Federated Graph Search from Netflix

Netflix has received some well deserved criticism of late.   But there is still Interesting Tech out of Netflix.    

How Netflix Content Engineering makes a federated graph searchable

By Alex Hutter, Falguni Jhaveri and Senthil Sayeebaba

Over the past few years Content Engineering at Netflix has been transitioning many of its services to use a federated GraphQL platform. GraphQL federation enables domain teams to independently build and operate their own Domain Graph Services (DGS) and, at the same time, connect their domain with other domains in a unified GraphQL schema exposed by a federated gateway.

As an example, let’s examine three core entities of the graph, each owned by separate engineering teams:

Movie: At Netflix, we make titles (shows, films, shorts etc.). For simplicity, let’s assume each title is a Movie object.

Production: Each Movie is associated with a Studio Production. A Production object tracks everything needed to make a Movie including shooting location, vendors, and more.

Talent: the people working on a Movie are the Talent, including actors, directors, and so on.  ....

Robots for Site Security

My guess that we will see many more of these types of robots providing and monitoring security.

Four-Legged Robot to Help Manage Pompeii

Reuters, Angelo Amante, March 31, 2022

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/four-legged-robot-deployed-help-manage-pompeii-2022-03-31/https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/four-legged-robot-deployed-help-manage-pompeii-2022-03-31/

A robot designed by Boston Dynamics will be used to inspect the ancient ruins of Pompeii, Italy, as part of an initiative to use technology to improve the management and safety of the archaeological site. Among other things, the four-legged robot, named Spot, will be used to inspect and monitor the safety of underground tunnels dug by thieves to steal artifacts from the site. The park's Gabriel Zuchtriegel said, "We want to test these robots in the underground tunnels of the clandestine excavators we are discovering in the area."  .... ' 

Are we Ready for Drone Delivery?

 Drone use expanding

Amazon, Alphabet, Others Quietly Rolling Out Drone Delivery Across America

The Wall Street Journal, Christopher Mims, April 2, 2022

A handful of companies have initiated commercial drone delivery across the U.S., with Alphabet's Wing unit boosting deliveries in Virginia via drone due to the pandemic. Other examples include Israeli startup Flytrex following up two years of food-delivery testing in North Carolina with a new delivery station in Texas. Flytrex's Yariv Bash said commercial-scale U.S. drone delivery hinges on gaining certification for drones, via the same process used to certify passenger aircraft. No U.S.-based drone delivery company is fully certified to fly everywhere without either a human operator or monitor, and such services require permission from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which has a lengthy certification process. National deployments will require FAA approval for fully autonomous drone delivery.   ... ' 

Capturing Transparent Objects in Three Dimensions

I recall a related problem for the detection of errors in manufacturing process.   Its broad use in this kind of application?

Fraunhofer at the Hannover Messe Preview 2022

Research News / March 16, 2022  in Fraunhofer

Capturing transparent objects in three dimensions is a major challenge. Researchers at Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF have developed a sensor that is able to solve this problem. The system has now been successfully tested for the first time with a robot. Applications in large-scale industrial manufacturing processes such as the semiconductor or automotive industry could be possible. The sensor will be featured at the Hannover Messe Preview on March 16 and at the German trade fairs Control from May 3 – 6, as well as Hannover Messe from May 30 – June 2, 2022.

The system works with thermal radiation for the 3D detection of transparent objects.

Transparent objects have their drawbacks: It is not without reason that we have stickers of birds’ silhouettes on big glass windows in order to protect their real-life conspecifics from colliding with the transparent barrier. Just as these animals have difficulties recognizing transparent surfaces, robots are also limited in their capabilities: They cannot “see” glass or other so-called “uncooperative surfaces” – i.e., surfaces that are glossy metal, extremely reflective, or jet-black. Especially in an industrial environment, this has been impeding the use of robots in the past. Many projects of automatization stagnate because uncooperative surfaces could only be detected too slowly or too inaccurately in 3D measurement.

