Monday, August 23, 2010

Abview Data Acquisition and Quality of Data

I encountered a stray mention of "Printrak" (the former name of my employer) on the web, and was mystified as to why it was being mentioned. So I followed the link and found this:

If the FBI Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), a repository contains 43 million in September fingerprints.AFIS sellers include Printrak, NEC Solutions America Inc. and Sagem Morpho Inc., Printrak, a Motorola Company, Inc., for the first time on the market and provides commercial AFIS for the FBI in 1975. NEC AFIS is used in identifying West Network Inc., which covers several states and a database of more, Abview Data Acquisition, than 17 million records of fingerprints.

Apparently the text has been run through a translator or something; the reference to "West Network Inc." should properly be a reference to the Western Identification Network, which is a multi-state AFIS system installed by NEC. The reference to Abview Data Acquisition, however, was mystifying.

I scrolled up to the top of the post and saw that the text was apparently based on a July 2003 press release that trumpeted an appearance by a firm called Markland in Federal Computer Week. I couldn't find the original press release, but the FCW reference to Markland Technologies can be found here. Markland itself didn't do so well after that; according to a BusinessWeek web page, it stopped filing reports with the SEC in 2005.

So I returned to the reproduction of the press release that was just posted today, and noticed something interesting in the second paragraph.

Biometric for measuring physical or behavioral,, Abview Data Acquisition, Abview Data Acquisition, characteristics to verify the identity of the person who sees some use in the federal sector. Technology used against offenders more visible and secure access to sensitive military technology and public labs.But track today, biometric technologies on the verge of mass market phenomenon. Interest in biometrics is a country with September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks prompted major security problems have risen sharply.

And in the third:

And the technology is, Abview Data Acquisition, ready to play its role in border security and other initiatives to protect, Abview Data Acquisition, the homeland. In the Federal Republic in the workplace, biometrics will complement or replace passwords and personal identification numbers of those opportunities, access to infrastructure and computer networks. These technologies will also contribute as a way to verify the use of e-government market has the potential to encourage providers to improve the market participants, competition and expand the range of available technologies.

Well, it appears that Abview Data Acquisition has been acquiring data from press releases. And, based upon the one item I already found ("West Network, Inc."), it's been acquiring BAD data. But if it brings people to their Google ads, all the better.

But who is Abview Data Acquisition? I read about them:

นี่เป็นตัวอย่างแรก สำหรับการเริ่มเขียนบทความหรือเนื้อหา ใน blog MaxsiteTH.com นี้ สามารถจัดการได้ในภายหลัง

Google Translate provided some illumination on the matter:

This is the first example. To start writing articles or content on this blog MaxsiteTH.com be able to later.

That really helped. But some further investigation revealed that this (apparently) Thai site hosts blogs that talk about almost anything. Presumably they all have Google ads which are raking in the cash. And, if the WHOIS record is correct, then we know who's getting it:

Registrant:
narongrit sritana
Parkview Vipavadi
Sikan
Don Muang, 10210
Thailand

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: MAXSITETH.COM
Created on: 18-Aug-09
Expires on: 18-Aug-11
Last Updated on: 20-May-10

Administrative Contact:
sritana, narongrit mt761@hotmail.com
Parkview Vipavadi
Sikan
Don Muang, 10210
Thailand
66 81 4995175 Fax -- (662) 576-6380

Technical Contact:
sritana, narongrit mt761@hotmail.com
Parkview Vipavadi
Sikan
Don Muang, 10210
Thailand
66 81 4995175 Fax -- (662) 576-6380

Domain servers in listed order:
NS1947.HOSTGATOR.COM
NS1948.HOSTGATOR.COM


The funny part about all of this? Apparently there is no "Abview Data Acquisition." There is, however, a very popular Data Acquisition module in LABview. Here's a tutorial.

No word on whether this module would be of use to West Network Inc.
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