Sunday, November 04, 2018

Aweekstweets October 8 to November 4 2018: the weeks preceding the week preceding my sixtieth



Resumption of Standard Time. I’m a bit concerned that the rest of the year refuses to comply with this standard. This has been going on too long.


Reasonably productive day. Wrote that article in the last hour before yoga. Wrote another in the hour after breakfast. Recorded a few video clips before lunch. Research another while watching others record theirs.


Rewatching “Shampoo” on PBS station. 1968 depicted in 1975. Noting non-obvious period song in soundtrack. Jefferson Airplane “Good Shepherd.” Anachronism. 1969, from “Volunteers.”


New jk #SiliconANGLE piece: "Building algorithmic protections against engineered political opinions" (http://ow.ly/WjZw30mtRe4 )


"Special Report: Kubernetes orchestrates a mass movement to the cloud" (http://ow.ly/Y7aR30mtRbx ) JK--Quotes me.


New jk #Wikibon blog: "Building Algorithmic Protections Against Engineered Political Opinions" (http://ow.ly/Jo3e30mtIg9 )


"Who’s Who in AI SoCs" (http://ow.ly/AkMH30mtlwh ) JK--AI systems-on-chip "are nothing like app processors whose architecture are already well-defined...no single SoC architecture rules the AI world...no single right way to design an AI SoC..makes flexibility" key design criterion


"AI and the Death of 'Employment for Life'" (http://ow.ly/RgF330mtl6B ) JK--Tossing "AI" onto the pile of job killers feels superfluous. I'm on my 15th full-time job since college. Seeing my dad lose his 20-year Sperry Univac gig while I was in highschool opened my eyes to reality.


"GitHub Report Charts Rise of Open Source AI" (http://ow.ly/Tyj330mtkXH ) JK--Topping GitHub's own internal ranking of "cool" projects was Google's Dopamine: research framework for quickly prototyping reinforcement learning algorithms (for robotics et al):


"Which platform for machine learning is right for your enterprise?" (http://ow.ly/cUMf30mtkEA ) JK--Good discussion but not an exhaustive market survey. There are dozens more commercially available solutions.


"These autonomous, self-assembling robots can join forces to solve problems" (http://ow.ly/ZKSa30mtktv ) JK--SMORES-EP: 3" wide cube-shaped wheeled modules; include cameras/computer; collect/process data from surroundings; move independently; dock amongst to form larger systems.


"15 tools to tame Kubernetes deployments" (http://ow.ly/2cjv30mtkiu ) JK--Useful guide by Serdar Yegulalp for tools to manage some maddeningly complex stuff.


"Why Jupyter is data scientists’ computational notebook of choice" (http://ow.ly/PaV830mtjC2 ) JK--"[R]esearchers embed code, data and text to document their computational methods....allows researchers to supplement their code and data with analysis, hypotheses and conjecture."


Right. So is federating K8s clusters across public and private clouds: an emerging art form that few are attempting so far. Too complex to set up and administer. #actionitem


@bjfjallen Meets the SLA of the outsourced legacy apps, that is. "Spirit" in an enterprise context is all about whether cloud offering offers equivalent functionality + performance + experience #actionitem


Today at noon ET / 9am PT, join me & the #Wikibon community to discuss the journey to #multicloud http://bit.ly/2Ok0XjK  @dvellante @plburris @jameskobielus @dfloyer @stu #IBMRedHat #actionitem


"The Washington Post announces plans to expand technology coverage" (http://ow.ly/dQ6630msr80 ) JK--Bezos has his business-coverage priorities straight. This is obviously the leading edge of dynamism & innovation in today's global economy.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Françoise Hardy "If You Listen" JK--1972. Kind of a narcotically sleepy meditation. That is a powerful narcotic.


"Should a self-driving car kill the baby or the grandma? Depends on where you’re from" (http://ow.ly/Fazd30msqkK ) JK--Geez. Let's not get into roadkill optimization algorithms. Let's not go there.


"This is what AI looks like (as sketched by AI)" (http://ow.ly/Eb8N30mspvR ) JK--It's flattering itself. I'd sketch it roughly like this:


"How Blockchain Could Break Big Tech’s Hold on A.I." (http://ow.ly/hQfg30msp8p ) JK--As immutable online digital trust backbone for online training-data marketplaces? That's not going to build deep benches of AI talented developers/tools/platforms, which is what Google et al have


"Apple stores are now selling a $2K 'self-flying' drone you can control from an Apple Watch" (http://ow.ly/EDDp30msoNL ) JK--I'm still waiting for a Spider-Man webline that you can shoot directly from your smartwatch, attach to buildings, & swing on like a trapeze. Those coming?


"The Awesome Potential of Quantum Computing" (http://ow.ly/W3eK30msogN ) JK--Something tells me today's early hardware attempts at quantum computing will, in the 22nd century, be like retro-hip "steampunk" kitsch. Funny/weird contraptions. Hope they work.


"Congress takes first steps toward regulating artificial intelligence" (http://ow.ly/lPrn30msnV8 ) JK--Is it asking too much to inquire into whether they understand the first thing about AI? We need legislators to be tested on such matters before they dare cast a vote. I'm serious.

"12 IoT Platforms" (http://ow.ly/IRwF30msnGw ) JK--Good discussion of Internet of Things cloud platforms. Include data ingestion/transformation, dashboard creation, rule/device management, security, and platform integration. Artik, AWS, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Temboo, Ubidots, etc.


"After Partner Pilots, Azure Digital Twins Hits Public Preview" (http://ow.ly/m7BA30msnzf ) JK--Microsoft is positioning digital twin tech for smart cities/buildings, rather than industrial IoT. Includes a spatial intelligence graph.


