November 2012

Microsoft’s 100 top managers have been told to think of ways their businesses could incorporate machine learning — which is the engineering of algorithms that analyze textual, behavioral and sensor data, and then try to form patterns and predictions.

It is at the heart of the Bing search engine, but has many other potential applications, including better logistics planning, the organization of a calendar or the design of a marketing campaign. Craig Mundie, Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer, sees machine learning as a potential means to create entirely new businesses within the company. Microsoft, he said, “historically sold the software itself, and now in the cloud and services business we’re not selling you the software, we’re selling you a service that the software creates.” By adding machine learning, he explained, “what you could sell to people are answers to things.” Those answers could be uniquely valuable if they drew from Microsoft’s own data resources, culled from assets like Bing, the Windows Azure cloud computing platform and Skype, he said.

Twitter has been particularly active this election cycle, offering tweet-based popularity charts of Romney and Obama and selling its first political trending topic. Now it's added the Political Engagement Map, another effort to harness Twitter's potential as a polling platform.

The map is conceptually simple: it takes each recent tweet from Romney and Obama and checks the number of favorites and retweets it's received, then checks location to plot it by US state. Clicking on a given tweet displays where engagement is strong, and entering a keyword brings up the most popular tweets that include it. In practice, seeing a map that's entirely red or blue is initially confusing, but being able to sort by individual tweets and states is a great idea.

Verizon Wireless says over 96 percent of its cell sites in impacted areas are operational and routing calls and text messages through as usual. Verizon has also taken the step of deploying what it calls Wireless Emergency Communication Centers (WECCs) that offer charging stations, computer workspaces, and mobile phones with which you can reach out to family and friends.

Those have been distributed in Staten Island, New York, Monmouth University, and at two separate locations in Toms River, New Jersey. If you're in need of a charger or perhaps a prepaid phone, Verizon has also established mobile stores-on-wheels that act as full-fledged retail locations. These can be found on Staten Island and in both Sea Girt and Howell, New Jersey. But you don't need to venture out to one of these spots to get help: Verizon is offering free domestic calls at all open stores; you'll also be able to plug in a device for charging while there. Verizon will continue to reopen stores that were forced closed by the storm and deliver additional device and accessory supplies in the days ahead.

The closely watched San Joaquin Valley (CA) congressional race between Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA) and challenger Jose Hernandez has veered again into court, with the incumbent suing Democratic operatives for defamation.

Angry over what he calls a misleading political ad, Rep Denham filed suit against Sacramento television stations and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The unusual campaign-season libel suit came after Democrats and the TV stations declined to pull the 30-second spot. "Not only is the ad a flat-out lie, but it's malicious, and they should be held accountable," Rep Denham said. The ad, at the very least, is selective in its use of facts. It accuses Rep Denham, an Air Force veteran, of refusing to guarantee salaries for the military in the event of a government shutdown last year while opposing a Democratic measure to stop congressional pay during a shutdown. Democrats are standing by the ad.