I agree with many of the thoughts posted by wmoyes. Many companies focus on technological solutions, feeling that if they spend money on a fancy solution that the problem is solved. Unfortunately, this is never the case. The fancy technological products are a tool and do not address the root problems associated with intelligence operations. The biggest problem is people and their attitudes. Most do not realize the current active intelligence operations being conducted throughout the world. Everyday, companies must deal with gathering operations from other companies and countries.
Changing work habits to be more security oriented is incredibly difficult. Most people do not like having to use access cards to limited access areas, sign in and out, lock up sensitive material at night, or even have awareness of intelligence threats. I have seen companies that spend a chunk of change on computer security but do not even have good locks on the doors. I have seen the same company allow cleaning crews to enter "sensitive" areas without even thinking about running background checks. You would be amazed what leaves companies through the garbage.
For the lay-person, I would recommend reading two books: Corporate Espionage by Ira Winkler and War by Other Means by John Fialka. If you are still interested, I would recommend reading Competitive Intelligence and Counterintelligence books.
Essentially, it is a cost benefit analysis. "How much of a threat do we have, what is vulnerable, and how much will it cost/hurt when it gets out" Ira Winkler talks about this a little bit too.
Remember, all companies have security holes. It is just a matter of Identifying, Evaluating, and Prioritizing. Furthermore, if you have identified a potential problem and your employees do not want to cooperate in fixing it, you have one of two problems. The first is that they are probably not educated and you should explain why. These individuals want to do right and just have to be shown the importance. The second is that they may not care. Even if that individual is "key" player, you may want to consider removing them from the sensitive information or from the company.
(Putting my asbestos suit and nomex underwear on...)
It appears that many people have opinions about AI without having any working knowledge about what AI can and can not do with current technology. Looking back at the posts, I think that quite a few people think in terms of fictional views of artificial intelligence rather than the real world, modern, and current realities. Fortunately from a few of the other posts, it does appear that some are quite familiar with AI technology.
(Putting my asbestos boots on...)
I am not trying to discourage philosophical discussion about the morality of AI systems. Those can be quite fun over two, three, or dozen beers. If you want a realy ethical question, try mixing donuts with beer and you will get lots of responses.
(Putting my asbestos gloves on...)
The point is: If you know little about AI or much of anything else, try to learn about it before going out and posting. Try hitting a few AI sites to learn the basics, in fact here are a few to get you started:
If you go through those, you will begin to understand the different "flavors" of AI. Try to remember that current AI technology focuses on creating tools! Like open-source, people are trying to create tools. It is not like buying the latest SONY robot dog and teaching how to play Bach.
Talking about Bach, anyone that is seriously interested in AI should read "Godel, Escher, and Bach". Furthermore, I would highly recommend reading "AI: A Modern Approach" by Russel and Norvig. ( http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~russell/aima.html )
(Putting my asbestos helmet on...)
Anyway, remember that a high noise to signal ratio will reduce the value of this site to everybody.
There are many AI concepts which you can "get" without having to fully understand the complex mathematics. The mathematics is a tool to help understand, explain, and express the phenomena that are observed. After working with some AI researchers as well as studies under others, I believe that one signficant factor holding back non-AI experts is that most AI experts have great difficulty explaining basic concepts in laymen terms. They just have no clue how to bring the ideas down into a simple form.
Please remember that this is a generalization (or abstraction *wink*) about PhD level AI experts. There are exceptions to the rules. However, most would have great hinderances in explaining the concepts to people like you and me.
The next question is: Which AI are you refering to? The term Artificial Intelligence has a much larger breadth than most people think of. If we look solely to the sci-fi genre for guidance, we will see our friend HAL. However, AI is really many different and diverse fields of study. We have Neural Networks, Expert Systems, Search Methodologies, Genetic Algorithms (some will argue either way that GA is not really an AI field), and Bayesian logic systems. You can even go so far as the OO (Object Oriented) approach used LISP (an interesting and personally difficult programing language). Intelligent Agents (of Internet hype) are even considered to be AI. Each field has different attributes and applications.
One good book for AI is AI: A Modern Approach. They really don't cover all the topics, but the authors (who I don't know) have done a rather good job putting together a broad discussion. If you go through and read their dry and sly British wit while working the problems, you will gain a basic understanding of many forms of AI. From there, you can chase any field that you like. They have put together a really good resource for links to other AI sites at http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~russell/ai.html and highly recommend a few weeks of browsing through the vast array of information. I highly recommend this site!