Thermographic 3D sensor makes transparent objects visible to robots for the first time

A new 3D measurement technique, developed by researchers at Fraunhofer IOF last year, solves this problem: The “MWIR 3D Sensor” – also called “Glass360Dgree” – can detect objects with reflective or light-absorbing surfaces spatially and reliably for the first time. For this purpose, the system combines infrared laser projection and thermography: After locally heating up the object to be measured, two thermal imaging cameras determine the resulting temperature distribution on the object’s surface. Contrary to conventionally used sensors, the newly developed system does not require additional measurement aids or special, temporarily applied markings, for example in the form of (spray) paint.

High measurement speed for applications in large-scale industrial processes

Production processes are often about speed combined with high quality. This means: The more work steps a system can perform per minute without producing defective products, the more profitable is the production. The researchers at Fraunhofer IOF have taken this self-image of industry as an opportunity to adapt “Glass360Dgree” to various production scenarios. In recent months, the researchers from Jena have succeeded in increasing the measurement speed accordingly and optimizing the parameters of the measurement field.

“Our research group has been cooperating for years with companies from a wide range of production fields,” explains Dr. Stefan Heist, head of the “3D Sensors” research group at Fraunhofer IOF. “Among them are companies from semiconductor manufacturing, the automotive industry and aviation. We looked at joint projects from the past and analyzed how our 3D glass sensor could achieve better results than conventional sensors in various application scenarios,” explains the researcher, who has been working vigorously on new methods for 3D measurement for years. “We were able to identify three key starting points to make our system ready for potential use in a large-scale industrial manufacturing facility.”.... ' 

Predicting Impact of Earthquakes

Not predict occurrence, but predict impact.  Quite useful in preparation.  Addressing during an event.  Recall we had looked at  feasibility of prediction.  More training samples needed.  

Neural Network Model Helps Predict Site-Specific Impacts of Earthquakes

Hiroshima University (Japan),  April 15, 2022

A neural network model developed by researchers at Japan's Hiroshima University can calculate how soil layers can amplify the seismic waves of large earthquakes. The researchers analyzed microtremor data from 105 sites in the Chugoku district from 2012 to 2020 using a generalized spectral inversion method. Data from each site was split into a training set to educate the neural network, a validation set applied to iterative model optimization, and a test set to assess the model's performance. The model performed well on the test dataset, although, said Hiroshima's Hiroyuki Miura, ”the number of training samples analyzed in this study sites is still limited.” Miura said more training samples needed to be considered “before assuming that the neural network model applies nationwide or globally.”

Full Article

Can AI End All Car Crashes?

 What safety record does it have to have to make it?  At what level of automation? When? 

Can AI All but End Car Crashes? The Potential Is There

The New York Times, Tanya Mohn, April 19, 2022

Although artificial intelligence (AI) already has been deployed to improve road safety through smartphone apps that monitor safe driving and connected vehicles that communicate with each other and road infrastructure, proponents of the technology believe it also can be used to predict and help to prevent dangerous driving behaviors. Australia's Acusensus, for instance, has rolled out systems that use AI algorithms to assess driver distraction, occupant restraint, and vehicle speed using cameras installed on overpasses and other infrastructure. The company’s Heads-Up Real Time product, which has been proposed for use in the U.S., would deliver data and images in real time to law enforcement. Acusensus technology also can be used to pinpoint "hot spots" where enforcement or infrastructure should be improved. On the other hand, the technology also raises concerns about privacy issues.  ... 

(Excerpt) 

Cognitive Biases and Software Development

 A more detailed look that in past coverage ...

Cognitive Biases in Software Development

By Souti Chattopadhyay, Nicholas Nelson, Audrey Au, Natalia Morales, Christopher Sanchez, Rahul Pandita, Anita Sarma

Communications of the ACM, April 2022, Vol. 65 No. 4, Pages 115-122  10.1145/3517217

Cognitive biases are hardwired behaviors that influence developer actions and can set them on an incorrect course of action, necessitating backtracking. Although researchers have found that cognitive biases occur in development tasks in controlled lab studies, we still do not know how these biases affect developers' everyday behavior. Without such an understanding, development tools and practices remain inadequate. To close this gap, we conducted a two-part field study to examine the extent to which cognitive biases occur, the consequences of these biases on developer behavior, and the practices and tools that developers use to deal with these biases. We found about 70% of observed actions were associated with at least one cognitive bias. Even though developers recognized that biases frequently occur, they are forced to deal with such issues with ad hoc processes and suboptimal tool support. As one participant (IP12) lamented: There is no salvation!

