Blog: Tech News & Tips - Page 14 of 27

4 Top Sports Smartphone App’s

Posted on November 7, 2017May 6, 2024 by Gail Eddy in Smartphone Apps, SmartPhones, Weather

For those of you who know me well, you know that if there is one sport I follow, it’s baseball. I like hockey too, but don’t follow the games and teams as closely as baseball. I really L O V E baseball! I love attending the Rockies games at Coors Field, with the smells, sounds, and excitement. And when it’s time for the World Series, well, I’ll be glued to a TV, or, one of the Sports Smartphone App’s on my iPhone to keep track of the scores! After baseball season was over this year, I started wondering how people who follow other sports get their info. As per usual, any question I have involving technology, however peripherally, gets explored here!

There are a bunch of Sports Smartphone app’s recommended by folks in-the-know. I’ve checked them out and found these four to be easy to use and very easy to customize so that your favorite teams are listed right up front.

Bleacher Report for Android or iPhone – iMore really likes the Bleacher Report. Here’s what they have to say: “If you prefer something with a bit more of a modern interface, then check out the Bleacher Report. Rather than providing its own coverage, the Bleacher Report curates all the best sources on the web so that you get all the news you can about your favorite teams and players. You can open a stream to get scores, stories, videos, and photos from local and national newspapers, blogs, Twitter, and more.”
ESPN for Android or iPhone – Tom’s Guide says: “The ESPN app brings users the latest and greatest sporting news and information worldwide. Whether you’re looking for updated scoring information, breaking news for various teams and leagues, or professional analysis, the ESPN app has got your back.”
theScore for iPhone – iMore rates theScore as their #1 choice. Here’s what they have to say: “theScore is the sports app. It’s simply the best. You can follow tons of professional leagues (even including NASCAR) and receive updates on scores and news from any and all teams you’d like to follow. You can even follow individual players, and you can customize alerts so that you only get pinged for what you want to know. theScore has a great-looking interface and setup is simple — just pick your leagues, pick your teams, and away you go.”
Yahoo!Sports for Android and iPhone – AppOlicious says: “Plenty of sports apps will give you the latest scores. Only a few will keep you up-to-date on every single play of the game. And even fewer will do all of that plus let you pick games, chat with other sports fans and set alerts for numerous game scenarios. Yahoo Sports continued to operate in a special stratosphere in 2017, making it a continued must-download for the sports fan who wants everything under one app.”

Which is your favorite sports smartphone app to track your favorite teams? Share in the comments below!

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PC’s for the past fourteen years. His company is highly rated by both the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and by Angie’s List. You can find more at http://www.GeekForHireInc.com Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area and remote service throughout North America.

We’ve been using Amazon Prime for the past few years. We like the free 2-3 day shipping and the online streaming. I haven’t tried the Kindle lending library yet, but I’m tempted! Prime is normally $99/year, but you can try it for 30 day for free by clicking on this link: Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial (Yes, we’ll get a small commission when you sign up.)

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Girls and Technology

Posted on October 31, 2017May 9, 2024 by Gail Eddy in Tips

I learned a new acronym recently in an article about girls and technology. “STEM”, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Here are some disturbing statistics I read in another article from Observer.com:

Women own only 5 percent of startups.
They earn only 28 percent of computer science degrees.
Only 7 percent of partners at top 100 venture capital firms are women.
After peaking in 1991 at 36 percent, the rate of women in computing roles has been in steady decline. Now, they hold only 25 percent of computing jobs.
Women hold only 11 percent of executive positions at Silicon Valley companies.
In the high tech industry, the quit rate is more than twice as high for women (41 percent) than it is for men (17 percent).
Last year, venture capitalists invested just $1.46 billion in women-led companies. Male-led companies earned $58.2 billion in investments.
While 82 percent of men in startups believed their companies spent the “right amount of time” addressing diversity, nearly half of women—40 percent—disagreed, saying “not enough time was devoted.”
For women in the tech industry under age 25, earnings on average are 29 percent less than their male counterparts.
Women receive lower salary offers than men for the same job at the same company 63 percent of the time.

Part of the problem is that girls are deterred from an interest in the sciences at a young age. If a girl in your family is showing an interest in the sciences, here are some resources to assist you in fanning those flames for your girls and technology:

Girls and Technology – a subset of WIT – Women in Technology
Ignite – Inspiring Girls Now in Technology Evolution
Girls Who Code
Girl Develop It
Ladies Learning Code
Girl Start

Go get ’em girls!

