Fiction
**Data Driven**

Data Driven: the podcast where we explore the emerging field of Data Science. We bring the best minds in Data, Software Engineering, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence right to you every Tuesday.

The field of data science mashes up the worlds of statistics, database architecture and software engineering. Data Scientist has been labelled by the Harvard Business Review, as “the sexiest job of the 21st century.” A quick search of job search sites reveal that this field is in high demand.

In a world where Data is the new Oil, Data Science the new Refineries, consider this Car Talk for the Data Age. Every week we bring the best minds in this emerging field straight to you. Our goal is to educate and inspire our listeners so that they can be prepared to thrive in a Data Driven world.

Latest Episodes:

*Livestream* Staying Motivated in the New Year, a Secret Project, and Impact Jan 12, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, Frank and Andy talk about staying motivated in the new year, answer questions from the audience, and share a little about their secret project.

This episode was originally recorded on an impromptu livestream and in a delightful surprise Andy was able to join.

*Off Topic* Work the New Year and Don't Let it Work You Jan 05, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, Frank offers some encouragement for people hoping for a better year in 2021.

This episode was originally recorded on an impromptu livestream and <break time="0.3s" /> in a delightful surprise Andy was able to join.

Links:

Get a free Audible book on us at https://www.audible.com/ep/creator?source_code=PDTGBPD060314004R

Transcript

Coming Soon

Going from Student to Data Scientist Dec 29, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, Frank interview Baby Supriya about her journey from student to professional data scientist.

Transcript

coming soon.

*DataPoint* A Heartfelt Thank You on this Thanksgiving Day Nov 26, 2020

Show notes

In this Thanksgiving Data Point, Frank sends a special message of thanks to you, the best audience in the world!

Show Notes

Did AT&T Predict the Future?

http://franksworld.com/2020/11/26/did-att-predict-the-future/

Transcript

00:00:00 Frank

Hey, what's up is Frank here from data driven? Just wanted to take a moment here. It's Thanksgiving here in the US. I'm actually sitting by the by the ocean on the beach.

00:00:15 Frank

And it's a beautiful day.

00:00:19 Frank

And God.

00:00:21 Frank

Some interesting interesting email the other day from website called Pod Stats or Pod Status. You'll see I have my other production assistant with me, but I just wanted to say thank you to all the listeners who helped made data driven successful over the years. Can't believe that tomorrow.

00:00:42 Frank

It's been four years since I had the idea for data driven. Next week will probably be. It'll be about four years since I asked Andy to be the cohost we've been rocking it pretty well. We're at about 160,000 downloads.

00:00:55 Frank

265 or 266 shows an.

00:01:03 Frank

Just wanted to say thank you.

00:01:05 Frank

Actually got an interesting email the other day from a website called Pod Stats Pod status.

00:01:11 Frank

And apparently we are very highly ranked where the 29th ranked podcast in technology in Italy. So I want to say gratze. We also rank very high and definitely in the top 50. In Sweden, Thailand, Norway in Brazil.

00:01:30 Frank

So thank you, I only know how to say thank you in.

00:01:35 Frank

Italian sorry, but I would have to go back and figure out how to say it in those other languages.

00:01:46 Frank

I'm sorry about that, but I will go back and figure out how to say it in the other language is another thing. If you've been very eagle eyed in terms of our show notes and the transcriptions.

00:01:57 Frank

Uh.

00:01:58 Frank

We have we have a name now for the AI voice over Lady probably do more formal show on it. But you know what?

00:02:07 Frank

Not gonna do it, figured I would just get the information out. Right now we call her Bailey which is an acronym for British AI Lady. You can look in the transcripts. You'll see her kind of listed as there is a name.

00:02:23 Frank

Interestingly enough, we changed up how we do our transcripts. I used to use video indexer but now word online you can actually upload the audio file, the MP3 file and it will actually not only do the transcription and the timestamp, but actually the speaker identification too. So we actually test this out.

00:02:45 Frank

And it's pretty accurate, so you'll so hopefully now are.

00:02:52 Frank

Hopefully now are.

00:02:55 Frank

Our transcripts are much more accessible. That's something we've been meaning to do and.

00:03:01 Frank

Yeah, oh, I see Andy's on hey what's up? Andy yeah we I shared that email with you and yeah, we are we're we're we're reaching the top 30 this is pretty good I'm I'm excited I'm happy about the show. Happy I'm thankful Thanksgiving right?

00:03:18 Frank

So I'm thankful for having Andy as a good friend and a cohost on this journey on this epic road trip down the information superhighway. As we say in our standard intro and but he was basically talking about all the things that look very futuristic in those commercials and.

00:03:39 Frank

The my dog is about to pull my arm off. I can feel it.

00:03:43 Frank

And.

00:03:46 Frank

So.

00:03:47 Frank

Yeah, so it's interesting that how how that you know. So he kind of goes through. It's interesting from a language point of view, 'cause I was alive in 1993. I was in the middle of college and all that stuff seemed I wouldn't say in pop.