Recently, there has been new combinations between the fields to help achieve better end results. One example is the use of GA (Genetic Algorithms) to train NN (Neural Networks). I am sure we will see other interesting applications develop in the future.
As for open source, I do not think that the concept necessarily applies. Most of the really good software is really expensive, like Neuralware is something like $10k per seat. However, the concepts that are important to developing other application is pretty much free. You should think of AI as a solution finding, optimizing, or pattern matching tool. The image of HAL has infected our expectations of what we can expect. However, the best open source movement for AI could be by joining the pre-existing AI community. After you plug into those researchers, journals, etc, you and others like can begin developing the concepts expressed through code modules for free distribution. But remember, AI is a tool. You will be building tools for others to use. (Personally, I think it would be cool to develop freeware that would eventually end up in game engines.)
If you want to go a more formal route, study math (Algebras, Linear Algebra, Calculus, Differential Equations, maybe numerical methods, and logic) to build a strong foundation for expressing and understanding some of the AI concepts. Then, take some classes (usually graduate level) for fun. This might sound like a pain , but it will really prep you for doing some of your own adventuring. In fact, there are schools out there that offer advanced degrees in AI.
Anyway, the url I posted should point you in a good direction for your own start into AI.
The value of a site does not really have anything to do with banner advertisement revenues, labor, or even formulas. This could be a tool to determine your minimum selling price, but not necessarily the market selling price. The two are different. If you have read the news over the last year, then you have heard of the largest price extracted for a domain name sale. The domain was business.com and was sold for approximately $7 Million. The entrepreneur of this domain (and others) was a gentleman named Mr. Ofstrofsky. One month ago I heard him speak at the University of Houston about his business. He had a few thoughts that you should consider. I will also interject a few of my ideas that you must consider. First, you should think about what they want. Does this company want the website, the company you have built, or the domain name? I would suspect that they want to buy the domain name. If they wanted to buy the company, they would have stated that. Their intentions go a long way to the what they are willing to pay. Second, just say no. If you have a good domain name, then you will not get the price you could if you sell early. Mr. Ofstrofsky said "No" many times before accepting his $7 Million dollar offer. If he had said "yes" to the first, second, or twentieth offer, he would have never gotten anywhere close to the final selling amount. The same concept applies to the company or website (excluding or including the domain). If it is really worth something, then there will be other buyers willing to pay more. This is actually an important point. I will use the stock market at a metaphor to describe this concept. If you own stock, that stock is only worth as much as the next person is willing to pay for it. If you owned a single stock and nobody wanted to buy it, then it would not be worth anything. If everyone wanted to buy, then it would be worth everything. You should keep this in mind anytime you are buying or selling. If this is the first offer, wait. There will be others. Third, does this site or domain have any liability or risk associated. Could you lose it through an adminastrative action or be tied up in a trademark infringement case? For a quick and non-complete trademark search, look at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's website. They have a useful tool at http://trademarks.uspto.gov/access/search-mark.htm l. I should note that you should consult an attorney for a complete intellectual property analysis of this topic. (I am not an attorney and please do not take my opinions as knowledgeable legal advice) Furthermore, you should read the many good articles at the New York Law Journal which can be found at http://www.nylj.com. They have some _good_ information there. If you could lose it to these "potential buyers", then you may consider selling it to them. In simple terms, watch your back because business is not nice. If you consider, plan, and act on these three points, you will have done quite a bit of the required homework. Doing your homework ahead of time is incredibly important! Fourth point is that anytime that you sell a domain, company, or intellectual property, you should consider attaching a "string". In your case, I would add two stipulations to the agreement. The first stipulation (or string) should be that if they ever decide to sell the domain or site in the future, that you will automatically get some percentage of that sale. An example could be that you sell it for only $50k. Two years later, they sell it for $1 million. If you "string"-ed a 10% sale price onto your original sale, you would get $100k. I have heard of up to 50% of sale price for these types of strings. The second stipulation would be if they ever lost the domain name or gave it away, you would automatically receive some fixed sum. Granted, both of these stipulations will have to be negotiated. The last point is to use an attorney to draft the sale agreement. If this item is worth a lot of money, then it is worth protecting. The best way to protect yourself and your future is to hire a legal gunfighter. The ideas above should help you do your homework. However, do not stop there, keep looking for other issues which are not "on the radar". (If you or anyone else gets rich with help of this post, please feel free to take me out to dinner. *grin*) Good luck.
