From John Deere to L’Oréal: Why Every Company Should Be a Tech Company, iFIX 6.0 and Really Bad Passwords

‘Every Company Is (or needs to be) a Tech Company’

In the run-up to CES in Las Vegas, the Consumer Technology Association dedicated an episode of its podcast to an important philosophical topic that we here at GrayMatter discuss with partners all the time: How do companies — no matter the industry — become technology companies?

John Teeple, director of advanced technology at John Deere, and Guive Balooch, global vice president of L’Oreal’s technology incubator, appeared on the podcast. One commonality they shared: Leadership at both companies realized the importance of investing in machine learning, predictive analytics and AI early, and building a team to cultivate it.

At John Deere, Teeple said the company knows farmers have to make precise, time-critical decisions that could affect the health of millions of crops. It’s the perfect target for big data solutions. One way John Deere embraced technology innovations early was by investing in self-driving agricultural equipment since the early 2000s.

Now Teeple says more than 90 percent of John Deere’s large agricultural machines are self-driving capable.

“We need incredibly smart, connected machines that convert all of that data being collected into controlled actions through the use of artificial intelligence techniques like machine learning and reinforcement learning. They do this by processing an enormous amount of data to make those real-time adjustments and recommendations on the machine,” Teeple said. 

Balooch, of L’Oreal, said that seven years ago the company began contemplating its intersection with technology and beauty products.

Now the company has a technology incubator with a team of about 35 people worldwide, he said.

Among its successes: Makeup Genius, among the first apps to use real-time augmented reality to show makeup looks without actually applying it; developing a machine algorithm that measures skin tone and helps find the perfect shade of foundation; and, most recently, wearable technology that has a UV-sensor capable of measuring how much UV a person’s skin is absorbing.

You can check out the entire Dec. 13 episode on this page.

Join GrayMatter’s First iFIX 6.0 ‘Ask the Experts’ Forum

GrayMatter is offering the second in a series of free events designed to help you learn about the latest version of iFIX and how GrayMatter can help you create high-performance graphics for HMI/SCADA operators.

GrayMatter’s Dave Geiger and GE Digital’s Scott Duhaime will answer your questions at 2 p.m. Jan. 24. We received quite a few questions during our last forum, so we recommend submitting your questions in advance to make sure we can get to yours.

Visit our site to sign up and submit your questions.

While you’re at it, follow GrayMatter on LinkedIn, where you’ll find reminders about our upcoming events and helpful videos from our subject-matter experts.

‘Password1,’ ‘666666’ Join Worst Passwords of 2018 List

SplashData evaluated 5 million leaked passwords this year to create its annual list of the worst passwords of 2018.

What makes them the worst? SplashData says they’re “predictable” and “easily guessable.” It’s hard to argue with that assessment.

People are still using “123456” and “password” even though hackers have gained access to data from hundreds of millions of customers.

“Hackers have great success using celebrity names (see #23), terms from pop culture and sports, and simple keyboard patterns to break into accounts online because they know so many people are using those easy-to- remember combinations,” said Morgan Slain, CEO of SplashData, Inc., which provides password management applications such as TeamsID, Gpass, and SplashID.

If you use one of these for something important, please change it, pronto (via Time.com):

1 123456 (Rank unchanged from last year)
2 password (Unchanged)
3 123456789 (Up 3)
4 12345678 (Down 1)
5 12345 (Unchanged)
6 111111 (New)
7 1234567 (Up 1)
8 sunshine (New)
9 qwerty (Down 5)
10 iloveyou (Unchanged)
11 princess (New)
12 admin (Down 1)
13 welcome (Down 1)
14 666666 (New)
15 abc123 (Unchanged)
16 football (Down 7)
17 123123 (Unchanged)
18 monkey (Down 5)
19 654321 (New)
20 !@#$%^&* (New)
21 charlie (New)
22 aa123456 (New)
23 donald (New)
24 password1 (New)
25 qwerty123 (New)