Can you see the Impact of Spelling Errors in your Systems? Boston Bomber's Misspelling of Name Allowed him to Slip Past Security

So many of our systems are dependent on data entry.  And thanks to spell checker’s it seems like there are more spelling errors rather than less.  At least you notice them more as the computer makes a mistake.  People make spelling errors all the time.  Big deal.  Well it is a big deal when it allows the Boston Bomber to be free.

Spelling mistake let Boston bomber slip by U.S. intelligence

Misspelling of "Tsarnaev" in a cable reminds us that human error haunts even the fiercest national security state

  

TOPICS: TAMERLAN TSARNAEV, DZHOKHAR TSARNAEV, BOSTON BOMBING, MISSPELLING, FBI, CIA,BOSTON MARATHON BOMBING, FSB, RUSSIA, CHECHNYA, 

Spelling mistake let Boston bomber slip by U.S. intelligenceTamerlan Tsarnaev(Credit: AP)

A new congressional report addresses how the Tsarnaev brothers — responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings — were able to evade FBI capture, despite warnings from Russia about the brothers as potentially dangerous.

The truth — somewhat chilling in our age of advanced technocapital and surveillance — is that the bombers were missed because of sheer human error. A spelling mistake let Tamerlan Tsarnaev slip through the intelligence net. As Reuters reports:

In September 2011, the FSB sent a cable to the CIA, restating the warnings of the first memo [about the Chechen's militant links]. NBC News quoted sources close to the congressional investigation as saying a second note about Tsarnaev was entered into the TECS system the next month, but spelled his name “Tsarnayev.”

Bet you so many big data systems are hampered by spelling errors that gets data rejected.  Seems kind of simple to focus on data entry errors, but it is not sexy.

Project Alluvion is??? Amazon or someone else?

I have friends asking me if I know who is behind Project Alluvion.  My guess to throw out there is Amazon. Why?  Let me go over a few things.

What is Alluvion?

al·lu·vi·on
əˈlo͞ovēən/
noun
LAW
noun: alluvion
  1. 1.
    the action of the sea or a river in forming new land by deposition.
Origin
 

Alluvion could be a code name that applies to Amazon project given the connection applies to a river.

Could it be Facebook, Google, or Microsoft?  No, they have presences in the area already.

Could it be Apple?  Not likely, Apple has land in Prineville, Reno, and Maiden with no data centers in Europe or APAC.  It would seem Apple would expand on its existing properties or buy land outside of the US before buying land in Des Moines.

Amazon has a west coast presence and east coast, but creating a high availability fail over from the coasts doesn’t work well for many scenarios.  For the same reason that Facebook, Google, and Microsoft have gone to each coast and the midwest, for Amazon to follow to compete seems reasonable.

After guessing Amazon, the potential customers don’t pan out on who would need a big data center with tax incentives. 

My Friends build Data Centers, AWS's friends don't?

My friends like to build data centers.  Some are building a lot.  Thanks to Amazon, there is a view that “Friends don’t let Friends build Data Centers."

 “Friends don’t let friends build data centers,” Infor CEO Charles Phillips said in his presentation during the keynote.

My friends like building data centers.  And many of the partners of AWS’s Direct Connect build data centers.  Building data centers is not bad if you know what you are doing.   I thinkI would say “Friends don’t let the clueless build data centers.”  Some people shouldn’t build data centers.  Leave data centers to the pros.

US East (Virginia)US West (N. California)US West (Oregon)EU West (Ireland)South America (Sao Paulo)Asia Pacific (Singapore)Asia Pacific (Tokyo)Asia Pacific (Sydney)
AAPT               ✔
Amcom               ✔  
Atlantic Metro Communications ✔ ✔ ✔            
Bestel ✔ ✔            
CFN Services ✔ ✔   ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔  
Cinenet               ✔
CoreSite ✔ ✔            
Datapipe ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔   ✔    
DBR360 ✔ ✔   ✔        
eircom Ltd.       ✔        
Exponential-e Ltd.       ✔        
Equinix, Inc. ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔   ✔ ✔ ✔
EUNetworks       ✔        
FiberLight ✔              
Fiber Internet Center   ✔            
First Communications ✔              
Global Capacity ✔ ✔            
Global Telecom & Technology, Inc. (GTT) ✔ ✔ ✔          
Hibernia Atlantic ✔     ✔   ✔    
InterCloud ✔     ✔        
IX Reach ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔        
KVH Co., Ltd.             ✔  
Level 3 Communications, Inc. ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Lightower ✔              
Masergy ✔ ✔ ✔          
Megaport               ✔
Nomura Research Institute (NRI)             ✔  
NTT Communications Corporation             ✔  
Pacnet               ✔
Smart421       ✔        
Softbank Telecom Corp.             ✔  
Splice Communications ✔ ✔            
TelecityGroup       ✔        
Telx ✔ ✔            
tw telecom ✔ ✔ ✔          
Venus       ✔        
Vibe               ✔
Vocus               ✔
XO Communications ✔ ✔ ✔            
Zayo Group ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔        

Can A True Analysis be Written of Amazon.com? Everything Store book makes the point

I am reading the Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon for the 2nd time.  The first read I found interesting to see what the author had collected as the facts to write his book.  The nice thing is I know some folks who have been at Amazon and talked with them first hand on what the company is like.  One friend I found was in the book.  Were they quoted in an interview?  no they just appear in this picture included in the book.

NewImage

A point made in the book is the challenge of telling story in words.

The narrative fallacy, Bezos explained, was a term coined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his 2007 book The Black Swan to describe how humans are biologically inclined to turn complex realities into soothing but oversimplified stories. Taleb argued that the limitations of the human brain resulted in our species’ tendency to squeeze unrelated facts and events into cause-and-effect equations and then convert them into easily understandable narratives. These stories, Taleb wrote, shield humanity from the true randomness of the world, the chaos of human experience, and, to some extent, the unnerving element of luck that plays into all successes and failures.

Bezos was suggesting that Amazon’s rise might be that sort of impossibly complex story. There was no easy explanation for how certain products were invented, such as Amazon Web Services, its pioneering cloud business that so many other Internet companies now use to run their operations. “When a company comes up with an idea, it’s a messy process. There’s no aha moment,” Bezos said. Reducing Amazon’s history to a simple narrative, he worried, could give the impression of clarity rather than the real thing.

Stone, Brad (2013-10-15). The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon (pp. 12-13). Little, Brown and Company. Kindle Edition.

If you agree with the point made by Bezos and Taleb which the author Brad Stone would appear given he puts it in the book, then how should you interpret what Brad Stone has written?  The image above tells a story that is not manipulated in photoshop to align with the goals of a sales team.  The words written by Brad Stone are written in a way that fulfill his objectives and his publisher.

This idea is going through my head as I read the book for the 2nd time.

Here are some words from my friend who is in the above picture.

in my time he was just a very enthusiastic, very smart startup CEO with a mission beyond what any of us ever imagined. I'm still crazy proud of the place and my time there

This point is going through my head though more as I study Amazon.