Google has just release performance data for its Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) custom machine learning chips. TPUs are 15-20x faster than GPUs and CPUs when running deep learning applications 30-80x more power efficient (operations per Watt) frugal in terms of lines of code required to control them (their deep learning applications are implemented using 100-1500 lines) Google claim that … [Read more...]
2017 Big Data Landscape
Matt Turck has published the 2017 edition of his annual review of the big data landscape. It include an infographic showing the key players in various sub-fields. This year's main finding was that Big Data provides the pipes, and AI provides the smarts. … [Read more...]
Social media profiling discussed on TWiT podcast
Leo Laporte and guests discuss social media profiling in the latest TWiT podcast. They describe credit ratings in China that are formed not just from financial data, but also social networking activities. According to the podcast these scores have already been used deny train travel to 7m people. As Laporte says, "It's out of Black Mirror." … [Read more...]
CIA’s malware development guidelines
I thought the CIA's "best practices" for coding malware were interesting. It's basically a list of things you have to consider when dealing with a sophisticated attacker. Basic audit features aren't enough if your data and systems present an attractive target. … [Read more...]
UK’s National Health Service loses data—old skool
Over half a million UK National Health Service (NHS) records went missing between 2011 and 2016. When I first skimmed the headline, I was thinking "Another data breach...[yawn]." But, turns out it was all paper. 500,000 paper records went missing. A private mail direction company sent the records to a warehouse. They had either been incorrectly addressed or the associated patients had moved … [Read more...]