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PC’s for the past fifteen years. His company is highly rated by both the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and by Angie’s List. You can find more on our website, or give us a call 303-618-0154. Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area as well as remote service throughout North America.

We’ve been using Amazon Prime for the past few years. We like the free 2-3 day shipping and the online streaming. I haven’t tried the Kindle lending library yet. I’ll try that next! Prime is normally $99/year, but you can try it for 30 day for free by clicking on this link: Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial (Yes, we’ll get a small commission if you check it out.)

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Best Way to Catalog Your Books, Movies, and Music

Posted on October 24, 2017May 6, 2024 by Gail Eddy in Tips

If you’re a collector like me, sometimes it is hard to keep track of everything. How do you catalog your books, movies, and music? I’ve been using a great app for my books, but when it comes to my movies and books, I don’t know what I have.

BOOKS:

For books, hands down, the app to use is LibraryThing. I’ve been using it for the past eight to ten years, at least, and it does a great job at keeping everything organized. It’s free, but if you’d like to make a donation, they’ll be happy to take it. I contributed a modest amount a few years ago and am now a “Lifetime Member”. It’s easy to add books and to put them into different categories. I have categories like “historical fiction”, “Written by Family”, “Religion”, and “signed by author”. I especially love adding books using the app on my iPhone because I can use the camera to scan the bar code on the back. It automatically adds the book and all associated details. The iPhone app doesn’t allow you to do everything though. You do need to go to your computer to add tags and notes. I do not think they have a limit for the number of books.

MUSIC:

I looked at two apps to categorize music.

CLZ music has a limit of 100 entries in their free version and it seemed easy to search online to add different albums. For each album you add, it includes a list of the songs. It did appear that you could only add CD’s. I wasn’t able to add any vinyls to my collection.
RW Music seemed very complex. In order to get started, I had to enter the IP address of my computer, even though I accessed the app via my iPhone. I don’t recommend that one.

MOVIES:

I also looked at two apps for movies.

The first one, My Movies, allowed only 50 titles in the free version. You also needed to create an account before you could trial it. Since I don’t like providing personal information unless I absolutely have to, I moved on.
I also looked at Movie Buddy. There did not appear to be a limit to the number of movies you could enter. It was easy to search and add new movies and it gives you the ability to tag a movie that you have loaned out, and to whom. There was a link to watch the trailer and it listed a summary of the movie along with the cast and producers. All in all, I thought this one was very good.

Which apps do you use to catalog your books, movies, and music?

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Facial Recognition – History and Privacy

Posted on October 17, 2017April 29, 2024 by Gail Eddy in Privacy

Have you been hearing more about Facial Recognition software? I have, especially with the new iPhone coming out. I’ve been wondering how well it works. I’m also wondering about the impact on our privacy. But first, a little history.

Contents

History of Facial Recognition:

Scientists developed Facial Recognition Software in the 1960s. The scientist’s names were Woody Bledsoe, Helen Chan Wolf, and Charles Bisson. (There are two surprises to me here. First that scientists were working on this more than a half-century ago. Secondly, one of the scientists – in the 1960s! – was a woman.) “Their programs required the administrator to locate features such as the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth on the photograph. It then calculated distances and ratios to a common reference point which was then compared to reference data.”

Certainly, the technology continued to advance decade by decade. In 1993 one of the US Defense agencies took it over. They named the project FERET or Face Recognition Technology Evaluation. In 2006, “The Face Recognition Grand Challenge (FRGC) evaluated the latest face recognition algorithms available. High-resolution face images, 3D face scans, and iris images were used in the tests. … Some of the algorithms were able to outperform human participants in recognizing faces and could uniquely identify identical twins.”

More Recent Developments:

A big failure occurred in 2002. The software scanned crowds at Super Bowl 35 for known criminals. Consequently, they found that the tech was not quite ready. Now, it is more accepted by US consumers. Then, in 2010, Facebook began using the software on uploaded photos. In 2014, Law Enforcement began to adopt facial recognition in the Automated Regional Justice Information System (ARJIS). ARJIS is currently only used in Southern California.

Drawbacks:

Privacy is the biggest drawback with Facial Recognition.