This is a rather important development for optical networks. Other than the initial energy source and the receptor at the end of the line, this technology may be the last piece required for a fully optical system.
The previous important development in optical transmission networks was the optical amplifier. By doped sections of fiber with a high voltage placed across each section, they were able to create an amplifier. The light waves coming into the doped section of fiber would be amplified.
To briefly describe it, imagine blinking a small flashlight into a window. On the other side of the glass it looks like a car's headlight rather than a small flashlight.
Ok, this amplifier is cool but why is it important. The amplifier allowed companies to move away from light to electric to light. In fiber optic system, the signal decays as it travels through the fiber. Once it reaches a certain level, it will become unusable. Thus, you have to boost the signal periodically. Traditionally, communication companies had to take the decayed signal, convert it to electric, then you drive another laser with the weak electric signal. This then completes the light to electric to light again, and you now have a usable signal again. (Until you have to boost the signal again) Anyway, this conversion process created a whole new set of problems. By converting it to electric, you introduced noise. After a "amplifying" the signal a few times, your signal was no longer clean buy now included some noise.
This optical amplifier was important and lead to the FLAG system. If you read Wired a few years ago, they did a really good job of discussing FLAG. FLAG is the "Fiber Optic Link 'round the Globe" and is a _large_ undersea fiber optic cable reaching from UK, to Egypt, to Malaysia, to Japan. This project and other like it, became feasible because of optical amplifiers.
Optical switches are important for the same reason. It will reduce noise and increase reliability of the system.
I would not look to see these switches replace the current technology (as mentioned in a previous post). However, I would expect to see these switches start to become incorporated into new systems such as subsea communication, pipeline right-of-way bandwidth, or other cross country communication networks. There already is a big market for piping ESPN to parts of the country. Imagine that you could route the information more like a phone system than a gas pipeline. This could create a whole new market.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree with many of the thoughts posted by wmoyes. Many companies focus on technological solutions, feeling that if they spend money on a fancy solution that the problem is solved. Unfortunately, this is never the case. The fancy technological products are a tool and do not address the root problems associated with intelligence operations. The biggest problem is people and their attitudes. Most do not realize the current active intelligence operations being conducted throughout the world. Everyday, companies must deal with gathering operations from other companies and countries.
Changing work habits to be more security oriented is incredibly difficult. Most people do not like having to use access cards to limited access areas, sign in and out, lock up sensitive material at night, or even have awareness of intelligence threats. I have seen companies that spend a chunk of change on computer security but do not even have good locks on the doors. I have seen the same company allow cleaning crews to enter "sensitive" areas without even thinking about running background checks. You would be amazed what leaves companies through the garbage.
For the lay-person, I would recommend reading two books: Corporate Espionage by Ira Winkler and War by Other Means by John Fialka. If you are still interested, I would recommend reading Competitive Intelligence and Counterintelligence books.
Essentially, it is a cost benefit analysis. "How much of a threat do we have, what is vulnerable, and how much will it cost/hurt when it gets out" Ira Winkler talks about this a little bit too.
Remember, all companies have security holes. It is just a matter of Identifying, Evaluating, and Prioritizing. Furthermore, if you have identified a potential problem and your employees do not want to cooperate in fixing it, you have one of two problems. The first is that they are probably not educated and you should explain why. These individuals want to do right and just have to be shown the importance. The second is that they may not care. Even if that individual is "key" player, you may want to consider removing them from the sensitive information or from the company.
Anyway, good luck.
- inj
(Putting my asbestos suit and nomex underwear on...)
- repository/ai/areas/0.html
It appears that many people have opinions about AI without having any working knowledge about what AI can and can not do with current technology. Looking back at the posts, I think that quite a few people think in terms of fictional views of artificial intelligence rather than the real world, modern, and current realities. Fortunately from a few of the other posts, it does appear that some are quite familiar with AI technology.
(Putting my asbestos boots on...)
I am not trying to discourage philosophical discussion about the morality of AI systems. Those can be quite fun over two, three, or dozen beers. If you want a realy ethical question, try mixing donuts with beer and you will get lots of responses.
(Putting my asbestos gloves on...)
