funnel Shows Odds Of Becoming A Unicorn Are About 1%" (http://ow.ly/AoXE30lJXBJ ) JK--When the odds rise to 2%, they are legally required to refer to themselves as "duocorns."


"46 Corporations Working On Autonomous Vehicles" (http://ow.ly/1ltk30lJWvZ ) JK--I'd say this puts it well beyond fad territory, wouldn't you?


Caught "Please Stand By" inflight from Seoul to Singapore. Excellent story of young woman on the autistic spectrum and her struggle to see her "Star Trek" script entered in a contest. Dakota Fanning & Toni Collette are outstanding and quite sensitive in their portrayals.


Wonderful. iTunes finally fulfilled my preorder of Alison Statton and Spike’s latest LP “Bimini Twist” while I’m waiting for my connecting flight to Singapore/Jakarta. First impression: melodic, mystical, happy, bouncy, arty. I’ll post full review to my AS&S Facebook fanpage.


Watched the 2018 British film “Edie” inflight over the Pacific. Story of an embittered widowed elderly lady who decides to climb a mountain in northern Scotland alone. Love her grit.


Rewatched “Lost in Translation” on this overnight leg from LAX to Seoul. I never tire of it. One of the best movies of the 21st Century so far. Exceptionally beautiful and emotionally rich. Bill Murray is jet lag incarnate.


RIP Burt Reynolds. What I d about him was how he treated the whole macho swagger thing as a kind of lighthearted joke.


Waiting for our overseas connection at LAX's Tom Bradley International Terminal. My wife said "OMG! Why did they name a terminal after that football player?" I replied "Tom BRADLEY, not Tom BRADY....different guys....African-American mayor, not football-deflating player."


"Dexon raises $20 million to develop superspeed blockchain transaction network" (http://ow.ly/CdAg30lHVZ6 ) JK--Could potentially help blockchain break out of its niche status and support some core enterprise apps.


"DeepLocker demonstrates how AI can create a new breed of malware" (http://ow.ly/2YHj30lHVAo ) JK--"Avoids detection from malware scanners by hiding in normal apps...uses a deep neural net AI model to ensure that malicious payload is only unlocked once it reaches intended target"


"Khronos Releases NNEF 1.0 For Optimized Deployment of Trained Neural Networks" (http://ow.ly/9a3M30lHVnD ) JK--Industry consortium developed "open standard for hardware manufacturers to reliably deploy optimized, accelerated neural network inferencing onto diverse edge devices"


"A small team of student AI coders beats Google’s machine-learning code" (http://ow.ly/V6T530lHUHN ) JK--Article disappoints. They only automated some upfront image prep in order to speed training of an existing image classification model.


"Alexa and exoskeletons show how AI isn’t going to remake industries overnight" (http://ow.ly/teZQ30lHUCb ) JK--Actually, article undermines that thesis by hinting that AI-augmented employees might remake industries rapidly.


AWS has serverless functions integrated into its Greengrass architecture, so it's puzzling why #VMware didn't bring Dispatch, its open source serverless framework into its "Project Dimension" edge appliance story. Is Dispatch still alive? W... #vmworld2018


One of the questions I had after I published my #VWworld #Wikibon wrap: Why is Dell not building a "Project Dimension" hyperconverged appliance? Lenovo is the hardware provider on the current pre-alpha appliance. #vmworld2018


I agree with Stu that network virtualization is the cloud-to-edge glue within the extended software-defined data center. It's #VMware's chief asset going forward. But, as Burris, Floyer, and i agreed in our wrap, VMware needs real-time, str... #vmworld2018


My "trip report" wrap-up of #VMworld, summarizing my, Peter Burris', and David Floyer's Wikibon takeaways: https://siliconangle.com/2018/08/30/top-vmworld-2018-takeaways-wikibons-analysts/ … #vmworld2018








The @AWS @VMware partnership is deepening. What does it mean for the future of the data center? Will RDS on-prem challenge @Oracle DB dominance? Is VMware's edge strategy a winner? Live chat today: 11:50am US eastern: https://www.crowdchat.net/vmworld2018  @furrier @stu @plburris @dvellante



What's this stupid social "shaming" nonsense about an actor who moonlights at Trader Joe? Does anybody realize acting is rarely a steady, well-paying job? And is any retail employee consistently nicer/cooler than a Trader Joe associate? This should be a point of pride.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Ultravox "Dancing With Tears in My Eyes" from Lament JK--1984. Video shows this expressing the early '80s nuclear-scare theme, UK style, that barely registered in US pop of the period.


Reading back issues of the New York Times Book Review. Making a mental log of how many authors blame globalization for all the world’s problems. Alienation, westernization, secularization, and digitization are off the hook for now.


RT @KEXPNowPlaying #KEXP Shangri-Las “Remember (Walking in the sand)” JK--1964. Queens NY double sister-pair group. Fun fact: young session musician Billy Joel played in the original 7-minute demo.


Slept surprisingly well last night, both of us, in spite of the heat/humidity. Wouldn’t say we’re acclimated. It’s  of a matter of bone-deep exhaustion. A lassitudinous Labor Day leisure.


Donald Trump is just an abusive boss, writ national. Each of us needs to exercise whatever emotional skills we’ve developed to deal with such situations.


RIP Village Voice. I subscribed for a few years in my early 20s. Mostly for music reviews, but also for general NYC leftwing bohemian buzz. Clued me first to lots of obscure/cool bands. I would have gladly written for them.


Was a good and fairly intense week of work on the road. My last seven SiliconANGLE authored pieces have all been on the same topic, virtualization, of which data is just a thread, not the focus. I sense a turning point.


I’m going to propose a basic cable channel showing endless doctor dramas interrupted by nonstop pharmaceutical commercials. Call it “Sickness Central.”


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Cocteau Twins "Carolyn’s Fingers" from Blue Bell Knoll JK--1988. Probably one of the least-intelligible but most-memorable Elizabeth Fraser vocals. Entire album blew my mind upon first listen (on cassette!) & still does. My favorite from the Cocteaus.


Sweltering humidity is summer's bane in many parts of the US. But, when you go for a few days to an ultra-low-humidity desert clime  Las Vegas, you dearly miss your humidity. My parched sinuses were desperately seeking a mirage of luxuriant evaporation. Glad I'm home.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp The Beatles "A Day in the Life" from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band JK--1967. "Nobody was really sure if he was from the House of Lords." How could that be? Is the upper chamber of UK's Parliament a secret society of masked pseudonym'd aristocrats?


It will be interesting to see if Trump grows into the job of president. Such as maybe some day originating a policy proposal that isn’t a crass attempt to silence his political foes. That would be a sign of maturation.


New jk #SiliconANGLE blog: “Here are the top VMworld 2018 takeaways from Wikibon’s analysts” (https://siliconangle.com/2018/08/30/top-vmworld-2018-takeaways-wikibons-analysts/ …)


When TV news programs another human interest story, this human’s interest starts to wane. I don’t  being programmed.


New jk #Infoworld column: "Why gaming AI won’t help make AI work in the real world—but could" (http://ow.ly/PjcA30lCifq )


New jk #SiliconANGLE blog: "At #VMworld , VMware and Dell drive conversation on evolving virtualization from cloud to edge" (http://ow.ly/rw9c30lBVZ0 )


New jk #SiliconANGLE blog: “On #VMworld day two, VMware and Dell turn virtualization into tangible opportunities in edge computing” (https://siliconangle.com/2018/08/29/vmworld-day-two-vmware-dell-bridge-virtualization-tangible-opportunities-edge-computing/ …)


This era will end. The person fit to lead us in the next is whoever can help our society through the inevitable Post-Trump Stress Disorder.


My favorite awkward professional icebreaker question when I'm on business travel is "are you local?" Both parties to that question have to remind themselves where they currently are and are from. Everybody's local to somewhere, except world citizens, but even they carry passports


New jk #SiliconANGLE blog: "On #VMworld day one, VMware goes deep on multicloud virtualization" (http://ow.ly/h0GN30lAqZm )


"Day One Wrap #VMworld 2018" (http://ow.ly/lZyu30lzZNF ) JK--This afternoon. Dave, Stu, John, and me. #theCUBE


In none of my many previous trips to Vegas, even in the torrid heart of summer, do I recall it being 100°F and 5% humidity long after the sun has set. Holy shit!