In addition, Racial Bias is a big negative. Japanese and Chinese software recognize Asian faces with a great degree of accuracy. European and US companies recognize Caucasian faces very accurately, but not so much blacks and other “non-white” faces.

Today:

First of all, Facial Recognition Software is used to identify travelers. (A boarding pass or passport are used as alternate forms of ID.)
Also, a fast food restaurant in China is using “Smile to Pay” to pay their bill. (ANT Financial developed this facial recognition software.)
In addition, in a few months, Apple will release the iPhone X which uses your face to unlock your phone.

Privacy Implications:

As I said to a friend recently, there is no privacy. And we’ve helped with that. We freely give plenty of photos of our face for anyone that wants them. We upload photos to social media, get passports, and just appear in public. The Economist stated, “…could obtain pictures of visitors to a car showroom say, and later use facial recognition to serve them ads for cars”.

Importantly, the article continued, “photos of half of America’s adult population are stored in databases … used by the FBI.”

Above all, you should know that the software is not just recognizing faces. In some cases, it also has the ability to guess at a person’s sexuality and IQ. The Economist writes “firms … filter all job applications for ethnicity and signs of intelligence and sexuality”.

As a result, companies deny jobs to qualified people based entirely on what software learns from their face.

Research:

I used these articles while writing this post:

Forensic Psych Blog
Face First Blog
FBI PDF
The 9/9/2017 issue of the Economist had several articles about face recognition.

Please forward this to your colleagues who may find this interesting.

Information about Geek For Hire, Inc.

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Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PCs for the past fifteen years. Angie’s List and the BBB rate his company highly. You can find more on our website, or give us a call 303-618-0154. Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range. We also provide Remote Service in the US and Canada.

We’ve been using Amazon Prime for the past few years. We like the free 2-3 day shipping and online streaming. I haven’t tried the Kindle lending library yet. I’ll try that next! Prime is normally $119/year, but you can try it for 30 days for free by clicking on this link: Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial (Yes, we’ll get a small commission when you sign up.)

Online and Facebook Privacy – Is It Possible?

Posted on October 10, 2017May 9, 2024 by Gail Eddy in Privacy, Tips

Lately Chris has been forwarding articles to me about online and Facebook privacy. Now, if you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, I know you know that I don’t think anything is private on the internet. These articles seem to solidify my opinion. The story that piqued my interest early this week was this one in Gizmodo. In this case you had people who had to keep a part of their identity secret, so they have set up a separate online identity. So they have a different emails, phone numbers, social media, etc., which may be connected to each other, but are not in any way connected to their “real” identity. In this case, the people are sex workers, but they could just as easily be someone who was in an abusive relationship or another situation that requires real-life, general online, and specifically, Facebook privacy.

Here are some excerpts from that article:

“Her “real identity”—the public one, who lives in California, uses an academic email address, and posts about politics—joined Facebook in 2011. Her sex-work identity is not on the social network at all; for it, she uses a different email address, a different phone number, and a different name. Yet earlier this year, looking at Facebook’s “People You May Know” recommendations, Leila (a name I’m using using in place of either of the names she uses) was shocked to see some of her regular sex-work clients.

“Despite the fact that she’d only given Facebook information from her vanilla identity, the company had somehow discerned her real-world connection to these people—and, even more horrifyingly, her account was potentially being presented to them as a friend suggestion too, outing her regular identity to them.”

and:

“Darling used to have a second, private account under her legal name for connecting with people she knew in her normal, vanilla life, but it was getting recommended to her fans, revealing her “real” identity to them. Some of them began harassing her and trying to track down her family.

“We’re living in an age where you can weaponize personal information against people,” Darling said. She’s not sure how Facebook linked her porn identity to her legal identity, but it meant one had to go. She deleted her private account a few years ago, leaving only her public, porn one.”

You might think that, as people who have chosen an alternative career and life style, that they somehow “deserve” to be outed. But imagine if you had an ex-spouse who had been stalking you and a restraining order wasn’t working.

Facebook Privacy How To:

Here are some suggestions if you need to keep your identity secret, but still want to use Facebook:

Set your posts to “Friends Only”, and don’t tag anyone in your status. (When you tag other people, then their friends can see your post as well.)
Don’t allow other people to post on your page, and, if they tag you in a post, make sure you approve (or not) it before it posts.
Make sure any personal information stays private. Don’t allow Facebook to share your birthday, phone number, email, etc. –
You should also lock down your Online Facebook Privacy Settings
Finally, all of these options are available to you under Facebook Settings.