00:04:00 Frank

Possible seems a little far fetched in a little improbable, but it's interesting how that video predicted touch screens. The widespread use of touch screens so it held up pretty well, except for the fact it wasn't really a T&T that was a major player in that, and if memory serves the AT&T we know today is actually a rebranding of singular, which was another company entirely so.

00:04:24 Frank

I'm sure someone will call me on the comments if I'm wrong.

00:04:28 Frank

But just wanna say I love you too man.

00:04:32 Frank

See Andy's comment. Yeah man, I'm just thankful to have good people in my life. Like Andy. I'm happy to have a great audience that I have happen. Will be happy to be able to, you know, spend some time and I'm unplugged by the ocean.

00:04:48 Frank

So happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I'm going to sign off now and might do another quantum show. Probably tomorrow, maybe not today because I had a mental breakthrough in terms of what I was able to figure out by watching this video. And I might even scored a new guest for that show. So with all of that.

00:05:10 Frank

From all of us to all of you.

00:05:13 Frank

You have a great Thanksgiving if you don't celebrate Thanksgiving. I hope you have a wonderful Thursday.

*DataPoint* Livestreaming from the Beach Beats Sending a Fax from the Beach Nov 25, 2020

Show notes

In this Data Point, Frank livestreams from the beach to talk about how sometimes specific predictions of the future are correct, even if they miss some details.

In the 1990s, AT&T ran a series of commercials, highlighting the ways in which the internet would transform our lives.

One that stands out is the prediction that we would eventually send faxes from the beach. In 2020, the fax machine is somewhat of a relic. In the 90s, the concept of livestreaming on a platform like Facebook, would have seemed too far fetched at the time.

Show Notes

Sending a fax from the beach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kfIFDX9kE4

Data Driven Merchandise: https://www.amazon.com/s?rh=n%3A7141123011%2Cp_4%3AData+Driven&ref=w_bl_sl_s_ap_web_7141123011