Gelsinger: Announcing VSphere Platinum has built-in AppDefense. Announcing Adaptive Micro-Segmentation: integrating NSX and AppDefense, using AI/ML to learn normal app behavior, align policy to app, automate microsegmentation, lock down compute & network. #VMworld2018 #VMworld


Gelsinger: announcing Dell Provisioning for VMware Workspace ONE. #VMworld2018 #VMworld


O'Farrell: introducing Project Concord: a decentralized trust infrastructure for enterprise blockchains. Focuses on performance and scalabity to accelerate consensus algorithms. #VMworld #VMworld2018


#VMware Announces Intent to Acquire CloudHealth Technologies, a Global Platform for Multi-Cloud Operations http://bit.ly/2BRdg6g  #VMworld #VMworld2018


#AWS and #VMware Announce Amazon Relational Database Service on VMware http://bit.ly/2LvLtYH  #VMworld2018 #VMworld


O'Farrell: #VMWare and #Nvidia collaborating on using GPUs to accelerate virtual desktop infrastructure workloads. #VMworld #VMworld2018


Gelsinger: #VMware committed to supporting all industry Kubernetes distributions. #VMworld2018 #VMworld


Gelsinger: #VMware is the dial tone for Kubernetes. VMware PKS: rapidly deliver and operationalize next-gen apps. #VMworld2018 #VMworld


Gelsinger; best practice for running containers is in VMs. Kubernetes in VMs. Bridge those two worlds. #VMworld #VMworld2018


Gelsiinger/O'Farrell: Project Magna: leverages 100s of control points, using AI/ML to transform, optimize, & automate the "self-driving data center" to the edge. #VMworld #VMworld2018


Gelsinger/O'Farrell: Project Magna: leverages 100s of control points, using AI/ML to transform, optimize, & automate the "self-driving data center" to the edge.


Gelsinger: Announcing initial availability of VMware Cloud Automation Services. Enable developers with right set of services and governed access to any cloud. Cloud Assembly, Service Broker, Code Stream. #VMworld #VMworld2018


Gelsinger: Announcing acquisition of CloudHealth Technologies. Supports AWS, Azure, Google. Will make fundamental branded platform from VMware, enabling for enterprise, MSP, and VCPP partners. Manage, operate, and secure workloads in the cloud. #VMworld2018 #VMworld


Gelsinger: announcing Pulse 2.0, consumable as a service, scalable to support 500M device. Pulse + Workspace ONE on Project Dimension on VMware NSX SD-WAN. #VMworld2018 #VMworld


Gelsinger: Announcing Project Dimension: delivers VMware cloud simplicity to data center and edge. VMware clouid Foudantion in a hyperconverged appliance, hybrid cloud ontrol plan, VMware-opearted en-to-end. #VMworld #VMworld2018


Gelsinger: extended #VMware Hybrid Cloud further beyond private and public clouds to the edge. and delivers as a service on VMware Cloud Foundation. #VMworld #VMworld2018


Gelsinger: VMware Cloud Providers program has expanded to 4,200 cloud partners around the world. #VMworld #VMworld2018


Jassy: announcing Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) on VMware. Provision, scale, create replicas and online backups, etc. Will be available in a few months on Oracle, SQL Server, Postgres, etc. #VMworld #VMworld 2018


Gelsinger/Jassy: coming soon: Enterprise apps and containers (full NSX and Direct Connect, Enterprise App and License Migration, VMware PKS). #VMworld #VMworld2018


Jassy: Top use-case of VMware Cloud on AWS is customers migrating VMs from on-premises to the cloud. Gelsinger discusses data protection use cases, especially disaster recovery. #VMworld2018 #VMworld


Gelsinger bringing AWS CEO Andy Jassy on stage at #VMworld2018 #VMworld. Big partners. Jassy discussing what customers are doing with VMware Cloud on AWS.


Gelsinger: vSAN is the software-defined storage of choice for industry. #VMworld2018 #VMworld


Gelsinger: Hyper-converged infrastructure. Dell releasing PowerEdge MX servers. Validated hardware, integrated appliances, cloud providers. #vmworld2018 #vmworld


Gelsinger: #VMware Cloud Foundation, brings together public and private cloud in fully integrated software-defiend data center with consistent infrastructure and operations with integrated lifecycle management. #vmworld2018 #vmworld


Gelsinger: Tech superpowers: cloud, mobile, AI/ML, edge/IoT. Do , go faster. #VMworld2018 #VMworld


" #VMware new cloud services aim to automate operations across hybrid clouds" (http://ow.ly/USBg30lzwK9 ) JK--Quotes me. #vmworld2018 #vmworld


Gelsinger: bridging across multi-clouds. #VMworld2018 #VMworld


Gelsinger: bridging across private and public clouds. #VMworld2018 #VMworld


Gelsinger: NSX bridging across Cisco, Juniper, Brocade, and other hardware-based networks. #VMworld2018 #VMworld


Gelsinger: Workspace ONE bridging across siloed devices. #VMworld2018 #VMworld


Gelsinger: "bridging across silos of innovation." VMware ESX bridged across IBM, Dell, HP, and other servers. " a holy moment" in customers' lives & careers. #VMworld2018 #VMworld


Gelsinger shows off his #VMware tattoo. #VMworld2018 #VMworld


Pat Gelsinger, #VMware CEO kicks off #VMworld2018 #VMworld. Company founded 1998. 20th birthday party here now. Rolls the video.


#VMware New Cloud Operations Services Lead Digital Businesses to Multi-Cloud Success http://bit.ly/2oeNlf4  #VMworld2018 #VMworld


#VMware Delivers Broadest Platform for Modern Management in the Digital Workspace http://bit.ly/2odpVGT  #VMworld2018 #VMworld


#VMware Expands its Hybrid Cloud Portfolio with New Security and Developer-Friendly Infrastructure and Operations Management http://bit.ly/2MSdcrf  #VMworld2018 #VMworld


#VMware NSX Helps Customers Build a Virtual Cloud Network to Connect and Protect Apps, Data, and Users Across Cloud Environments http://bit.ly/2oboGbc  #VMworld2018 #VMworld


#VMware Cloud on AWS Expands to Asia-Pacific, Delivers New Enterprise Capabilities http://bit.ly/2MNwCh5  #VMworld #VMworld2018


Waiting for day 1 keynote at #VMworld2018. VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger & CTO Ray O'Farrell. Company 20th anniversary celebration. will discuss how VMware is shaping future of cloud, mobile, networking, & security, + going deep in IoT, AI, machine learning, edge, and containers.


#VMworld2018 day one morning pre-breakfast at the shuttle bus loading/unloading area on the southeast side of Mandalay Bay Convention Center on the Strip.


New jk #Wikibon Premium research note: "Building AI Optimization Into Your Cloud Computing Infrastructure" (http://ow.ly/DZwe30lzgda ) #VMworld2018




VMware Hybrid Cloud Strategy: Near Term Momentum but Icebergs Ahead https://wikibon.com/vmware-hybrid-cloud-strategy/ … via @Wikibon #VMWorld2018




RIP Neil Simon. Exceptionally great dramatist, and one of the best with the comedic gifts in that department. Just at random, here's the "now it's garbage!" Oscar-fed-up-with-Felix scene from the 1968 film version of "The Odd Couple."


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Rufus & Carla Thomas "Cause I Love You" from Complete Stax/Volt Singles JK--1960. Wonderfully saucy roadhouse R&B. You can just feel the dance floor shaking on this.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Otis Rush "All Your Love (I Miss Loving)" from The Essential Otis Rush: The Classic Cobra Recordings 1956-1958 JK--1958. This song became a blues-rock foundation. You'll hear Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac in this.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Smokey Smothers "Smokey's Love Sick Blues" from Smokey Smothers Sings The Backporch Blues JK--1961. Ain't Smokey doin' the most smokin' electrified urban R&B!


Heading to Las Vegas later today for VMworld. August: always my favorite time of year to char-broil my flesh in the desert sun. On an unrelated note, there’s been a decline in fat-Elvis kitsch there in recent years. Need  thin-Celine kitsch.


Caught “The Leisure Seeker” on DVD. Excellent performances by Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland as an elderly couple making a last RV trip to Florida as his dementia worsens.


RIP John McCain. That guy lived one complex American story. Many stories, actually. Serious backbone, serious pain.


“The Big Bang Theory” coming to an end after 12 seasons. I would tune in occasionally over those years, watch for a little while, and fail to laugh. Confirming my theory that it sucked.


Dear Facebook: I’d  to suggest that your default Friendiversary image be us and our friend with daisies in our hair, wearing frilly costumes, and frolicking around the maypole.


Suddenly I remembered Spaghetti-Os, made by a company called Franco-American, which was puzzling. It would have made  sense if they’d sold Baguette-ios.


How to spot a social troll? Don’t bother me with that. I’m still on the lookout for the Three Billy Goats Gruff and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.


"In ‘Small Fry,’ Steve Jobs Comes Across as a Jerk. His Daughter Forgives Him. Should We?" (http://ow.ly/GtOW30lxM4h ) JK--Forgive or not forgive someone I never met? Not an issue. But Steve Jobs came across as a jerk pretty much from the start in his public persona. No surprise.


New jk #InformationWeek column: "Eliminating Performance Bottlenecks on Web-Based AI" (http://ow.ly/FOMC30lxE0g )


VMworld 2018 Preview (http://ow.ly/mnZ630lxDra ). @furrier and @plburris upcoming #VMworld 2018 topics from #theCUBE Studio in Palo Alto, CA. #Wikibon #SiliconANGLE


Usual morning routine of coping with a fresh avalanche of emails. Somehow, I have to read/understand their contents in a holy haste. I scrape interesting links into a doc that I revisit later, speed-gleaning as if on a treadmill whose speed I--not my email tormenters--control


Yet another article on how the desktop PC either is or isn't dead. Isn't this a dead issue? Does it really matter whether you've decoupled system, display, and input into separate devices (i.e., "desktop PC") or tightly integrate them (e.g laptop)? I use my laptop on a desktop.