Other Strategies:

Because people can recognize your face, make sure there are no photos of you on your account. Use a beautiful photo or a meme or cartoon to represent your profile picture.
After a post has been up for a week or so, consider changing the privacy level to “only me”. You’ll keep a historical record of what you posted and who commented, but it will be invisible to everyone else.

Are there other strategies you’re using to manage your Facebook privacy? Please share those in the comments!

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Is the Kaspersky Anti-virus safe?

Posted on October 3, 2017May 6, 2024 by Gail Eddy in anti-virus, News, Tips

We’ve been getting a lot of questions recently about Kaspersky. Is it safe? Why has the US government banned it? Should I keep on using it?

In doing a little bit of research to answer these questions, I haven’t been able to find a definitive answer. Yes, the US government has taken the software off of their list of recommended software. And, yes, Best Buy has removed the product from their physical (and virtual) shelves. But is there any logic behind the removal other than general suspicion about Russia in general?

According to this article in Bloomberg: “While the U.S. government hasn’t disclosed any evidence of the ties, internal company emails obtained by Bloomberg Businessweek show that Kaspersky Lab has maintained a much closer working relationship with Russia’s main intelligence agency, the FSB, than it has publicly admitted. It has developed security technology at the spy agency’s behest and worked on joint projects the CEO knew would be embarrassing if made public.”

The NY Times reported that: “The F.B.I. has also been investigating whether Kaspersky software, including its well-regarded antivirus programs, contain back doors that could allow Russian intelligence access into computers on which it is running. The company denies the allegations. The officials, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because the inquiries are classified, would not provide details of the information they have collected on Kaspersky.”

Kaspersky has responded by saying: “Regardless of how the facts are misconstrued to fit in with a hypothetical, false theory, Kaspersky Lab, and its executives, do not have inappropriate ties with any government. The company does regularly work with governments and law enforcement agencies around the world with the sole purpose of fighting cybercrime.”

This seems to be a reasonable response from an international company.

PC Magazine thinks this is all a bunch of hogwash and reached out to one of it’s experts, Graham Cluley, for his opinion.

“I’ve seen no evidence of Kaspersky having any inappropriate interaction with the Russian government,” said Cluley, “and no one seems to have presented any evidence of its software putting its US customers at risk. What I have seen are non-Russian security companies taking advantage of the current smear campaign against Kaspersky to promote their own solutions, which I find rather distasteful.”

If you’re interested, here are some additional articles on the subject:

BBC – 9/14/2017 – http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41262049
Moscow Times – 7/12/2017 – https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/kaspersky-lab-denies-claims-of-cooperation-with-Russian-spy-agency-58368
Slate – 7/11/2017 – http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2017/07/11/how_worried_should_we_really_be_about_security_firm_kaspersky_lab_s_ties.html
The Hill – 7/2/2017 – http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/340420-kaspersky-willing-to-turn-over-source-code-to-us-government

By the way, I did ask Chris for his opinion about Kaspersky. He said that it is a “perfectly good anti-virus, but we don’t recommend it. It isn’t designed in an efficient manner and tends to put a drag on the overall operational performance of the machine.”

The anti-virus we do recommend is ESET’s NOD32.

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Digital Currencies and Bitcoins

Posted on September 26, 2017May 2, 2024 by Gail Eddy in Tips

We’ve been hearing about Bitcoin and other digital currencies for years now. For a long time these digital currencies were used primarily for people transacting business that they wanted to stay “under the radar”. We didn’t realize that initially, and thought it would be cool and cutting edge if Geek For Hire could accept payment in Bitcoins. Then when we wanted to be certified by the Better Business Bureau, they nixed the whole idea. Bitcoins have come a long way since then.

First of all, what is Digital Currency?

Digital currency is, essentially, virtual cash. It’s not backed by gold or the full faith and credit of any government. A good definition comes from Wikipedia:

“Digital currency (digital money or electronic money or electronic currency) is distinct from physical (such as banknotes and coins). It exhibits properties similar to physical currencies, but allows for instantaneous transactions and borderless transfer-of-ownership. Examples include virtual currencies and cryptocurrencies.^[1] Like traditional money, these currencies may be used to buy physical goods and services, but may also be restricted to certain communities such as for use inside an on-line game or social network.^[2] … Digital currency is a money balance recorded electronically on a stored-value card or other device.”