Japan and Quantum

 Japan and IBM  say no .... 

Japan has unveiled plans to bring its first domestic quantum computer online by next March, and to have 30 million users by 2030.  Via CACM

The government-backed Riken Institute is leading the computer's development as the first step in the country's ambition to keep up with the global competition for technological dominance.

Japan's government aims to encourage private companies to leverage quantum cryptographic communications for new services and products.

The government also will commit 10 research sites to quantum computing, with two dedicated to training personnel and supporting research and development, and to promoting joint research by global scientists, respectively.

From Nikkei Asia

Quantum Hype

 Much money goes that way ...

Quantum Computer researcher warns that the industry is full of hype ....

"I’M DISTURBED BY SOME OF THE QUANTUM COMPUTING HYPE I SEE THESE DAYS

The nascent field of quantum computing generates a steady drumbeat of attention-grabbing headlines about the looming “quantum apocalypse,” “quantum supremacy,” and endless new investments in ventures that promise to finally crack the commercial capabilities of the tech wide open.

In an excoriating new essay for MIT Tech Review   , though, prominent University of Maryland quantum researcher Sankar Das Sarma says that everybody needs to take a deep, deep breath. .... ' 

Computing Speed Limit?

Interesting look, does it clearly include quantum? 

Speed Limit of Computers Detected

Graz University of Technology (Austria), Christoph Pelzl, March 25, 2022

At Germany's Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and Austria's Vienna (TU Wien) and Graz Universities of Technology, researchers have determined that a microchip's maximum signal transmission speed is about 1 petahertz (1 million gigahertz), roughly 100,000 times faster than current transistors. The researchers focused on increasing the switching signals of transistors to increase the speed of data transmission. They applied an ultra-short laser pulse with frequency in the extreme UV range to a lithium fluoride sample and found that by putting the electrons in the lithium fluoride into a more energetic state, the material became an electrical conductor for a brief period. The excited electrons were steered in a desired direction with a second laser pulse that lasted slightly longer. TU Wien's Joachim Burgförder said, "At about 1 petahertz there is an upper limit for controlled optoelectronic processes."

Are Older Systems Less Hackable?

Very good,  thoughtful piece of how we currently think about security.  That New is not necessarily the best solution in software.   And is especially with regard to the current situation in Ukrain and the control of weapons.   I recall my early days in DOD thinking aspects of this.  Location of the article below:

See:  Security Now! #867 - 04-19-22 - A Critical Windows RPC RCE by Steve Gibson

See the Doc at:  https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-867-Notes.pdf

"Are America’s nuclear systems so old they’re un-hackable?"  (from top of page 5, 3+ pages long) 

Advanced Analytics for Agricultural Supply Chain Shocks

 Good Piece by McKinsey, My domain, call me if you want to discuss.

How advanced analytics can address agricultural supply chain shocks

April 14, 2022 | Article  (Excerpt) 

Building automated supply chain planning systems to address global shocks could lead to significant cost savings for agricultural organizations

Between July and October 2021, torrential rains drenched northern parts of China, flooding major agricultural provinces such as Hebei, Henan, and Shandong (Exhibit 1). The floods affected millions of acres of cropland,1 causing billions of dollars in food losses and greatly increasing prices for consumers.

Agricultural disruption caused by extreme weather is not unique to China: research has found that several regions critical to global agricultural production are susceptible to the effects of climate extremes. For example, more than 40 percent of the variation in crop yields in recent decades was caused by extremes in precipitation and temperature, affecting production of Asian corn and rice, European wheat, and North American corn, wheat, and soy.2

In September 2021, parts of China experienced a more than sixfold increase in rainfall compared with the past 20 years–serving as just one example of extreme weather around the world.