Transcript

Coming soon

Dana Mantilia on Why Humans are the Weakest Link in CyberSecurity Nov 20, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, Frank and Andy interview Dana Mantilia on Why Humans are the Weakest Link in CyberSecurity.Watch Original Livestreamhttps://www.linkedin.com/posts/frank-lavigne_data-driven-live-with-dana-mantilia-activity-6735628251328204800-QjwqShow NotesComing soon!TranscriptAI Generated00:00:05 BAILeYHello and welcome to data driven.00:00:08 BAILeYThe podcast where we explore the emerging fields of data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence.00:00:16 BAILeYIn this episode, Frank and Andy speak to Dana Mantilia about cybersecurity and why companies are not investing their time and attention where they should be.00:00:26 BAILeYThis episode was originally recorded on a live stream and this was the first time we had a guest join us on the life stream for a show.00:00:34 BAILeYSeason 4 just keeps the innovations coming.00:00:38 BAILeYWithout further ado, here are your hosts Frank Lavigna and Andy Leonard.00:00:44 FrankAlright, thanks for tuning into data driven. If you're watching this live, thank you for taking time out of your day. I realize this being the lead up to the Holidays. Things are kind of hectic. I know in Chateau Lavigna things are very hectic today.00:00:59 FrankWe00:01:00 FrankAndy and I are happy to announce a new guest that we have with us. I first saw her on LinkedIn when she would do these really cool training videos.00:01:10 FrankOn basically security topics.00:01:14 FrankAn with with Black Friday, literally a week from now Cyber Monday and the just the The Creativity alarmingly creative and flexibility of scammers that we've had in light of the kovid, pandemic etc etc.00:01:32 FrankI figured it would be worth having kind of a good discussion about just the basics of cyber security and why it's important my wife happens to be in the cyber security field, so I'd like to think that I'm better prepared, but I know if you think you're better prepared, that's probably a vulnerability.00:01:50 FrankSo welcome to the show, Dana.00:01:52 DanaWell, thank you for having me nice to be here.00:01:55 FrankSo this is you are actually the 1st guest. We're going to have on the show that we interviewed live on a live stream first on video.00:02:02 DanaVery honored, very.00:02:03 FrankHonored so awesome. We're trying to push the boundaries for season four, so tell us a little bit about you and your company for those that haven't seen your videos on LinkedIn.00:02:15 DanaOK sure yeah. My name is Dana Mantilia an I am the founder of identity Protection Planning an we tried to help educate people in very layman's terms on how they can protect themselves from identity thieves and cybercriminals. And so we have a variety of different kinds of training. Either you know, training data, webinars, some videos or we have an on line.00:02:35 DanaPlatform that's short little videos that everyone is required to watch.00:02:38 DanaAnd just to kind of start spreading the word, I mean cybersecurity is not going away and unfortunately the the frontline workers are the people that really are maybe not educated on it and they also are the ones that are clicking on things they shouldn't be clicking on so.00:02:54 FrankNo, so that's a good point. So one of your most recent videos, and this is the one that made me think we should have her on the show.00:03:00 FrankWas the one the gift card scam and how?00:03:04 FrankSomebody in your organization got snared up in this.00:03:08 DanaYeah, I mean it's.00:03:09 DanaIt's crazy, I mean that the way that I did that little video is how exactly how it happened. She came to my office door with her codon and I said, well, why do you have your code on and she said, oh I'm going to get that stuff you need and I said well, what stuff are you talking about? And she said this stuff, we were just messaging back and forth about. I said I was. I've been sitting here at my office just doing work I didn't.00:03:28 DanaMessage you about anything.00:03:30 DanaSo then she showed me and they they person initially sent an email that looked like it was kind of from my email very similar, which is always usually what they do. And then you know the urgency factor. I always tell people when there's a sense of urgency. We have to stop and say, is this really a big big emergency here to go buy gift cards? But people want to please their boss so they get these emails and they act upon them.00:03:50 DanaSo she then then the person said, can you give me your email? I mean your cell phone. I wanted to text you this. So then the conversation jumped over to her cell phone and now they're texting back and forth and she said, well, how am I going to pay for these?00:04:02 DanaAnd then he said, well, you know what? Just when you get to the store, read off the numbers in the back of the card and then when you get back I'll reimburse you. So they were. I mean, it was just back and forth and back, but anybody would have fallen for this anybody.00:04:13 FrankWow, the thing that struck me is the most insidious part.00:04:17 FrankIt's how they moved away from email pretty early in the process, because maybe I mean it was a good. I mean, there's a I don't know. As a data scientist, I I hate giving out statistics, but let's say it was a 5050 chance that that person had your cell.00:04:30 FrankPhone number.00:04:31 FrankMillimeter like an an. It's a good gambit for them because I guess they didn't have your number already saved in their phone, so they could have this whole conversation with you, right? Yeah, an I would assume that folks in your organization are well trained.00:04:46 DanaWell, we're at least talking about this stuff right times. That's that's a startling factor, is that?00:04:52 DanaYou know we're talking about all these things all the time and we we totally almost fell for it so.00:04:57 FrankWell, I never disclosed this publicly.00:05:00 FrankUntil I'll do it now is that one time Microsoft? I work for Microsoft, they they pay the mortgage, they pay for the electricity and it goes through the my little monitor display there.00:05:12 FrankBut they will routinely send out kind of phishing emails.00:05:16 FrankAnd it will be like urgent you have to, like, you know, do this because your expense report or something like this. And I shouldn't admit this publicly, but I did I was driving. I see this like emergency thing come through. I'm like the screen and I'm like.00:05:30 FrankSo I didn't think I clicked on it and it it got it. It it it got a there was there was there should have been an animated GIF of like somebody?00:05:38 FrankAt the company doing this, but it was like this. It was this like badge of shame of like hey you fell for this uh huh.00:05:45 FrankYou know, and I was like crap and I was like I learned. 