My wife has me drinking this alkaline water. It's reliable but boring. Cool that they're honoring the 50th anniv of the '68 Tigers. I'm waiting for the dennymclain water, but worry whether it's stable. And I'm concerned th mickeylolich water, tho a winner, will give me a potbelly


"What’s new in Angular: V7 production release" (http://ow.ly/N2So30msmci ) JK--Google’s popular JavaScript framework 4 mobile/desktop apps supports dependency injection. No support for dependency freebasing, snorting, or toking. High-performance apps are dangerously addictive


"How to build computers for big data, 1950s style" (http://ow.ly/PkJx30mslO0 ) JK--Ah yes, the good old days, when every lumbering military-industrial system was designed for nuclear survivability. That was the engineering objective of the early Internet too. Fat chance.


RT @KEXPNowPlaying #kexp The Lemonheads "Can't Forget" from Varshons 2 JK--2019. First new one from them in about 50 million years. Nice mellow vibe on this.


"The highD Dataset: A Drone Dataset of Naturalistic Vehicle Trajectories on German Highways for Validation of Highly Automated Driving Systems" (http://ow.ly/2EbB30mslnE ) JK--Will drones replace local news stations' rush-hour traffic helicopter-borne reporters?


"IBM just proved quantum computers can do things impossible for classical ones" (http://ow.ly/FM3R30mskR9 ) JK--Quantum nonlocality provably better than classical computers at solving certain linear algebra problems associated with binary quadratic forms.


"Venturi battles storms and salt to set electric land speed record " (http://ow.ly/ElEu30msku3 ) JK--From 3 years ago. On the awesome Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah (cool white expanse I've only seen from airplanes). Monegasque company (i.e., based in Monaco) & Ohio State University


"Roborace wants the future of racing to be AI plus humans, working together" (http://ow.ly/veeM30mskhc ) JK--This is going to encourage races of such astonishing velocity, densely crowded fields, and aggressive passing behaviors that no (sane) human-driven vehicles would dare.


"Rolls-Royce Wants To Fill The Seas With Self-Sailing Ships" (http://ow.ly/Xe0m30msk9s ) JK--That's almost certainly how most maritime shipping will go. If not entirely crewless, mostly self-navigating from port 2 port. Onboard crew may be there simply to protect cargo from pirates


"Kinetica Could Boost Nvidia..." (http://ow.ly/ecPl30msjW0 ) JK--"Simply put [JK note: not simply put] Kinetica joins other companies--such as MapD [which] recently changed name to OmniSci -- that put GPU at the core of their tech rather than the CPU that powers traditional DBs."


"Google wants to improve your smart home with iRobot’s room maps" (http://ow.ly/lQYn30msjBh ) JK--Article addresses the privacy issues surrounding these companies' "leveraging the unique dataset collected by iRobot: maps of customers’ homes."


I keep a running queue (in Microsoft Word) of current articles and their links of possible interest, speed gleaned from my inboxes. At periodic intervals, I process the queue with reckless abandon. The only way to keep up with this stuff. Or even hope to.


This autumn sucks all around. It’s all falling directly from green to ground, where they brown. Gotta frown.


Got us a nice new big bag of Reese's Peanut Butter cups to hand out to the kiddies. We don't generally get many trick-or-treaters on our cul-de-sac. Ze Reese's, zey are MINE!!!!


"Meet the Professor Who Was There When the Internet Was Turned On" (http://ow.ly/M7a530mrYiC ) JK--Says he was one of only 3 people in the room at the magic moment in 1969. I hope the other two weren't Cheech & Chong.


Dear Websites In General: I recommend that you not keep pestering me about investigating your privacy and cookie policies. I also don't want to know if you only employ free-range conflict-free biodegradable programmers. I just don't care.


"Google ponders the shortcomings of machine learning" (http://ow.ly/2Ksw30mrXXj ) JK--Proposes graph models to describe relations between things and enable automated systems to generalize more broadly about the world beyond was statistically-driven ML models can tell us.


I'm getting a bit tired of "Classic Peanuts." I hope that Big Eastern Syndicate starts to rerun themed sequences of the strips. I'd like a whole month where they run every strip in which Lucy, Violet, and Patty call Charlie Brown a blockhead, loser, failure face, and/or douchebag


"5 steps to making your data lake an organizational lifestyle" (http://ow.ly/1TJU30mrWH6 ) JK--Yep, your people can frolic in the data lake to their hearts' delight, but please draw the line at skinny-dipping.


"NXP Plans GHz MCU as AI Moves to Edge " (http://ow.ly/W1b630mrWrc ) JK--Opaque headline buries the lead: debuting an AI software development environment for IoT/edge/embedded devices. One of many such tools coming to market.


"Open sourcing TRFL: a library of reinforcement learning building blocks" (http://ow.ly/1gPs30mrWcd ) JK--DeepMind pronounces this "truffle." Seems to be a jumble of the building-block letters T & F (for "TensorFlow") and R & L (for "reinforcement learning").


"Provino Enters AI by the Back Door" (http://ow.ly/guSp30mrVO8 ) JK--Startup designs AI systems on a chip on its scalable "iFabric" interconnect bus.


"Can common sense be built into AI?" (http://ow.ly/ZNMM30mrVF0 ) JK--Perhaps, but why stop there? Insist on uncommon sense. Get your money's worth. Don't be a putz.


RT @KEXPNowPlaying #kexp Joyce Heath "I Wouldn’t Dream of It" JK--1961. Wow. A sad beautiful romantic gem of a 45rpm.


I always enjoy these "[x vendor] named a leader in [y market] by [z analyst firm]" PR stories. I see them every day. Quite often, it's the usual suspects reminding us that they're still in the game. Essentially, "earned" brand advertising, nothing more.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Bush Tetras "Too Many Creeps" from Wild Things JK--1980. I'm surprised this didn't become a Halloween standard years ago.


"August adds voice unlocking and doorbell announcements" (http://ow.ly/rwpp30mro4o ) JK--Just for kicks, they should introduce a surprise blood-curdling scream tonight as the costumed kiddies are approaching. Just for kicks.