RT @KEXPNowPlaying#kexp Still Corners "Black Lagoon" from Slow Air JK--2018. Nice sensuous electronic pulse on this. The ladies harmonizing on the "ahhh" chorus totally transport me.


Took briefing today from Jeff Jonas of Senzing. I hadn't realized that IBM had spun off the G2 entity resolution tech. Jeff's a great guy, quite an industry figure, and it was good to reconnect. He and I go way back (to earlier this decade at Big Blue).


New Research Shows VMware, Dell, Nutanix and HPE Lead On-Premises Cloud Market


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp David Bowie "Ashes to Ashes" from Scary Monsters… and Super Creeps JK--1980. I hope that your mother also said that to get things done you'd better not mess with Major Jim. Don't cross me!


Dear IT Vendor: I don't care if you're hot, cool, and in anybody's leader board. I don't care if you're proactive, not reactive. All I want to know is if you're radioactive. And, if so, please keep your distance.


Hmmm...another PR person with some vendor I've never heard of asking me out of the blue to write something positive about their client. Note to self: I'll need to ramp up my personal spamming campaign asking total strangers to vouch for what a nice man I truly am.


Putting all my ducks in a row for #VMworld in Las Vegas next week. Also, I'm training my ducks for an endurance march under harsh conditions. Closest remotely duck-inhabitable pond is Lake Mead. That's 32 miles. They're going to need to keep the quacking to an absolute minimum.


What's with the avalanche of "future-proofing" in IT vendor press releases? Why not up the stakes to "uniquely future-proofed"? Then take it to the ultimate of "seamlessly and uniquely future-proofed in this and all parallel universes, actual and potential"? Users need guarantees


Delivered stuff to a friend up on Cathedral Drive in northwest DC. Pleasant weather and we both love the neighborhood. Almost took our minds off the evil person installed downtown on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.


"This is not your father's Microsoft" (http://ow.ly/eYIK30luGuB ) JK--I don't recall my late father being a first-round investor in a bunch of Seattle geeks. Or if this is pitched at my grown children, I recall myself having an equity stake in this vendor. But I could be wrong.


What I blogged about virtualization on November 10, 2005 (http://ow.ly/cJQ030luB5j ). Plenty of dated references but my core definition ("virtualization...abstracts external invocation interfaces from internal platform implementations") is still the heart of how I approach this.


As we look ahead to #VMworld, here are my three #SiliconANGLE columns on the future of virtualization: into the public cloud (http://ow.ly/IaWB30luABC ), up the stack into the app ecosystem (http://ow.ly/mLGi30luACE ), and all the way to the edge (http://ow.ly/OOXM30luADE ).


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Sera Cahoone "Ladybug" from From Where I Started JK--2017. Beautiful, painful, sad. Cahoone wrote this about a specific person she loved who took their own life.


New jk #SiliconANGLE #VMworld column: “Looking ahead to VMworld: Virtualization drives clouds to the edge” (https://siliconangle.com/2018/08/20/looking-ahead-vmworld-virtualization-drives-clouds-edge/ …)


Did video podcast today with some consultants who follow my AI work. This photo is apparently one of their computer monitors/bookpiles during the event. Google result page open shows non-AI books I authored ~20 years ago.


Our occasional bootcamp instructor moonlights from his day job as a PE teacher. He’s a tall lanky guy. We shared observations on our own childhood PE experiences. He could run swift but not climb ropes. I’m the opposite. Him gazelle, me gibbon.


"A leader must distinguish between digitalization and digitization to accelerate change" (http://ow.ly/ogTv30ltuPt ) JK--OMG! While they're at it, they must also distinguish between both of those, digitalis, didgeridoos, and prestidigitation.


Saw “On Chesil Beach” on DVD. Another sterling performance by Saoirse Ronan.  “Brooklyn,” a throwback period piece where she shines as a young woman coming into her own, conflictedly.


"To Fix That Pain In Your Back, You Might Have To Change The Way You Sit" (http://ow.ly/Zr5k30lsWaP ) JK--Untuck your pelvis. Sad to say, this article reminded me of this photo of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter from another article this morning: http://ow.ly/XzVc30lsWci 


"Progressive rock." What exactly were they progressing toward? The ecstatic pinnacle of pretension?


It seems  every Hollywood props department stocks a magic pistol that can shoot several dozen bullets without reloading. Every bad guy has one.


Oh, you use cookies. Thanks for letting me opt out, dear website. May I also opt out of your use of HTTP, HTML, JSON, JavaScript, and DNS? If not, why not?


If Trump’s so rich, why doesn’t he pay for his stupid military parade himself?


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Rodriguez "Only Good for Conversation" from Cold Fact JK--2008. Very cool. Sounds  he's channeling Cream and Deep Purple on this screaming and fuzzed guitar number.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Caspar Babypants "Pop Goes The Weasel" from LIVE on KEXP JK--2018 live, 2016 in-studio. I love his rewrite of the lyrics. Much better song now.


"FCC Knew in January DDoS Attack Claim Was Possibly Bogus" (http://ow.ly/pYLS30lrTjc ) JK--The delay in notifying the public was due to the fact that the commission's IT staff was snowed under investigating a possible DDoS attack on Ajit Pai's stupid supersize Reese's mug. 


"Report: Apple Could Launch a Car Between 2023 and 2025" (http://ow.ly/WSO230lrT2g ) JK--Report: I do not give a crap now, but check back with me in 5-7 years to see if my feelings on the matter have changed. Doubtful.


"Elon Musk's dumb 420 joke might B coming back to bite him in ass" (http://ow.ly/X9AV30lrSyD ) JK--Market-impacting mid-day tweet not cleared w/Tesla board or SEC re going private at $420/share (Musk: “seemed  better karma at $420 than $419. But I was not on weed, to be clear")


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Milo Greene "Move" from Move JK--2018. Very nice song. Seems tailor-made for couples in a romantic mood, itching to take it the next step.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Karl Blau "That's How I Got To Memphis" from Introducing Karl Blau JK--2016. Singer-songwriter hails from Anacortes, Washington. Beautiful coastal community. Catch the ferry there to Friday Harbor. Personally, I'd catch the train back from Memphis.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Aretha Franklin "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)" JK---1967. Great blues. Sounds  she's in a small club singing her heart out at half past midnite.


"Hottest exoplanet ever discovered has metallic skies, rain  lava" (http://ow.ly/wffX30lrB2R ) JK--This is important. I detect at least three cool possible band names in that headline.


RIP Aretha Franklin. Her clarion voice was unmistakeably gospel, but her instincts were exquisitely popular, without ever once stooping into tawdry territory. Definitely a singer who commanded R-E-S-P-E-C-T without demanding it.


"How to Win Your Next Political Argument" (http://ow.ly/AITb30lqDS8 ) JK--Article is a four-year-oldie but a goodie. My favorite advice is #3: "Don’t be such a dick."


Oh geez, I missed "Shark Week." I hope they reassign the camera crew to do "Scorpion Week." Constant fear of stinging, paralysis, and possible death in the desert are a much cooler way to boost ratings on basic cable.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp SadGirl "Jack the Ripper" from Breakfast for 2 JK--2018. Nice variation on the Link Wray classic that keeps it raw but makes it a bit psychedelic.


PR people who mistake me for a reporter are always trying to hook me up with a client to serve as a "commentator" on some emerging tech. Have they actually read my stuff? Have they ever seen me quote somebody else? I'm my own commentator. I don't share the mic on those duties.


New jk #SiliconANGLE column: "As VMworld nears, virtualization disrupts the cloud application ecosystem (http://ow.ly/GZa730lp4I2 ) #VMWorld2018


Dear Digital News Services: After a story is no longer "breaking news," please wheel it into "broken news." Then, once it's been covered to death, please lower its sorry carcass into "rigor mortis news." Don't even think about resurrecting it. That would break our spirit.


"Standing desks vs sitting: why sitting ISN’T slowly killing you" (http://ow.ly/uUTC30lo9ae ) JK--Oh yeah? Well, everybody who ever sat down at any time before the modern era has died, and the trend seems to be continuing. Standing desks may be our last chance at immortality.


Why exactly was Omarosa in the Situation Room? Essentially, the situation in the Trump administration is always "you're fired." So it made sense that they did the job there. Thx Adrian Bowles.


"Image Inspired Poetry Generation in XiaoIce" (http://ow.ly/nxDB30lnEpJ ) JK--Microsoft's China-based chatbot. All well and good, but how about auto-generating inspiring poetry? Humans produce  than enough of the cliched haiku- civilization vs. nature variety.