More recently, companies and individuals have been using blockchain software to create their own digital currencies. This article describes how Robert Hackett, writing for Fortune magazine creates his own Petsdotcoin and why companies all over the globe are creating their own, as well.

If you’re looking for an analysis of current pricing for some of the major currencies check out CoinTelegraph.

But, in spite of (or because of) the success, and extended use of digital currencies, larger financial institutions are still threatened by them as evidenced by this comment by Jamie Dimon from JP Morgan. (Read the full article here.)

“Bitcoin is a fraud that will ultimately blow up, according to JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon, who said the digital currency was only fit for use by drug dealers, murderers and people living in places such as North Korea. Speaking at a conference in New York, the boss of America’s biggest bank said he would fire “in a second” anyone at the investment bank found to be trading in bitcoin.”

In response, “Yann Quelenn, an analyst at the online bank Swissquote, said bitcoin “still has great potential” …. “Cryptocurrencies are a new asset class, one at war with fiat [paper] money, and that war will be fought on regulatory issues. Central banks are keen to preserve their monopoly on money, something they will not let go of without a fight.”

We’ll be keeping an eye on Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and other digital currencies to see where this goes.

I hope you found this interesting. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PC’s for the past fourteen years. His company is highly rated by both the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and by Angie’s List. You can find more on our website. Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area and remote service throughout North America.

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Virtual Reality Update

Posted on September 19, 2017October 12, 2017 by Gail Eddy in Tips, Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality has been out for a while. I last took a look at the technology in this post from April, 2016. In terms of technology, that might as well have been 100 years ago! It’s time to take another look at the changes and upgrades.

Microsoft and Virtual Reality

Microsoft has jumped in the game with it’s “Mixed Reality” device. No one is sure why they’re calling it “mixed”, when it really is “virtual”, but it’s due to come out later this year in the under $400 range. Tom Warren wrote his review in the Verge earlier this month. He’s not that enamored with it, but does see how it could work in the future:

“It’s a lot more fun than the mundane environment of my Oculus Rift at home, and Microsoft clearly wants this to be your hub for running its universal apps. If this gets good enough one day, I could see it replicating a multi-monitor setup for when you’re mobile. …. Microsoft is clearly aiming to bring virtual — sorry, I mean Mixed Reality — to the masses, and it now needs to convince game developers and all headset makers to support its platform.”

Time’s Lisa Eadicicco also took a look at the Mixed Reality technology. Like Mr. Warren’s review, Ms. Eadicicco also feels that what will make a platform successful or not is dependent on the developers who support it:

“What will truly determine whether these Windows-powered VR headsets are successful is the quality and variety of apps they’re compatible with, of course. Windows Mixed Reality will support apps and experiences from Sony, Jaunt and Hulu in addition to games like Rec Room (a VR social club that supports multiplayer paintball and other sports games) and Dreadhalls (a horror-themed dungeon crawler). Microsoft is also bringing popular games it owns to Windows Mixed Reality, including Halo and Minecraft…”

Facebook & Virtual Reality

Facebook is looking at how its Facebook Live feature can embrace VR. Fast Company’s Daniel Terdiman took a look at the Facebooks new Space platform in this article from July. Mr. Terdiman writes:

“The idea is fairly simple. Spaces allows up to four people–each of whom must have an Oculus Rift VR headset–to hang out together in VR. Together, they can talk, chat, draw, create new objects, watch 360-degree videos, share photos, and much more. And now, they can live-broadcast everything they do in Spaces, much the same way that any Facebook user can produce live video of real life and share it with the world.”

Since Facebook acquired Oculus in 2012, this seems like a logical step.

Dell & Windows

Dean Takahashi of Venture Beat writes about Dell’s new Virtual Reality Visor and controls. He really likes the physical aspects of the new device set to hit the shelves in October:

“The Visor sits comfortably on your head because it has well-designed cushions. It also has a small rubber flap that fits over your nose. That flap keeps the headset from irritating your nose, and it also keeps light from getting in. There is a small opening both at the bottom and the top of the headset that allows air to flow through so that you don’t have sweat or fog building inside. The ventilation is unique compared to other headsets on the market.”

I hope you found this information helpful. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PC’s for the past fourteen years. His company is highly rated by both the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and by Angie’s List. You can find more on our website. Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area and remote service throughout North America.

