Categories
Cyberinfrastructure Education Flat World Globalization Innovation Network OpenSource Reading Technology

Latest Read: Countdown to Zero Day

Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World’s First Digital Weapon by Kim Zetter is an amazing story. The NSA and Mossad worked to derail the nuclear weapons program of Iran. This begins an amazing story regarding stuxnet. In the end this is a wonderful story about imagination.

Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon

The history Kim traces is deeper than anyone could first imagine. Think about your favorite spy movie and technology. Countdown to Zero Day is going to shake you up as I found this book difficult to put down.

The International Atomic Energy Agency learned that centrifuges at an enrichment plant in Natanz were failing at an unprecedented rate. The US and Israel were able to deploy Stuxnet to Siemens industrial control systems in Iran.

Zetter opens this story in Belarus. A computer security firm with customers in Iran found what they initially thought was a rootkit. The virus was causing systems to repeatedly crash and reboot. When they could not resolve the issue they called Sergey Ulasen.

Categories
Cyberinfrastructure Education Flat World Globalization Innovation Network OpenSource Reading Technology

Latest Read: Everybody Lies

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz wrote Everybody Lies Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are. Seth holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard. He is a former quantitative analyst at Google. Seth also writes for the NYTimes. The stories are similar to Freakonomics but are based upon much larger datasets.

Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are

Everybody Lies is able to utilize Google search data that reveals in the opening chapter that we live in a very racist society.

Seth reviews search results from the 2016 Presidential election. Data mining via Google Search revealed hard truths that most would not say in mixed company.

Search at at work or home, Google data clearly indicated racists supported Trump in the 2016 Presidential election.

The outcomes of data mining Google search, Wikipedia, Facebook, Pornhub and Stormfront. The results are somewhat surprising if you simply follow analog driven surveys popular in the 1950s and 1960s. Clearly the mobile revolution and search provides real insights to the sway of the country or just specific sets of groups.

Everybody Lies tackles some interesting topics with vast amounts of data sets:

  • How much sex do people really have?
  • How many Americans are actually racist?
  • What should you say on a first date if you want a second?
  • Is America experiencing a hidden back-alley abortion crisis?
  • Where is the best place to raise kids?
  • Can you game the stock market?
  • Do parents treat sons differently from daughters?
  • How many men are gay?
  • Do violent movies increase violent crime?
  • How many people actually read the books they buy?

Like Freakonomics, the results will surprise you.

One of the more interesting data sets is within chapter three: Bodies as Data and involved a great story of American Pharoah. What makes a great racehorse? Actually the percentile of the left ventricle. Jeff Seder found the way to measure success of a racehorse. A great story is here. Seder, a Harvard trained lawyer took his hedge fund experience and applied it to his love of champion racehorses.

Categories
Cyberinfrastructure Education Flat World Globalization Innovation Network OpenSource Reading Technology

Latest Read: The Undoing Project

Michael Lewis wrote The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Change Our Minds. This story is about the lives of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. Honestly I am not sure why it took me so long to read this book. Kahneman’s book Thinking Fast and Slow was very enjoyable (my review here) and one that I think about often.

Lewis acknowledged this story was a result of his bestseller Moneyball.

He learned the insights to data he was seeking about baseball was already available from Kahneman and Tversky.

Daniel accepted the Nobel Prize in 2002 for his work. He acknowledged it should have been a joint award with Amos, who died from cancer eight years earlier.

Kahneman and Tversky focused on behavioral economics known as heuristics in judgment and decision-making. Their unique collaboration proved how unreliable human intuition can be. The results of their research can be staggering. For over twenty years they worked to prove our minds play tricks on us. This is simply based upon inaccurate memories and false stereotypes.

Categories
Blockchain Globalization Innovation Network

Latest read: Beyond Bitcoin

Beyond Bitcoin: The Economics of Digital Currencies by Hanna Halaburda and Miklos Sarvary is a wonderful read to learn about digital currencies and the state of Bitcoin. The authors clearly defined the real world use of digital currencies.

Beyond BitcoinBeyond Bitcoin explores the emerging and dynamic universe of digital currencies, to understand how they developed and what the future holds for our economy.

The authors use an economic framework to explore platform-based digital currencies that are centrally managed by the businesses that introduced them. The book ends with a comparison between various cryptocurrencies.

The authors use an economic framework to explore platform-based digital currencies that are centrally managed by the businesses that introduced them. The book ends with a comparison between various cryptocurrencies.

The history of currencies is rather fascinating and the third chapter covers currencies we are familiar with including BerkShares, Food Stamps and Mortgages. Also addressed are gaming currencies including World of Warcraft, and Diablo; virtual worlds including Eve Online and SecondLife and social networks including Facebook Credits or Amazon Coins.

Categories
Blockchain Cloud Cyberinfrastructure Education Globalization Innovation Network OpenSource Reading Technology

Latest Read: Blockchain Basics

The Blockchain Basics by Daniel Drescher. This is a very basic blockchain book. I would recommend this to someone completely unfamiliar with blockchain. Daniel hits his mark as he places a repeated template for each step. In this design, I felt the book had trouble flowing for anyone who has already read a blockchain textbook.
Blockchain BasicsDaniel pushes the elementary lessons through 25 steps.

There is a very basic outline to the security of the blockchain. Again this book has a specific target audience: Newbie.

I have to admit that I was bored reading the text. yet was impressed by the lessons and related topics that are presented.

Yet his lessons and related topics are simple to follow. For an overall tip of the iceberg, you can fly through this book and then move to Don Tapscott, William Mougayar and Melanie Swan.