"Fluid AI: Check out Microsoft's undersea datacenter" (http://ow.ly/5XVD30lnE5U ) JK--Installed two video cameras on the outside of the pressure vessel to observe environmental conditions near datacenter. Check the live underwater video feeds!


"Accurate indoor mapping using an autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle" (http://ow.ly/yexA30lnDPw ) JK--Autonomous indoor UAV with reliable simultaneous localization and mapping, accurate flight control, and robust path planning for 2D navigation with accuracy of 2 cm.


"Adversarial Vision Challenge" (http://ow.ly/HeDy30lnDws ) JK--"Submitted models and attacks are continuously pitted against each other on an image classification task." http://ow.ly/y3Yz30lnDHz 


"Courteous Autonomous Cars" (http://ow.ly/ta0T30lnDjI ) JK--"Formalize courtesy as a term in the objective that measures the increase in another driver's cost induced by the autonomous car's behavior." http://ow.ly/MdX330lnDmW 


Honestly, I'm enjoying the fallout from the revelation that Omarosa taped her firing in the Situation Room at the White House. Pretty amazing that nobody there searches staff before they enter the room. Reminds me of the scene with the "Russian ambassador" in "Dr. Strangelove."


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp The Undertones "Teenage Kicks" JK--1978. Leader Feargal Sharkey was already 20 when this came out, and the rest were 19 at youngest. So I guess it this was nostalgia at that point for the Derry, Northern Ireland group. Sharkey turns 60 today.


Even though Facebook isn't really an enterprise-IT solutions vendor, I follow them as if they were one. They develop a fair amount of open-source tech that's incorporated into enterprise tech solutions by others. Caffe, the AI toolkit, for one.


"Machine Learning Can Identify the Authors of Anonymous Code" (http://ow.ly/4k2b30lnzqq ) JK--Prove it. Identify Satoshi Nakamoto. Out this purported Blockchain author (http://ow.ly/3uUb30lnzuC )


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Pond "Burnt Out Star" from Burnt Out Star JK--2018. Good one from this Perth, Australia band. Keep the beat, keep it strong.



"Diet Hit A Snag? Your Gut Bacteria May Be Partly To Blame" (http://ow.ly/ja4F30lnxnk ) JK--They produce byproducts in our digestive track that may boost the calorie count of the food we ingest.


Caught “Disobedience” on DVD. Good serious film of forbidden love in the London Orthodox Jewish community. Must admit that I got into the Rachel-on-Rachel action. I’m partial to Weisz. No, McAdams. Ah, why choose?


A/C on the fritz at our place. Got the floor fan on full blast in my sweaty face. Have donned my housewear minimals. Don’t wish to faint in uncomfortable outerwear in my inner sanctum.


Hey Pharma Commercial Where Some Guy Who Survived A Heart Attack Demonstrates The Proud Warrior 2 Yoga Asana: I assume that shavasana didn’t test well with your target audience.


Reviewing the predictable sameness of YouTube music comments. Every song is the soundtrack to someone’s childhood, courtship, and/or memory of some departed loved one. Or it’s f***ing b***sh**.


I’d  to propose that the US establish a Pence Force to protect us from all enemies foreign, domestic, and extraterrestrial. First mission: quarantine the alien invader at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.


Toxic rightwinger running against Sen. Tim Kaine here in Virginia retracts tweet that called a Muslim Michigan politician an “ISIS commie.” Doesn’t clarify how someone can believe in Allah and atheism at the same time.


"The Most Powerful Publishers in the World Don’t Give a Damn" (http://ow.ly/w4M230lm7N5 ) JK--The weaker ones simply don't give a shit.


"What Was It  When The Higgs Gave Mass To The Universe?" (http://ow.ly/xA4Y30lm7EK ) JK--The whole cosmos spontaneously convulsed with a mighty higgup!


Dear Vendor Who I Frequently Order Stuff From Online: Don't "reward loyalty" with a "sneak peek" at "next week's deals." Reward my loyalty with lotsa free stuff, for life, if possible. Thank you, my liege, for considering this humble request from your loyal vassal, James the weak


"The Internet Trolls Have Won. Sorry, There’s Not Much You Can Do" (http://ow.ly/BncE30llUCf ) JK--Sorry, there's plenty we can do.  not always taking the bait when they flame some toxic nonsense at us. And thinking critically for ourselves. And responding online in that manner


"Report: Enterprises are looking to replace VMs with containers" (http://ow.ly/FqUm30llTLj ) JK--Don't forget that they're also looking to replace containers with serverless. As virtualization inexorably swallows its older paradigms in newer development abstractions. Gulp gulp!


"DARPA Wants to Map Everything Underground" (http://ow.ly/fcrG30llTC7 ) JK--Surprising to realize that no one's undertaken this before: "Goal of SubT Challenge is to find innovative new solutions to be able to rapidly map, navigate, and search complex, remote underground systems."


"Adapting Blockchain for GDPR Compliance" (http://ow.ly/WIFR30llT9k ) JK--"All GDPR-sensitive information & data could B stored offchain in distributed or cloud-based servers with only corresponding hashes stored in blockchain layer"? Jerry-rigging blockchain for blockchain's sake?


"30 Shared Principles for Discussing Software Architectures" (http://ow.ly/OXzs30llScO ) JK--Needs to simplify the list. Ironically, rule 1 ("keep it simple, stupid") and rule 10 (" do as few features as possible; when in doubt, leave it out") are essentially the same.


Here are the most generic possible tech recommendations (from a blog I just saw): "1)Fully understand the problem. 2) Define a point of view. 3) Focus on possible solutions. 4) Try out multiple solutions. 5) Find the best solution that fits the need." That pretty much covers it.


"Machine-Generated Knowledge Bases" (http://ow.ly/ctQs30llQWZ ) JK--Cool project to use AI to auto-discover scientists via the Internet, auto-generate Wikipedia biographical entries for them, and auto-update the bios that are up on Wikipedia.


It always strikes me as odd to say that something,  a new product, was "first announced" on such-and-such date. It can only be announced once. Unless you treat each subsequent mention as an "announcement" in its own right.


You always have to read between the lines in tech press releases when some vendor claims a new product promises "unprecedented cost savings, security, availability, and productivity." Is there no precedent for those benefits in their prior versions?


Every time someone new follows me on a social medium that I no longer follow, I never let them know. I'm not in the habit of breaking hearts.


AI for "autonomous" IT ops management--aka "AIOps"--is a hugely important trend. Check out my recent #SiliconANGLE article on the same: https://siliconangle.com/blog/2018/07/27/aiops-optimizing-cloud-computing-stack/ … . AI-optimized storage/compute platforms a la NetApp OnTap AI are key to the AI... #netappai


Precision agriculture depends on demonstrating to agribusinesses and smaller farmers the value of analytics-intensive practices that rely on AI, embedded environmental sensors, geospatial land-management applications, and . Also, urban a... #netappai


What are the future systems requirements to support #AI and Machine Intelligence workloads? Wikibon is hosting a crowdchat sponsored by @NetApp on this topic. Join me @NeilRaden @dfloyer et al at 12noon ET today http://crowdchat.net/NetAppAI  #NetAppAI


New jk #SiliconANGLE column: "Ahead of #VMworld , virtualization confronts the cloud" (http://ow.ly/ahzs30lkVFK )


Paraphrasing the typical LinkedIn inquiry that I receive daily: "Dear Mr. Kobielus, based on our shared connection, I thought you'd be interested in providing me with free consulting that will help me but not do diddley-squat for your personal bottom line." Just a paraphrase.


Thank you PR person for soliciting my thoughts re your client's "pitch ....about manufacturing/supply chain effects in the wake of the plastic straw movement?" I've been meaning to include that in my coverage of inorganic AI development artifacts that end up as oceanic pollutants


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Desert Mountain Tribe "Way Back to You" from Om Parvat Mystery JK--2018. Way-cool soaring anthem rock.


"Men Recommend David Foster Wallace to Me" (http://ow.ly/w8q730lkSqo ) JK--Let's see re me: WTF is the big deal with ultimate frisbee? I don't see why multinational beverage corps are even an issue here. I love The Mountain Goats. And consider DFW's "Infinite Jest" unreadable shit.


"Strong governance programs separate data lakes from swamps" (http://ow.ly/EVSb30lkR6s ) JK--I prefer to think of them as data wetlands populated by analytic beavers chewing their way thru old-growth business challenges and using machine-learning logs to build intelligent dams


"Where is birthplace of Silicon Valley? Event aims to put question to rest" (http://ow.ly/hpG930lkQEA ) JK--Takes too literally the "silicon" in nickname. Where silicon-based transistors 1st developed in 1956. Why not focus on geologic birth of the "valley" in late Pliocene era?


"Mass Extinctions" (http://bit.ly/2OrckHj ) JK--Spoiler alert: everybody dies!


"Most Popular Film" Oscar? That's obviously a quantitative reckoning. Can't they just compare the box office? I wonder if receiving it will boost a film's box office even further. How about an award for best studio marketing push? And for best celebrity-filled promotional junket?