2 lessons one.00:05:51 FrankPull over first.00:05:53 FrankIf I can't mouse over the link.00:05:56 FrankProbably shouldn't click on it, right?00:05:58 FrankAnd three is just.00:06:00 FrankThat sense of urgency.00:06:01 FrankUm was what really like, and maybe there's a psychological thing to this where it just tricks off like this. The primordial brain, or I know there's the three brain model and Andy and I go off on tangents a lot. Dan, I should warn you, but not us. Ultimately the idea is that once you're kind of anxious about something right, your higher brain functions are going, if not shut off kind of be pushed aside.00:06:24 FrankAnd all you have to do is click the link to get your answer or whatever I mean.00:06:28 FrankIt seems like these folks are well versed in this type of psychology.00:06:33 DanaYeah, and they also know too that you know every when you're on your mobile, everybody is rush rush rush rush rush for rushing on the mobile phone all the time and that is a little scary because sometimes even when you look on the mobile you can't even see who it's from. It'll it'll you know. Just say a name or something like even some of the Apple ones that come out. Don't say oh it's from Apple, but that's not the exact. Doesn't show you the phone number or whatever it is. It's just.00:06:55 DanaSummer has put up there. As you know The Who it's from kind of thing, so yeah.00:07:00 DanaThere's a lot of things we need to all.00:07:01 DanaStart doing or not doing.00:07:03 FrankRight, it's it's an interesting. It's just fascinating that with all this advances in cybersecurity, and I've seen a lot of the things that the technical we're not going to go into.00:07:14 FrankHumans are like the weak link.00:07:16 DanaYeah.00:07:18 FrankThat's crazy.00:07:20 DanaYeah, definitely, and that's the frontline to most of the stuff and you know the urgency factor just to go back to that real quick one. Scam that that that is targeted at seniors.00:07:29 DanaIs the grandparent scam, and So what they do is they will call up and pretend that there's someone's grandson or granddaughter and something crazy happened like there's held hostage in a Mexican jail or something and they need to have money right away wired to them so that they can, you know, get out of there. So then to make it even sound more valid, they put the prison guard on the phone and they say, you know who?00:07:49 DanaThis is the information. This is where you need to send it to, and he's a very stern person and these people really do fall for this and a lot of the people Western unions around the country. They they know that this.00:08:00 DanaTime is running rampant, so they'll try to stop people. I did a speech to speech the other day or whatever. I talked the other day and they were about probably about 1000 people on there and nobody said anything when I brought this up. And then at the end when we had the Q&A, there had to at least be 25 to 50 people. That said, my my mother fell for this and she would not believe that it wasn't my son. You know another one.00:08:20 DanaEdit There there there's a scam was that they said that their grandson was had drugs in the car and was with some guy that he was going fishing with and it was just one after the.00:08:30 DanaAnd a lot of the time that seniors won't even admit that this happens because they're embarrassed by it, and then they're afraid that their children, their adult children are not going to let them manage their finances. So again, it's a whole play. An urgency plan, emotion, and you're not even thinking straight. I mean, if somebody came up to you and said your grandson is in a Mexican jail right now.00:08:50 DanaAnd we need to give money. You do stop and think a little bit, but the way we act on line is very different than the way we act when we're here. We act on the phone when somebody calls, we want to believe them. Then we would act.00:09:00 DanaAs if they were standing in front of us, so that's kind of some of the awareness that I like to to spread is safe. Just ask yourself if this person was standing here and this conversation was happening, would it sound crazy, you know?00:09:11 AndySo Dana, we talked a lot about the problem and how do we make ourselves shift gears like that? How do we engage, you know, Mentale in a way that maybe defeats the Sergeant.00:09:25 DanaWell, you know cybersecurity training has been, you know, going on over the years. The problem is getting bigger and bigger and bigger and we're throwing more and more money at it. And it's not getting any better, right? Yeah, so I say we need to approach it. I look at things a little bit differently, so usually it's the IT department that's responsible for putting together a program to teach the regular, non technical people.00:09:46 DanaYou know?00:09:46 DanaWhat they need to do and not do so, they're forced to sit through an hours worth of training. They're about to fall asleep. All they want to do is be able to get through it so they can check off the box that they actually went. They did it, that's it, and I don't think that's the best way to teach people what I think we should do is we should start teaching them how they can protect themselves, their families, their homes. There's going to get some interests are going to say hey, you know that's.00:10:10 DanaI better call my mother and tell her to watch out for that, or I better make sure my son's not doing that and there's a there's a buy in there. So now once you get that buy in, there's an awareness that we need to start protecting things.00:10:20 DanaAnd then when you're talking about the at the company, you've already educated them on how they should be looking at their emails. Then now they know how that they need to be looking at the emails with the company, 'cause emails is pretty much where most of the problems are starting from, so so I just think it's if we looked at it a little bit differently, maybe we would be getting through to people a little bit different.00:10:37 AndyWell, I like your approach because we've already kind of walked through a lot of this, and we've said that it's not a technical issue at all, an.00:10:45 AndyBeing a night person and Frank just Frank admitted earlier that were high functioning. You know, savants. Basically Frank and I were both 80 D and you know. And it's.00:10:58 FrankA normal account cards in Vegas though, which I totally feel shaded. I'm sorry, alright cut off, that's OK, it was funny.00:11:06 AndyYeah, but you know it.00:11:08 AndyHaving the app when you were just describing that I was imagining people that you know, even my you know my cellphone Frank doing this and we're like I said kind of high functioning but normal IT people and nothing against normal IT people I love you, I mean it but having them try to explain something nontechnical. 'cause if if we've identified that the issue is not really a technical.00:11:31 AndyProblem and we throw money at it and bought deer. Develop software that others have built and all of that really what's happening here is very psychological.00:11:39 AndySo I would. I would think that that that approach you just described having a non technical person walk through this, which sounds to me very emotional scenario that comes at you. You know on.00:11:55 AndyPeople you love an urgency and it's on your phone. And it's like every card that the scammers have is being played against. Especially older people who are not familiar but not as familiar with the technology as some of us.00:12:08 DanaUh-huh absolutely absolutely. So I just think it's a different way to approach things and it it comes across as if you're giving the employee a benefit as opposed to forcing them to sit down because you need to protect the company.00:12:20 DanaYeah OK, great.00:12:21 DanaSo that's what I have to do, you know, kind of thing.00:12:24 AndySo we'll just envision mandatory training. Sorry, I just had a vision of office space of.00:12:30 AndyWell, you know, is this good for the company that banner?00:12:33 FrankFriday is Crazy shirt day.00:12:39 FrankThere's a movie reference for the show, Andy, that could you?00:12:45 FrankI don't have my sound board.00:12:46 AndyYou don't have your sound.00:12:48 FrankNow that's one of the disadvantages of switching to LinkedIn. Live will fix it. You know us where engineers Andy?00:12:55 FrankSo the the question I guess is.00:13:01 FrankHow do so? Yeah, I mean I think it was really insightful. Was you know my wife bought a bunch of studies of books to study for the CI, SSP and all that. And it's like a I mean, it's a it's a book and.00:13:15 FrankIt's not te…