I haven't heard much bitcoin/cryptocurrency hype in the past few months. That mania appears to have passed. Either that, or everybody who got rich is living a life of quiet affluence (or, more likely, lost everything and are silently seething with regret).


RT @KEXPNowPlaying #kexp Dead Man's Bones "Pa Pa Power" from Dead Man's Bones (Featuring the Silverlake Conservatory of Music Children's Choir) JK--2009. Group includes Ryan Gosling (yes, THAT Ryan Gosling). Far right in cover photo.


Nice clear starry sky this Halloween morning. Half moon. A calm one. I barely noticed it was Devil's Night. Dodged that one, thank goodness.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Viagra Boys "Sports" from Street Worms JK--2018. Wild punk ranting on this one.


"Google-Backed Ride-Hailing Startup Go-Jek Valued at Over $9 Billion" (http://ow.ly/a5BT30mqyc8 ) JK--Jakarta-based. Microsoft recently invested in their larger Singapore-based competitor Grab: http://ow.ly/8hvO30mqyfd .


RT @KEXPNowPlaying #kexp De La Soul "The Magic Number" from 3 Feet High and Rising JK--1989. Inspired hiphop mashup of "Multiplication Rock" song.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Jenn Champion "Time to Regulate" from Single Rider JK--2018. Nice one to include in an exercise listening mix.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Jefferson Airplane "Somebody to Love" from Surrealistic Pillow JK--1967. It's Grace Slick's 79th birthday. Here's the original version of this song from 1966, her and the Great Society live at the Matrix club on Fillmore St in SF.


Saw Republican congressional campaign ad warning that a vote for a Democrat would put Nancy Pelosi back in the speakership. Oh yeah, I’m worried about seeing her pretty face more. I’ve grown accustomed to Paul Ryan’s droopy-eyes sad sack on sedatives look.


RT @KEXPNowPlaying #KEXP Black Belt Eagle Scout “Soft Stud” from Mother Of My Children JK--2018. What a dirty delicious fuzz bass. I’m all tingly.


RT @KEXPNowPlaying #kexp Berlin “Sex (I’m a…)” from Pleasure Victim JK--1982. Very juicy dance-floor electronica. I remember this.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Neko Case "Hold On, Hold On" from Fox Confessor Brings the Flood JK--2006. This is one of the most golden oldies from the Millennium Decade. Thank you Neko!


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Soccer Mommy "Wide Open Spaces" from Wide Open Spaces JK--2018. Nice Dixie Chicks cover in an alt-rock slacker-girl vein.


New jk #SiliconANGLE article: "With Red Hat, IBM expands its focus on cloud-native development for multiclouds" (http://ow.ly/3Bcm30mpSjp )


RT @KEXPNowPlaying #kexp Leonard Cohen "You Want It Darker" from You Want It Darker JK--2016. Released exactly one month before his death. He saved one of his very best for the bitter end. That was very Leonard of him to do that.



RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Fleetwood Mac "Oh Well" from Live at the BBC JK--1995. Various tracks recorded at the Beeb from 1967-71. This is probably 1969. Extended version was on "Then Play On" album from that year. Best use of cowbell in British blues-rock pantheon. No contest.


RT @kexpnowplaying: Donovan "Season of the Witch" from Sunshine Superman JK--1966. Having to pIck up every stitch? Rabbits running in the ditch? Beatniks out to make you twitch? Classic signs of witch infestation.


This morning, Seattle public radio station #KEXP opening sponsor message promotes some course being held in my hometown, Alexandria VA, and occasionally concerts in downtown Washington DC at Anthem. What gives? Are they geotargeting these messages now?


Nice night of casual dining out with the wife, followed by home and lazy TV-watching: a British historical drama with the subtitles on. Hot tea with honey & lemon. The cozy fortnight between our birthdays.


I see they’re coming out with a movie about Queen. High time. I remember hearing “Bohemian Rhapsody” for the first time on my car radio driving home from high school in 12th grade. A classic 70s WTF memory.


IBM acquiring Red Hat reminds me a bit of Sears acquiring KMart in the hope of hedging against the decline of department stores and the challenge from Amazon and Walmart. Interesting that Amazon is the 800-pound gorilla in both scenarios.


How the cloud wars forced IBM to buy Red Hat for $34 billion | ZDNet



In a bombshell deal, IBM acquires open-source pioneer Red Hat for $34B https://siliconangle.com/2018/10/28/bombshell-deal-ibm-acquires-open-source-pioneer-red-hat-34b/ … via @SiliconANGLE


“IBM is acquiring software company Red Hat for $34 billion” (https://amp.businessinsider.com/ibm-is-reportedly-nearing-a-deal-to-acquire-redhat-the-software-company-valued-at-20-billion-2018-10 …) JK--Gives IBM a substantial open-source solution portfolio for enterprise hybrid cloud opportunities.


KMart near us is closing. I’ve been wondering for years how long they can keep up this futile facade of competing against Walmart and Target. Parent Sears doesn’t have long either.


Rainy Saturday. Big crowd at Trader Joe. Halloween just 4 days from now. Last chance to load up on pumpkin spice everything. Wards off the wickedest witches, I’m told


Some Trump thug trying to intimidate the electorate before the midterms? Not surprised. Jackboots all.


Second full night of sleep at home back from a jampacked west coast business trip. Feel now like I’m back to sort of normal. No stupid dreams full of arbitrary tech talk. Tick tock.


One of my highlights in San Francisco this week was having the SFMoMA largely to myself after-hours (with guide). Great collection includes multiple by Close, LeWitt, Oldenburg, and Warhol. The guide was a young Chinese artist. We had a great conversation.


"Trump denies iPhone use that reportedly allows for China, Russia spying" (http://ow.ly/Najk30mo2zV ) JK--Moron!