Gonna need my own hype cycle. So I can identify the inflection point where a technology shifts from mature to manure.


Been checking out hypergrowth in the markets for hyperconverged, hypervisor, hypermedia, and hyperloop technologies. Now I'm all hyper. Feel  I'm going to need a sedative to come down from it all.


Catch me at #VMworld Aug 26-30 in Las Vegas. Tune into our interviews at the event with Michael Dell, Pat Gelsinger, and other executives on #theCUBE


I propose a new paradigm of "clueless computing." Submit a query to the cloud and get back some random response. Accept it as gospel truth because, hey why not, the cloud wouldn't steer you wrong, now would it?


"Hortonworks’ stock jumps as it easily beats earnings targets" (http://ow.ly/uIuC30ljECN ) JK--Dusts off a June quote of mine that still applies. I build shelf life into my commentary.


Just for kicks, I'd  to see somebody integrate every high-tech product with every other high-tech product. Then stand back and watch the Singularity suck the whole tangled mess down into its demonic maw. Just for kicks.



"HPE InfoSight automates customer support on 3PAR" (http://ow.ly/2WFs30ljCVu ) JK--Deepened integration of the HPE InfoSight predictive analytics on 3PAR arrays, adding automated support resolution of issues affecting servers and storage.


"Accelerate Your Journey to AI." Discuss deep learning architecture that spans from edge to core to cloud. CrowdChat Thurs, Aug 9 12noon-1pm EDT. Join us: http://ow.ly/TU4q30ljCEP . #netappai


"Dell EMC Accelerates Artificial Intelligence Adoption for Digital Transformation" (http://ow.ly/NIPd30ljCof ) JK--AI-ready hardware/software pre-validated stack. Covered in my upcoming #Wikibon research note.


"NetApp AI storage packages OnTap all-flash FAS A800, Nvidia" (http://ow.ly/yC1230ljCcq ) JK--AI-ready storage platform. Covered in my upcoming #Wikibon research note this month.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark "Enola Gay" JK--1980. I remember when this was a hot DJ spin in the clubs. My first thought was: great song, but are they really calling their band THAT?


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Minks "Margot" from Tides End JK--2013. Nice. Sounds a bit  the Go-Betweens.


Sad to see another catastrophic earthquake strike Lombok so soon. Annoying to see US press call Lombok a “tourist island.” That’s  calling Florida a “tourist state.” This is an Indonesian province.


#DellEMC Accelerates Artificial Intelligence Adoption for Digital Transformation: http://bit.ly/2Ms2hBd  #GetReady4AI


Yes. here's my discussion of the quality conundrum surrounding this data in an AI/ML development context, from a few years ago in another life. Data quality for social media analytics: sentiment or sediment? http://www.ibmbigdatahub.com/blog/sentiment-or-sediment … #getready4ai


Curcuru discussing the pressure that AI places on enterprise storage. Need flash storage that supports nanosecond AI performance: create a seamless instantaneous decision/response re customers and other stakeholders. #getready4ai


Nick Curcuru, VP analytics at Mastercard, discussing core vs edge deployment of AI-ready infrastructure. #getready4ai


Garima Kochhar of #DellEMC discusses their sophisticated engineering and tuning of AI-ready solutions. Deep learning hardware/software stacks ready for Hadoop, for Nvidia, etc. She's in Dell EMC HPC & AI Innovation Lab in Austin. Exoscale... #getready4ai


For #Wikibon perspective on benchmarking AI hardware/software performance all the way to the edge, check out my recent #SiliconANGLE column: "Pushing AI performance benchmarks to the edge" (https://siliconangle.com/blog/2018/05/21/pushing-ai-performance-benchmarks-edge/ …) #getready4ai


For #Wikibon perspective on benchmarking the performance of the entire AI hardware/software stack, check out this recent article I posted to Dataversity: "Benchmarking the Full AI Hardware/Software Stack" (http://www.dataversity.net/benchmarking-full-ai-hardware-software-stack/ … ) #getready4ai


For #Wikibon perspective on the trend toward AI-ready/optimized hardware/software solutions, including #DellEMC, check out my recent #SiliconANGLE article "How ‘AIOps’ is optimizing cloud computing up and down the stack" (... #getready4ai


Tom Burns of #DellEMC discussing their forthcoming Ready Solution for AI. Real-time AI for business made simple: compute, storage, memory, interconnect. Pretested/precertified. Fast infrastructure setup through service provisioning portal. #getready4ai


Caught "Lean on Pete" on DVD. Beautiful, sad, lonely, tragic odyssey of a Portland teenager to a Wyoming aunt he barely knew but whose love always glowed somewhere, albeit dimly, in his battered heart. Charlie Plummer is sensational here. Steve Buscemi delivers, as always.


"Machine Learning in Node.js With TensorFlow.js" (http://ow.ly/ymYA30liFxB ) JK--AI coming to the front-end browsers and back-end event loops of the Web application ecosystem. See my recent #Wikibon research note on app dev for the augmented browser:


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Marvin Gaye "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)" from What's Going On JK--1971. Love how Marvin truncates it to " 'flation ". Makes a reference to continual price increases across the macroeconomy sound  street slang, as if it were a hot car.


"DARPA to explore the “third wave” of artificial intelligence" (http://ow.ly/Leo030liEKf ) JK--1st: rules. 2nd: stats. 3rd: "contextual adaptation...systems themselves will over time build underlying explanatory models that allow them to characterize real-world phenomena"


"'Datacenter Is Dead,' Says Gartner Analyst" (http://ow.ly/fcA430liEwN ) JK--I suspect that, as with mainframes, they'll long exceed their prophesied useful lifespan, though "interconnect services, cloud providers, IoT, edge services and SaaS offerings continue to proliferate"


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Chance the Rapper "Work Out" from Work Out JK--2018. Good one. Doesn't want his next album "sounding Usher-y."


"Pentagon Signs $885 Million Artificial Intelligence Contract with Booz Allen" (http://ow.ly/64xM30liEc4 ) JK--Now Google et al will need to decide whether they'll supply dev tools & cloud services to the suppliers of AI expertise to the military.



I respect the chutzpah of a company that hasn't shipped a commercial product yet, and is in an emerging tech segment that barely exists, describing itself as a "leader" in its market. Lots of people were leaders in space travel in the 19th century.


"NIPS Conference Considers Changing Its Name" (https://nips.cc ) JK--"The first reason is the unfortunate connotation of the current name, which can invite insinuating comments and make some participants feel uncomfortable." Headline makes me chuckle, uncomfortably.


"Google reportedly talking with partners to bring its cloud to China" (http://ow.ly/vUx830liBkx ) JK--Includes my commentary.


"Comparing the Four Major AI Strategies" (http://ow.ly/cT5U30li59z ) JK--Or, as Elon Musk s to think of them, the Four Horsemen of the AIpocalypse.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Parquet Courts "Almost Had to Start a Fight / In and Out of Patience" from Wide Awake! JK--2018. Great. Sounds a bit  classic Who.


"First Class GPUs support in Apache Hadoop 3.1, YARN & HDP 3.0" (http://ow.ly/ywpt30lhNGG ) JK--Adds support for operators and admins to be able to configure YARN clusters to schedule and use GPU resources


"When it comes to databases, why ‘I can’t quit you, baby’" (http://ow.ly/kapm30lhHcI ) JK--Related to this, I've noticed that very few database platform vendors go belly-up. Those platforms have sticky customer bases. Retain their value stubbornly. 


"Google to let you pop its AI chips into your own computer as of October" (http://ow.ly/3GPb30lhGTj ) JK--Google's Edge Google's TPUs will be available in a hardware module that can be plugged into a computer using a PCI Express expansion slot -- common in servers -- or a USB port


"The Shallowness of Google Translate" (http://ow.ly/Jler30lhGm5 ) JK--Douglas Hoftstadter of "Godel Escher Bach" says "To my mind, translation is an incredibly subtle art that draws constantly on one’s many years of experience in life, and on one’s creative imagination."


"Program Synthesis in 2017-18 " (http://ow.ly/h64s30lhFxQ ) JK--Good update on status of R&D into AI-driven automated programming.


"The ethics of computer science: this researcher has a controversial proposal" (http://ow.ly/G3mF30lhFfV ) JK--"Researchers disclose any possible negative societal consequences of their work in papers"? OK, sure, if they had some magic crystal ball they wouldn't need predictive AI


"'The discourse is unhinged': how the media gets AI alarmingly wrong" (http://ow.ly/nWJ030lhEXg ) JK--Much of it is grounded in alarmist ignorance of the tech's capabilities & limitations. Many commentators modulate the term into a scream- "AIEEEEEEE!!!!!".


"How to retain your data scientist during a merger: 5 tips" (http://ow.ly/IVZZ30lhEFN ) JK--Tips aren't enough. Bonuses, perks, and stock options are   it. Hefty boosts to their base compensation package would go a long way too.


I just realized it's been months, perhaps years, since I've seen any mention of "big data myths." I suppose we can safely study these as ancient myths now,  the Greek, Norse, and Tolkienian varieties.