Full show notes at the publisher

The Third AI Superpower Nov 10, 2020

Show notes

About a year ago, I read AI Superpowers by Kai-Fu Lee which details the struggle between the US and China for AI supremacy in the 21st century,

That got me thinking about a map I once made for the School of AI.

The US vs China debate leaves out one key player: India.

About Rick Hall

Rick Hall is a software entrepreneur focused on the analytics market. He has led the development of over a dozen software products and taken several companies from the early stage to an eventual sale. He has been working in analytics and software for 30 years and has been apart of the evolution of several generations of technology and practices. Currently, he is the CEO at Aginity Corporation--Supercharge your SQL Experience with Analytics Management. Aginity Corporation is the only next-generation analytics management toolset designed specifically to empower analytic teams to take advantage of the top analytic platforms.

Show Notes

Sponsor: Audible.com - Get a free audio book when you sign up for a free trial!

Notable Quotes

Welcome to Season 4! (01:00)

ImpactQuantum is our new podcast. (02:30)

Rick owns and operates Aginity Corporation. (04:00)

Shoutouts to Bill Baker and the BI Advisory Council. (05:00)

"Stuff changes." (Paraphrased) (08:00)

OG can stand for Old Guy or Original Gangster." - Frank (08:30)

Getting data to the place where someone can actually use it for Analytics. (09:00)

"First, you get the data," referring to ETL, data engineering, data integration, data quality... (09:45)

Regarding GPT-3 (11:45)

"34 ways to measure coupons..." (14:20)

"It's more of a biology problem." (14:50)

On answering questions at the speed of business. (15:45)

"So many business questions are answered, initially, in the heat of the moment." (17:30)

A really honest answer on predicting the unpredictable. (18:35)

"I think we'll be talking about Covid for the next 20 years." - Frank (20:00)

Wait - did (THE) Rick Hall just say he listens to Data Driven?? (21:15)

On business travel and remote work during the pandemic... (22:30)

Rick, on pay for software engineers in Silicon Valley. (23:30)

"Innovation Happens Everywhere" - Frank (25:25)

"Everyone hears the story of the Google's of the world..." (27:30)

Rick started a company 10 Sep 2001. (28:15)

"If you don't double-down at the moment of greatest risk, well, no one's going to do it for you." - Rick (29:00)

"This is probably not the easiest way to make money." - Frank, on entrepreneurship (31:00)

"Get it useful fast." - Rick on Lean (32:00)

On starting lean and The Lean Startup. (32:45)

On startups and the cloud... (35:45)

He said it again! (THE) Rick Hall listens to Data Driven! (36:40)

Did you find data or did data find you? (38:00)

"Just shut up and go do it!" - Rick's boss (39:00)

What's the favorite part of your current gig? (40:45)

When I'm not working, I enjoy ___. (42:00)

I think the coolest thing in technology is ___. (42:25)

On Microsoft Azure engineering time-to-market. (43:00)

"Ware definitely moving forward with an Iteration Economy." - Frank (43:30)

I look forward to the day I can use technology to ___. (44:00)

Share something different about yourself (44:30)

Andy's story of being diagnosed with ADHD around age 47. (45:00)

"Ok, I know where he gets this..." - Andy (46:00)

Frank has a bunch of desks in his office (46:10)

Learn more about Aginity.com! (46:40)

Aginity.com is free to start! (47:00)

Follow Rick on LinkedIn. (47:30)

Rick's recommended Audible listens: (48:35)

The Lean Startup

Lean Analytics

Crossing the Chasm

"I love podcasts which is how I came to yours." - Rick

Aginity is platform agnostic. (49:45)

Transcript (AI Generated)

*Data Point* Post-Pandemic Bookstore Visit, Data, and Sugared Up Kids Oct 10, 2020

Show notes

In this Data Point, Frank visits the new Barnes and Noble location in Rockville, MD which is the first store in the US to sport the book retailer's new design. Oddly enough, it looks a lot like the Amazon brick and mortar bookstore just down the road in Bethesda. (see previous data point http://datadriven.tv/episodes/thoughts-on-amazons-brick-and-mortar-bookstore/ )

With less space and a revamped layout, you have to think that the store's design is much more data-driven. (Pun somewhat intended.)