The point is: If you know little about AI or much of anything else, try to learn about it before going out and posting. Try hitting a few AI sites to learn the basics, in fact here are a few to get you started:
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~russell/ai.html
http://www.santafe.edu/
http://www.sics.se/isl/abc/survey.html
http://www.ai.mit.edu/
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/project/ai
If you go through those, you will begin to understand the different "flavors" of AI. Try to remember that current AI technology focuses on creating tools! Like open-source, people are trying to create tools. It is not like buying the latest SONY robot dog and teaching how to play Bach.
Talking about Bach, anyone that is seriously interested in AI should read "Godel, Escher, and Bach". Furthermore, I would highly recommend reading "AI: A Modern Approach" by Russel and Norvig. ( http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~russell/aima.html )
(Putting my asbestos helmet on...)
Anyway, remember that a high noise to signal ratio will reduce the value of this site to everybody.
There are many AI concepts which you can "get" without having to fully understand the complex mathematics. The mathematics is a tool to help understand, explain, and express the phenomena that are observed. After working with some AI researchers as well as studies under others, I believe that one signficant factor holding back non-AI experts is that most AI experts have great difficulty explaining basic concepts in laymen terms. They just have no clue how to bring the ideas down into a simple form.
Please remember that this is a generalization (or abstraction *wink*) about PhD level AI experts. There are exceptions to the rules. However, most would have great hinderances in explaining the concepts to people like you and me.
The next question is: Which AI are you refering to? The term Artificial Intelligence has a much larger breadth than most people think of. If we look solely to the sci-fi genre for guidance, we will see our friend HAL. However, AI is really many different and diverse fields of study. We have Neural Networks, Expert Systems, Search Methodologies, Genetic Algorithms (some will argue either way that GA is not really an AI field), and Bayesian logic systems. You can even go so far as the OO (Object Oriented) approach used LISP (an interesting and personally difficult programing language). Intelligent Agents (of Internet hype) are even considered to be AI. Each field has different attributes and applications.
One good book for AI is AI: A Modern Approach. They really don't cover all the topics, but the authors (who I don't know) have done a rather good job putting together a broad discussion. If you go through and read their dry and sly British wit while working the problems, you will gain a basic understanding of many forms of AI. From there, you can chase any field that you like. They have put together a really good resource for links to other AI sites at http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~russell/ai.html and highly recommend a few weeks of browsing through the vast array of information. I highly recommend this site!
Recently, there has been new combinations between the fields to help achieve better end results. One example is the use of GA (Genetic Algorithms) to train NN (Neural Networks). I am sure we will see other interesting applications develop in the future.
As for open source, I do not think that the concept necessarily applies. Most of the really good software is really expensive, like Neuralware is something like $10k per seat. However, the concepts that are important to developing other application is pretty much free. You should think of AI as a solution finding, optimizing, or pattern matching tool. The image of HAL has infected our expectations of what we can expect. However, the best open source movement for AI could be by joining the pre-existing AI community. After you plug into those researchers, journals, etc, you and others like can begin developing the concepts expressed through code modules for free distribution. But remember, AI is a tool. You will be building tools for others to use. (Personally, I think it would be cool to develop freeware that would eventually end up in game engines.)
If you want to go a more formal route, study math (Algebras, Linear Algebra, Calculus, Differential Equations, maybe numerical methods, and logic) to build a strong foundation for expressing and understanding some of the AI concepts. Then, take some classes (usually graduate level) for fun. This might sound like a pain , but it will really prep you for doing some of your own adventuring. In fact, there are schools out there that offer advanced degrees in AI.
Anyway, the url I posted should point you in a good direction for your own start into AI.