"Google's Edge TPU breaks model inferencing out of the cloud" (http://ow.ly/JhFi30lhDHn ) JK--Quotes me.


"Apple wants to bring Hyperloop into its Silicon Valley headquarters to help commuters" (http://ow.ly/O2lI30lhD4x ) JK--I thought they'd promised their employees jetpacks.


Reading Pete Townshend's autobiography. His childhood neighbors included blind pianist George Shearing and the cartoonist who created the strip "Fred Basset." Pete created a rock opera about a blind musician and himself resembles a basset hound. Hmmm. Go to the mirror boy!


"Tesla says it's making an AI chip for Autopilot, coming next year, backward compatible with current-gen Tesla vehicles" (http://ow.ly/SBFR30lhBSa ) JK--Musk is personally certifying that his AI can never morph into an evil car a la Stephen King's "Christine"


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Desert Mountain Tribe featuring Najma Akhtar - "Himalaya" from Om Parvat Mystery JK--2018. London-based trio. Great panoramic epic sound, as the name implies.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp James Brown "Funky Drummer, Parts 1 & 2" JK--1970. Jazzy funk drummer, that is. Excellent extended vamp around the rhythm guitar and horn.


All those Venezuelan soldiers moving in unison to the right immediately following a broadcast spur-of-the-moment order triggered by a supposed surprise drone attack? Something doesn’t add up. Who are they leaving vulnerable in their suspicious diversion?


I’d  to see the “Beetle Bailey” characters in a remake of “Patton,” with Sarge in the title role, Beetle as the shellshocked soldier, and General Halftrack as Omar Bradley. These grunts need to explore their dramatic range.


“Upstate New York”? How many other states have an “upstate”? Is Long Island considered “Sidestate New York”? Is Staten Island “Downstate New York”? Is Central Park “Midstate New York”? I need answers!


Another Friday slides to a close. My strategy for accelerating that process is racing headlong through the work week. Weak from work.


"Despite Pledging Openness, Companies Rush To Patent AI Tech" (http://ow.ly/2eTX30leHDF ) JK--"Patent filings mentioning neural networks, a machine-learning technique, climbed to 485 in 2016, from 94 in 2010."


"http://Test.ai  nabs $11M Series A led by Google to put bots to work testing apps" (http://ow.ly/IQuP30leHjy ) JK--I dont normally tweet out a funding headline, but I always appreciate use of the quick/decisive/concrete verb "nab" in any context, especially $. Well played!


"Data's day of reckoning" (http://ow.ly/ebLC30leGtK ) JK--Excellent checklist of concerns (bias, privacy, consent, security, etc.) for developers working on data-driven applications. Co-authored by Hilary Mason & DJ Patil.


"Learning Dexterity" (http://ow.ly/7X9S30leGf4 ) JK--Cool blog on what http://OpenAI.org  is doing in training human- robot hand to manipulate physical objects. The videos are great.


"Google's Edge TPU breaks model inferencing out of the cloud" (http://ow.ly/lF4m30leG4i ) JK--Interviews me.


"What machine learning practitioners can learn from data warehousing" (http://ow.ly/xw1M30leFRq ) JK--Shared platform, governance, and operational controls over ML models pushed into production apps.


"How to control state for so-called stateless microservices" (http://ow.ly/8bnb30leFA3 ) JK--Clearly, there's a limit to the application semantics that functional programming/serverless environments can address. Transactional microservices rely on front-end or back-end state mgt


"How Robot Hands Are Evolving to Do What Ours Can" (http://ow.ly/Wvv330leENG ) JK--Our hands are almost as articulate as our tongues. Amazing the degrees of meaning that hand robotic appendages can communicate when driven by AI.


"Google Glass Is Back–Now With Artificial Intelligence" (http://ow.ly/rRdR30leDUV ) JK--With an embedded chatbot, this time.


"Here’s how GDPR and the blockchain can coexist" (http://ow.ly/qrfU30leDuA ) JK--Good discussion. Here's my dissection of the same topic from a few months ago:


"DevOps for Data Scientists: Taming the Unicorn" (http://ow.ly/7IxE30leD9J ) JK--Good discussion. Here's what I said earlier this year on the topic:


Nice day. I set aside several hours of doing nothing but focusing on research. That’s when I’m most deeply in my zone.


Few things are as nauseating at the fitness club as some hotdog showing off at the weights for his girlfriend. Hey Tarzan, go swing with Jane in some other jungle!


"Collusion not a crime? Not exactly the point." (http://ow.ly/dhfZ30lcqP3 ) JK--"Collusion" is shorthand for such crimes as conspiracy to commit and/or cover up election fraud, wire fraud, computer hacks, records falsification, & failure to register as foreign government agents


"Scoop: 20 ways Democrats could crack down on Big Tech" (http://ow.ly/EIvF30lcmXp ) JK--Read Sen. Mark Warner's policy paper here: http://ow.ly/8qtN30lcmZD 


"10 ways AI is a force for good" (http://ow.ly/2d6H30lcmrr ) JK--Discusses AI safety initiatives, plus AI-driven initiatives for social empowerment, engagement, diversity, development, and democratization.


"AI has learned to probe the minds of other computers" (http://ow.ly/yu9T30lcm7N ) JK--ToMnet's 3 neural nets; 1) learn tendencies of another AI from past actions; 2) understand their current “beliefs”; 3) factors other 2 nets' outputs to predict the other AI’s next moves.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Gillian Welch "Red Clay Halo" from Time (The Revelator) JK--2001. Love the Appalachian downhome twang on this. The first time that Michiganian me headed south (to the Smokies) as a kid, what I noticed was the red clay soil. That's not Great Lakes topsoil


These “(so-and-so) just tweeted for the first time in a long while” notifications only flag how little enthusiasm most people have for using their Twitter accounts. Please only tell us when they choose to tweet something that not perfunctory bullshit.


"Wait-and-See Could Be a Costly AI Strategy" (http://ow.ly/UarM30lbG6B ) JK--Thank you MIT Sloan: Premature indiscriminate overinvestment in new tech is always a sound strategy.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Elvis Costello & The Imposters "Unwanted Number" from Look Now JK--2018. Wow! Great new one from Mr. MacManus & crew.


"How Silicon Valley Became a Den of Spies" (http://ow.ly/Pbrt30lbdVN ) JK--Duh. It's a deep honeypot par excellence: lots of nouveau-riche full-of-self male geeks working advanced techs and prone to bragging about it constantly, especially to the opposite sex over drinks drugs etc.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Elbow "Little Fictions" from Little Fictions JK--2017. This band always feels  it's speaking directly to you. Guy Garvey has a very Peter Gabriel voice.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp The National "Fake Empire" from Boxer JK--2007. Song that got me hooked on The National. This band does stately brooding with romantic elegance.


"How to Benefit From the Blockchain Job Boom" (http://ow.ly/bQgl30lbbfW ) JK--"'This is a world where you can create money out of thin air if you know how to do it"? Really? Are they also using advanced genetic engineering to birth fools every minute? I'd invest in that.


"DARPA's $1.5 billion scheme aims to reinvent computer chip" (http://ow.ly/4t8I30lbaEv ) JK--Open source "no human in loop" layout generator to reduce system-on-chip (SoC) design times; software-designed hardware; 3-D monolithic SoC; reduce SoC memory bottlenecks & latencies.


"Autonomic Computing Will Happen Much Sooner Than You Expect" (http://ow.ly/2Wpx30lba0K ) JK--Puts this paradigm at convergence of cloud computing, containerization, orchestration, and AIOps. See my #SiliconANGLE piece on AIOps from this past week:


DC people are insane with the superlong commutes. Over the weekend, I met a guy who commutes EVERY DAY from Centreville VA to Harrisburg PA. That's 120 miles, each way. Is any job worth that?


RT @KEXPNowPlaying #kexp Santigold "Wha' You Feel " from I Don't Want: The Gold Fire Sessions JK--2018. New one. Her stuff's always great. Insanely catchy.


I hope Giuliani advises Trump to register as an agent of a foreign government. Time to come clean. #theyouknow


New jk #SiliconANGLE column: "How ‘AIOps’ is optimizing cloud computing up and down the stack" (http://ow.ly/BXN330l9Bii )


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot "Bonnie & Clyde" JK--1968. Film should've had them as leads: "Alors voilĂ /Clyde a une petite amie/Elle est belle et/son prĂ©nom/C'est Bonnie/À eux deux ils forment/Le gang Barrow/Leurs noms/Bonnie Parker et Clyde Barrow"


"Evolutionary algorithm outperforms DL machines at video games" (http://ow.ly/JzzP30l94BM ) JK--Starts with lots of versions of code generated randomly, tests them to see whether they achieve required goal, reproduces and randomly mutates those that succeed, tests those, & so on



"British Army testing autonomous vehicles to supply frontline troops" (http://ow.ly/oMmF30l94uG ) JK--Leaves open the question of whether AI researchers who've vowed not to work on autonomous weapons would have reservations about working on autonomous military supply systems.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp The Cure "The Figurehead" from Pornography JK--1982. Good example of one of their relentlessly grungy dirges. You can imagine Robert Smith's stringy hair standing on end while he's grinding his whiny way through it.