How Do Voice Assistants Work? Oct 09, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, Frank and Andy explore voice assistants and the behind the scenes technology that makes them tick.AI Generated Transcript00:00:02 British Voiceover AI LadyHello and welcome to data driven, the podcast where we explore the emerging fields of data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence and will not be the only AI generated voice today. As Frank and Andy interview, my Cousins Alexa, Cortana, Siri and the Google assistant.00:00:18 British Voiceover AI LadyNow that I think of it, the Google assistant needs a proper name.00:00:22 British Voiceover AI LadyDoesn't it?00:00:23 British Voiceover AI LadyWithout further ado, here are your hosts Frank Lavigna and Andy Leonard.00:00:29 FrankSo we're both together and we're going to be talking about voice assistants and kind of how they work and.00:00:38 FrankUh, we have some special guests with us today.00:00:42 FrankWelcome once again, if you're just joining us live. It's Andy later tonight we are here and we are live streaming, data driven podcast where we explore the emerging fields of data science, machine learning an artificial intelligence.00:00:55 FrankHow are you doing Andy?00:00:56 AndyI'm doing pretty good Frank. How are you?00:00:59 FrankI'm doing well. I know you have a hard stop so I won't Yammer too long we have.00:01:04 FrankThree special guests with us today.00:01:06 FrankAnd E 3 three.00:01:09 FrankThat's a record. It is a record.00:01:14 FrankThese guests are.00:01:19 AndyAlexa Hello Alexa.00:01:22 FrankShe's going to say hello back, I'm sure.00:01:26 AndyYeah.00:01:28 FrankCortana.00:01:30 AndyHello Cortana.00:01:33 FrankAnd.00:01:36 FrankOn my phone, I have Google Assistant.00:01:38 AndyHello Google Assistant Hey Google.00:01:41 FrankThat didn't work. It now correctly phones on. Let me tell you whenever there's a training video or like a keynote where they talk about the integration between them. It's pandemonium in my Home Office, because I usually have all three and it's just harder pandemonium.00:01:59 FrankSo I want to switch to, so we're recording this last. If you're watching live. Thank you. If you're watching later, thank you. We always try to respond to the comments. I think we're pretty good about that. And if you're watching this, if you're listening to this on the podcast, I will try to transcribe everything I'm saying. So let me switch.00:02:18 FrankHere.00:02:19 FrankAn I'll see if I can put us in the little bottom here, how do?00:02:22 FrankI do that.00:02:24 FrankThere we go.00:02:27 FrankOh well anyway.00:02:30 AndySo there we.00:02:31 AndyAre were there this is a closed.00:02:34 FrankAlmost there, this is the. This is a quote.00:02:38 FrankFrom Charles the 5th, who if you're not up in your history he was kind of a big deal. I think he was a hapsburg. I don't remember shame on me but he has this quote where he says I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men in German to my horse.00:02:57 FrankNow you're probably wondering what the heck does this have to do with anything? Well, here's what it has to do with.00:03:03 FrankOh no, PowerPoint is going to crash.00:03:07 FrankNo, you can tell.00:03:08 FrankWe're live here we go. This is what I want to say.00:03:11 FrankThis is the my my modern take on this. I speak to Elexa when I'm home to Cortana. When I'm at work and Google Assistant when I'm in my car or have my phone with me.00:03:24 FrankYou can also replace that with Siri. I don't. I do have an iPad, but it's not with me.00:03:28 AndyThat's Frank, the 1st right.00:03:30 FrankFrank the 1st.00:03:34 FrankI rather like that I rather like that.00:03:38 FrankSo the idea here is you know how do these things work.00:03:41 FrankYou know what?00:03:44 FrankAn you know, in terms of the guests and and kind of things and I know you have a A Time Constraint so I just want to kind of demonstrate something that I've had the chance for a work engagement had a chance to kind of study up on all three because it was a competitive situation between Louis.00:04:03 FrankWhich is ultimately what powers Cortana, kind of behind the scenes, and Lex which is the Alexa version for processing text and dialogue flow, which is the Google version, so it's a lot of mouthfuls an I did. Let's see if we can get our guests to introduce themselves Alexa.00:04:24 FrankHi how are you?00:04:27 Speaker 3I'm feeling like a home run.00:04:29 Speaker 3This weekend I'll be watching a lot of my favorite sports.00:04:35 FrankOK.00:04:38 FrankI'm getting a warning sign on my stream ability here, so I don't know what's going on.00:04:42 AndyWhat's up with that?00:04:43 FrankI don't know Well, you're still hear me so that's a good sign.00:04:46 AndyYeah, you're you're good with me and I'm out here on the in the boondocks with 25 minutes bro.00:04:50 FrankThere you go.00:04:52 FrankHey Cortana.00:04:54 FrankHow are you?00:04:57 Speaker 4Great thanks.00:04:59 FrankThere you go.00:05:00 FrankAnd let's see what our friend Google Assistant.00:05:03 FrankHas to say.00:05:10 FrankHey court, I'm sorry. OK Google, how are you?00:05:18 