Mike Wheatley
Latest from Mike Wheatley
Google Flu Trends: A case of Big Data gone bad?
Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time, but sadly Google Flu Trends has turned out to be a prime example of what can go wrong when you read too much into your Big Data… When Google Flu Trends first kicked off back in 2009, the search giant thought it was being rather ...
Larry Page wants make your medical data public knowledge
Our medical history data is about as private as it’s possible to get, so when someone as high profile as Google founder Larry Page calls for all of this to be made public, the issue deserves our attention. Page made the suggestion during an appearance at the TED Conference, saying “Wouldn’t it be amazing to ...
NSA’s lawyer claims tech firms DID know about PRISM spying all along
Technology firms like Google, Facebook and Microsoft were fully aware of the NSA’s PRISM surveillance program and its mass monitoring of web traffic, says its general counsel Rajesh De. Speaking at a meeting organized by the US government’s Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) in Washington DC on Wednesday, De revealed that the NSA’s ...
The White House unleashes Big Data to fight Climate Change
The White House is reaching out to budding data scientists to help in its fight against climate change. Yesterday, the Obama administration gave an announcement about its new Climate Data Initiative – a program that’s bidding to use the gargantuan amount of climate change-related data its accumulated to build tools that local governments and city ...
Chinese scientists beef up Hadoop scheduling with SDN
Few would disagree that software-defined-networking (SDN) holds a lot of potential – it promises numerous benefits to organizations that run lots of virtual networks and machines, most obviously the automation and flexibility that it provides. Even so, there are plenty of critics who say that SDN just doesn’t have that many applications – after all, ...
The NSA’s MYSTIC powers – it can listen to and record every phone call in the world
Remember not so long ago the NSA’s innocent claim that it only collects the metadata of people’s phone calls? Well, apparently that’s not not entirely accurate, for not only does it actually listen into foreigners’ telephone conversations with alarming regularity, it also has the ability to record “every single” call in any given country and ...
Oracle blames US dollar exchange rates yet again as Q3 revenues disappoint
Oracle has declared Q3 revenues of $9.3 billion, a four percent rise year-on-year that still fell somewhat short of Wall Street’s expectations. According to Oracle’s Q3 2014 fiscal report, the company saw its GAAP earnings per share rise to $0.56, an eight percent increase that’s just short of its projected 10 percent rise. In addition, ...
Security threat? 10% of government PCs still running Windows XP
Just like countless businesses and individuals, the US government is finding it hard to let go of Windows XP. Even though its had more than six years to get ready for D-Day, when Microsoft finally ends its technical support for the OS, over ten percent of government PCs are still believed to be running the ...
Dorian Nakamoto: ‘I did not create, invent or otherwise work on Bitcoin’
Did Newsweek make the mother of all cock ups when it fingered Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto as the creator of Bitcoin? It certainly looks that way, as the beleaguered 64-year old Californian has once again reached out to the media to vigorously deny any knowledge of the cryptocurrency. In a statement sent to Reuters journalist Felix ...
USA, UK are officially declared ‘enemies of the internet’
The saying goes that any publicity is good publicity, in which case the NSA is absolutely lapping it up right now. So what’s the latest headline grabber courtesy of everybody’s favorite electronic surveillance agency? Oh well, you know, it’s efforts have only just gone and landed the USA, alongside the UK, on Reporters Without Borders ...