"Amazon’s facial recognition software mistook members of Congress for criminals" (http://ow.ly/SQLE30l8XRC ) JK--What are you talking about? That's well-trained AI. Sic 'em fido!


The other day, I heard a marketing person unironically state that their solution is "non-disruptively disruptive." I lost a little faith in humanity then.


A midsummer night’s dream. I dream of  sleep. And less humidity.


My Facebook newsfeed tells me that all of reality is melting down. My better sense tells me that’s nonsense. Go outside and breathe.


Took excellent briefing/demo from BlockSafe Technologies, Edison NJ-based vendor of blockchain ecosystem security solutions: http://blocksafetech.com/ . Secure crypto wallet and exchange solutions are GA. Secure blockchain solution under development.


"Security Token Offerings — STOs are the new ICOs" (http://ow.ly/SvX830l8m1s ) JK--Security tokens are actual financial securities, so your tokens are backed by something tangible  the assets, profits, or revenue of the company.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Peter Bjorn and John "Amsterdam" from Writer’s Block JK--2006. I'm totally cool with spending 4-5 days there going slow by the big canals. Amsterdam is still stuck in my head. Been 24 years since me and my babies went there.


Interviewed by TechTarget's Nicole Laskowski @TT_Nicole for my thoughts on Google's Edge TPU announcement at #GoogleNext18 this week. Here's that press release:


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Kate Bush "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" from Hounds of Love JK--1988. English songstress celebrates her 60th birthday this coming Monday. Wishing her a good one. Another 1958 baby, yours truly, is just a few months behind. Gasp!


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp ESG "Erase You" JK--1991. Gesundheit!


#GoogleNext18 AI announcements (http://ow.ly/5e5m30l81dh ): Cloud AutoML Vision, Natural Language, and Translation, new enhancements to Dialogflow Enterprise Edition, new Contact Center AI; cloud TPUs in alpha


#GoogleNext18 cloud services platform announces (http://ow.ly/pSHO30l814T ): Istio 1.0, Managed Istio, Apigee API Management for Istio; GKE On-Prem; GKE Policy Management; Stackdriver Service Monitoring; GKE Serverless add-on; Knative, Cloud Build


#GoogleNext18 data analytics day-2 announces (http://ow.ly/lcny30l80O6 ): BigQuery ML, Clustering, GIS, and Sheets data connector; Data Studio Explorer; Cloud Composer; Dataflow Streaming Engine and Shuffle; Dataproc Autoscaling and Customer Managed Encryption Keys


#GoogleNext18 security announces (http://ow.ly/SL3V30l80CF ): context-aware access; Titan Security Key; shielded VMs; Container Registry Vulnerability Scanning; Cloud Armor geo-based access control; Cloud HSM; Access Transparency; G Suite sec ctr investig tool; G Suite data regions


#GoogleNext18 containerized cloud AI announcements (http://ow.ly/9ZwV30l80sY ): BigQuery ML; support for training and online prediction through scikit-learn and XGBoost in Cloud ML Engine; Kubeflow v0.2; Cloud TPU v3 and Cloud TPU Pod; new partnership with Iron Mountain


#GoogleNext18 edge/IoT announcements (http://ow.ly/EGSx30l80i9 ): Edge TPU, ASIC to run TensorFlow Lite ML models at edge, and Cloud IoT Edge, software and SDK to extend Google Cloud AI to gateways and connected devices, using JSON Web Token to authenticate edge devices locally.


#GoogleNext18 Intel/SAP partner announce (http://ow.ly/quPC30l809K ): offer GCP virtual machines supporting Intel Optane DC Persistent Memory for SAP HANA workloads; powered by Intel Xeon Scalable processors (code-named Cascade Lake)


#GoogleNext18 contact-ctrl convo UI/flow announcements: (http://ow.ly/uOOb30l800J ): create actions smarter and faster with knowledge connectors; understand user texts better with automatic spelling correction; assign a phone number to action with phone gateway


#GoogleNext18 serverless (http://ow.ly/gnT230l7ZPa ): new App Engine runtimes, GA of Cloud Functions; add'l language/perf/netwk/security; serverless containers on Cloud Functions; GKE serverless add-on, Knative; Kube-based svrlss wkld building blocks; GCP integ of Cloud Firestore


“Michael Cohen was in the habit of using his phone to record conversations instead of taking notes. He never intended to make use of the recordings.” America thanks Donald Trump for his ability to choose advisers as lazy and stupid as he is.



Putin invitation on hold till Mueller investigation completed. Apparently, Trump can’t manage  than one self-inflicted national tragedy at a time.



I’m a member of a Facebook group devoted to “memories” of the hometown I moved away from decades ago. Every other post is “do you remember (this or that)?” Excuse me, but is this nostalgia or a dementia test?


RT @KEXPNowPlaying #kexp Downtown Boys "Fotos Y Recuerdos" de Fotos y Recuerdos JK--2018. Cubre del Selena cubre de "Regreso a la Banda de Cadena" por Los Pretendientes, Prefiero el original por Chrissie y su banda. Prefiero Chrissie.


Thank you phishes for alerting me to the fact that I have yet another account being deactivated unless I click your link right now. By my count, I now have -8,243 active accounts and counting.


"HPE brings Infosight’s predictive analytics to its 3PAR all-flash storage arrays" (http://ow.ly/sSOd30l6TLW ) JK--My commentary contained herein.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp The Shins "Caring Is Creepy" from Oh, Inverted World JK--2001. Back when James Mercer seemed to be running his voice through a vocoder or something. Gave it an odd tinny quality that's kind of cool on this great song.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs "Don’t You Forget About Me" from Don’t You Forget About Me JK--2018. Nice. Editor in me wants to redline unnecessary "totally" & "extinct" from bandname & query why they appropriated a famous Simple Minds songtitle. LOL!


"RDBMS is dead; AI will rely on Graph Databases..." (http://ow.ly/TN0v30l6SLv ) JK--Oh, brother! Graph devotees have been hyping their pet data architecture forever, and dissing relational. RDBMSs are very much alive & thriving. Graph databases are a minor presence in AI, at best


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp HĂŒsker DĂŒ "Flip Your Wig" from Flip Your Wig JK--1990. These guys had an amazingly muscular rock sound. Not a speck of fat or frill.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Ty Segall & White Fence "Body Behavior" from Joy JK--2018. Segall is a force of nature. One of the best pure rockers going today. And amazingly prolific.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp King Tuff "Black Moon Spell" from Black Moon Spell JK--2014. Excellent. Sounds  T.Rex reincarnated.


"‘A cloud for everyone’: Google debuts new management, AI-powered services" (http://ow.ly/yG0B30l6Op3 ) JK--Includes snippets of Kobielus quotage.


RT @KEXPNowPlaying #kexp Tess Roby "Beacon" JK--2018. Nice one. Kind of a stately roll to this.


New jk #GoogleNext18 #SiliconANGLE #Wikibon column: “Analysis: Google puts Kubernetes at the center of its cloud application push” (https://siliconangle.com/blog/2018/07/24/analysis-google-puts-kubernetes-center-cloud-application-push/ …)


New jk #Next18 #SiliconANGLE #Wikibon column: “Analysis: Google puts Kubernetes at the center of its cloud application push” (https://siliconangle.com/blog/2018/07/24/analysis-google-puts-kubernetes-center-cloud-application-push/ …)


Stay tuned for my #Next18 keynote dissection piece coming up imminently on


It's not just that Trump lies. It's that he densely packs his lies into airtight crystallization structures. He must have an amazing prevarication compaction algorithm chugging away behind the scenes. Lies dense as diamonds!


"Machine Learning and Mobile: Deploying Models on The Edge" (http://ow.ly/kzMO30l5Pzx ) JK--Mobile and edge devices are overtaking desktop in popularity


"As Technologists, It's Time That We Upgrade The Ethics Of Our Work" (http://ow.ly/OoqY30l5PhC ) JK--Spoken  a true techie. Before you upgrade, though, you need to apply your empathy patches, download your values drivers, and migrate your moral code from the previous version


"Three reasons Google lags in the cloud – and four ways it can step on the gas" (http://ow.ly/OHwk30l5Pbz ) JK--I'm quoted.


"http://H2O.ai  & Google Cloud Announce Collab to Drive Enterprise AI Adoption" (http://ow.ly/1xfI30l5ONk ) JK--H2O-3 & Driverless AI available on GCP Marketplace & integ with KubeFlow; integ H2O Sparkling Water w/Ggl Data Proc; Driverless AI ingest via Ggl BigQuery


"Google wants to make programming quantum computers easier" (http://ow.ly/2UfK30l5OpO ) JK--Released Cirq (open-source SDK for creating algos running on quantum simulators and, in future, quantum computers) & OpenFermion-Cirq (SDK for creating algos simulating molecules/materials)


"AI boosts data-center availability, efficiency" (http://ow.ly/4kPx30l552g ) JK--AI is becoming the core of all IT operations management: real-time adaptive and automated monitoring, optimization, predictive maintenance, root cause analysis, etc. In hardware, software, cloud, etc


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Squeeze "Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)" JK--1980. The truth is that William Tell split the mussels with his crossbow on his first try.