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Interesting Webcams

Posted on September 12, 2017October 12, 2017 by Gail Eddy in Tips

If you’re like me, sometimes you just want to look at other places. Not in a voyeuristic kind of way, but just because of a sense of curiosity. Some webcams are co-located with a personal weather tracking system for a household, some webcams are in cities and you can look at the street views, some webcams are at ski resorts and allows you to look at the snow conditions before plunking down a small fortune for a single day lift ticket. ($120 at Vail for Thanksgiving Saturday!)

Contents

Ski Resort Webcams

Traffic-Cams

I like these sites because you can click on the location you’re interested in, and can see the current conditions:

Cities

People watching is one of my favorite activities, and where better to people watch than in a city? Here are just a few people watching webcams:

Brooklyn Bridge http://www.cruisin.me/cruise-port-webcams/united-states/new-york-new-york5.php
Navy Pier Chicago https://www.lookr.com/lookout/1418071578-Chicago
San Francisco http://parksconservancy.org/visit/web-cams.html

National Park Webcams

We have some amazing parks to visit throughout the United States. Here are webcams from just some of these National Parks:

Beaches

In a landlocked state like Colorado, sometimes you just NEED to see the ocean. Here are some webcams with beach views:

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Big Data & How it is Used by US Companies

Posted on September 5, 2017October 9, 2017 by Gail Eddy in Tips

I have been hearing the term “Big Data” for the past year or two, and I keep wondering exactly what that term means. As I’ve done with other columns, we’ll find out together.

I started with an article from Bernard Marr which describes Big Data from a beginners point of view. This article says that “…almost every action we take leaves a digital trail. We generate data whenever we go online, when we carry our GPS-equipped smartphones, when we communicate with our friends through social media or chat applications, and when we shop. You could say we leave digital footprints with everything we do that involves a digital action, which is almost everything. … Data is generated and shared when our “smart” home devices communicate with each other or with their home servers. … The term “Big Data” refers to the collection of all this data and our ability to use it to our advantage across a wide range of areas, including business.”

How does it work?

Again, quoting from the Bernard Marr article: “Big Data works on the principle that the more you know about anything or any situation, the more reliably you can gain new insights and make predictions about what will happen in the future. By comparing more data points, relationships begin to emerge that were previously hidden, and these relationships enable us to learn and make smarter decisions.”

How is Big Data used?

Many companies use the data they collect about their customers to improve services and products. Starbucks, for example, uses the data they collect from their Rewards program as explained in this article. “In the words of Starbucks CTO Gerri Martin-Flickinger, “With about 90 million transactions per week we know a lot about what people are buying, where they’re buying, and how they’re buying. If we combine that information with other data like weather, promotions, inventory, insights into local events, we can actually provide better, personalized service for customers.” This ultimately creates a positive feedback loop. Starbucks uses data to improve its product offerings and customer experience, leading to increased sales from both existing and new customers, as a result more customers sign up to become Starbucks Rewards memberships, Starbucks captures more data from its large user base and the cycle repeats itself.”

Companies do need to be careful in how they use Big Data. The New Yorker lists several points in their article.. For example:

“Remember that correlation doesn’t imply causation. A correlation between two variables (ice-cream consumption and shark attacks) may well be due to a third variable (summer weather). These days, spurious correlations often emerge from data mining, the increasingly common practice of trawling large amounts of information for possible relationships. For instance, there is a statistically significant—but, one hopes, meaningless—relationship between the annual divorce rate in Maine and the annual per-capita consumption of margarine in the United States.
“Beware of Big Data hubris. The Google Flu Trends project, which claimed, with much fanfare, to anticipate seasonal flu outbreaks by tracking user searches for flu-related terms, proved to be a less reliable predictor of outbreaks than a simple model of local temperatures. (One problem was that Google’s algorithm was hoodwinked by meaningless correlations—between flu outbreaks and high-school basketball seasons, for example, both of which occur in winter.) Like all data-based claims, if an algorithm’s abilities sound too good to be true, they probably are.
“Know that machines can be racist (or sexist, or otherwise prejudiced). Computer models designed to predict individual criminal behavior have shown bias against minorities, possibly because the data used to “train” their algorithms reflect existing cultural biases. Machines are as fallible as the people who program them—and they can’t be shamed into better behavior.”

If you’d like to learn more about Big Data, check out Bernard Marr’s latest book Data Strategy.

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