FrankOops, it's on my Bluetooth, that's why OK.00:05:22 FrankYou could tell where life looks 'cause it's just all bloopers.00:05:27 FrankHow are you?00:05:32 FrankSo we've returned a bunch of short search results, OK?00:05:39 FrankWhat's interesting about these three is that they're all trying to solve essentially the same problem, right? The they they are trying to solve.00:05:46 FrankThe ability to take human language.00:05:49 FrankAnd type, it in and convert it to let me see if I get this screen back up.00:05:55 FrankAn I will maximize that there we go see my fancy setup I do. It's cool, isn't it? Yes.00:06:04 FrankAlright, so ultimately they're all trying to say the same problem. Hey, we have a comment wise guy. Yes I am miserable. OK, alright, so here's the problem that all these devices want to solve, right? This is a human. This is some speaker device thingy.00:06:21 FrankRight?00:06:23 FrankAnd.00:06:25 FrankYou have the cloud.00:06:27 FrankWhich I think is really makes this.00:06:29 FrankPossible in a lot of ways or not. Just possible and practical? Yeah yeah.00:06:34 FrankI say.00:06:36 FrankYou know, turn.00:06:39 FrankI have to be careful 'cause I actually do have the lights in my Home Office so.00:06:43Set up to this.00:06:46 FrankRight, right? So this gets digitized into audio.00:06:51 FrankRight?00:06:52 FrankHere right, I'll draw that by Squiggly Lines.00:06:55 AndyRight, I like to squiggly lines.00:06:57 FrankSee, I'm talented, I'm very.00:06:59 AndyHard you are. You're an artist.00:07:01 FrankThen a cloud service, right? Whether that's Louis.00:07:07 FrankDialogflow00:07:09 FrankOr Lax.00:07:12 FrankConverts that into.00:07:15 FrankBack into text or into text, right? Right turn the.00:07:20 FrankLights on.00:07:27 FrankThen what happens is then you have to figure out what does that mean. What's the context here, right? What's the intent? That's the official word.00:07:34 FrankSo that's turn lights.00:07:38 FrankAnd then on now most people will argue with me. Is that technically this is the intent?00:07:43 FrankAnd this is the the destination or slot.00:07:48 FrankLex calls us a slot and this is the state that you want, right? So ultimately there's 100 different ways I can say that, and this is what makes the really kind of an LP problem, right? Please turn the lights on or do would you kindly turn the lights on right bioshock?00:08:02 FrankRight there for you.00:08:05 FrankUm?00:08:06 FrankThat sort of thing, and then whatever that happens, is that this will then parse that into an action, right?00:08:12 FrankWhich, if you have smart plugs, it will then send a message back through the magic of the Internet and then turn the actual.00:08:20 FrankOh, I like how that's doing that. Turn the actual light on.00:08:27 FrankRight, so that's that's basically solving the same problem.00:08:30 FrankRight?00:08:32 FrankAnd what's interesting about this? I just realized I didn't say it out loud for folks listening on the podcast, but ultimately what happens is my words get translated into an electronic signal, right? A sign? A wave of sorts.00:08:45 FrankAnd then that is then.00:08:47 FrankRe on the other side, it's then sent from the speaker to the cloud, where it will turn those that sound form that sound wave back into text, right? Or words and then it'll go through and it'll parse out.00:09:02 FrankWhat I'm saying is try to get an intent from it or an action to it, and then based on that, some other program that also lives in the cloud.00:09:11 FrankMostly, we'll then take an action based on that. Does that make sense like that? Explain that clearly.00:09:17 AndyI think so yeah, yeah I like it. I like the flow.00:09:21 FrankYeah, and it's it's it's.00:09:22 FrankAmazing how simple this is, right? This is not rocket science inside your average in inside your average you know echo device. You know it's not rocket science, it's just well, this one is the fancy one with the screen, but you know the the typical kind of .1 or whatever is a microphone and speaker in a Wi-Fi connection. It's essentially all it is, right?00:09:42 FrankSo ultimately the the goal then is that let me see if I can D minimize minimize this. So the the goal is is that I have an example of that, and this is essentially a build your own voice kit that I saw at Micro Center for.00:10:01 FrankLike $5 or something like that.00:10:03 FrankAn inside is a speaker, a button, and a Cardboard box.00:10:09 FrankAnd if you attach your Raspberry Pi to this.00:10:12 FrankYou basically have a Google home assistant.00:10:17 AndyThat's nice, yeah.00:10:19 FrankShame on me because I bought this longer ago than I care to admit and I haven't built it yet.00:10:26 FrankBut that's just to demonstrate. The point is that these these actual devices are rather simple in terms of, you know, just them being their own thing, right? So what's interesting about this, and this is where the cutting edge comes is when you when I talk.00:10:41 FrankWe have our human brains or whole.00:10:44 FrankSome will debate about.00:10:45 FrankWhether or not I have a human brain, but let's let's go with you.00:10:49 FrankSo.00:10:51 FrankThe