We strive to provide individuals with disabilities equal access to our website. If you would like information about this content we will be happy to work with you. Please email us at: McKinsey_Website_Accessibility@mckinsey.com

The COVID-19 pandemic has also intensified supply chain shocks. Canadian farmers, for instance, lost an estimated $2.9 billion in earnings due to labor shortages, and 47 percent of agricultural employers were unable to hire all the workers they needed.3 European farmers and agribusinesses suffered economic losses in the first wave of the pandemic due to the closure of trade channels (such as food services), labor shortages, delays in food and raw-material deliveries, and slowdowns in food production caused by virus outbreaks at processing plants.4

Food processing plants in the United States have also been hard-hit. One research group counted 100,000 cases and 466 deaths from COVID-19 among farm and food processing workers in every state between May 2020 and September 2021. The researchers identified almost 2,000 outbreaks at meat processing plants, fruit and vegetable farms, snack food facilities, and seafood trawlers.5

In addition, extreme weather and the pandemic have caused fertilizer prices to increase, adding to global inflationary pressures. Average 2021 nominal prices of diammonium phosphate and urea, for instance, were about 96 percent higher than their 2019 averages.6 In turn, increasing fertilizer prices have contributed to global food insecurity, as global food prices in 2021 jumped to their highest level in a decade.7 The ongoing conflict in Ukraine is further compounding the situation, with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations stating that the global supply gap from potential shortfalls in agricultural exports from Russia and Ukraine could raise international food and feed prices by more than 20 percent  ... '

Backdoor in Machine Learning Models

Examining some implications.

 Paper     : “Planting Undetectable Backdoors in Machine Learning Models":

Abstract: Given the computational cost and technical expertise required to train machine learning models, users may delegate the task of learning to a service provider. We show how a malicious learner can plant an undetectable backdoor into a classifier. On the surface, such a backdoored classifier behaves normally, but in reality, the learner maintains a mechanism for changing the classification of any input, with only a slight perturbation. Importantly, without the appropriate “backdoor key”, the mechanism is hidden and cannot be detected by any computationally-bounded observer. We demonstrate two frameworks for planting undetectable backdoors, with incomparable guarantees.  .... '

Further discussed and interesting comments in Schneier 

Microsoft Engages Google Chrome

I am just about to use Defender, and I use Chrome.   So ... 

Microsoft Defender flags Google Chrome updates as suspicious,  By Sergiu Gatlan in Bleeping Computer

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint has been tagging Google Chrome updates delivered via Google Update as suspicious activity due to a false positive issue.  According to Windows system admins reports [1, 2, 3, 4], the security solution (formerly known as Microsoft Defender ATP) began marking Chrome updates as suspicious starting last evening.  .... 

Closer to Creating New Hair Follicles?

Computational methods for cell Behavior, considerable healthcare advance?   Here suggested for hair regrowth.    Read link below to further  technical details from Yale School of Medicine.

 One Step Closer to Creating Hair Follicles

Yale School of Medicine,   Jess Collins, April 13, 2022

New therapies to regrow hair could arise from a study led by Yale University researchers into the molecular triggers for hair follicle formation and regeneration. The researchers investigated dermal condensates (DCs) that transmit signals to direct hair follicle production, engineering a computational approach for aligning single-cell profile "snapshots" to map the DC development cycle. Combining computational findings with in vivo genetic experiments enabled the team to specify molecular DC genesis signals. Yale's Peggy Myung said two signals in particular cooperate in the formation process, which the researchers could modulate to decelerate DC genesis. Myung cited the research for demonstrating "how computational methods can be used to understand signals and cell behaviors that were previously impossible to capture."

Linkedin is Most Spoofed for Phishing

Not surprised, it has an element of respectability. 

Linkedin is most spoofed brand with Phishing  By Bill Toulas  in Bleeping Computer

Security researchers are warning that LinkedIn has become the most spoofed brand in phishing attacks, accounting for more than 52% of all such incidents at a global level.

The data comes from cybersecurity company Check Point, who recorded a dramatic uptick in LinkedIn brand abuse in phishing incidents in the first quarter of this year.

The second most mimicked brand is German package delivery DHL, which previously was at the top of the list. A contributing factor for this was the increased shopping during the holiday season. .... ' 

Voice Assistant Stats

Voicebot.ai continues to provide good data on voice adoption, including charts at the link. 

Voice Assistant Adoption Clustering Around 50% of the Population

BRET KINSELLA on April 15, 2022 at 1:33 pm

Voicebot recently broke down the rate of device adoption comparing smart speakers with smartphones. That analysis shows that smart speaker adoption was rapid but not as fast as smartphones when we take the launch of the Amazon Echo and Apple iPhone as the starting points. If you go beyond devices and isolate voice assistant adoption another interesting pattern emerges.