FROM NOW ON, I'M DOING ALL MY TWEETS IN ALL UPPERCASE SO THAT PEOPLE PAY ATTENTION AND KNOW I'M SERIOUS. BE WARNED!!!!!!!


"IBM came up with a watermark for neural networks" (http://ow.ly/WPWs30l4GZK ) JK--"… the embedded watermarks in DNN models are robust and resilient to different counter-watermark mechanisms, such as fine-tuning, parameter pruning, and model inversion attacks."


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter "Dewayne" from Dewayne JK--2018. Nice new one from the Seattle singer-songwriter. I love her grainy voice and gift for slow-burn yearning with beautiful electric-guitar textures.


"Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter partner for ambitious new data project" (http://ow.ly/YlFw30l4Gqj ) JK--Data Transfer Project: "an open source platform promoting universal data portability." See Google blog here:


"AI wizard Mike Cook wants OpenAI's Dota bots to teach him, not beat him" (http://ow.ly/TxkT30l4FHI ) JK--I assume there's some community of researchers still working on using AI to achieve mastery over Dungeons & Dragons.


"Solving the AI Race" (http://ow.ly/9FLS30l4Foo ) JK--Of course the AI community is modeling various AI safety competitive & societal impact scenarios. Stands to reason they'd whack the tools back at their own ricebowls.


"Pentagon Rolls Out Major Cyber, AI Strategies This Summer" (http://ow.ly/wSJs30l4F9n ) JK--Considering how many AI researchers have pledged to not help them build autonomous weapon systems, I'm curious if they'll have to resort to conscripting brainiacs to get their work done.


"Towards Automated Deep Learning: Efficient Joint Neural Architecture and Hyperparameter Search" (http://ow.ly/SZ7d30l4EOA ) JK--Automate design and optimization of neural network model architectures to the max extent possible. Critical to breaking the AI DevOps pipeline bottleneck


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp The Smiths "How Soon Is Now?" JK--1985. Morrissey wrote this retrospective about the dark ages before Britain removed shyness from the list of prosecutable offenses that was criminally vulgar.


"Learning Deployable Navigation Policies at Kilometer Scale from a Single Traversal" (http://ow.ly/cGm430l4E9v ) JK--Mobile robot efficiently one-shot RL's goal-directed navigation policies. No need for large amounts of interaction data, which can be prohibitively costly to obtain.


"Robot Learning in Homes: Improving Generalization and Reducing Dataset Bias" (http://ow.ly/hWhL30l4Dzi ) JK--CMU researchers gathered "grasp" training data from robot deploys in 6 AirBNB properties. Used low-cost 'YOLO' model to generate bounding boxes around objects near robots.


"Xilinx Buys China AI Startup" (http://ow.ly/zfb030l4Diw ) JK--Anyone who views AI in nationalistic terms must confront the many cross-border vendor hookups, partnerships, and other engagements. See my recent Datanami column on AI nationalism:


"Why Artificial Intelligence Is Not a Silver Bullet for Cybersecurity" (http://ow.ly/9fUO30l4CDS ) JK--No one said it was. BTW, don't use the phrase "silver bullet" in a sentence unless you also include the words "Kemosabe" and "Tonto."


"Leading AI researchers vow to not develop autonomous weapons" (http://ow.ly/3WuV30l4C86 ) JK--Here is the text and list of signatories:


"Get ready for the next big disruption in the cloud: serverless computing" (http://ow.ly/tTSm30l4Azz ) JK--Quoteth moi.


"Why Is Google Translate Spitting Out Sinister Religious Prophecies?" (http://ow.ly/P2t930l4zAg ) JK--My theory is that they're training their algorithms on the English translation of Nostradamus.


Caught “A Quiet Place” on DVD. A sensationally original and gripping horror-thriller.


Caught “Chappaquiddick” on DVD. Excellent telling of the facts, focusing on the disgusting spin-job that Kennedy did to save his political career and how the Establishment aided and abetted.


Quite a downpour day! Broken umbrella and squishy shoes. Squish squish squish squish squish!


RT @KEXPNowPlaying #kexp Tunde Olaniran “I’m Here” from I’m Here JK--2018. Nice R&B number. Detroit-based, Flint-reared artist.


"AGI Roadmap Beginning with the Subjective Self" (http://ow.ly/8uHe30l2RDf ) JK--One axis says "antonomous." Is that the subjective experience of an AI-driven colony of interchangeable drones who walk single file to breadcrumbs & carry them back to an intricate underground lair?


"Google Marxism" (http://ow.ly/p9XO30l2QGT ) JK--George Gilder reads  he's a soured VC whose investments all went south. Also reads  he's a frontman for Trump. Invoking Marx, William F Buckley & barfy phrases  "immanentized eschaton" doesn't help his dyspeptic case. Sad


"MIT/IEEE Partner to Advance Extended Intelligence" (http://ow.ly/FrUm30l2NOZ ) JK--Human-machine symbiosis in AI/IoT/robotics. Data-driven intelligence, digital wellbeing, participatory citizenship, dynamic cooperation, environmental contextualization, transparent governance.


"Can AI Write Its Own Applications? It's Trickier Than You Think" (http://ow.ly/oo1730l2NvT ) JK--Discusses Microsoft's DeepCoder project. See my piece on this auto-programming initiative a year ago:


"Improving Connectomics by an Order of Magnitude" (http://ow.ly/qMkd30l2Mua ) JK--Google AI research paper on a deep learning technique that improves the accuracy of automated interpretation of organical neural interconnection data by whopping margin. I made up the "whopping" part


"What Does It Mean to Certify an AI Product as Safe?" (http://ow.ly/XlKl30l2LWA ) JK--Great stuff. Where does this guy get all his ideas from?


"New CxO Gang: Data, AI, & Robotics" (http://ow.ly/Z2zN30l2Lmv ) JK--"Chief AI Officer"? "Chief Robotics Officer"? Gimme a break. Combine them into "Chief AI & Robotics Officer" because "CAIRO" is a cool acronym. Their priority would be to robotically build data-driven pyramids


"Robotic Vacuums May Hoover Your Data" (http://ow.ly/W8qU30l2KnU ) JK--But I won't be worried till bots can bissell, electrolux, and dyson every last scrap of it.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Syd Barrett "Gigolo Aunt" from Barrett JK--1970. Cool bit of Syd sounding spaced out and relaxed. A spacious stroll down some beach.


"Why some accents don’t work on Alexa or Google Home" (http://ow.ly/13ZD30l2GoH ) JK--We don't use those, but I routinely have to wield my Midwestern American accent to help my foreign-born wife unlock some voice-recognition authentication or navigation IVR challenge on the phone


"Internet infrastructure will be inundated as sea levels rise" (http://ow.ly/J5dc30l2FvD ) JK--"By 2033, > 4,000 miles of underground fiber will be beneath sea water, & 100s of data centers will be affected because conduits & internet cables are not designed for that environment"



"3 Areas AI Can Go Wrong" (http://ow.ly/dfqg30l2E8S ) JK--Cortnie Abercrombie actually discusses 4: personalization gone creepy; overfitting predictive models to lo-qual historical data; using available but not-so-valid data; using collection-method-biasd data to drive new outcomes


"Powering AI: The explosion of new AI hardware accelerators" (http://ow.ly/xfEE30l2DPE ) JK--I could not have said it better myself.


"How Clouds Will Crystallize Around Blockchain" (http://ow.ly/d7Ao30l2DMD ) JK--This guy knows what he's talking about.


"A $150 Billion Net Worth Makes Jeff Bezos the Richest Person on Earth and 24 Other Crazy Things We've Learned About the Amazon Founder" (http://ow.ly/osZW30l2DyX ) JK--The essence of clickbait is when sightseeing at the Grand Canyon somehow gets tagged as a "crazy thing."


"A Physicist Weighs In On Whether Scrooge McDuck Could Actually Swim in a Pool of Gold Coins" (http://ow.ly/rJZ030l2DqF ) JK--I was wondering. That never seemed realistic. Everything else about that comic seemed true to life.


"Jeff Bezos is even richer than Scrooge McDuck, Tony Stark, Bruce Wayne" (http://ow.ly/X7wn30l2DjE ) JK--And he's closing in on Croesus.


"On “solving” Montezuma’s Revenge" (http://ow.ly/RDVU30l2Cw4 ) JK--I thought that was already solved: don't drink the water (or breathe the air).


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Radiohead "There There (The Boney King of Nowhere.)" from Hail To The Thief (Special Collectors Edition) JK--2003. Love the big drum sound that pounds this one out from the start and then propels it into a headlong frenzy at the end.