Category: IO Impotency

GAO DCGS Letter B-412746

A few days ago, I stumbled upon a copy of a letter from the GAO concerning Palantir Technologies dated May 18, 2016. The letter became available to me a few days after the 18th, and the US holiday probably limited circulation of the document. The letter is from the US Government Accountability Office and signed by Susan A. Poling, general counsel. There are eight recipients, some from Palantir, some from the US Army, and two in the GAO.

Continue reading “Stephen E. Arnold: GAO/US Army Bury Palantir — SOCOM Funding a Carcass”

Palantir: Information Leaks from Secret Outfit?

I read “Palantir To Buy Up To $225 Million Of Stock From Employees.” I am not too interested in a company trying to provide cash to workers who have to buy food in Sillycon Valley. The main point of the write up from my vantage point in wide open Harrod’s Creek is that the source of the information is a memo. I assume that outfits providing certain government agencies with services some are not supposed to know about or talk about are water tight. Guess not.

See Also:

Palantir @ Phi Beta Iota

Why a staggering number of Americans have stopped using the Internet the way they used to

The survey showed that nearly 20 percent of the survey's respondents had personally experienced some form of identity theft, an online security breach, or another similar problem over the year before the survey was taken last July. Overall, 45 percent said their concerns about online privacy and security stopped them from using the Web in very practical ways.

Must  read.

The blockchain is a threat to the distributed future of the Internet

EXTRACT

The need to replicate the whole chain of blocks on our computer is an insurmountable barrier to entry if you’re searching for an alternative to IBM, Amazon or Google. The Twister chain is still small, but think about how, to date, the initial synchronization for Bitcoin requires storage space of more than 65GB for the complete download of the blockchain.   . . .

The alternative on which we can build a great new Internet era is projects like GNU social, Friendica, Hubzilla, Diaspora, and efforts to design common protocols like ActivityPub, not on the blockchain. Without a doubt, the blockchain will be very useful for registering large corporate capital markets and making cross-border banking transactions, but as system for the development of everyday applications on the Internet, it’s a danger to the distributed structure of the network.

Continue reading “Jean Lievens: Is Blockchain a Threat to the Distributed Internet? UPDATED with 2 Comments”

The Real Lesson for Data Science That is Demonstrated by Palantir's Struggles

The real message from the Buzzfeed article goes beyond just Palantir and is highly relevant to the data science world. It ultimately comes down to the question of what is the value of data analysis?, and secondarily, how do you communicate that value?

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Palantir @ Phi Beta Iota