INITIAL ADOPTION OF VOICE ASSISTANTS DRIVEN BY DISTRIBUTION

The general availability of consumer voice assistants first arrived in cars in 2000, smartphones in 2011, and smart speakers in 2015. As you can see in the chart below, the speed of adoption was very different across these devices. Much of this difference can be attributed to distribution. Few cars had onboard voice assistants until recently and even Bluetooth-connected smartphone voice assistants didn’t arrive until 2014. By contrast, smart speakers had voice assistants from the beginning and they began arriving in smartphones in 2011 and quickly spreads to nearly all models within a couple of years.

Voice assistant proliferation in smart speakers was a function of smart speaker adoption. This differed from the car and smartphone which predated consumer voice assistants and added it as a feature later.oice Assistant Adoption Clustering Around 50% of the Population  .... '

Printing Circuits on Nanomagnets Yields New Breed of AI

Considering this, out of LANL, impressed by their work, another of our enterprise connections.  Will we able to print networks with for specific need?

Printing Circuits on Nanomagnets Yields New Breed of AI

IEEE Spectrum, Dexter Johnson, April 5, 2022

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) researchers have developed an artificial spin glass made of nanomagnets that is configured to mimic a neural network, paving the way for artificial intelligence algorithms to be printed as physical hardware. The artificial spin glass is comprised of thin layers of iron-nickel alloy, and the positions and orientations of the microscopic bar magnets align with the interaction structure of an artificial neural network. LANL's Michael Saccone said their artificial spin glass, a proof-of-principle Hopfield neural network, is akin to a slide rule in which "the rules of the geometry encode simple arithmetic." The architecture of a Hopfield network and nanomagnetic system involves information flowing constantly between all nanomagnets in all directions. Saccone explained, "This takes a while for a sequential algorithm to simulate, but in a physical system there is no cost to the inherent parallelization. The universe just does its thing."

NFT and Brands

 Do they mean anything for brands at all?

Why NFTs should be seen as worldbuilding opportunities for brands  in Venturebeat

Brands planning to sell NFTs in 2022 face stiff competition and rising holder expectations. Some successful NFT projects like World of Women offer utility-focused NFTs to holders with real-world value. Some have partnered with motion designers, musicians or 3D artists to stand out. Others write stories where NFTs are characters and a community votes on their “journeys.” A select few make cartoons to keep holders engaged. Companies and groups have already gone beyond traditional monetary incentives to attract Web3 developers in today’s tight job market. All of those NFT projects share one thing: none are tied to a legacy brand or recognized IP. 

The “why” is clear to crypto art enthusiasts, Discord community leads, brand strategists and storytellers — brands aren’t creating a presence. This key element to creating stickiness has been ignored as big consumer brands, towed by their PR teams, sprint to the expectation of NFT windfalls. But they forget to bring the Web3 picks and shovels.  ...'

FTC will Spell Death for Algorithms?

Interesting thing, to actually delete an algorithm.  I don't think of algorithms as unique.  I guess then a copy or equivalent algorithm could also be thus condemned.   And in the case given the algorithm has been derived illegally from data without permission. 

The FTC's New Enforcement Weapon Spells Death for Algorithms

By Protocol        March 23, 2022

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has struggled over the years to find ways to combat deceptive digital data practices using its limited set of enforcement options. Now, it's landed on one that could have a big impact on tech companies: algorithmic destruction. And as the agency gets more aggressive on tech by slowly introducing this new type of penalty, applying it in a settlement for the third time in three years could be the charm.

In a March 4 settlement order, the agency demanded that WW International—formerly known as Weight Watchers—destroy the algorithms or AI models it built using personal information collected through its Kurbo healthy eating app from kids as young as 8 without parental permission. The agency also fined the company $1.5 million and ordered it to delete the illegally harvested data.

When it comes to today's data-centric business models, algorithmic systems and the data used to build and train them are intellectual property, products that are core to how many companies operate and generate revenue. While in the past the FTC has required companies to disgorge ill-gotten monetary gains obtained through deceptive practices, forcing them to delete algorithmic systems built with ill-gotten data could become a more routine approach, one that modernizes FTC enforcement to directly affect how companies do business.  .... 

From Protocol  View Full Article