From Hedge Funds To Skype, Collapses Prove Unavoidable
Is there a connection between the recent meltdown at quant funds and last week's outage at Skype? Nick Carr makes the provocative argument that both events are the result of what happens when...
View ArticleGarbage In, Financial Crisis Out
With everyone trying to figure out just what went wrong to cause the rather spectacular financial mess Wall Street finds itself in these days, Saul Hansell over at the NY Times wanted to find out why...
View ArticleIsn't There Something Ironic In An Anonymous Exec Demanding Transparency From...
It really is amazing sometimes to see how many people think that Google "owes" them something. For example, we've had a few different stories about companies suing Google because they don't like how...
View ArticleTwo Separate Rulings In France Split Over Whether Google's Suggestion...
Reader Yann alerts us to an interesting set of lawsuits and decisions in France, both concerning the Google Suggest feature. One case involved a company named Direct Energie and the other with a...
View ArticleCan You Copyright Algorithmic Output?
A bunch of folks have been sending in Neil McAllister's writeup at InfoWorld about how Wolfram Alpha, the incredibly overhyped "knowledge engine" (that, in my experience doesn't work very well) is...
View ArticleWinner Takes All, Long Tails And The Fractilization Of Culture
Reader Eileen points us to a thought-provoking article by Joshua-Michele Ross discussing the idea that, rather than a diverse "long-tail" culture, we're actually being driven to a homogenized...
View ArticleYes, Google Will Even Delete Its Own Employees' Sites From Google Index If...
Over the years, we've seen plenty of people get mad and sue Google over getting either dropped from Google's index, or simply ranked really low on certain searches. And, of course, for some there are...
View ArticleTraders Convicted For Figuring Out Auto Trading Algorithm; How Is That Illegal?
Slashdot points us to the story of how two Norwegian day traders have been convicted and given suspended jail sentences for outsmarting an automated computer trading system, enabling them to make...
View ArticleGoogle's Childish Response To Microsoft Using Google To Increase Bing Relevance
It's inevitable as a company gets bigger and older that rather than just competing in the market, it starts attacking competitors and accusing them of doing something "wrong." It's too bad that Google...
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The Infinite Loop Of Algorithmic Pricing On Amazon... Or How A Book On Flies...
Glyn Moody points us to an amusing story by biologist Michael Eisen, about two Amazon book sellers who (it appears) each used algorithmic pricing to set their own prices on books off of what the other...
View ArticleDailyDirt: Big Brother Ads
The year 1984 didn't quite turn out the way the book did, but we're already living in a world where there are ubiquitous cameras tracking our every move. But it's not necessarily the government behind...
View ArticleDailyDirt: Modern Computer Dating
There are search engines for just about everything. Computers help people find all sorts of things faster and easier, so it's not surprising that computer dating is decades old (and started out with...
View ArticleSpeech-Via-Algorithm Is Still Speech, And Censoring It Is Still Censorship
I have to admit that I'm really confused about law professor and FTC advisor Tim Wu's general position on a variety of topics lately. In the past, I've often found him to be thoughtful and (very)...
View ArticleDailyDirt: Games Played By Computers
Artificial intelligence projects have come a long way with algorithms that can beat some of the best humans at poker and chess and a whole bunch of other games. There are still a few games that people...
View ArticleDailyDirt: Looking For Love In Some Of The Wrong Places
Online dating is by no means a new thing anymore, and by some counts, we're on the third iteration of improvement for internet dating. So that means we should be pretty close to perfecting these...
View ArticleDailyDirt: Adapting To A TL;DR Future
With the ever growing amount of content to read/watch/hear, humans are going to need to figure out much more efficient ways to consume information. Speed reading will only get us so far, and then...
View ArticleProgramming The News: The Future Of Reporting Is Algorithms
This may seem like the sort of statement usually delivered by an overblown narrator as rockets and lasers go zooming* by, but here goes: In the world of journalism, the future is now! Granted, it's...
View ArticleDailyDirt: Can Computers Grade Written Essays?
Technology aimed at education could really benefit an incredible number of students by making classes and learning (potentially) a more pleasant and efficient experience. Computers can't replace a...
View ArticleDailyDirt: Don't Let Your Computers Grow Up To Be Cowboys
Machine learning is a fascinating field that is increasingly becoming a part of more and more aspects of our lives. Not too far in the future, we're supposed to have all kinds of robot helpers --...
View ArticleDailyDirt: Creative Bots Generating An Art Overload
Some folks are worried that robots are poised to take over too many jobs, leaving a path of unemployed destruction in their wake. Usually, this fear is limited to jobs related to manual labor and...
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