Dear Tech PR Person Who Wants To "Run a Story Idea By You": I don't write "stories." If it isn't perfectly obvious, I write what's on my mind and discuss what's going on in my sphere of expertise. Tell me something that I might find interesting: your [whatever] story.


Regarding Megyn Kelly's idiotic statement about blackface on a Halloween costume: "Back when I was a kid that was OK, as long as you were dressing up as, like, a character." I'm 12 years older than her & that was flat-out racist pretty much from the dawn of my trick-or-treat days


My wife’s usual concern is about me not exercising while on business trips. My usual response is to point out how much walking I do. Climbing too. I work my heart in San Francisco.


“Worst cover-up in history”? Hardly. That distinction belongs to the current administration’s efforts to pretend that the person in charge isn’t a dangerous lunatic.


Next morning. Very early. Little sleep. Waiting at gate at SFO for flight home. Was worth it. Beck and Portugal. The Man were excellent at the #OOW18 after-concert at AT&T Park. Beck has quite a back catalog of great songs.


Cool thing about AT&T Park: the telecom service provider whose name is on the stadium has equipped it with fast, reliable Wi-Fi. A damn sight better than Moscone Center, whose Wi-Fi, IMHO, blows big gnarly chunks!


"Migrant caravan"? Let them in. I advocate eliminating all restrictions on the unfettered flow of immigrants into the USA. They're us. They're our legacy & future. our strength. Our country is a magnet for the world's hopeful. I descend from immigrants. I married one. Let 'em in!


Oddly, I'm kind of glad I booked too late to get a hotel in SF. Every one's jampacked with #OOW18 goers. Every one's got those obnoxious labor-protester drumbeaters making an unholy racket. I'm in San Bruno near SFO. On BART. Peaceful unpretentious working class neighborhood.


Worked hard this week at #OOW18. Published 5 detailed analyses of Oracle's announcements & strategies. After submitting the last one to my editor, I walked SF all the way to Ghirardelli Sq & back. Now kicking back with hotdogs/beer at AT&T Park. Waiting for PortugalTheMan & Beck.


New jk #SiliconANGLE #OOW18 article: "OpenWorld 2018: Oracle struggles to grow its cloud business but AI-driven apps set it apart" (http://ow.ly/NbUV30mmDmz )


Join me @stu @dvellante @plburris @dfloyer @tmspeaks today at 9am PT/12noon ET for #Wikibon live Crowdchat on Managing AI Risk: http://ow.ly/CSIQ30mkaC1  #actionitem


Dining placidly alone at Francis Ford Coppola’s restaurant in North Beach. Nice quiet elegant Italian fare. I utterly love their spicy spaghetti pomodoro basilico. Going to wash it down with Francis’ Sonoma Merlot ‘14.


"Updated Oracle Gen 2 Cloud aims to challenge cloud leaders" (http://ow.ly/5rX230mlG7t ) JK--Contains commentary by me that Jack Vaughan recorded at #OOW18 while we were in the hall getting coffee. Good coffee. Great tech reporter. Nice guy.


I love when e-newsletters are assembled by dim bots. Occasionally, the titles of some of the clipped/linked articles are "Page not found." Personally, I'm not going to read that one until the author finds the page and tells us how they did that. I need inspiring can-do stories.


"Moscone to Use Self-Powered Smart Security at Events" (http://ow.ly/EkwR30mlDvR  ) JK--V5 will provide the security team at San Francisco's George R. Moscone Convention Center with situational awareness around the sprawling facility. Real-time monitoring via smartphone app.


This message has no content. If it had content, it wouldn't have a point. If it had a point, you wouldn't care one way or another. If you cared, it would have content. These things are continuously self-reinforcing in the virtuous circle of influence and relevance.


Those labor protesters outside the hotels near Moscone are just keeping up that racket continuously. Sounds like a punk band on continuous loop, with the group chanting kind of resembling a plainsong gone aggressively confrontational.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp FIDLAR "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle" JK--2018. Good cover of one of my favorite Nirvana songs.


Autonomous...Bosch (https://www.bosch.com/explore-and-experience/autonomous-driving-interview-with-michael-fausten/ …) JK--"A Tesla Model S which Bosch has converted into a test vehicle is one of the few self-driving cars with permission to drive on German freeways." Driving culture of tomorrow? Garden of earthly delights on wheels?


Dear Tech Vendors Who Claim That Their Solutions are Seamless: Please certify that your offering is entirely free of any of the seams listed in the international registry of seams. If there's even a speck of seam in your product, you're busted!


"Hyundai developed a wearable exoskeleton that's also a chair" (http://ow.ly/LyQr30mlzMo ) JK--Wow! I want one of those for when I'm walking through the city and there's not a park bench in sight.


"Artificial Agency: The “Action” Side of AI" (http://ow.ly/trNc30mlzbv ) JK--Good new #Wikibon blog by @plburris


New jk #SiliconANGLE #OOW18 article: "Oracle’s self-driving vision is comprehensive but still disjointed and incomplete" (http://ow.ly/Q2Wc30mlyWm )


New #jk #SiliconANGLE #OOW18 article: "At OpenWorld, Oracle extends AI throughout its ‘self-driving’ cloud solutions" (http://ow.ly/cniB30mlkkX )


"Oracle helps users curate their way through the growing open-source cloud stack" (http://ow.ly/pk6T30mkNAJ ) #Wikibon Peter Burris provides in-depth analysis of today's Oracle Linux Cloud Native Environment announcement. #OOW18


New jk #Wikibon research note: "Curating the Production-Grade Cloud-Native Computing Stack" (http://ow.ly/Dx4L30mkNpb ) #OOW18 #Oracle


"At OpenWorld, Oracle debuts new AI-powered cloud app services" (http://ow.ly/ka8u30mky85 ) JK--Quotes me.


