Category: IO Impotency

Everything Is Broken

It’s hard to explain to regular people how much technology barely works, how much the infrastructure of our lives is held together by the IT equivalent of baling wire.

EXTRACT

Computers, and computing, are broken.

The NSA is doing so well because software is bullshit.

Continue reading “Quinn Norton: Everything [in IT] is Broken”

Interview: Tim O’Reilly talks algorithmic regulation, cyber-terrorism, and why he doesn’t like the term “automation”

EXTRACT

We’ve made a massive mistake with technology over the past three or four decades, using it to automate jobs and replace workers, rather than using it to augment workers and give them amazing new capabilities to do things that couldn’t be done before.

Continue reading “Daniel Araya: Tim O'Reilly on Algorithmic Regulation”

The Scientific Method is a Myth

Scratch the surface of the scientific method and the messiness spills out.

FTC Chair Edith Ramirez outlines concerns about Big Data

The FTC is worried about algorithmic transparency, and you should be too

Watchdog: Obamacare Exchanges Fail to Detect Counterfeit Documents

Algorithmic Bias and the Unintentional Discrimination in the Results

The article titled When Big Data Becomes Bad Data on Tech In America discusses the legal ramifications of relying on algorithms for companies. The “disparate impact” theory has been used in the courtroom for some time to ensure that discriminatory policies be struck down whether they were created with the intention to discriminate or not. Algorithmic bias occurs all the time, and according to the spirit of the law, it discriminates although unintentionally. The article states,

Continue reading “Stephen E. Arnold: When Big Data Becomes Bad Data Through Algorithmic Bias, Discrimination, and Distortion”

MH-17 Case: ‘Old’ Journalism vs. ‘New’

For skilled intelligence operatives, the Internet can be a devil’s playground, a place to circulate doctored photos, audio and documents, making investigations based on “social media” and such sources particularly risky, a point worth recalling in the mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, says Robert Parry.