The value of a site does not really have anything to do with banner advertisement revenues, labor, or even formulas. This could be a tool to determine your minimum selling price, but not necessarily the market selling price. The two are different. If you have read the news over the last year, then you have heard of the largest price extracted for a domain name sale. The domain was business.com and was sold for approximately $7 Million. The entrepreneur of this domain (and others) was a gentleman named Mr. Ofstrofsky. One month ago I heard him speak at the University of Houston about his business. He had a few thoughts that you should consider. I will also interject a few of my ideas that you must consider. First, you should think about what they want. Does this company want the website, the company you have built, or the domain name? I would suspect that they want to buy the domain name. If they wanted to buy the company, they would have stated that. Their intentions go a long way to the what they are willing to pay. Second, just say no. If you have a good domain name, then you will not get the price you could if you sell early. Mr. Ofstrofsky said "No" many times before accepting his $7 Million dollar offer. If he had said "yes" to the first, second, or twentieth offer, he would have never gotten anywhere close to the final selling amount. The same concept applies to the company or website (excluding or including the domain). If it is really worth something, then there will be other buyers willing to pay more. This is actually an important point. I will use the stock market at a metaphor to describe this concept. If you own stock, that stock is only worth as much as the next person is willing to pay for it. If you owned a single stock and nobody wanted to buy it, then it would not be worth anything. If everyone wanted to buy, then it would be worth everything. You should keep this in mind anytime you are buying or selling. If this is the first offer, wait. There will be others. Third, does this site or domain have any liability or risk associated. Could you lose it through an adminastrative action or be tied up in a trademark infringement case? For a quick and non-complete trademark search, look at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's website. They have a useful tool at http://trademarks.uspto.gov/access/search-mark.htm l. I should note that you should consult an attorney for a complete intellectual property analysis of this topic. (I am not an attorney and please do not take my opinions as knowledgeable legal advice) Furthermore, you should read the many good articles at the New York Law Journal which can be found at http://www.nylj.com. They have some _good_ information there. If you could lose it to these "potential buyers", then you may consider selling it to them. In simple terms, watch your back because business is not nice. If you consider, plan, and act on these three points, you will have done quite a bit of the required homework. Doing your homework ahead of time is incredibly important! Fourth point is that anytime that you sell a domain, company, or intellectual property, you should consider attaching a "string". In your case, I would add two stipulations to the agreement. The first stipulation (or string) should be that if they ever decide to sell the domain or site in the future, that you will automatically get some percentage of that sale. An example could be that you sell it for only $50k. Two years later, they sell it for $1 million. If you "string"-ed a 10% sale price onto your original sale, you would get $100k. I have heard of up to 50% of sale price for these types of strings. The second stipulation would be if they ever lost the domain name or gave it away, you would automatically receive some fixed sum. Granted, both of these stipulations will have to be negotiated. The last point is to use an attorney to draft the sale agreement. If this item is worth a lot of money, then it is worth protecting. The best way to protect yourself and your future is to hire a legal gunfighter. The ideas above should help you do your homework. However, do not stop there, keep looking for other issues which are not "on the radar". (If you or anyone else gets rich with help of this post, please feel free to take me out to dinner. *grin*) Good luck.
This is a rather important development for optical networks. Other than the initial energy source and the receptor at the end of the line, this technology may be the last piece required for a fully optical system.
The previous important development in optical transmission networks was the optical amplifier. By doped sections of fiber with a high voltage placed across each section, they were able to create an amplifier. The light waves coming into the doped section of fiber would be amplified.
To briefly describe it, imagine blinking a small flashlight into a window. On the other side of the glass it looks like a car's headlight rather than a small flashlight.
Ok, this amplifier is cool but why is it important. The amplifier allowed companies to move away from light to electric to light. In fiber optic system, the signal decays as it travels through the fiber. Once it reaches a certain level, it will become unusable. Thus, you have to boost the signal periodically. Traditionally, communication companies had to take the decayed signal, convert it to electric, then you drive another laser with the weak electric signal. This then completes the light to electric to light again, and you now have a usable signal again. (Until you have to boost the signal again) Anyway, this conversion process created a whole new set of problems. By converting it to electric, you introduced noise. After a "amplifying" the signal a few times, your signal was no longer clean buy now included some noise.
This optical amplifier was important and lead to the FLAG system. If you read Wired a few years ago, they did a really good job of discussing FLAG. FLAG is the "Fiber Optic Link 'round the Globe" and is a _large_ undersea fiber optic cable reaching from UK, to Egypt, to Malaysia, to Japan. This project and other like it, became feasible because of optical amplifiers.
Optical switches are important for the same reason. It will reduce noise and increase reliability of the system.
I would not look to see these switches replace the current technology (as mentioned in a previous post). However, I would expect to see these switches start to become incorporated into new systems such as subsea communication, pipeline right-of-way bandwidth, or other cross country communication networks. There already is a big market for piping ESPN to parts of the country. Imagine that you could route the information more like a phone system than a gas pipeline. This could create a whole new market.