"Announcing Oracle Linux Cloud Native Environment" (http://ow.ly/9D6b30mkt0D ): a curated set of open source Cloud Native Computing Foundation projects that can be easily deployed, have been tested for interoperability, and for which enterprise-grade support is offered. #OOW18


Cybersecurity is hot. Even the guy who serves me wine on weekends at Trader Joe's sample bar is a cybersecurity specialist in his real job. And he's got a fine sense for what makes a vintage fit for discriminating palates like my own. Actually, I just toss down those splashes.


Join me @stu @dvellante @plburris @dfloyer @tmspeaks this Wed 9am PT/12noon ET for #Wikibon live Crowdchat on Managing AI Risk: http://ow.ly/CSIQ30mkaC1  #actionitem


RT @KEXPNowPlaying #kexp Led Zeppelin "What Is and What Should Never Be" from Led Zeppelin III jK--1970. Exceptionally beautiful druggy languid piece showing off everybody's chops: Plant's vocal, Page's guitar, Jones' bass, & that crisply assertive Bonham drum attack.


#OOW18 will be my first Oracle OpenWorld in several years. Can't wait to see what they announce. I've been following their rollout of autonomous/self-driving closed-loop platform optimization features. Very impressive practical integration of AI for IT mgmt.


Caught “First Reformed” on DVD. A Paul Schrader film with Ethan Hawke as a very somber, conflicted, dying clergyman. Excellent. The protagonist is like God’s own Travis Bickle.


Local PBS station trucks out their recorded Peter, Paul, & Mary special for yet another fundraiser. Those pledgerunners have puffed down on that magic dragon so many times they’re going to need a roach clip.


“Died during a fistfight at the consulate”? Yeah, sure. I’d put up a fight too if the consul general were trying to saw off my arms and legs.


Checking the digital news while waiting for the paper news to arrive. It's not real hardened news unless it runs the risk of getting wet from dew on the driveway and eventually ending up in my garbage.


New jk #InfoWorld column: "How the Turing GPU will revolutionize immersive AI" (http://ow.ly/avsh30miqmp )


"A Chinese city plans to replace street lights with its own moon" (http://ow.ly/rU4230mip2x ) JK--Chengdu hopes to launch an "illumination satellite" in 2020. Reflect the Sun's light over an area 10-80 km wide, with lighting range controllable within a few dozen meters.


"In Virginia House Race, Anonymous Attack Ads Pop Up on Facebook" (http://ow.ly/IEAB30minpc ) JK--It may be narcissism, but I keep Facebook nailed up to my own timeline page. No ads. I only check the all-friends timeline once or twice a day when I'm simply glancing for updates.


"By the time U finish this article, 400K Americans were probably robocalled" (http://ow.ly/TME630min78 ) JK--I don't answer calls originating from my exchange: all are robo. I'm glad my telco uses caller ID to flag likely robo. I hang up if there's a 1-2 sec silence upon pickup


"Code One Preview: JavaOne v2, Gosling & Blockchain Beer" (http://ow.ly/Y57B30mimcT ) JK--You had me at "beer." Yes, I'll be at Code One next week at Moscone West. Keep a frosty one ready for me, please.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Christine and the Queens "Doesn’t matter" from Christine and the Queens JK--2018. Nice. Love that slap rhythm, the oozy fuzzy bass, and the high-low vocal harmony arrangement. This track has strong bottom, spacious top.


Cool. Two more of mine published yesterday. Each rich with hyperlinks. I write them to have places to which I personally can return to follow the links at some indefinite point in the future. For any topic, I can't keep this stuff in active cache for very long before I move on.


New jk #TechTarget column: “Trying to Keep From Sinking Under The Squirming, Sprawling, Overstuffed Stack of Cloud-Native Computing Projects” (https://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/IT-watch-blog/trying-to-keep-from-sinking-under-the-squirming-sprawling-overstuffed-stack-of-cloud-native-computing-projects/ …)


Elliptical gives me “boost workout” options: “quad power,” “thigh toner,” or “X Mode.” Gotta stop hitting that “X Mode.” Might not be appropriate to flaunt my XXX bod all over town.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Soul Coughing "Screenwriter's Blues" JK--1994. One of the very best songs ever about Los Angeles. Very much plays out like Jim Morrison rapping a hardboiled Dashiell Hammett cop story ghost-written by Hunter S. Thompson.


"Framework for Intelligence/Cortical Function Based on Grid Cells in Neocortex" (http://ow.ly/jUan30mhyHG ) JK--Postulates that "unlike traditional hierarchical ideas where objects are learned only at the top... there are many models of each object distributed throughout neocortex"


"With Neoverse, Arm aims to expand chip reach from edge devices to data centers" (http://ow.ly/s54S30mhxXl ) JK--Mentions "matrix workloads." That refers to the matrix-mathematics operations at the heart of neural networks that drive most AI/machine learning.


"Talend jumps into data cataloging and API development" (http://ow.ly/SD0c30mhx3z ) JK--Crowded segment. Data governance. But can't be full catalog now without AI/machine learning governance. I'd like to hear whether Talend has plans in that direction:


"WikiLeaks goes public with alleged list of AWS datacentre locations and code names" (http://ow.ly/nC8d30mhwpX ) JK--It's pretty clear that Julian Assange and his crew are in cahoots with Trump.


"Twitter Posts Millions of Tweets Linked to Russia, Iran" (http://ow.ly/SWZY30mhvMY ) JK--Leaves no doubt that these overseas agitpropsters were in cahoots with Trump.


New jk #InformationWeek column: "The Coming Wave of Regulation over Facial Recognition" (http://ow.ly/KH7D30mhuKU )


"Bias Detection in Machine Learning Models Using FairML" (http://ow.ly/YvS130mh39b ) JK--Algorithmically assesses an ML model's overreliance on features correlated with protected attributes (eg., gender, race, religion)


"MIT to Spend $1 Billion on Program to Study AI Ethics" (http://ow.ly/M9S730mh2Sh ) JK--That seriously overstates it. School will "foster breakthroughs in computing, particularly AI; deliver AI tools to researchers in every field; and work on AI’s ethical use and societal impact."