short of it is, is that.00:10:54 FrankI have the ability to understand context right from my previous statement.00:10:58 FrankSo I'm going to mute some of these devices because if I start to hear their name, they'll start going wild. What's interesting is how good Cortana is at this. How good the Google assistant is at this, and how.00:11:14 FrankAlexa needs some room for improvement, right, right? So for instance, if you haven't caught on the shirt I'm wearing says cream cash rules everything around me, that's from a Wu Tang clan song, so I will ask this simple question from Alexa Alexa, who is the Wu Tang clan.00:11:36 Speaker 3According to Wikipedia, Wu Tang clan is an American hip hop group formed in Staten Island, NY city in 1992 original.00:11:45 British Voiceover AI LadyHopes.00:11:46 FrankAlexa.00:11:48 FrankWhat was their first album?00:11:51 Speaker 3According to Wikipedia, the first album is the debut studio album by German dual Modern Talking. It was released on April 1st, 19.00:11:59 Frank80 so you get the idea you and I know like if you asked me who they who the Wu Tang clan were an, then what was their first album? I would tell you right, right?00:12:09 FrankIt does not have the notion of context. This is turns out to be very difficult problem for computers to solve. OK, because.00:12:19 FrankThere's a lot going on, right? So if I start talking to you is like handy. I was at this great restaurant last night that and then we switch to another.00:12:27 FrankTopic.00:12:28 FrankThen00:12:29 FrankWe would, we would then say, Hey where was that place? And then I would kind of know if you said place I would know what you were talking about right? That is humans have trouble with this right? 'cause I have many conversations with my wife that kind of go in different directions 'cause I have no idea where she's talking about.00:12:47 FrankBut I mean it's hard for humans. It's really hard for machines, so let's try and see if Cortana does this any better. Hey Cortana?00:12:54 FrankWho is the Wu Tang clan?00:12:58 Speaker 4According to wikipedia.org Wu Tang, clan is an American hip hop group formed in Staten Island, NY city in 1992. Originally composed of rza.00:13:10 FrankHey Cortana, what was their first album?00:13:15 Speaker 4Should I read a snippet from Wikipedia?00:13:17 Speaker 4That might be related.00:13:19 FrankYeah, I'm afraid.00:13:23 Speaker 4The Wu Tang clan is a NYC based hip hop musical group consisting of 10 American rappers, rza, gza, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah.00:13:34 FrankThere's a lot of members of the Wu Tang clan. In case you didn't know.00:13:37 Speaker 4Cappadonna and the label dirty *******00:13:42 FrankHey Cortana, what was their first album?00:13:49 Speaker 4There might be something on Wikipedia.00:13:51 Speaker 4Should I read it?00:13:53 FrankYeah.00:13:56 Speaker 4The Wu Tang clan is a NYC.00:13:58 FrankBased all right?00:13:59 FrankWell, in the past she did get that right.00:14:03 AndyWell, she wasn't completely off base, wasn't completely off. Now she she kept it. Seems like some kind of workflow thing put her into.00:14:11 AndyIt shot well at at least identify the context back to your previous question.00:14:16 FrankIt did on that's a new active. That's a new behavior. I swear I I used to do this demo all the time and depending on the audience it would be Wu Tang clan or you know Aerosmith, you know. So let's see what Google has to say. OK, Google.00:14:32 FrankWho is the Wu Tang clan?00:14:39 FrankAlright, you're not very talkative today.00:14:45 FrankWhat was their first album?00:14:50 FrankOK, the demo gods are not kind to me today.00:14:54 FrankBut in the past this has worked on.00:14:56 FrankOn home assistant, an Cortana.00:15:00 FrankOK, so.00:15:05 FrankSo the reason?00:15:05 FrankWhy we're doing this today, and I know Andy has a hard stop in a couple of minutes is because we are hoping to get data driven as a flash briefing on Alexa.00:15:15 FrankAnd.00:15:17 FrankAlexa.00:15:20 FrankSo I was trying to do this whole surprise thing, but apparently since the demo failed, I figured I'd break into that.00:15:27 FrankInto that, but that's ultimately the goal. But I also think this is an interesting, interesting topic, because for a lot of folks, this is just this magical black box. There is listening, right? An you know it's not magical and it all comes down to math and science, right? An and the key is to understand, kind of how it's built. And once you understand how it's built, you can build your own systems and it's actually not that hard.00:15:47 FrankThere are more moving parts than you would think, but ultimately it just comes down to.00:15:53 FrankYou know you're taking that speed that sound data, converting it into text, then taking that text and then converting that back into some kind of intent in action, right?00:16:04 FrankYeah, and then on the other side, I'm sorry, go ahead.00:16:07 AndyNo, Mark Taylor just said it's a do loop and he's right, he's.00:16:10 FrankA do loop. We have Mark joining us again. Thanks for watching mark.00:16:14 F…

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