Interviewed at length via Skype by editor Charles Roe of #Dataversity on the containerization of the entire big data analytics and AI/ML landscape. They'll incorporate what I told them into several articles. Lots and lots going on.


"YouTube returns following widespread outage" (https://bayareane.ws/2PCxJ1f ) JK--What's Google's high-availability SLA with YouTube? Five 9s? ? Number nine? Number nine? Number nine? Number nine? Number nine? Number nine? Number nine? Number nine?


Complexity is addictive. If you're an analyst, there's a dopamine rush that comes from breaking down a topic into its many parts, looking at it inside & out, and building it back and reframing it coherently. But a lot of complex things are less than the sum of their parts. Bummer


Started the work day with yoga. Instructor always asks what our intention is for the class. I'm never sure whether calm, poise, strength, or balance should predominate. So I just focus on getting through the session without intention. I prefer inattention. Less tension that way.




This column of mine was one of the most popular on #Dataversity this past quarter: "Benchmarking the Full AI Hardware/Software Stack" (http://ow.ly/aBi930mg3AH )


"IBM Introduces AI OpenScale to Spur Artificial Intelligence Adoption and Transparency" (http://ow.ly/ZnCI30mg3fv ) JK--Cloud-based data science DevOps automation toolchain. includes Neural Network Synthesis Engine (beta), using AI to build AI from scratch.



Notice how Abe Lincoln is the only president not showing his face in this "Republican Club" painting. He's too ashamed to be seen in the same frame as the jerkwad currently occupying the office.


Abstraction without crisp componentization and coherent orchestration is toothless. #predictionstech2019


The cloud-native stack is a fast-growing menagerie: Kubernetes is the core, and it's continuing to develop rapidly, but the other components of the CNCF stack to address storage, serverless, edge/IoT, and DevOps will be key new focu... #predictionstech2019


I agree with David that matrix mathematics workload are the heart of AI/deep learning, and that the hardware/distributed infrastructure must be optimized to scale/speed these workloads all the way to the edge. #predictionstech2019


I'm working on an update to the Wikibon coverage of the data science toolchain market. Kubernetes for CI/CD of containerized AI/ML into production apps is a hot theme in many solutions and customer requirements. #predictionstech2019


#KEXP DJ @loserboy aka John Richards speaking eloquently on-air now about Paul Allen and how his 3-year seed money saved the station almost 2 decades ago and was fundamental to its shift from college radio to community nonprofit global music resource.


New people are following me on Google+? They'll enjoy my continued non-posting for the remaining days of its dwindling lifespan.


"Microsoft staff allegedly pen open letter urging firm to drop bid for US government cloud deal" (http://ow.ly/1bGy30mfFus ) JK--“Many Microsoft employees don’t believe that what we build should be used for waging war,” the letter reads.


"A Review of the Neural History of Natural Language Processing" (http://ow.ly/UmZS30mfEjn ) JK--Through "winters" and every other season, NLP remains AI's core use case.


"Google AI researchers find strange new reason to play Jeopardy!" (http://ow.ly/amMz30mfDwJ ) JK--Not strange at all: query optimization. "Reformulate English-language question into multiple different re-wordings, find variant that does best at retrieving an answer from a database"


Join me @dfloyer @furrier @stu @plburris @dvellante today at 12noon ET for livechat on #Wikibon 2019 Predictions. Based on hundreds of theCUBE and other thought leader interviews: http://ow.ly/BWmq30mfzgE  #predictionstech2019


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Marissa Nadler "For My Crimes" from For My Crimes JK--2018. Very nice, very sad.


RIP Paul Allen. Microsoft co-founder had a substantial investment portfolio and hugely important philanthropic initiatives, including 2000’s EXPerience Music Project. Trivia: Seattle public radio station KCMU received Allen grant and became #KEXP


"10 Lessons I Wish I Had Known Before Scaling Deep Learning Solutions" (http://ow.ly/eRX230meZEG ) JK--Excellent, in-depth view of key cautions, eg "Feature Extraction can Become a Reusability Nightmare."


"The Blockchain-Enabled Intelligent IoT Economy" (http://ow.ly/fSp130meZhy ) JK--Includes useful lists of blockchain-enabled data & AI marketplaces.


"AI security camera detects guns and identifies shooters" (http://ow.ly/3s5730meXVo ) JK--"Relief from gun violence"? Something tells me that this technology will be used by military forces to target snipers. May cause violence to escalate in unforeseen ways.


"MIT Plans College for Artificial Intelligence, Backed by $1 Billion" (http://ow.ly/igYy30meFVj ) JK--Educating domain specialists (e.g., biology, chemistry, politics, history, linguistics) in data-driven computational methods & tools, while doing deep research in computer science.


"The Absurdity of the 'First Man' Flag Controversy" (http://ow.ly/HhFw30meFtc ) JK--Planting the flag of any nation on the Moon was inappropriate in the first place. It's not territory to which any nation can lay claim. Nothing wrong with displaying it on spaceship/suits, though.


"Sears, the Original Everything Store, Files for Bankruptcy" (http://ow.ly/uygg30meEqz ) JK--Passing of an era, but nobody's surprised and they won't really be missed. We haven't shopped there in years.


"Preaching to the choir"? Yeah, they can sing, but are they hip to all the nuances and alternative interpretations of scripture? I thought not. Preach away, but not inline to the ceremony. I always prefer music to pontification.


Nice day. Been lying on my back on the sofa in my comfies under a warm blanket spacing out. Dress rehearsal for the upcoming night’s sleep.


Dear Film Rating Board: Please, in the same way you warn of sex, violence, and language, indicate when the ending makes no f-ing sense. Personally, I find that most offensive, and it’s shockingly widespread these days.


Celebrating Michigan’s victory over Wisconsin. Lamenting Wisconsin’s loss to Michigan. I went to both schools, so I have license to be a bit bipolar on this issue.


Hey DC local weathercaster: don’t refer to Sunday’s forecast as “Redskin Weather.” Call it “Jimmy Kobielus weather”: its sole purpose is to be conducive to any outdoor activities in which I personally may choose to engage tomorrow.


Enjoying the Virginia congressional campaign commercials of Jennifer Wexton and Barbara Comstock. I’ve learned that each of those ladies is a public menace with an evil agenda that will destroy America. #themoreyouknow


Maybe I’m weird, but the onset of cooler weather and dimming days always makes me happy. I love dressing in layers and not having to worry about sunburn and stinky perspiration. Trees seem relieved to be shedding leaves.


Chilly one today. First Octoberly day I’ve experienced so far this October.


Heading to the hills next month to celebrate my 60th. Sobering to realize my birth was closer in time to the 19th Century than I am now to my birth.


Changed the channel from the ABC interview with Melania Trump. She and her husband can kiss my ass.


Caught “Hotel Artemis” on DVD. Didn’t like it. I’m so sick of dystopian crap coming out of Hollywood. Stop it. I’m not buying into this future.


Doing Oracle OpenWorld the week after next. Check me out in San Francisco. I’ll be around.


Join me @plburris @dvellante @dfloyer @stu for live CrowdChat: #Wikibon 2019 Predictions, Data at the Center of Multi-Cloud, Tuesday Oct 16, 12noon EDT:


"5 myths about the Internet of Things that it’s time to forget" (http://ow.ly/1rm830mcPHG ) JK--Thanks for reminding us to forget them. Examining them is the best way to put them out of mind. I'll also forget that I read and tweeted about your article. Excellent anti-mnemonic


"Bezos fortune sinks $9.1 billion in one day" (http://ow.ly/bLJU30mcPjH ) JK--Thanks. Please send us all separate real-time alerts on how each of the world's 1% are weathering the stock market's daily ups & down. I worry that Jeff isn't quite rich enough yet.


I love that the Pentagon's cloud-contract acronym is "JEDI" (Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure). I assume the program is under their Office of Business Intelligence, Wide-Area Networking, Knowledge Engineering, and Nationally Optimized Backbone Infrastructure (OBIWANKENOBI)


The reason I don't pay attention to Quora is Qs such as "Does Bob Dylan even write all of his lyrics?" & answers that include rhetorical Qs such as "Does Meryl Streep even write all of the movies she’s in?" IMDB shows Streep has never written a single movie. I've lost respect.


Spam is great jabberwocky, eg: "We do not have any broker chain in this offer or get involved in Chauffer driven offers. Our own deliver with time and precision as set forth in the agreement. Or you are client that requires funding for project or business, please contact me."


Wanna thank the upgraded Gmail for auto-completing my short email responses with phrases that I perhaps use too often. Reminds me that I need to stop sounding so robotic on some of these message threads. Must at least vary my syntax. Perhaps throw in pointlessly showy vocabulary.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Mirah "Lake/Ocean" from Understanding JK--2018. Good new one from her. Kind of a Young Marble Giants-like guitar on this.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Buffalo Springfield "Hot Dusty Roads" from Buffalo Springfield JK--1966. Great twang in the guitar and swagger in Stephen Stills' voice on this one. Richie Furay harmonizes.


New jk #Datanami column: "Kubernetes Is a Prime Catalyst in AI and Big Data’s Evolution" (http://ow.ly/J64R30mbgCn )


"Evaluating the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Human Rights" (http://ow.ly/8QpA30maSWA ) JK--Check out the new report from Harvard's Berkman Klein Center:


"18 Tips for Training your own Tensorflow.js Models in the Browser" (http://ow.ly/mU4J30maSge ) JK--You can put that GPU on your desktop to good use, and quit wasting it on gaming for at least 2 seconds.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp U2 "All I Want Is You" from Rattle and Hum JK--1988. The Edge totally shreds it on guitar here.


"The Graph That Knows the World" (http://ow.ly/AfJV30maRNe ) JK--Diffbot: knowledge graph as a service.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Bonnie “Prince” Billy "The World's Greatest" from Ask Forgiveness JK--2007. This country-folk singer-songwriter has an endearing hangdog quality to his work.


"NVIDIA Launches GPU-Acceleration Platform for Data Science" (http://ow.ly/anbp30maQnd ) JK--Open-source software libraries for AI DevOps acceleration on multi-node, multi-GPU platforms. Python programming, NVIDIA CUDA primitives, DataFrame API. See here: http://rapids.ai 


"Laughing at the Google+ bug? You’re making a big mistake." (http://ow.ly/nGNK30maPTr ) JK--"Millions [created] accounts on Google+, accounts that still exist today...eventually became a danger to their owners... years after Google+ stopped being a meaningful social...phenom"


"Microsoft is investing in ride-hailing firm Grab" (http://ow.ly/xcKM30maOUF ) JK--Throughout SE Asia. I saw lots of their green-helmeted racing-stripe-clad motorcycle chauffeurs everywhere on my recent Jakarta trip. See right in photo. Ditto their arch-competitor Go-Jek. See left


"Realme Set to Change Indonesian & SE Asian Smartphone Markets" (http://ow.ly/rtSJ30maNK1 ) JK--AI vanity phone? Identifies 296 face recognition points and, thru AI, recognize gender, age, skin tone/type of characters in photos, & subsequently offer personalized beauty solutions."


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp DeVotchKa "Lose You In the Crowd" from This Night Falls Forever JK--2018. Nice new one from these Denver-based operatically gypsy-romantic rockers.


I’ll be attending AWS re:Invent late next month in Las Vegas. The whole week. They’re doing so much now I need that much time to focus on them.


My method of spinning out a new article is to perform fast analysis on found content. Everything reveals something when you squeeze hard enough. The less I know coming in the better.


Nothing I enjoy more than kicking back with a good glass of wine. But I have to stop the kicking. Too easy to spill the wine.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Marvin Gaye "What's Going On" JK--1971. "Father, father/We don't need to escalate/You see, war is not the answer/For only love can conquer hate." Beautiful stanza: Gaye spoke both to US involvemnt in Vietnam War & American streets aflame with civil unrest


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Cat Power "You Get" from Wanderer JK--2018. I love this one from her latest LP. Classic Chan Marshall vibe buzzing with eager expectation.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp The La's "Son of a Gun" from The La's JK--1990. I love how the singer drawls a quasi-rhyme into "purgatory" and "mercenary."


Stephen J. Vaughan-Nichols is one of the few people I'm aware of who'll miss Google+ (http://ow.ly/xSEO30m9XAn ). Personally, I grew tired of it in the 1st few months when it was apparent that nobody I knew in the real world was on it, or if they were, spent much time there


"The Future of Brain-Computer Interfaces and the Human Machine" (http://ow.ly/yBhd30m9Q3B ) JK--Good roundup of startup activity in this emerging space.


"High Time to Regulate Face Recognition A.I." (http://ow.ly/y05A30m9PS5 ) JK--Proposes requiring that new AI chips invalidate any facial recog task or prevent hooking up "image capture system without the necessary [anti-face-recog] ‘safeguard chip’ in place."


"Predicting the World Around Autonomous Vehicles" (http://ow.ly/kJHc30m9PAj ) JK--Toyota AI Ventures teases around its investment in startup that invests self-driving vehicles with AI-powered ability to emulate "the way human drivers understand the state-of-mind of other humans."


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Japandroids "Continuous Thunder" from Celebration Rock JK--2012. Great song and great title. Continuous thunder is a perfect metaphor for the best hard rock.


"Intel Announces .... Gaming Processor: New 9th Gen Intel Core i9-9900K" (http://ow.ly/gAyM30m9P53 ) JK--Content creation? Video editing? Why is there no mention of tensorcore processing for generative AI and style transfer applications? Intel isn't unaware of that market.


"Google Is Shutting Down Google+ After It Discovered A Bug That Exposed Personal Information" (http://ow.ly/ko7J30m9O6L ) JK--They should have shut it down because it's useless.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp John Lennon "How Do You Sleep?" from Imagine JK--1971. Not exactly sure what motivated John to direct this unwarranted musical nastiness at Paul so soon after the Fabs broke up (or ever). IMHO, McCartney's awesome. But it's a good blues, nonetheless.


"Drone defense -- powered by IoT -- is now a thing" (http://ow.ly/Du1V30m9eRO ) JK--Not only is it a "thing," but these things will probably become a standard part of civic-defense infrastructure everywhere.


"Major companies create AI Benchmark and test 10,000+ phones for AI prowess" JK--Check out the benchmarks here http://ow.ly/sD0830m9eEQ  and the research site here: http://ow.ly/iXNQ30m9eGx 


"Pentagon Unmanned Systems Integrated Roadmap 2017-2042" (http://ow.ly/Zrjb30m9exg ) JK--Will a thoroughly unmanned military force put human soldiers out of work? Somehow, I doubt it.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Fred Thomas "Good Times Are Gone Again" from Aftering JK--2018. Good crunching guitar from this Ann Arbor MI-based rocker. Video shot in park midway between Arborland (where my mom bought all my school clothes) and Briarwood (where I hung as teenager).


"We Still Don’t Know Much About the Jobs the AI Economy Will Make — or Take" (http://ow.ly/Apuy30m9dGu ) JK--And all the scare stories about AI putting everybody out of work come against the backdrop of the US' strongest macroeconomic employment picture in 50 years. Simmer down.


"A Comparison of Kubernetes Distributions" (http://ow.ly/JyAT30m9dAA ) JK--Examines 6 of them, when in fact there are dozens of K8s distros on the market.


"Knowledge graphs beyond the hype: Getting knowledge in and out of graphs and databases" (http://ow.ly/WeLE30m9dpU ) JK--My sense is this tech will find its oats in encapsulating reusable knowledge for AI transfer learning.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Woods "Moving To The Left" from With Light and With Love JK--2014. Not sure if this means liberal-leaning politics, westward migration or none of that. Great song that will linger in your memory.


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Amen Dunes "Dracula" from Freedom JK--2018. This one has a righteous roll to it.


"DataRobot and UiPath Partner to Accelerate the Path to AI" (http://ow.ly/7cV030m9cZg ) JK--This is important. User-friendly self-service development, training, and delivery of AI-infused insights into the software robots that are automating administrative processes everywhere.


"Getting Multi-cloud Right with Per-app Architectures" (http://ow.ly/qvLi30m9cd6 ) JK--Seems to me that what Lori MacVittie is describing ("dedicated data path per application") requires an underlying digital-twin edge-to-edge cloud infrastructure.


"Creating custom Fortnite dances with webcam and Deep Learning " (http://ow.ly/zz5i30m9c0U ) JK--Maybe a silly premium add-on such as this will push AI into embedding in everybody's browser, mobile device, gaming console, and IoT media/entertainment edge device.


"Renesas to Pitch Baby-step AI for Factories" (http://ow.ly/Q59L30m98i4 ) JK--Refers to limited use cases where can apply "train-once-and-forget" anomaly detection models to cut-and-dried real-time/local factory-floor inferencing scenarios.


"Big-data rivals Cloudera and Hortonworks announce big-deal merger" (http://ow.ly/Bxgu30m97KR ) JK--Quotes me and many other analysts. My take: they have complementary strengths, but their backs are against the wall as Hadoop fades & cloud providers deepen AI/big data dominance


RT @kexpnowplaying #kexp Talking Heads "Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)" from Remain In Light JK--1980. Truth be told, I thought the THeads were in danger of jumping the shark as the '80s approached. But with this LP they became the shark. Eno helped them become a new band.